Where Do I Get My Bookings From?
I was asked last week where do I get my cottage bookings from. Well over the last 3 years I have learnt some hard lessons about where to and where not to spend my money on advertising.
For Windyhill cottage 100% of the bookings have come through either my site or through a directory, I have certainly not paid any commission to an agent for the bookings. I think I've saved around £6000 this year in commissions. With this in mind I have invested around £1200 in advertising and marketing which still means I'm about £5000 better off. Hillview Cottage I still rely on some agency bookings but for 2007 I would say 70% of the bookings have come through my site. Actually because of the contract I have with English Country Cottages it costs me every time I make a booking because I have used my quota up. For 2008 I have changed agency to Wilderness Cottages who do not limit how many weeks I can sell myself.
So apart from the agency bookings the rest of the bookings come from either enquiries on my site or from directories. I would say the split this year has been 80% emails from my site and 20% from directories. However I have seen good amount of traffic come from some directory sites. Looking at my site stats about 50% of the traffic comes from directories I advertise on and the other 45% from natural searches in Google, MSN, Yahoo and 5% from Google Adwords.
I have listed the top performing directory sites that my self catering website receives traffic from.
For Windyhill cottage 100% of the bookings have come through either my site or through a directory, I have certainly not paid any commission to an agent for the bookings. I think I've saved around £6000 this year in commissions. With this in mind I have invested around £1200 in advertising and marketing which still means I'm about £5000 better off. Hillview Cottage I still rely on some agency bookings but for 2007 I would say 70% of the bookings have come through my site. Actually because of the contract I have with English Country Cottages it costs me every time I make a booking because I have used my quota up. For 2008 I have changed agency to Wilderness Cottages who do not limit how many weeks I can sell myself.
So apart from the agency bookings the rest of the bookings come from either enquiries on my site or from directories. I would say the split this year has been 80% emails from my site and 20% from directories. However I have seen good amount of traffic come from some directory sites. Looking at my site stats about 50% of the traffic comes from directories I advertise on and the other 45% from natural searches in Google, MSN, Yahoo and 5% from Google Adwords.
I have listed the top performing directory sites that my self catering website receives traffic from.
- www.scotland.org.uk/cottages/ I find that there map seems to work very well
- http://holiday-cottages.scotland.org.uk/ I also get a lot of good traffic from this site.
- www.scotland-inverness.co.uk this site does very well in Google
- www.cottageguide.co.ukThis site is OK but because they add a frame when people click to see your website it takes a way any link value. So only worth it if you get enquiries
Labels: advertising, directories, links, SEO
posted by Mark at
09:53
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