That’s true to a large degree because companies such as RV America On Line™ recognized early on the potential of the Internet for businesses in the RV industry. RV America was founded in 1995 by RV industry insiders and started developing portal web sites for people interested in the RV lifestyle and began designing and building web sites for RV businesses.

RV News’ publisher Dan Holt and then editor Don Magary founded RV America. These entrepreneurs helped pioneer the Internet as viable adjuncts to RV companies’ businesses. Over the years other RV portal and hosting sites have come and gone, but RV America is still guided by the original founders Holt and Magary.

A few days ago, RV News sat down with RV America’s founders to talk about the current state of the Internet as it relates to businesses in RV industry and what they see as the future of marketing RV products and services on the Internet.

RV America CEO Dan Holt and President Don Magary are not what you might expect as entrepreneurs running a successful Internet business, which is typically believed to be the domain of 20-year-olds or younger. While their hair is telltale gray, the sparkle in their eyes and the passion in their voices when you start talking about the Internet makes you aware that their spirits are young.

Holt said, "The Internet has given us both a new lease of life. I’ve been doing RV News for 30 years and Don has been with me for almost 20 years. Even though we have a great love for the industry and are concerned about issues facing the industry, putting out a magazine every month gets routine after a while. When we founded Web Site Management, Inc., and started developing RV America On Line™ life got exciting again."

I asked them after these past several years of working with RV companies and developing business web sites what’s the most important thing a company needs to know of have success on the Internet?

"It’s a lot of things," Holt said. "A business web site has to provide all the information that a visitor might want to know about the products and services offered – if it isn’t there, the visitor will go someplace else where they can get the information. They also need to have an attractively designed web site that is easy to navigate, in other words, make it easy for people find what they are looking for. Then they need programs that will allow them to keep their web sites current and up-to-date. For example, if a dealer has inventory listed on his or her web site that is already sold, a visitor trying to get information on that unit is going to be disappointed. It’s a whole lot of different things."