Lazy Weekend Contest: Mahalo Vacation Page Building Challenge
Build a vacation page for any city/town/country, it's super easy, I just built these two specifically to get you all a couple good examples, Peterborough Vacation and Qualicum Beach Vacation were built in under and hour.
For a chance at winning the M$20 prize. You have until midnight on Sunday to build a top quality vacation page.
Prizes
1st Place - M$20 -@smartweb for Big Bear Lake Vacation
Runnerup - M$5 -@shinju for Moab Vacation
Runnerup -M$5 -@acastlegirl for Niagara Falls Canada Vacation
+ Each builder gets to claim their page and reap the yearlong benefits from managing the page.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$13 Answers
Big Bear Deals has already been done, but as has been stated on the mahalo tutorials videos, it is different and can pull different traffic into mahalo
jeff, please tell me if this will not qualify. i plan on making the page either way.
Big Bear Vacation link will work when i've got it going...
mahalo contests... fun fun fun!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$It's a great start, but I think you have some work to do on your guide note sentence.
Panama City Beach Vacation
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$page 2
Gulf Shore Vacation
There are questions waiting for answers so that they can appear on the page :)
Ha, lots of submissions from Ol' Vic here, this contest is judged on quality as oppose to the usual quantity, I'll enter your first Panama City Beach Vacation
I am proud of them all :) I didn't sleep much this weekend and it gave me some nice projects. I enjoyed researching all of my favorite places.
I am not able to make more because I am maxed out on my page management limit :(
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$I was able to change it for you. You should be all set now.
Fascinating because I had never heard of the place :D and I like learning, the image section and others could use some tender curating.
Another Page I have created now, about Kodaikanal vacation , it's also a vacation place and a hill station to spend time..
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Great job!
I moved the links section up closer to the top, to curate them simply click through and make sure they are all legit/good websites, promote the best ones to the top by clicking the up arrow, and remove the unwanted ones by clicking the "x"
Congrats, You're page was a Runner-Up, I sent you a Tip
I started by thinking about cities that I knew something about, checking to see which got the most search traffic. Not surprisingly it was Boston, rather than the smaller destinations in New Hampshire and Maine. The search term "Boston Vacations" had almost twice as many hits as Boston Vacation - so I deviated from the contest form and titled my page Boston Vacations. (That may render me ineligible for the contest, but I figured I'm in this for the long haul.)
There was actually an incomplete unclaimed Boston Vacation page, so I claimed it and went to work. (That is the second reason I may be ineligible-- I didn't start from scratch).
I wrote a guide note, as the original page only had one sentence, and eliminated all the Massachusetts generic facts from the page, as this was to be a Boston Vacations page, not a Massachusetts or New England page.
I added a section about airlines, linking to the Logan airport flight info external links, and providing a list of all the airlines flying into and out of Logan, with Terminals and phone numbers. ( These should probably all be inlinked-- but I haven't gotten around to that yet.)
I started the page with a featured video of travel photos, then left the Top 7 as is, as these are the traditional Mahalo best travel resources we always used-- and I still think they are great.
I added Maps and Weather, and then added several customized Google Search sections--one each for Vacation packages, Hotels, Restaurants, and Tours. I went through each section, and pinned the links I knew were good and reliable to the top of each section.
I finally went through the Answers section, and as most of the questions were unrelated, went through and asked 3 Boston Vacation specific questions from the page. They're not showing yet, but hopefully they will update soon.
That's it-- my first stab at a 2.0 vacation page.
Happy Traveling!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Mahalo,
Shin
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Jeff, thanks for the tip!
As for the question of whether or not a page is too long, from the reader's perspective, a page is always too short if it doesn't answer his questions.
Considering that Moab is deemed an "adventure-travel mecca," I think that it's fitting that the page reflect this designation in the many and varied activities and destinations. I want the reader to to say, "This is amazing! I had no idea that there was so much to see and do in Moab!"
In general, Mahalo strives to create comprehensive pages. This isn't practical or possible without the length.
Mahalo,
Shin
Really Excellent page, I like how you linked in the sidebar to all the sections, I wonder if it's almost too long? However I don't believe there is such a thing as long as everything is properly curated, which it looks like you've done.
All right, some videos. But that's it.
Great job, you were a runner-up, I sent you a tip
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Yeah looks good, I'll add some more info later today, thanks for the help, I'm just getting in to putting pages together.
you might start with How To Find Cheap Hotels in New York. there are a lot of great related pages on that page that could net you some info... this page would also make a great related page for you.
also googling your topic site:mahalo.com can help find other pages on mahalo for relateds.
Thanks, looks real good, most vacationers probably want NYC info anyway, I've redirected the term "new york state vacation" to here along with some other similar terms. I also moved around your link section, because you had a top 7 I felt confident putting the google search down a few levels and raising the images higher, I think it makes the page easier to scroll through, what do you think?
Ok, crap didn't think of searching for new york city. I'll add state oriented stuff.
edit: i just rewrote the guide note but for some reason it didnt update.
Really good work Skyvan, what I would recommend is because we already have an NYC vacation page, to tailor it a bit more for the State as well as the city.
http://www.mahalo.com/new-york-city-vacation
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Should work now, I cleared a couple slots for you.
Thanks! It still shows me as managing 3 even though I manage 2, but this works too.
Great job, I moved your links section to the top, it was a bit buried to the reader, I added some redirects for you too.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$What is the decision-point for 1st, 2nd or 2rd? Quality of one page, or quantity?
Nice challenge, and something to keep me busy this weekend :)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$How can I go back and edit my page? I saved the information I found and the page is not showing any edit option there.
There is a Paris Vacation page already ( I built it way back in my days of working the travel vertical ).
Remember to do a site search to make sure there isn't a vacation page made already.
good luck!
Strange, I searched for it, and nothing showed up. Guess I mis-spelled it..









got the page going... will try to do more tomorrow... this is really fun! i hope we do more like this!
I like it, great work on the Featured videos, I did take the liberty in replacing the news section with the links, I bet a reader searching that term may be more interested in finding helpful links for their vacation over news.
thanks jeff. you are right. i had it up there, and in all the problems i was having moving i ended up putting the news up there. thanks for moving it for me.
This is a good page, but I would recommend alphabetizing the hyperlinks in the list of attractions, especially if you can think of more to add.
my entry is finished for now... i'll add to it later, but there is a barnraising that is starting and it is for coupons...
i love those coupon barnraisings... so i'm headed over there now, but i'll keep checking back here to see how all of you have done. i like what a lot of you have done with your pages. i've been checking them all out.
let me just say... GREAT JOB!! a lot of you will be earning from your pages in the near future, i am sure!
wow!
i SO appreciate the time and effort you put in to your feedback on my page. i '''always''' appreciate it when someone takes the time to share their knowledge.
i do understand why you alphabetize now. i still wouldn't for that particular section on this page for two reasons... one, it is using their information, which i stated and referenced within the section. if the visitor did go to that chamber website page then they would find information expounding on what i had in the same order which would give them further help navigating, and i see that as a plus. we may have to agree to disagree on that point.
second, as you said, in a long list it might be more necessary. that particular list is not getting any longer, as i am just referencing what the chamber had as the local attractions. i added a separate section below for additional attractions.
now, as for that section...
first. i haven't alphabetized that section as of yet because i'm grouping them by category... trying to keep all the water activities together for instance... and the section is not done yet... i have a lot more to add and i will be moving some of them. i'm pretty sure in this case i'll group by category and may or may not alphabetize within the category. probably will depend how long the list gets... but i might do it by popularity. for instance, withing water based activities, i have fishing first, because it is the most popular and more people will probably be looking for it.
i did look at your page and i am amazed at the amount of work you have put into it. i can tell you are thinking long-term and i think it will really pay off for you. i agree wholeheartedly that on a page like that, alphabetization is a '''must'''. without it the page would be very unorganized and the visitor would get lost in the sheer amount of information you have included.
i love that you are alphabetizing both the main category headings, and the brands within each category... i think it really adds to the helpfulness of the page and i think as it grows the page will become very popular... probably will be picked up and linked to by a number of websites across the internet. you are doing a fabulous job there!
as for inlinking... that is done as i go. mahalo staff have expressed a desire to have as much inlinked as is possible (and makes sense) inlinked in the left column as we can. that being said however, i do think it is a great idea to inlink to sections on the same page.
i didn't for two reasons. the first... honestly, i didn't think of it! =D and i thank you for that suggestion. i will probably do that extensively now. second is that the left section was done before i decided to put the extended sections on the right and i already had the other inlinks in there.
i have a lot more planned for this page... but i was having the pinning won't move, sections jump problem yesterday. i think jeff and i narrowed it down to at least most of the jumping problems being related to the fact that my belt level isn't high enough yet to be able to pin the ad sections. so i'm leaving them alone and putting everything above them until the page is mostly finished, then i'll move things below them.
i really appreciate you including in your comment not only a link to a question dealing with inlinking to sections on your own page, but instructions on how to do it. i '''had''' been wondering because i wanted to do it on a different page and also to link to a specific section on a different mahalo page, but had been too busy to go look up the information.
i will say that it is important that some of the links go to other mahalo pages, though, not only to help the other mahalo page managers, but because of how search engines view websites, especially google. if we link to other related pages where appropriate, google sees our page as part of a broader topic related theme... and over the last couple of years it has been shown they give some weight to that. how much is never certain, and it does change frequently, so you have to include a little of everything to hopefully get ranked a little higher than the competition.
now, about shortening the headings. i was aware i could do that. i am not for specific SEO reasons. i'm testing the effect of a couple of different things as far as keywords' frequency on search engine traffic and on the ads that show up for my page.
i try generally to choose topics that would have a high ad cost, to increase the possibility of a high payout for clicks... and i try to balance that with which topics get more searches each month.
i am using specific search terms to make sure the links that get pulled in are relevant, and trying to weed out those that sneak in that shouldn't be there... but yesterday the page kept resetting on me and i would lose changes, so there might be some in there at any given time. i'll get them eventually =)
and i think i'm done with everything i wanted to say. this has been great! i think this is officially the longest comment i've ever made... wonder how long that will last. =D
thank you again for all your input. and feel free to message me with more comments if you like.
interesting. what purpose does the alphabetizing serve? as it stands, this is the order which the Big Bear Chamber of Commerce uses, which is the reference i am citing for this list.
i'm always open to suggestions, though, and wonder why you think alphabetizing is better... please expound on that for me.
thanks in advance.
I make this observation as a potential user. Alphabetizing makes it more logical and user friendly. After all, the user is who you're building it for. It the user were only scrolling through without using the index, the lack of logic would make it harder for the person to find something easily. When it feels too much like work, people lose interest and go elsewhere. As for your rationale that the Chamber of Commerce uses this order, I say that they're business people but not effective writers. I wouldn't spend much time reading their brochure/website, either. Another reason for alphabetizing is to make sure that you don't unnecessarily repeat sections. For example, you've created the "Boating" section twice. Also, as a user, I'm wondering why the boating images aren't with the boating section.
As an example, check out my Brand Rebates page to see what I mean. I'm in the process of building it from the top down, so the higher sections are in alphabetical order within the first hyperlinked category, also in alphabetical order. Considering that I expect to add hundreds of brands, how long do you think I could hold your interest if nothing were alphabetical? The hyperlinks help, but I want the user to be able to scroll through and still know exactly where to find what s/he's looking for. I also want that user to feel that I've got the best page on the subject and to come back to mine rather than go to another more-organized page.
BTW, your links go to other Mahalo pages, rather than to the pertinent page sections. For an understanding about how to hyperlink within a page, you may want to review
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-suggestions/under-the-add-a-section-to-guide-note-i-would-like-to-see-an-index-that-uses-hyperlinks-within-the-page-1
Your hyperlink should look like this:
double square bracketsBig_Bear_VacationpoundsignBig_Bear_Vacation:_Fishing | Fishingdouble square brackets. The first "Fishing" refers to the actual name of the section, and the second "Fishing" refers to the way you want your hyperlink to read.
You can also shorten the section title to simply read "Fishing." Under the search term, you can bring in results with "Fishing in Big Bear Lake, CA." There's at least another Big Bear Lake in WV, so you'll want to be sure that you're pulling in the right results.
Best wishes.
Respectfully,
Shin