Advice on advertising, please

[Loopy Lou]

Dear All,

I've just done three searches on Google to see what came up with regard to sites and got these results in this order:

"Self-catering Gite holidays in France"
brittany-ferries.co.uk
frenchconnections.co.uk
franceonecall.com
holidaybank.co.uk
escapeholidays.co.uk
whereonearthgroup.com (8th)
Sponsored links on right, amongst others - chooseacottage.co.uk

"Self-catering cottages in France"
cheznous.com
easycottages.com
franchconnections.co.uk
francedirect.net
visitfrance.co.uk
whereonearthgroup.com
brittany-ferries.co.uk
francedirect.com
gitelink.com
Sponsored links on right, amongst others -
holiday-rentals.co.uk
individualfrance.com
cottages4you.co.uk
welcomecottages.com

"Gites in France"
gites-de-france.fr
ownersdirect.co.uk
brittany-ferries.co.uk
gites-in-france.co.uk
gitelink.com
holidayfrance.org.uk
frenchholidayhomes.com
visitfrance.co.uk
Sponsored links on rights, amongst others -
holidayswanted.com
cheznous.co.uk
individualfrance.com
cottages4you.co.uk
holidaygites.co.uk

There are so many sites to advertise with and such a raft of properties that it is difficult to choose where to start. My predecessors advertised with Visit France and it has been pretty successful (I have guests at the moment in one of the gites) and I will continue with them, but I want to widen my advertising base. So, please, could you give me some of your valuable advice as to where to go from here?

Thanks for your help.

Lou

[ravetildon]

I have never heard the term gite. Guess I still have lots to learn about European search terms.

You are doing what I would recommend to find great sites to advertise on. I would look for patters on those lists. See a few that are always coming up in the top 10. Those may be good. Maybe also check them every week or so to make sure one didn't get a top spot accidentally.

One thing I didn't see. have you checked those terms to make sure they get traffic?

[ravetildon]

I just did a search in wordtracker ( a tool to measure how many searches certain words bring. The tool didn't show any searches for those phrases. So thye may not be good ones to use. Although the tool could be giving bad data also.

The only one that had some search traffic was:

gites in France with 127 daily searches with only 30,000 competing sites, you that one could be a gold mine for ya.

[Giddy Goat]

I don't profess to know much about the subject but I'd have thought your search terms are too general Lou to be of much use in pointing you to what sites might be appropriate for your area/market? Think of what you're offering, and where you are, and use some of those as your key words.

[Margaret]

I'm not sure I agree! Looking at the search terms used by people finding our site, the majority are very general - mainly holidays in Bavaria, Bavaria holidays, forest holidays, self catering in Bavaria and, increasingly, Bavarian Forest. We often ask our guests what they searched for and the terms are usually surprisingly general.

[Giddy Goat]

Bavaria is known for certain attributes and I'd use that search term too - but seriously, " Gites in France"+variations on that theme???? People who holiday in France are looking for much more specific stuff on the whole. I'd imagine that any listing site will turn up somewhere on Google using those general search terms, so you'd still be left wondering which to choose! Lou will have to be more targeted with her choice of words - she has a pool, she's in Poitou-Charentes, so there are two ideas for starters.

There's certainly something wrong with Lou's present system, as only one of LMH members' favourite listing sites shows up in any of her examples above, and it's by no means at the top! By contrast, FrenchConnections does rather well - but has consistenyl received the thumbs down here recently by people who have advertised with them!

Lou, you could do worse than follow Paolo's tips: http://www.laymyhat.com/newsletters/new ... .htm#found

Also search through the forum as there are already plenty of threads on this theme. The answers are all here if you dig.

Sorry - I'm in grumpy mode as our boiler went on the blink last night - third winter running and the last two times we waited three weeks before heating was restored.

[paolo]

There's certainly something wrong with Lou's present system, as only one of LMH members' favourite listing sites shows up in any of her examples above, and it's by no means at the top!

That might suggest there is something wrong with LMH member's list of favourites. This thread is from January 2007 so by no means up to date.

[ravetildon]

I am not familiar with those areas.

I usually recommend people in the usa advertise for search terms by the city they are in plus vacation rental. As an example:

Good one:

San Francisco Vacation Rental


Bad ones (too general):

California vacation rentals
United states vacation rentals

So maybe Paris Gite would be a good example?

[Giddy Goat]

That might suggest there is something wrong with LMH member's list of favourites. This thread is from January 2007 so by no means up to date.

Didn't notice this and you have a point Paolo in theory, but French Connections was already receiving the thumbs down at that time, and one of our present front runners was a front runner then too!

Ravetildon, you're confusing me with the digging up of old threads! But continue, I'll just be more on the alert. There's a wealth of knowledge stored here.

What's with your name BTW?

[paolo]

There may be thousands of advertisers who are delighted with French Connections, but who didn't post about it on Lay My Hat. I actually wouldn't listen to any recommendations for listing sites, unless you can demonstrate that those sites appear on page 1 of Google for one or more key search phrases for your particular property.

[ravetildon]

Sorry to confuse you. Didn't mean it. I haven't' logged in here in quite a while. There's lots of good stuff & figured I'd chime in to help.

My name is Craig Mullins. It's in my signature at the bottom of my post.

paolo, I agree. unless the person recommending a vacation rental site has a vacation rental in the same city as you you may be purchasing a listing site that doesn't' perform.

Search for terms you think others would search for to find your rental. Then use those listing sites.

[Giddy Goat]

There may be thousands of advertisers who are delighted with French Connections, but who didn't post about it on Lay My Hat.

That's quite true Paolo, but the membership here is a reasonably representative cross section. And I also take the point that what works for one may not for another - so as we all agree, the preliminary research needs to be more area specific.

* Craig, I was referring to your forum name.

[ravetildon]

ohhh.... Guess that's what happens when you are replying to posts at 2 AM

Well, I used to be in the special event production business. I would put on those all night raves & I also rent out huge sound systems to the parties. I still do that. The parties usually last till dawn or sometimes 2 weeks, thus rave till dawn.

The name has just stuck. I am on SOO many forums under that name, it would be a huge headache to change it & everyone would have to learn who I was all over...

Not the most professional name for this industry, but I am who I am.

[Giddy Goat]

OK - thanks!!

[Loopy Lou]

Fascinating to see this thread coming to light when my initial post was in January 2007 (and not replied to till March 2008) and I have moved on some since then!!!!

Put it to bed now.

A bientot,

Lou