While diagnosing and fixing problems may or may not be easy, discovering a problem is very easy.

Enter BrowserShots.org to the rescue. BrowserShots allows you to check your web site’s appearance on literally dozens of browser and operating systems for free. You can then either view or download JPG images of how your site lays out in all of them. It usually takes 15-30 minutes to load them, but you can go do something else while it loads.

An example of AmericanVagabondPhotography.com in the Netscape Navigator browser on a Ubuntu Linux operating system. It’s not important that I don’t know what either of those are, what’s important is the site looks clean in whatever they are….

Some more notes on site features:

• Paypal (CC) integration
• Content Management System
• Lightbox.js
• Photo ratings and comments
• Slideshow
• Panoramic Display

First, because many of these sites come up in major search engines for a variety of phrases, which can lead potential clients to your website. Second, it can help build your search engine rankings by giving you high quality, relevant inbound links to your charter or guide website. Most are free, and some require you to link back to their site from yours (reciprocal linking), but all offer web links as well as contact info pointed towards your business.

1. Install a fuel flow gauge if you haven’t already.
   Not only can you find out what speed is most efficient for your vessel, but it will help you evaluate the effectiveness of these and other gas saving measures.
2. Tune up.
   A yearly work over will keep inboards and outboards alike working at maximum efficiency, and will easily pay for itself in gas savings over the course of the year.
3. Lose some weight.
   Too often we leave the dock with everything we ever need on the water. Try to lighten up by leaving unnecessary items, especially the heavy ones. Examples- full water tanks on a half day trip, or trolling motor (and battery) while heading out deep.
4. Throttle back.
   Running your boat wide open uses a tremendous amount of energy. Throttling back to 80% can offer huge savings in both MPG and GPH.
5. Maintain that plane.
   Once up on a plane, a boat will use much less gas even if only going a couple knots faster.
6. Plan it out.
   Try to minimize miles traveled by planning the best route, or doing a little research before hand. Wondering for hours will certainly burn more gas, and may not get you more fish.
7. Check your prop.
   Lower pitch props. may help you get out of the hole faster, but will bleed efficiency at higher speeds. Remember to check for dings, dents, and chips that will affect fuel economy and balance.
8. Balanced running.
   While it’s a great idea to test MPG for different trim levels on your boat, it is certain that it will perform better while balanced evenly from side to side.
9. Drain livewells.
   Out of bait or done fishing? Drain those wells before leaving to come home, at 8 lbs. per gallon the weight can add up.
10. Keep it’s bottom clean.
    Whether it’s barnacles , or slime and grime, it’s slowing you down. And it’s costing you at the pump too.

Warm up time…. Most new engines with electronic fuel injection, etc., don’t require lengthy warm up periods. Try warming a minute to three depending on engine size and age.

April’s Photo Contest Theme: Fishing in General

What do you win?  We’ll feature your shot & contact info. on our homepage for a month.

….. and we’ll announce it in our Outdoor e-Marketing Newsletter too.

Who decides? You do.  Winners are chosen by votes from all the participants.

Always Fishing? No.  We’re thinking about a hunting theme in May, maybe gobblers?  Suggestions welcome.

For rules, deadline, and how to enter visit the Photo Contest page.

Where to find relevant blogs?

• Simply Google the industry + “blog” For example, the term “fishing charter blog”
• BlogCatalog directory (there are many other directories). Browse or search
• Technorati Search your targeted keywords, and check out the top results

Add to the Conversation

Nobody likes the guy who posts “I’m the best Fishing Guide in FL, check me out.” Blatant advertisement is likely to be deleted quickly, and very few people will follow the link to your site this way. Rule of thumb is to either add something complimentary, or something thoughtful is even better - it doesn’t have to be esoteric however.

How to Comment for Maximum SEO Effect

On most blogging platforms, there will be three boxes that you’ll need to fill out. Here’s a couple tricks to get the most out of the comment you’re about to enter:

• Name
  The name attribute is what’s going to make up the written text of the link. It helps (greatly) in SEO to have keywords in this text because it tells search engines what the link target (your website) is all about. Now some bloggers won’t take kindly to the name “best Florida fishing guide.” That said, if you’re business name includes some of your target keywords, then it should be OK to use that name. To simplify, entering the name “Bob” doesn’t help much unless your trying to rank well for “Bob” in Google.
• URL/website/address
  Called by various names, but in all cases it is the target of the aforementioned link. Usually you want to include your home page, but it’s good practice to vary them a little bit, especially when you have a page that is relevant to the blog post at hand. Also, if you have other content rich pages that you’d like to rank well for a given term, include it here. An example of this is if you operate a guide service off of a particular island or offer an “overnight” charter option.

Here’s a list of 15 17 (*see below*) websites offering free services to post fishing reports on the web. Remember, you can post last week’s report to them all if you like.

***UPDATE: Thanks to the great response, we will be continually updating this list***

If you have or know of any other fishing report sites, please comment below and we’ll make sure they are added.

1. Big Fish Tackle
2. Fishing Reporters
3. Sportfishermen.com
4. ReelReports.com
5. Ultimate Bass Forum
6. ReelFishingReports.com
7. 2CoolFishing.com Message Boards
8. CyberAngler.com
9. Fish Eye Soup
10. FishingWorks.com
11. FishyFishing.com
12. LandBigFish.com
13. TheFishFinder.com
14. TheFishingGuide.com
15. US Angler
16. Waders On
17. Fishing Reports at Fintalk.com
18. Fox Lake Fishing
19. GoFishingForums.net

What is Outdoorzy?

It’s a social network, like MySpace or Facebook, for outdoors types.  Forums, to-do lists, trip reports, etc.  But it also has a Business Directory!

Why should I register?

You get photos or screenshots, an explanation of your business, and more, for the enormous price of $0.00 - all in front of your target audience on a growing social network. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, you’re allowed to place one-way, inbound links from your profile to your website which helps to increase your site’s standings in the search engines.

Wikipedia defines Link bait as “any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything “interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”[3] Link bait can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral in nature.”

Link baiting is all about creatin the buzz, and can take many forms, but in all cases involves content that is working talking about, and therefore worth referencing via hyperlink. There are four general types of link bait, but they can contain elements of any or all.

1. Linkworthy content
   A tutorial that is so concise, and so well written that it becomes the de facto manual on a given subject. It could be winter bass fishing in Lake Lanier or qualifications for a great P.R. firm. Example: Spousel Conversion Kit: Video to get your wife on board for buying that new boat.
2. Controversy
   An information peice that is so over the top, sometimes lacking all reason, that stirs up an online community or the blogoshpere at large. Something titled “President Bush Hates Puppies” is sure to draw a debate, and therefore generate links from people who agree and disagree.  Example: Polar Bear Future - Political or Scientific? Global warming, conservation, politics, and those cute, rip your arms off, white bears wrapped up in six words - who doesn’t want to read that?
3. Killer Apps
   A tool or application that is so useful, bloggers and webmasters will link to it to spread the word. It could be a tool for checking inbound links, or a lure color selector based upon weather and water conditions. Example: Georgia DoT Traffic Counts on Google Maps An easy way for retail/commercial realtors to look up traffic counts for a proposed shopping center.
4. Humor
   Everybody wants to share a joke, especially good ones. A collection of jokes, or one especially humorous one pertaining to your niche or industry is a sure way to draw links from related sites.  Example: Fishing Jokes Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day?

Translate Your Website with Google Language Tools

1. First, we must get a link to the page we want to translate.  Go to Google Language Tools, about a third of the way down to the “Translate a web page” dialog. Simply enter your web page’s address, and choose the language conversion option at the right. Hit enter, and your page in the chosen language should appear.
2. Next, copy the link and place it in your blog, website, or email.
   
3. Whamo, you’ve just learned Spanish, Greek, or Chinese on the web in 10 minutes…

Hint & Example:

Try linking to the translated page from a flag representing the language…

Click the flag to see RainmakerWebDesign.com in Greek: