Name of your website?Connecticut Explorer's Guide
Your name?
Bryan McFarland
Your Location (city, etc)
Deep River
Please give us a short summary of your website?
A comprehensive outdoor adventure resource featuring free online maps and guides. We operate with an extended user's agreement from National Geographic TOPO!; this allows us to post high quality topo maps for each trail.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I noticed that the local State Forests lacked detailed maps of all of the trails. For example, Cockaponset State Forest's official State trail map indicated about 20 miles of trails. After mapping the enetire trail system using GPS, we have recorded well over 100 miles of hiking trails. I wanted to make this information public, which led to the website. Shortly after starting-up, I realized that trails were not the only thing missing from public view, so I eventually added a campground map, rock climbing locations, canoe & kayaking routes, and road cycling routes. I eventually began adding long distance trails that also lacked free public maps such as the Appalachian Trail and the Metacomet Trail.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Connecticut Explorer's Guide was my first website (launched in May of 2005). I have an art degree and years of experience as an avid outdoor adventure buff, but I have never tried monkeying around with the internet until the start-up of this site. The project has been a long learning curve and I have made many mistakes along the way. Most of the bugs have been worked out, but I have to say that I have learned an enormous amount of details the hard way.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I came up with a long list of possibilities then engaged in a brainstorming session with my wife. We eventually narrowed it down to just a few. Connecticut Explorer's Guide won only because we thought it could be abreviated down to a cool nickname, "CTXGuide."
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
There really are no similar offerings detailing Connecticut hiking trail maps or outdoor adventure locations. The most similar would be Berkshire Hiking, but they really are more of a descriptive resource lacking maps and they are only concerned with a small portion of the state.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The main goal is to slowly develop the website and resources to cover all outdoor adventure venues and sports within Connecticut. While doing so, I would like to see the number of users increase and maybe see a few dollars come in for my effort.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
So far, I have held onto the idea of the Investment Principle. I know that the initial time and money spent will see little immediate results, but it should play out well over the long-haul. Fortunately, I haven't had to spend too much money to get this thing going.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
This is a trick question. The fact is that regardless of budget, we have to make the improvements to stay in the game. The only difference would be a faster rate of improvement and perhaps securing previously copyrighted material to post on the site (paying for a license).
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
The short answer is yes. I already have a detailed plan just in case.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The biggest money mistake was advertising in non-web resources such as the local papers. The money would have gone much further for web-based advertising. I had even read an article stating this exact concept, but I thought I was somehow exempt from this marketing trend.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Time. I work a full-time job in recreation therapy while I have been working toward my master's degree. This is besides developing the website, staying in shape, and keeping up with my wife.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Promoting relavent links has been the most successful. This has nothing to do with search engine placement. If the link is truly valuable, it will generate more hits than the search engines.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I thought learning the technical aspects of web publishing would have been a faster process. I am a fast learner to begin with and had greatly underestimated the quircky details of the web. It would have been good to have a friend in the business.
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?
The site has been going for almost two years at this point. Even though I haven't seen the kind of traffic that I had hoped for, the project has become an addictive hobby.
How many miles of trails do you think you have already mapped out?
If I were to add up all of the hiking trails with the kayaking and road cycling routes, the number would probobly be around 700 miles.
What is your website address?
Connecticut Explorer's Guide
