01.13.14 And now….Introducing RVillage! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REBLOG!!!

And Now…….Introducing RVillage!

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REBLOG!

RVillage.com will soon become a household name amongst RVers and RV parks.

Mark this day on your calendar as the day you first heard about it here on Rosalyn and Roy’s blog!!

We were invited to an unveiling webcast sponsored by Workamper News back in December of last year (boy does that sound weird, December was last year!!).  The presentation was a little over an hour which included questions and answers.  It’s primary target was RVers who might be interested in working for them.   We learned enough to be super excited about this new product that will be extremely useful to RVers and RV parks everywhere so I want to share what we know with ya’ll today.

The first thing I want to tell you about it is that IT IS FREE – YES, NOT ONE THIN DIME do you have to part with as an RVer or an RV Park.

RVillage.com is a website where it will all happen. Today is the the unveiling of RVillage BETA.  There are still rough edges to smooth out, plenty of big and little bugs to squash, and a lot of potential that is still evolving as we work out the implementation details.  No one has ever created a site and community quite like RVillage before – and RVillage decided to invite the public in before the site is perfect.  If you encounter a problem, please let me know and I’ll pass it along to the person who can look into it!

Here’s a description of what it is and how it will all work for RVers and RV parks.

Every RV park in the country will be able to “claim” their park, giving them a web presence in RVillage.com.  There will be a place for them to tell about their park’s amenities (amps, hookups, WiFi, laundromat, etc.)  Also a map of the community showing where all the businesses are located that advertise with RVillage within a 75 mile radius of the park. The park can announce social get togethers such as pot luck dinners, bingo, card games, etc through the “Get Togethers” button. They will also have the capability to push out to their RV guests announcements about anything including power shutdowns, water shut downs, or  high winds advisory so we can bring in our awnings. Gone will be the days when the park has to go RV to RV knocking on doors to let their guests know about these events or the days of us RVers having to depend on happening to see a notice on the office door.

The park is also given a supply of colorful flyers about RVillage.com to hand out to each guest when they check in. All the fliers and the capabilities described above is at Zero expense to the RV Park.  They just post a sign like the one below at their office and give every guest one of the fliers.

For RVers, like ya’ll and us, it opens a whole new world of social networking amongst us and other RVers.  When you get that flier from the RV Park it guides the RVer to complete their profile in the Village.  Your profile tells about you, what type and size RV, your interests, etc.  Once you’ve done that you’re pretty much set, except that when you arrive at an RVillage Park you’ll check in on RVillage.com at the park you’re in.  Many times RVers have friends at the same or nearby RV park, but don’t know they are there so you don’t get to hook-up and visit.  Or you would have gone to a particular RV park if you knew your friends were also there.  With RVillage you will be able to see where anyone of your RVillage friends are throughout the country on their big map.   You may decide to travel on to the next city when you find out that Suzy Smith your high school cheerleading buddy whom you haven’t seen in ages is staying there.  If you haven’t stayed in touch over the years, how else would you know that she’s there without RVillage.com

RVers can create get togethers on RVillage.com at a specific RV park and others who see the get together can sign up to come, or best of all sign up for what food they are going to bring! We will all be better informed about what’s happening at whatever RVillage park is our current home.  We all walk around the park and waive at other RVers but most of the time we don’t strike up a conversation and get to know others.  RVillage.com’s get together feature and us just clicking that we’re here (with our interests already posted) will provide a smoother, more comfortable way for us to meet each other.  RV life is certainly much in need of this type of acceleration to the 21st century in the use of technology.

RVers have particular needs from local businesses.  We need things like a good dentist for a tooth ache, an urgent care that accepts your insurance, a pet groomer for our precious pets, RV repair or detailing for our homes, or a local restaurant serving our favorite cuisine.  RVers don’t have the luxury of checking with a friend to see who they use or where they eat.  Our usual option is to sift through Google results to hopefully find something.

Prior to RVillage.com our main source of this information was the fold out printed fliers that the RV Park gave us when we checked in similar to the one below.

With the arrival of RVillage.com comes movement into the 21st century for these advertisers to web based advertisement.  The advertisers in the area you’re looking at will show up as a link on the side of the page.  When you click that link a mini-web page ad will appear giving you way more information that a small business card size paper ad could possibly do.   Say you’re looking for some RV service and you find the company that does it near an RVillage Park you’d probably stay at that park to have the work done. You can plan your travels accordingly and contact the advertised company well before arriving to schedule your visit which saves a lot of time waiting like we’ve all done.

RVillage.com brings tremendous benefits to everyone from the RVer, the RV Park and the advertisers. Next time you check into an RV Park ask if they are members of RVillage.  If they haven’t heard about it yet (and it will probably take many months to spread the word and get them all signed up) just let them know it’s here now! They can go to RVillage.com and claim their own park even before someone contacts them about it!  If they give you one of the fliers I recommend highly that you go straight to your RV and sign up (IT’S FREE AFTER ALL!), create your profile and start connecting with other RVillagers as we travel and experience adventure after adventure discovering our beautiful country.

I know this has been long and I didn’t really cover everything exciting about this new product.  If you would, please reblog this so that the word can be spread faster.  I don’t really mind if you don’t give me credit for writing it. I asked the RVillage.com company to review this posting for accuracy and to fill in any blank spots I left out.  Wanted you to know they gave the okay so you’ll know all the information is correct and feel more comfortable re-blogging it!

There are employment opportunities available with this company through the http://www.rvfriendnetwork.com website.  Fill out the application and who knows you could become a virtual employee having fun working from your RV spreading the word to RV Parks and RVers!  Please send me an update if you pursue employment or join RVillage.com as an RVer  I’d love to watch it grow!

All you RVers -head over to http://www.rvillage.com, complete your profile and check out the site.    I’ve heard that within the first hour of it being unveiled they had 40 RVers sign up on the site!  Ya’ll get on over there so we’ll know where our friends are and maybe get to visit some time!!

I wrote this blog several weeks ago and had to wait for their official website unveiling to post it.  Since the time I wrote it, both Roy and I have started working for them!  We both create some of the web ads and I also have some administrative responsibilities related to advertising.  I’ve written about what we’re doing, just not about the company we’re doing it for.

And that, my friends, is the rest of the story!

Ya’ll come back now, ya hear!