Travel Blog July Archive

Country Roads - South Africa accommodation and torist information guide Interview

By Interviewer at 07/23/07 06:23

Name of your website?

Country Roads - South Africa accommodation and torist information guide

Your name?

Andrew Attwood

Your Location (city, etc)

Drakensberg

When did you start your website and why?

mid 2006. I wanted to learn php and needed and example. The subject matter of our wonderful country captured my imagination and I just kept moving forward. Now the Php does not seem so relevant and I am inspired to visit the many places I have listeded.

Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc

I dont as yet really have a business model although I can see some ideas. I am just passionate about South Africa and love to collect information about it. I let any tourism service provider join for free and list their services. That includes photos and information.

In the future I intend to charge an annual listing fee but will wait until I have enough subscribers to make it worth using. An alternative is to add google adsense later or a commission based booking service.

What has been the most difficult part of creating and running your website?

Without a doubt getting traffic. Sites live or die by the amount of traffic and the way I see things currently I think traffic is a time consuming and extremly laborious task. Its still a problem but month by month things improve.

What has been the easist part of operating your website?

Understanding the technology, writting the php code and being inspired by South African travel

What was your biggest mistake?

Assuming that you write a page and it will show up in the search engines. No way it takes effort to get it listed, effort to get it linked to and to think that the 30 miniutes or hour spent creating content takes 5 hours more for linking.

Who maintains your website and why?

I do it myself. Its a hobby, its more productive than watching the bold and the beautiful and a great spin off is an automatic planning of my next holiday. Many accommodation establishments that are listed have thanked me for the accommodation enquiries they get my site and some have invited me for a thank you getaway. Let me say now thank everyone in this industry. You guys are the greatest and are generally a pleasure to work with.

Tell us how your business has benefitted from your website?

Its still early days and my website borders more towards hobby than it does business. If my traffic could build up a bit more to say 100 000 unique visitors per month this could well become my new day job.

What are your views on ecommerce and the future of the internet?

Websites will become more integrated with functionality. Bookings will become automatic with online availability and integrated web user feedback to support service level claims. The surfer expectation is raised almost on a monthly basis and already expects a high level of functionality from any web site. Information needs to be good, supported by good clear images and client testimonials. If a provider does not offer whats expected the surfer simply hits the back button. There is plenty more sites out there from where yours came from. I am very aware of this and have make it my missing to integrate these features into my site over the next year. Whats more I dont intend to charge for these services rather will offer them to service providers in the industry for free. Well thats not really true. The added networking will boost the value of my site aswell.

What are your views on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Essential. Although I am not exactly convinced that there is any secret trick. Its more a case of building strong and solid content that is useful. Achieving lots of links helps too but they should not only be built for the ske of link popularity. They also need to sevre a purpose.

What are your views on Search Engines? Have they helped or hindered your website?

I dont know I am not yet that far. But quite clearly I see that the higher you are listed the more traffic you attain.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

Building content and networking. Most people in the world are not out to scam the rest so if you give a bit of good will most people will give back freely. Thats my secret weapon to networking.

What method has been least successful for promoting your website?

linking for the sake of linking. Huge effort and no results.

What would you like to see change with respect to the internet?

Very little. Perhaps an increase in quality and decrease in the spammy junk.

What is your website address?

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Thailand Travel and Tourism Interview

Name of your website?

Thailand Travel and Tourism

Your name?

Alex Minchin

Your Location (city, etc)

London, England

When did you start your website and why?

I started my website a little after I came back from my travels. I spent a good month travelling around Thailand and was eager to go back as soon as I could. My website started really basic as a collection of my experiences and photos etc but only recently I have decided to document it properly on a website in order to urge others to check out this great country. All the pictures on the site are owned by me and I feel this gives the site something of a personal touch so that surfers can relate to my own experiences, without having some duplicated stuff and commercial pictures trying to ruin it for them.

Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc

The website is simply a brief guide to travelling around Thailand and just some documentation and points of view from my own experiences. As I said, all the pictures are my own and this gives the site a humble feel - people don't want to read the same stuff over and over, they want to be able to relate with the person they are taking advice from which is really what i wanted to achieve with the site. Of course, the site is still new and i am still updating it all the time. I have a few friends who are there now, so I'm sure i will be in contact with them to try and chip in some comments and experiences to share.

What has been the most difficult part of creating and running your website?

The most difficult part has been the exposure. Im fairly confident in website development and don't mind trying out stuff, and one of my passions is photography so it's a good mix to have at the start. I guess the really difficult test will be seeing if people find the content useful - but this feature will be implemented in the future im sure in the form of a rating/comments system.

What has been the easist part of operating your website?

The easiest part is the actual content as it brings back great memories of my time in Thailand and only spurs me on to save up and get out there again - although this time i would like to check out the more cultural and remote side to the country.

What was your biggest mistake?

Using Tables and backing out of the idea of using CSS!

Who maintains your website and why?

I maintain the website for the reason that it is a site about my experiences and recommendations.

Tell us how your business has benefitted from your website?

My site isn't really business aimed, but I have had some good CTR on my Adsense so it all helps. I use this income to pay for my next project.

What are your views on ecommerce and the future of the internet?

The future is going mobile, something i'd like to begin to explore and learn about. I can see the age of PDA sized browsing becoming more and more popular, as well as the introduction of browsing facilities becoming more popular in aeroplanes, cars etc.

What are your views on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

The most important part of any website. No traffic, no exposure. I spent a lot of time trying to improve my SEO skills, and am always learning more

What are your views on Search Engines? Have they helped or hindered your website?

They have helped lots.. i rely heavily on organic traffic for all of my sites, and this one will be no different.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

I promote my website in forums related to travelling and the like. I feel this targets the relevant people and I do not feel like im spamming away offering information on Thailand when the post is on a gadget forum!

What method has been least successful for promoting your website?

Offline SEO hasn't been successful really. I live in a small town of mainly old people so it was a bit of a hit and miss idea! I'd love to try it in my University town where im sure i will reach more of an audience.

What would you like to see change with respect to the internet?

Id like to see all Automated, built-for-adsense sites be deleted and sites with parking pages for domains over a year old be automatically expired. They help nobody and hold back people who actually have a useful idea for a particular domain name/site

Where will I go from here?

Well when i was travelling, i went from Thailand to Australia - so I guess thats the next stop? :D

Alex

What is your website address?

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