Name of your website?Okanagan Vacation Guide
Your name?
Erika
Your Location (city, etc)
Penticton
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Okanagan Vacation guide is about helping visitors explore and discover the Okanagan Valley in beautiful British Columbia Canada.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I've lived in the Okanagan Valley for over 10 years and have always loved traveling here with my family. We love the outdoors, summer and winter, and we love to explore everything the Okanagan has to offer. By sharing our travel experiences my goal is to help others make the most of their vacation or visit here.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Okanagan Vacation Guide is my first website...ever! I planned for about a year, and began writing in the fall of 2008.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name was easy. I just thought about where I live 'Okanagan', what life is like here 'Vacation' and how I can share this place with the world 'Guide'.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
My website is based on our first hand travel experience, with lots of pictures, so people can 'see' the Okanagan. It's also interactive where visitors who have been here can also share their own travel experience and even add their pictures, like their favorite golf course.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My site started out as a hobby, but eventually, I think I'd like to earn some revenue from my site, such as Google Adsense. It's my baby, so I don't want to sell it.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Well, I'm seeing a steady increase in traffic, and I get emails from all over the world from people asking questions about the Okanagan, and asking for help in finding places to visit and things to do. So I feel very successful in that it allows me to help people who are considering visiting here, and I'm meeting people from all over!
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
If I had unlimited budget? I'd travel around the Okanagan full time and write about it. I don't know how I would 'change' my site, other than adding more and more information.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
That I'm not sure of. It's what I do full time, so I think I could keep up.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
No unexpected costs. Learning how to build a website was the biggest challenge. HTML, CSS...all that jargon...somedays that give me a headache!
What has been your biggest challenge?
Balancing time between travel and writing.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Word of mouth and keyword research. Much of my traffic comes from keyword searches and my pages are keyword focused content pages, so that people will find me. Initially my friends and family shared my site with their friends, and so on, so it's growing from there.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
There's more involved in terms of making it appealing to the visitor. It's not like just sitting down and writing. There's a lot of planning before the actual writing happens. Information has to be accurate as well as interesting.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I started writing my site in the fall of 2008. I've never really thought about not keeping it up....it's a great hobby and very much a passion of mine.
What is your website address?
http://www.okanaganvacationguide.com
