Home Based Travel Agent News March 1st, 2007

Become a Cruise Agent
How to Become
the Best Cruise Agent!

Over the years I have been asked how agents could get a good education on how to become a quality cruise agent on numerous occasions. They want to know about this school or that, whether they should take this course or that, or should they attend travel schools specializing in selling cruises. The answer is that any education that you get is beneficial to you and the more that you get, the better.

However, the best education that you can receive is to systematically cruise on various lines and ship categories and different itineraries. Nothing will make you a quality cruise agent faster than experiencing the product itself. An agent that knows the lines, ships, ports and shore excursions is most valuable to clients that want specific information about all four. In short, you should cruise as often as possible. Cruise oriented trade shows such as Cruise-a-thons (Click Here for info) are also a great way to gain knowledge and experience. They offer a cruise trade show, numerous seminars, ship inspections, peer-to-peer networking and much more.

Here are some articles about gaining education on becoming a cruise agent. The first one is written by Joanie Ogg entitles "Cruise Sellers Should Cruise" and another one by cruise specialist and Editor of www.CruiseReviews.com Nancy Norris entitled "Cruising, the Best Education Money Can Buy" Finally, here is an article on how to maximize your productivity by taking cruise seminars that I wrote for Home Based Trade.

April, 2007
Pre-Release Now
Available!!!!

Of course, I also think you should buy my book "Selling Cruises, Don't Miss the Boat" I have a pre-release of the April, 2007 edition and it is available now. You can find out more about it Here. In addition to all of the CLIA member lines, there are dozens of additional money making connections in this book. This book is written with cruise agents in mind. It leaves nothing to the imagination and if you want to sell cruises, this book is a logical first step to a rewarding career in the cruise industry.

Once you have read my book, why not join me on one of NACTA's upcoming cruise seminars. I would love to meet you and talk cruising. For more information, click Here.

"How to Turn Your Website
 into a Money Machine"

Boy, I am looking forward to this seminar! I have had a ton of questions and I will try to answer the most common ones here..

"Are you going to be doing more of these seminars?"

I don't intend on doing more. You would pay a ton of money for the information I am going to give away in Joel and Lenore's honor at this seminar taking place in Seattle June 1 to 4, 2007. It has taken me years to figure out what I am going to share for free, but I don't think I will do it again.

"I am a quick learner, and am familiar with a number of things on your topic list, but I've never created a site from the ground up.  My question is, when you say "knowledge of building websites is mandatory", are you talking about writing a new site in code?"

At the very least you will want to know how to use an HTML editor (Frontpage, Expression Web, Dreamweaver, etc.) and a little knowledge of HTML coding would go a long way. If you don't know at least this much about web design, this seminar will go right over your head. My advice to you would be to get busy, learn one of the HTML editors and fool around with some HTML coding. There is plenty of time between now and the seminar to get up to speed. It will be worth it..

"Why haven't I heard about this before now?"

I am sorry that you haven't. Our industry has been CRS/GDS centric for so long that most agents don't understand the on-line world. A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by a writer for Travel Counselor (The Travel Institute's Magazine.) His questions were CRS/GDS based and he wanted to know what I thought they could do to help travel agents. When I responded, I could tell the guy thought I was a kook. It isn't the first time. I well remember talking about home-based travel agents years ago when many orthodox groups and suppliers rolled their eyes and snickered.

Look, it is up to you. I will share how I made hundreds of thousands of dollars using the techniques I am going to disclose at this seminar. It is up to you to take action or not. If you do, there is nothing stopping you from doing even better than I have. Register for Cruise-a-thon in Seattle, June 1 - 4, 2007 and make up your own mind about it.

"Please tell me that the seminar will be recorded, and made available for those unable to attend."

No, the seminar will not be recorded.

You Are Invited

Home-Based Success Series Seminars
Coming Your Way!

Look for the upcoming "Home-Based Success Series" coming your way. These seminars organized by Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Globus Family of Brands and NACTA are the rave of the industry. If one is located near you, don't miss it. Here is a list of ones being offered in March and April.

For more information and to register for these seminars click here.

Refer a Friend

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