Why Are Five Holiday Destinations Better Than One?

What does a traditional holiday look like?

For millions around the world, it means you get onto an aeroplane, head off to a destination, and stay in the same hotel for a week or two while occasionally having a walk around your location, trying out the local food, and enjoying a relaxing lounge around the beach and poolside.
Tourism trends are changing however, and people are looking for more from the trips that they take, especially as the challenging economy means that most of us are taking less holidays than we were a decade ago, for example.
One way in which people are getting more from their holidays is to take touring trips around various locations, rather than stay in a fixed destination at all times. We explored the reasons why five, six, seven, or even more holiday destinations is better than one.

Sense of Adventure:

If you head off on a ‘traditional’ holiday, the journey there is something of an exciting adventure, but afterwards, your holiday rep tells you about the resort, and the excitement tends to come to a swift end.
By embarking on a driving holiday, you are never really at your final destination, and when you reach one location you are driven by the urgency to see everything you want to before heading off on the next stage of your journey.
You also aren’t likely to get bored due to staying in one place for an extended period of time, but you must remember to bring along activities for passengers if you do choose to drive, particularly little ones who will be itching to ask “are we there yet?”

Different Cultures:

Even if you travel around one country, such as Australia, a ‘road trip’ style of holiday enables you to experience many different ways of life, different customs and traditions that will open your eyes to how different people live their lives.
A diverse trip where you meet a lot of new people and make friends is surely more exciting than one where you stay in the same place every day for two weeks.

Avoiding ‘Tourists’:

Although going on holiday makes you a tourist, let’s be honest, every holiday has a group of people that you simply cannot wait to get away from. You hope to that they will soon be leaving, until it is pointed out to you that they were on the same flight as you and have booked the exact same package as your family.
When you’re travelling around, you are never in one place long enough to get irritated by anyone, as you are taken in by the excitement of where you are and the places you may be headed to next.

Is It Worth It?:

If you are looking for a break that has much more depth than a traditional holiday, then a driving trip is definitely a great option. Whether you are driving across a vast country such as Australia or the United States, or across continental Europe, you are guaranteed an experience to remember.

Rob is a travel writer with a keen interest in tourism around Australia and new tourist trends that are being led by the need for campervan relocations across the whole country.

The Impact Of Branding For New Businesses

What is a brand?

Branding is all about perception and essentially tells a business’s story, provides differentiation from competition and essentially tells a back story.

A strong brand has the power to instil a sense of trust and meaning in people. The way a business has positioned itself in the eyes of a customer can become a point of consideration in buying decisions. For example people choose to buy Apple phones over Android because they like the way Apple has positioned itself as a brand, even when the Android phones have more features.

Someone may decide to spend $80 000 for a high-end luxury vehicle when they could spend $15 000 and get a car that fulfils that same function. But they spend the money on the luxury brand because they know this brand is seen as exclusive and they want to put forth the message that they have money.

Building brand awareness takes time and brands like Nike, Mercedes and BMW have built it up over many years. For new businesses, building and shaping a brand can be a challenging undertaking.

Here are some ways that new businesses can build and shape their brand in the minds of their customers:

1.) Professionalism. Always approach everything you do in business with professionalism, especially when your business isn't as well known and lacks resources larger firms have access to. This helps to instil trust in people

2.) Customer service. Always strive for excellent customer service, especially if your business is small. Going the extra mile when your customers don’t expect it will help set your business apart from competitors. If something goes wrong (it’s bound to happen at some stage) sort it out as quickly as possible and consider a complimentary gift/voucher as consolation for the inconvenience.

Follow up after the sale. Give the customer a call or drop them an email and find out if they're satisfied with the purchase and if there was anything that could have been done better. Customer experience and professionalism are make or break areas for all businesses, whether you're involved in corporate signage maintenance and design or running a small corner café.

Word of mouth is a powerful marketing medium and in a world where social media is a click away, it's easy for customers to say something (Good or bad) about your brand.

3.) Collaboration can be an effective way to raise brand awareness. The key to successful collaboration is finding a brand that complements, but not competes with yours. Some good examples of successful collaborations include Nike/iPod or Adidas/Star wars. As a start-up it may be challenging to find companies willing partner with you, but if you can pull it off your business will gain invaluable exposure.

The end game is finding out what your customers value and shaping your brand to be in-line with this.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source 

This article was written by Michael James who is an avid cyclist, food lover, wine drinker and music fan. 

3 Simple Ways To Make Money Online

The internet is a wonderful thing and many people would struggle to live without it in the 21st century; not to mention all of the businesses that wouldn’t be able to trade without it. We tend to use the internet for a lot of things these days; for finding out information, to keep in contact with friends and family and sometimes just for entertainment but it can also be used to make a bit of money on the side.

I’m sure all of us would snap up the chance to earn a bit more money if we had it presented to us but I’m here to tell you it has been in front of your eyes all along. There are many ways to make money online but here are three of the simplest.

Writing Reviews –

There are plenty of sites online that will pay you to write reviews that will then be placed on their website. Every company wants their products to be reviewed positively as this will ultimately increase sales and you can take advantage of this by offering your skills. You don’t even need to be a particularly good writer either, just chose to review something that you are interested in and then let your passion take over.
You will earn money per review which can then be paid to you in the form of Amazon vouchers or a cheque if you accumulate enough. It doesn’t just stop at products either; there are many other things to be reviewed like hotels, shops and restaurants.

Blogging –

According to recent statistics, there are over 2 million blog posts written everyday which just goes to show the power that blogging online now has. When it first started blogging was just a way to write about your passions and hobbies and post it online but now it is much more than that and can be a viable way of making some extra cash.

If you build up enough of a following then companies will pay you big money to advertise on your blog because they know they will be reaching large audiences. You can also charge businesses a fee in order for you to write a blog post on your site that sponsors one of their products or services to help them spread the word.
Sponsored Tweeting –

Do you feel like you are a big deal on social media sites such as Twitter? Well why not start making a bit of money just for tweeting to your many followers. SponsoredTweets.com gives you the opportunity to state exactly how much you want to charge per tweet and what you want to tweet about. All you have to do then is sit and wait for companies to contact you to tweet on their behalf.

Businesses know that Twitter allows you to reach a wide and varied audience almost instantly and therefore they will be willing to pay to have someone promote them through this platform. The good news also is that you can control the final wording of the tweet so you don’t end up having to tweet anything that you don’t agree with.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source 

Chris Mayhew works for internet marketing company Marketing By Web who do SEO in Bristol and has seen first hanmd how people can make money over the internet. He has experience in SEO, social media management and blogging which can all help you earn a significant income.