Blog homeTim Hughes over on The BOOT (a blog about the online travel business) has come up with 4 quick rules for success for a travel content focussed website:
1: Content – Lots of it
2: Index – a fantastic Google friendly index and expertise in search engine optimisation
3: Access methods- varying ways and means for consumers to access the content
4: Patience – time (and money) for the traffic to build.
These are great rules. I would add a few more:
5: Create the right environment where people want to publish their own content via your site. Instead of hiring 10 writers (or photographers), convince people (through the power of community) that the benefits of putting their content on your site outweigh the time it will take them (For example, if you are a travel photo website – then you need to create more benefit for a user to post their holiday photos on your website than on someone else’s, or versus just chucking photos on a CD and putting them in the post to family members)
6: Distribution to other websites – Once you have content – let it free to travel around the web…… this may either be full content – or a “taster”, bringing people back to your central website.
7: Keep it fresh – content goes stale quickly. You need to be constantly revisiting old content to check it is still correct. Even better, get your users to alert you to old or stale content.
8: Don’t monetise through CPM advertising – but “something else”. Try selling things. If its great content (and can’t be found anywhere else), then try a subscription model.
9: Let people manipulate content on your site – One reason people may want to come to your site is how they can alter the content around what they want to do. If you have lots of data about different holidays that people can take in a certain destination – let people create travel itineraries using this data – which can be shared between friends etc.
10: Do one thing well – rather than everything at a top level. For example do one destination at an amazing level of detail – rather than an entire country (or the globe). Perhaps instead of creating an entire tool box, you should create a hammer, a screwdriver etc….. but make the best hammers, the best screwdrivers….. let someone else create the saw and the tape measure.
11: Track what people are doing on your website with your content – you may be able to understand trends from this – and these trends may have commercial value to travel companies. If you start getting lots of people researching a new kind of travel via your site – this data may be interesting to a travel company.
12: Decide if you are going to be “expert lead” or “user lead” (and then stick to it). If you are an expert on a topic – then somehow expose this expertise – but without doing so in such a way that a less expert (but knowledgeable) person could come and “borrow” your ideas and information. If you are user lead (by community) then stick with that. If you can join both together you could have a powerful combination.
13: Try to create content that is “all year round” – For example will people just be looking for content when they are thinking of researching their trip – or when buying – or just before travel – or post travel when they want to remind themselves what it was like. Many travel websites focus on the research side of travel….. but tend to forget about all the other opportunities. You may think this conflicts with rule 10 – do one thing well – but unless you are all year round – your revenue stream may not be constant over the year – which can lead either to believe you are doing wonderfully – or that your website is never going to work.
14: I prefer content (or any business) that is based around need rather than around desire – Travel (as a holiday) is normally desire based (but once you have decided to go on holiday, you may need to know certain information). However business travel is often need based. You need to go to a particular meeting in a particular city. Its often easier to create a commercial model based around the principle of need.
15: Get your copyrights sorted out – If you are employing writers, get agreements in place. If users are creating the content for you – what reuse rights do you have? If in 2 years time you want to publish a book – or make a video – can you use the content? What happens if you receive an offer to put your content on another website? Are you covered for that or would you have to renegotiate with your users / writers?
Any more rules?
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