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Best things to do for free

Go to the beach – at Camps Bay, Clifton or Llandudno.

Or, go to Simon’s Town and take a drive around the peninsular: you go all the way down to Muizenberg, Fishhoek and Kalk Bay, keep going and it brings you out on the other side over the mountain. Then you can take the Chapman’s Peak Drive and come out at Hout Bay. So you go from the Atlantic Ocean, over to Indian Ocean and back again. You can do it an hour – or two with a lunch stop (I’d eat at the Chapman’s Peak Hotel or the Red Herring in Noordhoek.)

Obviously the M&G did not intent to write about all the things you can do for free. While driving “through” Simon’s Town, stop at the African penguin colony, Boulder Beach. You can watch these animals for free or you can pay less than R30 to go and swim with them on their beach.

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A few tips before going away.

Test your alarm and make sure it is in working order. Do this in good time before you go away as December is a busy period for security companies and should the system require servicing you may need some time to sort it out.

Ensure your property is secure – that there are no holes in the fence or other vulnerable points of access to your home.

Ensure all bushes or trees close to your doors and garage are trimmed, to avoid the possibility of intruders hiding behind them

Stop all newspaper and other deliveries (if applicable) and arrange that someone collects your post while you are away. An overflowing post box or piles of newspapers are like a welcome mat for burglars.

Make sure anyone visiting the property (with your permission) knows how to use the alarm system correctly.

Ensure that all your outside locks are a minimum of four lever locks or double cylinder security locks and that all are in good working order.

Install an outdoor light or lights with timers and motion sensors to act as an additional deterrent.

Make sure your household and property insurance is paid, up-to-date and active.

Do not leave a message on your answering machine stating that you’re out of town.

Ensure that you have not left a key on the inside of an outer door that has glass panels or glass near the door lock.

Leaving dogs on the premises is a good security measure but obviously make sure they are well looked after while you are away.

Posted via web from Your Stories, Your Tales -> Our Far South Pot Pourri

1. On Social Media: "The device is inherently of no value to us.” This was Western Unions response to the telephones invention. Ryan Opaz
2. The truth is that we are seeing the fading away of yesterdays’ tools of communication, giving way to a new way of looking….Ryan Opaz
3. Go ahead stick your head in the sand, pretend it’s a silly fad and that it is just a “phase”. Ryan Opaz
4. Your choice is either to adapt and take advantage of the opportunities it offers, or you can sit there and complain, and let it pass you by. Ryan Opaz
5. Today’s consumers have voices. The internet have given them voices, And these voices are not your competitors or enemies, but rather clients, readers, buyers, and sometimes new friends. Ryan Opaz
6. Today these conversations are online. They are searchable, they are contextual, they are everywhere. But most importantly they are offering you a chance to join in.Ryan Opaz
7. Today you can drive your own sales, rather than waiting for the critic to do it for you. But only if your honest, open and real. The internet is not a place to sell BS, it’s a place to have a dialog…join in and you will win. Ryan Opaz
8.  Ryan Opaz

Posted via email from The Fisherman’s Secret

Posted via email from The Fisherman’s Secret

In other words they pay to interrupt and never take time to create an opportunity where they can cultivate relationships.

According to HubSpot; in order to cultivate relationships we need to……..

1. Listening — Every guest house owner needs to listen. You need to listen to your competitors, your customers, your prospects — your community. Social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook make this easier.
2. Reach — Reach is important to any marketer. It's the number of people you can communicate with directly via email, telephone, or any other channel. Social media tools made it easier to build [networks].
3. Nurturing — Nurturing is another critical marketing task for all guest houses. ….., you need to build trust with potential customers and educate them about your guest house. Social media facilitates the development of personal relationships at scale. This makes it an ideal tool for nurturing……[my edits .... swapping company for guest house] HubSpot

Posted via email from The Fisherman’s Secret

. Simon’s Town Penguins

If you make a trip to Cape Point Reserve, don’t miss stopping over a few hours in Simon’s Town. Visit the jackasss penguins at Boulder’s Beach and stop in the pâtisserie The Sweetest Thing for a heavenly lunch of coffee, quiche and a pastry.

Is it not amazing… when the world promote us, using electronic means. My question, “Do you make it easy for people to tell your story. For example, the Sweetest Thing Restaurant is a great place, but it relies on other websites to promote it. Good for them. But I recommend you take control and tell your own story. Because story telling is the most underestimated business skill in the world.

Posted via web from The Fisherman’s Secret

The consequences are that they must rely on other to bring them traffic.

FIFA just published a press release that any guest house owner could have written. This story is loaded with Cape Town related key word phrases, like; wine lands, guest houses, and hotels. FIFA is telling our story. Why wait for them. You know your story. Only you can tell it with passion. Here's a paragraph from the FIFA press release where they take the initiative. And I don't like that we give them all the clout….

The Wine Lands
From the manicured hills of Stellenbosch to the vineyards of Franschhoek and Paarl, the wine regions located nearby Cape Town have produced some world-renowned wines. Guest house and hotels abound in these areas, making the wine lands the perfect place to spend a few days. A typical day in the wine lands brings with it scenic views, superb cuisine and mouthfuls of captivating wine.

Posted via email from False Bay Holiday Home Management & Maintenance

For example; when I searched Twitter for the phrase 2010 “guest house”, at the time, there were only 6 tweets with this phrase. Only six tweets! Searching Google for 2010 “guest house” there were 944,000 web pages with info. It’s clear that South African guest houses are not using social media strategies to freely promote their business. They use blogs and websites only.

There’s a problem and an opportunity here. If you are not on Twitter.com yet then go there, and use as many of the 14 proposed 2010 marketing strategies for your guest house. (You can also adapt these online marketing ideas for any small business, like tour operators, etc).

Here’s my list 14, 2010 Marketing Strategies For Your Guest House during the FIFA Soccer World Cup. These guest house marketing strategies will work but it will take time. Start today. Do it one bite at a time.

1. Start writing relevant press releases, the things to do, the food you provide, etc. The idea is that you share relevant and interesting angles. For example, there’s a story about the German Soccer team wearing bullet proof vest when they leave their South African hotels. If you are in a safe town like Simon’s Town I would write a press release with a heading, “2010 Simon’s Town Guest House Guests Can Leave Their Bullet Proof Vest At Home: Simon’s Town Is Safe.” Many over sea’s newspapers are talking about 2010 guest houses and hotels ripping soccer guest off. Why not write a press release on how to establish if guest houses are inflating their prices. The idea is that you must be see as a trustworthy expert. Publish these articles on your blog, twitter, facebook and at free press release sites. Here’s a South African free press release site I have used in the past. Here’s another international press release site that gets results.

    

2. Publish articles about your small business or guest house. For example, I was surprised to learn that many people visit Simon’s Town guest houses because of pelagic birds off our shores. Why not write an article about pelagic birds, the how, when and where to stay, and publish it to your blog and also publish it on free article distribution sites .
   

    

3. Distribute: When you publish an article, press release or blog post, distribute your guest house updates using Social Marker. “Social bookmarking is a powerful tool in promoting your articles or website. But going through all of those social bookmarking sites is very time-consuming. That’s where SocialMarker.com comes in, the free service designed to reduce the time and effort needed to socially bookmark a website.The first time around will take time but then it will be a breeze the next time.

    

4. Integrate your blog, twitter, facebook and friendfeed accounts because you want auto-post updates to these sites. The ease or not of this idea depends on the blogging platform you use and your ability to pull RSS feeds in to these accounts. 
   

    

5. Get 2010 News: Subscribe to Google Alerts and Google News (using this idea on how to get your guest house blog article ideas using RSS). These alerts will bring you all relevant news, that you can use to write blog stories, articles and press releases.

    

6. The 2010 Fifa World Cup draw will be held on December 4 in Cape Town, make note of this date. Ensure that you know where the teams will be based and where they will play. This is critical info because you want to “keyword target” (7) these teams, and their supporters. 

    

7. Finding Targeted keywords. I have mentioned keywords but want to elaborate. You can use this Google Tool to find keywords. I also use Google Suggest. I don’t think the intention with Google Suggest was to research keywords but it works. Here’s a video on how to use Google Suggest to find keywords, from my friend Bill Myers.

    

8. Using Keywords. After you have written down your keyword phrases start using them as primers for the story you will write of the tweet you want to send. It’s important that you include at least one keyword phrase in your title or tweet, use it in the first paragraph, and then sprinkle it through your article. Use the keyword phrase again in your final paragraph. Creating a link(s) using your keyword phrase is also a good idea. It’s therefore important that you write for searchers and not only for readers.
   

    

9. Be accessible: Your potential 2010 Soccer guest will be sceptical / are sceptical. You need to start a conversation with them. This conversation is not conditional. It’s free. You can read my short ebook on Cultivation for more. You should invite questions and answer them from the hart.
   

    

10. Be Sticky: Everyone who visits your blog, came to visit it because you did something correctly. Now that you have him we need to try and keep him within your sphere of influence (stick to you). Although your final objective is to get more people to your guest house or business….this takes time and you need to cultivate a relationship. Your intermediate objective is to get your visitors to subscribe to your updates. Therefore you need to give them a compelling reason to subscribe.
    

     

11. Make it easy to subscribe to your updates: Social media sites, like Twitter.com make it easy for people to follow you, but your blog may only have a RSS feed to subscribe to. I suggest you also add an email blog-update subscription box. You can use a product like Feedburner.com, a free Google product, that will convert RSS feeds to email. When you update your blog, all your subscribers gets an email with the new story. (This reminds me; You should stay in touch with my updates and subscribe here using feedburner). 

     

12. Market Narrow: When you write a story are a tweet using the keyword phrase “guest house” alone is a waste of time. But “guest house in cape town” is closer to the narrow market that I propose. “Guest house in Cape Town 2010″ is even narrower. I see people are also  searching for “2010 travel goods show”. There are many other search terms. Now, why not write a story (or a few stories) about good shows using this keyword phrase and tell them where to stay when they watch the show.

     

13. Leaving a spoor. Ensure that you leave an easily detectable spoor wherever you go online. This spoor, although it may have a narrow focus (12) must be distributed throughout all online media.  Points 1, 2 and 3 covered some of the spoor leaving tools. Others include having a signature, including your social addresses for your blog, twitter, facebook, youtube and other. Another effective idea is to join travel forums focusing on 2010 and start answering questions. Again you need to setup an effective signature.

     

14. Have Fun: If you cannot have fun doing this then you may as well leave it. If you like to market then start today, the adventure will be great and the results amazing. 

     

Posted via email from The Fisherman’s Secret

Expedia and other business may be slow to adopt the tweeting language. Not you.

And, even if your business clients are not yet using social media find away to create an online spoor for the day they want to find you. 

Johan Horak

Online Marketing Tips Newsletter Using Social Media Like Twitter.
Holiday Home Management Tips Newsletter

Tel: (+27) 086 026 3333
Cell: (+27) 082 870 2004
14 Harbour Heights
Simon's Town
South Africa
7995

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Sent from Ndabeni, NL, South Africa

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