I'll cover Megabunk further on, but before that I'm going to go over some tips to raise your visibility online.

There are a number of ways to optimize you online presence. Carrying out all the work yourself is obviously the most taxing. Building your own website. Self-marketing. Fine tuning your Search Engine Optimization. These are just some of the things you'll need to do. All these take time and cost money and if you're knowledge of the way cyberspace works is not up to scratch then you can easily use your efforts in areas that will do little to help your popularity. There is also a minefield of companies and individuals that are eager to relieve you of your money in exchange for their services, and if you don't know what works, how can you tell if they are going to be good for you.

A website is a good idea. There are plenty of would be web developers out there that can build you a site and sort out all the hosting for you so that all you need to do is consult them for changes and pay your monthly fees. Be warned though. Make sure you read all the small print. Some companies and individuals charge hourly rates for modifications to your site and those rates can vary wildly. Try to make sure there is flexibilty in your contract so that you have the option to move to other hosts. Owning the rights to your content is a must. If the company retains all rights then you might have problems if you wanted to change to another developer. You might not be able to take your site with you. Own your domain name too. If you've spent good money on marketing that name, you want to be able to be in control of where it points to at all times.

Once you have a website, you'll need to let the world know that you are there. You could have the most beautiful website on earth or it could be technically amazing but all that counts for nothing initially. When your website first goes live it's just a grain of sand like all the other grains of sand in the desert we call the internet. Find that grain of sand! The art of making your website appear as a larger grain of sand is down to something called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Most search engines order their results using certain rules and mathematical methods. Not all these rules and methods are known for sure because if they were, everybody would optimize their website to them which would result in no real order to the results. Back to where they started.

One well known weighing factor for search engines is backlinks. A back-link is link on someone else's website that points back to your site. There is a consideration to make before you dart off and try to get thousands of back-links (There are SEO companies that will do this). All back-links are not equal. Having one back-link on a highly ranked popular site can be worth more than many, many back-links on much less popular sites. This is one of the criteria that search engines don't mind you knowing because it's pretty hard to fake or engineer. There are also backlinks that don't count towards your score, but if that backlink is on a popular site, it's still valuable because it's likely to provide traffic to your site and every visitor counts.

Another way of promoting your business online is paid for advertising through the likes of Google or 7search. Or you can go through an advertising agency that will create your ads and put them in the right places. It really depends on how much money you have budgeted for your marketing. Understand though that the advertising costs will most likely far outweigh your potential income at the beginning. Building your visibility on the internet is a slow process, so patience is required. Don't listen to anyone that tells you that it's easy. Competing is never easy. You'll find that a lot of successful online businesses are constantly modifying their strategies. If you want to stick with them then you will have to be doing the same. Your precious time and money. Both expensive.

There are plenty of well known online agency websites out there that list Hotels etc, and you can benefit from their publicity. The agencies normally handle the bookings for the Hotels and take a percentage as commission. Typically around 10 per cent. Some agencies are reluctant to give any links to your own website if you already have one online because obviously they want their commission. It's understandable considering that they are throwing profits into promoting their service. However, if you choose to no longer be signed up to that agency, you can take a massive drop on the traffic stakes. If you don't mind that then an agency might be good for you. However you should have your own presence outside of them. Do not rely totally on business through their doors. Keeping your options open is always good and it can in some ways make the agencies remain vigilant in valuing your business.

What about something that's free online?

Being in search engines and directories can only add to your visibility. There are SEO companies that will put you into a lot of these. As well as the general directories there are specific directories that deal with single categories such as Accommodation and Events. The more places you can be seen on the internet, the better. Think of the world as a global sized spider web and each of your links on the internet as a fly stuck in that web. The more flies you have the more likely the spider is to pick one of yours sometime soon.

It isn't just directories that link out. There are custom built useful websites that also do the same job and these are usually ranked well. A lot of directories and bespoke sites charge fees or offer a free basic listing and then try to sell you premium listings with attractive sounding names such as Silver or Gold. The better of those sites are those that invest some of their profits back into marketing the site which can result in increased exposure for its members. Unless you have a means of statistically tracking traffic from these sites then I wouldn't reccommend paying for their services. You need to know if your investment in them is working for you.

As far as Accommodation and Events are concerned there is one site that really does deserve a special mention and that is Megabunk.

http://www.megabunk.com

It is a custom built website that focuses on Accommodation and Events and has a system of membership. Build your own page on the site with images and a comprehensive descripton. You can set a price range and also specify certain criteria associated with your Accommodation or Event. The in-built currency tool is pretty neat too. If you are viewing a members profile that shows pricing and you happen to be in a country that uses a different currency, then you will see a close representation of their prices in your own currency without having to go off site and do your own conversion. Users can create their own double opt-in notification lists and they can also request email verification when anybody contacts them through the site. Among other features there is also an active calendar that members can toggle dates with and this is used in the on-site search as one of the many criteria. Megabunk also actively promote themselves. Some of the automated promotion involves posting of updates and new sign ups to Twitter and Facebook as well as an Evolving SEO program.

I didn't just mention Megabunk for it's usefulness to Accommodation owners and Event organizers. So how much does it cost to be a Megabunk member? The answer to that is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! It's totally free! There is no Silver or Gold paid for options. It's all free and all accounts receive equal exposure. Searching is done in geographical order. So nearest to the pin wins. I know, it's not golf, but it seemed the right phrase to use.

One of the main attractions of Megabunk (apart from giving you a ranked online presence for free) is that it is not an agency, but more of a search and contact site. People come looking for Accommodation and Events. If they search near you then your profile comes up in the search results. They can then read your profile page and contact you either through the contact form or through a link to your website (that is if you have one. You may decide to make your Megabunk page your main hub). So you can be signed up to an agency as well as being a Megabunk member. You can even make your website link go to your agency booking page!
It's been roughly 12 months since Megabunk started its journey. As of June 2012 it had over 700 members in 50 countries (most of those in the UK). The decision to set up a Megabunk profile should really be a foregone conclusion. It's free and it increases your exposure online. The only effort you have to make is to sign up and create your profile. There are step by step instructions on the help pages and even videos that take you through the process.

After you've hopefully rushed off and created your Megabunk profile you'll no doubt be interested to know other factors that makes your metaphorical grain of sand bigger in the desert we call the internet. Read on.

Age is something that needs to be taken into account. No, not your age, but the age of your website/blog/page on Megabunk etc. Some search engines see age as a sign of consistency and therefore give it a little preference. Unlike us, they get better with age. Not something you can govern immediately but more something that you should be aware of. How long you've owned your domain name can also count. Not only how old it is but also how much time is remaining before the domain requires renewal. So always try to make sure there is at least one year remaining. Domains with a close expiry can be penalized.

Your website URL's (the http bit) and pages titles also have a bearing on major search engine results. Try to make sure that they contain words relevant to your business. A megabunk profile URL may be http://www.megabunk.com/member-megabunkhotel.php and the title of that page might be "Megabunk - Magnificent camp site in the rocky mountains". So make sure that when you set up a Megabunk profile, you put a relevant sentence in your page Heading as this is used for the page title that is seen by the major search engines.

Be unique. Unique content counts for a lot, so if you go copying content from other websites (not reccommended) make sure you change the wording to make yours unique. That uniqueness is even more important within your own site.

All these elements and more count towards raising your visibility on the internet. Some of the secret weighing factors may always remain secret to avoid manipulation. There are a number of SEO organizations out there that claim to know the secret elements in order to tempt you to hire them but it's higly likely they are just guessing like the rest of us. Search engines evolve just as other websites do and so do their methods and ways ordering their results, so it's something you have to keep on top of and/or make sure you are a member of a website that is evolving such as Megabunk.

There's plenty to think about there. Competing in such a marketplace is never as easy as some would have you believe. That is why, then, that such free sites as Megabunk are a blessing to the hard working Accommodation owner or Event organizer. Discovering these gems is a simple as reading articles and texts such as this.

Let's hope that effort in the right direction pays dividends. Telling something about something good makes it even better.