It seems that the blog craze is now being sold to innkeepers hook, line, and sinker. Many web design/marketing companies are setting up blogs for their clients with promises of increased traffic and higher occupancy rates. I am seeing more and more B&B blogs popping up that are being attached to B&B websites.
The problem is that these companies are doing the technical set-up of the blog, but then neglecting to give good advice to the innkeeper on how to get the most out of the blog. So what you see in many of the blogs are just the ramblings of innkeepers who are writing about their day-to-day events, gripes, or even personal information and completely missing the potential power of the blog to bring in guests.
Here is an article with some detailed tips, examples, and Do’s & Don’ts for Bed and Breakfast blogging (disclaimer: I wrote the article)
The main point is to stay focused about the purpose and the audience. Write for potential guests and visitors, not for family or close friends. Promote your area, not yourself.
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Steve Wirt
Wine Country Cabins Bed and Breakfast in the Finger Lakes
and Inngenious Bed and Breakfast Website Promotion
Steve,
What an excellent post. Blogging can be a great business-building tool when done “right”. And it’s a huge time drain when done “wrong”. You can provide a great tool to help people do it “right”. Thanks for speaking up.
Thanks Kit. I see the problem on both ends of the spectrum of time drain. There are the blogs where innkeepers put in a lot of time to produce a content that offers nothing of value to potential guests. While others put in no time and have an empty blog. Worse yet are the ones who set up feeds that display news or items from other people’s websites that has nothing of any value to potential guests. Feeds are a good way to fill up a blog with content that simply ends up annoying potential guests. And annoyed potential guests, rarely become actual guests.
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Steve Wirt
Wine Country Cabins Bed and Breakfast in the Finger Lakes
and Inngenious Bed and Breakfast Website Promotion