What's in a blog?

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
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Aldo
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What's in a blog?

Post by Aldo »

Have kept this diary/blog on and off for some time now but I have never stopped to really think about the content and whether it really brings in any business.

It's really about the city rather than the house, because from the start, I was convinced that marketing-wise I needed to sell the city before I even attempted to sell the house.

It does tend to be a bit heavy at times. I'd love to know what you think and who you think it would interest, whether it attracts business or whether it could be a way of keeping contact with past guests. All I know is that I hardly ever get any comments on the blog. Does that mean no one actually reads it?
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Blogs have a myriad of usages and we're seeing some highly creative WordPress websites (I'm reluctant to call them blogs because they've gone beyond that).

It helps if you have a specific agenda/objective, then focus on it and be disciplined and results will follow.

They're good tools to have as they enable you to rapidly and easily publish any info you wish, more easily I would suggest than updating your main site. Press mentions, new places opening in the city which would be useful to travelers etc. All as easy as posting a message on a forum, or emailing someone.

There's probably massive opportunities for you to start a niche web magazine focussing on Valletta using blog tools such as WordPress along with one of the newpaper/magazine style themes.

Become a news hub, promote the city before the apartment.
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Windy
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Post by Windy »

sell the city before I even attempted to sell the house.
I'd definitely agree with that - hard though it is for us to accept sometimes people aren't buying into our places first. In our case our lodges are just wooden caravans on their own, but when they have been sited in a fantastic location the sum is far greater than the parts.

I think though that our guests are probably saying "let's go to the Lake District" rather than "let's go and stay in a lodge".

What would be good is if we could get a few more non-UK visitors, and the only way to do that is to help sell the area to people who may not know it. as you suggest.
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Aldo
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Post by Aldo »

One thing I have not done yet is to invite all past guests via e-mail to have a look at the blog. I wanted to get it absolutely spot on before doing that though.
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marcus
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Post by marcus »

Contrary to what people often think it is very difficult to maintain a blog that has lots of regular visitors, gets comments posted etc. Finding inspiration for a regular blog post is not easy, writing well enough that people want to keep coming back is even harder. Most of our lives aren't crammed with non-stop amusing incidents. Or perhaps it's just me.

Yours is a very good idea for a blog but yes, it is a bit dry at the moment - it needs more of your character in it to keep people involved. Try and avoid third person writing such as "you feel as though one has known them all one's life. It does not happen with each and every guest"

Take a look at Craig McGinty's http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/ for a good 'style of writing' - he writes in a way that makes everyone feel welcome, as if a friend is telling them what is going on in the world. Also short sentences, short paragraphs, no long or difficult words - all key to blog reading.

When you visit a restaurant, art gallery, museum etc write a 'personal' review, what you really thought of it and why. When you describe a historical building draw people into the history and events that took place there. You say about Malta: 'its stories of Knights and Grandmasters, its palaces and museums intrigued me'. That's also the kind of thing visitors want to read about and will make them want to visit. Likewise amusing news stories, great photos etc.

Now if only I could do all those things myself I'd be very happy. (My blog gets quite a lot of visitors each day and still only occasional comments so don't worry too much about that, a certain type of readership just don't post many comments. Or perhaps they leave the site before they get to the end of the article, who knows) :oops:
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Aldo
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Post by Aldo »

Thank you for that Marcus. That was very helpful. I did have a look at Craig's thisfrenchlife and I found it made for very interesting reading.

I wonder if on blogspot I can do something so as to only show the first paragraph of each posting so that readers can flick through the posts and, if they are interested to read further, can click on the particular posting.
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Aldo wrote:I wonder if on blogspot I can do something so as to only show the first paragraph of each posting so that readers can flick through the posts...
In WordPress you can opt to show the post's excerpt on the homepage, so look around your blog's admin for a similarly worded feature.

You don't host the blog yourself so you're a bit restricted in what you can do with it on the whole, but I'm sure Blogspot allows you to display an excerpt of each post. That said, I do see lots of Blogspot blogs that have exceptionally long homepages because the full posts are displayed, so maybe not. Just delve around.
Martha
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Post by Martha »

Do you have a stats package on it? Then you can see how many visitors, what they're looking for etc...and whether they go through to your house. I enjoyed reading it :)
Chalet la Foret, Chamonix
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Aldo
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Post by Aldo »

Hi Martha, I have figured how to do that just now, so I shall start to check on statistics. Which type of content did you find interesting and which did you skip?
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Aldo, did you figure how to display excerpts on your main page, or is my post above invisible? ;-)
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Aldo
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Post by Aldo »

Sorry Garri, Was hoping to figure it out before answering. Have just had some press to report about on the blog so was busy trying to make the most of it. Have tried looking at the blog workings but could not find anything similar.
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Aldo, here's a solution you may want to explore.

Seems Blogspot blogs don't have the excerpt option, another reason to choose WordPress ;-)
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Aldo
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Post by Aldo »

Cheers Garri, I'll try that out. :D
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Remember to back it up though (not sure how you do that with Blogspot)
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thisfrenchlife
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Post by thisfrenchlife »

Firstly many thanks for mentioning This French Life, naturally if people see anything on it and wonder how it works just shout.

A couple of things I've learnt from the site is to see it as a way to keep people in touch with what's on in the local area, you can even help promote establishments close to you and get known beyond just offering holiday accommodation.

A couple of techie points, I do think a newsletter of some description is necessary, either use the Feedburner service that hooks into your RSS feed or use a paid-for service.

Getting in front of readers on a regular basis means when they are ready to book or tell a friend about your place you are close at hand.

Another thing is to be aware of the importance of headlines for search, location based references will help, puns and playing on words will not.

For example, What's On in Valletta this winter will have more chance of hooking into searches than the story titled just Winter Sun.

Hope this helps but as I say any other questions just shout.

Craig
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