Happy Spring and a profitable visitor season to all!

The tulip and iris plants have been growing inches a day and the snow is mostly gone from the shelter belts. We’re working outside in long sleeves instead of the three layers of winter! Blessed Spring!!!

We had a super board retreat and meeting at Buffalo Rock Lodge just before Easter. Officers were elected and board positions filled. Thank you to all of you who agreed to support the Association with your time as well as your dues.

The main focus of our association is to market our members in the Bed and Breakfast Industry. We do this by promoting our members on our brochure, through our www.southdakotabb.com web site, through www.bbonline.com/sd/bbisd, and through cooperative advertising with the South Dakota Department of Tourism. The Marketing Committee and the Board have been putting together a marketing plan to promote the INN-Route in South Dakota. You’ve heard about it at our January Conference and have noticed the logo on our 2007 BBISD brochure. But there’s still more. Sara Steever at Steever House is collecting information from our membership on the “Best Kept Secrets” in our areas. It’s each B&B’s responsibility to get that information to Sara. So, when you’re asked for it, assemble it and send it in ASAP! It’s a great marketing opportunity.

Another agenda item at the Retreat was a look at the By-Laws and the need for clarification of the duties of the Board members. A committee has been assembled to address the issue. We’re hoping to have everything put together and the By-Laws along with the suggested revisions to our entire membership before our Annual Meeting in January. At that meeting, we’ll vote on the changes recommended.

Our guests have been enjoying recipes from the new cookbook. We sure like the variety that it’s added to our menus. Hope you’ve had an opportunity to try them, too.

We had guests last week who had difficulty finding our home. We had e-mailed them their confirmation as well as a map. It turned out that they were able to print only 1/2 of the map. We were so glad they told us. It made us aware that written directions as well as a map are necessary when directing guests to our home. BBISD needs your direction as well. We value your ideas and opinions so contact us with your suggestions.

The BBISD Board will be holding its Fall meeting as a Conference Call. Watch your e-mail for the time and date.

BBISD has put advertising in place for the coming Tourism Season. Our best wishes to you on a successful year.

Here is a photo of 25 "Red Hatters" that toured my place in March. We all know how important great word of mouth is to the success of our inns!

Ila and Lelia at the Women in Blue Jeans Conference in Mitchell

Have you tested your search engine ranking lately? Put yourself in the shoes of your visitors and try to find your own B&B. If visitors do not know the name of your Inn, what terms might they use to locate you online? After you search, count how many results are ahead of your listing – if you are not in the top ten, you may need to consider buying pay-per-click keyword ads – at least temporarily. It is easier than you think – google has figured out that they need to make it easy if they want our money! Go to Google.com and click on the link that says Advertising Programs. On the next page, click on the Learn More button under Google AdWords on the left side. There you will find everything you need to know to get started.

If AdWords are not in your budget, then here are some things to do to your Web site to get better “natural” search engine rankings. Some of these will require help from the person that built your Web site.

Have some pages with at least 250 words on them that talk about your B&B and about things to do in your area. Make sure to use terms in your text that people use to search and find you.

Have your Webmaster use H1 and H2 tags for your headlines.
Write a descriptive title tag for each page. (Don’t just say Welcome or repeat your name).

Get other sites to link to you – in our industry that means sites like bedandbreakfast.com and bbonline.com. You may need to upgrade your listing to include the link to your site, but it is worth it. Consider joining madeinsouthdakota.com for that reason, too. You may never sell a gift certificate there, but they link back you your own site is very valuable.

Also, one free place that will link to you is dmoz.org. On that site, browse to a category that fits you and then click on the suggest a site link. Dmoz.org supplies many search engines with data for results - it is very important that you are in there.

Good search engine ranking is hard work, but is worth its weight in gold!

My report from S E Region is that Karen from Mitchell Chamber called, said that Dakota Fest (Aug 21, 22, 23) is adding a new area of interest to sports people, hunting, guns etc. Wondering if I wanted an ad - 1/6 page is $475........ told her I could not do it alone, but perhaps others in our region would go in on it. We have 2 commitments, so far, plus myself. Clark's Prarie Gold , Lincoln House & Der Rumbolz Platz. Any southeast members that are interested should contact me.

Sincerely,
Ila Rumbolz

Greetings to long-time innkeeper friends and new friends alike. Triangle Ranch Bed & Breakfast is proud to serve as your regional director. We've been members of BBISD since we opened our inn in 1996, have served in several positions on the board and have always received more than we gave. The friendships, support and sharing is what keeps us loving the business we are in.

Since Triangle Ranch is on the Badlands end of our large travel region, we would ask that you be our eyes and ears in your area. Please give us a call or email if you hear of any new B & B's or aspiring ones. We want to help them get started and retain them as members. Please take the time to mentor these new inns. Remember when you first started. How another friendly inn can make all the difference.

Triangle Ranch also represents BBISD on the board of Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Association. So please feel free to contact us with marketing concerns or any other requests.

Lastly, a huge thank you to our "girl Friday", Eileen Rossow of Peregrine Pointe, who has agreed to publish and update our vacancies list throughout the season so that our members can intelligently refer guests to other member inns.

Spring is in the air and high hopes for a great season. Let's all wow our visitors with that famous South Dakota hospitality.

Lyndy & Kenny Ireland
Triangle Ranch Bed & Breakfast, BHB&L

The new ’07 BBISD directories are being distributed. The Interstate information centers will have them available for visitors. (Information center staff have reported that many visitors would rather pick up one brochure with all B&B’s listed than have to “sort through” the racks full of brochures.)

We have participated in SD Tourism’s Partners “Giant Step” program. Our ad will be included with SD Tourism’s magazine inserts. Magazines: Ladies Home Journal, Better Homes & Gardens, Travel 50 Midwest Living, Budget Travel, Ducks Unlimited, Field & Stream, Pheasants Forever, and Cabela’s Outfitter Journal are a few of the publications that feature this insert. Last year the Tourism people reported that the Giant Step program showed an increase of 34% in inquiries to the State.

Along with this magazine ad, we also are featured on www.travelsd.com as “partners”. Be sure to watch for the magazine inserts and check out tourism’s website. We also have a live link to our own BBISD website.

Sara, of Steever House, has been very busy helping us with our website, www.southdakotabb.com. We need everyone to send, email, “local best kept secrets” to Sara, so that you may be included on the Travel the INN Route interactive map.

Visitors are looking for local interest and hospitality. Develop some “specials” featuring a tour of that ethanol plant or the wind generators. Maybe the Hutterite colony or local rancher/farmer will allow visitors to view “everyday things” we take for granted.

Maybe you already do some of the above! Let us put it on the www.southdakotabb.com web page for free! Email your ideas to Sara (info@steeverhouse.com).

The Barn Bed and Breakfast
Judy Parker, Marketing