Welcome to Blogging for B&Bs, a series of posts exploring blogs and their uses and usefulness for B&Bs. In this series, we’re exploring what blogs are and how they can help you connect with your guests, coming up with ideas for blog posts, and writing the posts themselves. We’re also discussing when a blog might not be right for you, and some alternatives to blogging that will still help you connect with your guests.

Last week we discussed where to look for ideas for your posts. This week we’re examining how to craft a post for publication.

Writing a blog post can be harder than it looks. A well-crafted post is informative, interesting and entertaining, fun to read and easy to digest. It can be difficult to achieve all these things, especially when you’re new to blogging, so following are a few tips to help you develop a voice and to craft your posts with efficiency. You’ll get better at it the more you do, so take these tips as guidelines rather than rules, and you’ll soon find the blogger in you.

Length
There is no set length for a blog post. It can be as long or as short as it needs to be. Often, blog posts are about 400 to 800 words long, though some are much shorter and some are much longer. The important thing is to say all that needs to be said. You don’t need to be wordy to add length — this is not a term paper. If you’ve used two sentences to make a point that can just as easily be made in one, use one. Don’t skimp on the details, however, especially if what you’re writing about requires description and examples, like Alaska weather or wildlife.

Grammar
It shouldn’t need to be said, but unfortunately, in the blogging world, grammar is often sacrificed in the effort to be fast or first. In your blogging world, proper grammar should be of utmost importance. Your readers don’t care whether you’ve got your finger on the pulse of technology or industry (unless your blog is about the latest industry news), which means they expect you to have taken the time to make sure your writing and blog posts are grammatically correct and well-written. There’s nothing more annoying than reading a piece filled with spelling errors and misplaced punctuation. At the very least, you look like you don’t know what you’re doing. At worst, your writing will be unintelligible and detrimental to your overall goals.

Attribution & Linking
If you’re writing a blog post about some happy guests which includes quotations from their , make sure you attribute the quote to the right person. For example: “We really enjoyed the kayaking trip you booked for us. Thanks for making our Alaska adventure memorable,” said Bob Smith, who stayed with us for two nights this summer. If you’re quoting a source on the web, make sure you attribute it properly and, if it’s long enough, place it in a block quote: According to Copyblogger,

Many people feel that a great headline is bombastic and full of hyperbole, but that’s usually not the case. If people don’t believe you can deliver on your promise, they won’t bother reading further, and your over-the-top headline fails.

One of the advantages of the web is an immediacy of citations. By that, I mean instead of bibliographies and APA style, you need only link the name to the pertinent article. In the case of personal quotations, if Bob wants his website included, make his name a link.

Style & Personality
Forget the rules about writing you learned in school. Write in first or second person if you feel it’s appropriate. Inject your personality into your post: If you’re funny when you talk, be funny when you write. With a blog post, you’re not talking at your readers; you’re having a conversation, so write as if you’re conversing (but don’t forget about grammar). Your blog need not be formal, unless, of course, that’s your personality.

Comments
Comments are an integral part of a blog. They’re the way you interact with your readers, so even though you might be tempted to turn them off as a defense against the odd negative comment, it’s more productive to leave them on. As the blog owner, you can approve and delete comments as you please, and you can protect yourself against spam with various plugins and tools. Respond to your commenters in a timely and positive way, and encourage the conversation by asking questions or inviting readers to share their experiences.

Blogging doesn’t have a steep learning curve—in fact, it’s easier than ever to publish your story or opinion on the web. But blogging well comes with attention to the craft and the honing of your skills. And blogging well can be a huge benefit to your business, as well as a way to stay in touch with your readers and start a conversations.

Next week: Reasons Your B&B Might not Be Ready for a Blog

Blogging for B&Bs
Part I: 4 Reasons to Start a Blog
Part II: Blog Post Ideas

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2. Blogging for B&Bs, Part I: 4 Reasons to Start a Blog
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Welcome to Blogging for B&Bs, a series of posts exploring blogs and their uses and usefulness for B&Bs. In this series, we’re exploring what blogs are and how they can help you connect with your guests, coming up with ideas for blog posts, and writing the posts themselves. We’re also discussing when a blog might not be right for you, and some alternatives to blogging that will still help you connect with your guests.

Last week we discussed why adding a blog might be the right thing for your B&B. This week we’ll talk about what to do with the blog once it’s been added.

You’ll need to post consistently to see the benefits of a blog. That doesn’t mean every day; it doesn’t even mean every week. It just means that you set a schedule and stick to it. You can post every other day; you can post every other week. You can post once a month if you want, although you’ll see more benefit the more often you post.

If you post less frequently, your readers will usually give you a little leeway to write longer blog posts. If you post more frequently, it’s often a better idea to write shorter posts; then it’s easier for both you and your readers to keep up. But, there are no hard and fast rules in this world, just conventions. Sometimes it works to write long posts every day, and sometimes it works to write short posts once in a while. It’s up to you, and to how your readers respond.

When you first start your blog, it’s a good idea to have a few posts in reserve. It’s sometimes harder to come up with ideas at the beginning, so having 7 or 8 posts already written can help take the pressure off. Once you get into the rhythm of posting according to your schedule, you’ll find that it’s not so hard to find come up with new ideas and to craft posts around them.

Once you’ve decided what the theme of your blog will be (and this is entirely subjective—choose one theme or several, just stick to it once you’ve chosen), you’ll start to look at everything through that filter, and you’ll find inspiration everywhere, from the humdrum of everyday life to the excitement of the extraordinary. All of it is fodder for your next post.

For a B&B blog, the possibilities are endless. Here are a few post ideas to get you started:

• Are you famous for your breakfasts? Why not share your recipes? Post the ingredients of receipes you’ve used in the past, or recipes you tried and liked but that ultimately didn’t make the cut. Do guests ask you for particular receips all the time? Add those.

Add the stories that are behind the recipes, too. Write about the bears you saw while picking the berries that went into your famous blueberry muffins. Write about the kitchen disaster you had the last time you made a coffee cake. Discuss a connection some of your guests had over your sourdough pancakes. Let your personality and your spirit shine through.

• Have you had any interesting guests lately? And did they love your B&B? With their permission, post a picture of them and tell their story. Discuss the connections the you made while they stayed with you, and let everyone know that it’s the interesting people that keep you going year after year.

• Alaska weather is a topic of endless fascination for the travelers who come here. Is it finally sunny after three solid weeks of rain? Tell your guests just how beautiful it is, and how the rain keeps everything so green. Write a post or two about the seasonal or weather-related changes. Is termination dust starting to appear on the mountains? Your guests will want to know what termination dust is, and why it’s important.

• Even if fishermen are not your main clientele, chances are good there are a few staying at your B&B on any given day. Publish your local fishing report—from your perspective. Discuss your latest fishing trip and how your freezer is now full of sockeye fillets. Write about which flies the rainbows are hitting, or about combat fishing on the Kenai. It’s all a big adventure to the guests who have never been combat fishing before, or to those fly-fishing aficionados who stayed with you last year and still can’t stop talking to their friends about their trip.

• Do you know all the local trails? Write a post about your last hike and add pictures. Back up your claim to being the local trails guru (or paddling, or mountain biking, or climbing, etc.) by posting your excursions on your blog, and whet your guests’ appetites for the adventures they’ll have when they come.

• Do moose walk through your yard on a regular basis? How about that family of black bears that seems to call your area home? Your guests want to hear about all of the wildlife they’ll see when they come, so write about how the cubs are growing or about how the moose ate all of the willow shoots near the water.

• What festival is going on in your area that your guests must see when they arrive? Is the the Forest Fair, the Mt. Marathon Race, the State Fair? Or something less well-known, like a one-act play being staged at the local theater, or a local band putting on a show? All of these events hold interest for your guests, so get them interested in visiting your area—and in coming back.

Blogging doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. And, once you get the hang of posting regularly, you’ll find that you see ideas everywhere. Even better, you’ll keep your past guests interested in visiting your B&B, and they’ll share your posts with their friends—your future guests.

Next week: Writing Blog Posts

Blogging for B&Bs
Part I: 4 Reasons to Start a Blog

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1. Blogging for B&Bs, Part I: 4 Reasons to Start a Blog
2. Fix Your Website Copy and Increase Your Bookings
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Welcome to Blogging for B&Bs, a series of posts exploring blogs and their uses and usefulness for B&Bs. In this series, we’ll explore what blogs are and how they can help you connect with your guests, coming up with ideas for blog posts, and writing the posts themselves. We’ll also discuss when a blog might not be right for you, and some alternatives to blogging that will still help you connect with your guests.

Today in Part I, we’ll discuss why starting a blog could be the thing your website needs to connect with more and future guests.

Let’s get the basics out of the way first: What is a blog? A blog is a dynamic website or addition to a website, which allows site owners to publish updated and timely content easily and quickly. You’re reading a blog right now; click here to see another example of a blog (my personal travel blog). It can encompass any type of content, from the latest breaking news to a personal journal. The format and frequency of posts are up to the site owner, and vary as much as site owners do.

So, why would a blog help a B&B attract and connect with more guests? 4 reasons:

1. A blog is a way to demonstrate your USP (last month’s Newsletter article was about USPs: subscribe to learn more). If you’re a bush pilot and the people at your B&B are always entertained by your stories, by all means, publish their favorites on your blog. Fascinated fans will return to your site again and again, even after they’ve stayed, and they’ll forward your posts to their friends. Then, when their friends decide to take a vacation, guess where they’ll stay?

2. A blog is an SEO tool. Search engines consistently rank dynamic content higher than static content. In other words, if your site changes often—if more content is published on a regular basis—Google will look on it a little more favorably. This doesn’t mean adding a blog will automatically skyrocket you to the #1 spot—far from it, really—but it does tell Google that you’re updating your site often, and that you care about delivering timely, appropriate material to your audience. What Google’s all about, after all, is delivering the best possible answers to the questions people type into its search box. The latest information is likely more valuable, so Google tries to deliver that information first. Your blog, provided you post regularly and consistently, might be the timely information your searchers, and thus Google, are looking for.

3. A blog helps you provide relevant information to your guests, both past and future. Announce the switch to winter rates, promote your end-of-summer specials, write about your new weekend getaway packages. Or, post about the current maintenance to the B&B and how you’re compensating your guests for the noise, or the current weather reports and how it’s affecting your area. Keeping your guests apprised of the situation at your B&B lets them feel confident you have their well-being in mind.

4. A blog allows you to connect with all of your guests before they even make their reservations. When guests find your website and read your blog, they’ll learn about your personality, your goals, and your style of hospitality, in addition to they rooms you offer and the breakfasts you serve. When all of those come together, you’ve got a marketing tool more powerful than any one of those other things on their own. Your guests are reading blogs; maybe they should be reading yours too.

Convinced? A blog is more than an online brochure, more than a website, more than an SEO tool. It’s all of those put together and more. A blog is a powerful marketing tool, and it could help expand your guest list and your reach.

Next Week: How to find ideas for blog posts

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Referrals are a big part of any small business, but especially so for the lodging industry. Because of the huge number of options, sometimes it’s hard for people to decide on something they’ve never tried before or they’ve never heard anything about. Sometimes, a referral, whether personal or anonymous, can tip the scales in your direction.

Take TripAdvisor, for instance. A review site for lodgings around the world, from the biggest hotel chains to the smallest one-man cabin rentals, this site is the mecca for opinions, both good and bad. What it provides, however, is not actually reviews. It provides social proof, the concept that “if everyone likes it, it must be OK.” Social proof is what we all strive for in business, whether we’re in the lodging business, or the graphic design business, or any other business, for that matter. We want people to like us. If they like us, they’ll buy from us (or stay at our B&B, or use our services). TripAdvisor provides social proof in a place where everyone can find it.

This is not a post about adding your B&B to TripAdvisor, though if you haven’t already, you should. It’s a post about getting that social proof, in the form of referrals. A good review on TripAdvisor is an excellent referral, but it’s not the only kind.

First of all, you have to have a B&B worth referring. If guests hate staying at your place, they’re not going to talk you up to their friends. If that’s the issue, your problems are bigger than your referral plan. If, however, you do have a B&B worth referring, if you offer your guests a great experience and your services (and beds, facilities, breakfast, etc.) are worth talking about, you’ve got the first step covered, and the hardest part out of the way. Here are some more ideas for building up your social proof:

Sometimes, the simplest things lead to the biggest results. Ask for referrals; you’ll probably be surprised by what happens. Send out a thank-you email to your guests with a link to your TripAdvisor account. Make it easy for people to just click and recommend. Make sure all of your contact information is in the email, and ask your guests to forward it to friends or colleagues they think might be interested.

Send an email to past guests you had a connection with, asking them to write a testimonial for your website. Though it might seem counter-intuitive, ask them to include the doubts they had before booking, and how during their stay their doubts were overcome by the service, the facilities, the breakfast, or any combination thereof. Such testimonials—those that tell a story, and those that overcome objections—are actually more effective than gushing, over the top, “Jenny’s B&B is the best place to stay in the world!” reviews.

Ask your guests to sign your guest book, and ask them if it’s OK to put their reviews on your website. Add a “From Our Guest Book” page to your website and post their  witty musings or funny anecdotes. They can go a long way toward swinging the balance away from the generic hotel toward a B&B with personality.

Send past guests a postcard offering a discount. Tell them that if they give your postcard to a friend, you’ll give them both a discount on their next stay. Or, send an email offering a discount and have your past guest forward it to their friends.

You can also be a referrer. If you’re full, recommend another B&B in your area. They, in turn, can recommend you when they’re full. Get together with some other local B&B owners and form a mini-network, and recommend each other.

Form partnerships with other local businesses. Recommend a local tour company, and have that tour company recommend you, or that fishing guide or that quilting shop. Find other businesses that align with your goals and with your target market, and form mutually beneficial partnerships. If you’re the adventure oriented B&B, partner with the local kayaking or rafting company. If you’re the B&B for birders, partner with the local sightseeing charter company.

These are just a few ideas for getting and giving referrals, and therefore establishing the social proof that will allow more potential guests to trust you and book with you.

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Copywriting can be a difficult thing, especially for the web. Trying to pay attention to things like keywords and search engine traffic only complicates the process. Following are a few tips to make it a little bit easier. For excellent keyword selection and integration, consult an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional.

Determine which keywords you want to use
In order to be found on search engines, you have to know what people—your potential guests—are searching for. One way to do that is to use a tool to see what people have searched for over the last month or year. Google offers a good one in its AdWords program. Search for a few terms you think your potential guests are searching for, and see what results you come up with. General words or phrases (e.g. “soldotna b&b”, “seward guest house”, “alaska bed & breakfast”) will have high search numbers, and also a lot of competition among other websites that are also targeting that keyword. More specific terms will have less competition, but also fewer searches.

If you currently have a website, take a look at your analytics to see how much search engine traffic you’re receiving, and what people are searching for to find you. You can also perform a Google (or Bing or Yahoo) search for the keywords you think people are using. See if the results return what you’d expect to find, like your competitors or neighbor B&Bs.

Once you’ve done that, decide which keywords you want to target, and make a list of 3 or 4 phrases for each page of your website. Each page can have different keywords, but they should be related.

Integrate the keywords into the copy
If you’ve already written the copy, you need to figure out how to integrate these new key phrases into your copy. That might mean changing it to read completely differently—unfortunately, keyword copywriting is rarely as simple as “Insert Word Here.” If you haven’t written the copy yet, it might be a bit easier. Your keywords can direct your content in conjunction with your B&B’s services.

Write for people, not for search engines
Use the keywords in appropriate places, and use the most important keywords in the headlines or subheads. This doesn’t mean you can’t write with personality; in fact, it means just the opposite. Remember that your goal is reservations, not traffic, so the copy must be readable and clear, and must be true to your B&B’s mission. Your B&B is unique, so your copy should reflect that—and so should your keywords.

Take your time, and make sure the keywords flow along with your copy. If they sound weird or contrived, change and rewrite the copy until it works. Good writing looks as if it’s easy, but it takes a lot of sweat and tears to make it look that way!

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1. Fix Your Website Copy and Increase Your Bookings

If you’re like most B&B owners, you spend a whole lot of time and money making sure your B&B looks just right. You remodel your house, find the right furniture, agonize over the decorations and test and re-test recipes to find the best ones to serve for breakfast. And every year since you’ve been in operation, you’ve put time and effort into making sure every guests’ experience is just perfect.

Many business owners don’t realize it, but it’s equally important to spend that same amount of effort making sure your guests are having that same experience when they visit your website.

When your guests, the majority of whom use the internet to research their accommodations and many of whom actually book online, first arrive at your website, what do they see? Do they see a reflection of what it’s like to stay at your physical B&B? Or do they see a few words and pictures stuck onto a page that you haven’t bothered to update in several years?

Consider this statement from an article in a design magazine I read regularly:

According to a 2002 study, the “appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size, and color schemes,” is the number one factor we use to evaluate a website’s credibility. (Stephen P. Anderson, In Defense of Eye Candy, A List Apart, 2009).

So, if a website is well-designed and visually appealing, that website and the business behind it rank highly in their visitors’ eyes. Conversely, if a website is outdated, hard to read, difficult to navigate, or any of the above, that business loses credibility in its visitors’ eyes. If your website is the first impression your potential guests have of your B&B, how do you think your visitors see you?

It pays to think about how you want your guests to perceive your B&B. Since your website is the first place they stop, you need to make sure that what they see online is equal to the experience they will have when they actually arrive. If you’ve made your B&B into a haven of relaxation, make sure your website emphasizes the relaxing atmosphere through a soothing design, great photos, well-written text, maybe even a video. Those who are looking for relaxation will be more likely to pick up the phone, or click the link on your reservations page, because they already know you offer what they seek.

I recently returned from a trip to Europe, during which I stayed at several English and Irish B&Bs. I did almost all of my searching online, and most of my booking, and when I came across an ugly website, I usually skipped right over it, even if the B&B was in my budget, or offered the right location. On those rare occasions when I did call–when it was the only one in town, for example–I hesitated, unsure whether the property was worth staying at. If they didn’t maintain their website, what else didn’t they maintain?

Things worked out ok for me, but there were many B&Bs that missed out on another guest, just because their website was out of date or was poorly designed. How many guests are you missing out on because your website isn’t up to par?

It made good business sense to update your B&B’s furnishings, or your house’s plumbing or any number of physical things that would enhance your guests’ experience. Happy guests equal return guests and referrals. Likewise, it makes good business sense to invest in a well-designed website. Your website can enhance your guests’ impressions of your B&B. You can use all of this new technology to show your guests what it’s like to stay with you before they even get there. And they have a really great experience online, they know their experience will be that much better once they finally get to your B&B.

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1. Fix Your Website Copy and Increase Your Bookings

It’s important to create quality content for your website. That means that when people visit your website, they find what they’re looking for. Sometimes it’s hard to succinctly describe your guest rooms, but that’s the information that people come to your website to find, and it’s important that you don’t disappoint them. If you do, they’ll quickly move onto another site that does answer their questions.

So here’s how to write quality copy that will both get people to your website and get them to stay there.

Be Grammatically Correct
The odd typo might be easily forgiven, but nothing says “I don’t know what I’m doing” like a series of spelling and grammar errors. Not everyone is the grammar police, but most readers notice when something’s incorrect, even if they’re not sure exactly what it it. Use spellcheck, but don’t assume it’s foolproof. Have someone else proofread your copy for both spelling and grammar errors, or come back to it after you’ve let it sit for a while, preferably a day or more. You’ll be surprised what you’ll find after the subject is no longer fresh.

Use Keywords and Phrases
Insert a little bit of SEO (search engine optimization) into your copy. If you’re hoping to be found when people Google “Soldotna B&B,” then include that in your homepage copy. Don’t include it too many times–that won’t help much and will look ridiculous–but don’t be afraid to include it more than once. Make sure it’s appropriate in the location(s) you’ve placed it (For example, write “Our Soldotna B&B is in a great location near lakes, trails and restaurants.”) and that it flows with the rest of the text. Remember that people will be reading your copy, and if it’s incomprehensible, no one will make a reservation. (Stay tuned to the blog and newsletter for more information on SEO.)

Know Your Audience or Target Market
Do you want families to stay with you? Older couples? Adventurous young backpackers? Write for them. If your target market is families with kids, highlight the kid-friendly activities available at your B&B or in your area. If you’re looking for the adventure-seekers, write about the hiking trails out the back door or the kayaks at the lake’s edge. Know your audience and let them know in what unique ways your B&B meets their needs and wants.

Discuss Benefits Instead of Features
There’s always an unspoken “What’s in it for me?” when visitors arrive at websites purporting to sell something. Benefits are the answer to that question. Instead of discussing all the great things about your B&B, even if they are great, discuss how they will make your guests feel or how they will meet those specific needs. For example, if you provide extra-cushy mattresses on all of your beds, don’t just write, “We have extra-soft mattresses on all of our beds.” Instead, write “You’ll arise refreshed and restored after a night spent dreaming on our extra-soft mattresses.” If there’s something worth noting about a feature, include it, but make sure the focus is still on the benefit to the guest: “Get the energy you need for an adventure-packed day with our scrumptious full breakfast, perfect for vegetarians.”

Provide a call to action
What is it that you hope people will do after visiting your site? Make a reservation? Then ask them! Make sure you include a strong, clear call to action. “Book now!” “Click here to make your reservation.” “Summer fills up fast, so don’t miss out. Make your reservation now!” Or any variation on that theme. Be creative, be detailed, but don’t be unclear. Your visitors will thank you–and they’ll make reservations.

These rules might seem painfully obvious, but it’s amazing just how often they aren’t followed. However, following them will result in some decent copy and a website you can be proud of. And, probably, a few more reservations.

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1. A Few Unconventional Marketing Ideas

There are some things everyone does to promote their B&B: joins the Chamber of Commerce, prints a brochure, hangs a sign out front. But there are plenty of other things to do that will generate interest and increase reservations at the same time.

• Create a video or slideshow and display it on your home page. Video allows your site visitors to get a bigger view of what it’s really like to stay at your B&B. Take some panoramic shots of the surrounding landscape, take photos of all corners of the guest rooms and zip them together, maybe even interview a few guests who just loved staying with you. Find some fun–but not inappropriate, and not copyrighted–music to go with it. Upload it to YouTube or embed the video on your website and make sure your guests can find it. Nothing says great experience like showing off that great experience before they get there.

• Create an email campaign. Even if you don’t take reservations online, you probably use email to communicate with your guests and to do business. Why not leverage that medium to stay connected with your past guests and to connect with your future ones? Sign up with an online email marketing service (I use iContact; sign up for my newsletter here) and use it to notify your guests about things like new rates (give them a chance to book at the old prices), changes to rooms, the B&B or the grounds, winter/weekend/holiday/just because specials, or even just to thank them for their stay. Of course, you’ll need to ask them if they’d like to be on your list (adding them to the list without asking them is akin to spamming them), but once they say “Sure, sign me up!” you can start sharing your exciting B&B news.

• Start a podcast. This one is indeed a little different, especially for a B&B. But maybe not ineffective. Create a 10-minute podcast filled with the reasons a B&B is better than a hotel, or than tent camping, or than sleeping in the car. Talk to your guests (even better if you get them on the recording) about the reasons they loved staying with you. Or, create a series of podcasts about life in Alaska: talk about the moose that wandered up the driveway yesterday, about the black bear family that lives in the woods out back, or the trophy king salmon you pulled in on your last trip to the Kenai. Get creative. As long as it’s in good taste and relates to your B&B, it’s probably going to be interesting to your guests, both past and future.

• Encourage referrals. Ask your guests to tell their friends about you. Make sure your B&B is on TripAdvisor and ask your guests to rate their experience with you. Use testimonials on your website. Offer your guests 10% off on their next stay if they refer you to one of their friends. Get to know the other B&B operators in your area and form a mini-network that refers within its ranks. If you refer to others, they’ll be more likely to refer to you.

• Go the extra mile and get people to take notice. Nothing gets people talking than when they feel like they’ve gotten a lot for a little. The best way to be talked about? Create an experience for your guests that they can’t help but mention, and that others in your community can’t help but notice. People love it when something stands out–make sure you stand out for the right reasons and are a pillar of the community, and you’ll be noticed.

Hopefully these ideas get you thinking about other unconventional things you could be doing to create some buzz around your B&B. What else have you got in mind?

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A few years ago, I read a book called Purple Cow, by Seth Godin, and what I learned from the book forever changed my thinking about marketing, and about business in general.

In it, Godin emphasizes that, if you want your business to succeed, you have to be a purple cow. A purple cow gets noticed, gets remembered, and gets talked about because it’s remarkable. The take-home message from the book was this: Be Remarkable.

Being remarkable in business can mean any number of things. It’s up to you to figure out how your B&B or inn is remarkable: maybe you serve only organic breakfasts, maybe you have a fantastic Resurrection Bay or Cook Inlet view, maybe all of your decor is handmade. Whatever it is, you’ve got to figure out what it is that makes you remarkable. If you’re not remarkable, no one’s going to remember you, and no one’s going to talk about you.

Godin is widely considered one of the top marketing experts in the country, and he is the guru when it comes to new media and marketing in the internet age. I read his blog daily and always come away with juicy tidbits of information that work on a broader level. The whole “Be Remarkable” theme comes up again and again, no matter the tools he’s discussing for getting the word out or the ideas for taking your business to the next level.

From this perspective, marketing is built into your business. It’s not just a part of your business plan, it is your business plan. If your goal is to embrace social media, you’ve got to have something worth talking about. If you want referrals on TripAdvisor, you’ve got to have a B&B worth referring. It’s not a gimmick, it’s not a trick designed solely to pique interest—that kind of marketing doesn’t last and is rarely worth talking about. That doesn’t mean that trying to generate interest is bad, it simply means that there needs to be a reason for that interest to be generated.

You can’t be just another B&B—there are hundreds of those in Alaska, and not all are worth talking about. You’ll probably get bookings, but you’ll be the place people call when everyone else is already booked. What you want is to be the name on everyone’s lips, the one that, when people mention they’re going to Alaska, get the “Oh! I stayed at this fantastic B&B when I was there. You have to go there,” responses. How do you do that? You must be remarkable.

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Thanks for visiting. I’ve just finished the redesign and I’m enjoying the new look and feel. I think it reflects better what I have in mind for my business. Not only does it discuss more of the things I can do for the bed and breakfasts in Alaska, I think it’s closer to what I want to create for my clients.

This site will have a different focus. My last site was just static, essentially an online business card that rarely changed. Well, the internet today is all about change, and rapid change at that. How could I purport to be a web savvy online B&B marketing guru when my own site didn’t reflect that? Needless to say, this change has been a long time coming.

I’ve also added the blog, which I didn’t have before. Because I love to write, I love blogging (check out my travel blog, too), and I’ve also got a few ideas I’d like to share. Marketing online is a bit of a different animal than marketing for mass media or print, and I’ve been religiously following the online experts like Seth Godin, and they’ve succeeded in changing my view of what marketing is and isn’t, and how to use it for good and for profit. I’ve also got several years of experience in web and graphic design, and I’ve never been more convinced of the importance of those skills than now. I’ll be using this blog to discuss my marketing and design ideas, and to stay in touch with a broader marketing audience.

I’ve recently realized my niche. I’ve been doing design work for virtually all of my professional career, and I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at it. I know what good design is, and can apply the new and changing norms that I see every day both on the web and in print. Three seasons ago, my family expanded their B&B from one room to four—essentially the entire house, a major change—and the website needed to reflect that change. Of course, yours truly had built the original, and I was again called upon to expand and update the site and materials to reflect the changes in both the B&B and in the experiences that guests were going to have.

It was a fun project. Because it was my family (and I didn’t charge them) I got to experiment. I tried different things than I normally did. I used different keywords and targeted different online media. When something wasn’t working, I changed it. When I heard about some new offering, I jumped on it. And the result was that I came up with a well-designed website with an online reservations component, professional-grade rack cards, in-house stationery and literature that reflected the same image, and a social media campaign that served to both increase traffic to the website and to enhance the image that the B&B projected online.

That first summer, the reservations exceeded all expectations. As I monitored the site analytics, I saw a steady increase in traffic to the site, and I also saw a steady increase in online reservations. Throughout the winter, reservations continued to roll in for the next summer. And last summer, most of the reservations the B&B saw came via the website. And, the clincher: The B&B didn’t see a drop in reservations, the way some other Alaska B&Bs did. This summer, the trend is continuing.

So, it took me a while to realize it, but I found my niche. Through the freedom I had with my family’s project, and the successes I had with the different things I was able to try, I found that I came up with a great formula for marketing B&Bs, and now it’s time for me to share that knowledge.

Of course, as a web-savvy traveler myself, I feel that I have a few insights into the other side of the equation as well. I make most of my travel plans online, and I actually prefer to book my rooms online. While on the road, I’ve met other travelers, and we all say the same thing: The web has changed the way we travel. We make our plans online, we book online, we even communicate with those back home online. That’s why it’s essential for B&Bs to be online: that’s where their guests are.

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