Chapter 1

An outdoor guide is a special kind of individual who not only likes what they

do for a living, but also an individual who most likely keep doing what they

doing even though it does not make them a lot of money.

This article is the first of a 3 part series of articles writen by Fahmi Slail

, President and founder of I Guide Club online directory. This series of

articles which will open a window into the "business" of the outdoor guide.

Lesson # 1 Do you have a website that highlights all of you strengths and

emphasizes your specialty, be it elk hunting or Tuna or Salmon fishing? Are

you a fly fishing expert ? all these issues should be detailed

Lesson # 2 Have a portfolio of previous trips that you conducted, show your

hunting kills and your monster fish that you reeled in the spring. If you don

't have any photos, then you can have a generic photo of a similar activity

and mention that this is the type of action you clients can expect.

Lesson# 3 Be visible online: Is your website findable on the search engines

like Google, Yahoo and MSN ? If it is not, then you are sacrificing a lot of

potentially good business as most hunters like to travel to different states

to hunt and out of town businessmen/ women like to go fishing when they come

your way.

Lesson# 4 Do you have any hooks ? what that means is that your website should

have a way to keep your site visitors not only educated about your product

and service, but also a way to either sign up for some type of newsletter,

membership or a giveaway. That way you will be able to retain this site

visitor and,with the right tools, be able to close a sale.

Lesson# 5 Can your clients reach you by phone? - Although having a website

that is graphically pleasing and functional is good, nothing can take the

place of a friendly voice on the phone when the client calls and tries to get

details about the proposed trip. Not being able to answer your phone right

away will cost you lots of business that you will never know about.

Lesson#6 Do you have insurance ? - although being a licensed guide requires

you to have insurance, you should look into advertising that fact because the

public might not know that you are insured.

Lesson#7 Offer options for disabled individuals - Whenever possible you should

not ignore the market of disabled individuals with physical handicaps. Those

individuals will not only be your most loyal customers if you provide them

with the conveniences that they require, but will give your business a

goodwill reputation that you will not be able buy anywhere. Besides, it just

feels good to do good and make money doing it.

Lesson# 8 Make sure to optimize your website for the search engine - Search

engine do not automatically send you customers. They index your site based

on you submitted and properly aligned keywords and other web page tags. So

make sure to hire a company that will be able to optimize the design of your

web pages so the search engine will not penalize you for have the wrong

keyword at the wrong place.

Look out for Chapter 2 of this 3 part series where we talk about the twenty

way an outdoor guide can have his cake and eat it too.