Google Powered Search with Thumbnails - Pillows and Pancakes

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Pillows and Pancakes
A Bed and Breakfast Guide - The FASTEST growing one on the net!
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For our new Enhanced member's, we are now offering a performance guarantee.
We are guaranteeing an increase in the Enhanced member's website in Search Engine Result Pages of Google, Yahoo! or MSN for one relevant search keyword phrase.
If after 3 months the Enhanced member's website does not see an improvement in its ranking on the Search Engine Result Pages of Google, Yahoo! or Bing for its keyword phrase, the Enhanced listing member may request a 100% refund within the fourth month.
ETC ETC From an email newsletter from Pillows and Pancakes.
Note from JBJ -
Bless ya Paul - but I have never had a click through on my referral report from your directory. I am thankful you listed me for free with website URL and contact info and photos - but what the heck? No click thrus whatsoever. Not sure why I would plug you on our site as suggested in the email - to a horrible google aerial shot and map? I have my own map, why do I want to send someone off my website?
You are, however, the first directory to actually show nearby B&B's as nearby. Others show as the bird flies - so B&B's an hour or so drive away and they show them as right nearby. Good job on that!
Is anyone having any success with bookings from this directory? I thank Paul for being faithful to this forum as we hash these things out over the last year with him.

 

[wendydk]

Been with them for years, and nothing. I'm not very impressed with the layout of their listings, either. They could use to be updated and streamlined.

 

[EmptyNest]

I had not looked at this site in ages. I have to agree, the layout is not pleasing to the eye. The home page with all those links...ugh..this doesn't draw me in...sorry Paul.
\And they are out of date with some listings. Did they "cull" these from the Internet??? At least one in our town are closed and should not be listed. I don't believe the owners ever put those listings in as they have been closed for several years.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

I believe they lifted the info originally if you recall the debate on that, most of us not pleased as we could have easily provided decent photos and info.

 

[GeorgiaGirl]

Who is supposed to use this directory? I don't ever remember coming across them while looking for a b&b. I just typed in several different search terms on Google and went through the first 3 pages and they were not listed.

 

[swirt]

I've seen some click throughs over the past year. Small though, in the single digits for a year. Some conversions though so at least the small traffic is "qualified". I also have similar results for other clients' sites.
I like this directory because even after years of being up and running, it is constantly being improved with new features added. So many directories sit untouched for years after they are initially produced and populated with listings.

 

[paulavery]

Hi All,
I hired a man to do sales calls for us. So I don't really get the opportunity to talk to customers anymore. However, what I use to say was this:
If we never send you one single inquiry, one booking, one click, one phone call, how can we be justified in selling you a $99 listing?
The answer to that question is in the video we have within the B&B Control Center. You should have received a login link with the URL if you are interested in it.
_______________
To address the points that have been raised so far... the best I can.
Stats:
We are fully aware of how much traffic we send and how much we don't. Compared to B&B.com we don't compare. We knew this from day 1 (June of 2005). And organized our pricing and value proposition around it. However, our traffic is growing and we are brave enough to show it. I just took a bunch of screen shots from our stats package. If you are interested, please see here:
http://blog.pillowsandpancakes.com/traffic-stats-for-pillows-and-pancakes/
Home page/links and general layout:
We need a map... much like B&B.com - this is Septembers project.
Dead listings:
This is a major problem for us that we have been dealing with. Every three months we send a crawler out through our listings to check home pages of B&B's. If the home page does not load or contains words like 'closed' or re-directs elsewhere, we mark it for a manual review. Laura will then go and check them manually.
Plug P&P:
We've never asked before. Thought I'd give it a try! And I thought I'd give a decent reason for some to do so. The quality of the images, both the street view and bird's eye view, vary by areas. The best covered areas are populated areas.
Lifted Info:
We hired an office in China to get our original information. It is super easy for anyone to gain access to the listing to change it, add pictures, etc.
Does anyone get inquires from us?:
Yes, some do. Since Feb 18 2007 we have sent 30,415 reservations inquires. That is an average of 32.8 a day. I just took the screen shot below. The 3 dates at the top are what was sent through over the last 3 days, then the rest is the average per day. So 7 Days: 17.6, means on average, we have sent 17.6 inquires a day.

TIA
Paul

 

[EmptyNest]

Hi All,
I hired a man to do sales calls for us. So I don't really get the opportunity to talk to customers anymore. However, what I use to say was this:
If we never send you one single inquiry, one booking, one click, one phone call, how can we be justified in selling you a $99 listing?
The answer to that question is in the video we have within the B&B Control Center. You should have received a login link with the URL if you are interested in it.
_______________
To address the points that have been raised so far... the best I can.
Stats:
We are fully aware of how much traffic we send and how much we don't. Compared to B&B.com we don't compare. We knew this from day 1 (June of 2005). And organized our pricing and value proposition around it. However, our traffic is growing and we are brave enough to show it. I just took a bunch of screen shots from our stats package. If you are interested, please see here:
http://blog.pillowsandpancakes.com/traffic-stats-for-pillows-and-pancakes/
Home page/links and general layout:
We need a map... much like B&B.com - this is Septembers project.
Dead listings:
This is a major problem for us that we have been dealing with. Every three months we send a crawler out through our listings to check home pages of B&B's. If the home page does not load or contains words like 'closed' or re-directs elsewhere, we mark it for a manual review. Laura will then go and check them manually.
Plug P&P:
We've never asked before. Thought I'd give it a try! And I thought I'd give a decent reason for some to do so. The quality of the images, both the street view and bird's eye view, vary by areas. The best covered areas are populated areas.
Lifted Info:
We hired an office in China to get our original information. It is super easy for anyone to gain access to the listing to change it, add pictures, etc.
Does anyone get inquires from us?:
Yes, some do. Since Feb 18 2007 we have sent 30,415 reservations inquires. That is an average of 32.8 a day. I just took the screen shot below. The 3 dates at the top are what was sent through over the last 3 days, then the rest is the average per day. So 7 Days: 17.6, means on average, we have sent 17.6 inquires a day.

TIA
Paul.

We hired an office in China to get our original information. It is super easy for anyone to gain access to the listing to change it, add pictures, etc.
Oh my...CHina huh What can I say.
If someone's inn is closed...do you think they are going to bother to change the listing. I have closed mine and have taken the time to try and find all the old links out there, but I don't have a clue who else has lifted my old information. I am still getting calls for rooms..so it must be there somewhere. But there are some who change phone numbers and move away etc... which we did not.