Client Perks and How to Get Your Own Email Address

Podcast Number Eighty-five

This podcast is sponsored by GoToMeeting. Online meetings made easy with GoToMeeting. Try it for free for 45 days. Use Promo Code Podcast.

Lorene talks about how to provide your clients with some nice perks when they return from their vacation. Lorene ties her perks with a client profile questionaire so that she can get information to better serve her clients in the future.

Barry goes into detail about how to set up your own email address using your business name. This is what it takes to get rid of the aol and yahoo domain email addresses and put a more professional face to your marketing and branding.

Links discussed in this podcast are:

Trams (ClientBase)
Goddady
DreamHost
CCLhosting
Thunderbird Email Client

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

How You Can Cruise and Learn the Travel Business Inexpensively

Podcast Number Eighty-four

This podcast is sponsored by GoToMeeting. Online meetings made easy with GoToMeeting. Try it for free for 45 days. Use Promo Code Podcast.

Barry extends his apology to Alan Gerstner for his "A Plumber Without a Pipe Wrench" rant in Show Number 81.

Lorene talks about the Cruise Agent Only website. This organization offers excellent training for the travel agent. This training is combined with cruises to various destination. You take clasees aboard the cruise ship while you are at sea. At port you may be treated to tours, amenities and information by the local tourist associations. The cruises offered are at an excellent price and combined with the training you recieve are an excellent value.

Barry discusses the "Pew Internet and American Life Project" survey that indicates that only 12% of internet users download a podcast to listen to it at a later time. This means that most people are listening to podcasts while they are at the podcast website. Subscribing and taking a podcast with you is very easy. Barry talks about an analogy used by Dave Jackson at the School of Podcasting to understand how an RSS feed works. Barry also points listeners to a great podcasting aggregator (podcatcher) called Juice. This tool is free and is very easy to use to subscribe to your favorite podcasts.

sdCheck 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

Learn About Destinations at the Amateur Travel Podcast and Barry Takes You on a Treasure Hunt

Podcast Number Eighty-three

This podcast is sponsored by GoToMeeting. Online meetings made easy with GoToMeeting. Try it for free for 45 days. Use Promo Code Podcast.

Chris Christensen of the Amateur Traveler Podcast joins Lorene and I in the co-hosted segment of the podcast. Chris has a great podcast with a focus on travel destinations around the world and locally. Chris' podcast is a great resource to learn about destinations.

Barry takes you on a treasure hunt via a sound seeing tour. The treasures are geocaches. The hobby of Geocaching will take you to destinations that you would otherwise never visit. Join Barry on his trek to find a couple of caches on a cold November day. You can learn more about Geocaching by going to the Geocaching website at http://www.geocaching.com.


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

Sign Up For Fam Trips to Marriott's Caribbean Resorts and Marketing to Build Relationships

Podcast Number Eighty-two

This podcast is sponsored by GoToMeeting. Online meetings made easy with GoToMeeting. Try it for free for 45 days. Use Promo Code Podcast.

Lorene interviews Elizabeth Linn, Senior Account Representative for the Marriott Corporation. Elizabeth is responsible for group marketing for several of the Marriott properties in the Carribean and Mexico. Elizabeth describes the various Marriott properties and their surroundings creating an enticing description that you can use to make sales. You can sign up for fam trips (familiarization trips)and learn more at the Marriot website, Paradise by Marriott. Sign up at the same website for the newsletter that will go into detail about the Marriott Caribbean and Mexico properties. The newsletter will also keep you up to date on the renovations, changes and new events at these properties. Click >>>>HERE<<<< to go to the Paradise by Marriott website.

Barry discusess ideas about a marketing tactic to build clients and relationships. Building trust and a client relationship is easier when you develop marketing pieces that give your client something of value for free. Why not develop a video on how to pack a suitcase using tips from the books listed below. You can click on the links to the books to check them out. The video will show you and perhaps your family giving packing tips. This will make a personal connection to your client and give them some valuable advice. Your resource books are:

The Packing Book: Secrets of the Carry-on Traveler

Smart Packing for Today's Traveler

Fodor's How to Pack, 2nd edition (Special-Interest Titles)

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

Would You Hire a Plumber That Doesn't Own a Pipe Wrench? And, Lorene in Hawaii

Podcast Number Eighty-one

This podcast is sponsored by GoToMeeting. Online meetings made easy with GoToMeeting. Try it for free for 45 days. Use Promo Code Podcast.

Lorene checks into the podcast from her Hawaiian cruise. Lorene talks about the success that they've had with their pre cruise stay, their view of the volcanoe lava flows and the anticipation of some local cuisine.

Would you go to a kitchen remodeling seminar that is taught by a plumber that has never remodeled a kitchen, nor owns a pipe wrench or skill saw? Barry talks about an upcoming seminar for travel agents on websites, blogging and podcasting. The seminar is being taught by someone that doesn't have a podcast, or a blog or even a website! There is an important lesson for travel agents that you will hear when you reach the end of Barry's rant. Some of the links Barry mentions in his rant are:

The Travel Trade Magazine
Travel Trades' 23rd Annual Leisure Travel/Home Based/Winter CRUISE-A-THON
GoDaddy
Dream Host


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