Podcast Alan Egan has been prominent in the vacation rental world for the last ten years at least. A well respected VR photographer, WordPress expert, and all-round nice person, Alan has a lot of knowledge about marketing that he freely shares. At the Vacation Rental World Summit in Florence last month, he launched a new platform called Vacation Soup. Vacation Soup encourages owners (with WordPress sites) to create amazing content that the platform will share with the world. From a free website that can be created in under 3 hours to an owner community and learning centre along with a complete listing site, Alan and his team have created an ambitious strategy to combat the stranglehold the big listing sites have over independent owners. In this episode Alan explains the frustrations that underlie the Vacation Soup philosophy and talks about his vision for the future of vacation rental disruption. Alan shares: Why he believes interdependence with listing sites is a key to success How Vacation Soup tackles the issues owners are currently facing The importance of content to any website How using video increases Google’s interest The owner’s site that has nearly 30 videos and how that has impacted traffic Where to get great videos for free What owners need to do to regain control Who Vacation Soup is for and how members can contribute to the collaborative experience The timelines for the project Links mentioned in the episode: Vacation Adirondacks Vacation Soup Launch Site Presentation from VRWS Get Your Free Website & Plugin Video Walkthrough of New Website Builder
