Glaciers in New Zealand
Maori children
Northland, New Zealand
Queen Charlotte Sound
Routeburn Track
Boating in Taupo
Tongariro, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand

Newsletter : September 2006

brought to you by New Zealand Tourism Online www.tourism.net.nz

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online

With Daylight Saving fast approaching again, New Zealand Tourism Online feels that overall the industry would benefit from extending the period through until the 2nd weekend in April. Currently it finishes in the 3rd weekend of March. TIANZ is currently conducting research in an advisory role for the Ministry of Tourism and from all accounts it seems the opinion is similar to the survey we carried out earlier this year - the vast majority are in favour of the extension. I dare say all other industries and social groups will also be submitting their research results so it will be interesting to see what comes of it.

While on the general theme of surveys, in July we conducted an informal survey asking tourism operators to rate the following about their council or local body:
1. How supportive is your local body or council?
2. How do you rate the infrastructure in your area?

And the results? In each case, about 55% rated support and infrastructure either fair or poor, 23% OK and 22% either very good or excellent. Now what can you read into these results? Well your assessment is as good as mine. Perhaps those operators who are happy enough may not have sent in their comments, however if this is indeed a representation of the general feeling, perhaps the council or local body needs to get out into the tourism community and check for themselves. After all tourism should benefit their local area with spinoffs for a wide range of other rate payers.

On a final note, New Zealand Tourism Online was a finalist in the Champion Canterbury Awards for a second time as a company displaying business excellence and contributing to the Canterbury region. Unfortunately no cigar for us this time, with the Speight's Coast to Coast a worthy winner in our category. They also picked up the small enterprise Supreme Award. Well done to Robin Judkins and his team.

NZTO Team Member Profile - Jesse Liwag

New Zealand Tourism Online has a great bunch of people and one of our newer members is Jesse Liwag (Web Project Manager). Jesse is our resident Web writer and also looks after our Web team and any associated projects. As you can imagine he's a busy lad and it's just lucky he's also got sense of humour (especially since he always gets asked if he can squeeze this in, or squeeze that in).

Jesse recently migrated from the Philippines, with nearly ten years work experience managing Web teams and projects. He has a degree in Literature and built his first Web site in 1995. He is proud to have been part of the Philippines' largest online yellow pages (www.yellow-pages.ph).

Jesse and his wife spent most of their lives in Metro Manila, a megacity with a population three times that of New Zealand. He ended up in Christchurch and joined the team at NZTO, looking for a change of pace and new opportunities.

by Avatar Web Promotions

The best way to get people to provide links to your Web site is by publishing content that people want to link to — without you even asking. Getting links to your site is one of the most important ways in which you can increase your Web site's visibility and performance on search engines. This is because search engines use the number of links they find for a Web site to help them determine how relevant they are for specific searches.

The more relevant a search engine perceives a site to be, the higher it is ranked in its search results. If nothing else, remember that two of the most important ways to optimise your Web site for search engines, is to have:

  • Lots of optimised, unique and keyword rich content
  • Lots of quality links from other Web sites pointing towards your site

There are a number of strategies for building links into a Web site, but this month, we're going to deal with the most straightforward method of link building, that of actively searching for Web sites that will publish a link on their site to yours.

What you need to start

  • If you haven't already got the Google toolbar on your Web browser, download it. (Search for "google toolbar" in your Web browser, click on the URL and hit 'download'). When this toolbar is installed, you can see what a Web site's Google page rank is. For example, the page rank of the New Zealand Tourism Online home page, https://www.tourism.net.nz/ is currently 6/10. (Pages within a Web site do not usually have the same page rank as the home page, it decreases the deeper you go into the site). Also note that a 6/10 is very hard to get and most sites don't get more than a 3 or 4/10.

Your 6 point plan for link building

Let's imagine that you are embarking on some link building for your Web site, "www.sailingtours.co.nz", (not a live site) which offers sailing tours around the Bay of Islands and has a current Google page rank of 3/10.

1. Start by searching for sites relating to sailing, yachting and water sports. You are looking for relevant and quality Web sites, so you need to find sites that have a Google page rank of more than 3/10 for their home and links pages and that are relevant in some way to your industry and your Web site visitor. Using search engines, enter a variety of phrases such as "sailing supplies" and "yacht clubs" into the search boxes. Then, review the sites you see listed.

Tip: Combining your search phrases with 'add link', 'add listing' or 'add URL' will find Web sites offering to publish links to other sites. Some may be free, some may require a reciprocal link and some may require you to pay for a listing. If you are only looking for free listings, try adding 'free' to your search (e.g. 'add free link').

2. Look at the page rank for the home page first. If a site has a page rank of more than 3/10, move onto the next step. If not, keep searching.

3. Look through the site (check out its site map) and see if they publish links to other sites.

4. If a site does publish links, email the site owner to request they publish a link to your site. Ideally you want to be published on a Web page with a page rank of higher than 3. In your email, include:

  • A meaningful subject line
  • Your name
  • Your Web site URL (e.g. http://www.sailingtours.co.nz)
  • The linking details* that you would prefer the site owner to use on his or her Web page including, URL, site title and site description
  • Important: To get maximum benefit from the links from other Web sites, include keyword phrases in your linking text
  • Ask the site owner or administrator to let you know when your link is live and where it is published

*Linking details for www.sailingtours.co.nz might look like this:

  • URL: http://www.sailingtours.co.nz
  • Site Title: Sailing Tours: Yacht and Sailing Tours Bay of Islands New Zealand
  • Site Description: Yacht and Sailing Tours around the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. Professional sailing staff catering for 1/2 day to week long and custom designed tours.

Or if you feel comfortable with HTML, you could ask for links to be published linking to your site using specific HTML code, for example:

  • Bay of Islands Sailing Tours New Zealand — Yacht and Sailing Tours around the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. Professional sailing staff catering for 1/2 day to week long and custom designed tours.

Tip: You should change your linking details from time to time — not only to change the keyword phrase or phrases you use, but to match the style of the page your link will be published on.

5. Make a note of when you emailed each Web site owner and which site you have emailed, to avoid repeating requests.

6. If you haven't heard back from the Web sites you have approached after a week or so, maybe email them again. If you don't hear from them after that, move on. Remember, link building can be a process of trial and error.

Tip: If you have found a site with a good links page, look at the links they have published. Follow these links and see if these sites will also publish or exchange links.

DIY Data Insurance Policy

There are many ways that data can unintentionally be lost from your home or office computers or from a Web server. It could be fire, flood or earthquakes coming into play, but sometimes it's just plain old equipment failure.

By keeping a copy of your files and folders and storing them in a different physical location, you should be able to get most, if not all, of your original information back in the event that something happens to the originals on your computer or your remote server.

What should you back up?

  1. Anything you cannot easily replace
  2. Bank records and financial information
  3. Web pages (especially if you are making changes to your site yourself)
  4. Digital photographs
  5. Software and music purchased and downloaded from the Internet
  6. Email address books
  7. Browser bookmarks or favourites
  8. Client database records

It's a good idea to make back ups every week — one day your back ups could save you a lot of time and inconvenience.

By keeping a copy of your files and folders and storing them in a different physical location, you should be able to get most, if not all, of your original information back in the event that something happens to the originals on your computer or your remote server.

What should you back up

  1. Anything you cannot easily replace
  2. Bank records and financial information
  3. Web pages (especially if you are making changes to your site yourself)
  4. Digital photographs
  5. Software and music purchased and downloaded from the Internet
  6. Email address books
  7. Browser bookmarks or favourites
  8. Client database records

It's a good idea to make back ups every week — one day your back ups could save you a lot of time and inconvenience.

We welcome any feedback — send your comments to : news@tourism.net.nz

Regards,

The Team
Ph 0800 14 65 49
https://www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Online Limited
Head Office: 208 Cashel Street, Christchurch

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The largest range of escorted & small group tours

New Zealand road trips - Let's go on an adventure

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Let's go on an adventure

New Zealand self-drive tours

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Explore NZ on a custom self-drive package holiday

Bluebridge Ferry

Bluebridge Cook Strait ferries

Cross Cook Strait and enjoy Kiwi hospitality.

World Nomads Travel Insurance

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Travel insurance for independent travellers.