Ever wish for some way to tell the world about how great your favorite travel spots are and make a little money? Colin Campbell and Gordon Burns is helping people make it happen.
When most people believe you have to sell tickets or offer travel plans to make money in this industry, Colin and Gordon are showing everyone that you just need to be informed and able to sell a little ad space instead. Through a series of location based websites and their business, Wish You Were Here, they are helping entrepreneurial people with an interest in travel make a little money through the use of a .tv domain name.
Tell us a little about Wish You Were Here.
The company was formed by myself and Gordon Burns following collaboration on other projects over the last 15 years. I was marketing director for a large brokerage selling mutual funds, and Gordon was our technical consultant – in particular organizing our web presence. Together we launched the FundChoice fund supermarket. Subsequently we sold FundChoice to the UK’s largest private client stockbroker. One of the features of the Fund Supermarket was a “high volume, low margin” approach – an approach that worked extremely well. With our backgrounds in high volume/low cost web-based marketing we decided that travel would work just as well as investment.
When was it launched?
Wish You Were Here was officially launched about 9 months ago – but Gordon and I had been working on the project for three years before then.
What inspired it?
In his spare time, Gordon provides marketing services and websites for a number of organizations based in Cornwall (part of the UK). As part of that process we launched www.VisitCornwall.tv. The selection of the .TV domain was deliberate. The explosion of interest in video based media meant that viewers of travel sites were unlikely to be satisfied by simple photos. Gordon developed the Cornish site in his spare time – and our research proved to be well justified. Put “Cornwall Videos” into Google and VisitCornwall.tv is currently 2nd out of over 2 million. The site required very little work and proved to be extremely profitable. It was something we could easily replicate for other destinations
Share with us a little about your business opportunity. How much does it cost? What is included?
The aim of the business is to give people the opportunity to make money by advertising the destination of their choice. We supply a complete site framework – including domain, hosting, page templates, content management system, Google Adsense and sample content. All the user needs to do is to adapt the sample content, find additional content (including some of the 20 million free videos available) and upload it. The user can select the “look and feel” of the site. In terms of structure and popularity, there is no reason why every site shouldn’t be as popular (and profitable) as the Cornwall site. That said, we expect that most will be visually more attractive as we did not spend much time worrying about that aspect of the Cornwall site.
The cost depends on the popularity of the location – and ranges from $1.50 per day for locations like Key West – www.visitkeywest.tv to $7.50 per day for New York – www.visitNewYork.tv . For that they get everything they need to set up and run a profitable website – all they need to do is to add content. There is an one-off site setup fee of $125. Wish You Were Here earns money in the following ways: (a) the annual fee, (b) a 25% share of any adsense income they may get (c) income from 2 masthead adverts. The user can opt to buy our rights to (b) and (c) if they want. In addition, users can sell as much advertising as they like – and retain 100% of that revenue. Just like our original Fund Supermarket concept, we want low margin volume over the long term.
How many locations do you currently have available for purchase at this time?
We have purchased 450 “Visit” locations – ranging from Beijing, Moscow, New York, Washington, Rome, Venice, Boston etc. However, if any applicant wants to promote a destination that it is not on our list we will happily purchase an appropriate domain – at no additional cost.
Who do you feel would be a good fit for this opportunity?
This is not a get rich quick scheme – and we wouldn’t want anyone packing in their job to start promoting a location. However, this would be ideal for homeworkers and anyone looking to open up a fresh income stream.
Low Risk with a GUARANTEE – We are aware that some homeworkers are financially vulnerable – so we have added a guarantee. We will refund 50% of the annual fee if any user decides that it is not going to work for them before 6 months have elapsed – so the maximum anyone is risking is $125 plus 50% of the annual fee. After 6 months (or any time after that) the user will be free to walk away without further charges. Even better, if their site has a value because it has developed an income stream, the user would be free to sell that on.
What separates you from the competition?
Simple – cost. As far as we are aware there is no other organization offering the package we are at such a low cost.
What are some goals you hope to accomplish over the next few years?
We want to establish a family of locally run “Visit” sites. The users will not be competing (we will not sell competing locations) so we are organizing a user group so that users can share ideas to the benefit of all.
What are some lessons this business has taught you?
Coming up with a product or package is the easy bit – marketing is the hard bit.
Any advice you’d like to offer to anyone interested in the opportunity you are offering?
This opportunity is aimed at people who have a computer, a few hours to spare each week and who don’t want to take too many risks. Users shouldn’t expect to make a huge amount of money quickly – but should expect to build a profitable site within 6 months.