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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