Which Sites to Choose

By Scott Crumpton of INNtelligent.com Q: As a new innkeeper and new to internet/computers, I have many questions about which sites, how many, etc. to belong to. I am constantly bombarded with e-mails, letters from sites that would like to include my listing. It is very confusing and can end up being very costly if you sign up with many. How does one determine which are the best? Which are rip offs? I recently almost signed up with a scam and luckily was able to pull out. These people are very aggressive in their marketing and can intimidate the uninformed or little informed. A: On average one third of all visitors to your website will follow a link from some other website. This makes knowing which sites to get a link from very important. Links from web sites fall into two categories -- 1) Local Links such as your chamber of commerece web site and 2) Internet Lodging Guides such as BedandBreakfast.com, BBOnline.com and BBExplorer.com. Quality Local Links can be some of the best referrers to your web site producing hundreds of visitors every week. However, there are generally only a handful and it is impossible for me to predict what they are for each town. Be sure to ask other innkeepers in your area what has worked for them. Unlike Local Links, the best Internet Lodging Guides are generally well known (click her to see our report). More often than not, the more focused on your region, the better the lodging guide will perform. So a B&B guide which covers your state or nearby group of states will usually be a top performer. Several National Lodging Guides run a close second in importance although they can outperform the more regional guides. A final tip. There are many ineffective services and even scams out there to waste your money on. Buyer beware, "Everything which glitters is not gold" and just because the link is only $30/year doesn't make it a good deal.