My only last point (actually thats a lie i will probably add more later) is what drives me mad is you hear this in conversations - Oh yes I was mad about SEO and then I dashed on to my meta-tags before doing some blogging though I am neglecting my tweets. I deal with small businesses every day and am helping a lot with social media marketing and web sites as they know this is something they should be doing but all the jargon terrifies them and they just shut down. A lot of people don't have much money in the marketing budget and as you know B&B people are time poor as well so want to make sure what they are spending is getting them the best return for their money. So maybe with some subjects do an idiots guide as well as a more advanced one. I am not saying you should treat people like idiots but for so many people and I get this every day with people who don't have web sites AT ALL! we can't afford it so we do nothing where as if they knew about the many cheap and free options they at least would have something. Now I know the more advanced among us will probably shoot me down on this but I think something is better than nothing, however they see the price charged by "so called professionals" for a decent web site and the number of cowboys out there and they are terrified. The going rate is $6000 plus round here and I know a particular couple who paid that 2 years ago and still have nothing. its a lot of money to shell out for nothing and believe me they are not alone and it scares the tarr out of people..
It's true - there are a lot of people who don't know they can do it themselves (if they have the patience!). I know you can set up a Wordpress blog with a fancy design for under $100 (actually your entire website can be a Wordpress solution for under $150/200), but I think people can be duped easily. I heard a story the other day about someone who received a call from someone trying to charge them $50 to set up Google alerts ($50 per alert!).
I have also seen people completely ripped off by these so called 'experts'. Sometimes you think that if you haven't done it before it's better to hire an 'expert' and then after you have spent a small fortune (obviously its relative) you realise that these experts aren't experts at all. We started our own website and know and understand the web and we have experienced this. It hurts! I wonder if when trying to get things going you need to set aside a 'rip off' budget! Chancers are a very common occurance in small business and in internet marketing. I also hear amazing stories - someone we know just helped a B&B owner treble their revenue just by giving her some website improvements. Yes, treble!!! He was charging $150, but he is one of those people who just wants to help small business owners succeed.
Take a look at these guys -
http://southafricayoga.com/ (ok not a B&B, its a friend) but they were going to hire developers and we spoke to them about how not to, and this is what they did on their own with Wordpress! And no, they are not designers or developers.
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