How to Start & Run a B&B BandBED2eBook-1 | Page 98

Globalscape. Your website hosting company will be able to guide you through all the
steps required.
Website Templates
You can put together a very simple, one page website using “Word” software – we did
this and it worked well for our first year or more. For a much more professional
looking website, you can use “website templates” which can be bought online from
under $100, and then you can put your own copy and pictures on them. These web
templates give you a professional look and feel with headers, menu structures and
forms which you would not be able to create yourself without advanced skills in
“HTML”, the web developer’s programming language. Our current website for The
Pheasants, our B&B in Dorset, was “home made” this way, and gets a lot of
compliments from guests: see www. thepheasants.com.
Our website at www.howtorunabandb.com will have more detail on this, and links to
various sources of website template. You can adapt the templates into your own
website relatively simply with basic computer skills, patience - and time!
David’s Ten Website ‘Dos & Don'ts’
DO make sure your homepage gives a clear message of exactly what you are offering,
how to find out more, and how to book. (Sorry if this sounds basic, but I am constantly
being amazed by sites - even of large and prestigious companies who have clearly spent
a lot of money on their site - who have forgotten to make clear exactly what they are
offering and to whom.)
DO think about your site from your client's point of view: what are they looking for,
what will attract them, and are you giving it to them?
DO make clear you are selling something, exactly what, exactly how to book, and at
what price.
DO "layer" information intelligently: concise and punchy on your homepage, with clear
links to more detailed pages for those who are eager for information (and don't forget,
as even the fustiest museum knows, to "lead them out via the shop").
DO remember that the internet is primarily a READING medium and your readers are
looking for specific content to read. Unless you are selling pictures, your site's images
should add to and support your copy, not be used for cheap decoration. So many sites
take up lots of space with bought-in stock photos which look pretty but are irrelevant or
confusing to the message.
DO keep your site simple. Remember its purpose: just because you can add a gimmick
(and you always can), it does not mean that you should.
How to Start & Run a B&B
www.howtorunabandb.com