I think blogs, word of mouth and testimonials are just made for each other.
You could write short articles on your blog-style site about a local event, that others are free to add to and comment about, which then establishes you as a useful resource for your area.
These articles are full of key phrases that relate to your local region that brings in search engine visitors, who tell their friends about this great website, who then leave comments etc. etc...
I am a big supporter of holiday homes using blogs to help promote their business.
Considering you can start one for free, and even paid-for versions are less than £50 a year, they should be high up on people's marketing plan.
All the best
Craig
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www.thisfrenchlife.com
Using a Blog (weblog) to market your property
Spot on Craig. I am amazed that this is an area owners aren't looking at along with utilising RSS feeds. I've only seen 1 listing site use RSS feeds and whilst it's not a very good site they should be commended for integrating this technology into their site.I am a big supporter of holiday homes using blogs to help promote their business.
Considering you can start one for free, and even paid-for versions are less than £50 a year, they should be high up on people's marketing plan.
I know that Six Apart (owners of Typepad & Movable Type) are working on a new blogging project that will propel blogging into the mainstream next year.
Personally, I rarely visit websites these days which aren't blogs as I like to use RSS news feeds to keep up to date with various subjects. This is the way the internet is heading: the read/write web that Berners-Lee dreamed of.
By the way, I like your site and see you use Typepad. A great example of what can be achieved at very little cost.
Garri,
If I had a blog, for example, for my rental cottages, how would it work in terms of feedback? I set one up the other day, I don't see how it would work for this purpose. Really a blog is just a diary/comments on things that happen then other people add their comments. I don't know how this would work as a way of showing genuine feedback from guests. They would perhaps want to talk about things that were not subjects on the blog.
If I had a blog, for example, for my rental cottages, how would it work in terms of feedback? I set one up the other day, I don't see how it would work for this purpose. Really a blog is just a diary/comments on things that happen then other people add their comments. I don't know how this would work as a way of showing genuine feedback from guests. They would perhaps want to talk about things that were not subjects on the blog.
Susan, blogs are much more than that. It's how one applies this technology that is the key. For example, you could invite comments from customers and only publish the nice ones since you have the power to do it in the admin.Really a blog is just a diary/comments on things that happen then other people add their comments.
You can make certain aspects of your blog interactive and others static, depending on which platform you're using.
Recently I have been working on applying blog technology for a friend's villa. The great thing is he can update any aspect of it via a browser, the code is semantically structured, and Google loves blogs.
I've seen some wonderful examples of blogging recently that isn't just a diary that people comment on - blogging has moved forward quite a bit since 2001.
Susan, to do that you need to set up a static page for a subject, let's call it Feedback - make it a category. Post an article to thatThey would perhaps want to talk about things that were not subjects on the blog.
category asking people for their feedback and invite comments.
In your admin you can choose to vet comments before publishing them. By doing it this way you then reduce the chances of your blog being comment spammed.
Viola! A feedback system! It's quite beautiful really.
You can then choose to publish the negative ones and you yourself can comment on them by stating that the complaint has been dealt with and problem corrected.
Thankyou Garri for your help on this. I know it is not technically clever, but is it OK just to have a link to the blog on the website, or should it be incorporated into the site somehow (if so, how??)
Have you got any examples I could have a look at? I do think you are right on this, I have guest comments on my site, they are all in fact true, but I could have easily made them up.
Are they easy for people to use? A lot lof people who stay with me use e-mail, but that is generally the extent of their technical knowlege.
Have you got any examples I could have a look at? I do think you are right on this, I have guest comments on my site, they are all in fact true, but I could have easily made them up.
Are they easy for people to use? A lot lof people who stay with me use e-mail, but that is generally the extent of their technical knowlege.
Susan,
Personally, I would use blogging technology for the whole site, or rather a content management system (cms) as solution. This is what I'm attempting to do with my friend's site - we'll see how it turns out.
Here's an example of a site designed and run using a cms/blog system called Textpattern: http://www.seecroatia.net
To answer your question though, since you already have a site I would make the blog a separate link. In it you could write some articles about the area, your experiences etc and generally use it as your persona, or your 'voice'. Use it to categorise your links to interesting and related aspects of your area/activities etc.
If you use it like this you are actually fulfilling several things at once: giving your property a persona, using it to keep track of related links ('social bookmarking' is the glue that binds blogs together), use it to publish related news articles on your area (could help you rise in the Googlesphere, if done right), use it to collect and publish feedback from your guests.
Is it easy for people to use? Yes. In order to make a comment they fill out a very short and simple form and then hit 'submit'. You are then notified.
The other great thing is the use of RSS - syndicated news feeds. It allows people to subscribe to your blog without using email, using a special newsreader (some Browsers have this built in) they can be updated when any new/fresh content is published.
This is the way the internet is going and AOL think so too as they've just paid $25m for Weblogs Inc.
Personally, I would use blogging technology for the whole site, or rather a content management system (cms) as solution. This is what I'm attempting to do with my friend's site - we'll see how it turns out.
Here's an example of a site designed and run using a cms/blog system called Textpattern: http://www.seecroatia.net
To answer your question though, since you already have a site I would make the blog a separate link. In it you could write some articles about the area, your experiences etc and generally use it as your persona, or your 'voice'. Use it to categorise your links to interesting and related aspects of your area/activities etc.
If you use it like this you are actually fulfilling several things at once: giving your property a persona, using it to keep track of related links ('social bookmarking' is the glue that binds blogs together), use it to publish related news articles on your area (could help you rise in the Googlesphere, if done right), use it to collect and publish feedback from your guests.
Is it easy for people to use? Yes. In order to make a comment they fill out a very short and simple form and then hit 'submit'. You are then notified.
The other great thing is the use of RSS - syndicated news feeds. It allows people to subscribe to your blog without using email, using a special newsreader (some Browsers have this built in) they can be updated when any new/fresh content is published.
This is the way the internet is going and AOL think so too as they've just paid $25m for Weblogs Inc.
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craigkillick
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We have been playing with Blogs and have discovered that if you set the templates up correctly, you can run a complete content managed website from the information in a BLOG. Can't lead you to an example as it is on an internal server.
The BLOG creates all the menus and content. $50 per year (you can get them for free). If you know of a bit of programming and CSS, you can get a lot for your money.
The BLOG creates all the menus and content. $50 per year (you can get them for free). If you know of a bit of programming and CSS, you can get a lot for your money.
Gary and Craig -
Thanks for the great info. My husband and I have been discussing the addition of a blog to the next version of our website. He's the writer in the family so it would be his baby. Having a blog that he already updates weekly, it would integrate easily into his "to do"s. (Planned maintenance is important to me because I find out-of-date blogs rather frustrating...)
The goal is to share more personalized info on local attractions, ruminations on Portuguese life, etc., as well as a nod to SEO which I totally ignored in the first frantic attempt to get "something" on the web.
The seecroatia site is very interesting. Thank you for sharing, Garri.
My question: What are the advantages in having the main site be a blog versus a normal website? (eg, why not just link to a blog from a standard css/html site?)
Thanks for the great info. My husband and I have been discussing the addition of a blog to the next version of our website. He's the writer in the family so it would be his baby. Having a blog that he already updates weekly, it would integrate easily into his "to do"s. (Planned maintenance is important to me because I find out-of-date blogs rather frustrating...)
The goal is to share more personalized info on local attractions, ruminations on Portuguese life, etc., as well as a nod to SEO which I totally ignored in the first frantic attempt to get "something" on the web.
The seecroatia site is very interesting. Thank you for sharing, Garri.
My question: What are the advantages in having the main site be a blog versus a normal website? (eg, why not just link to a blog from a standard css/html site?)
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craigkillick
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That's what we have done with our company website to link both. The main site http://www.the-escape.co.uk feeds from the Blog http://theescape.typepad.com
I think this is a great way to go because you can keep your site as it is but take the data in from the BLOG.
Early stages for me looking into the feasibility of this as it is using it for something it is not necessarily designed for. That said, it works and it is v. cheap so why not.
I think this is a great way to go because you can keep your site as it is but take the data in from the BLOG.
Early stages for me looking into the feasibility of this as it is using it for something it is not necessarily designed for. That said, it works and it is v. cheap so why not.
There's some personal sites on here canvassing for reviews, who shall remain nameless, but I find it amazing that anyone, in 2005, would build a badly structured web site without using css - especially a business one....as well as a nod to SEO which I totally ignored in the first frantic attempt to get "something" on the web.
The result often leads to having to resort to using dodgy SEO tactics because they haven't thought about how their content is inherently structured. So what you end up with is a dogpile of code that would be a nightmare to alter/amend any of the content, let alone add new content.
You're welcome. Would you know that the entire site is run using blogging software unless I told you?The seecroatia site is very interesting. Thank you for sharing, Garri.
Blogs are increasingly becoming 'normal' websites. There's those that look like blogs and there's those that don't, case in point being the seecroatia site. They simply removed the metapost data so often seen on blogs and I think they've set it up using a string of static pages (not sure but it looks that way to me)My question: What are the advantages in having the main site be a blog versus a normal website? (eg, why not just link to a blog from a standard css/html site?)
One of the many things that is nice about that site is their use of images. The header image is different each visit. The thumbnails are nicely rendered and note the use of css to achieve the drop shadow effect. It means they can change the style without having to re-render loads of images in Photoshop.
I'm some way behind on my projects as I'm still learning the ropes but I hope to show my friends' site off on here when I've finished it.
I'm with Craig on this subject.
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craigkillick
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I used http://www.typepad.com which costs $50.
It is very easy to set up and stylise. http://craigkillick.typepad.com
There is a free one from google called blogger as well. http://www.blogger.com/ I signed up for this but didn't like it so for $50 a year I thought I would try typepad instead. 30 free trial to see if you like it.
Horses for courses though - there are lots out there.
It is very easy to set up and stylise. http://craigkillick.typepad.com
There is a free one from google called blogger as well. http://www.blogger.com/ I signed up for this but didn't like it so for $50 a year I thought I would try typepad instead. 30 free trial to see if you like it.
Horses for courses though - there are lots out there.