Everything to do with using your own website to advertise your rental property. Design, usability, hosting, getting listed on the search engines, optimising your site, pay-per-click, etc, etc.
Kevin is "Our" resident web designer.
He is the one who has contributed more than anyone else about matters about web design and feed back. We have never used him because one of us likes the challenge of doing something ourselves.
PM him he is not UK based. But that should not be important.
For:
- Low startup cost, just £69 to get going
- No technical knowledge required to make a rental site based on their template. You chose the colors and the content and you'll be live in no time
- Their template has all the elements required for a standard rental site and works well
- All the content can be maintained by yourself
- No need to buy software, learn programming or pay for a designer
Against:
- Cost is similar to standard web hosting
- No email. Add approx. £50/year to find yourself an email host company where you can make use of your domain name. You could use Gmail etc but doesn't look professional
- Domain name is extra. Add £12/year. Some host companies give you 1 domain for free with hosting
- If the firm PMP disappears, so does your website
- Cannot move site elsewhere as the code is auto generated. If you switch to a normal website, you start from scratch
- Not responsive. Only desktop and mobile at present
- Everyone will know it's another PMP site (but only other owners)
I am not paying anywhere near £50 per year for my email. It is free with my domain I bought originally from 1and 1 and which is now through Webhosting UK. £14 for 2 years which I have just renewed. I point my domain at the PMP nameservers. Email stays with them.
Point taken about what happens if they disappear, but I do have some backup in place if they do.
I do realise this might not be so easy with other domain providers. I helped Brockles with his PMP website, and there was a lot of difficulty changing things over due to the hosting package he had, although we did eventually resolve it.
HelenB wrote:I am not paying anywhere near £50 per year for my email. It is free with my domain I bought originally from 1and 1 and which is now through Webhosting UK. £14 for 2 years which I have just renewed.
Could not find that deal on their website. They quote £4.75/month for 1GB of email hosting.
This is no recommendation for anyone here as sometimes the support will not have enough English for you.
But here are some comparisons of costs. https://en.dinahosting.com/hosting
Domain registering prices do vary on the TLD.
On a personal basis Dinahosting have been exceptional. Great support, which is very very important. Costs good for us. We are happy to recommend them if you Spanish is up to it.
casasantoestevo wrote:Casscat you say it is cheap and it maybe, but what do you actually get for your money?
A very navigable web site that I can control the appearance of and content of. It has all the features I personally need. I have one property, not a fleet of properties, so my spend is in proportion and for me the PMP interface is refreshingly simple for a non-techie. I also find the PMP customer service to be exceptional - really responsive and personal. I have made a couple of suggestions about features they could include and they have been really interested in taking them forward. Behind the scenes they are also constantly making improvements to the functionality in terms of mobile/tablet compatibility etc. I do genuinely believe that as a first outing for a novice property renter this is a good jumping off point. As one's business develops then there is a lot to be said for investing in a professional site, but having a PMP web presence is certainly better than having no web presence.
Casscat wrote:I have free email with my domain people, namesco.
Again, that's a good deal as most times you buy a domain you get nothing else.
The website says 1 address and only 100MB. Do you not find that restrictive?
Nope. I don't use the email all that much and will never touch the limits of capacity. They keep offering me extra addresses, but why would I want them? I only have the one property, not a whole portfolio of them.
That is not what is meant by the question.
How much storage, traffic, email services etc.
The technical details of what is available to you for "planting" a website on the server.
We have given a link to ours to illustrate what can be purchased.
Casscat wrote:I have free email with my domain people, namesco.
Again, that's a good deal as most times you buy a domain you get nothing else.
The website says 1 address and only 100MB. Do you not find that restrictive?
Nope. I don't use the email all that much and will never touch the limits of capacity. They keep offering me extra addresses, but why would I want them? I only have the one property, not a whole portfolio of them.
Actually I deleted my comment as I notice even after several years, I don't have 100MB stored on the server. I tend to delete anything large as I use IMAP.
Multiple email addresses are very useful for a single property. If you use a unique address for each advertiser, then you can see where junk email comes from or scams. If one address ends up being abused to much, simply close it down and create another. All can be forwarded to one master address.
casasantoestevo wrote:That is not what is meant by the question.
How much storage, traffic, email services etc.
The technical details of what is available to you for "planting" a website on the server.
We have given a link to ours to illustrate what can be purchased.
Like I said, I am not a techie so all this means diddly-squat to me. I just want a site that looks appealing, gives all the info, is easy for me to use and visitors to use etc. PMP does not come with add ons like email addresses, but you link to your own domain and email plus you can link to your listings on third party rental sites, FB, Twitter etc. That gives me all the coverage I need.
Casasantoestevo are we at cross purposes about web sites versus domain hosting?
kevsboredagain wrote:
Multiple email addresses are very useful for a single property. If you use a unique address for each advertiser, then you can see where junk email comes from or scams. If one address ends up being abused to much, simply close it down and create another. All can be forwarded to one master address.
