Name of your website?Horsetrekking through the Tunisian Sahara
Your name?
Wenda Rietveld
Your Location (city, etc)
Amsterdam
Please give us a short summary of your website?
A horseriding experience in the Tunisian Sahara never to forget, guided by Bedouin cavalier Abderrahim ben Abdelmalek. The summury continues with text about the trekking: "The views over the desert are breathtaking, the horses faster than fast who really enjoy climbing the sanddunes. A Bedouin cook prepares meals with fresh organic fruit & vegetables. Non riders can ride dromedaries." Further there is a story about how I came in Tunisia and a lot of info about how to get there and some info about the Sahara Douz Festival in December. A lot of pictures and further translation in Dutch, French and German.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
First the inspiration to launch the website was to share skills and personal qualities of the people I work with, concerning my work as a fashion stylist for fashion magazines. Now I have been introduced into Tunisian Bedouin culture I want to share and introduce the skills and personal qualities of the people who work hard to organise horsetrekking into the Tunisian Sahara, with the departure from Douz, Tunisia. I also like writing and collecting information concerning the subjects and make it easier to find flights and other excursions.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website has been http://www.wendarietveld all the time, in 2004.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name of the website is my personal name and now I use it to introduce Bedouin cavalier Abderrahim ben Abdelmalek.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
The website differs from similar offers because of lay-out and strong colors, a lot of details and detailed information, personal stories and above all amazing pictures!
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My goal for the website is to keep it for income and to share information and to create the possibilty for people to find me, wherever I go whatever I do.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I did all the webdesign -with only a little help to get introduced into webcodes, myself. I changed after an introduction to html into css. I found tutoriols on the internet. I did not have any investments and enjoyed working for the website and writing all text and integrating all the pictures.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would spent a budget for a webdesigner with artistic skills and I would hire a employee to write articles and surf the internet for good links to my site.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Right now if the website would grow quickly I could not keep up with the demand all by myself. I would educate employees and let them work beside me.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The biggest headaches have been the providers and webhosts.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge was to change from html into css, which has been the best decision, without any help. Just by finding a free template on the internet and change it completely.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
The best method for promoting the website has been putting announcements in webforums and personal messages and free messages at advertising sites and free links.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Running a website is more easy than I expected, of course it needed a little study, but it gave me a lot of joy.
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?
In this lay-out the website is running since February 2009 and it will be running until far into the future, perhaps the content will change.
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What is your website address?
Horsetrekking through the Tunisian Sahara
