After fielding a few questions this past week about our Resort Review Program and hosting ScubaBoard Events, I felt it was essential that I write a bit about this marketing opportunity here for you. I will be posting a second one about our Gear Review Program in a bit!
Here on ScubaBoard, "Word of Mouth" is a great way to get people to take notice of your resort. What better word of mouth could you have, than to have one of our staff praise you for such a wonderful time or how efficiently you operation is run. They have already earned the respect of the Tribe here on ScubaBoard, and most of them have wonderful writing and/or picture skills! A few can even cross promote your resort with other magazines and/or web entities. You can even run concurrent specials and use their celebrity status here on ScubaBoard to attract people to come and try you out at the same time. The possibilities are limitless!
Obviously, getting someone there is the trick and here are some pointers on what to do and how to close the deal.
First, comping us lodging and diving is probably not enough! Realistically, I would be deeply into debt if I accepted even a quarter of these offers and I am sure that this holds true for the rest of my staff. If you want one or more of us, please be prepared to pay our way there, pay port taxes and to pay for all meals, diving and lodging while we are on site. Be sure to include any extras like NitrOx or night dives. It's not that we are ungrateful for you offering us less it's just that we are taking time out of our lives to come visit and evaluate and then more time to write and market our story/review. This has a lot of value for you, and it's essential that you make it easy and fun for us to do our job. Some staff may even require a stipend in addition to all of these.
Selecting the right staff member is important! No, not everyone is able or interested in diving with you. Contact either myself or HowardE for help here if you need it. Only a few of us are able to do these kind of reviews year round as the others have jobs. Almost all staff on ScubaBoard is volunteer! You have to be able to work around their schedules and even more so if you want to make an event out of this. FWIW, most staff are not interested in selling spots for you. We are not trying to replace Dive Shops or Travel Agencies. We leave it up to you to market your trip here on ScubaBoard and anywhere else you desire. This stops us from looking like your agent and preserves editorial integrity. This is important if you want the review to be effective.
Hosting a ScubaBoard event is easy. You have to sponsor at least one staff member for your event. You should treat them the same way you would treat them for a resort review: they should not have to come up with any out of pocket expenses! If the event has merit, we will allow you to provide us with an Event Banner (700X200) to help promote it, and you can expect your ScubaBoard host to talk it up on the forums. The sky is the limit here and we don't mind you adding to our "Invasion Series" with an "Invade your Resort" being the theme! Contests of any sort can be done in this manner, including photography, spearing and anything else you can think of! You can turn a local event into an international one easily by utilizing this and don't think you have to be an exotic location to qualify! No, you don't have to be an actual resort to have a review or an event!
So what can you expect in a review? A lot of this is actually between you and the staff member you choose. We will be glad to publish them in our articles section and we allow the staff member to cross promote as well. Of course, you can post it on your site as well and we actually encourage you to do that. You should probably have the first draft within three months, though six months is not out of the question for some of our busier staff members. Please provide them with as many RECENT stock images from your resort as you can. Out of date photos make the entire article seem irrelevant and out of date. Providing them with a detailed itinerary will help them write clearly and of course you always provide them with a varied experience while they are in your care! We allow limited input into our articles. You can point out inaccuracies like spelling mistakes and figures, but please don't try to edit our content. You do have the right of asking us to not publish an article, though this has never happened. You can bet that I will find some way for you to improve. It makes any report more believable and sets us apart from the magazines.
So... did I cover it all? Do you have any questions or comments? Please feel free to make them here!
Here on ScubaBoard, "Word of Mouth" is a great way to get people to take notice of your resort. What better word of mouth could you have, than to have one of our staff praise you for such a wonderful time or how efficiently you operation is run. They have already earned the respect of the Tribe here on ScubaBoard, and most of them have wonderful writing and/or picture skills! A few can even cross promote your resort with other magazines and/or web entities. You can even run concurrent specials and use their celebrity status here on ScubaBoard to attract people to come and try you out at the same time. The possibilities are limitless!
Obviously, getting someone there is the trick and here are some pointers on what to do and how to close the deal.
First, comping us lodging and diving is probably not enough! Realistically, I would be deeply into debt if I accepted even a quarter of these offers and I am sure that this holds true for the rest of my staff. If you want one or more of us, please be prepared to pay our way there, pay port taxes and to pay for all meals, diving and lodging while we are on site. Be sure to include any extras like NitrOx or night dives. It's not that we are ungrateful for you offering us less it's just that we are taking time out of our lives to come visit and evaluate and then more time to write and market our story/review. This has a lot of value for you, and it's essential that you make it easy and fun for us to do our job. Some staff may even require a stipend in addition to all of these.
Selecting the right staff member is important! No, not everyone is able or interested in diving with you. Contact either myself or HowardE for help here if you need it. Only a few of us are able to do these kind of reviews year round as the others have jobs. Almost all staff on ScubaBoard is volunteer! You have to be able to work around their schedules and even more so if you want to make an event out of this. FWIW, most staff are not interested in selling spots for you. We are not trying to replace Dive Shops or Travel Agencies. We leave it up to you to market your trip here on ScubaBoard and anywhere else you desire. This stops us from looking like your agent and preserves editorial integrity. This is important if you want the review to be effective.
Hosting a ScubaBoard event is easy. You have to sponsor at least one staff member for your event. You should treat them the same way you would treat them for a resort review: they should not have to come up with any out of pocket expenses! If the event has merit, we will allow you to provide us with an Event Banner (700X200) to help promote it, and you can expect your ScubaBoard host to talk it up on the forums. The sky is the limit here and we don't mind you adding to our "Invasion Series" with an "Invade your Resort" being the theme! Contests of any sort can be done in this manner, including photography, spearing and anything else you can think of! You can turn a local event into an international one easily by utilizing this and don't think you have to be an exotic location to qualify! No, you don't have to be an actual resort to have a review or an event!
So what can you expect in a review? A lot of this is actually between you and the staff member you choose. We will be glad to publish them in our articles section and we allow the staff member to cross promote as well. Of course, you can post it on your site as well and we actually encourage you to do that. You should probably have the first draft within three months, though six months is not out of the question for some of our busier staff members. Please provide them with as many RECENT stock images from your resort as you can. Out of date photos make the entire article seem irrelevant and out of date. Providing them with a detailed itinerary will help them write clearly and of course you always provide them with a varied experience while they are in your care! We allow limited input into our articles. You can point out inaccuracies like spelling mistakes and figures, but please don't try to edit our content. You do have the right of asking us to not publish an article, though this has never happened. You can bet that I will find some way for you to improve. It makes any report more believable and sets us apart from the magazines.
So... did I cover it all? Do you have any questions or comments? Please feel free to make them here!
