Promoting an Aviation Business -- Suggestions?

[wabower]

Send a package to Bob "Swamp" Warner. The Cessna 180 group is looking for a place for their New Year's gathering, and they like south Texas that time of year. email [email protected]. Tell him that Wayne Bower and Wayne Shrader were talking about this subject at breakfast today.

 

[Amelia]

If the Cessna 180 group's looking for places to go, maybe so are the Mooniacs, the Bo-drivers, the Cub people, and other airplane type clubs. A flyer in the mail inviting them, and offering your special discount, -- whatever.

I wonder if the local airport could use your enthusiasm and support to put on an airport open-house?

What is there to do in Port Aransas and environs, besides eat, drink and fish? (Why did YOU choose it from all the options in all the country?) Be sure and emphasize what's on offer just a few miles down the road, for those so inclined. What are the best five things to do off-season? Would marketing to people who enjoy those things give you ideas of others who might be worth marketing to?

You mention your hotel's proximity to the GICW- maybe cruising forums would be helpful? Sure, cruisers have their own beds aboard, but maybe they'd like a break? How about a note to cruising-guide authors? Your posters tacked up at the harbors, boat repair facilities, and yacht club? (It would help if there were a washer and dryer available for boaters looking to lay over for a day or three, I should think.)

The neatest thing I've found in resort area motels is a batch of bookshelves with trade-a-book or loaners-- sure, they're stocked from the library's ten-cent used-book shelf, but I've found some wonderful ways to while away the hours. Possibly impractical, but to aerophiles, "Here's our Kindle pre-loaded with aviation classics and other favorites? Enjoy while you're with us?" (In fact, you could invest in several, and have your mystery machine, your bodice-ripper romance one, and your sea-stories one.) That's just a screwball idea- I'm partial to real books, myself...

It'll be interesting to find out what you've done that really works well for you.

 

[steingar]

Jay, forgive me, this will come out very negative. It is meant as constructive criticism. You've asked a good question to a pack of idiots. No one on this site has done meaningful PR. There is an art and science to it, and there are professionals who do it. You should reach out to them. They can give you prices and options, and will be a ton more effective than anything you can do on your own. I've done PR myself and I've had it done. Night and day.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Jay, forgive me, this will come out very negative. It is meant as constructive criticism. You've asked a good question to a pack of idiots. No one on this site has done meaningful PR. There is an art and science to it, and there are professionals who do it. You should reach out to them. They can give you prices and options, and will be a ton more effective than anything you can do on your own. I've done PR myself and I've had it done. Night and day.

I've been a marketing manager in the corporate world. I've never found anything magical about effective promotions -- it's just having the time and money, and knowing where to aim your efforts.

Time I've got. All my money goes to flying and beer...

It is the aiming point that is in question. Where to spend the limited dollars?

Once we've got the aiming point determined -- and I am a faithful believer in the abilities and intelligence of this group -- it's going to be a full-boat effort.

One thing I've learned from my 20 years as a small business owner is that the main difference between those of us who survive, and those of us who don't, is the willingness to do virtually everything ourselves.

Note the word "willingness", not "ability". Most entrepreneurs have the ability to do everything, but after they've made their first couple of hundred grand, they decide that they can farm out their efforts. Within three years, almost like clockwork, those guys are gone.

This ability to sustain an all-out effort over the long run is truly the hardest part of small business ownership, IMHO.

 

[jesse]

One thing I've learned from my 20 years as a small business owner is that the main difference between those of us who survive, and those of us who don't, is the willingness to do virtually everything ourselves.

I don't own any small business that can generate enough money for me to live off of like you do. But I do feel like there is a point where that simply isn't true. Your website is one of them.

The problem is that there are a lot of "marketing/seo/website experts" running around selling to small businesses giving them a terrible product at a ridiculous cost. I've seen way too much of that working in that space. If you can find the right fit you can certainly find people to do things for you that provide a LOT of value.

It's just tough to be an expert at everything. You've got to recognize where you aren't. I'm sorry Jay, but your website leaves a very negative impression of your hotel, and will never rank well on a search engine. I don't mean anything personal by that statement. Also, I don't want to sell you a website either, so I'm just trying to offer you some advice.

 

[steingar]

I've been a marketing manager in the corporate world. I've never found anything magical about effective promotions -- it's just having the time and money, and knowing where to aim your efforts.

Knowing where to aim. And local PR guys know that better than anyone, especially better than you, since you're a newcomer.

Time I've got. All my money goes to flying and beer...

Funny, you told me it all went into renovations. Oh well, you were a few sheets into the wind at that point, so I suppose you can be forgiven.

It is the aiming point that is in question. Where to spend the limited dollars?

That's why I like local PR guys. They can give you options. I can't. What do I know about Texans?

Once we've got the aiming point determined -- and I am a faithful believer in the abilities and intelligence of this group -- it's going to be a full-boat effort.

That's where we disagree. Don't get me wrong, I don't have the words for the level of respect I pay to the POA community. But for something like PR, they just won't hold a candle to someone operating in your market professionally. You get what you pay for.

One thing I've learned from my 20 years as a small business owner is that the main difference between those of us who survive, and those of us who don't, is the willingness to do virtually everything ourselves.

Note the word "willingness", not "ability". Most entrepreneurs have the ability to do everything, but after they've made their first couple of hundred grand, they decide that they can farm out their efforts. Within three years, almost like clockwork, those guys are gone.

This ability to sustain an all-out effort over the long run is truly the hardest part of small business ownership, IMHO.

Could be. I suspect that if some aspect of the hotel required highly specialized an technical skills, say fixing the air conditioner, for example, you might hire it out rather than let your guests roast while you figure it out. I put PR in the same vein, since the professionals with whom I've interacted knew everyone locally.

You dah man. I hope it all works out the way you want it to.

 

[Amelia]

Free advice- worth twice what you pay for it, from a traveler.
-Best advertising is word of mouth, good reviews, and an attractive website, in that order. When I'm in need of a hotel or B&B, I'll check www.tripadvisor.com, go from there to the website, then check with the proprietor to see what space they have available. I find that websites with photos of rooms are very helpful, as are ones with prices, availability, etc. shown right there on the website. Saves me a phone call.
-Favorable mentions on special-interest websites like this one are great. So are interesting and attractive posters in places where I'm likely to be-- like FBO bulletin boards.
-Magazine and newspaper stories are great at generating interest- people remember that sort of stuff. If you can find a peg for them to hang the story on, so it doesn't come across as "the reporter got a comped room" puff piece, so much the better.

 

[Ghery]

Oh, and did I mention Pilot's Getaways Magazine? You need to have George do at least a 2 page destination feature on Amelia's Landing.

You beat me to the suggestion. It was the first magazine that came to mind for this thread.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Free advice- worth twice what you pay for it, from a traveler.
-Best advertising is word of mouth, good reviews, and an attractive website, in that order. When I'm in need of a hotel or B&B, I'll check www.tripadvisor.com, go from there to the website, then check with the proprietor to see what space they have available. I find that websites with photos of rooms are very helpful, as are ones with prices, availability, etc. shown right there on the website. Saves me a phone call.
-Favorable mentions on special-interest websites like this one are great. So are interesting and attractive posters in places where I'm likely to be-- like FBO bulletin boards.
-Magazine and newspaper stories are great at generating interest- people remember that sort of stuff. If you can find a peg for them to hang the story on, so it doesn't come across as "the reporter got a comped room" puff piece, so much the better.

All good things, but I must mention one major caveat: TripAdvisor.

\rant mode on\

TripAdvisor is too often used by unscrupulous people to be trustworthy. One person that we throw out for being drunk and disorderly can absolutely inundate that website with bad, bogus "reviews", and the hotel is powerless to act, or counteract.

This has had EXTREMELY negative affects on hotels and your traveling experience. Next time you call the front desk at 3 AM because of a loud party next to your room, and are told "There's nothing we can do", blame it on TripAdvisor. The threat of bad reviews has made cowards out of most hoteliers (and of all the chains), because they fear a bad review more than they fear anything else.

Not me. I will give a loud guest one warning -- and then (if the problem continues) I will summarily escort them off-property, no refunds. I have designed everything in our hotels to address MY pet peeves about traveling, and this "loud party next door" scenario is one that I have personally experienced too many times. I refuse to live in fear of a bad review, and I will not put this fear ahead of the needs of my other guests.

In our 19 months in business here, I have had to throw out precisely one guest -- a guy who drank an entire bottle of Jack, and refused to get out of the pool -- EVER. Check his "reviews" of us on TripAdvisor and Google. That ******* has probably cost me $10K in lost revenue.

But I'd throw him out again.

\rant mode off\

When we travel, Mary and I now judge a hotel in a strange area solely by one parameter: Do they have at least one "over-the-top" bad review on TripAdvisor?

If so, we stay there -- because that indicates to us that they have management who are willing to take care of business, and to hell with the idiots. Somehow I doubt this was the intent of TripAdvisor, but in the absence of any moderation on that website, it's the only way to make their system work.

 

[denverpilot]

I use TripAdvisor in a similar way, if it makes you feel any better Jay.

Seeing a few Internet "he'll-be-sorry" rants about bad service at a *discount* hotel just tells me that some psycho stayed there with six kids and had their usual awful vacation, that they'll complain about until they drag the brood out for another godawful "family outing" -- where they expect 5-star service for 1-star prices.

It's pretty easy to pick out the entitlement-issues posts. "My vacation was supposed to be perfect for $45 a night!" Yeah, yeah. Grow up and do the math. You're a butt in a bed at that price.

I also look at it to see what the "fake". 5-stars are doing wrong.

And once in a while in the middle, you can dig through the signal-to-noise ratio and figure out that a particular boutique hotel matches just what you're looking for.

It's not what Joe-and-Jane-six-pack "I'm going on vacation so it's my license to be hammered 24/7 and act like a jerk at the Holiday Inn" is expecting from his/her hotel stay... Then you've found the right place!

 

[Jay Honeck]

The neatest thing I've found in resort area motels is a batch of bookshelves with trade-a-book or loaners-- sure, they're stocked from the library's ten-cent used-book shelf, but I've found some wonderful ways to while away the hours. Possibly impractical, but to aerophiles, "Here's our Kindle pre-loaded with aviation classics and other favorites? Enjoy while you're with us?" (In fact, you could invest in several, and have your mystery machine, your bodice-ripper romance one, and your sea-stories one.) That's just a screwball idea- I'm partial to real books, myself...

It'll be interesting to find out what you've done that really works well for you.

*sigh* We've got a wonderful 250 volume aviation library in storage in Iowa, waiting for us to build a lobby (like we had at our place in Iowa) down here with adequate room for it.

I can't say that our library was hugely popular in Iowa, but a lot of guys browsed the titles while waiting for their wives to powder their noses, or whilst awaiting a cab.

I know *I* enjoyed it...

Alas, the new lobby must await the second story addition, which comes in Year Three (or thereabouts)...

 

[Jay Honeck]

I use TripAdvisor in a similar way, if it makes you feel any better Jay.

Whew. Glad to hear it. Too many people take everything they see on "The Google" at face value, and it makes me crazy.

One thing I like about TripAdvisor is their "Management Response". I've responded to a couple of obviously bogus "bad reviews" -- and I honestly can say that we have received a lot of bookings BECAUSE of my response.

What worries me, though, are the ones who simply moved on to the next hotel on Google because they read a "Bad Place to Stay" title without wasting the 4 seconds it would take to see it was bogus. Those people are lost forever...

 

[Jay Honeck]

Knowing where to aim. And local PR guys know that better than anyone, especially better than you, since you're a newcomer.

This brings up another Catch-22 problem of being a small business owner. At the local level that I can afford, "PR guys" are a lot like small-time "financial advisers". If they were so damned good, they would be doing it for themselves, and wouldn't need to do it for me by the hour.

The really good PR shops are large (think "Mad Men") city enterprises, and are well beyond anything a 23-unit boutique hotel can afford.

Funny, you told me it all went into renovations. Oh well, you were a few sheets into the wind at that point, so I suppose you can be forgiven.

Hey, SOME of it still goes to beer and flying. Most of it has gone into remodeling this place. (We just made lists of everything we need for the next three rooms. Uffda, it's not going to be a profitable month....)

Hell, I just dumped another $180 today into palm trees. Tomorrow, I get to dig the holes.

That's where we disagree. Don't get me wrong, I don't have the words for the level of respect I pay to the POA community. But for something like PR, they just won't hold a candle to someone operating in your market professionally. You get what you pay for.

Locally, in this market, there isn't a PR guy. I've had to contract with a Wisconsin company to design our new logo and signs, after wasting months trying to find someone local. It has been very frustrating.

Could be. I suspect that if some aspect of the hotel required highly specialized an technical skills, say fixing the air conditioner, for example, you might hire it out rather than let your guests roast while you figure it out. I put PR in the same vein, since the professionals with whom I've interacted knew everyone locally.

I have gotten very, very good at repairing air conditioners. Why, just today, I took one apart, flipped the motor housing upside down, and drenched it with (wait for it...)

Marvel Mystery Oil!

Yes, the stuff the old timers dumped in their aircraft engines works GREAT on corroded A/C motor shafts -- the source of that annoying squealing sound in so many A/C units.

End result: Silent operation. $640 saved for another day -- or another couple of tanks of avgas.

You dah man. I hope it all works out the way you want it to.

Oh, it will. If I could make this concept work in IOWA for 8 years, doing it here should be pretty simple. So far, in 19 months, we have done very well, with business up a stellar 26% September, year over year.

And that's with the old name, and no marketing, while we remodeled/redecorated/refurbished. We can only go up from there!

 

[Amelia]

I understand your frustration, Jay--Too bad more people can't read between the lines. I always do-- one or two bad reviews in the middle of a bunch of positive ones are obviously from people who deserved to be tossed out. I also bear in mind that one person's 5 star rave might be another's so-so 3 stars. And when management bothers to reply, it's even more useful. As I mentioned, TripAdvisor is often the first stop, a place to start, to look for what sets this place apart, but the website, with room photos, mapquest location, will be my second.
I'm rarely disappointed. After all, anything more than a spotlessly clean, quiet room without smoke or perfume is a bonus. English as a first language for pleasant, professional receptionist? Nice! A down pillow? NOW you're talking exquisite luxury.
The reason I mentioned the books was this: My husband used to sub at a clinic on a beach not far away, and if I went along for his weekend gig, I'd be there at a deserted wintery windy beach/fishing village, looking for entertainment. A shelf full of novels I would never have read at home, made it a fine escape from reality indeed.

 

[Amelia]

Palm trees? In Texas? Why?? Why not plant what grows there naturally? Maybe like some of Texas's beautiful live oaks? So they grow slowly, but it's worth the wait, and the shade they'd provide for a sizzling parking lot would be a godsend on those long blistering summer days.

 

[SCCutler]

Palm trees? In Texas? Why?? Why not plant what grows there naturally? Maybe like some of Texas's beautiful live oaks? So they grow slowly, but it's worth the wait, and the shade they'd provide for a sizzling parking lot would be a godsend on those long blistering summer days.

Palm trees on the south Texas coast are not so improbable...

 

[Henning]

*sigh* We've got a wonderful 250 volume aviation library in storage in Iowa, waiting for us to build a lobby (like we had at our place in Iowa) down here with adequate room for it.

I can't say that our library was hugely popular in Iowa, but a lot of guys browsed the titles while waiting for their wives to powder their noses, or whilst awaiting a cab.

I know *I* enjoyed it...

Alas, the new lobby must await the second story addition, which comes in Year Three (or thereabouts)...

Speaking of which, IIRC you had a great website at Alexis Park with a nice archive, what happened to that?

 

[AggieMike88]

Regarding logo and sign design, investigate www.99designs.com. Friends have recommended that service to me and the results I have seen from their projects look really good.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Palm trees? In Texas? Why?? Why not plant what grows there naturally? Maybe like some of Texas's beautiful live oaks? So they grow slowly, but it's worth the wait, and the shade they'd provide for a sizzling parking lot would be a godsend on those long blistering summer days.

Um, you do know that Mustang Island is a barrier island made of sand...right?

No live oaks here. Lots of cactus, some stupid Pepper trees that cannot be killed with anything short of nukes -- and palm trees. LOTS of palm trees.

Two things of note about Mustang Island:

1. It wasn't here as recently as 3,000 years ago.

2. The Iowa Regiment was assigned to hold the island during the Civil War...as a PUNISHMENT, for poor performance.

150 years later, we Iowans returned...and call it "paradise"!

 

[Jay Honeck]

Regarding logo and sign design, investigate www.99designs.com. Friends have recommended that service to me and the results I have seen from their projects look really good.

So far, I'm really excited by what we're getting from the company in Wisconsin. We're getting close to a final design -- at last.

 

[denverpilot]

What worries me, though, are the ones who simply moved on to the next hotel on Google because they read a "Bad Place to Stay" title without wasting the 4 seconds it would take to see it was bogus. Those people are lost forever...

Ahh heck, last I checked there was still a bat-**** crazy guy in the UK who had a website dedicated to one of my rants where I told him after over a year of him publicly berating the volunteers in a volunteer organization I did some work for, to go pound sand. (I wasn't that nice about it either.)

He tailored the website to make it look as if he'd done nothing wrong and titled it with my name. Called me "Nasty Nate" to anyone who would listen. For all I know, he still does.

For a long time it was the fourth Google hit if you looked me up.

I'm sure in this PC world, someone would see it and I'd not get a job offer over it, without so much as even asking me my side of the story, or something equally stupid.

I kept the e-mails and all of the insanity documentation and shared the file with anyone who asked, and added the disclaimer that not a single word of the full version I had was edited. My words are my own. I own up to any stupid stuff I say.

I got tons of private e-mail stating that I wasn't the first to run across this weenie, and plenty of non-public behind the scenes support for the "go away" message.

In all, I found it mildly amusing and flattering that I could **** off a Brit psycho from halfway around the globe to the point where he attempted to contact my boss and "warn" him about me. My boss laughed his butt off and said he had someone try to do the same thing to him. I was livid. Jerk messes with me, that's one thing. Mess with my livelihood over an Internet argument about a hobby, the gloves came off.

I posted the entire thing, private e-mails and all. People were agast at the abuse the volunteers had privately taken from this idiot for a year.

I started showing friends the website and found out that they thought it was even funnier than I did. I was mildly amused and a little worried about it. They guffawed and doubled-over laughing. Made me much happier about the whole thing.

Internet reputations aren't reality, I guess is my point. In one UK wack-job's opinion, I'm a terrible person because I was tired of his complaining about something he didn't build nor had the motivation to fix himself. He just wanted attention, but was affecting the motivation of an all-volunteer team.

As you might imagine, one of my pet peeves is whining about volunteers who do something for you -- for free -- in their spare time. No tolerance for that at all. I flame-broiled the dude, and I'd do it again.

He'd still post his little "I hate Nate" website. Fine by me. If someone wouldn't come to me and ask me what happened if they saw it, they'd never have been my friend or business associate anyway.

All these folks who worry about their Internet "image" kill me. All it takes is one psycho to say you're evil on the Internet. You can't control it.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Speaking of which, IIRC you had a great website at Alexis Park with a nice archive, what happened to that?

You talking the video archive? I've still got it here. I just haven't had time to reformat it and upload it to the new site. (Sadly, I switched from Microsoft FrontPage to a new, GUI-based website creation program called "Coffeecup". It's not a simple matter of copy/paste from one program to another, so I've got to change the format and description on literally thousands of aviation videos.)

BTW, that Alexis Park Inn website was called "terrible" by lots and lots of web developers, too.

 

[Henning]

2. The Iowa Regiment was assigned to hold the island during the Civil War...as a PUNISHMENT, for poor performance.

150 years later, we Iowans returned...and call it "paradise"!

Shows how stupid people can get in just 150 years...

 

[denverpilot]

BTW, that Alexis Park Inn website was called "terrible" by lots and lots of web developers, too.

I had it bookmarked. Back when I wasn't flying. I wanted to visit. It worked for me.

I just couldn't ever find a reason to go to Iowa without an airplane!

(My wife's a U of Iowa alum. I visited Iowa City enough times when we were dating to absolutely hate that drive out I-80.)

 

[Henning]

You talking the video archive? I've still got it here. I just haven't had time to reformat it and upload it to the new site. (Sadly, I switched from Microsoft FrontPage to a new, GUI-based website creation program called "Coffeecup". It's not a simple matter of copy/paste from one program to another, so I've got to change the format and description on literally thousands of aviation videos.)

BTW, that Alexis Park Inn website was called "terrible" by lots and lots of web developers, too.

Terrible or not, pre YouTube you had the best aviation video archive located in one place.

I hear on the new software. I built my current website 10 years ago using Front Page in about 2.5 hrs. So far I have spent all day just trying to figure out how to make Joomba do something. I give up on all the "Open Source" crap. It's all built by sadistic idiots.

 

[Jay Honeck]

All these folks who worry about their Internet "image" kill me. All it takes is one psycho to say you're evil on the Internet. You can't control it.

Personally, I agree. I don't care WHAT you say about me -- it's all been said before.

But when you start messing with my business, and hurting my wife and kids, I tend to get riled. TripAdvisor, Google, and Yahoo (and, to a lesser degree, paid sites like "Better Business Bureau") provide a bully pulpit for idiots and *******s who can do real harm without any fear of retribution, or even detection.

I find that to be simply wrong.

Sadly, there is just enough authenticity on these sites to prevent many people from understanding what I'm saying. They simply take everything they read at face value, and move on. The short attention span of internet users is well documented and makes this problem all the more frustrating.

Which is why, as I've said, hoteliers have become utter cowards when it comes to dealing with rowdy or discourteous guests. They live in stark terror of a bad review, and the aforementioned idiots and *******s know it. As a result, countless hotel stays are made less pleasant by loud partiers (who, in a pre-internet time, would have been sternly dealt with), and guests pay more to cover damage done by smokers and pet owners.

Thankfully, in my 19 months on the island, there's only been one of these "problem guests" -- but the damage he has done (and continues to do) is immeasurable.

 

[denverpilot]

I give up on all the "Open Source" crap. It's all built by sadistic idiots.

The last web editor I actually liked for simple sites was Dreamweaver version 3.

Websites are god-awful to create. CMS's are a total cluster...

Putting an RDBMS behind anything less than a 30 page website is utterly retarded.

When I set up milehighflyers.com to host the podcast I went the "fully hosted" CMS route. That was a huge mistake. It's at Squarespace.

It's getting torn down, the website will be something stupid simple, if folks want a forum I'll tell 'en we're over here at this *great* one, and the media has already been migrated to LibSyn. I just need to pull the trigger on moving the RSS feed's links.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Terrible or not, pre YouTube you had the best aviation video archive located in one place.

I hear on the new software. I built my current website 10 years ago using Front Page in about 2.5 hrs. So far I have spent all day just trying to figure out how to make Joomba do something. I give up on all the "Open Source" crap. It's all built by sadistic idiots.

FrontPage rocked. "Real web developers" made fun of it, but that video site drove thousands to our website.

In fact, it sort of took over. I had people all over the country who knew me because of the videos, who would ask "What's that about some sort of HOTEL attached to the videos? What's THAT about?"

So, I looked at all the "new" web software. God, they ALL suck. DreamWeaver came highly recommended -- I tossed it after a day.

CoffeeCup seemed like a good choice at the time, but it's plagued by all sorts of stupidity -- not the least of which is that it takes FOREVER to save your work. (Thanks to some lunatic who designed it so that if you make a change -- no matter how small -- it must re-save the ENTIRE website. D'oh!)

I want Frontpage back. Anyone know of a compatible web-design program that would allow me to simply use my old pages?

 

[denverpilot]

Thankfully, in my 19 months on the island, there's only been one of these "problem guests" -- but the damage he has done (and continues to do) is immeasurable.

Dead serious... What are Texas laws like about recording audio of incidents with a cheap digital recorder in your pocket? Thought about security cameras in public areas?

I say this 'cause in these off the deep end cases, sometimes the only way to fight back is to fight fire with fire.

If you had the guy on tape being a numbnuts in the pool, that'd pretty much end the whole thing right there.

I know that path is fraught with problems but for "special" cases it'd be a nice ace in the hole.

 

[jesse]

In fact, it sort of took over. I had people all over the country who knew me because of the videos, who would ask "What's that about some sort of HOTEL attached to the videos? What's THAT about?"

I do remember watching all of those videos way back, long before I was on PoA, and long before I had my private. Just a kid up late on the computer watching videos.

Content is king. Those videos were content. Your current website has no content visible to any search engine. A search engine just can't see your website what-so-ever. You need to fix that.

It's also 2011 now. It's not 1999 where a small business HAVING a website was impressive. Now not only should you have a website. It should look good too.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Content is king. Those videos were content. Your current website has no content visible to any search engine. A search engine just can't see your website what-so-ever. You need to fix that.

It's also 2011 now. It's not 1999 where a small business HAVING a website was impressive. Now not only should you have a website. It should look good too.

Okay, how much?

 

[Jay Honeck]

Dead serious... What are Texas laws like about recording audio of incidents with a cheap digital recorder in your pocket? Thought about security cameras in public areas?

I say this 'cause in these off the deep end cases, sometimes the only way to fight back is to fight fire with fire.

If you had the guy on tape being a numbnuts in the pool, that'd pretty much end the whole thing right there.

I know that path is fraught with problems but for "special" cases it'd be a nice ace in the hole.

I've toyed with creating a webpage called www.Deadbeats.com, where businesses could post their "problem customers". This would enable us all to simply not do business with people who have screwed other businesses -- a service that I would personally pay a pretty penny for.

Sadly, the attorneys tell me this could be a big liability problem.

 

[Amelia]

Um, you do know that Mustang Island is a barrier island made of sand...right?

No live oaks here. Lots of cactus, some stupid Pepper trees that cannot be killed with anything short of nukes -- and palm trees. LOTS of palm trees.

Two things of note about Mustang Island:

1. It wasn't here as recently as 3,000 years ago.

2. The Iowa Regiment was assigned to hold the island during the Civil War...as a PUNISHMENT, for poor performance.

150 years later, we Iowans returned...and call it "paradise"!

OK, sorry... all I was going on was the fact that wind-swept live oaks were the dominant trees on northern gulf barrier islands like Dauphin Island, AL and Santa Rosa Island, FL, and on the barrier islands along the south Atlantic coast, where they grow just fine, even on sand dunes. Funny thing about Dauphin Island was that Yankees retired to the northern gulf coast and decided they were in the tropics. They had time on their hands, so they got themselves onto various commissions and boards, and agreed among themselves that tropical glamor was more appropriate to the island's new image than that redneck Alabama scrub, and replaced the native spanish-moss draped oaks along the main streets with cabbage palms. Ugly as hell, no shade, not very hardy, and not real great in hurricanes. But they were happy as could be with their new streetscape, and it was well worth it to replace a third of the dang things every year. I just assumed Texas gulf beaches were similar habitats... oops. Here's me, butting out now.

 

[jesse]

Okay, how much?

For what? I'm not trying to sell you anything.

 

[Henning]

I've toyed with creating a webpage called www.Deadbeats.com, where businesses could post their "problem customers". This would enable us all to simply not do business with people who have screwed other businesses -- a service that I would personally pay a pretty penny for.

Sadly, the attorneys tell me this could be a big liability problem.

Why would it be? Can you sue the drunk or the Travel Adviser website? Oh well, that URL is taken by a band....

 

[Jay Honeck]

For what? I'm not trying to sell you anything.

Any recommendations?

 

[denverpilot]

For what? I'm not trying to sell you anything.

He wants you to.

 

[RyanShort1]

I'm going to chime in to say that Dreamweaver IS fairly easy to use. I used it for all three of the sites I put together. In my Texas Tailwheel site's current version I had the framework done by a younger friend for less than $200, and I've done all the rest with Dreamweaver and I'm OK with it, but I would like to upgrade some things there in the near future - when I have a slow week or two. The www.lbirds.com site I did all in Dreamweaver myself, and while I'm not good at the "store" part of it, the site itself worked out OK.

Ryan