So you’ve decided to build your own website, do you have the design genius of Steve Jobs, will you build an iconic website that will wow your potential guests into packing out your holiday home for 52 weeks of the year, or are you more Jobbing Steve, knock something together and hope it works? Well does it matter? Probably a little but as long as it functions well, is easy to use and provides the guests with the information they need to make a decision it should be good enough. Just look at my site for my Gite in Brittany, Steve Jobs I am not but hopefully it looks professional enough not to put people off and provides guests with all of the information they need to want to stay and sells the property to it’s best potential.
So what are the options for building your site. Well there are lots! It all depends on your skills, how much time you have and what you want out of it. You could get somebody else to build it for you, build it yourself either from the ground up or you could use a variety of tools out there that provide templates and you just need to fill in the blanks.
If you have no time, or no technical skills whatsoever then you could get somebody else to build you a website. Prices seem to vary a lot so shop around and make sure you clarify who owns what (e.g. the domain name, the content, the structure), in case you want to move your site at a later date, what the process for getting updates done are, what the costs include (web hosting etc) and if they include SEO (Search Engine Optimisation - I’ll have a brief post about this later) so that people can find your website.
If you want to do something yourself then the easiest option is to use a blog, like this one. You don’t have to use it in the traditional blog way as you can have static pages that look just like a normal website and even include a blog as well, so your guests can get a better feel about what your place offers.
You could use a website that will give you space and a template to create your own website, like IndependentOwners.com. There are many other options along these lines, so get Google out and have a look around and see what fits your skills the best.
If you decide on getting your own domain name and web hosting then most web hosting companies will have simple tools and templates available for building a website included in the package. You can use these to create very good results really quickly but if you decide to move your web hosting in future, the tools won’t come with you!
Finally you can build your website yourself, using an HTML editor. You could use a simple web editor, like Microsoft Office Live to create something or you could choose something a little more powerful. I used NVu, a free tool, and have found it to be very good but there are plenty of others out there. You could also purchase a tool such as DreamWeaver if you wanted more features. Not being a web head myself I haven’t taken the time to learn CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) but if I was to start again I would recommend learning it. It will just make your life easier in the long run. Maybe one day I’ll have some time to figure it out and re-design my site.
It can take quite a lot of time setting up a website but don’t just get caught up in the technical aspect of a website. One of the most important things to invest time into is getting great photographs. I’m certainly not there yet as we are slowly changing things but try to get as good quality well lit photo’s as you can. They can serve your listing site, you website or anywhere you advertise. If you have great photo’s that really sell your property people are more likely to forgive a slightly ropey web site. If you have a fantastic website and rubbish photo’s people won’t book. Guests are not that interested in your technical prowess but they do want somewhere nice to stay!!
Remember, when you put photos on your website make sure you reduce the size of them using a tool, such as Paint Shop Pro, and don’t just resize them as the file size will still be very large. You want people to admire your property, not get bored while the photos download and go and view somebody else’s property.
Hopefully this has given you an idea of the options and hasn’t scared you off, with the tools available today it really is possible for anybody to create a good looking website, you just need time which is the tricky part and if you have some design flair, even better, and remember to have fun with it. Keep it simple, clear, good photo’s, keep the page size down by keeping your photos small and make sure it works in a variety of browsers - at least Internet Explorer and Firefox.
2 Bedroom Gite in Brittany, France
Buying, Owning and Running a Gite in Brittany Blog
©Derek Arkwright 2007
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