September 29th , 2009 → 9:31 am @ admin // No Comments
www.VisitorsWeymouth.co.uk is currently nearing the end of it’s initial build phase and we are now ready to start accepting uploads of event information from local event organisers. Much of the site structure is in place, although for now you won’t see that much content, this will be added between now and Christmas in preparation for early January 2010.
Our aim is to enable a wide range of local businesses, event organisers, clubs, societies and charities to as simply as possible get their information published on the site at no charge and placed in front of potential visitors to the area from across the world in over 20 languages.
We have just made the add events sections live and invite any local event organisers to upload their details. You can access details of how to do this by clicking here.
An upload section allowing local businesses who need to connect with visitors to our area to add their page to the site will be available in about a weeks time. Most local businesses will be able to feature themselves, once again at no charge, the only qualifying criteria being that they offer a service that is of use to visitors as well as locals. This should suit a whole range of businesses including pubs, restaurants, independant retailers, service sector businesses in particular any in the sailing or maritime services field, visitor attractions, activity providers, taxi and hire car companies etc. etc. etc.
Clubs, societies, charities are also encouraged to submit their details. This could be details of events they are arranging or pages about themselves, visitors would find this very useful and it will suit amongst others, drama and arts groups, sports clubs, special interest and community groups.
We’ll also be talking to local authorities with a view to publishing general local info on the site, harbour regulations and berthing fees, car park locations and charges, shows at Weymouth Pavilion etc. we think this would make a lot of sense and are hoping that Weymouth and Portland Borough Council will see the benefits also.
We are anxious to make the process of adding information to the site as easy to use as possible whilst retaining the security necessary to control the site content. We may not have got this absolutely right so will be tinkering with it over the next couple of weeks but in the meantime would appreciate any feedback you may have on where we are so far using the comments section at the foot of this page.
For those of you in Portland we’re sorry that Portland doesn’t feature in the sites domain name it just wasn’t practical as the name would have been too long. You will see though that apart from this throughout the site Portland features with equal prominence to Weymouth in page titles etc.
Who qualifies for this free facility?
Basically anyone organising any event in the area that would be of interest to visitors. Of course locals will find the information useful as well.
Can commercial events upload their details?
Yes of course. commercial, charitable or not for profit events can be uploaded to the site and there will be no charge for any of them. We welcome submissions from all sorts of events, from village fetes to pub gigs or quiz nights, wedding fairs to angling competitions and everything in between!
What will you get on your entry?
- A full page description of your event with no limit to amount of copy
- A gallery of up to six photos to illustrate your event
- Your full contact details including a link to your website and e mail address if you wish
- A map showing your event location
- Direction finder to help your visitors find their way to you
- Your web page translated and available in 20 different languages
- Your event listed on the VisitorsWeymouth.co.uk events calendar.
- (not currently in place but shortly the ability to embed a video on your web page)
How will we promote your event?
- All events added to the site will be posted direct to the Weymouth and Portland and Dorset Facebook pages. Currently between them they have over 11,000 fans and your event details will be delivered direct to these fan’s Facebook news feed as soon as we publish it. We are also able to publish to a number of other Dorset Facebook pages and where events have a wider geographical appeal we’ll do so. When we do this our reach extends to over 25,000 fans and includes such areas as Swanage, Poole, Dorchester, Bournemouth and Lyme Regis, North Dorset and Purbeck. For event organisers we think this represents the most effective online promotion tool around at the moment, we can’t think of any other mechanism that exists that within a matter of hours could put details of a local event directly onto the screens of so many potential attendees locals and visitors alike.
- We have two Twitter accounts that have been building followers over the past couple of months @VisitWeymouth and @VisitDorset. The numbers are not as large as Facebook but they will grow. Your event will be published to each of these as soon as we publish it. Quite simply we don’t just want to have people visit the site once and leave and not return for a while, we aim to engage with them and use these and other methods ( more details soon) to keep in touch with them and encourage them to return and see what our area has to offer.
- We have invested a lot of time in the back end of this site to make it as search engine friendly as possible, we have a lot of experience of this sort of thing. New websites don’t immediately get listed on sites like Google so we started making Google, Bing, Yahoo etc aware of the site a month or so ago to make sure they start referring visitors to us in the early part of the new year. Google and Yahoo have started to index our pages we expect others to soon.
We hope you find what we are doing interesting, if you are organising a future event you can add it now by clicking here the link takes you through a series of pages that take you through the upload process. If you’re not quite ready yet but find what we are doing interesting we’d love to hear your comments or suggestions which you can send to us using the comment form below. We’d particularly like feedback on how straightforward you find the upload process and whether the instructions we have given on our upload pages are clear enough.
