by Mark Smiley | Feb 26, 2015 | Travel
by John Edwards
Tired of the endless snow? I-70 traffic jams? Although we know spring will arrive, there will still be sudden snows followed by every afternoon showers. How about a quick getaway, to a state of warmth? We can quickly fly from Denver International Airport to Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas or Phoenix. We’ve been there and the warmth is not guaranteed. Cherry Creek Valley residents should consider a quick, cheap cruise on a big luxury ship in March or April. Below is a sample itinerary which makes this type of trip affordable.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s Port Everglades serves 10 cruise lines and 30 ships. The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport is served economically and non-stop from Denver by Southwest and Spirit Airlines. And therein lies the magic.
Have your travel agent book the four day cruise on the Celebrity Constellation ship starting at $349 or consider the Carnival Conquest which comes in at a similar price point.
Take an inside cabin since you won’t be in it except to sleep. The Constellation (www.cruisemates.com/constellation) departs Thursdays for Nassau, Bahamas, then on to Key West and back. Take the Carnival Conquest for six days if you like waterslides, kids and loud music.
Southwest Airlines has numerous daily flights but the non-stop flights are less expensive and only four hours. One flight leaves at 7:30 a.m and arrives at 1:10 p.m. That leaves some of the day, but if there is a flight delay, you cannot make the 3 p.m. deadline to catch a cruise ship departing at 4 p.m.
The alternative is the Spirit Airlines “redeye.” Book online on “everything added-on” Spirit Airlines’ overnight flight that departs evenings at 11:40 p.m. and arrives at 5:15 a.m. the next morning. Pay for your ticket and one checked bag both ways at booking. Bring your own snacks, juices, water, pillow and enough drugs to sleep upright.
Upon arrival at 5:15 a.m., retrieve your bag, eat breakfast at the airport and change into your shorts with bathing suit underneath. (That overnight red-eye flight saved you a $180 overnight hotel stay.)
Head For The Beach
Take the city bus from the airport to the beach at the Bahia Mar Doubletree Hotel. Store your bag with the bellman for $5. Walk across the street to the uncrowded beach. Relax in the sun and sand. After 10 a.m., catch the nearby Water Taxi (water taxi.com) for a guided tour through the waterways, the mansions and yachts. After noon, get your bag and a taxi to the cruise port to check in by 3 p.m.
After checking in, go directly to your room and take a nap. Your bags will not arrive until later. Be gently awakened by announcements for the mandatory life jacket drill as the ship leaves the harbor.
After the cruise, the ship docks early Monday morning. A Budget Rental Car shuttle picks up customers at the port. Rent a car from the nearby Quay Center location and tour the area before dropping the car off at the airport at 6 p.m. for your departure at 8:15 p.m.
For lunch, don’t miss the famous Rustic Inn Crabhouse (rusticinn.com) on a canal at the end of the airport. The roadhouse on the water serves whole garlic steamed crabs and other fresh seafood. Diners are outfitted with a bib and a wooden mall
et to destroy and devour the monster crab. Scraps that fall onto the floor drop through the wooden planks to fish swarming below. The restaurant is easy to find and is located under the low-flying aircraft approach at the airport.
Total these costs and compare them to a traditional 8-day vacation and 7-day cruise. Luxury cruising for less!
Travel Writer John Edwards is President of Golf Travel Writers of America and has been on 19 cruises.
by Mark Smiley | Feb 2, 2015 | General Featured
by Mark Smiley
It seems every company with an Internet connection claims they can build a website or help with search engine optimization (SEO). Few actually do it for a living or do it correctly and proficiently. One company that has built a reputation as one of the leading SEO companies in the state is Volume Nine. Situated in the middle of the Denver/Glendale area, Volume Nine has been providing search engine optimization services in the valley since 2006. They operate from an eighth floor suite just off of Colorado Boulevard and Mexico.
Volume Nine was founded by Chuck Aikens, an Internet marketing guru. When he’s not at the office, you’ll probably find him taking in a ball game ranging from the Nuggets and the Rockies, to his son’s traveling baseball team. Aikens usually has a home improvement project or two going on as well, and his favorite vacation spot is anywhere with a beach and a beverage.
The company was actually started in Aikens’ unfinished basement using credit cards and home equity to get the business up and running. Today, Volume Nine is the largest SEO company in Colorado with over 120 clients. Search Engine Optimization is a term most people are familiar with but most don’t understand completely. SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or unpaid (“organic”) search results. Many companies claim to be able to help customers rise in their “Google rankings” but few actually deliver solid results.
Upon graduating from Metro State in Denver, Aikens started his Internet marketing career in 1996 when he taught himself programming and began building websites to generate real estate and mortgage leads. One of his initial creations was one of the first mortgage aggregator websites at www.mortgage101.com which ranked number one for mortgages on Google for over 10 years.
Their first SEO consulting job was a project done for Booyah Advertising in late 2005 as an independent contractor. Now, they have over 120 clients which include notables such as Breckenridge-Wynkoop, Inc., Smashburger, Vail Resorts, Old Navy, Brakes Plus, Qdoba, and Burger King.
During the company’s early years, growth was fueled by specific innovations. One of these innovations was the development of an internal SEO Management Tool in 2008 called Eduki. Long before the Raven Tools or enterprise tools such as Conductor or Bright Edge became commonplace, Volume Nine was able to spend less time on reporting and more time doing SEO for their clients.
Volume Nine also built a robust system that allowed them to write articles, do press releases, submit social bookmarks, and build microsites without being spammy or using automated tools. This system was the cornerstone of their operations until early 2012. In 2012, after being in business for six years and seeing their business model and services offered expand, Volume Nine decided to expand their service offering by acquiring Findability Group which specialized in PPC Management as well as social media and website development. Volume Nine went from 15 to 25 employees overnight.
During the middle of 2013, Volume Nine found themselves growing to 40 employees and retained almost 150 clients, but had the normal growing pains including ensuring that all of the new and old hires were productive and enthusiastic. Aikens along with key members of his team, including Natalie Henley, Vice President of Marketing, sat down and began to change the culture of the company to fit a larger organization.
“It is never easy,” said Henley. “Some of our original employees didn’t want to work for a larger organization and we understood that so we had to reach out and find individuals who would be happy in the organization we had become.”
Of course some of the original employees enjoyed the challenge that growth brought to the company including Barbara Dittert, Content Coordinator. “I look forward to getting things done. I feel happy. I enjoy the challenge of coming to work every day,” said Dittert. “There were efforts to give everyone the freedom to speak their mind. There is more openness and the culture is different. People are happier and there is more laughter.”
Some new policies in place now include unlimited personal time off, more employee recognition including dinners and night stays in the mountains, two days per week of working remotely, health benefits which were not offered previously, and a social team with a budget for employee events. The changes have paid off but Aikens admits they still have a ways to go. “We made a conscious decision to trust our employees and now I feel we have a more team oriented environment,” said Aikens.
Volume Nine has a collaborative process that starts with an initial meeting to go over the potential client’s needs. If a company is looking for a team of experts to help generate the organic traffic needed to grow the business, Volume Nine may be a good match. Once a company decides to be a client, Volume Nine works to achieve the rankings, traffic, leads or sales goals set as a team to make an impact on the business.
Competition is fierce with companies such as Inflow in Denver who is like minded and similar in size. The biggest competition for Volume Nine are companies deciding to manage SEO on their own. But, with the packages that Volume Nine has put together and the team on board to work with clients, Volume Nine is positioned to grow even more. For more information on Volume Nine, visit www.v9seo.com or call 303-997-2000.
