Vacation Rentals Site Creation

New google page ranking out!

2007-05-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

Today we dicovered that our site went from PR2 to to PR3.
What is PR anyway?
Acording to Wikipedia,
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).

PageRank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page (hence the name Page-Rank[1]) and Sergey Brin as part of a research project about a new kind of search engine. The project started in 1995 and led to a functional prototype, named Google, in 1998. Shortly after, Page and Brin founded Google Inc., the company behind the Google search engine. While just one of many factors which determine the ranking of Google search results, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google's web search tools.[2]

The name PageRank is a trademark of Google. The PageRank process has been patented (U.S. Patent 6,285,999 ). The patent is not assigned to Google but to Stanford University.

I will report later how it will affect our traffic. I did notice that we are getting very much traffic increase in google search. I think we are on the first page for "for rent by owner" keyword.

newsletter out!

2007-03-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

Finally I have finished the newsletter. It is a big challenege to write it especially for me. Thanks to the excellent fellow owner who gave me a hand on editing my English!
So, nesletter is created. How do I send it? Lets see, I have 1200 users in my database right now. I used before service from company Vertical Response and it was bad. it reported that only 17 emails was opened from 897 sent and I know from my stats it was much much more!
So this time I decided to use another company - ConstantContact.com. The company is not showing accurate numbers too, I can see from the stats that amount of refferals from emails was much greater. But they reported much better numbers - 487 out of 1122 sent opened and read a newsletter, 12 were not available anymore (have to check with them) and 3 opted out.

Competitors and vacation rental market

2007-03-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today I counted how many portals are out there for vacation rentals. I counted 51 in USA. Some are really big and some are not that big. I am pretty sure there are more, I just got tired on the page 5 of the search.
So what is it I need to do to make my site the best?
I don't really need to invent the weel, all owners need are inquiry and fast help.
1. Customer service.
I hear all the time on how frustrated owner can be if there is something on the listing that he can not do and he has no help to do it. Our site definitely is in need of good HELP section. I started one here: HELP, so this is a start.
2. Inquiries.
Currently we are researching on all possible feeds to classifieds and directories. After we did HTML make-over we lost in traffic. But XML feeds and bulk submissions should bring it back. And also the new HTML coding should kick in soon. We hade 400 visitors yesterday, our goal is to have 2K by summer.

SEO and all that jazz

2007-03-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

    I am sure everyone by now is familiar with the term SEO. If not, I want to assure you that this is not a rocket since.

Short for search engine optimization, SEO is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a
Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine.
    If your site is ranked higher in the results of a search there is a greater chance for your visitors to find your site. The research is shown that most of users will go not father then 3 pages in the search results. And this is what all webmasters are trying to achieve when they are working on SEO.
    We just updated Vacation Rentals Listed with SEO friendly links, titles, keywords and descriptions. Right away we had a challenge – we are having a step back from the search engine positions that we had before. From all indications, this is a temporarily thing and we should rank much better by May.
    I also started a blog for some useful tips and tricks for vacation rental owners, you can read it here:
http://vacation-rentals-help-for-owners.blogspot.com.

To be or not to be...

2007-02-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

Today I am in the mood for Shakespeare. You know that it was translated to Russian by 37 different Russian poets? The one is the most famous is by Boris Pasternak, the one I really like is by Samuel Marshak.

What it has to do with vacation rentals you might ask :)? I think that we all have to make choices in life and it is essential in business as in personal life.

To be or not to be a vacatin rental owner?

To be or not to be an honest businesman?

To be or not to be a slam landlord :).

And this is from Hamlet:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Times of despair

2007-02-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

I don't know why but there are rare times that I feel depressed over how much work is required to run the site of mine. Today was one of the days. May be it was this Pablo Neruda poetry that I read today and the song of despair made me down a bit. I have the whole list of things I must finish and I don't have any will to work on it. I wonder if this is something that happens to every site owner who has suddenly realize on how huge this task is? It doesn't happen to me very often, I am pretty happy and optimistic most of the time. May be I should just get rid of Neruda, yes, this is what I am going to do.

How important to write good English (or in good English)

2007-02-05T06:29:00.000-08:00

One of the challenges of the vacation rental site that I run - my English. We don't have a phone number listed yet on Vacation Rentals Listed but I already imagine what will happen once it is there. I do have very distinctive accent. Some people find it cute, some find it beautiful and some will not understand me at all. I am learning now on how to write. Or at least on how to "not write".
Main challenge of Russian speaking people with English
1.the order of words. We have absolutely no "order" system in Russian sentences. As funny as it might sound, we can say "I want to rent vacation home" as
- Vacation home I want to rent
- I want vacation home to rent
- Vacation home to rent I want
so I always have to be alerted and build my sentences in right order.
2. A, THE and all around
The theory is simple. If this is something determined, we say THE, otherwise we say A (AN). On practice it is not easy at all.
3. Times - past, present, continued past (what?)....
I have booked vacation rental
I had booked vacation rental
I booked vacation rental
They look all the same to me :). Now you know why I need to imporove my grammar.

Inquries and spam on vacation rental sites

2007-02-03T20:44:00.000-08:00

Shortly after our launch we found out that spammers and hackers are everywhere. They pose as renters, they post as owners, or they just come to the site to harvest phone numbers.
I think in today’s age it is impossible to create software that will filter these spammers. But here are few tips:
1) Once you have a visitor from Nigeria, block his IP.
2) If a visitor emails to 126 owners with the same text, something is wrong.
3) If owner is checking his property from always changing IPs, that should raise a flag
4) Connected from Russia and has 3 properties in Paris? I don't think so.

All 1-4 can be legimate users, but this is something that should be checked manually. I think it is a responsibility to the vacation rental portal site owner to prevent bad situations. It only takes 1 bad transaction to kill the portal.

We are, at http://VacationRentalsListed.com take it very serious. We have someone who monitor all inquires and postings. We have built in a special feature for admin to do it.

Vacation Rentals Listed - why the name?

2006-12-01T22:24:00.000-08:00

I am probably not very much correct in historical approach of things happening to VacationRentalsListed.com, so I will go back in forth based on my memories.
Our site's name. I wanted the name to be something easy to remember and have "vacation rentals" in it. I know, I know there are hundreds of sites with "vacation rentals" there, but I just had to have it :).
I heard so many times " we listed it on ... site", "you have to listed it on ...com". "Listed" was a common word. So the name was born. VacationRentalsListed.com I really like how it sounds. But keep in mind I am Russian, so may be this is not such a good combination. So please do check on www.VacationRentalsList.com and www.VacationRentalsListing.com. Yes, you guessed it, they are ours too and will lead you to precious, innovative and very fast Vacation Rentals Listed.
If you feel this is a bad or silly or stupid or (insert your word) name for vacation rental directory, please write to me at yulia@vacationrentalslisted.com.

The baby steps

2006-11-26T23:33:00.000-08:00

The very first site that we created with Efex consulting (www.efex-consulting.com) was www.VacationHomesListed.com.

The main idea was very simple - anyone who wants second home or vacation rental to own, come to the site. And buy home directly from owner or the agent.

After small promotioin, I came to realize that there are not easy to find sellers. It is much easier to find owners who wants to rent, and this is how the www.VacationRentalsListed.com was born to life. The idea was there before, but we could see the market for it now as well.

The history behind my new site

2006-10-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today I decided it is time to start writing my blog.
So much buzz about blogging and how it suppose to help your business, so I decided why not?
I will do it too.
I have to tell you, I am not English speaking born persona, I immigrated to USA 12 years ago I suspect that my accent is still very noticable. I am Russian inside out with a lot of American attitude now.

Anyway, I am here not to talk about me. I probably will start another blog and will tell about me. I might even like to talk about me.

The site.
www.VacationRentalsListed.com
It started very simple. 3 years ago we purchased a vacation rental house in Blue Ridge, georgia. Here is the house:
www.BlueMountainCreek.com

When I started renting it and doing all of the work I had to do, I came to realization that there are not much tools available for owner to operate vacation rental like mine. I happened to be a software developer. So I had no other great ideas then to create my own site for owners like me. Place where owner can do anything - from managing property on-line, taking vacation reservations, buy supplies, transalte to different pages, create ad for different places and much more.

I was overely optimistic (big mistake) and started doing it myself. Of course, it was a huge challenge with my work at work, with my work with rental cabin and yes, I wanted to have a little bit of life too. Quickly I hired software developers from Ukraine to help me when needed and my advernture started.

I will write about all my steps with creating the site, marketing and advertising. Hopefully someday it will be one of the best portals on-line. And then will have time to write a blog about myslef.