Alternatives to the major listing sites

[Hells Bells]

Do you use any other forms of internet advertising?
I have had some success on Ebay, and Franglo.
Also Gumtree seems to give me good google search results. Is there anywhere else we can consider?

[Margaret]

Following Marcus' suggestion, I post articles at ezinearticles. I also use my blog to post tourist information rather than personal chat - that works quite well in terms of driving people to our website.
I also use posting on forums to attract attention.
I have to say that none of these have produced as much as an enquiry, let alone a booking. But being in an unknown area, anything which raises to overall profile is a good thing, I reckon.

[e-richard]

Just a thought:

Websites dedicated to the local area/region may be a good bet. Whether private or tourist authority, if they have any classified listings you may pick up holidaymakers heading for a specific destination.

As it happens my 3rd best performing site is www.carvoeiro.com which is actually very small (traffic-wise) compared to the majors, and thus the costs-per-opportunity-to-view are exorbitant, but certainly pays for itself in my case.

Try searching on your local area - without the word rentals or homes in the search phrase.

[Hells Bells]

Trying to tap into the huge number of kayakers who visit the valley in the spring, I posted on a kayaking forum, but lnowing nothing about the sport it is difficult. I did receive a couple of enquiries though.

[Chianti]

Helen

What would happen if you put kayak amongst your meta codes? Would you be likely to pick up this special interest group that way?

Chianti

[Hells Bells]

Chianti, I already have done.

[Chianti]

Clever Clogs


Chianti

[Holiday Ray]

Helen
I noticed you'd mentioned on another thread somewhere, that you use ebay.
I have only ever used ebay for buying and selling, but have noticed holidays on there in the past, not having taken much notice of them though.
Do they have seperate advertiser pages, or are the listings treated like an auction ?
What would you say are the pro's/cons of using ebay and what kind of volume of hits do you get to your website please.
Thanks

[Musetta]

I've been trying to post local tourist info./day trips on my blog - I get found a LOT that way becasue there's not very much info. on my area. Don't know if it's gotten any bookings...but, as Margaret said, I always feel good about promoting local tourism. I've tried Criagslist...but haven't gotten anything from it.

[pete]

I have used ebay, I have also had a few of the ads deleted becasue they did not have specific dates on.

If I put a 3 day listing I had as many questions/enquires as 10 or 7 days, 5 ads though only ever made one booking,

We have 3 paid ads and 12 free ads (all info collected here) and none of our few bookings have come from the same source.

[Hells Bells]

Helen
I noticed you'd mentioned on another thread somewhere, that you use ebay.
I have only ever used ebay for buying and selling, but have noticed holidays on there in the past, not having taken much notice of them though.
Do they have seperate advertiser pages, or are the listings treated like an auction ?
What would you say are the pro's/cons of using ebay and what kind of volume of hits do you get to your website please.
Thanks

Initially successful as I got rid of two weeks in my first summer. They were both on 'buy now' at discounted rates. You can also list on ebay.fr and slightly different rules apply. I put a long date range which included all my availability. Buyers were encourgaed to contact me before buying to organise dates.
As for hits on my website do you mean from a link on my ebay ad (allowed if you are displaying more photos of your item) or in general? I had 1996 unique visits to my website in March according to the stats my host provides.

[Holiday Ray]

As for hits on my website do you mean from a link on my ebay ad (allowed if you are displaying more photos of your item) or in general? I had 1996 unique visits to my website in March according to the stats my host provides.

I actually meant from the link on your ebay add Helen. It's interesting to know how many hits your site has had overall though. Perhaps worthy of a new Topic ? Maybe something along the lines of "How many hits do you get to your website and what do you think the optimum number to be"
Does anyone know if we've had such a topic for discussion recently ?. If not I think I'll start a new one
Can you point me in the direction of an old (or even current) ad you have with ebay Helen, so as to give me an idea about what the standard sort of format is.

Thanks muchly

[kirkland]

If you post a classified ad on ebay, rather than an auction, it stays up for about 28 days, it`s very cheap and you can have links. it also comes up in searches and google can find it too.

[Hells Bells]

I don't have any current ads on ebay, I haven't used them for a while now.

[Hells Bells]

I don't think it had much impact on my web traffic at the time either.
Oh, and how do we post a classified ad? I can see how to do so for a rental on ebay france, but not UK