After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we’ve accommodated
ourselves to the new “Timeline” look on HomeTravelAgency’s
Facebook page. Check it out:
https://www.facebook.com/hometravelagency
While you’re there, take a moment to click the “Like” button (it’s
at the top, toward the right, just under our spiffy new “cover
photo.”
You can join our Twitter feed, too, at
http://www.twitter.com/hometravelagent
I recently sent an email to everyone who has invested in the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course alerting them to important updates in Module 7.
However, I noticed that some people didn’t receive the email. People move, email addresses change. Perhaps some students changed from generic email addresses (AOL, Yahoo, e.tc.) to ones based on their own domain names, as I suggest.
So if you are one of those people and are reading this, read on.
A few weeks ago, I notified those of you who have invested in the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course, that the latest update has been posted to the password-protected section of HomeTravelAgency.com.
I am repeating the news here because a good number of the emails we sent out “bounced.” That is, the email address we had on file was either bod or had changed.
The new version contains a complete overhaul and update of the Host Agency Directory, which contains information on over 300 hosts, all cross referenced by location, cost, commission rates, and other factors. There have also been important changes in the area of those “unique industry identifiers” that allow you to take the step of transitioning from travel agent to travel agency.
One of the neatest things about regular home-based travel agent conventions like the Home-Based Travel Agent Forum being held in Boston from October 17 to 19 is the chance to visit cruise ships that perhaps you’ve never had the opportunity to sail on.
This time around RCL’s Explorer of the Seas and MSC’s Poesia will be in Boston harbor and open to travel agents registered at the Forum on October 20th.
This represents an exceptional opportunity since both ships will be in the middle of “leaf peeping” cruises and cruise lines do not usually accommodate ship inspections for agents in the middle of a cruise. On top of that, they’re throwing in lunch!
Space is limited and open only to agents who are registered at the Forum. So if you haven’t done so already, sign up now.
Full registration info is here:
The booth reservation for my publishing company, The Intrepid Traveler, at the trade show is now official. Trade show hours are Tuesday from 4 to 6:30 and Wednesday from 10 to 12:30. Even if you are not registered for the Forum, you can get in to the trade show for free.
Hope to see you in Boston!
As you may remember, I recently made available in convenient Kindle
format a selection of articles from past issues of the “Home-Based Travel Agent Newsletter.”
Now Volume 2 has joined Volume 1.
The information in these articles is, I would like to think, both helpful and timeless. Some of the topics covered are mentioned in the Home- Based Travel Agent Success Course, but many other extend the course material or touch on related topics.
Here are links to both volumes on Amazon.com:
Volume One: http://amzn.to/oyf6o2
Volume Two: http://amzn.to/pb4xq4
You will find a complete listing of the Table of Contents of each volume on those pages.
Remember that you do not need a Kindle to read these ebooks. There is a free Kindle app that will let you read Kindle books on multiple platforms. Also, if you prefer the Nook, I hope to have both volumes available in that format (and perhaps others) shortly. I’ll keep you posted.
By the way, if you are not already subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so simply by entering your email address in the box to the right of this article.
I’m heading to Boston in October to participate in the Home-Based Travel Agent Forum, sponsored by OSSN and managed by the Travel Show Marketing Group. If you’ve never been to one of these events, why not make this one your first? Not only would I love to have the chance to meet you, but you’ll get a whole lot more out of the experience than just my hearty handshake.
Those of you who have my course know how pumped I am about the many continuing education and networking opportunities that are available to home-based travel agents. Many of them are small-scale and local, usually sponsored by a supplier. Then there are the regular meetings, sometimes monthly, sometimes farther apart, that are organized by local OSSN chapters around the country (there are more than 80).
But the Home-Based Travel Agent Forum is the granddaddy of them all. You will seldom have the opportunity to rub shoulders with so many heavy hitters, starting with OSSN stalwarts like OSSN founder and president Gary Fee and Anita Pagliasso, who has made it her mission to help home-based travel agents achieve the level of success that she has enjoyed.
There have been over 200 issues of the “Home-Based Travel Agent Newsletter” since I started it I can’t remember how long ago.
That adds up to a lot of articles. I never archived the newsletter online because much of the content was time-specific and I didn’t want to confuse people who might stumble on out of date information thanks to a Google search.
But I realized that a lot of the articles didn’t have an “expiration date” and many only needed minor edits to make them timely once again.
So I decided to gather together to best of the material in the newsletter and make it available in a convenient ebook format via Amazon’s Kindle store. Here’s the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Based-Travel-Agent-Newsletter-ebook/dp/B005C5T9O6/
If you don’t have a Kindle, that’s no longer the insurmountable problem it was a few years ago. You can get a free Kindle app that will let you read Kindle books on your computer, iPad, or smartphone.
I hope you find the material useful and, if you do, I hope you’ll leave a review on Amazon. Thanks.
HomeTravelAgency.com and The Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course now have a “fan page” on Facebook.
It’s another way to stay in touch and join the conversation. To join in, just point your browser to . . .
http://www.facebook.com/hometravelagency
. . . and click the Like button. See you there!
I used to send out a bi-weekly newsletter to anyone who requested it. It was fun to write (well, sometimes) and it was quite popular. I gave it up for a number of reasons.
One was the constant pressure of time. So much to do, so little time to do it in. Another reason was cost. Yes, I know email is “free” but when you have a very large list (mine had grown to over 20,000) the cost of managing it adds up to hundreds of dollars a month.
But when I suspended the newsletter I got a lot of emails asking “Where’s the newsletter? Did you lose my email address?” I still get some from time to time as people discover old issues in their email archives.
So I have decided to bring it back.
(more…)
The latest electronic version of the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course is now available for download.
If you have purchased the course, simply log in with your user name and password to access the new course materials.
Remember that as a student you have lifetime access to all future updates of the course materials, assuring that you will grow right along with the industry itself. If you are not currently a student, you can purchase the course here.
If you have recently purchased the course, you will want to pay especially close attention to the revisions in Module 6, Host Agency Directory, and Module 7, IATA Numbers and Beyond. There have also been some revisions to Module 1.
Enter your email address below to subscribe to the Home-Based Travel Agent Newsletter. Not only is the newsletter absolutely FREE, but you will receive as a gift our 20-page Special Report: Secrets of Successful Home-Based Travel Agents.
