October 2012 Newsletter

Winter Photo Competition

Our popular winter photo competition is returning for 2012, and this year, your photo could feature as the cover image for our Christmas Card. We’re on the hunt for the perfect winter image, something distinctive that says, “I want to be there this winter”, so send your pictures in!

The winner will receive three months of Featured Favourites or six months of County Featured Favourites listings as a prize, which will greatly increase the traffic to your website. Your property will also gain some extra publicity from being featured on our blog, and your details and weblink will be printed on the back of each card.

Our blog has more details about the competition. All entries must be emailed to us by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 9th.

10 Blogs to Inspire You and Your Cottage

As we’re entering a quieter part of the year for bookings, now’s a good time to take stock, make plans and begin preparing for 2013. If you’re looking for some ideas for furnishing and decorating your cottage, then have a look at our newest blog post on ‘Top 10 Interior Design blogs to inspire you and your cottage.’

Whether you’re looking for inspiration for shabby chic, contemporary, or coastal properties, we hope our ten blogs will provide fantastic ideas to improve your cottage. Our favourite idea is buying some blackboard paint, which is relatively cheap and easy to apply. Once painted, you can have an area for kids (and big kids) to use for chalk drawings or for you to add a big welcome message to new guests. If you have a blog that inspires you, then be sure to add them in the comments at the bottom of the post.

My Favourites goes Mobile!

25 % of visitors to My Favourites are viewing the site from their mobile phone or i-Pad. So, we’ve designed a template to make it faster and easier for them to browse cottages. As more and more people are using mobile devices to access websites on the go, potential guests can now easily navigate around the site with our new design.

If people can’t navigate around a website properly, they leave. So, with the new design, we expect to see the time spent on the site and the number of pages viewed on My Favourites to steadily increase for each visitor. Full details of the improvements are on our blog, and you can see the new mobile site in action simply by looking for My Favourite Holiday Cottages using a smartphone or tablet. Just enter the usual website address. Your phone or tablet will automatically upload the mobile template.

Since the site is so new, we’re looking for feedback. Please email us your thoughts and opinions about how the mobile site works.

Guest Blogging,

As always, we’re looking for owners willing to be featured on our blogs. We have two blogs: one for holiday property owners and another for those interested in staying in holiday cottages.

If you feel your local area deserves attention, then we welcome posts to feature on our news section of My Favourites, the blog aimed at bookers. If you’d like to include an article, then email us. Paul Johnson wrote a great example of an article in terms of length and content from Kendall Cottages on the perfect time to visit the Lake District.

An article can promote your part of the UK and include a link to your website, which is always helpful for SEO.

Alternatively, if you have a topic you would like to write about for our marketing blog for My Favourite Holiday Cottages, the site for holiday cottage owner advice; we’re happy to accept guest posts as well. Whether it’s social media or interior design, anything that can help fellow owners to improve their bookings would be welcome. Email Rick Bond for more details, and you can also read through our current blog posts.

If you don’t feel you have the time or inclination actually to write a blog but have a topic that you’d like to see covered, then just let us know, and we’ll add it to the editorial list for research and publishing.

Finally:

As always, we’re keen to hear your recommendations for the site and mobile site. Please call us at 01598 710631, email us, or tweet us @mfhcottages.

We look forward to seeing your entries for the winter photo competition.

Thanks,

Rick and the My Favourite Holiday Cottages Team.