I need your judgement for my e-business website

[Traveler255]

I created a website where hoteliers can promote their hotels for some money and people who are looking for a quality hotel only can find it in a very unique way. Unfortunately there isn't much traffic on my website and thus almost nobody knows my website although it is already in the Google and Yahoo index. So what do you think about this website?
Top 1000 Destinations

And how can I make my website more popular beside forums? I don't have money for expensive ads.

[The Old Sarge]

In order to get hoteliers to buy ads, you need traffic. In order to get visitors to use your links, you need links. In short, it seems you've started in the middle and must work both directions.

In order to get hoteliers to sign up at this point, you'll likely have to give them a link for free. (Why would they pay for something with so little to gain?) As you grow, make sure you can track/trace every visitor that contacted a hotel through your site. When that number hits a certain level, THEN start charging the hotels ... you'll be able to show them how much business you've brought them.

Until then, you'll have to find other means of funding your site.

I'll let other address the issues with the site itself.

[Phil_@_MPP]

Hi Traveller255,

I like the idea behind the website itself, giving people the opportunity to find 4 or 5 star hotels (only the best).

The design of the website itself is not too bad. I think the background could be different, as it is very dark and somber, although this is more of a personal preference.

The globe image with all of the stars on is a good idea, however it is far too big and having to scroll to find countries needs to be addressed. I am not too sure how this could be improved, maybe someone else might know of a good way that you could have a smaller image, then it zooms into wherever you cursor is.

Overall though I like the site, and hope my comments help you in the future.

P.

[Traveler255]

reply to The Old Sarge
<<<In order to get hoteliers to sign up at this point, you'll likely have to give them a link for free. (Why would they pay for something with so little to gain?) As you grow, make sure you can track/trace every visitor that contacted a hotel through your site. When that number hits a certain level, THEN start charging the hotels ... you'll be able to show them how much business you've brought them.>>>
Thank you for your advice. Maybe you are right. At the beginning I shouldn't demand too much from hoteliers for the promotion of their hotel. A link for free or a much lower charge for the first year until the website gains some popularity. Tracking down every visitor to the hotels would be a good idea although I don't how to implement that because I don't think that each hotel offers a kind of affilitate program.
There is something I don't understand. How could Alex Tew's website http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com attract so many companies and visitors although his homepage was completely empty at the beginning and nobody had really an idea how it would look like?
Well, some guys have all the luck.


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reply to Phil
<<<Hi Traveller255,

I like the idea behind the website itself, giving people the opportunity to find 4 or 5 star hotels (only the best).

The design of the website itself is not too bad. I think the background could be different, as it is very dark and somber, although this is more of a personal preference.>>>
Thank you for your appreciation. But my website is not only for 4 and 5 star hotels but also for 3 stars hotels with a good reputations which are sometimes more interesting and comfortable than those of higher classification. That's the idea behind my website.

<<<The globe image with all of the stars on is a good idea, however it is far too big and having to scroll to find countries needs to be addressed. I am not too sure how this could be improved, maybe someone else might know of a good way that you could have a smaller image, then it zooms into wherever you cursor is.>>>
Well, the earth is big. The alternative would be an interactive flash image which you can zoom in and out to see certain parts of the globe only. But the problem with flash images are that it takes some time to download them and to zoom. Visitors could lose their patience. And implementing that interactive flash image is little bit complicated too.
But I think scrolling down is not that difficult for visitors.

[JPnyc]

I think this site would benefit from a redesign. For starters, I use a higher than average resolution than the avg. user, and more than half your site is off my screen. In addition, the overall look of the site is not up to contemporary standards.