The first step is to purchase a domain name (the website address) from a registrar such as Moniker or Go Daddy. A registrar is an authorized reseller of domain names from a registry. Your domain name needs to communicate to others what you are selling or offering. Since there are so many websites on the Internet, you need to stick out. A .travel domain is a great way of doing this if you are in the travel or tourism industry. Unlike .com, there are still many great .travel names available that will be able to convey the message of your business clear and concisely.

Next, your website needs content. This is the text, pictures, banners, and so on that will appear on the site. The next thing you need is a design layout. Once your site is set up you will also need marketing in order to get visitors!

Finally, your site will need web hosting. This includes somewhere for your site’s data to be stored and a way for it to be accessed (transferred from this location to your site visitors’ computers). These two things are called storage and bandwidth. So that is why a website host (or web hosting company) is needed. You cannot simply store your site on your own computer, unless you have a dedicated web server (this is a special computer with a super high speed internet connection). This would cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars to purchase and maintain. Spending all that money on hosting your site yourself is impractical. Thus, you need a web hosting company to take care of this for you. (WebHostDirectory)

With a number of webhosting companies on the internet, it is sometimes hard to find the one that offers true cheap and quality webhosting. Before, you began to search for companies that offer cheap webhosting, it is important to know what exactly you are looking for. This includes your site features, internet programming languages, database connectivity features, email addresses, domain name, traffic you expect and many other considerations. (MyContentBuilder)

Recently, a new TLD (top level domain) was launched to the internet, .tel. .tel addresses are the newest way to store all of your personal or business contact information in one, easily accessible, place on the web.

On the surface .tel is just another top-level domain (TLD), like .com, .org, .net etc. But that is where the similarities end. Instead of needing to buy a domain name, find a hosting service for it, and designing a website, all you need to do is purchase your .tel domain name of choice and fill in your information using their application.

It is the 21st century version of a business card. You can store any personal information you would ever want on your .tel address, you never need to pay for hosting, and if any of your information changes you can update it from anywhere anytime.

The only way that this becomes overwhelmingly successful however, is if it reaches a critical mass and becomes the de-facto standard for accessible contact information. The problem they face is that their service is VERY simple and anyone could make a knockoff with even more functionality. Or worse yet, someone like Facebook could leverage its existing user base (of over 175 million people) and provide a similar service for free. The thing that telnic (the company behind .tel) has going in its favor is an entire TLD assigned solely for this purpose. That fact alone makes them a huge force and makes it much more recognizable than some 3rd party website trying to offer the same service. (Brattle Consulting Group)

Forget Web 1.0 and 2.0, Web 3.0 is the next generation of the internet.

Think of Web 1.0 as a library. You can use it as a source of information, but you can’t contribute to or change the information in any way. Web 2.0 is more like a big group of friends and acquaintances. You can still use it to receive information, but you also contribute to the conversation and make it a richer experience.

Web 3.0 is your own personal assistant. Web 3.0 will make tasks like your search for movies and food faster and easier. Instead of multiple searches, you might type a complex sentence or two in your Web 3.0 browser, and the Web will do the rest. For example, you could type “I want to see a funny movie and then eat at a good Mexican restaurant. What are my options?” The Web 3.0 browser will analyze your response, search the Internet for all possible answers, and then organize the results for you. (How Stuff Works).

Web 3.0 is the clearly the future of the web. While it is filled with numerous uncertainties, when it arrives there is going to be major change in the internet.

ExecTweet is Twitter spinoff site that just displays tweets from select executives, making it easier to track the big shots on Twitter. It is published by ad firm Federated Media, and sponsored by Microsoft. The site “collects” tweets from various executives and puts them in one stream. Some of the best known company leaders that are currently using this service include Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Virgin’s Richard Branson, and former AOL head Steve Case.

ExecTweet may be one path to cash for the famously revenue-free messaging service, as according to All Things Digital, Twitter is taking a fee for powering this new Microsoft-sponsored service.

Will ExecTweet be the new trend for the head honchos? Check out http://www.exectweets.com/ and decide for yourself.

The workshop was entitled “The Top Social Media Trends for Travel & Tourism” and featured a panel of 5 major bloggers. Each member of the panel was asked to provide his 3-5 top Social Media Trends for 2009:

Darren Cronian

• Mobile
• Twitter: companies are going to have to become more social and interact with the consumer
• Travel companies will start using more social media

Klaus Hidebrandt

• Social Media 2.0 is all about communication with the consumer. Companies need to know, understand, and execute social media at a top level.
• Get your CEO or top executive involved. Employees love it. Customers love it. There is no more powerful way to humanize your brand.
• The future lies in companies that adopt EVERYTHING: one brand and one media is best.

Kevin May

• Twitter: 974% of traffic in UK in 2008
• PR: people are thinking more cleverly in terms of PR. They are using different forms of media both online and offline for campaigns.
• Crowd-sourcing: making sure you know what is happening in a network digitally.
• Hyperlocal: creating niche services for a localized community

Martin Schobert

• Feedback 2.0: a lot of comments, learning how to communicate with a social internet
• Maps will be the new interface.
• More CONTEXT: the right content offered to the right person at the right time
• Do your homework. Define goals clearly with social web and have B2B conversations

Vasco Sommer-Nunes

• Volume of mentions will become part of a greater measurement metrix, such as “share of voice”, to determine success in social media.
• Personal publishing on the web will continue to increase, thereby increasing the share of user generated content.
• Companies will react and hire a social media guy to listen, help and educate users
• Cross publishing will become stronger, i.e. publishing into several communities from one web site or mobile phone.
• The travel industry will embrace social media even more than other industries, because people love to talk about their vacation and show others where they´ve been!

After the panelists presented their trends, the audience was asked to interactively text in their picks to have a final list of 3. Although the majority of the panel’s trends focused on social media sites, especially Twitter, the audience’s choices end up being strategies.

Audiences Choices of Top 3 Social Media Trends with the greatest impact in the next year:

1. Change in Philosophy
2. PR using more channels
3. hiring a Social Media guy to increase ROI