Posting Items on the VRN "InTheNews" Feed

1. Succinct Titles. Write a title that is brief and on-the-nose so that the visitor can scan down the listing and easily recognize an item of interest. Long title are likely to be skipped over. Model your title after newpaper headlines for best results.

2. Identify Location. Keep in mind that your posting is presented in the same feed with postings from other vacation providers in other locations. So be sure to identify your location in your title. Even when the visitor selects the location in the drop-down box above the listing, there may still be postings from others in that same location (e.g., multiple locations in "Colorado").

3. Timely Newsworthy Information. Post items when there's newsworthy information regarding your location or even a specific vacation rental you offer. For example, the opening of ski or opera season can be an important planning consideration for the vacationer. And if you offer a home that provides walk-out access to the ski slopes, or overlooks a hot air balloon festival, then it's appropriate to post an item about that specific home.

4. Special Deals. Also post items to announce special pricing deals, or to announce a new home in your offerings. Vacationers who have flexibility in their travel plans might opt to arrange a vacation to take advantage of such a special.

5.Visual Attention Grabber. Why not iclude a link to an image pertinent to your announcement to catch the eye of the site visitor. VRN does not provide a service for putting your photo online as there are many excellent services that do. Upload your photo to your preferred service, then get the URL for the photo and use it for the Item Link when you post your item.

6. Maintain Your Spot. If your announcment is no longer valid, be sure to replace it with a new announcement or edit the current on to clearly indicate the special has expired. It's always a good idea to indicate an expiration date for your announcement so the visitor knows (s)he must act within a timeframe to enjoy that special.

7. Posting Position. Remember that when you Re-post Item as New, your posting will go to the top of the InTheNews feed. If you Edit Item, your posting will remain in place in the feed.

Setting Up and Using Your Log Feed

1. Leverage Your Membership with a Log Feed. A Log Feed magnifies the value of your VRN membership. Without a Log Feed, you are limited to one announcement online at a time. (Additional spots on InTheNews can be rented to add more postings.) On the other hand, with a Log Feed, your postings to InTheNews will accumulate on your Log Feed such that a site visitor will have access to all of your postings (up to a limit determined by membership level). Only your postings appear on your Log Feed.

2. Set up Your Log Feed at Enfeedia. To set up a Log Feed, you create an account at Enfeedia.com (the underlying engine that drives the feeds used on VRN). You will need a membership level of "Publisher" or higher to set up a Log Feed in your account. Once set up, you specify an "Editor" password for any feed in your account so that it can be used as a Log Feed. The Editor password permits postings to be made to your feed but does not provide for any other access to your account.

3. Posting to Your Log Feed. Every time you post on InTheNews, you have the option of directing that the item also be added to your Log Feed. You provide that direction by entering your Account Name, the Feed Name for the Log Feed, and the "Editor" password for your account (see item 2 above) as a final step in posting to the InTheNews feed.

Promoting Your Specials with Your Log Feed

There are numerous ways in which you can communicate your Log Feed to others. Consider these possibilities:

1. Email Signature. Incude a link to you Log Feed in your email signature and use it in all your correspondence. Viewers will realize your Log Feed is a real time posting of vacation opportunities and may act on new information, and/or subscribe to your feed to learn about specials in real time.

You can get the link code by going to Enfeedia and clicking the "Stylize & Promote Feeds" link. You will be asked for your account name, then asked to select the name of the feed in hyour account to be promoted. When you arrive at the "Select option to perform" page, click the Get Code Snippets for All of the Above" button.

2. Active Feed Icons. Include an icon on your website that links to your Log Feed. There are two possibilities: (a) Insert a standardized RSS, and (b) insert an Enfeedia "NewPage" icon. The former is used in standard RSS readers, including browsers. The latter is used to cause Enfeedia to display your news feed, and importantly, include a number of tools beneficial to the person reading the feed. In either case, clicking the icon causes the feed to be presented. How do you get the code for these icons? Just follow the same steps as present in 1 (Email Signature) above.

3. OnSite Feed Display. The most powerful promotional technique is to display some of the most recent items of your feed directly on your website (like our home page presents the "InTheNews" feed). You control meany features ofthe display: how many items, the length of items, the format including font sizes and colors. You will find that your feed appearance can seamlesly integrate into your webpage design.

Not only can your site visitor read your announcements directly on your web page, but search engines value the "fresh content" offered by your postings, giving your website a better position on search results pages.

To get the code for displaying your Log Feed on your site, go to Enfeedia, click the "Stylize & Promote Feeds" link. When you arrive at the "Select option to perform" page, read the information in the NewsOnSite section towads the bottom of that page, including the about PHP support link, to determine which of two cases applies to you, then click one of the two buttons at the bottom of that page.