Web specialty pays off

"Develop a niche" is becoming stock advice for developing a good Web site that stands out from the cyberpack. This is advice that Dennis Hubbs and his wife Donna, co-owners of D&D Travel, Bloomfield, Conn., have also taken to heart.

One of the specialties they promote on their site ( www.ddtvl.com) is individualized trips to the Cape Fear area of North Carolina, where the television show "Dawson's Creek" is filmed.

Providing a "travel exclusive not found elsewhere on the Web," D&D Travel promises to design an itinerary that can include a chance to explore the locations where scenes are shot for "Dawson's Creek" as well as visit EUE Screen Gems Studios, where feature films such as "I Know What You Did Last Summer" were produced.

What also makes the site stand out are the Hubbs' original photos of the "Dawson's Creek" cast. Two sites sponsored by fans of the show asked for permission to use the photos, and "I said OK, as long as there was a link back to us," said Dennis Hubbs.

He said he expects the additional links to bring more hits from fans of the show, who are apparently an international crowd. "We've already had inquiries from as far away as France," he said.

While the home-based D&D still gets most of its business through referrals, the site, up since last May in its present incarnation, has begun to pay off.

"We have started to get serious sales instead of just lookers in the last few months, with products whose rates are high enough to make it worthwhile -- up to $4,000 and $5,000," said Hubbs. That includes other house specialties that also are promoted on the site, such as escorted tours and cruises.

Currently, the amount of business the site brings in is such that both Hubbses can maintain it themselves, changing the content every few days and handling e-mail inquiries.

In fact, said Hubbs, "We built it ourselves. We didn't want any fancy artwork -- we just wanted to provide basic information in a nice, clean format."

Paying just the standard monthly fee to the Web site's host, the company's "investment for the site is minimal -- and appears to be returning the investment," said Hubbs.

Got clients traveling to Antarctica or other off-the-beaten-track places? Check out Longitude, the travel bookstore specializing in unusual destinations, nature and adventure-travel volumes, now on line at www.longitudebooks.com.

With its 2000 catalog now available, the 2-year-old company is offering a larger and more comprehensive collection, organized geographically, with each destination featuring a selection of "Essential Reading" -- a set of four or five books and a map offered at a discount.

Going beyond guidebooks, Longitude sells a handpicked selection of travel narratives; field guides; maps; classic accounts of exploration and adventure; novels, and books on art, archaeology and cooking. Many of these books are otherwise hard to track down. The company's current bestseller, for example, is David G. Campbell's "Crystal Desert," a prize-winning portrait of Antarctica that is out of print and available only through Longitude.

The company also has been creating custom reading lists for such companies as Lindblad Special Expeditions and the American Museum of Natural History, now available on the Longitude Web site, too.

Longitude was cofounded by expedition leader Darrel Schoeling and Daniel Kaizer, a former book editor with a graduate degree in ecology.

For a copy of the free catalog or for additional information, call (800) 342-2164.

More than eight out of 10 human resource professionals who offer positions expect their job candidates to receive counteroffers regarding salary and benefits, according to a recent poll conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Surveying our clients, we at Yours in Travel Personnel found the most "disgusting" reason to make a move is because most employers are only motivated to make "counteroffers" after a valuable employee has tendered his/her resignation.

Why does it take a resignation before a company wakes up and makes a counteroffer?

Most firms provide a small cost-of-living increase, but many say they cannot afford to provide employees with "proper" salaries because they "don't have that kind of money."

Many agency owners do not fully understand the costs of training new employees -- or exactly how important a current employee is. But when a valuable employee tenders a resignation after finding another firm that offers a competitive compensation package, the employer then quickly determines, "I cannot afford to lose this one."

Most employers rely on the offer from the new company as a guide to a counteroffer they believe the employee can't refuse: the same dollars with the benefit of a familiar environment.

We believe smart candidates say, "Too little, too late," and they are correct. If an employer doesn't realize the staffer's worth before the resignation, even a new offer will have little merit in the long run unless the employee seeks new employment each year.

Now is the time to evaluate your employees and determine whom you can afford to lose and whom you'd be devastated to lose -- before it's too late.

P. Jason King is founder and president of Yours in Travel Personnel Agency, a New York-based recruitment source for the travel industry. Visit its Web site at www.yoursintravel.com.