I don’t have a website. I am most definitely in the stone age. Following this ardently. But it is also a shift with the times. More of us are going direct.
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I used Squarespace for my tour website httpsL//www.customjuneautours.com, with links to youcanbook.me for booking. I send invoices for deposits using Square because I use it with my iPhone to take payments at the end of tours.
Squarespace has a wide range of templates into which you can put content.
I’m the total antithesis of any kind of tech expert, but I like Wix.com
I’ve used it for creating a couple of Church websites and am about to try it for our STRs .
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Interesting @NordlingHouse. I’ll look into that. @Malagachica, I’ll look into wix.com as well.
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Check out some amazing wordpress themes here:
You have to pay but most are very cheap and really look professional.
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The most expensive bit about setting up your own site will be the photography side.
Websites can be had for free…unless you are taking your own photographs of course.
Sorry that is not correct @sarann
You have to pay for hosting when you set up a website even where the CMS might be free.
Then of course there are the costs of templates and marketing your website to drive traffic to it.
And I would say the majority of hosts will have their own photography.
Even if you have to pay for photography it will not be your largest cost.
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If you are setting up your own website for property rental it cost zero to add it to trip advisor etc. I live in a predomenantly holiday ownership area and there are one or two sharks about that will have you believe you have to use them to have any success. In fact this is most times not the case in the holiday rental market as there are plenty of places that will list for free and ypu just pay a handling charge. You could always pay for promotional ads if you like. But, I would not advise paying anyone to do this for you. If you can meke a website you can list on these sites.
Yes you can indeed list your property on some but certainly all tourism webs for free. Most decent ones charge @sarann.
However the point I was making and what we have been discussing here is the cost of setting up your own website. And for that you need to have a domain for your website, which you need to pay for.
No-one was suggesting paying anyone to do their advertising for them.
And of course just because places list you for free doesn’t mean they will drive the right type of traffic to your site that will convert to bookings.
There are plenty of hosts including @RiverRock who have had success in using online ads through Google Ads, FB ads etc. I have friends with FB pages that run FB ads and generate most of their direct bookings through this channel.
Yes, I agree which is why I was saying unless you are able to take good photographs the photography becomes the most expansive part. Domain names are not expensive
We will agree to disagree @sarann
I don’t think buying in professional photography (and I commission photography on a regular basis as part of my day job) is the most expensive part of setting up your own website and marketing it. You do.
We will agree to diagree But as you have said this is for setting up a web site and I think you will find that photogaraphy is far more than domain names…I do not think you would find even an amateur that would charge less than a domain name would cost you…unles you could persuade them to do it for free
There is more than just buying a domain name involved is what @Helsi was saying. Web hosting, creating the website and marketing the website come to mind.
So in the US I would pay my real estate photographer $125 for 40-60 edited and sized photos
I spent about 30 hours setting up my website, if I paid myself only $10 an hour that’s $300 If I paid someone to do it for me it would cost a lot more. I used $10 an hour as an example, I would never work for $10 an hour nor even pay a laborer that little.
Now I need to drive traffic…
So no, photography is not the most expensive part of setting up a website.
RR
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We were not talking about “marketing” just setting up with a free site…the only cost really is the domain name and the hours you put in…But you cannot do it without photographs (fine if you take them yourself)
Ok, so the question becomes how much do you value your time? The only cost is not just the domain name and photos unless you do not place a value your time
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Actually if you read the initial thread, you would see that the discussion is not talking about setting up free websites @sarann you will see that @mypictonhouse wanted advice on which website provider to use and the functionality required for the website they wanted to build and the discussion evolved from there.
You then stated that photography was the most expensive cost involved when developing a website.
Anyway I think this discussion has got off track, so lets get back to offering the OP the advice they wanted.
Exactly, and I was pointing out that although you might get a free site builder as everyone was suggesting wordpress and wix. You would still have to pay for photographs inless you did them yourself
Zoho are also very good and probably have everything you need including loads of add on extras (including email hosting)
they do a free trial. It used to be free but now there is a small charge but you get loads of extras for $5 . Its worth a look and they seem to have a really good back up team