Algarve Luxury Villa Holidays

About Us

My parents moved to a small village just outside Tavira in January 2003, following a month-long holiday in the eastern Algarve the previous year to celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary. They had been vaguely thinking of retiring to Spain, and had in fact discounted Portugal because they thought the language would be too hard to learn. However, they both fell in love with Tavira. Mum stood on the Roman bridge, looking downriver, and said to my Dad "I could live here". Dad replied, "Yes, so could I". So that was that...

We began visiting them as soon as they’d settled in and also felt completely at home in the region. We’d actually been planning to move to Andalucía (unspoilt countryside, handy for beaches, handy for a spot of skiing in the mountains, and I already spoke reasonable Spanish from a year’s stint working in Mallorca – tough but somebody had to do it).

After a few visits though, we felt that the eastern Algarve was the place for us. We started to look round for a holiday home and happened upon the Alto do Perogil complex as it was nearing completion. It had everything we wanted from a holiday home – a good size with a bathroom for each bedroom (essential if friends come with us), a few neighbours but not too busy, our own private terrace, use of a big pool, and very handy for the town. Because of its location, on top of a hill with no through traffic, it is really quiet – quieter in fact than my parents’ place just outside a village - but a pleasant, leisurely walk taking no more than 25 minutes sees us in the heart of Tavira.

After a couple of years we decided that we really ought to start renting our home, if only to cover our bills and give us free holidays. I had no website skills at that time, so surfed the net until I found someone whose style and ethos I liked. We had a trip down to Plymouth to visit webmaster Roger Viles, and our website was born.

Then, just over a year ago, while we were in Portugal over New Year, I was on the internet and came across a company called SiteSell, selling a product called Site Build It! (or SBI!). Odd name, I thought.

The company was owned by a Canadian chap called Ken Evoy, and was all about helping people to build an online business, rather than just a website. And not just any online business. The key was that you provide the best possible information, for free, to build a relationship based on trust and respect with your potential customers. This generates genuine, "pre-sold" traffic to your website. Only then do you try to make some money. Everything about this man shouted "integrity". I was intrigued and spent hours looking over the site, watching Ken’s video clips, reading case studies, getting a feel for how it worked, and then searching for reviews on the net to see if anybody had a bad word to say about Ken or his company. They didn’t; it was all good.

It was really the case studies that sold it for me. There are written case studies from people from all sorts of backgrounds covering a huge range of "passions turned into businesses". There are also video clips of people talking about how they've used SBI! to become free. Time after time perfectly ordinary people, just like me, were building online businesses based on their hobbies and passions. And then they were giving up their jobs because they were earning enough from their SBI! sites. I’ll say that bit again – THEY WERE GIVING UP THEIR JOBS! Imagine that freedom! To be able to give up a job that is pure drudgery, work on something I love, and work only the hours I want, is a dream that once would have seemed impossible. With SBI! it can be a reality, and it’s entirely up to me whether I make it succeed.

Anyway, I discussed it with Norm and finally flexed the credit card. I was originally going to do a site on the Algarve – an obvious choice – but a friend who’d moved to Cyprus contacted me about a business proposition and I changed my mind. It was a long time in the planning, but finally www.move-to-beautiful-cyprus.com came into being.

Although cncholidays is not an SBI! site, I’ve applied the SiteSell principles as I’ve started to expand the website. I realised that, as well as promoting our holiday home, I also needed to provide a lot more useful information for our potential guests. I am now building on that all the time and am trying to make this site the best it possibly can be. There’s plenty more to come yet, with our favourite restaurants and beaches, regional food and cooking, things to do, and some basic language tuition all in the pipeline.

If you like the sound of working from home, doing hours to suit you, and enjoying what you do, I’d thoroughly recommend you check out the SiteSell website and listen to what Ken has to say. Maybe you’re a mum who’s opted to stay at home to look after the kids, but have a few hours spare most days and would like to earn some money. Maybe you’re on the verge of retirement and are concerned that life on a pension is going to be a bit of a struggle. Maybe you’re like me and hate having to get up at the crack of dawn and commute for an hour to a job that offers no interest or creativity, and feel frustrated that there seems to be no way off this treadmill to a life with more free time. Whatever your situation, there’s almost certainly a case study that will have you nodding your head and smiling in recognition.

I can say from first-hand experience what a great community the SBI! world is, with a real feeling of camaraderie. There is a forum, with topics for every aspect of the process, full of generous people only too happy to pass on their knowledge and experience. I’m still a beginner at this and don’t have all the answers by any means, but those lovely people at SiteSell do. If you want to email them, or talk to a real person, they will be able to answer any questions or doubts you may have. Believe me, you won’t regret it. These are not just call centre people reading scripts, they are all SBI! owners themselves and are passionate about the product.

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