Dan Perry

I had the pleasure of playing the Riviera Country Club in the Spring of 2006, and let me say, it was everything I hoped it would be.

I arrived earlier than my friends (a threesome), and spent some time in the pro shop, meeting the people who worked there, who were very open and friendly. Bought more than I probably should have, but when am I going to get this opportunity again? Lots of presents for friends and family.

My friends showed up, and we hit the range prior to our round. We used caddies to “get the full effect”. For those of you who have never used caddies, if you get the chance, do it. They not only add value in searching for balls, reading greens, etc. They also add a lot of local knowledge. It was great hearing the story about the owner of the Red Sox’s house, and the tree removal, and also about Mel Brooks’ rosebushes. A treat for sure.

I wasn’t able to take pictures of every hole (like I prefer to do), but I was on pretty hallowed ground, so decided I’d just get as many as I could.

One of the best shots of the set was from the first fairway, looking back at the clubhouse. Here I was on the first hole, and already had one of the best views on the course. Amazing, and the anticipation was pretty high.

The fourth hole is a LONG par 3 (236 yards), into the wind. I seriously considered driver. If I remember correctly, I used three wood (which I usually hit 250), and it landed in the bunker in front of the green. I’m sure I didn’t up and down, but did escape with a bogey.

The 6th is another par 3, but this is the one that has the bunker in the middle of the green. The pin was back left, and so, of course, I put it front right. I had to putt over and through the fringe that surrounded the bunker. What a great hole.

The 7th isn’t necessarily long (408 yards) but there’s a large bunker in the middle of the fairway, so you can’t bomb it. Also, I play a draw, and this hole lines up for a fade. Believe it or not, this is one of the few holes on the course that I parred.

The 9th is a great hole, not because of it’s bunkering (which is impressive), but because you’re going straight towards the clubhouse. After seeing this course on TV for so many years, it gave me a chill again to be walking towards it.

The tenth is easily one of my favorite holes at Riviera. It’s a reachable (OK, maybe not for me) par 4, being 315 yards from the tips. Knowing that I may never get the chance to play here again, I went for it. I was a little short, but right, which is the only landing area without a bunker. From there, I chipped on and three-jacked for a nickel.

The 15th hole played to my draw perfectly (dog leg right, but open enough to go for it). The most interesting part of the hole to me was this odd tree on the left side of the fairway. I’ve never seen one grow like this before. I forgot to ask the caddy about it (if anyone knows what type of tree, and how it can grow like this, please leave it in the comments.)

The 16th is also a classic hole. For fans, this is the hole where Rich Beem hit the hole-in-one and jumped on top of the car behind the tee box and hugged it. It was playing 166, and I hit a career 8-iron to the back left bunker. I have no idea how I got an 8 that far back, but I did it. The bunkering on this hole is amazing.

The 18th tee has a, for lack of the proper term, “viewfinder”, so a person on the tee can look into it, and see if the people in the raised fairway in front of them have cleared. I’ve never seen this before, and don’t remember them showing it on television, but it’s a great idea.

What can I say about playing the 18th at Riviera? Having seen this hole played on TV dozens of times, I aimed my draw up the middle of the fairway, hoping for either a left-side fairway, or rolling into the left rough, which may kick back into the fairway. For the old-school readers who’ve made it this far, the overhanging tree on the left-side of the green had been removed prior to when I played it, meaning anything left off the tee was fine. It wasn’t always that way!

Seeing that beautiful clubhouse again (and some of the houses bordering the left side of the fairway) made me get another chill. It really is hallowed ground. They don’t call it Hogan’s Alley for nothing! It really was an experience, and if you ever get the opportunity, be sure to use the caddies. The cost is easily outweighed by the memories you’ll create.

Other California Golf Course Reviews:

Sandpiper Golf Club, Santa Barbara, California

Return to the Golf Course Reviews Homepage.

I normally don’t write a post that isn’t much more than a comment on another post, but the folks at Mind Valley Labs have just blogged about one of my biggest pet peeves; Flash intros. These were hugely popular about 3-5 years ago, when everyone was learning how to “tween”, but nowadays, not only is it lame, it’s actually detrimental.

It really saddens me to see the golf industry is so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to internet adoption. I understand the “Design by CEO” mantra, and the HIPPO’s opinion, but c’mon people. Snap out of it: Abolish all Flash intros!

Oh, and if you’re wondering why it’s such a big deal, please read the post at Mind Valley Labs. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

As promised, here are some statistics from the Google Fridge Giveaway, as well as some lessons learned. All the data shown is from the 8-day period (Monday – Monday, inclusive) that the contest ran. Clearly, there are more views and sessions after the fact.

Inbound Links
There were 118 inbound links generated from the contest. Although I know PR doesn’t mean what it used to, I do think there’s value in listing the PR of the homepages of the sites that linked to me.

• PR7 = 3
• PR6 = 12
• PR5 = 17
• PR4 = 14
• PR3 = 25
• PR2 = 11
• PR1 = 3
• PR0 = 33

Two things stand out; first, I got some pretty good links from some pretty authoritative sites, which was part of the goal. Secondly, there were a lot of first time bloggers who posted to try to win the fridge. In fact, I think there were some who actually started the blog to enter. That’s awesome.

Social Media
Lots of fun stuff here, and it really taught me the power of the social space first-hand.

• Flickr – 9 pictures, 2,567 views
• YouTube – 2,184 views
• Digg – Got dugg three times (32, 27 and 8 Diggs respectively)
• Sphinn – Got sphunn twice (38 and 4 Sphinn’s respectively)
• Mixx – 46 Mixxes
• Propeller – 28 votes
• Marktd – 20 Marks
• PlugIM – 24 Plugs
• StumbleUpon – 9 Reviews, 23 Liked it, plus a TON of traffic, which is next

Site Traffic
Prior to the 8 days of the contest, I was averaging 79 sessions/day (the blog is a month old; cut me some slack). During the test, this ballooned to 1,175 sessions/day!

• 01/01 - 71
• 01/02 - 63
• 01/03 - 100
• 01/04 - 104
• 01/05 - 67
• 01/06 - 67
• 01/07 - 1,035
  
• 01/08 - 2,858
  
• 01/09 - 782
  
• 01/10 - 1,131
  
• 01/11 - 1,736
  
• 01/12 - 824
  
• 01/13 - 497
  
• 01/14 - 532

Yes, a lot of this traffic came from StumbleUpon (about 70% the first day, and 50% overall), but I also got a lot from other blogs.

Press Release
Yes, I actually sent out a press release for the giveaway. It didn’t launch until Thursday, but actually, that wasn’t such a bad thing. You can see the spike on Friday (the 11th), and I attribute almost all of this to the release, and actually, to one blog post from a prominent blogger (more below). Also, during the 8-day period, there were 149 mentions of the release all over the internet.

Additional Mentions
By searching Google for “dan perry” “google fridge”, there are 340 mentions on different sites that don’t provide a link. Lots of exposure in addition to inbound links. Not as valuable from an SEO perspective, but still valuable.

Lessons Learned

Don’t Underestimate the Value of a Press Release
As I said, having Google Blogoscoped pick up my release, and blog about it, provided me not only a lot of traffic, but also a lot of international links. Watching it unfold was amazing: Germany kicked in first, then China, then South America, all of which linked to my site. Having one important blogger pick it up was worth roughly 40-50 international inbound links. Without the press release, it would’ve never happened.

Engage Your Network
I enlisted Tamar to help me “market” my giveaway to the community. As a nobody (c’mon, let’s be honest), I knew that if I Sphunn it, Mixxed it, or Stumbled it, it wouldn’t have a big effect. I guessed that if Tamar did it, it would be looked at in a different light, and my assumptions were correct. I honestly don’t think it would’ve had the legs it did without her help. Tamar; you’ve earned more schwag than I can give.

Again, thanks to everyone who entered, and I hope you’ll learn something from this giveaway. I certainly did.

John Honeck of JLH Design Blog.

Not only did he create two great posts about the Google Fridge, but as I was reviewing his blog for its’ win-worthiness, I noticed we have too many weird similarities:

• We’re both from the Midwest (Me - Illinois, John - Minnesota)
• We were both born in 1968
• Both of our blogs reference beer (John, you should see my breweriana collection: 150 mirrors, 1,000 cans, 60 tap knobs, etc.)
• His blog’s Articles section has crashed, causing a database error.
• My comments have crashed, causing a database error.
• His current blog post states his blog is worth $38k. We both have inflated senses of self-worth!

Three of the four judges voted John’s post the best. Congrats to John, and a HUGE thank you to all those who participated. I plan on compiling a “lessons learned” post later this week about my online marketing competition (OK, now we can call it linkbait!). Lots of great stats to come.

John, send me your mailing address, and I’ll ship it out this week, so it arrives in time for the Super Bowl, and once again, Congratulations!

Just uploaded my PGA Show pictures. Pretty fashion-heavy, but lots of good stuff for all. Lots more to come, so stay tuned.

Now Tamar, Barry, Matt and I have the task of reviewing all the entries, and choosing a winner. Sorry to say, but this may take most of the week (LOTS of entries!). I plan on reporting next Monday who the lucky winner of the Google Fridge is.

I also plan on compiling a post on the impact this contest had on my site, complete with all the important statistics, insights, and lessons learned. For now, here’s a sneak peak:

My blog was just over a month old when the contest began, and was averaging 335 pageviews/day and 79 User Sessions. During the contest, the average daily pageviews rocketed to 4,471, and daily user sessions jumped to 1,174, an increase of almost 1,500%!

Lots of other cool stats to share, including the launch of a press release, which played a key part in the traffic, in addition to the social piece. Look for it soon.

Thanks for all the support, and check back in a week for the winner.

Yesterday I received two emails (via LinkedIn) from SEO industry recruiters. Don’t think that this happens often (I’m not that cool). The interesting part isn’t that they contacted me, but how they pitched themselves.

Let’s start with the good one. We’ll call him Smarty McRecruiter. He actually added me as an invite prior to emailing me, and asked if I’d connect with him on LinkedIn. I read through his profile, and accepted. Here’s a copy/paste of his email:

Hi Dan,

I just wanted to thank you for accepting my invitation to join my network. If you would ever like to be introduced to anyone in my network please don’t hesitate to ask.

Also, I would love to chat with you for a few minutes if you would be interested. That way if you ever decide to hit the job market I could work with you right away. Either way, yes or no, is fine. Once again, thank you for accepting my invitation. Have a wonderful day!

Thanks,

Smarty McRecruiter

No pressure, no hurry, no biggie.

Now let’s discuss the second email. We’ll call this guy Pimply McClueless. I’m going to leave the misspellings and incorrect grammar in place, for effect. Here we go:

Dan,

My name is Pimply McClueless and I am a search Consultant with Zipperhead Recruiters. I would like to speak with you regarding umerous positions I am working on currently that match your back round. One specific position is within the BLANK Industry and looks to be a great fit! Please let me know the best way for us to connect and speak?

How many errors do you count? I count 4.

• Capitalized “Consultant” but not “search”. One way or the other; be consistent
• Forgot the “n” in numerous. Really.
• “back round”? background
• Why the question mark at the end?

I’ve dealt with multiple national recruiters in the past, and I’m willing to bet that they may have some of the same positions to fill. Guess which one I’d be more inclined to reach out to?

Thoughts? Horror stories? Did the name Pimply McClueless make you laugh out loud? Yeah, me too.

I acquired a Google Fridge a while ago, and have decided to give it away to one lucky reader. First, some specifics on the fridge:

There are a lot more pics at my Flickr page.

I also made a little video showing some of the coolness of said fridge. It can even be used to keep things warm. Multi-purpose!

So how do you win this awesome piece of schwag? Just write a blog post outlining what you’d do with it if you won, and link to this post. I’ll see the trackback, and you’re automatically entered! Also, leave a comment on Tamar’s Schwag Addict post, just to make sure.
The contest runs for a week, ending Monday, January 14th, 2008. There are 4 judges (Tamar Weinberg, Barry Schwartz, Matt McGee and myself), and we’ll pick a winner about a week after that. I’ll link to the winning article for all to see.

For those without a blog, you can send me an email at golf01 at gmail dot com, but really, why aren’t you blogging? Looking for a great reason to start! I’ve just given you one!

Best of luck everyone; Now bring on the submissions!

Searching Google for the term “golf marketing”, and the tenth result had an extra line underneath it. Would you click through to this website?

Ouch. Clicking on the link takes you to a Google Help page that explains a little about malicious software. Even if you click on the link (to go to the site), Google shows you an additional warning page, just to make sure you’re aware that there may be a problem.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on the Google search result for your website. How many people do you think will visit this site (from Google) after multiple warnings?

I’ve seen many sites go through redesign, and one of the most often forgotten details is redirecting the old pages to the new pages. This is especially important when you are changing platforms (EX: from .html to .aspx).

I was looking up a local course (Cantigny Golf Course), and noticed they recently redesigned their site (and it looks much better). As you can guess, this detail slipped through the cracks, and the video shows why this is a negative not only from an online marketing standpoint, but from a usability standpoint as well.

As I’ve said many times, online marketing isn’t doing one thing perfect; it’s doing 200 things well.