Setting up 301 redirects in Apache can be really challenging. However, if you have an outdoor adventure or guided trips site that you want people to know about, understanding how it works is invaluable.
Early in our development, we decided to use www.uncleross.com/categories to categorize our activities. While this made sense to an engineer, we later decided to switch this to something that would make more sense to users www.uncleross.com/activities.
The change was relatively painless but it confused Google and our inbound links started to return page not found (404) errors. A lot of searching yielded a lot of cryptic pages written by really smart Apache engineers. The examples were either trivial or extremely complex. Today I stumbled upon a great blog post on setting up Apache redirects. I encourage you to check it out.
As an example, here’s the RewriteRule that allows us to redirect “categories” to “activities”
Heli skiing is the ultimate outdoor adventure for skiing enthusiasts around the world. These guided tours can be the experience of a lifetime so most people like to do a lot of research and planning prior to committing to a trip.
While there are many places around the world to heli ski, the Rockies Mountains are close to home and hard to beat. Quantas published a great article that describes various places you can go heli skiing around the world, as well as names of specific providers and best timing to go.
While the best timing to go heli skiing in Colorado, Utah and the Canadian Rockies is December through April, those looking to head to Alaska will want to book a little later in the winter (Feb – May) as the weather is too cold in December and January.
For the true die-hards, you can plan a trip for February in Canada and August in New Zeland so there is never a chance to get out of skiing shape!
More to come on places to go for the best heli skiing adventures!
Leavenworth is an awesome winter destination in Eastern Washington. A little Bavarian village, there is much to do from Oktoberfest which runs from early to mid-October as well as lots of outdoor activities in the snow starting in December.
There are guided trips and day tours on snowmobiles offered by outfits like Mountain Springs Lodge as well as back country hiking and winter sleigh rides.
If you haven’t been before, make it a “must do” on your list for this winter!
One of the things that pisses me off are graphic designers that claim they are brand experts. A local Seattle design/brand house claims.
A brand is a collection of images and ideas that represent a product or service, and the personality of people who provide them.
No, no, and …. no.
Brand consultants either abuse the intangible nature of brand or are too lazy to do the work. Without getting too academic, there is a ton of empirical research the brand professional can leverage. Two giants in the field are David Aaker and Jean-Noel Kapferer. Aaker is known for his brand personality work and is better received stateside. Kapferer takes a more nuanced approach to defining brand, which I prefer. That’s as much academia as I’m going to force on you. If you have time check them out.
However, if you don’t have time – perhaps you’re running your guided trips or outdoor adventures business – how can their work increase your sales? Over the next few posts, I’ll show you.
Disclaimer: I prefer Kapferer and Majken Schultz’s approaches so I’ll steal from their ideas but Aaker’s work is equally valid.
We know its getting late in the season for water-based trips so look for more info on winter sports providers and vacation tours in the snow over the next few weeks!
Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. (a.k.a. RMI Expeditions) is one of the best guided tour companies around for outdoor enthusiasts looking for high mountain challenges.
Offering climbs on Mt. Rainier, Mt. McKinley and a number of international locations (including Aconcagua) RMI has guided tours available for climbers of all skill levels.
The popular Rainier trips can book up and reservations for spring of 2010 climbs begin at the end of Sept. If you’ve been thinking about tackling a 14,410’ challenge, you can start the process by taking training classes in Sept in preparation for a climb in May or June. That gives you plenty of time get out with a backpack on and climb some hills for conditioning prior!
If you’ve gone hiking or mountain climbing before, you know that one of the most important pieces of gear is your boots. They can make or break outdoor adventures — if you’ve got the right pair, you might not even notice you’re wearing them. If you’ve got the wrong ones… it’s a very different story.
It is going to be a beautiful weekend in Eastern Washington — not too hot with Yakima predicting high 80s/low 90s.
Lots of folks will be out on the river, enjoying a float of trying to catch some fish. The Evening Hatch has great info and guided tours on the Yakima River so give them a ring if you’re thinking about heading out.
It is getting to be the time of year that we Northwesterners love — as the natives know, the weather at the end of August and most of September is hard to beat!
There are a million ways to enjoy the warm weather, blue skies and beautiful sun sets. Heading to the San Juan Islands is popular all summer long, but the next 45 days are the best time of year to plan a trip.
Whether you choose Orcas, Lopez or San Juan Island, you should plan to head out on some fun adventures.
Kayaking out of Friday Harbor with Discovery Sea Kayaks allows you to experience the water and wildlife in an exciting and unique way.
If you prefer to stay on land, biking San Juan Island with Island Cycles is a great option. There are tons of places to explore, so take a look around for maps, trails or expert opinions about biking on San Juan Island
In the Seattle technology startup community, if you’re not trying to build the next Google or Facebook, people tend to consider your efforts a lifestyle business. As in, “Oh that’s nice, you’ve got a fun little hobby. When you’re done fooling around you should be able to get a job at a real company.” Of course, a real company is one that’s got lots of funding behind it with a really high valuation. It’s a real business only if spend all your time pursuing VC’s. Paying customers? That’s a lifestyle business.
Garbage. Venture capital (VC) makes sense in certain cases but VC by no means serves as a validation of your business model. Customers validate your business model.
This is why I love working with local heli skiing and bike touring companies. They know that business model validation does not come from paper valuations, it comes from paying customers.
Subscribe
