Name of your website?Elk Country Log Homes
Your name?
Shelley Martinez
Your Location (city, etc)
Dearborn & Gaylord, MI
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We sell quality log homes and log cabin kits as an authorized dealer for Hiawatha Log Homes. We provide our customers with assistance on selecting the right log home, real estate, financing, design services and site selection. There are sample floor plans listed on our website.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
After we built our own Hiawatha Log Home, we loved it so much that we decided to become representatives for them. The website helps us reach potential clients and get the word out there.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Our first site we started was a blog entitled "Building a Log Cabin" (www.logcabininmichigan.blogspot.com) which details our dreams and experiences of building a log cabin in Northern Michigan. It is still active and we continue to list our log cabin projects, advice, tips, photos and much more.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Our log home is located in Gaylord, MI. Not only is their a fenced elk herd there, there is also a free ranging elk herd (the largest east of the Mississippi) nearby in Vanderbilt, MI. It seemed appropriate that since we were in Elk Country - that we call our log home the same.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
I believe our story of our own personal experiences of building a log home. We were customers first and believe we are uniquely qualified to help others on the same journey we took
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To add additional components to our site to help our log home customers such as log home tips, another blog and tracking their projects. We want our log home site to become one of the most popular on the web! Also, I hope to sell log homes for a long time.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
As we only became log home representatives this year and started our own company, we are investing as much time and what I like to call "smart dollars" as possible to make this successful. Since we love log homes so much - it is more of a "fun job."
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Like my eventual goal, I want to add additional services and be able to promote our site and log home business more. I would love to add log home videos and show potential clients the process.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes - this is a family business. We would all chip in.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Just figuring out which dollars to spend for Internet Promotion. I'm not sure about some of the ad campaigns and trying to decide on search engine optomization services.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Getting the word out there about our log home site!
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Probably from my log cabin blog that I started and then linked to my new log home business site. I already had established readers so I believe this gave me more credibility.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Realizing how important design and layout are!
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Our log home site - www.elkcountryloghomes.com has been up for about 3 months now and we look forward to fine tuning it and packing it full of good information for people interested in log homes. I don't anticipate that I won't succeed - I am an determined person.
What is your website address?
Elk Country Log Homes
