I have helped many clients over the years with setting up a VRBO.com listing for their vacation rental. VRBO is Vacation Rental By Owner and has long been the premier online listing service for those seeking short-term renters for their properties. But the new features of FlipKey, a company linked with Trip Advisor, as well as their no listing fee promotion, should make VRBO.com re-think their listing strategies.

A Do-It-Yourself Vacation Rental Platform

The VRBO.com listing results page. Note the banner ad at the top of the screen.

The clients I have helped with VRBO.com listings needed assistance filling in the lengthy form and uploading photos. Although I haven’t created a client listing since 2011, the last two clients I worked with had a booking on VRBO within two days of the listing going live. The booking revenue was enough to cover the entire year of the listing with VRBO and my hourly service fee. If there was one negative to VRBO.com, however, it was that they offered no real property search feature. Plus, the listing wasn’t cheap. As far as getting your listing features, in past years a VRBO listing was placed in order of how many extra photos you purchased at $24 each, in addition to the $329 yearly fee. People searching for properties had to scroll down long lists to find what they were looking for, only to see that the posted price didn’t necessarily match the actual price, or the property wasn’t available.

Currently, VRBO.com does allow searchers to filter by date availability and property options such as hot tub, lake view, and number of bedrooms. They have also changed their price structure to allow all users the same number of images (24) and the ability to pay a higher fee to be featured higher on the list. Current VRBO.com prices range from $349 to $999 per year.

More Features At A Lower Price: FREE!

The VRBO upgrades are probably in response to the competition from companies such as FlipKey who are seeing the huge profit to be made from providing a user-friendly vacation rental platform. But although VRBO is attempting to modernize the way properties are listed, the new offerings from FlipKey.com are hard for vacation rental owners to pass up.

The FlipKey.com listings results page is cleaner, more modern, and user-friendly.

For starters, FlipKey is partnered with TripAdvisor, an online expert in property reviews. The FlipKey website is sleek and modern and is missing the obtrusive ads that VRBO.com uses to supplement their income. FlipKey also has a much better search engine for narrowing down the properties you are looking for. An example is searching for a property with more than one bedroom. Although VRBO does now allow you to filter your search by property type and number of bedrooms, it is not as easy and intuitive to apply search filters to find a property with two or more bedrooms. FlipKey also provides a very clear nightly price  for each property based on the dates of stay.

But in addition to the better search features, better website layout, better property sorting, and better way to view properties by location within a specific city, FlipKey now has something that should really cause VRBO to re-think their property listing model: free listings. FlipKey.com is offering vacation property owners FREE listings for their rentals! They chose to pursue a model where they will take 3% of each confirmed booking, and they’ve made the booking and reservation system quite easy for both the renter and owner.

VRBO Is Still Vacation Rental King

For now, VRBO.com is still the leader when it comes to the number of properties offered. When I did a search for vacation rentals in my home town of Pagosa Springs with no date specified, VRBO showed 312 properties available while FlipKey showed only 94.  But with the new free listing feature of FlipKey, along with the overall better website and property search experience, there is no reason that anyone with a VRBO.com listing shouldn’t jump over to FlipKey and have a listing there also. I expect to check the number of listings in a few months and see the FlipKey numbers shoot way higher.

With FlipKey’s offering of a zero dollar annual listing fee, it is well worth listing your vacation rental  on both VRBO and FlipKey to ensure your property can be found on both sites.

An Under-utilized Online Resource

As a technology consultant and educator, it is a great feeling to share ideas and resources that small business owners can use to make their lives more productive. An online tool that is still little known to most people is Google Voice, and it is usually the first thing I recommend people sign up for when they are starting their online endeavor.

Why would you post your personal phone number online?

A common problem for small business owners I consult with is not having a dedicated phone line for their business. Whether a hobbyist, an entrepreneur, or  someone offering products or services, nearly everyone uses their cell phone number as their business line. This creates two major issues.

The first issue arises with having your personal cell phone number advertised on the web. Anyone can see the number and spam it like crazy if they wish. If someone from overseas calls your number during their normal business hours, your phone could ring in the middle of the night. With your personal cell phone number, you usually have no control over who calls and when.

The second issue is with switching out the number as you grow. This could arise when you have someone else dedicated to taking calls, or you get a new number, or you just don’t want to use your personal number anymore. Changing an email address or phone number can be risky because you don’t know who is using the old one and may be disappointed when it no longer works.

Did I mention it’s FREE?

Enter Google Voice, a free service available through Google. The number one reason I recommend Google Voice to business owners or entrepreneurs is the single, virtual phone number you are given. The virtual number can be used as your dedicated business line and can be set to ring through to whatever physical phone you assign it to. In most cases, this means the Google Voice number rings through to a personal cell phone, but rather than have the actual cell phone number advertised online, the Google Voice number acts as a filter between the world and your personal phone.

Virtual numbers can be chosen with prefixes that are the same as or in close proximity to where you live. In my case, there were no numbers available that matched the two prefixes that exist in such a small town. However, I was able to get a number with a prefix from the closest “big town” that is a local call from where I live. This point is valuable when advertising locally, but not as important for online callers who would have no idea what your prefix is anyway.

By having a dedicated phone number, you will never have to change the advertised number if you get a new cell phone number or a new business line. The virtual number can ring through to any phone you choose, so as you grow and have staff, any of their phones can be set as the recipient of the Google Voice number. Here are a few example scenarios:

• EXAMPLE 1: a business owner has a home-office and uses his home number as the advertised business number. He moved and had to update his business number to the new location. He eventually opened an official place of business and once again had to change his business number. When he finally learned about Google Voice and signed up, he had a single number to permanently use for his business. Whether he moves out of state or gets a new staff member, he simply has to update the number the Google Voice number rings to. He won’t ever again have to change the number on his advertising.
• EXAMPLE 2: a small service organization has a club secretary whose cell phone number is listed on the website as the contact person. Each time the secretary position changes, a new number is used, requiring people who want to contact them to constantly check the website to see who the new contact person is. When a new astronomy club started in town, they acquired a Google mail account (gmail) and a free Google Voice number. They forward calls to the Google number to whoever is the current contact person for the group. No matter how often the contact person changes, a single number is always advertised as the one to call.

As exemplified above, the biggest benefit to having a Google Voice number is having a single business line that never has to change.

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to having a virtual number that never has to change, there are several more benefits to Google Voice for small businesses, nonprofit organizations, or even an individual who wants more power from their cell phone:

1. voicemail transcription – whether on your cell phone or online, Google attempts to transcribe the voice message (often with hilarious results) which allows you to get the gist of what a call is about by reading the text.
2. personalized greetings – assign callers to groups, then assign specific greetings to those groups or even to a specific caller. You can also assign personalized greetings to the number that is called.This means when someone calls your Google voice number, now your business line, they will hear a different outgoing message then someone who calls your personal number. Pretty  nifty!
3. share voicemails – because Google Voice is accessible online, you can check messages even without a phone! This allows anyone you assign to be able to log in and check voice messages, not just the person whose phone is set to ring.
4. block callers – in the event your number ends up on a spam list, you have the ability to mark any number as such and calls will then be blocked.
5. screen callers – Google Voice has a screening mode so when calls come in you can answer it and hear the voice message being left, then choose to answer the call if you want to talk.

If those reasons didn’t get you to click this link and sign up for a Google Voice number, here’s one final point: I can set my hours of business and never have to worry about taking a business call when I don’t want to. Anyone who calls the number after the hours I set will go straight to voicemail, but just in case, you can also set the callers who have priority and can ring through at any time.

What are you waiting for? Get Google Voice!

Especially for those just starting an online presence, a Google Voice number is an essential tool that will keep your business looking professional. If you are already established online and see the potential to grow, you might want to consider switching to a virtual number before you get big and your personal cell phone is constantly ringing, and before you have a wider audience who will have to note the new number. Learn more at voice.google.com.

Think playing video games is a waste of time? It doesn’t have to be! There are games available right now that allow players to solve real-world science problems for the betterment of humanity. And the best part is: people are playing them!

David Pogue is the host of a great PBS series called NOVA ScienceNOW. I recently re-watched an episode I had recorded. It was called “What Will the Future Be Like?” and featured mind-reading research such as thought identification where a computer was able to identify objects that a person was thinking about by analyzing brain patterns. But the real reason I recorded the show was for the segment on Adrien Treuille, assistant professor of robotics and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Putting Video Games to Good Use

Adriene said he was always fascinated by games and invented his first one when he had his appendix removed and was bored in the hospital. As an adult, he was intrigued by the fact that people spend so much time playing video games. He saw that people spent over three MILLION hours a day playing the game Angry Birds and wondered what the results would be if that level of video game engagement could be used to benefit humanity. He developed the idea into using crowdsourcing to solve biological mysteries using a game.

For those new to the term,  crowdsourcing is a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a group of people, called the crowd.  The power of crowdsourcing comes from the fact that the system uses large numbers of solutions or information to accomplish a task or solve a problem. For Adrien, the problem he encountered was folding protein molecules in such a way that they became useful in the human body. How a protein is folded determines its function, and determining ways to fold proteins into a stable shape was something that computer models alone could not accomplish.

Using a model similar to the game Tetris, where a shape is turned to fit correctly into the pieces below it, Adrienne digitized protein parts into different colors and sizes that corresponded with the real-life molecules, essentially turning the protein molecules into a toy. The brilliant result was a game called FoldIt.  Launched in May of 2008, users played with the protein “toy”, turning and folding the pieces into the most stable shapes they could make. Adriene hoped people would be interested in playing the new game.

“Servers crashed within 24 hours,” Adriene recalled. “The public played it, and they cared about it, and they understood it.”

FoldIt attracted over 300,000 players who molded the protein molecules into stable shapes that advanced science. According to the ScienceNOW show, a long-standing riddle about an HIV protein was solved by the gamers in only three weeks. Visit the FoldIt site today and you can work on proteins that are used by real-world scientists.

Playing For Higher Stakes – From Proteins to RNA

Seeing the crowdsourcing power of using video games to further science research, Adriene found another biological problem to tackle. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, are large molecules that are most known for their vital role in the coding and expression of genes. RNA can be linked together in many ways, like a puzzle, to form proteins. But folding and linking RNA into useful, stable shapes had not been achieved in the lab.

This puzzle led to Adrien’s second game, EteRNA 2.0 (pronounced like “eterna”). Billed as “Played by humans, scored by nature,” the game was a bridge between the digital game and real-world lab experiments. Eterna 2.0 was played by having the crowd fold RNA molecules online, then submit the model to a lab where the molecules would be synthesized and folded in real-life by technicians. After the first round of submissions, not a single piece of RNA was correctly folded into a stable shape. Adrien feared the crowd would lose interest after those results. But they weren’t.

EteRNA allowed players to see all of the data on how the molecules actually folded in the lab compared to the digital model. Through collaborations in the online chat forums, players analyzed the data and revised their strategies. Hundreds of players worked for three months on the puzzle and the result was success in getting digital models to fold successfully in the lab.

“The worst player design was better than the best computing design,” Adrien says, demonstrating that there are some tasks that even a super-computer is not well versed for.

Adrien continues to use video game models to solve real-world problems and envisions a world where “anyone and everyone can contribute to solving huge problems.”

Video Games as Problem Solvers

So the next time you hear of someone spending hours and hours on video games, don’t judge them until you find out which video game is being played. They might just be solving the world’s biggest problem.

To view the entire NOVA ScienceNOW episode featuring Adrien Treuille, visit video.pbs.org. (Adrien’s segment is chapter 5, about 52 minutes in.)

Scroll to the end of this post for my summary. The low-down: if you are doing the Windows Pro upgrade from Windows 7 32-bit, be prepared to reinstall ALL of your existing programs.

Purchase and Download

It was nearly midnight, Mountain Time, on October 25 and I tried once more to click the ‘Buy Now’ link on the Microsoft Store page for a Windows 8 upgrade. This time, instead of the ‘coming soon’ page, the Upgrade Assistant loaded.

The Upgrade Assistant ran and determined my computer was capable of the upgrade from my current version of Windows 7, which was 32-bit pro.  During the lengthy download, there was no indication of how large the file was, but by 1 a.m., the Windows 8 download was 99% complete and I was excited to begin the install.

After the download was complete, the Upgrade Assistant went through

• Getting Files Ready
• Install Windows 8
• Getting Updates/Checking for Updates
• Restarting Windows 8 Setup
• We’re getting a few things ready
• Something Happened

The last ‘Something Happened’ was my first install glitch. The sub-error was, “We couldn’t find the License Agreement”. My only option was to click the Close button and the install box disappeared. After over 90 minutes, I was apparently nowhere.

However, I still my order confirmation screen open in the browser – the Thank You page that came up after I submitted payment for the upgrade in the Microsoft Store. There was a line on the page that read, “This is your receipt – make sure to print or save a copy for your records. if you need to download Windows, write down your new product key and enter it here.” The word ‘here’ was a link and I clicked it. I was prompted to download another program, which was small and quick, and suddenly the Install Windows 8 screen appeared again.

Next was the License Terms to accept for Windows 8 Pro, then a screen that it was ready to install with the following checked:

• Install Windows 8 Pro
• Keep personal files only

There was an option to change the selection under ‘keep personal files only’, and I think that is where the main problem that occurred later began. I think I remember an option to keep personal files and programs, which I thought I had originally checked, but apparently I did not.

At that point, the install box went away and the entire screen was blue with big letters that said ‘Installing Windows 8 – your PC will restart several times. This might take a while.’

The Windows 8 Setup

16 minutes later, the computer was attempting to restart and close the open windows I had. I did a force close to shut the explorer windows that were still open, then there was a black screen with a lone window and text that read, “Scanning and reparing drive (X:): 1% complete.” That progress lasted another 10 minutes and ended with the Windows Boot Manager screen that prompted me to choose an operating system to start. My choices were Windows 8, Windows Setup, or Windows 7. I chose Windows 8, but after a few minutes of the screen changing to appear that something was loading, I ended up back on the Boot Manager screen. I tried two or three more times with the same result.

I decided to try choosing the Windows Setup option on the boot screen and was able to get out of the loop. By 2 a.m., just a few minutes later, I saw a screen that said, “Getting ready.”

The Getting Ready step took about 15 minutes and then a “Moving your settings” message appeared with another percentage count. By 2:20 a.m., I was in Windows setup at the Personalize screen, where I was prompted to choose the color I liked.

Next was the Wireless setup, and my home network appeared on the list and connected after I entered my password. I was then at a Settings screen where I could click a button to use Express Settings or customize settings pertaining to auto-installing important and recommended updates, turning on Do Not Track in Internet Explorer, etc.

The next set of settings concerned protecting and updating my PC. There were on/off options for Windows Update, SmartScreen Filter and Do Not Track requests. By now it was 2:26 a.m.

More settings to toggle on or off – improve Windows Store, respond to malicious apps and malware, improve Microsoft services, participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program, check online for solutions, share info with apps. Those screens were followed by the ‘Sign in to your PC’ screen with my name and prompt for Windows password, which was the same as my setting in Windows 7.

I encountered a glitch when I was prompted to enter my Microsoft account password, which included my email and password. I knew I already had a Microsoft account associated with my main email, but I could not remember what my password was for that account and it wasn’t taking the ones I was trying. I used the option to reset my password and a link was sent to my email account, which I was able to access from my Android phone. However, the link to reset the password led to an screen that said there was a temporary error. (NOTE: even 12 hours later, when trying to set up a new Microsoft account, the email confirmation link leads to a temporary error page.) I was provided with an option to continue without signing in with a Microsoft account and using my local account instead.

Windows 8 Metro – a New User Interface

A few minutes later, the new Windows 8 user interface screen appeared! I believe Windows is currently calling it ‘Metro’. It was 2:33 a.m.

I fiddled with the tile settings which were access via a right mouse click. I could easily uninstall a tile, turn off the live aspects of tiles, and move them around. There was an ‘All Apps’ button available by right mouse clicking on the metro screen. I found where I could install a new app through the Store tile, but it required a Microsoft account login, which I was still unsuccessful at accessing.

I was able to set my location for the Bing weather tile and discovered all of my options for national and world news, which could be pinned to the Start screen.

I discovered the quick way to get to toggle my old desktop and the new metro interface using either the Windows key on the keyboard or by dragging my mouse to the upper or lower right corners and choosing Start, which looked like a window. There is a desktop tile on the metro screen. But what I couldn’t find, no matter how hard I poked around, were my previous program files, such as Outlook, Word, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and all the other applications that I used on a daily basis.

I was able to determine that the programs were indeed on the hard drive, in a folder called windows.old, but none of the applications would run. I searched online forums, recent posts, and the Twitter feeds for any information that could help, but at the early hours I was working there was nothing I could find to tell me how to get the programs to transfer over. At 4 a.m., I gave up for the night.

By 8 a.m., I was back online searching for information on how to get my programs back. I found a few threads that stated an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro was not possible from a 32-bit version of Windows 7. This was obviously not true since I was actually running Windows 8 and it was not only working fine, it was functioning faster than my previous version.

From what I have discovered, I have two options to get my programs. I can uninstall my upgrade and revert Windows 7, then upgrade again and this time ensure that the setting is checked to keep personal settings AND programs (which I thought I had done). Because I am confident that I did indeed say I wanted to keep settings and programs, and from what I’ve read about program settings not being able to transfer over from the 32-bit version of Windows 7, I don’t think uninstalling and reinstalling will do any good.

My second option, which I will do, is to find the installation information for my previously installed programs and re-install. My fear of doing that is that much of the install information, including keys and registration codes, are stored in Microsoft Outlook as notes, and I am not able to access Outlook as it is no longer installed. <Sigh>.

As I type this, I am re-installing Microsoft Office. My attitude is that installing only the programs I want will help me in the long run since after two years, I have lots of junk that I only used once and never removed. I’ll post a follow-up to share the results.

SUMMARY

If you currently have Windows 7 32-bit, be sure you have all of your program discs and data available since you will not have access to any of your programs after upgrading to Windows 8 Pro.

As far as the metro interface, I like it so far. I consider myself extremely techno-savvy, and there was still quite a learning curve to discover how to get where I wanted to go. I don’t recommend you attempt the upgrade without setting aside a large block of time to install and learn the new system.

In my bathroom cabinet were three after-conditioner, leave-in hair products by three reputable brands.  Does the one that I think is the most natural have the most natural ingredients? See if you are better than I was at guessing which one was really the most natural!

Why the three-product comparison?

A recent client needed a new logo for his business. He had been using one design on his truck, another on his business cards, and nothing on his website. When I mentioned the costs involved with a good logo design, he was shocked. I explained that he could have a logo done cheaply, or he could have the right logo designed for his company, but it would cost more.

He went with the long-term solution – a nice logo that reflected his company, the creativity of his work, and even his two children that were the future of the company. The price he paid the designer (me) was reasonable, but below what most designers would charge for a logo design project.

For small business owners who are considering a new logo, or re-working of their existing logo, there is now another solution: 99 Designs.

99 Designs touts themselves as “the fastest growing design marketplace in the world”, and there’s a good reason for their quick growth. The company allows clients to post their desired goal with a logo design. Clients can include preferred colors, fonts, and degrees of “feel” for items such as feminine/masculine, young/mature, luxury/economical, or simple/complex. Clients also describe where the logo will be used and can attach any images, sketches or documents that would be helpful to a designer.

Once the client fills in the form, they can choose how much they are willing to pay for the design. Then the magic happens. Any number of designers can submit a design for the client who is then able to eliminate the ones they don’t like and leave the ones they do like. At the end of a set time period, perhaps hundreds of designers have submitted logo designs (although most requests end up with 20-50).

99 Designs works like a design contest, where the client can then choose the winning design and pay the designer the agreed-upon fee for the work. It seems like a great win for the client who instead of paying one designer for one design, they instead have a crew of designers submitting work that they can choose from.

In addition to logos, 99 Designs also allows contests for  business cards, websites or product packaging.  The logo contests that were underway on the site ranged in price from $295 to $500 dollars, a great price for a custom logo, and an even better deal considering the variety of designs the clients get to choose from.

Learn more about 99 Designs contests and see examples at www.99designs.com.

One of my website clients uses a third-party company to manage their extensive Pay Per Click (PPC) account. With a world-wide presence, knowing that the account is being watched and optimized for the best possible click-through rates is important. Although the monthly cost is high, the return on PPC investment hovers around 300%, meaning with every dollar the company spends on PPC ads, they get $3 back from what customers spend on their website. Not a bad return, and worth the monthly investment for the account management.

For smaller website owners who are looking for someone to help with their PPC campaigns but have little to no budget for paying an additional staff member or third party to manage the account, Trada might be a perfect solution.

According to David Ferguson, a Trada representative, Trada works by crowdsourcing experts to do the search marketing for you. Trada users determine what they are willing to pay per click for a result on their desired search terms, then a group of experts compete with each other to get the best click-through rates for the terms. One benefit of crowdsourcing experts for the campaigns is diverse strategies and constant optimization.

But the best part of the system for small business owners is that there is no cost to the user. The experts working on the account optimize the ads to get a lower cost than what has been bid for the keywords. If they are able to get a lower price per click, the ones working on the account keep the difference. Since the goal of the account manager is to get paid by best-optimizing the PPC account, businesses can be confident that their account is being looked after.

Trada allows business owners to stay within a set budget with no additional fees to a PPC account manager. Small businesses who are interested in fine-tuning their Pay Per Click campaigns should look at Trada as an option. See the Trada video below for more information, or visit www.Trada.com.

There are websites that look beautiful but function horribly – information is hard to find and navigation is almost non-existent.  And there are also sites that have clear and concise information, but the look is not something you’ll remember or invite friends to look at. Finding a good balance of  form and function will be the key to a site that you and your customers will love.     

I Want Everything!

I’m working with a client who has a small budget but would like the ability to add updated product photos and information to a new website for their retail shop.    

Their current ‘site’ consists of a main page with basic store information and a second page with a little Flash slideshow that showcases some of their featured products. The client is ready for a larger site, one that she can add content to on a regular basis and provide a place for her customers to browse some of the unique and handcrafted items that she carries.    

With a budget of under $1000, I suggested a content management system (CMS) like WordPress that is template-based, but could be mildly customized to suit her needs. Using a test site, I found a template that included a rotating slideshow on the main page and set up a basic site to present as a model for her to consider.   

“We like the idea of a more layered collage kind of look,” was her response. “Maybe blow up details of an image for the background…and use the hands as tabs for categories instead of straightforward  tabs and margins. We want it to look fun, but also clear and easy to navigate.”   

Having designed websites since 1996, her comments were not surprising to me. Often, business owners see a ten or twenty-thousand dollar site they like and want their own pages to be as elaborate. And even when price is not an issue, many well-intentioned people choose a pretty design over considerations that would benefit the people that will use the site most: their customers.   

Most often, the biggest challenge is convincing clients that having all the bells and whistles on their website isn’t neccessarily better.   

Web Design vs. Web Development

A good web designer will create a site that reflects the nature of your business in a way that is unique enough to stand out from the crowd of online storefronts.   

A good web developer will design a site that is user-friendly, adheres to web best-practices, and functions correctly.   

The most common mistake a business owner makes when choosing a site design themselves is not understanding who the site is being built for. Wanting something that appeals to themselves, rather than the needs of their customers who will be using the site, is not the route to go.   

I once collaborated on a web project where the client insisted that their new site should look exactly like their favorite car dealership site, with a main page Flash slideshow and exciting sounds and buttons. The problem was that their business dealt with document storage and recovery. Even after trying to explain that document storage probably wouldn’t be as graphically exciting in a web slideshow as new cars, the client wouldn’t budge. Not wanting to create something that we knew might please the client but wouldn’t serve the needs of their customers, we charged them a small consulting fee and politely referred them to another website company.  

Web sites that do not address the needs of the visitors who will be using them will not perform well. 

With the basic understanding that the usability of the site  is equally important as the look of the site, you will make better decisions about your online web presence.

What is Best – Form or Function?

Just as a functional doorknob can also be a work of art, your functional website, designed with your users in mind, can be a thing of beauty.

Since your website should be built for your customers and not you, a good site should contain a balance of pleasing design and practical functionality.   

As consumers, we have all been to sites that might look pretty at first glance, but quickly frustrate us when we can’t find what we need or things don’t work as they should.

A long load time waiting for that fancy slideshow to appear is a sure way to push customers away.    

If I physically walk in to a local store and am confused by what I see, I won’t stay long. If the store is pleasant to be in and was designed with my needs in mind, I will want to stay, and will want to return again.   

Your website is a virtual storefront and the same considerations you would make for your customers in a brick and mortar store should be taken with your online business presence.   

Don’t neglect design for function and vice-versa. Instead, use a balance of the two and your site visitors will be pleased.

Am I a fishing spot snob because I don’t disclose the details of where I fish when someone asks? I have definitive evidence that I am not.

I have learned from experience that there is a good reason to be evasive about good fishing holes. But let me start with a simple mathematical demonstration first.

Telling only one person about a fly-fishing spot can turn to many very quickly.

In 2001, I take a friend, “person B”, to a good spot to fish, one that was shown to me five years before and that I haven’t told anyone else about. Assuming that I was the ONLY person that was told by the person that told me, and assuming that the person who told me found the spot himself, that’s only three of us who know about this great hole.

In 2002, person B takes his best friends, persons C and D, to the spot, telling them to please keep it to themselves as it is special. There are now five of us that know about the hole.

For the next three years, three of us tell no one. But one of us takes a close friend there, and another takes his dad who lives in town. By 2009, the seven of us have each told one additional person. Fourteen of us know about the hole and are pleased to have such a pristine place to fish. In the next two years, only three of the fourteen takes a single buddy there.

When 2011 comes around, it has taken ten years for that one person sharing a fishing spot to have unwittingly let seventeen others in on the special hole. And that is a conservative number.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE #1: the WATERFALL

Now that the math is out of the way, and in case you are thinking that what I’m describing is an unrealistic scenario, let me share two personal stories with you.

Shortly before I married my second husband, we followed a creek upstream in search of a waterfall that a close friend had told me existed. I was given the general vicinity and went exploring with the man who was my boyfriend at the time.

We found the waterfall and it was spectacular. After finding the falls by sound, then realizing the cascading water had made a large, deep pool in the lush shade of the cliffs and trees above us, we climbed the short but slippery slope and were rewarded with not only a waterfall that was something you’d see in a photo of the tropics, but also with a crisp, clean and chillingly cold pool that took our breath away when we stripped down to underwear and each took a plunge.

After we had stopped shivering from the swim and had dried in the sun, we decided together that this would be our special spot – a secret waterfall in the forest. It was a good feeling to know that we found something that was our own.

My boyfriend, however, had not only a good feeling, he had the urge to share his excitement with his close friend. He told this friend exactly where the waterfall was and explained how to get there. I remember telling him that I was disappointed that he told this guy about this spot we have found only hours earlier and claimed as our own.

He shooshed me and said I was being selfish.

Just one week later, at a friend’s barbeque, I listened in dismay as a woman I barely knew told the large group about a cool hike she did that weekend with SEVEN OTHERS. They went on an adventure, she explained, to find the waterfall that our friend had told them about. I was crushed, and felt sick to my stomach. Although the man became my husband, we never went there again together, and it wasn’t until several years after the divorce that I got up the nerve to go explore the spot again. 

PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE #2: FLY-FISHING FOR CUTTHROAT

I have been pretty darn frugal about who I take to what fishing spots, and there was one place that in fifteen years I had only been to with one other boyfriend, and that was only because we were in the midst of a serious, five-year relationship and he had shown me several of his own secret spots.

A nice cutthroat caught on a royal humpy fly while fishing with "Woody".

When I started dating Woody (that’s a made-up name so as not to embarrass the real culprit), one of the things he loved was learning to fly fish. Not only was he a quick learner, he fished my style, meaning he could enjoy a slow day on a high mountain creek with no fish as much as catching big fish, left and right, all day long. He didn’t mind hiking to find good water, and he liked to fish in pairs, with one of us  fishing and the other watching, rather than hole-hopping where two people fish at the same time in separate holes and leapfrog each other upstream.

So if anyone was worthy of learning about my very special spot, it was him. This spot was unique because it was just 30 minutes from my front door, with less than half a mile on dirt roads. Although it was near a main road, very few people knew that this creek was fishable, and that there were good-size, wild cutthroat in every pool. From the car to stepping in the creek was just a ten minute hike. We went there many times in one summer, and he verified his understanding that this was a special spot and not to be shared.

Woody and I amicably went our separate ways the following winter and when our paths crossed after that, we sometimes talked about trips up to the creek and compared stories. It wasn’t until it was too late and fifty-thousand copies of a publication were distributed in the community that I realized what he had done.

In an interview about his business for a local summer visitor’s guide, this man who I had shared something special with, something that was almost as sacred as sex to me, had said in the publication that in his spare time he liked to go to this great location because it was excellent fly-fishing and close by. Although he didn’t specifically identify the spot, just by naming the vicinity allowed  anyone to look at a map and easily narrow down the options.

I was crushed, deflated, disillusioned, and definitely burned bad enough to know that I wouldn’t make that same mistake again.

HOW LONG IS LONG ENOUGH?

Is there a length of time, then, that a dating relationship should be established before one should share their sacred fishing holes? Since I haven’t gone back to the cutthroat spot in the years since it was printed in 50,000 magazines, I have only a few other secret locations left to share. I wonder what my criteria will be before I take a special someone to those spots. Will it be based on a gut feeling, or on how many new spots they have showed me first?

For now, if I meet someone who wants to go fishing, they will have to prove themselves not only worthy of knowing where the good spots are, but of knowing well the unspoken rule of being very prudent with who they choose to share the information with.

I’m not a snob by being vague about where I fish. I’ve just learned from experience that telling even one friend can grow to many in a very short time.

It still happens all the time – the “follow me back!” requests that tell you the person following you is after a reciprocal follow, rather than following you for the value of your tweets. But there are also those who are being leaders.

The CNN's and New York Times of the world have many followers, but follow only a few.

Pete Cashmore at Mashable, one of the 39 people/companies I follow, has 2, 286,282 Twitter followers. That’s over two MILLION people following his tweets that share cutting-edge technology, social media news and information. In return, he follows 2,238 others.

The company Best Buy, who I do not follow but who, “promises to give you the latest and greatest from Best Buy, including updates from employees, deals, event notices, and more,” follows only 529 tweeters and has 213,988 followers.

And the frequent but fleeting follows that I receive for a few days (or hours) and then disappear when I don’t immediately reciprocate include accounts with 10,000+ followers and sometimes only a single tweet. (See my 9/2010 post ”And I follow back – Does Size Matter with Twitter Followers?”)

10,000 followers with only a single tweet and not even a custom avatar? What is the value in that?

Keep your follow number small to keep up on information you want

Does following so many help, or get in the way?

I suppose for some it is the prestige of saying that they have 10,000 followers, or 5000, or whatever the number is that must make these tweeters feel like they have accomplished something by getting to that number through a strategy of  following someone and then asking for reciprocal links. But from my own experience with my Twitter stream, and from reading the recent developments about how the news of  Bin Laden’s death broke first on Twitter, I see a good reason why avoiding the instant reciprocal link strategy and  following only a small, hand-picked group of people on Twitter is very beneficial:  you can actually follow what is being tweeted, and share or act on the information you read.

At this moment, there are 34 tweets in my Twitter stream that go back two hours. I can’t imagine how many I would have in just one hour if I followed over a hundred people, or 500, or 1000. By being particular about who I choose to follow, I am able to be strategic in the information I want to receive via Twitter. Whether it is technology, social media, science or flyfishing, by following only those twitterers who deliver me interesting information that I can use, I can make good use of my time when I check the Twitter stream.

It’s kind of like surrounding yourself with few close friends and sharing interesting topics and learning experiences, rather than trying to be friends with anyone and everyone and hope you happen to get some good information transfer in there somewhere.

For me, following less than 50 twitterers works because I can check the stream and see what is important to me. Plus, I am better situated to re-tweet the information with those who are interested in following what I have to say and share. Someone who has 10,000 followers and is following over 10,000 others doesn’t impress me. But someone who has 10,000 followers and follows under 100 must be as choosy about their time and what they read as I am. Those with a very, very low ratio of following to followers are usually the influencers and the leaders in their field.

(Check out Twitaholic.com for interesting numbers on the Twitter users with the highest number of followers and how many they follow in return. Excluding celebrities, the companies at the top of the list that stand out for their low following/follower ratio are Twitter, CNN, the New York Times and Google.)

You do have a choice

To summarize, you can’t choose who follows you, but you CAN choose who you follow, and how many. By being choosy, you can have a better grasp on the information you see when you check your Twitter stream. Maybe now is the time to go through your follow list and see who can be weeded out.

Do you follow over 500 people on Twitter and find good use for a Twitter stream that large? I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions on how you do it and how much time you spend on Twitter.