'Reef Pirates Oahu Scuba Diving Interview'

Name of your website?

Reef Pirates Oahu Scuba Diving

Your name?

Sean Deming

Your Location (city, etc)

Honolulu

Please give us a short summary of your website?

Offering daily Oahu scuba diving trips, PADI dive certifications, private charters, underwater picture, video and more.

What inspired you to launch your own website?

Promote my scuba diving business and overall love for the sport.

When did you launch your first website, and what was it?

My first website was a 3 page site for a music group I was in, probably 10 years ago now.

How did you decide on a name for your website?

I wanted to be different from all the other dive related web sites I was finding in searches.

What makes it different from other, similar offerings?

I believe it has more information, and looks sharper than most diving related websites.

What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)

At some point I will probably consider selling it, however short term goals are to keep promoting it.

How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?

It took alot of time initially to get it set up the way I wanted it, and to get it showing up on the search engines, but now it doesn't take much time at all. A few edits to pages and general updates is about it.

If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?

I'd grow it larger and probably add a few more sites for cross promotion purposes, etc. I'd most likely pay for some of the better directories such as Yahoo.

If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?

Yes, without question.

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

Advertising costs. Not so much with internet based, but with magazine ads, etc....Lot's of $$$$, little return.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Surviving the first year of business. Now on year 4 and still growing.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

Contacting webmasters and getting links the old fashioned way. Sending emails to the webmasters for quality sites with similar content.

How has running your website differed from your expectations?

Hasn't much. The hardest part is trying to keep up with all the coding and rule changes,etc.

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 have been running this site for roughly 3 - 4 years, and expect to continue running it for 5 or more years.

What is your website address?

Reef Pirates Oahu Scuba Diving

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