Review my website

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
isplumm
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:05 pm
Location: La Pellerine, Noyant, France
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Review my website

Post by isplumm »

Hi,

Well after nearly three years, we have just about completed our renovation on our house in the Loire Valley.

I have been developing a website using Promote My Place - still needs some work - especially around photos & local area.

I will be changing the web address to something more suitable - using something like go-daddy.

Please review & come back with comments - any comments / advise will be gratefully received.

Thanks Mark

http://lapellerineloirevalley.promotemyplace.com
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Mark, please sit down with a large glass of something to calm the nerves because I am going to be a bit brutal here. And trust me I don't want to be but it's a version of tough love.

I really rate PMP because you can create a grown up web site in no time at all with their templates and customisation, but at the end of the day you have to put your 'prospective guest' head on and look at it from outside. I cannot do the whole techie drill down into what doesn't look good on some or other mobile phone app, but purely as a web viewer I would say that:

- Your home page should show your property and not a sunset which could have been culled from Google Images;
- The photos on the left hand side bar do not entice;
- You are proud of your renovation with very good reason, but you are selling holidays so you don't need a bloke in a t-shirt and dust mask on your home page;
- I would love the whole renovation story other than as a brief narrative about how you have restored the place to full glory and you are proud to share that with your visitors;
- Your home page is often as far as people go - I have not extended further & I've got all these comments! It's your stall and you have to set it out as enticingly as possible. Give them a great central image, a mouth-watering 'why I should stay here' narrative and save your personal pride in the hard graft that brought you to where you are now for a blog. This is not a blog - it is your sales pitch.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I'm afraid I can only echo what Casscat says. You need to improve the photos on offer, you have a fuzzy sunset and a road, a strange roof angle and a chimney in a night sky? Why? That doesn't entice me to want to go on holiday there.

Remove the renovation story to another page or linked blog, and other references like the removal of the five foot wall in the kitchen, or it being an animal shelter. I would also try to depersonalise the narrative. I personally don't want to stay in what feels like your home on loan; I want to feel I own it whilst there so, "my photos in Paris" and "we have left you books and games" do not help me imagine myself there. I can feel you breathing down my neck. :wink:

It's time to step back and try to move on from the renovation. I appreciate it's been your life for so many years, but now you need to sell that holiday dream to your guests.

I have never used go daddy but have read plenty of negative stuff about it, so I would go elsewhere for your web address too.
isplumm
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:05 pm
Location: La Pellerine, Noyant, France
Contact:

Post by isplumm »

Boo hoo!

There was me trying to write some form of story about the house & why we bought it - oh well that will teach me for trying to be clever!! Having looked at it again - it doesn't work.

I agree that the photos need a lot of work - problem was I ran out of time & the weather wasn't great!!!!

Back to the drawing board ....

Thanks Mark
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Mark please don't be despondent! You went out there and you did a really great thing - YOU CREATED A WEB SITE. Hell, that alone deserves a glass of wine and a monster cigar :mrgreen: It's not easy creating a space to show off the place you've toiled over endlessly and which you love (or possibly hate depending upon the extent to which it's sucked the life out of you!) It is very personal right now but you have to stand back and get less personal, that's all. Sadly your guests will not give a flying f*** about how much by way of blood, sweat and tears you invested in your property - they will just want to know how it looks now, what the accommodation is, where it is, how much it costs etc. etc. The web site just embellishes that central set of demands. Show it off for all its worth, but look at it as a potential guest and not someone who knows about all the nuts and bolts that lie behind the image you are trying to sell.
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

I can't help but agree with Casscat and Nemo. Prospective guests really don't want to know about your knocking down walls; once you get guests, however, you'll find that many of them become genuinely interested in your renovation stories so at that point you might want to consider having a dedicated page or blog on your website that tells its story, or alternatively an annotated album in your house.

You might want to read through the whole site as an outsider would ... or better still, get a good friend to do it - and preferably one who has a good grasp of grammar. That way, you might avoid potentially - um - ambiguous statements such as this one:
If you are like my wife and appreciate a lay in (you are on holiday after all!)
Oh, and when you re-do your photos, you really do need to put a bit of effort into setting up and staging the rooms - at the moment your kitchen photo has a pink washing up cloth on the draining board, and one of your bedroom photos shows a badly made up bed with sheet tails hanging out of the end!

So, deep breath, large glass of wine, and start again! And try spending some time looking around the forum at some of our members' websites - especially at the photos.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

I would take a look at the many PMP sites on here and see what you like about them. I think the others have explained the problems very well and you need to sit back and redesign.
Last edited by kevsboredagain on Sat May 16, 2015 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
kg1
Posts: 2347
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 4:23 pm

Post by kg1 »

Oh Dear. When I looked at your web site yesterday my thoughts were exactly those echoed above, but at 6.30am didn't have the time to craft a diplomatic reply!

You are welcome to look at my PMP website - it is on my Profile. Not perfect but it might help you. Chin up!
isplumm
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:05 pm
Location: La Pellerine, Noyant, France
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Updated website

Post by isplumm »

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the comments - I have now updated the website - please review.

I am still working on the pictures!! But please do comment on them as well - which ones look good / crap.

Thanks Mark
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

Good start. Simple, but in time you can build on it. The main thing lacking is how many it sleeps within the bullet points. Guests don't want to have to count up the bed configurations to work out how many it sleeps.
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PW in Polemi
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Location: A village in Paphos, Cyprus

Post by PW in Polemi »

Hi Mark - I love the photo of the lounge, it just looks so comfy and welcoming.
Spotted a couple of typos on Local Area page

"... La Pellerine, which has nice resturant where you can get a excellent lunch ..."

should read "... La Pellerine, which has a nice restaurant where you can get an excellent lunch ..."

Haven't time to go over all of it, but the overall impression is welcoming.

Good luck!
Dogs have masters. Cats have slaves!
isplumm
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:05 pm
Location: La Pellerine, Noyant, France
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Post by isplumm »

Nemo wrote:Good start. Simple, but in time you can build on it. The main thing lacking is how many it sleeps within the bullet points. Guests don't want to have to count up the bed configurations to work out how many it sleeps.
Yikes - never noticed that .... updated ...

Thanks for the comments.

Just need to update a few photos ....

Mark
isplumm
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:05 pm
Location: La Pellerine, Noyant, France
Contact:

Post by isplumm »

PW in Polemi wrote:
Spotted a couple of typos on Local Area page

"... La Pellerine, which has nice resturant where you can get a excellent lunch ..."

should read "... La Pellerine, which has a nice restaurant where you can get an excellent lunch ..."

Haven't time to go over all of it, but the overall impression is welcoming.

Good luck!
Thanks for this - updated - still work to do ... but getting there - wife has reviewed, as she thinks I put far to many commas in!!!

Mark
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Looking better. Try and even out your content, for example the home page has photos on the left which extend way beyond the other 2 columns. By the 3rd column, the content has fizzled out so the page looks out of balance. The 3rd column is mostly a repeat of things in the 2nd column.

My grammar is not great but is your first sentence not a question? Where is the ? mark
Bordering
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Location: Languedoc, France

Post by Bordering »

It stacks up fine against other owner-created sites, but I can't help thinking that the blue background colour in the header and footer is a bit cold looking. It's more slate than sunny skies
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