Are the economic problems effecting the canals?

[Ron]

The number of hits to my website, which offers a few Narrowboat timeshare rentals ( because we can't sell the timeshares at a reasonable price) is about 30% down on the same period last year.

 

Is this typical of what is going on with regards to interest in Narrowboat holidays generally or am I having a personal slump?

Edited January 23, 2009 by Ron

[Dominic M]

The number of hits to my website, which offers a few Narrowboat timeshare rentals ( because we can't sell the timeshares at a reasonable price) is about 30% down on the same period last year.

 

Is this typical of what is going on with regards to interest in Narrowboat holidays generally or am I having a personal slump?

I was talking with a hire fleet owner yesterday who said he took £9000 worth of bookings at the London Boat Show and that in general bookings for 2009 were healthy.

 

I think it quite possible that people will look to UK holidays given the weakness of sterling at the moment - but who knows?

[Ron]

I was talking with a hire fleet owner yesterday who said he took £9000 worth of bookings at the London Boat Show and that in general bookings for 2009 were healthy.

 

I think it quite possible that people will look to UK holidays given the weakness of sterling at the moment - but who knows?

 

That's good news ... perhaps I need to do a bit of work on the website then!

[alexandra]

We hire several times a year and have done for twenty years. This year we have already had one week but are holding back booking again as our business has certainly been hit by the recession . I guess a lot of people will be "playing by ear" this year.

[Dominic M]

That's good news ... perhaps I need to do a bit of work on the website then!

What's your web address, Ron?

[Ron]

What's your web address, Ron?

 

www.canalbarge.co.uk

 

It's not a work of art but it does the job

[grahoom]

www.canalbarge.co.uk

 

It's not a work of art but it does the job

 

 

Hello Ron,

 

when I go to this link - http://www.canalbarge.co.uk/available.html All I get is the navigation down the side, and no actual information... This is using Firefox (3) on a mac. Also the same in Safari (3) on a mac.

 

Infact when I click on any link to any page, All I get is a blank page with the navigation, no actual information (the only part of the site that isn't like this is the home page).

[chris w]

www.canalbarge.co.uk

 

It's not a work of art but it does the job

Clearly it's not doing the job.... remember the adage "the good is the enemy of the best".

 

As a seasoned business guy, and FWIW, I think your webpage looks amateurish, is far far too "busy", and is confusing in that too many options are presented all at once. If you compare it to one of the market leaders, I'm sure you will get the idea. Get rid of most of that wording on the 1st page.

 

You may think "what the hell does he know?" or even "go screw yourself", but I have built up a number of very successful businesses and I know how important is a well designed website.

 

To me, it doesn't pack a punch and doesn't grab one's attention. You also need to differentiate yourself from your competition.... how do you do that other than geographic locaton?

 

All the above is done in the spirit of trying to help you.

 

Chris

[david and julie]

www.canalbarge.co.uk

 

It's not a work of art but it does the job

 

I'm not that techy, my computers on XP and I can access all Ron's site without problem.

 

Nothing wrong with the site either Ron .

[Dominic M]

www.canalbarge.co.uk

 

It's not a work of art but it does the job

Grahoom's right - I'm on a Mac and it does not work in either Firefox, Safari or Opera. I've just wandered over to the room we have a PC in and it works on IE7 and the PC version of Firefox (running on XP).

 

15% of my site visits are from Macs (roughly) so that is a chunk you don't want to exclude. I'm baffled as to why it works on Firefox on PC but not on a Mac, and I'm off to a techie forum to see what I can find. It's a new one on me. It's usually the terrible IE that is the one to misbehave,

Edited January 23, 2009 by Dominic M

[carlt]

I'm on Firefox 3 and only the "home" clicky is working, for me.

[Dominic M]

I'm on Firefox 3 and only the "home" clicky is working, for me.

Exactly what I'm getting - that is the only page that shows in full. The others show only the navigation buttons and the rest is blank. What are you viewing it on (system)?

[Pav]

www.canalbarge.co.uk

 

It's not a work of art but it does the job

 

 

Hi Ron,

 

The site and links work OK for me on XP as well.

 

I also think the site is fine.....It gets over all the info a customer requires.

 

However, Chris W obviously has your interests at heart, and if the site is not doing the business,

then it may well be worth the time and effort to try another layout.

 

Anyway I hope trade picks up for you.

 

Regards,

Pav.

[Ron]

Thanks for comments.

 

It is amaturish as that reflects my status , I am very much muddling through, at the same time for the last couple of years the site has attracted about 75,000 unique visitors and sold about 80% of weeks advertised and not removed for other purposes ( owner use or whatever ) before the holiday starts.

 

This is largely a result of some good placements in the search engines, achieved by a designing a website to that end rather than designing a website to sell.

 

In other words it contains a lot of gibberish to impress the search engines rather than impress clients.

 

 

The other option being to spend a lot of money on advertising

 

I must have a look at the Fire Fox problem!

[tony collins]

Works fine for me on Vista/IE

 

Tony

[carlt]

Exactly what I'm getting - that is the only page that shows in full. The others show only the navigation buttons and the rest is blank. What are you viewing it on (system)?

I'm on xp

[Dominic M]

Thanks for comments.

 

It is amaturish as that reflects my status , I am very much muddling through, at the same time for the last couple of years the site has attracted about 75,000 unique visitors and sold about 80% of weeks advertised and not removed for other purposes ( owner use or whatever ) before the holiday starts.

 

This is largely a result of some good placements in the search engines, achieved by a designing a website to that end rather than designing a website to sell.

 

In other words it contains a lot of gibberish to impress the search engines rather than impress clients.

 

 

The other option being to spend a lot of money on advertising

 

I must have a look at the Fire Fox problem!

If you get it working in Firefox then it will almost certainly work in other browsers like Safari.

 

I've just looked at your css style sheets. It seems to me that in the page code there are div tags that are not in the style sheets - or am I missing something? That would confuse a browser. For example I can't find #maincontent or #content.

 

By the way, the text that is missing when I view the page normally is there in the page source - so something is preventing it working properly.

[sueb]

No it doesn't work in firefox for me either. One website I like, not canal related is chiexpress.co.uk I haven't eaten the food but I like the web site.

Sue

[Ron]

If you get it working in Firefox then it will almost certainly work in other browsers like Safari.

 

I've just looked at your css style sheets. It seems to me that in the page code there are div tags that are not in the style sheets - or am I missing something? That would confuse a browser. For example I can't find #maincontent or #content.

 

By the way, the text that is missing when I view the page normally is there in the page source - so something is preventing it working properly.

 

Thanks,

I will have a look.

I did a brief dreamweaver course in the summer and experimented with style sheets for the first time ... I suspect this is the problem!

[Dominic M]

Thanks,

I will have a look.

I did a brief dreamweaver course in the summer and experimented with style sheets for the first time ... I suspect this is the problem!

Happy to help if I can, unless you go into brokerage

 

In which case the way forward is Windows 3.0, Adobe GoLive 5 and Wordperfect as a text editor.

[Chris J W]

You may think "what the hell does he know?" or even "go screw yourself", but I have built up a number of very successful businesses and I know how important is a well designed website.

 

Out of curiosity - any live examples?

[Tam & Di]

I'm on a Mac and it does not work in either Firefox, Safari or Opera.

 

and

 

It is amaturish as that reflects my status , I am very much muddling through, at the same time for the last couple of years the site has attracted about 75,000 unique visitors and sold about 80% of weeks advertised and not removed for other purposes ( owner use or whatever ) before the holiday starts.

 

I use Mac G4 PowerBook with OSX.4 (i.e. I've not moved up to the new Intel processor) and it works fine with Firefox.

 

The site does look very amateurish to me as well, but if it presents the image Ron wants to promote and has sold 80% of what he has to offer I guess that is the major factor. I did have trouble though working out quite what Ron does - sell holidays on craft/floating chalets of his own, or act as agent for others? If it does what Ron wants that is all it needs to do, but if he is concerned about not doing so well this year it may need more attention to detail.

[Ron]

I use Mac G4 PowerBook with OSX.4 (i.e. I've not moved up to the new Intel processor) and it works fine with Firefox.

 

The site does look very amateurish to me as well, but if it presents the image Ron wants to promote and has sold 80% of what he has to offer I guess that is the major factor. I did have trouble though working out quite what Ron does - sell holidays on craft/floating chalets of his own, or act as agent for others? If it does what Ron wants that is all it needs to do, but if he is concerned about not doing so well this year it may need more attention to detail.

 

I own a few Narrowboat Timeshares.

They are great as family holidays , but increasingly as the family gets older we use them less.

 

The exchange options seems to work out rather expensive and it is difficult to sell the things so I rent them out.

 

It is not worth advertising just 4 weeks so I advertise for other owners as well.

 

This creates interest and generally makes the thing work, while helping to pay the maintenance fees for the timeshares, which I am happy enough to keep and use providing they do not make a loss.

 

The website is as much a hobby as anything, though site and timeshares have to pay for themselves.

[Dominic M]

I use Mac G4 PowerBook with OSX.4 (i.e. I've not moved up to the new Intel processor) and it works fine with Firefox.

 

The site does look very amateurish to me as well, but if it presents the image Ron wants to promote and has sold 80% of what he has to offer I guess that is the major factor. I did have trouble though working out quite what Ron does - sell holidays on craft/floating chalets of his own, or act as agent for others? If it does what Ron wants that is all it needs to do, but if he is concerned about not doing so well this year it may need more attention to detail.

 

I have both an iMac with the PowerPC processor and a MacBook with the Intel. So it's not that. But you are using an older version of OSX - Tiger was it, or Panther? - I forget - and I'm using the latest Leopard. So your version of Firefox for Mac will probably be different, and that'll probably be why you can view and others can't.

 

However, carlt is using XP with the latest Firefox, and it doesn't work on that either. So possibly earlier versions of Firefox work but not the latest. It's a minefield . One thing is certain though - it should work, and on all platforms.

Edited January 23, 2009 by Dominic M

[Ron]

I have both an iMac with the PowerPC processor and a MacBook with the Intel. So it's not that. But you are using an older version of OSX - Tiger was it, or Panther? - I forget - and I'm using the latest Leopard. So your version of Firefox for Mac will probably be different, and that'll probably be why you can view and others can't.

 

However, carlt is using XP with the latest Firefox, and it doesn't work on that either. So possibly earlier versions of Firefox work but not the latest. It's a minefield . One thing is certain though - it should work, and on all platforms.

 

I'm going to get rid of the style sheets, it seems to help

 

Thanks again

 

Ron