With just the clothes on his back, 50 pounds of camera equipment, a harmonica and a trusty Leatherman multi-tool, one man is set out for seven days to survive on his own without food or water.  This man’s name is Les Stroud.  In each episode of “Survivorman,”  Les places himself in a unique survival situation and demonstrates how to survive in a remote location with minimal supplies until being rescued.

Surviving in a wilderness is slightly the same as a website’s survival online.  It is important to understand the essentials to a web site’s success in order for you to benefit the most from website ownership. So here are a few survival tips to prepare you for the pitfalls you may face online.

Living off of the Land

In the woods:
Being able to eat off of the land is priceless in a survival situation.  It is important that you locate a decent food supply from your surroundings and be able to build a shelter to protect you from the elements.  Dining on wild animals and plants can be your only chances of getting out alive.  But be aware that not everything edible is safe to eat.

On the web:
Traffic is the food for your web site.  Although there are many forms of traffic online, it is important to know that not all of it will help you.  Make sure that your site is setup for your targeted audience.  If you are offering vacation rentals in Florida, you would most likely want to get traffic from vacationers and not someone planning their camping trip in South Dakota.

Rabbit Starvation

In the woods:
Feasting on rabbits and rabbits alone can lead to death.  An exclusive diet of lean meat, of which a rabbit is a practical example, will make you sick due to the lack of fat.  It is important to have a variety of edibles in a survival situation.  This is a great example of how overeating can kill you when you are starving.

On the web:
Relying primarily on off-line advertising and word of mouth to promote your website will eventually lead to a decline in your site’s visitors.  By investing in a search engine marketing firm to provide you with pay per click advertising and search engine optimization, you will increase your overall website traffic, since it will be coming from different sources.  It is better to have a variety of traffic sources as opposed to just one, because if one stops working, the other sources will still pull in site visitors.

Shelter

In the woods:
Having a sturdy shelter is imperative to protect you from the elements.  Whether in rain or snow, your shelter should be able to hold up and keep you safe.  A good shelter should have a thick roof and at least three protected sides.  It should be able to be used as a wind break and also provide a sense of comfort that you most likely wouldn’t get anywhere else.

On the web:
By having a good hosting provider that can protect your site from viruses, hackers and server crashes is a valuable asset.  Make sure that your host provides 24/7 network monitoring and response and a 99% uptime guarantee.  You should have a peace of mind knowing that your web hosting is being taken care of by a decent provider, because if your site goes down, no one can buy from you.

Staying Found

In the woods:
Knowing where you are at all times is critical to getting out alive.  If this becomes difficult, you can draw a map of where you have been to avoid further confusion.  It is important that you have your head straight in this crisis so that others can find you.  You can signal for others to find you by shouting, shining a piece of mirror or reflective metal or by using smoke signals from your fire. 

On the web:
Know where you stand with your current customers.  Returning customers are the key to your success online.  Let them know you are still there by sending out email newsletters, blogging, offering new special offers or even hosting a contest.  The more informed they are, the more likely you will get the sale.

So there you have it, four survival tips for the website owner.  Being able to be prepared for whatever is thrown at you is priceless.  Be sure to remember that traffic is great, but targeted traffic is even better.  Utilizing only one traffic source can be deadly and you should have a variety of sources of traffic.  Picking a sold web hosting provider can mean life or death of a successful website and that returning customers are essential to your success.  You can never be over prepared when it comes to the success of your website.

You’ve all dealt with the harried and harassed guests at the front desk.  Their plane was delayed, the airport lost their luggage, and the kids screamed the whole way.  Unfortunately, their vacation experience started when they left the house, and your online reviews could possibly suffer from a traveler’s bad mood.

 What can you do to help guests travel safely and conveniently to your doorstep?  Arm them with some great travel tips to keep them  happy, safe, and on-time!  I was just reading an article that my online friend Shane Keener from the Places to Stay blog sent me from BudgetTravel.com called the Family Travel Handbook  

This article had some great advice for traveling with kids - here are my favorite tips:

Sign kids up as Frequent Fliers

Check the car-seat - don’t use it on the plane.  I just put mine in an airline-provided plastic bag and it’s traveled well every time.  Car Rental car seats are dirty.

DONT preboard.  An extra 1/2 hour strapped in a seat? No Thanks!

Only the essentials - divide carry-on items by parent.  Dad has the fun stuff, Mom has snacks diapers, etc.  Then you’ll know who has what and you’re not digging around in your bags the whole flight.

Bring a few empty 8oz water bottles & refill once through security.

Not all of your guests will be families - so provide some essential items for adults to find your front door.

Printable directions with a map

Transportation information (shuttles & taxis) along with the location of the desk/taxi stop at the Airport Terminal

Let the guests send directions and reservations information via SMS (Text) message to their cellphones

Is your site mobile friendly?  Add a sub-domain to your site that is mobile friendly and contains location information, maps, directions and phone numbers. 

Provide a “suggested packing list.”  If your evenings are chilly, let your guest know beforehand. 

See if your confirmation pages and emails are compatible with a trip organizing service like TripIt.com.  Pretty handy for frequent travelers.

Keep in mind, the journey is part of the vacation…making sur eyour guests have a good one is a great service to offer.  Sometimes a “How was your trip?” is enough to release tension.  A sympathetic ear and some help with lost luggage goes a long way to gaining a good review.

texting photo from Nesster
packing photo from Tomeppy
Kid flying photo from ninjapoodles

 The negative review - every online business owners heart-thumping, middle-of-the-night, cold-sweat-inducing nightmare.  Okay maybe not that bad, but to be honest hearing anything negative about your business tends to set one on edge, I know it does me and that’s usually on my clients’ behalf, not my own!

I thought a few tips on handling a negative review in the online space would be handy to all of our readers.  I find that most owners are reluctant to say anything back to negative reviews.  The thing is - the negative reviewer is YEARNING for you to get involved, to tell them you’re “really sorry” and you hope they’ll “try again”. 

Not only is the negative reviewer looking for that - the future shopper that reads that review is looking for the interaction and the reassurance that you’ve fixed the problem.  If you don’t tell them you have fixed it - how will they know?

My number one rule for managing a negative review?  Fix it or nobody will forget it!  If it’s broken, fix it.  If it’s shabby, replace it.  If an employee is rude (on a consistent and repeated basis,) replace them.

DO’s:

• Acknowledge the problem, give out your personal email address and invite the reviewer to contact you directly to address their concerns.  Let the others that read that review know you’re willing to do whatever it takes to “make it right.” 
• Use the negative review as a tool to educatefuture shoppers.  If someone is upset because the vacation rental didn’t house 8 people comfortably - take the opportinity to respond, apologize for their inconvenience, and remind them that the house was only rated to fit 4 comfortably.

Andy Beal - blogger at MarketingPilgrim.com, author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, and founder of Trackur.com talked about a great example of managing reviews in his recent article:  Advice for Managing Negative Reviews of Hotels or Small Businesses.  ResortQuest Waikiki thanks EVERY reviewer for leaving a review and responds to negative aspects of any review with a personal message.

I’ve got my copy of Beal’s book on order,  I’ll be posting a book review when I’m finished with it!

Don’ts:

• Ignore it. Like most things in life, ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away. Dig in and get it fixed - then let others know it has been fixed.

• Be Antagonistic.  Nothing looks worse than an owner attacking a guest for a less than accurate complaint.  You aren’t going to change their mind by attacking them.  Instead apologize and let them know you don’t do business that way and maybe point out the 10 other positive reviews to the readers of your response.

 Think about negative reviews as an opportunity to engage your audience, to show them how much you care about their vacation, trip or getaway.  Without that interaction, your online presence is pretty 1.0 - and 1.0 is about 4-years ago.  Move into Web 2.0 & 3.0 by striking up a conversation online.

The business models seem to go hand in hand on the surface. Realtors usually have the skinny on vacation property for sale and can represent the owners in sales and rental situations fairly easily. This makes it easy for owners that live out of state.

The problem comes when those Realtors combine their real estate website with a vacation rental website. From a marketing and usability standpoint, this is a scary combination. The two business models are entirely different, although loosely related, and combining them creates problems with your marketing efforts - and with the visitor that’s landing on your website looking for a relaxing vacation with the kids.

Usability

• For a web site user, combining two different business models can muddy the waters and they’re never sure which part of the site they’re looking at.
• Your potential vacation rental clients are sometimes unsure when they hit a realty site if you have “vacation rentals” or “monthly rentals.” Sites that have both are especially confusing.
• You’ve probably implemented at least two forms of navigation to separate sales from vacation rentals. This can add unneeded confusion to your site as the visitor isn’t really sure where they are and the navigation is no help.
• There is a perception that a vacation rental that is tied to a realty website is for timeshares, and you’re inevitably going to be sold something you don’t want.
• Branding is doubly difficult. Is your URL MyRealty.com. That isn’t very vacation rental friendly. Wouldn’t you rather be able to promote a url that says what you are such as MyVacationRentals.com?

Marketing

• The content on a site is a factor to good search engine rankings. When content addresses two different markets – the search engines might rank a site lower than they would if the content was focused on one industry. If they don’t have the “trust” in what they’re spidering, they may not consider that content authoritative – resulting in lower rankings.
• Link-building should be accomplished carefully, with relevant and supportive websites and directories. A site that is relevant to your real estate sales is not relevant to a vacation rental program. This means that links from a real estate site are unlikely to help vacation rental pages rank well. By separating content and linkbuilding to two separate websites, your links are going to count more, and be more likely to help you rank in a higher position.

The Problem:
In the past real estate websites had a tendency to participate in vast link exchanges. The example below is a site that breaks all of my rules.

I’m not going to “out” them because that’s not nice, but I will point out some issues that they’re having and that can be corrected, but it will take time and separation.

• Their URL has “Realty” in it
• They combine both sales and rentals on one site

They have a link on their homepage that says “North Carolina Vacation Resources.” This links to a link exchange form and a page that features links from all over the world. Their link text pointing TO this page is misleading – and the content on the site is irrelevant to vacation rentals…and probably most of the links are irrelevant to Outer Banks Home Sales

The Consequences:

1. They’re buying Paid Ads in the top 5 position – pretty expensive for terms like “Outer Banks Vacation Rentals”
2. They don’t rank organically in the top 100
3. They’ve got over 100 “link exchanges” going on – but Google is only giving them credit for 7 links back to their site – pretty big waste of time and space.
4. The user has to choose immediately from a menu when they hit the homepage – sales or rentals. No matter which way they go – the look & feel of the site changes. The visitor is confused and not sure they’re even on the same website.

There are instances when the two have combined, and it can work pretty well, but I always advise clients to consider separating their offerings. Integrating booking engines and MLS pages can be much easier when you don’t have to worry about how one is going to affect the other.

If you can’t separate your sites - the lesson here is to stop participating in irrelevant link exchanges. They don’t work very well. You CAN exchange links with relevant area businesses that add value to the readers, but not with real estate sites in cities and towns your shoppers are highly unlikely to even care about. The proof is in the Google Back Links of the example above. They require a link back to their site - but Google is giving them NO credit for those backlinks.