It had got to the point that I was actually embarassed how it looked and was reluctant to add new material, partly due to hating the look and also because the navigation system was about as full as it could get.

I’m much happier with how the site looks now. Take a look:

Cancun Vacation Guide

New features include:

• Brand new look and feel.
• Many more pages than the old site.
• Video for all major Cancun tours and Cancun nightclubs.
• Tons more photos.
• Live Cancun airport departures and arrival information.
• Latest Cancun news stories via newsfeed.
• Interactive satellite map of Cancun.
• Improved Cancun hotels booking system.
• Expanded detail on almost every previous Cancun subject covered.

and for fans of Temptation Resort Cancun (the currently named Blue Bay Getaway):

• Check prices for BBG from 4 different providers from one page without having to visit each site and search around.
• Video of the BBG poolside games.

Feedback so far has been very positive. I just hope the Search Engine positions hold or improve and dont plummet as I suspect they might for a little while before bouncing back.

Finally, a big thanks to Kim from Magnolia Webs who did a cracking job on the design.

The way it works is the widget shows other peoples blogs from the same category which may be of interest to visitors. Each time the widget is displayed it earns the site a credit, and credits are then used to display this blog on other travel blogs who use the same service. They have  a referral system that runs ten levels deep. So, in theory it could bring a lot of extra traffic. I’m going to trial it a while and see how it does.

If you’re interested in adding the system to your blog then take a look at the video for more details.

The site utilises the mapping tools provided by Google maps which offers aerial satellite photographs that you can then annotate with your own markers. You can then scroll the map around and zoom in or out to examine the hotels layout, check the beach or even do a virtual dive into the pool. I’ve added markers for all the popular Cancun hotels and nightclubs and I’ll also be filling each marker with links to more pics, information, availability and information for all the Cancun hotels featured.

There is one disappointing limitation and that is you are restricted to a hundred markers, I’d really have liked to add much more detail to show Cancun shopping centers, ferry terminals, even ATM machines. Hopefully, Google will increase this maximum soon.

Anyway, have fun with the site and spread the word

The videos below I took 12 hours either side of the hurricane and show that Cancun has not really been affected at all.

Cancun Hotel Zone Drive Thru 21st August 2.00pm

Cancun Hotel Zone Drive Thru 20th August 12.00pm

The beach condition videos were taken at Playa Marlin located near to the Tucancun resort and Villas Marlin, behind Kukulcan Plaza.I need to get back to the beach and see how things are now the seas have calmed, but I suspect there hasnt been that much damage to the beaches.

Playa Marlin 21st August 2pm

Playa Marlin 20th August 12pm

This is the first one Jannet’s made which features our Isla Mujeres booze cruise.

The cruise we do is a private hire of a catamaran and we sail over to Isla Mujeres. It’s open bar all day, lunch included and we normally do a golf cart convoy of the island, I think the most carts we ever had at once was 9. We’ve held about 15 of these cruises so far this year and averaged around 25 people each trip, so almost 400 people have come along.

The current site I cringe at every time I see it, it looks so amateurish and unprofessional that I hate to add new pages as I have to use the same crappy design. I suppose it was the first ever website I made though, it’s done well in the search engines and makes sales - so as far as it goes it’s been successful.

The new site is going to be something else though, I’ve already made a ton of new pages and with the system I’m going to use it will mean it’s very easy to add many more pages.

I’m going to be using a lot of video too, which I think will be a first for a Cancun site and is so much more 2007. Hopefully, the slicker more professional look, the crisper coding and the new content pages will be a lot more appealing to both surfers, and just as importantly the search engines.

I’d love to be able to say I designed and built it all by myself. However my design and coding skills, although improving, don’t go as far as what we will soon have at cancuncare. My good friend Kim (Rivergirl) at Magnolia Web Design is the one to thank for that. Kim came up with perfect code, right on the brief and made me some great easy to work with templates. Thanks Kim!

Now all I have to do is fill them with juicy content. You can see a screenshot of one of the new pages above left, but you’ll have to wait a little more yet before the new site launches.

If you have a website with a Cancun theme and would like to be listed please sign up for an account - it’s totally free. Your website can be about anything to do with Cancun. It could be your blog, your Cancun based company, a personal homepage that advertises your condo, a commercial site, yes - even a message board or anything else as long as it has Cancun content as it’s main focus.

If you’d like to know a little more of how the priciple works then please read on:

What is CancunTop100.com?

Cancun Top 100 is what is known as a toplist. All sites listed in a top list have a common theme, in our case all sites have a strong element of content devoted to Cancun or the Riviera Maya. A toplist works like a league table, sites that send more traffic comparative to other sites receive a higher listing. So, the more visitors you send the higher up the listing and the more prominent your site becomes. The more prominent your site the more visitors you receive back.

Where does the traffic come from?

The theory is that:

1. All participating sites will be feeding in visitors who already have an interest in Cancun web sites.

2. Add in the organic traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN searching for Cancun and Riviera Maya related terms.

3. Add in people who bookmark the site (because it provides a useful reference point) and return in the future.

4. because the links open in anew window most visitors visit more thna one site listed.

Given all the above the productivity of the traffic is good (the number of visitors out outweighs the number of visitors in)

So, you should receive many more visitors than you send. All these visitors will be highly targeted traffic who are seeking Cancun information and they will already be interested in your Cancun web site.

How many hits do I have to send?

The simple answer is none at all. Some toplists work by only showing those sites that send a minimum number of hits, but I have set the site to display your web site even if hasn’t sent a single user so as not to penalize smaller sites. Of course though, you must have the linking code on your page. An automatic check can be made to look for the code on all members sites. Please play by the rules and maintain your code. Short periods of downtime are acceptable but if you remove the code or never place it then your site will be removed from the list.

What kind of site can I submit?

Any kind of site is fine, but it must have significant content about Cancun. It could be your blog, your Cancun based company, a personal homepage that advertises your condo, a commercial site, a message board or anything else as long as it has Cancun content as it’s main focus. Click here to submit your site.

What is Cancun Site of the Moment?

Each time a new user visits the page your site will also have a chance of being shown in the very top position as the ‘Cancun Site of the Moment’. This means that even small sites will receive high visibility once in a while. The chance of your site being featured as ‘Cancun site of the moment’ is random. So, if there are 20 sites featured in the top list your site will show up once in the top spot for every 20 visitors. Hopefully, we’ll be attracting hundreds of visitors a day once established and therefore your site will receive great exposure.

How is traffic in and out recorded?

Once you sign up for an account you will be provided with a unique linking code. You should place this code somewhere on your web site. Obviously to send more people, and consequently receive a higher ranking you should place the linking code in a highly visible area of your site. You can use text links or a banner or even include your link on a mailing list you might have. I have yet to add banners but will do so soon and make these available. If you don’t know html very well then don’t worry, create an account and then log in and you will find examples of the exact code to place on your site.

Once your account is verified then you can log in and make any changes to your text and also view your statistics.

How often does the site update?

The rankings are recalculated every hour and the whole list is reset to zero once a month, this will be kept under review and may well change in the future. As more and more sites sign up then it’s likely we’ll move to having more than one page, introduce a search feature and categories.

It sure is a cute story but I’m convinced that it’s a clever form of spam.

Follow the link to see the text of the post:

“(I found this on another board - it had been copied from still another board.)

My brother found an underwater camera at McFaddin Beach on the Upper Texas Coast on June 26, 2006. Its case was covered in barnacles and was unrecognizable.

He heard something shaking inside the “rock”, he began breaking away to discover this camera. He took it home, opened it to find that the camera still worked and that all pictures and two videos were intact.

The amazing part is that the last picture was taken at Playa Del Carmen on August 11, 2005 which means it travelled through three hurricanes to get to where it was!

If you know anyone who lost a camera during that time, please have them contact /email address removed/ .The pictures include only one woman, but several men. There were both land pics and scuba pics as well as two dive videos on the memory card. There is a truck with the sign on it /website address removed/. We have a picture of the actual boat that was used for diving and the license number of the boat. I hope we can find this cameras home. The pics are beautiful and deserve to be with their owner along with the camera.”

Maybe I’m too much of a sceptic and this really is one of those amazing stories that sometimes gets reported. But what a great way of getting your website business displayed on maybe hundreds of similarly themed message boards, not only for the clicks that would generate and brand recognition, but also the one way inbound links which help a ton in your search engine rankings.

Already, well intentioned message board users are talking about contacting newspapers, TV stations etc to help find the owner of the camera that crossed the Gulf of Mexico. If that happens and the story receives wide coverage then the dive operator concerned should look forward to a short term boost in business.

What do you think?

Miami, is not really how I expected it. It has a lot more Latin influence than I thought, with Spanish seemingly spoken moreso than English. Lots of coconut palms everywhere make it feel very much like Cancun, and the weather is not much different, although it is a little cooler today.

The flight was quick and uneventful, only an hour and a half from Cancun. Stupidly, I hadnt taken note of the address where I was staying as I was being picked up from the aiport. Had a few questions at immigration because of that, but after a call to Bob’s cellphone all was sorted out.

Traffic was really heavy so it took us a couple of hours to drive the 40 miles or so from the airport. Bob, his wife Tracie and I went out to a restaurant called gator Joes for a nice dinner and a few drinks. Later we went out to a few more bars, Hooligans was the only name I remember. I was pleased to find they had Stella (my favourite beer) on draft there. Also had a couple of shots (one was Patron the other a Jaegar Bomb), which were more like tumblers full.

The next day was shopping, as well as the laptop I also bought a new camera, a 250 Gig external hard drive, and a cooling platform with extra fans for the laptop, hopefully this one will last me longer than the last.

Later that night we went out again back to Hooligans, with Bob and his friend Mike who happens to play for the Miami Dolphins. Needless to say he got quite a lot of attention with people wanting their photo taken with him. More gigantic shots and a few more bars, we got home quite late.

Thursday was a quiet day, just lounging around the house and a huge Chinese takeaway in the evening. But I did put my flight back for a couple of days, as I need to sort out this laptop battery problem and also need to buy a portable DVD player and presents for Jannet and Dani.