Freediving Marketing Website

[x_yeti]

I'm currently putting together a website that will market freediving courses and holidays on behalf of instructors/centers. If you are currently offering courses and are interested in listing your business on this new site, please PM me. Thanks.

P.S. It will be free to try out for 1 year.

 

[trullalla]

thanks john, i'll take the free year, but next year you will have to start paying me

 

[MartinTee]

haha trullalla, someone who knows the score =]

Best of luck with the project x_yeti from a web developer/internet marketer, me

 

[x_yeti]

@Martin - Thanks
@Linda - No thanks

 

[x_yeti]

Ok the basics of the site are done. Take a look: Freediving & Snorkeling.com

Now I all I need is for more freediving centers/instructors to add their listings. If you are interested, please PM me and I'll send you the list of information needed. Just like a drug dealers , it's free for the first year and we can discuss $ next year once you are hooked.

 

[bobdonny]

Nice website...

I'd remove the forum and sell discounted 'freediving and snorkelling.com' vouchers that can be redeemed at any of the business's, for a gift etc.

I'd also make all the courses online so they can book on your website kinda like Instructor Courses - Instructor Courses

I wouldn't charge the business's to advertise with you, you need them more than they need you!

 

[x_yeti]

Thanks for the suggestions Bobdonny. I guess you are proposing that I make it more like a Groupon website? Essentially those types of sites still make their money from the businesses themselves.

The model I've opted for is something I've been doing quite successfully in the insurance industry for several years now. Basically it is a lead referral system where the business owner only pays for leads that result in actual sales. To me this is the best remuneration model as the business owner knows exactly what they are paying for. Therefore listing is free, but business generated needs to be paid for. Anyway this is only going to be an issue next year when people will have to start paying. For the next 12 months it is gratis.

As for online bookings, this is unfortunately completely impossible as it would require the development of a multi-millon $ system which all of the freediving centers would have to use themselves to do their own bookings. There isn't that kind of money in freediving or many other sports right now.

 

[trux]

I am curious whether it will work. I offer this service since 2005 absolutely for free, but no-one cares. People can submit courses (or other freediving websites or media) to the Apnea Media Base, but in the six years there was practically nobody who added a link. At the beginning I've been spending a lot of time on filling the database with links and data, and hoped people would enjoy it, and add then their links alone. It did not happen. There are thousands of links and currently 44 courses in it. Many of them are probably already outdated, since the owners don't care about keeping them up-to-date, and it is difficult for me to handle such amount of data alone:

courses @ APNEA.cz

Then, I offer also free advertising on Apnea.cz. The website has huge visitor numbers (up to half a million page views per month), but surprisingly only quite few people used the opportunity. And of course, nobody at all was ever interested about upgrading the free advertisement to a paid level with higher exposure

Well, perhaps people do not trust things that are free (though that is odd at freedivers), and hence you'll be in a better situation with a paid service. It is worth of trying - you don't need to spend much time like myself for the content, so you do not risk a lot. Just be careful in your expectations

 

[x_yeti]

Thanks for the insight trux. I think the main obstacle to overcome is targeting the right people. I think the people who land on your site (really cool by the way) are already freedivers and have already done courses or know of instructors who offer courses. My idea is to target snorkelers and people looking for beach holidays and then get them to take a course just before or during their holiday. I'm not quitting my day job yet, but I still want to explore this idea.

 

[x_yeti]

Trux, since everyone is making website change suggestions here is mine for you. To monetize your site either:

Go the easy route with Google Adsense. You might make $50-$100 per month, but it is better than nothing and it is very easy to implement.

OR

Go the hard route of finding a freediving center, preferably an 'international' one where they travel or students travel to them, make a referral deal with them and then market their courses on your site.

 

[trullalla]

hey, i know how to make money from freediving.
if you pay me enough i might tell you how....

 

[trux]

Google Ads simply don't work - I tried them at the beginning, for a year or two, but the revenue was between $1-$4 per month. Google simply marks most of the click-throughs as invalid, without any explanation. Besides it, their script crashes often and slows down the website terribly. And additionaly the content of their ads is often rather irrelevant, and it is quite difficult to control it. Some of their ads are quite annoying. All in all, the negatives overweighted by many orders the very little revenue it generated, so I gladly removed it, and repalced with the free advertisement, that I can control, and that instead of annoying my visitors, adds more content to it.

Most diving centers are oddly not even interested by the free advertisement - it comes with access to statistics, where they can see the numbers of banner views, and click-throughs, and they'd have an easy way to bid for higher exposure. But I admit, I spend little time with marketing it personally. For now I prefer adding functions, data, and other content.

 

[shrek]

trullalla; how much? i might be able to bouble my money.
HaHa:t