Setting up a Website

Posted by: Mick P on 07 May 2006

Chaps

I own two weeks of a timeshare in a very "posh" hotel in Cornwall. My two weeks are in August and coincide with the Fowey Regetta which is a popular event in the yachting calender.

Each year I have sold my weeks back to the hotel and they in turn have let the timeshare to a fee paying customer at around £1000 per week. The timeshare sleeps four people. The timeshare is actually a self contained 2 bedroomed bungalow with views over the south coast.

The Hotel has been taken over by a large timeshare company who will no longer buy back weeks for rental purposes. They want to pressurise me to sell the rooms back to them for a lump sum.

I am therefore looking to rent the rooms directly and will need to advertise them.

As far as I can see, there are 3 likely routes.

1. Advertise the bungalow with the local tourist board.

2. Advertise it in a magazine such as Yachting Monthly which is bought by well heeled yachters.

3. Set up a website to advertise it.

Can anyone explain to me how I would do this or is it better to employ a professional ?

Any advice would be most welcome.

Regards

Mick
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by garyi
Mick you won't get a lot of traffic to your website unless you further advertise your website address.

Sheilas dad sold a time share on eBay, I don't know if you were aware you could do that.
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Mick P
Gary

I was banking on the website doing something like a prospective customer typing in the name of the regetta or hotel etc.

The Ebay idea is a good one, I will have a think about that.

How does one advertise ones website address.

Regards

Mick
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Earwicker
quote:
Originally posted by Mick Parry:
How does one advertise ones website address.

Submit it to google, and make sure that key words feature prominently on the page; easiest way is to have a title, like "Time Share Room in Whereveritis Hotel", subtitle, "Availble to let dates - date" - just imagine what someone would type into google.

You can pay someone to do it for you, or you can download a free, open source HTML composer - I recommend Nvu - and have a go at it yourself.

All the best,

EW
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Earwicker
How're you getting on with the guitar, by the way?
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Beano
Some useful tips on self promotion for a website.

http://www.waller.co.uk/promote.htm#simple
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Mick P
EW

How do I "submit it" to Google ?

I feel totally useless with the guitar lessons. My fingers cannot seem to do what I want them to do. I practice my chords 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week and I wonder if I will ever learn the thing.

Never the less I shall keep buggering on.

Regards

Mick
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Earwicker
You just enter it here:

http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Re the guitar, see if you can stretch to 30 mins a day...! Winker

Cheers,

EW
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Gianluigi Mazzorana
Or use the new USB notation soft loader thumb!

Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Paul Hutchings
I'd bet that if you have a look there are yachting forums much the same as this forum - I presume some will allow advertising?
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by John Channing
Mick,
You could consider using Google Page Creator, but as other people have pointed out, you need people to find your site and it's unlikely (given how Googles PageRank system works) that you will get onto the front page of search results. You would therefore need to consider buying some keywords from Google adwords.
John
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Gianluigi Mazzorana
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Hutchings:
I presume some will allow advertising?



Quick!
Before Adam complete his admiral's correspondence course!
Big Grin
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by garyi
Mick if you have some good quality pictures that are not copyright to the timeshare company I would happily bang together a simple website for you.

But to be honest have a look round ebay Sheilas dad was very happy with his return as he was not expecting to even sell it (the share is erm, slightly 70s shall we say)

If you want some help putting together a kickarse ebay listing again I can help.
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Mick P
Gary

I think the Ebay idea is a good one and yes I do have internet information from the hotel which is not copyrighted so it could be a winner.

Regards

Mick
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Earwicker
quote:
Originally posted by Tarquin Maynard-Portly:
I was rather hoping for news of the Mick Parry website.

You're looking at it! Winker
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Gianluigi Mazzorana
Big Grin
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by 7V
Mick,

My brother has an apartment in Tenerife that he rents out and I constructed a simple web site for him - El Marques Palace

I did an analysis of the specific key phrases that interested parties might type into Google and optimised the site for some of these. In particular, I found that many people were searching for a map of Tenerife so I photoshopped a map, put it online and optimised the site so that it would get quite near the top of Googles listings when someone typed "map of tenerife".

This sort of marketing is free but has kept the apartment completely booked throughout the year, to the extent that my brother now markets the next door apartment as well.

Perhaps a similar approach would work for your timeshare and this could be an alternative or supplement to eBay advertising. I don't have enough time to build a web site myself but would be happy to help with the Google marketing aspects, possibly in conjunction with Gary.

Regards
Steve
Posted on: 07 May 2006 by Mick P
Chaps

I am away on business for the next couple of days. I may well contact you when I return.

Regards

Mick