tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74635826304449733602024-03-14T00:14:58.438-04:00Cruise Geeka guide for cruise webmastersMike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-86729582697523774932013-02-07T17:23:00.004-05:002013-02-07T17:23:27.683-05:00Deck Plans Done BetterEver have a hard time reading the tiny numbers on a cruise ship deck plan? If so you'll love a new website called Big Deck Plans. At http://www.BigDeckPlans.com you'll see deck plans in a large easy to read format that gets even bigger when you move your mouse over the deck plan. Stop the squinting and give them a visit, you'll be glad you did. Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-28850587270988878762013-01-29T17:13:00.000-05:002013-01-29T17:14:07.836-05:00My New Website. Shop For Cruises is a new site I've launched. Check it out at: www.ShopForCruises.com. This site is built on a LAMP stack using PHP 5.5. Check it out and let me know what you think! Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-24403278574578379212011-09-20T20:28:00.001-04:002011-09-20T20:31:10.798-04:00New Butons are Coming to FacebookNot only is Facebook launching their own social music services in an upcoming release, Facebook has now said they will be launching several new buttons shortly. These buttons will be formally announced at their F8 developers conference. New buttons include Read, Listened, Watched and Want. This is an interesting development, just think about what Facebook can do with this data - especially if Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-77033405820674839702011-05-18T18:24:00.000-04:002011-05-18T18:24:37.895-04:00Here's a new way to giver your local biz a boost....Google BoostHere's an interesting new way to give your business a boost in Local Search. Google Boost allows you to set up affordable local search campaigns online. Google Boost gives your listing premium position and more visibility. To learn more click here. Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-68722583523370787542011-02-10T17:36:00.000-05:002011-02-10T17:36:40.004-05:00A look into the future of the internetThis is a really interesting presentation on internet trends and where marketing will be in 2011 and beyond.
Top 10 Mobile Internet Trends (Feb 2011)
View more presentations from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-83619669319162147352010-05-08T14:06:00.003-04:002010-05-08T14:09:37.518-04:00Are you using the power of Twitter?This week’s focus is on Twitter. Twitter is a pretty compelling way to deliver travel offers or cruise news stories. But the way to really get the word and grow your business via Twitter is to get the word out beyond those who are already follow your posts by adding tags containing hash marked keywords. Using the hash mark symbol (called ad pound symbol by some), Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-45292609321189092392010-04-28T18:53:00.000-04:002010-04-28T18:53:18.121-04:00Great article on ways to increase your Facebook FanbaseThis is a must read for anyone who's looking to build the number of people who are fans of their Fan Page. Although Facebook has now changed the "Become A Fan" button to the "Like" button, I think the same strategy applies. Check out this article :
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/21-creative-ways-to-increase-your-facebook-fanbase/Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-57026590443171172242010-03-04T08:30:00.000-05:002010-03-04T08:31:36.737-05:00Social Media users are the perfect target for cruise sellersA Search Engine Watch article talks about some current social media research:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/100303-014140
The article states that a recent study by Neilson shows that the biggest users of social media on the go are Women age 35-54. Coincidentally this is the same age group that is the primary demographic target of those selling to first time cruisers. This means that Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-83171199227313902922010-02-25T11:46:00.000-05:002010-02-25T11:46:40.288-05:00Build Traffic To Your WebsiteIf your website were a store, would it be located on a dead end street or in a major mall? The way you promote your site has everything to do with how many people visit your site each month. This week's topic is building traffic to your individual website.
Each month we post traffic reports to the BC telling you how many unique visitors have come to your site and how many pagesMike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-81483906644741343192010-02-18T14:06:00.002-05:002010-02-18T14:07:19.444-05:00Are You Promoting Your Travel Blog?A quick search for the term travel blog on Google yields 185 million result pages. That’s a sea of blogs. The question is how do you get your blog to stand out?
Well there are few tricks that can separate you from the others… and this week we’ll talk about a few very important steps to take in promoting your blog.
Step one….search for your blog by typing your blog’s address into Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-4386977620812387592010-02-11T10:17:00.002-05:002010-02-11T10:24:46.070-05:00My new favorite site.....If you've ever wanted to actually download a video from You Tube, and couldn't find an easy way to do it, here's somewhat of handy site for you....www.kickyoutube.com
Just find the video you want to download on YouTube, then change the URL by adding the word Kick before you tube, and you'll get a new site with the same video. The one key differences is a tool bar at the top of the screen Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-83146017343765719092010-02-11T09:52:00.000-05:002010-02-11T09:52:20.357-05:00Google's Gmail is going to get some FaceBook like FeaturesGoogle Buzz is a new feature that will allow you to share photos, videos, web links, status updates and conversations with friends similar to what Facebook via the status update box today. This would be done from within the Gmail interface and should have little to no effect on performance of Gmail.
Buzz is also coming to Google Android (Google's phone operating system) Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-66502969921274836922010-02-09T15:54:00.000-05:002010-02-09T15:54:30.211-05:0033 Billion Videos Watched online in DecemberNearly 178 million U.S. Internet users watched 33.2 billion online videos during December 2009, according to the latest data from comScore Vedio Metrix. The study also stated that 86.5% of the total US Internet audience watched videos online in December 2009. The average American internet user watched an average of 187 videos in December.
With those type of stats I think Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-5986504729313399892010-02-08T17:51:00.001-05:002010-02-08T17:56:41.693-05:00Changes are coming to FacebookFacebook is making changes to it's navigation again.....and changes to the way that you upload photos (a plugin is now required). Experts speculate that this plugin adds a layer of security that automatically checks for viruses and vunerabilities that are present in the current version of Facebook.
For more info on the changes, see this article :
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-70424012633669463882010-02-02T14:13:00.000-05:002010-02-02T14:13:00.677-05:00Facebook Spam and VirusesWith the rapid growth of Facebook, it's no wonder that hackers and scam artists have found ways to take advantage of the public using Facebook. To counter this, agents using facebook to grow their business should read up and follow some simple tips offered by Facebook Security :
If a link or message seems weird, don't click on it. This is true of all spam—whether a chain letter, an Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-61760932331938967312010-01-21T09:00:00.004-05:002010-01-21T09:18:19.815-05:00Signs of Mobile and Local Search Growth...Evidently iPhone is feeling the heat.... After Google's recent release of the Droid operating system for mobile phones and it's recent announcement that it was getting into the mobile phone business with it's new Nexus One phone. These moves have Apple investigating a new search relationship with Microsoft in order to use Bing as the default search partner on the iPhone (Apple currently defaults Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-26721668655664618532009-11-18T19:00:00.003-05:002009-11-18T19:07:22.358-05:00Google Wave....changing the way you think of email.Everyone knows email has been around for a quite a while but is very limiting from a technology standpoint. Here's Google's new take on communicating electronically via a new product called Google Wave. Google Wave is a combination between email, discussion forum, a wiki, social networking and a real-time translation service. It's simply an amazing tool that's capable of helping businesses crossMike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-6308901308349704962009-11-12T19:19:00.000-05:002009-11-12T19:23:11.879-05:00Good article on link buildingThe following article talks about some affordable approaches to link building. Link building is is one of 3 key elements (relevant content, on-site optimization and link building) of search optimization and probably the single most important element of natural search engine optimization. http://searchenginewatch.com/3635630Mike MonahanSent via BlackBerry from T-MobileMike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-67844816265323725002009-11-03T08:26:00.000-05:002009-11-03T08:29:27.636-05:00Avoid Social Networking MistakesI found an interesting article on social networking, and thought it was worth sharing : http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/2009/10/25/8-Idiot-Mistakes-in-Social-Media_962.aspxSent via BlackBerry from T-MobileMike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-26318545458400223762009-10-31T16:54:00.003-04:002009-10-31T16:57:59.900-04:00Share This Not Sharing Correctly with BloggerOk conducted a few tests and found that the Share This widget doesn't correctly convey links to Blooger when the links contain a "+" sign in them. Documented the error and reported it to ShareThis. Hopefully it will get fixed shortly. We're looking into ways to eliminate plus symbols in URL's in the interim.Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-65127185074908167192009-08-10T18:20:00.003-04:002009-08-10T18:37:53.339-04:00Suggestions for getting more from FacebookThere are some great articles out there that can help newer FaceBook users get up to speed and help them understand the business opportunities that are out there on FaceBook. Here's some reccomended reading :Ten Things You Need to Know About Facebook by Thomas Krivak (Note data is from March 08)5 Tips For Getting More from Facebook - from Duct Tape MarketingFacebook 101: 25 Tips and Tricks - Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-66110484241523968012009-07-27T11:25:00.009-04:002009-07-27T12:18:11.204-04:00Posting a link to FaceBook or Twitter? Encode, Shorten and Track.If you're adding a link to a posting on Face Book consider the following tips. Don't just post the link as is, encode it first. Face Book frames URL's, and in doing such it breaks many url's in the process. The way to fix this is to Encode your URL first by making sure it doesn't contain non-Ascii characters. Often URL's will contain non-ascii characters, and can be found in browsers, but this Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-85295279481639062222009-05-13T10:44:00.004-04:002009-05-13T11:04:32.724-04:00Attack of the "Partner Booking Link"Agents often have suppliers asking them to use their "Partner Booking Link" websites. These are websites that sell only that supplier's brand - and look and act like the cruise line's or tour operator's website, but have the agent's contact info. While these programs appear to be appealing, they are truly a disservice. I truly think it is not in the best interest of the agent to EVER affiliateMike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-64451002947776903122009-04-01T12:09:00.001-04:002009-04-01T12:12:45.941-04:00April Fool's Day Cruise News -The Top 10 Stories That Never Happened...But CouldThought everyone could use a laugh or two..... see the April Fool's Cruise News below. Mike MonahanApril Fool's Day Cruise NewsThe Top 10 Stories That Never Happened...But CouldNCL introduces the newest concept in alternative dining. NCL's newest vessel, the Norwegian Epic will introduce PFAST. PFAST is an alternative restaurant that serves no food and encourages fasting. PFAST Guests will Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7463582630444973360.post-62434667763351303282009-03-04T11:12:00.003-05:002009-03-04T11:17:52.381-05:00Right Here - Right NowAt a time of global expansion for the cruise industry, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on this video. Think of the global possiblities.Mike Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12598322545870475012noreply@blogger.com0