Judging by the volume of renewals and first-time subscriptions for 2006 our search-engine marketing programme is paying off and this is being noticed by increasing numbers of tourism businesses in Wales.

Those that made an early investment in Staying in Wales, helping us weather the first years of fledgling growth in the face of competition from the most unlikely sources, have now been rewarded with valuable sponsored links direct to their managed web pages from the main search pages.

And to give smaller businesses a chance to get in on the action, we've introduced a reduced membership subscription rate in proportion to the remaining months of the year. Hence our current 10-month offer commencing 1st March at just £37.50 +VAT, instead of £45 +VAT for the full calendar year.

It is little known that prior to reviving the original StayingInWales.com website, This Week Wales published in April 2006 a Complete Internet Tourism Marketing Module for Wales upon which Visit Wales was largely construed. It went on to put the 'This Week' tourism newspaper on to the Internet, accompanied later by intelligent maps.

At that point, almost 10 years ago, Wales was leading in the early stages of an exciting new market that few understood. 'This Week' had shone a light on the future for many that were still in the dark at the time and it's regrettable that Wales lost its early lead through circumstances beyond the control of the early pioneers.

The outbreak of the foot and mouth epidemic in 2000 was a large factor in the slowdown, by which time the Internet had begun to resemble the Wild West with snake-oil salesmen all around. (For more on this, see 'Online Tutorials' further down the page).

Respectable and respected competitors who thought we'd only just arrived on the scene were quick to criticise our initiative when we took on 'Taste of Wales' and were obliged by the Welsh Development Agency to rename it 'Staying in Wales'. An old and fading website of that name was taken over, transformed within months and improved continuously until it was fit for market with new innovations always in the pipeline.

Then, to top it all, we were criticised for duplicating Visit Wales (sic). It would have been funny if it wasn't so serious - given that the criticism was put out by the Wales Tourist Board. We now have a much better understanding and look forward to working with the new tourism unit within the Welsh Assemble Government to the greater good of Wales Plc.

With the recent resignation of Kim Colebrook, Head of Information Services and Visit Wales at the Wales Tourist Board, Wales has lost one of its most hard-working and dedicated practitioners in the implementation of destination management systems.

Kim built up a vast knowledge of her subject over the years and was eager to pass this on through the many one-day training courses organised for businesses registering with Visit Wales. The awareness these courses have created amongst businesses that might not have otherwise taken the plunge into new media is one of the biggest legacies that Kim will leave behind.

Much of the early research Kim commissioned on visitor information gathering behaviour before Visit Wales came into being still has pride of place in our research library, which we use time and again to develop projects of our own and to give advice out to others.

If Kim takes up consultancy, we shall be one of the first through her door!

There's little doubt that with intelligent use of new media, Wales can compete aggressively in worldwide markets and win market share from other countries, both in the UK and further afield.

Are we up for it? You bet we are! StayingInWales.com is not the only shining example: StayInWales.co.uk has made excellent headway over the past few years with both organisations competing and pushing each other to higher degrees of excellence and innovation from which consumers ultimately benefit. WalesCalendar.com too has continued to lead the UK in the field of online events listings, and Wales.info is in the ascendant ready to take on the responsibility associated with running a top-level country domain name.

Then there are the two remaining Regional Tourism Companies who, when funded by the Wales Tourist Board, also benefited from This Week Wales' know-how but, in the case of Mid Wales Tourism, lost out badly when Bob Morgan's innovative 'Brilliant Breaks' project came to an end.

We can, perhaps, expect to see a consolidation of some, if not all this activity at some point in the future, with organisations such as those mentioned above collaborating to compete for Wales against other worldwide destinations, underpinned by Kim Colbrook's destination management system in the capable hands of the new tourism unit. We shall see.

In the brave new world of online marketing, there's a whiff of the old Wild West out there with plenty of snake-oil salesmen ready to take your money and run…and, in this day and age for the sake of gender balance, snake-oil saleswomen too.

Chris Edwards is certainly neither of these and is well-known amongst the search-engine marketing community for the work he does for small, start-up businesses as well as charities and major corporations.

We are fortunate via Wales.info to have Chris on the team and in his first online tutorial in February entitled 'Internet Marketing Basics', he laid the ground for tutorial number two entitled 'Website Planning for Success', which is now available.

In this tutorial Chris points out the importance of page titles and how they can make or break your website. As before you have the opportunity of contacting Chris direct with any comments you might have and, as a Subscription Member with your login details to hand, free advice on building your own website.

The next Members Bulletin will be published on May 1st though there may be an earlier Newsflash. We welcome comments and constructive criticism on the content of all bulletins and other communications and reserve the right to publish some of the best we receive.