Saturday, July 29, 2006

Globus Tours, Marketing to get Referrels & RSS to Make Life Easier

Podcast Number Seventy

Kathleen Kavanaugh, the Home Based Travel Agent Channel Director for Globus Tours, joins us to talk about all of the Globus offerings and what they have to offer the travel agent. Check out the travel agent portal at Globus and sign up! Globus offers more information for travel agents including fam trips at Globus at Home. The Globus consumer website is at Globus Journeys.


Check out Blubrry. It's a great place to be a listener. You can comment on podcasts you listen to and you can sign up to be friends with the podcasters on the Blubrry Network. Go over to Blubrry, sign up and become my friend. I would like to get to know all of you!

Have your family, friends and customers help you build referrels. Give each family member, friend and customer five pre-printed postcards with information about your travel company. The postcards should have an area where your referrer can write a personal note and you should provide stamped postcards. Have your referrer send each of these five postcards to someone they know but likely not know you. A good place to get the printed postcards is at Vista Print. You are free to use copy from an introduction letter that I've developed. I will send you a copy of this introduction letter if you send me an email and request the introduction letter.

Would you like to have a personalized news clipping service? Well, it's here and made possible with RSS feeds. This blog has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to. You need a feed aggregator in order to take advantage of tailoring an information system that is personalized for you. Podcasts have an RSS feed associated with them. This means that you can subscribe to the Home Based Travel Agent Show. The feed aggregator that I really like is Feed Demon. Feed Demon aggregates all feeds including podcasts. Another feed reader is Onfolio. Onfolio was recently purchased by Microsoft and is now a free program. Onfolio is a plug-in for your Internet Explorer.

Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Please check out my personal blog, my MySpace and drop over to the Frapper Map and let us know where you're at by placing a pin in the virtual map.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com

Sunday, July 23, 2006

What's Your 2 Second Introduction and Magazine Resources

Podcast Number Sixty-nine

Travel trade magazines are a great resource for the home based travel agent. You can learn a lot about destinations, cruises and marketing. One of the great uses for travel trade magazines are as a resource for finding information that you can use in a client newsletter. The list of magazine that Lorene talks about in the co-hosted segment are:

Hawaii Magazine
Agent at Home
The Travel Professional published by the Travel Institute
Travel and Leisure Magazine
The Budget Travel Magazine
Cruise and Vacation Agent Magazine
Porthole Cruise Magazine

What will you say in two seconds to create interest in what you do as a travel agent? Barry talks about the two second introduction. The idea of a two second introduction comes from Heidi Miller at Heidi Miller Presents. Heidi also produces the podcast, "Diary of a Shameless Self Promoter."

I have put together a client introduction letter. The letter is short but grabs your potential client's interest at the beginning and moves into a paragraph about why your potential client should use a travel professional. I will be happy to send you a copy of the letter. Send me an email and I will send a copy of the letter back to you as an attachment!

In the tech segment I talk about a great password manager called Roboform. Roboform will save you a lot of time as you travel to different travel supplier's websites and you have to have a password to enter all of these websites. Roboform will remember all of the passwords and user names and automatically provide the correct username and password when you visit a page that requires a password.

Check out Blubrry. It's a great place to be a listener. You can comment on podcasts you listen to and you can sign up to be friends with the podcasters on the Blubrry Network. Go over to Blubrry, sign up and become my friend. I would like to get to know all of you!

Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Please check out my personal blog, my MySpace and drop over to the Frapper Map and let us know where you're at by placing a pin in the virtual map.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com

Sunday, July 16, 2006

How to Drive Customers Away and Norwegian Cruise Line Specialist

Podcast Number Sixty-eight

Lorene talks about becoming a Norwegian Cruise Line Specialist. Learn about taking the course and about some of the benefits that result. Lorene gives a plug to Kelly Monaghan's, Home Based Travel Agent Home Study Course. Take a cruise over to my website to check out this course. I get a small commission if you order the books through my website.

Barry talks about a recent experience of poor customer service. This could be a classic case of how to drive your business into the ground. Barry has a corresponding blog post at his personal blog. You can click HERE to check out the blog.

Check out Blubrry. It's a great place to be a listener. You can comment on podcasts you listen to and you can sign up to be friends with the podcasters on the Blubrry Network. Go over to Blubrry, sign up and become my friend. I would like to get to know all of you!

Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Marketing Tips to Get Your Business Rolling and Marriott's Travel Agent Training

Podcast Number Sixty-seven


My granddaughter Elsa (18 months), son Jason and daughter-in-law Angela are moving from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Cambridge, Massachusetts this week. My son is going to work for a company that develops scheduling softward for the airlines, ITA Software. In the podcast I dedicate the song Fly Away, by the Dandylions to my grandaughter Elsa. You can click the link on the song title or visit Garageband to find all kinds of great podsafe music.

In the co-hosted segment Loreen talks about the Marriott travel agent training programs and the discounts and fams associated with being a Marriott specialist.

Barry has more marketing tips that will help you get your business rolling. In the technical tip segment Barry discusses how to send large files throught the email. Perhaps you want to send your clients brochures and pictures of Aruba. Here is how to do it without crashing your email or your client's emai. Go to a site called You Send It at www.yousendit.com and send away!

Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle and Selling Travel Insurance

Podcast Number Sixty-six

In the Co-hosted segment Lorene talks about travel insurance and why it is important to your clients. The links discussed are: CSA Travel Insurance and Trip Insurance.

Barry applies lessons learned from the book, "Book Yourself Solid," to your travel business. You need to get this book and work through the exercises and apply them to you travel business. You will be booked solid!


Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com