Tips for owners - march VRL newsletter

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Vacation Rentals Listed Newsletter
March 2007
VacationRentalsListed.com
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in this issue
1. News and Site Update.
2. Featured Article: How to Reduce Spam Email.
3. Learn a Little Bit Every Time: Listing Numbers and Your Personal Site.
4. Future Plans.
5. Personal Words from the Founder.

1. News and Site Update
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We have completed a number of technical updates on our site. The change has affected site performance, and you will see an increase in the traffic in the next 4-6 weeks.
As we wrote in the previous letter, we will be completing a number of specialty websites that are based on the analyses of search terms on our site. Right now you can find your listings on the following sites:
www.children-friendly-vacation-rentals.com - vacation homes that offer something for children
www.pets-friendly-vacation-rentals.com  - vacation rentals which allow pets
www.largegrouprentals.com - rentals that accommodate 18 or more
www.beach-vacation-rentals.org - listings that are on the water
www.golf-vacation-rentals.com - vacation homes close to or on a golf course
www.honeymoon-vacation-rentals.com

Make sure you update your listings so they will appear in the appropriate site. We are planning to add 4 more within the next 2 months.

2. Featured Article: How to Reduce Spam Email.
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Spam on the Internet is one of the widespread problems. If you have had your vacation rental for some time, and especially if you have a functioning website, there is a strong possibility you will find many spam emails in your inbox.

One of the solutions is to change your email account. But that's not always possible, especially if you have used an email address for a long time, and many people already have your email in their address books.

Here are a few tips that I hope you find useful:

• Check the email address on your domain registration. Never, ever use your working address when you register a domain name. Your registration is available to the public, and almost every large site offers a service like WHOIS where your email can be gathered. It is advisable to set your domain information to "private" if you have to use your working email address.
  
• Forms on your site, including those that allow your visitors to inquire about your vacation rental, can be a big problem. There is a technique called "code injection" that sends your visitors spam email that can harm your credibility.
  
• You will be surprised that many spam emails offer an option to "unsubscribe" or "opt-out". It may sound like nonsense to you to use this option, because you never subscribed to any spam emails in the first place, but it is strongly recommended that you "unsubscribe." As a matter of fact, if you will diligently do this for some time, you will see a decrease in the spam in your inbox.
  
• An email address that is generic, such as contact@mysite.com or webmaster@mysite.com, will most likely bring a lot of spam. Try to avoid it as much as possible.
  
Check with your hosting email provider to see if your working email is set to the "Catch all" option. "Catch all" ensures that every email that comes to @mysite.com will go to your inbox. Once you remove "Catch all" from your account, you will see spam reduction.

3. Learn a Little Bit Every Time: Listing Numbers and Your Personal Site.
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Each of your vacation rental listings has a listing number. Your advertisement can be reached by entering the listing number in the URL. For example, my rental cabin is listing number 200. To find it, I have to go to http://vacationrentalslisted.com/200.aspx. If you have a personal web site, we advise you to put a link from it to your listing number on our site - this will increase the chances of having your listing number indexed and of having it appear in the search engine searches. Please contact us if you have a question on how to do it, and we will be happy to assist you with it.

4. Future Plans.
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We are finishing our long-needed and awaited HELP section. Thank you for all of your suggestions and guidance in creating it. The HELP section will cover almost all asked questions and will be easily accessible by owners and renters.

5. Personal Words from the Founder.
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I am finishing this letter on March 8. In Russia where I come from, this is one of the greatest holidays - International Woman Day. Every male, from kindergarten to post- retirement age, will give something to all the women in his life - mother, wife, daughters, coworkers, and friends. We still celebrate it here in America, and I want to give my greetings to every woman who owns or handles a vacation rental. Being a landlord is not an easy task; being a great landlord is an even harder task. Being a wife, mother, girl friend, or independent woman plus being a great landlord is a mission that is almost impossible. I wish all of you women - vacation rentals owners and managers - much success and best wishes. Happy bookings to all of you!

I started a blog that outlines the challenges and milestones in creating a vacation rental site. I will be happy if you read it and post your comments. The blog is a mixture of personal and professional views. I hope it will allow you to know me better: http://vacation-rentals-site.blogspot.com.

Quick Links...
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Our Website
Most Viewed Vacation Rentals
Vacation Homes Services
Vacation Rentals Library
Contact Information
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General: support@VacationRentalsListed.com
Customer Service: yulia@VacationRentalsListed.com
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