Free to List sites - worth the effort!

[willemijn]

incredible ... so many free listing sites. Who are behind all these and how are all the sites going to be able to compete?

I had another one, not yet tried:

planetearthvacations.com

[paolo]

Who are behind all these and how are all the sites going to be able to compete?

They are not going to be able to compete. One or two may make it and get enough paying customers to rank well on search engines, but mostly it is people seeing a way to make 'easy' money for little investment. In fact for a listing site to make an impression these days it takes major investment.

[paolo]

By the way, if you are wondering why all the sites above are no longer clickable, it is because I have taken out the www and disabled them. So you have to copy and paste them into your browser and add 'www.' Sorry!

This is because search engines can penalize you for linking to what Google calls 'bad neighbourhoods', and some of these free sites may not be playing by the rules.

The exceptions I have made are either for sites I know, or those recommended by known and trusted members of the forum.

[willemijn]

if you get some months free listing, the benefit should be that being linked to from another website will make you rank higher? (apart from the possibility of generating enquiries).

[paolo]

Yes, but I am talking about linking from the forum to free listing sites, which gives us no benefit (probably) and may incur Google's wrath if any of those sites is misbehaving.

[willemijn]

is there no risk that the backlisted websites linking to you will get you in trouble?

If so, how can I know which site is a risk site?

[charles]

Well I'm the guy who set up rentahomeabroad.com.

There are several reasons as to why I created a free rental site (though it's not intended to be free forever):

1. It's a commercial venture (I'm set up as a limited company and am VAT registered so I'm not exactly doing it on a whim). It's a project that is meant to capture a share of what is a huge market - even holidayrentals are only skimming the surface IMHO.

2. It's a personal challenge. Just like Michael O'Leary and Stelios Haji-Ioannou - when they loooked at BA and thought "hey I can do it just as well but cheaper". And look what's happening to BA now.

3. It's also a technical challenge - and as a web-designer I find it useful to learn how to create database-driven sites. I also use it as a showcase for prospective clients.

I don't agree that it's a cheap way of making money - you have to invest in software, server space ( in my case a dedicated server) and a lot of man-hours to make it useful , easy to navigate, accessible, law-abiding etc etc.

Sometimes it is like hitting a brick wall - it's surprisingly difficult to convince people to take up a free offer!

And as for ranking, it doesn't have to cost the earth to be at the top of the list - search google.com for "holiday home advertising" - my site is currently #4 (#1 on MSN and Yahoo) - that didn't cost me a penny to achieve, honest!

See you on the web,

Cheers
Charles

[paolo]

is there no risk that the backlisted websites linking to you will get you in trouble?

No there isn't - search engines recognise the fact that you have no control over who links to you, and don't hold it against you (so I understand). It makes sense because it would be really easy to mess up your competitors' sites with some dodgy links to them.

[paolo]

I don't agree that it's a cheap way of making money

It isn't, but many people who get into it must think they can crack it with very little investment. As I said, if you want to do it properly it takes a major investment. There is the back-end you mention and the marketing budget must be very high these days to get your head above the parapet.

Good luck to yours.

[B1athome]

Just wanted to say we have received a booking via this site so thanks Charles and well done ! hope you achieve great success

Debbie

[livinginitaly]

Hi charles ...... recognise you from the 'freelancers.net' forum

Yes, the 'rental' market is fiercely competative, but the rewards are very attractive for those that can 'stay the distance'. Many who expect the 'fast buck' will soon fail or simply get bored.

The investment involved is huge, and I believe that only two kinds of people will succeed .... those with very deep pockets and 'web designers' (sadly in my experience the two are not the same!)

[Ross Hugo]

Hi, This is a topic close to my heart as we set up holidaylets.net 3 years ago. We still run the site and we also offer a 3 month free trial period on the site (to prove it works before we ask for money).

I agree with Paolo that to create and run a site propertly requires significant investment. It's a business like any other. There is the original and ongoing site development to pay for, full time customer services to provide and then marketing and advertising to consider. If you are to do this properly and offer a quality service, you must invest in these resources and they do not come cheap.

All told, over the last 3 years I would estimate we have invested in the region of £400k to get the site to where it is today.

We currently advertise in a number of UK broadsheets, glossy magazines and even did the Christmas edition of the Radio Times. Again, not a cheap exercise! Add 4 full time employees and more spend on Google Adwords and you can see that things soon start to add up.

Providing free listings is a good way of getting Owners to list on your site originally but if you don't deliver any value, you'll soon find yourself with an empty shell. It can be done, but it's getting harder and the competition is fierce. Good luck.

Regards,

Ross Hugo

MD HolidayLets.Net

[charles]

Thanks Debbie for your compliments and Tony for unmasking me I may well submit it for a web review on freelancers..when I pluck up the courage...

I must admit Paolo that when I very first decided to embark on this venture I immediately thought "yeah, easy money" but when I put the ideas on paper the project just got bigger and bigger by the day and the reality of the task ahead quickly dawned on me - I have a huge to-do list of improvements, marketing ideas, fixes required, upgrades, new features etc etc. My budget is no as big as Ross's but the will and determination is there.

I've gone this far and will stick to it now - and I think I, and others, can safely co-exist next to other established sites such as holidaylets because the market is so huge. Until we all get swallowed-up by a multi-national of course )

Cheers,
Charles

[Steve Noctor]

Well it looks like we've got a little holiday home website owners club in the formation !

I'm the Managing Director of Click4holidayhomes.com. These forums were brought to my attention earlier in the week as we have had a number of property owners signing up to our website and citing Laymyhat as the referall source.

Similairly to Ross we have invested heavily in our website over the past 12 months and as he states, the competition is fierce.

Over the past twelve months we have noticed a number of speculators appearing in the marketplace. I admire anyone who is prepared to invest their time and money into such a venture although if you really analyse them most are developed on a whim.

We too have a number of full time staff involved in the day to day running of the business and I think without this kind of investment most of these sites will find it impossible to survive.

Competitive marketplaces such as the holiday home rentals market always have an uncanny knack of sifting out the good from the bad and I suspect over the next year or two merely a handful of successful sites will emerge as the clear market leaders. My money (literally) is on those offering a superior level of quality and service, and not those out to turn a quick buck.

[paolo]

Nice to hear from you listing site owners, and nice that Lay My Hat is bringing you new customers. But let's draw a line here or else a lot of listing sites are going to want to jump in with their observations(/plugs!), and then I'll have to delete all these posts.