Good Sam - what's in it for the campgrounds?

JAC1982 wrote:
Before the internet was a "thing", you had to rely on things like Good Sam or AAA to tell you which spots were the best rated. I'm in my mid-30s, and I remember my mom planning our trips using the AAA guidebook when I was a kid. Nowadays, you can go on various websites and read reviews from actual people who stayed there recently, to see if the spot is worth a stay. Once a book is published it can become immediately out of date. So I don't blame RV park owners for wanting to ditch it and just rely on internet advertising and word of mouth since that is more up to date and in many cases, free or low cost.

Internet advertising is the polar opposite of low cost and free. There is a reason Google is one of the most valuable companies in the world. GoogleAds is one of their profit centers. You pay Google for keyword Placement. Then you have to pay internet professionals to optimize your search results, to optimize your website for mobile and on and on. My internet advertising budget drawfs all the other, more traditional, avenues such as guidebooks and signage. The internet is BIG business and the cost to use it for advertising is equally large