It’s 3 AM. You’ve had too much Caffeine. The thought crosses your mind, “I haven’t looked at my site recently.”

The Big “What If?”

What if it’s not where you left it?

It was on page one for your selected SCUBA-related search terms. Now, thanks to the Google Caffeine update, it’s gone. Or maybe it’s gone completely and no one told you.

These are easy situations to fix.

First, go do a Google search for your preferred keywords. Make sure you aren’t logged in, otherwise your rankings could be skewed based on your activities.

I personally am excited about the Caffeine update. See why? (Sorry, the image is long)

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Sorry again about the long image. The key takeaway is that it appears to the searcher that I am the top eight results for the search term “SCUBA Marketing”. We can thank David for getting the first search result via Google Maps. The next seven are due to the fact that Google likes blogs. I’ve been gone for two months, Google does an update and I move up?

That’s the simple power of a blog.

Do you have a blog? If not, why not? If you do, do I know about it?

It’s Gone Gone

It’s quite possible your site has gone down completely. If you don’t notice it and no one tells you, you may never know. The thing is, many hosts offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If you do the math, that’s still almost 45 minutes per month your site is our of commission. So we can’t get too upset if it goes down every once in a while, but wouldn’t you like to know when it does?

I use a free tool from Pingdom that notifies me via SMS and/or email whenever my site goes down. They even have an iPhone app so I can check in whenever I want.

It’s a quick, effortless way for me to make sure my site is available for visitors to see. I strongly encourage everyone to setup an alert for their web site. Site down regularly? I host with Hostgator and have been very happy. They do have outages, but far fewer and shorter than anywhere else I’ve hosted over the years.

How did the Google Caffeine update impact your search results?

Photo via beverlyealdama

I’ve updated the OPML file for the master list of SCUBA blogs. Thank you all for your submissions. If you want to get in on the next round, help me build a list of SCUBA blogs.

One important note: I’m looking for real blogs. Twitter accounts and Facebook Pages, although they have RSS feeds, are not blogs. Sorry if this inconveniences anyone, but I’ll be teaching you how to set up a blog very soon.

In case you don’t remember how to import the OPML file or what Google Reader is, be sure to check out my original article discussing SCUBA blogs.

If you’re still wondering why blogs are important (you must be new here ), even the Pope wants priests and church leaders to blog.

Google Reader is the only way I’m able to stay up to date with all of this information:

Here’s the OPML file to help you get kick-started reading other SCUBA blogs from around the world: OPML List of SCUBA Blogs (199)

Depending on your browser, you may need to right-click and choose a “save link as” option.

Photo via Sue Waters

In a timely series of events, someone contacted me asking if they should allow comments on their new SCUBA blog on the same day my friend Aaron over at Social Photo Talk wrote an article discussing being social on blogs and Twitter.

Humans are social creatures and, now that a variety of tools are readily available, they are social online. My recommendation is to both allow and encourage comments on your SCUBA blog.

PR Stands for Public Relations, Not Press Release

The old way of marketing was to “market to”. Run an ad. Submit a press release. Hold a sale.

Did you ever ask for feedback? Were people really not coming into your business because of prices or lack of awareness? Or is it because your employees are rude? Your location isn’t convenient? They couldn’t find your contact information on your web site (or perhaps you don’t even have a web site)?

The modern way of marketing is to create dialogue.

Solicit Feedback

The only way to really learn what your customers are thinking about your brand is to allow them to talk.

Blog comments are one of the simplest ways to get that feedback.

You can also ask people for feedback in your store, via your email newsletter and on your social networking accounts.

The key is to start asking.

Have you received feedback that surprised you once you opened your ears?

Photo via merezha

I’ve mentioned the concept of having a SCUBA blog regardless of your place in the SCUBA industry several times before. Heck, even the Voice of Google recommends using a WordPress blog. I’ve asked for your SCUBA blogs and have subscribed to each one.

I’m going to dive more in-depth into blogging in the coming weeks because I firmly believe having a SCUBA blog could be the single most important online tool for your SCUBA business.

Here are my top 3 reasons you should have a SCUBA blog:

1. Great for search engine optimization.
2. Can be easily integrated into Facebook, Twitter and email marketing.
3. You can easily change the content at any time without calling or emailing a webmaster.

If you haven’t yet, please submit your SCUBA blogs because I plan on updating the list and promoting it heavily in our first monthly newsletter next month.

How has your SCUBA blog been working for you?

RSS feeds and Google Reader are the way I’m able to keep up with over 500 different web sites every single day. In a nutshell, RSS removes the formatting of a web site (think the navigation above, the sidebar to the right and the footer at the bottom) and just gives you the fresh content. If you aren’t familiar with RSS or Google Reader, please take a moment to watch this video:

Now that you have an understanding of RSS and Google Reader, it’s time to subscribe to some SCUBA blogs!

I had asked for your favorite SCUBA blogs a while back and the time has come for you to download the OPML file I’ve created. The great thing about this file is you can import it directly into Google Reader and you’ll automatically be subscribed to all the sites in the list.

How to Import the SCUBA Blogs OPML File

First, go into Google Reader and look in the top right corner. It should look like this:

Click to Enlarge

Click on “Settings”. You should now see this near the top of your screen:

Click to Enlarge

Click on “Import/Export”. That should take you to a screen similar to this:

Click to Enlarge

Choose the file and upload! That’s it!

The File

Here it is (right click and Save As): OPML List of SCUBA Blogs (199)

I’ve been browsing far too many SCUBA store web sites lately. They all look like they were designed for Prodigy and Compuserve and haven’t been updated since.

Ever Heard of the Internet?

It’s a place where more and more consumers are going to find businesses, book trips, buy things and engage. Designing a professional SCUBA web site doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. This site right here, for example, cost me all of $87 and a little bit of time. Granted, I know PHP, SQL, Javascript and HTML, but even if you don’t, you should be able to have a modern, professional SCUBA web site that ranks well in search engines for less than $500 USD.

Your Web Site Is Your Home

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your email marketing campaign are all supplements to your home. They’re the cable TV and high speed internet. Sure, you like these things, but your home still functions without them. Your home should be clean, easy to use, current and interactive. I can’t even begin to count the number of sites I’ve stumbled across with class calendars from 2007. 2007!!! It shows that you don’t care, so why should your students and customers.

I MUST Help

I’m going to be rolling out a guide to building your own web site from scratch. Maximum budget? $87 and less than $10 per month for your site, not for the guide. You can even spend less if you’d like, but the $87 is worth it (I’ll explain why in the emails).It’s going to be going out via email in bit-sized nuggets. If you are interested, please use the form below.

This information can be used for SCUBA diving clubs, SCUBA stores, independent SCUBA instructors and SCUBA manufacturers – anyone in the dive industry.

Please help me prevent my eyes from bleeding by looking at another terrible site

I’m building a list. I’m checking it twice (for duplicates and spam). It’s a list of SCUBA blogs!

Why I Want Your SCUBA Blog

I’m not going to start scraping your site or publicly critiquing you (unless you want that), I just want to make sure I’ve found all of the best SCUBA blogs out there to personally read.

Also, I’m going to take all of the sites submitted and do something fun and techy with them.

Why You Should Share Your SCUBA Blog

1. You want more people to read your content, right? Well, I’m one more reader you didn’t have.
2. You want more links to your blog for SEO purposes, right? I’ll happily link to your content as it applies to concepts I’m discussing.
3. You want even more people to read your SCUBA blog, right? My fun techy thing I’m going to be doing will be part of an upcoming series that will make it easy for everyone in the SCUBA diving industry (from new divers to veterens) to subscribe to every SCUBA blog on the list in only a few clicks.

So yeah, I get more sites to read and you get some free publicity. Sounds like a fairly good deal to me.

The Rules

Fill out the form below. Required fields are indicated with a red asterisks. You can see it’s fairly anonymous. Please, however, let me know if the site is yours, a friends or just one you like reading in case the site owner comes knocking.

That’s it, start sharing!

Word of mouth advertising is an excellent business builder, especially for a local business such as a SCUBA dive center, resort or independent instructor. However, if you could plant a seed for a money tree, why wouldn’t you? Your web site can be that money tree. The costs to deploy can be incredibly low, the returns can be swift and the maintenance can be low.

Keyword Research

First, ask yourself what keywords you want to rank for. Here’s a hint:

Take your city, state and add “SCUBA” to it.

So try Googling Austin, TX SCUBA or San Diego, CA SCUBA or whatever the appropriate geography would be for you. If you don’t show up within the top three of the web page search results, you’re doing something wrong. I’ll talk about the business directory later, that’s even easier. Now you know your competition and how you stack up.

Get a New Site

Odds are fairly good your site is old. It’s built on old technology. It hasn’t been updated for a while. I’ll have my reviews open soon so I can take a look at yours specifically, but when I do these searches, I am rarely pleasantly surprised. Don’t feel bad, I am an admitted web site snob.  However, I look at them from two key perspectives that matter:

1. How a search engine sees it
2. How your consumer uses it

Since I’m a big fan of free, I strongly encourage you to go to WordPress.com and register for a free account and blog. Play with the system. See what it can do. When Google’s Head of Webspam Matt Cutts recommends WordPress over Google’s own Blogger system in regards to ranking higher more easily, that’s a fairly good endorsement.

Blog vs. Web Site

A blog is a web site. Back when I started doing web design, we used to love setting you up with sites because you had to come to us for all of your changes and we charged way too much money. A blog is a Content Management System (CMS). This means that you control your content. When you want a change made, do it yourself. To a consumer, a blog is a web site, so stop trying to make a distinction.

.COM vs .ORG

I’m going to explain blogging quite a bit around here, but I’m going to take it slow so as not to confuse. When you get over to WordPress and start looking around, you may notice talk of WordPress.com versus WordPress.org.  Here’s the simplest explanation I can offer:

• WordPress.com can be completely free. They host and maintain the system. Since they host and maintain it, there can be some feature limitations.
• WordPress.org is free software that you install on a web host. Typically, a web host is not free. I’ll recommend some options later on. Since you host the software, you can do whatever you want with it, so features and designs are limitless.

Which is Better?

If you end up enjoying your blog site, you’ll want a .ORG site eventually. For starting out though, .COM works great. Also, it is relatively painless to move from .COM to .ORG when the time is right.

Who Needs a SCUBA Blog

Every dive center, SCUBA resort and independent SCUBA professional should have a blog. Share stories of your classes, trips, sales, groups and more to your potential future customers as well as retaining your existing SCUBA customers.

I Need Help

Don’t worry, I’m going to show you how to do everything to get your new SCUBA blog up and running from registration to submitting your first article.

An Example

This site is a SCUBA blog built on WordPress.org. As seen in the last post, it is ranking quickly with minimal effort. Yours can too.

If you already have a SCUBA blog, please share it in the comments below so I can add it to my feed reader!