BowhunterWebsites

Community Portals & Online Advertising in Lincolnshire

I operate a number of websites based around towns and villages in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire which are used by residents, visitors and holiday makers to find out about local shops, services, places to stay, things to do, places to eat and more.

A page on one or more of my sites is probably the best value advertising you can do online or otherwise. I enter all the information for you and can even take high quality photos. No computer, writing or photography skills are required.

I am now in my second year and the chalet bookings are going well, mainly due to your site, thank you. I am focusing on couples and June was fully booked and this coming September is almost fully booked too.

Lindi - The Boathouse Chalet, Mablethorpe

My Community Websites

The website for Alford, Lincolnshire
The website for Burgh Le Marsh, Lincolnshire
The website for Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire
The website for Alford, Lincolnshire
The website for Sutton on Sea, Lincolnshire
The website for Alford, Lincolnshire
The website for Alford, Lincolnshire

Quote Generator

There is a £10 admin charge for starting a new contract (or restarting a lapsed one), after that a standard page costs just £38.50 a year. Duplicate your page on one or more addition sites for just £19.25 per year, per site (i.e. for just 50% of the standard cost).

You can also choose to have a featured listing for an additional £30 per year, per site. Featured listings appear above the standard ones on the relevant category pages with a larger entry that includes an image. Featured listings also appear on the basic (free) pages of other organisations within the same categories.









Annual Cost: £0
Annual Exposure: 0 website visits*

I can publicise events and or press resleases free of charge at my discretion and depending on my current work load. Preference is given to organisations who choose to support the sites.
* Based on the 12 month rolling total of visits to the website as recorded by Google Analytics, last updated April 2022. The amount of visits your page receives will depend on it's mass appeal, relevancy to the site, content and whether it is a standard or featured advert.

Contact Bowhunter Websites

If you would like to place and advert, or have a question not already answered on this page, please send me an email using the address below and I'll respond as soon as possible during normal working hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

You can advertise on the website for the area that your business is in/close to or mainly serves - this becomes your 'primary' site. You can then optionally duplicate your page on other sites for half price with your business appearing below those for whom the site is their primary.

Use the Quote Generator above to calculate the cost and amount of exposure for different scenarios.

Every business is different but below is a rough guide based on my existing advertisers:

A shop will typically advertise on the website for the town/village they are based in.

An accommodation provider might pick two or three sites if they feel those interested in an adjacent town might be tempted by their offer.

Entertainment venues and tourists attractions will advertise on every site from which they feel residents and holiday makers are likely to travel.

Mobile businesses and/or services tend to advertise on all the sites to reach as many people as possible within their work area.

I try to ensure the information on your page is as 'evergreen' as possible and does not include details that will go out of date. Most users just need a very occasional tweak (e.g. revised prices or opening hours) which I will make for you, on request*, as part of the service.

Bespoke deals can be made with customers who require frequent and/or significant updates. This is most often the case when the customer doesn't have their own website and wants to use their page as their organisations main web presence.

*Updates should be sent by email and are typically applied the day I receive them. It is the customers responsibility to ensure their page is up to date as they know if and when they have changed their opening hours etc and I do not. Please note it is not possible for me to do a daily check of your website/social media account for any changes as some have suggested or to trawl through newsletters and magazines etc on the off chance they contain relevant information.

  • Business name
  • Tagline (one line summary of what you do)
  • Logo
  • Description
  • Photo Gallery
  • Opening Hours
  • Up to 2 Telephone Numbers
  • Send a message form (protects your email address from spammers)
  • Link to Website (great for SEO and increased traffic)
  • Links to Social Media Pages
  • Address
  • Map, Directions & Find Us Features

Yes! Small high street businesses typically do not need their own website but they do need a web presence - i.e. when someone searches for your business online it's important that they find a professional webpage who's content you are in control of.

Quite a few of my customers also choose to register a domain name with me which I then point to their page on the community site. This gives the business a professional looking website address to publicise and potentially use for email, without the expense of a website. Should the business choose to commission a website in the future I can simply redirect the domain to it.

Definately! If you have invested in a website a page on one or more of my sites will boost it in the following ways:

  • More Visitors Because visitors referred from my sites are interested in both the local area and your business they are very high quality leads. This should translate into more sales, bookings or enquiries and also improve your sites reputation with the search engines who will see interested and engaged visitors. Note my links to your site include UTM parameters to help those who know how to use them you gauge the performance of your advert.
  • SEO Benefits A factor for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the number of high quality websites that link to yours. My sites are usually the highest ranking in their area and several large businesses, who understand SEO, pay just to have a link on the relevant page.
  • Dominate Search When someone searches for your business the search results typically list some of your competitors too. My sites rank well in Google and your page will most appear alongside your own website increasing your search presence and pushing one of your rivals off the first page.

There are two ways of using social media - posting regular updates and placing paid adverts. The first tends to be very costly in time, the second, at it's cheapest, would still cost more than 10 times what I am charging for an advert that runs all year.

Most businesses can benefit from a presence on social media but in terms of time and money invested I would recommend you take up a page on one of my sites first which will, incidentally, include links to your social media accounts.

Each site promotes its areas businesses, facilities and events to a global audience whilst also providing a wealth of useful information for local residents. I promote local events for free and often attend them taking and publishing photos to encourage greater attendance of future events.

The sponsorship of local businesses accounts for over 90% of each sites income so without this support the sites would simply cease to exist. The more support I receive the more time I can spend developing the sites and adding to their content.

Finally, please consider that while money spent with Facebook, Twitter, Google etc goes to America - money spent with me stays in Lincolnshire!

Having had a few non-payers I now require payment before working on your advert though the contract will not start until the advert is live. My accounts package, Xero, will automatically email you an invoice covering 12 months of advertising.

The email will include a 'Pay Now' button which is the most convenient way to pay using a debit or credit card. The invoice will also contain my BACS information which is the preferred method of payment. Finally you can post me a cheque but please don't ask me to collect it as, depending on your location, the travel expense can often exceed it's value!

Going forwards Xero will send you a fresh invoice 30 days before your advert expires to give you chance to renew it and keep it live. If you do not want to renew simply let me know and I'll remove your advert and cancel the invoice with a credit note.

If a contract expires without me hearing from the customer I will typically assume they no longer require it and remove it rather than spend time chasing payment.

About The Sites

mablethorpe.info website in 2007
Mablethorpe.info in 2007

The sites were created in 2000 by Keith and Janet Butters working as Bowhunter Websites with the support of the relevant Town Council.

At the time the first popular social network, MySpace, was still 3 years away so there was no easy way for non-technical people to post information online and very few businesses had their own website.

The sites offer an easy and affordable way for business owners to be found on the internet whilst also promoting their town/village, it's events and community activities.

2019 Relaunch

Chris Drew (trading as MGC Websites Ltd) bought Bowhunter Websites in 2018 and redeveloped the sites make them more modern and easier to update and maintain. One by one the sites were relaunched in 2019 with new features like events, articles, interactive maps, free listings for all high street businesses, links to relevant local news items and more.

By the end of summer 2021 the sites combined were receiving over 535,000 visits a year compared to 240,000 prior to their relaunch.

2023 Update

Over the next 4 years, the 2019 theme benefited from 90 separate updates to accommodate new features and keep up to date with best practices. Eventually, so many additions made the codebase difficult to maintain, so in 2023 I took the opportunity to rewrite the theme. The 2023 theme incorporates a cosmetic refresh, compatibility with the WordPress Block Editor, and a codebase that's 46% smaller and will be far easier to extend and maintain going forwards.

Website Development & Hosting

I also offer Website Development in Lincolnshire. Visit MGC Websites Ltd for services including:

  • Website Design, Development & Updating
  • Managed Website Hosting
  • Domain Name Registration and Management
  • Managed email boxes
MGC Websites Ltd Logo