Etienne (Steve) Sepulchre

What is a good website?

Where do I start?

Formal Education

Non-Formal Education

Work History

Selected Writings and Publications

Academic Awards

Languages

Some other interests and skills

Timber Frame and Log Home Builder Websites

The website has been a tremendous advertising tool and accounted for a major part of my business last year at a time when many tourism operators were struggling so I cannot thank you enough. ~ Elizabeth Measures, Whitman Wharf House

• The snippet gives past B&B patrons an easy link to her listing on Trip Advisor so they can leave a comment.  Presumably these would be people who are going over their memories of the trip and are revisiting websites of places they stayed and things they saw.
• If they don't already know about or use Trip Advisor, this may be their introduction to it, and she would get some comments she wouldn't have otherwise received.
• The snippet gives potential customers an easy link to see comments made by others, which is an advantage if the comments are good.
• Testimonials on your own site serve the same purpose. But comments left on a third-party site have added credibility because the B&B owner does not control them.

• The snippet encourages potential customers to leave her website.  Once on Trip Advisor, they are encouraged to compare her B&B with others, and may well choose to stay in a different establishment.
• People who are already using Trip Advisor will look there  for comments about your establishment anyway, snippet or not.
• People who don't know about, or aren't using, Trip Advisor, will find out about it.  This could be good or bad, depending on your comments.

• Whether the B&B owner puts the snippet on her site or not, she should encourage guests, as they leave, to leave a comment on Trip Advisor, perhaps even giving them a card with the web address, or letting them use the house computer.
• Your website itself should have real testimonials, with names for credibility.  Keep a guestbook.  If you're good at what you do, you'll get lots of lovely comments.  Be sure to ask permission to use them.  Ask whether you can use the guest's name, or at least something like "Ann K., Maryland".

• A Facebook status update is quicker than a blog, and you don't have a 140-character limit as in Twitter.
• It's easy to add photos and videos to Facebook.
• Facebook has broken the technology barrier for a huge percentage of the population.  You probably already know how to do Facebook.
• If you don't know Facebook yet, you'll find that it's as intuitive as any online medium can be, and the psychological rewards for learning it are immediate.
• Other people know Facebook too, and they're more likely to interact with you on your Facebook Page than on a blog.
• You may already have a bunch of friends on Facebook who know what you do and will "Like" your page (the new equivalent of becoming a fan).
• Add a link to a webpage in your Facebook status update, and it instantly gives you the opportunity to choose a picture from that page.  This is cool and fun.
• You can check in on your Facebook friends while you're pretending to work! ;-)
• You can check in on your Facebook business page while you're interacting with your friends, and feel virtuous (if not virtual)!
• People who are not Facebook members can still see your Facebook page - it is public - although they can't leave comments.

• You will probably be sending some people away from your site into a yummy, addictive,  warm and fuzzy place where they are likely to get lost for the next hour, and forget to come back to your website.
• You are missing out on the built-in search-engine-magnetic powers of WordPress.
• You are not adding content and value to your own site.
• Non-Facebook members cannot comment on your postings.

• organizational dependence on an intranet that was built to work with older software and hardware;
• the cost of upgrading a large network all at once;
• internet security concerns because of sensitive data on the network;
• to keep employees off Facebook;
• "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude - even when it isn't working well for some employees.

1. It doesn't work with all browsers,
2. It increases download time,
3. There can be copyright issues.

1. Pages download more slowly because image files take longer to download than text, and
2. Search engines can't read and index the text in an image file.

• Custom header graphic
• Shopping cart
• Copy editing
• On-page SEO

1. A paid ad (on a yellow background) for VacationHomeRentals.com, a smaller listing site that got to the top of the list only by paying for the position.
2. WolfvilleHouse.com – a site I created for a client five years ago and still maintain and do search engine optimization (SEO) for.
3. vrbo.com (VRBO=Vacation Rentals by Owner), now owned by HomeAway.
4. www.cottagesincanada.com – an inexpensive rental site that is obviously performing well in the search engines
5. Google Places listings for rentals in the area, with none actually in Wolfville. Bonus tip: Create a listing for your property with Google Places! (Note to self: do this for WolfvilleHouse.com!)
6. vacationsFRBO.com - another more inexpensive rental site
7. HomeAway.com itself
8. trails.com - an outdoor adventure site that doesn't actually appear to have any relevant results for this area
9. VacationRentalDirect.com – a newer, inexpensive place to list
10. LowdenHouseFarm.com, another of my clients
11. TripAdvisor.com – a social networking travel site that is very useful site for customers with a different business model for owners; check it out. I know that for hotels and B&Bs they charge the owner only when someone books through their site.
12. NileGuide.com – another social networking travel site.

For some properties, however, a website can be a good investment.

• Describe the house on your own terms, visually and verbally.
• Show as many photos as you want.
• Portray the personality of the place.
• Provide a permanent address for incoming links, which build value to the website and thus to your rental business, for example from:
  • Tourism organizations;
  • Setting up packages or exchanging links with other local businesses.
• Advertise web address in print media.
• Have a business card for the property with the web address.
• Provide information on the history of an interesting old property.
• Provide more extensive information about the area.
• Anything you can think of!

• Wolfville House
• Lowden House Farm
• Heron’s Watch
• Vacation by the Sea