Lay My Hat

thisfrenchlife wrote: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.

I will take your suggestion for clearer headings. The thing you said about the newsletter I agree with but I got lost with the techie side. Will need to understand what Feedburner service and RSS feeds are. I'll have a look around the web. I'm sure I'll find some information that even I can understand.

Yes I have launched a blog in support of my site, the statistics show that in terms of traffic the Blog brings the second most lot of traffic, after Google. So I would recommend a blog.

The knack is finding articles of substance and interest to put in on a regular basis, still working on that. But hoping that some of my guests will submit suggestions, after their stay in Kaprun.

My thoughts are now on a newsletter, especially aimed at people who have made enquiries, but the booking has not been firmed up.

Good luck

Derek Austria

Aldo, sorry, I thought I'd replied to this!

I liked the colours. The fact that it's clearly yours and well linked to the site would give me confidence in booking though with your place, I don't think that's really too much of an issue! It makes you look approachable and knowledgeable.

I'd like to see more of your pics!

And it would be nice to know where some of the places are. How about adding a map widget and linking each place to it? Not too hard to add, I have one here:
http://www.les-praz-de-chamonix.com/maps/

It might be good to look at a theme which doesn't show all of the longer posts as I skipped over some of the more lengthy stuff. And I found it to be very narrow on my screen - with your upmarket clientele, I think you could go much wider and give everything a bit more space.

Looks good though I really like it.

Loved the design of your blog, loved the pictures! I have been thinking of putting a google map in somewhere with all the places close to the house. Thanks.

Martha, will put this on the to-do list. By the way the page looks good in Firefox, but has weird huge type in IE7.

Thanks Aldo! And thanks for the heads up, Paolo, I will check that....

Hi Aldo. I came across your post and blog as I was looking for a thread germane to blogging.

I'm new to blogging and just created my blog on Sanibel Island and my two properties there a couple of months ago:
http://sanibel-rentalsnet.blogspot.com/

I really like your blog. I find it interesting, pretty, evocative, and am awed by the posting from November 2, 2008. Wish I knew how to do neat stuff like that!!!!

And, neophyte that I am, I still think your blog does what blogs should do and what I try to do in mine. Although my last few posts were created to promote an open week I have at the condo, most of the posts do not even directly mention the properties, except for back links. What I hope that they do is create a broader view/understanding of the area to whet the reader's appetite.

And your blog does this particularly well. Though I am interested in Malta and have been corresponding with a couple who have a vacation home on Malta for a home exchange there, your blog significantly upped my interest in getting to Malta.

But one thing I would like to ask everyone who knows the value of blogging is whether the blog itself brings in readers? Mine did not bring in readers until I started using my blog posts as articles for online article directories. The articles link back to my blog and that created a good readership, though few particpants.

But that's ok, not desirable, but ok. If I can get more people interested in Sanibel Island, more aware of the reasons for going, and looking at my properties, I am ahead. Add to that the click throughs to the properties and the higher page rank I believe that they create with google and other search engines, I think it's worth the time.

But then again, I am kind of working in the dark and making assumptions that might not work in the long run.

What's the thinking out there on blogs helping to create higher page ranks for websites?