Green Fins Award 2025: what it took
One award, built on close to ten years of small daily habits. What the Green Fins Award 2025 recognized at Ceningan Divers.
By Robert ScalesDiving, tourism & conservation
35 posts in this category, newest first.
Moving to Montpellier, Quebec
From an island village in Indonesia to a village in the Petite-Nation: two places with more in common than one might expect.
By Robert ScalesGreen Fins: the first zero-score member in Indonesia
In February 2024, Ceningan Divers became the first zero-score Green Fins member in Indonesia. The result reflects six years of consistent practices.
By Robert ScalesAI translation and automation for dive businesses
Diving operates in dozens of languages, and AI translation is improving rapidly. Safety wording, however, cannot be approximate in any language.
By Robert ScalesGreen Fins through a pandemic
No guests, no revenue, and the reef is still there. Maintaining environmental standards through the pandemic is a genuine test for small dive operators.
By Robert ScalesCommunity in lockdown: keeping a dive family together with no guests
Eight months with no guests on the island: the community is what the dive centre still has. How to keep it together when there is nothing to sell.
By Robert ScalesLaunching edu.ceningandivers.com in the middle of a shutdown
With diving suspended, we have opened an online Education Centre. Why offering free learning makes sense while everything is closed.
By Robert ScalesWhen the borders close: running a tourism business with no tourists
The islands off Bali are emptying. What a small tourism business owes its guests and its staff when activity stops entirely.
By Robert ScalesDesigning an online learning centre for a dive resort
Teaching first and selling later, if at all. How we are shaping an online Education Centre for Ceningan Divers, and what any small business can apply from the approach.
By Robert ScalesDive Resort of the Year, and why the second award matters more
A second award confirms that the first was not a matter of chance. What we continued to do at Ceningan Divers between the two, and why consistency outperforms a single major effort.
By Robert ScalesCitizen science with guests: when a holiday photo becomes research data
A guest's manta photo can end up in a research database. How we involve guests in the science, and what any business can apply from this approach.
By Robert ScalesBlueGreen360 Dive Operator of the Year: what an award does for a business
This year, our dive shop was named BlueGreen360 Dive Operator of the Year. What an award does for a small business, what it does not do, and who earned it.
By Robert ScalesRainwater, waste and plastic: when operations become the marketing
We are building a 68,000-litre rainwater reservoir at Ceningan Divers. Here is why this kind of operational work makes more effective marketing than any slogan.
By Robert ScalesJoining Green Fins: getting ready for our first reef assessment
Ceningan Divers has joined Green Fins. An assessor will verify how the centre actually operates, which carries more weight than any eco label.
By Robert ScalesBusiness development for a dive resort
Agents, partner hotels, liveaboards and schools: the network that fills the boat in the low season must be built during the high season.
By Robert ScalesReef-safe tourism and marketing honesty
Nearly every dive shop now describes itself as 'eco'. How to present genuine environmental work without overstating it, and why discerning guests recognize the difference.
By Robert ScalesCommunity development on a small island
A dive centre is a guest in the village. Observations from Nusa Ceningan on working with a small community rather than simply operating within it.
By Robert ScalesStructured data for tourism businesses
Schema markup for a dive centre or guesthouse: LocalBusiness, events, courses, genuine reviews, and the testing that prevents markup from failing unnoticed.
By Robert ScalesA YouTube channel for a dive centre
Course previews, dive site briefings and guest stories: the kind of video that continues to generate bookings for years, not days.
By Robert ScalesContent marketing for conservation, without the preaching
A beach cleanup photo can read as a lecture or as an invitation. How to tell conservation stories that people actually read and share.
By Robert ScalesWriting the business plan for a dive resort
Eight weeks after a dive centre opens, the business plan is reviewed against the first real figures. What it contained, and which elements deserve more weight.
By Robert ScalesCeningan Divers is open: building the first website
Ceningan Divers opened on August 1, and the website had to be ready before the doors were. Here is what a new business website needs on day one.
By Robert ScalesMexicombi Collective Bali
We partnered with Mexicombi, Bali’s mobile Mexican cantina, to build their brand, social media presence and website.
By Holistic HybridBuilding a dive resort brand from scratch
Ceningan Divers has not yet welcomed its first guest. Before any logo is designed, we are defining what kind of place it will be.
By Robert ScalesNew App: Flappy Diver by DIVEmApps, Inc
Coming July 1, 2014: Flappy Diver, a free scuba-themed tap game from DIVEmApps, Holistic Hybrid’s mobile development subsidiary.
By Holistic HybridCrystal Divers: marketing PADI instructor courses online
Future instructors research for months. The most effective IDC pages provide the answers before candidates need to ask.
By Robert ScalesTop tech trends for 2014, from a dive shop desk
Wearables, mobile payments, video: which 2014 technology trends will matter for a small tourism business, and which can be set aside.
By Robert ScalesCrystal Divers Bali: rebuilding an established dive brand online
We have begun web work for Crystal Divers in Sanur. The first principle: audit before redesigning, and preserve every old URL.
By Robert ScalesPhoto SEO: alt text, file names and speed
Underwater photos are a dive site's best content, yet largely invisible to Google. Here is how to address that with file names, alt text and speed.
By Robert ScalesWriting web copy for divers
Most dive centre websites repeat the same brochure language. Here is how to write web copy that divers genuinely trust, from dive site pages to trip reports.
By Robert ScalesDigital nomad basics from Bali
A year of working from Bali: power cuts, two SIM cards, protected mornings, and what applies to anyone running a business far from a city.
By Robert ScalesSiri and the question-shaped search
The iPhone 4S shipped with Siri. What changes for search when people ask full questions out loud, and the steps a small business site should take.
By Robert ScalesDigital strategy for dive shops: notes from the inside
Training as a dive instructor while helping dive shops with their marketing. What these operators teach about showcasing a place and a team.
By Robert ScalesGreenCityBlueLake - thinking strategically about the sustainability of Northeast Ohio
GreenCityBlueLake is a Bryght Light site that has become an online community workspace where people tell their sustainability stories.
By Roland TanglaoThe Skinny on the Success of 30 Days of Sustainability
While the annual 30 Days of Sustainability event has come to a close, the practice and purpose of sustaining our communities continue.
By Megan ColeYour business deserves to be found.
Tell us about your project. We answer in English or French, and we travel anywhere in the MRC de Papineau.