got the page going... will try to do more tomorrow... this is really fun! i hope we do more like this!

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.

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.

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!

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.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33749589@N07/3806299225/

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.

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

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.