Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I know lots about "place" and could provide useful info but is it worth the effort? Lots of tourists go to "place" - Can anyone help who are already running a travel / holiday destination site. Thank you.
If you can add value to the space, and have fun doing it - go for it. Even if there are lots of other sites with similar content, about the same area, adding a new spin or interesting twist can net you serious returns. For a few years, we consulted with a niche tour operator that continues to net strong returns from his site, despite many other firms being more established and having larger marketing budgets.
Good luck.
How many? That should be one of the main deciding factors (assuming you're doing this for the money). You're potential readership is what you need to be looking at as it won't matter if you have the best site on the web about said place if not enough people go to the place (not your site) to monetise it.
I run a travel website that covers a few countries, some of which get millions and millions more visitors than some of the others -- this diffence is very cleary reflected in the income from each section of the site.
As such, there was not a lot of competition, so we were able to quickly become THE authoritative non-government site. (In fact, we show up better in the SERPs than the national tourism organization does for the country.)
The main key is that we provided unique content and pictures (8,000+). If you provide something (especially content) that people can't find anywhere else, it can definitely be worthwhile.
Also, depending on the situation, you can also write off some of your expenses every year od traveling to the destination, since you are doing "research" for your site.
1) Are you patient? It will take time to build a critical mass of content, search-engine listings, and traffic.
2) Does the destination attract independent travelers or package tourists?
- If it attracts independent travelers, you may be able to earn revenue from various types of AdSense advertisers and from affiliate sales (which can provide considerably more revenue than AdSense does).
- If it attracts mostly package tourists, your opportunities will be more limited, because those tourists are probably buying their packages from charter operators, brick-and-mortar travel agencies, online mega-agencies like Expedia, etc. instead of browsing AdSense ads and affiliate links.
I will certainly have a go. I'm not in it to make a quick buck - I have another site which has taken 5 years to build and is still growing. I make around $500 per month from it.
Cheers.
you can tie up with hotels/ tour operators in that city and then think of making ur site viable.
but dont drop the idea, there may be many of us wanting to go on vaccation and if you are making good money from other sites, why dont you just do some social service. A thanks giving to place you love, you can create a blog with lots of information about the place.
First of all, you obviously love the place since you go back every year - and passion for your subject will show through in your site, and make the work of building it feel like play.
Second, you (presumably) know a lot about it from a visitor's perspective - since you're an "expert visitor" - the ideal person to produce the site.
You've already identified that there's little serious competition - so that's another plus.
You'll have (or be able to take) lots of great photos from all your trips.
So I reckon you should go for it. One proviso - do some basic keyword research (eg at Overture) - to find out roughly how many people are searching for "place" - and what search terms they use. Then focus your pages around those terms.
Done properly, you should be able to make $500 / month from even quite a niche destination - and probably at least match it with affiliate income and other deals.
Good luck.
$500 going to be a dream from just adsense unless the location is international hotspot
I don't agree with that. I have 3 small sites that have a total of 6 to 10 thousand page views a day that generate from $1000 to $2000 per month depending on the time of year.
These sites cover a small tourist destination and have lots of competition. The key is content. Think about all the things tourists want and create information pages about it.
If it's a warm weather location think of scuba, snorkeling, horseback riding, fishing, weather, ferries, air transportation, car rentals, beaches, restaurants, etc., etc, The list is endless. By using this formula you will also get SE results from obscure searches.
Good Luck!
i don't agree with that
new sense of motivation for me too, thanks tropical island to give me fresh air
$500 going to be a dream
Nonsense. If it has a decent mass of the kind of visitors that are worth advertisers money it is perfectly attainable.
I make that and more on a travel site just over a year old where there were lots of good sites about the place already. The site provides a service that people evidently want, that of good quality unbiased and useful content. But it is not a 'social service'.
You just need to find a good approach, and you have an excellent one as an experienced visitor, and provide real quality in your content.
The advice you have rec'd so far is solid. Build original content and use lots of photos! people love it!
How you monetize it is another question. Are you planning to just sell advertising space or are you going to sell hotel reservations? What exactly is your business plan. You need to figure that out before you plan the site. Where you get listed in directories is important to the future of the site and your business potential.
Go for it and good luck!
The main key is that we provided unique content and pictures (8,000+). If you provide something (especially content) that people can't find anywhere else, it can definitely be worthwhile.
On a related note for those in the U.S. operating travel sites, is a release required from a property owner to display a picture of his property?
For example, suppose I take a pic of Hotel X to show my site visitors what it looks like....or suppose I take a pic of a small privately owned rental cottage on the shore of a lake - am I free to display those without permission as long as there are no identifiable people in the pics?
FarmBoy
However, as someone who has a well-established travel site with hundreds of subtopics, I can tell you from personal experience that not all topics or types of content earn AdSense revenues at the same rate. (A review of luxury hotels in Midtown Manhattan is likely to get a far higher eCPM than a photo gallery about Central Park, for example.)
The OP was wondering if creating a travel site on the destination in question would be "worthwhile," and I'd say that the answer could very well be "yes" in light of the OP's existing interest in (and familiarity with) the destination. Even if the site earned only $100 or $200 a month, that would be a nice way to help pay for an annual vacation.
If you really like this place, and you can string a paragraph together,
and most especially if the competition is all crap, then its all yours.
1) Try to remember all the postcards you sent from there. What did you say?
2) Which are your favorite bars, hotels, restaurants .. you name it.
I still have warm memories of bar people in Mexico City for example (no women allowed!)
3) Any negatives? Note those too. You aren't writing commercials, you are providing USEFUL INFORMATION.
4) Put this all together, sensibly ordered so site visitors can find their way round.
Bingo! Toss in some adsense or whatever (I would avoid off-putting banner ads).
Your biggest problem might be scrapers. Hunt them down and pull them like weeds.
Other threads deal with those issues, DMCA etc.
I have always loved to travel. I keep my personal 'jewels' to myself for obvious reasons.
Good luck! -Larry
What a super forum with super people - it made interesting reading.
you have a lot of competition.
Our main site has more pages indexed in Google than all three of those sites combined for the same destination. We also rank much better than all 3 in most SERPs for that destination.
Those sites don't have a lot of content for many places. And in general they focus on breadth instead of depth.
That's very true. I have in-depth coverage of destinations (in at least one case, a delightful city of several hundred thousand people) that aren't even mentioned by the big English-language guidebook sites. And even for major destinations, the big sites' online coverage tends to be skimpy. Plus, there's the formatting problem: Guidebook publishers tend to dump their text into CMS-generated template pages with very little in the way of photos. So, even if a 400-page guidebook to [city name] were to be published in full on the Web, it probably wouldn't be very attractive or inviting to readers. The cost of hand-editing the guidebook content into a user-friendly, Web-centric site would be prohibitive.
In one respect, the Web is a lot like the print publishing industry: Fodor's can't afford to devote more than a few pages to Siena or Luebeck, but niche publishers can justify creating entire guidebooks--often in several languages--for those small to medium-sized cities.
something like this?
site:www.widgets.com widgetland
Tks
LifeinAsia, how do you check how many pages a competitor has indexed in google for a single destination?
site:www.widgets.com widgetland
Here is a scenario that has always baffled me......
The major travel sites (like travelocity or Hotwire, et al) claim that people make literally tens of thousands of dollars per month through their Affiliate programs.
First of all, which sites are they, as I certainly haven't seen any like that.
Secondly- I'm always asking myself why anyone would use an affiliate search box on another site to find and book a trip, when the major sites are easier to find...and they have the SAME function on their front page?
One thing that stands out on all of the big sites- Simplicity.
Go ahead, look at each one of them...they are almost identical!
This thread has me scratching me melon thinking of niche ideas.
Thanks for the great answers in here. ; )
I'm amazed at some of the dollar amounts here, to be honest.
What type of advertising are you folks doing to make that kind of money in such a short period of time?
It is possible to earn excellent revenues from affiliate sales in the travel sector, but you need the right topic(s), the right affiliate partners, and a critical mass of traffic (preferably including repeat traffic from users who visit your site throughout the research and buying cycle).
I'd also point out that AdSense and affiliate sales complement each other nicely, because AdSense can provide revenue from specialized subtopic pages that don't generate affiliate sales. On my site, for example, I make a lot of money from hotel bookings. However, if I write an article on Elbonian kayak cruises, those kayak cruisers probably aren't looking for hotel rooms--but they may be looking for travel agents who advertise their Elbonian kayak-cruise services with AdSense.
in that terms, content of the website is the most important bit. if your content is good and genuine, you will definitly attract visitors and make money out of it.
I'm always asking myself why anyone would use an affiliate search box on another site to find and book a trip, when the major sites are easier to find...and they have the SAME function on their front page?
Now the question becomes, why should Joe Surfer go directly to the major travel site and spend several minutes trying to find the specific hotel he wants instead of clicking on a direct link from the page he's already on at ElboniaTravel.com?
Now the question becomes, why should Joe Surfer go directly to the major travel site and spend several minutes trying to find the specific hotel he wants instead of clicking on a direct link from the page he's already on at ElboniaTravel.com?
Good point. Plus, there's the "trust factor": If Joe Surfer is a regular visitor at ElboniaTravel.com, he may feel more comfortable booking through an affiliate link on that site because he trusts ElboniaTravel.com's judgment.
People shouldn't underestimate that trust factor. Why is Rick Steves so successful at selling European guidebooks, tours, rail passes, luggage, etc. to American travelers? Because his readers and viewers have confidence in his tastes, judgment, and honesty--just as earlier generations of American travelers to Europe placed their trust in Arthur Frommer and Temple Fielding.
....and ElboniaTravel.com is available- I checked. LOL
Anyone thinking about buying the domain- may I suggest some "earthy" colors for your site?
No charge for that bit of consultation ; )
