Our major success over the past year has been to reach page 1 on Google for 2 major keywords, 'holiday cottages uk' and 'UK holiday cottages'. This has seen our traffic skyrocket - On our busiest day so far, we received 815 visits to the site (on the 30th of September), - a target we intend to smash in 2013. If site traffic continues to increase as it has been, we aim to continue careful growth and welcome more members to the My Favourites family of subscribers.

As a present to you, we thought it would be useful to provide a single email with links to all of our previous marketing articles. Many of you won’t have seen articles written earlier in the year, having joined us after they were published. All articles are designed to help you get better value for money from your holiday property. Take a good look at them over Christmas as you plan your marketing for 2013 or for guidance in prioritising the improvements you

First of all we would like to make everyone aware that over the next couple of weeks, we will be starting to transfer My Favourite Holiday Cottages to a new server. Don’t worry. You won’t need to do anything or, hopefully, even notice anything. Over the last few months, the number of visitors to the site has enjoyed a significant increase, so much so that we are approaching the capacity of our existing server, resulting in some people experiencing slower download speeds and odd little glitches – all symptoms of a situation about which “something must be done” before it puts our hard fought for search engine rankings at risk.

So, we are moving the site to a bigger, faster model. The move will fix the glitches and give us oodles of capacity so that the site will run better and faster. We are testing the transfer system with a couple of smaller property sites to check everything works before transferring My Favourite Holiday Cottages. We

Our popular winter photo competition is making its return 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 images in!

The winner will receive 3 months of Featured Favourites or 6 months of County Featured Favourites listings as a prize, which will greatly increase the amount of traffic that gets sent to your website. Alongside this, your property will gain some extra publicity from being featured on our blog, plus your details and weblink will be printed on the back of each card.

More details about the competition can be seen on our blog here, and all entries need to have been emailed to us by 5pm on Friday 9th November.

As we're now entering a quieter part of the year for bookings, now's a good time to take

Although there’s still time, the ‘Indian Summer’ doesn’t appear to have made an appearance (in North Devon, at least!), so we’re throwing ourselves into Autumn and looking ahead to gain those end-of-year bookings whilst planning for 2013...

We’re still inundated with enquiries from bookers looking for short breaks during September, October and November, so keeping your listing seasonal can always gain a few extra click-throughs from your ‘My Favourites’ listing to your site. If you have any Autumnal photos of your property, you can add them at any time. Indoor images of hot buttered crumpets on a plate in front of a roaring fire look good, as well as trees in full autumnal plumage. Alternatively, if you have any particularly stunning shots, email them to info@mfhc.co.uk, and we’ll feature them on our Facebook page with a link back to your listing.

As a

Planning a large gathering of the clan? Suppose you’re looking for group accommodation to celebrate an anniversary, hold a reunion or share with other families. In that case, a large holiday cottage can be the perfect way for groups of friends and extended families to find a venue that can accommodate everyone in style. 

Instead of the traditional hotel option, large holiday cottages with many bedrooms and a choice of living rooms allow guests the freedom to let their hair down and relax without disturbing other guests.

We’ve picked out five large self-catering properties in a rural location from across the UK that can fit everyone in for a group get-together or family gathering, so have a look through, and if one of the properties really catches your eye, then click through to see more details about it.

One day, this could be all yours (for the weekend). Tempest

If you have any late availability listings on the site that have since been filled, please remember to log in and delete them (if they haven’t already expired). We’ve been experiencing an incredible rush in last-minute summer holiday enquiries, but occasionally, we find that available properties have since been booked. Update your Late Availability Listings, or if you have any vacancies for September, feel free to log in to add them.

As social media continues to grow in all forms of marketing, we’ve put together a few articles on improving your online visibility via social media channels. Improved visibility means more visitors to your website, which ultimately translates to more guests.

Our first article is all about optimising your Facebook Page. By this, we mean increasing the number of visits to your page and the resulting increase in the number of visitors clicking through to your website

Rick recently posted an article on the excellent Lay My Hat Forum about what would make the perfect rainy-day pack of activities. As well as being an excellent forum for holiday property owner information, why not read Rick’s post and add your suggestions? Here’s the link: https://www.laymyhat.com/. The aim is to collect and share as many ideas as possible. If it’s going to rain, you’re much better off in a holiday property than a hotel as you can do far more indoors (and make more noise). We’re going way beyond board games and jigsaws here; until you’ve tried these games, for example, you’ll have no idea how much Paper Dart Olympics or Balloon Baseball can contribute to a fun-filled family holiday until you’ve tried them. We’d love it if you could contribute your ideas, and we will summarise the best suggestions in a new blog post.

Continuing the above theme, most of you will have learned that including a

Farm Cottages are lovely places for those wishing to relax with family and friends in the countryside.

With wide open spaces, countryside views, and plenty of peace and quiet, many farms across the UK have chosen to make the most of their land and create a range of stunning farm holiday cottages for guests to enjoy.

Combining modern facilities with the rural charm of a bygone era, Farm Stays in traditional farm cottages on working farms are increasingly popular with families. By escaping to the country, children can meet the farm animals and have the freedom to explore, whilst parents can soak up the relaxed atmosphere in a rustic farm cottage.

My Favourite Holiday Cottages has an excellent selection of Farm Holiday Cottages from up and down the UK, so we have chosen six cottages from the North, South, East and West to ensure that you’re never too far away from your own stay in the countryside.

Our latest blog post was all about the information packs owners leave for their guests. Poor and out-of-date information in these packs can frustrate guests, so these must be kept up to date.

Information packs are also a handy way of working with local businesses. If there is a particular restaurant or tourist attraction that you’d like to recommend, see if they have any vouchers you could put into the pack. Better still, if you can obtain or create a PDF of the voucher, you can email it to your guests as an advance welcome gift. If you include the name of your property on the voucher, you’ll be at the forefront of local business owners’ minds if tourists ask about local accommodation.

As ever, we’re incredibly keen on owners using the best possible photographs to advertise their properties. Great images create the best emotional response from potential guests, making them much more