I have invested heavily in creating a high quality travel site focusing on Tropical, Caribbean travel. http://www.warmislands.com I am hoping to find someone with valid experience in this industry that has helped build a travel site(s). Our forum usually always has between 30-50 visitors so we know the site is well visited. However, we cannot get anyone to register and participate. I feel with high participation on the forums, the entire site will get more flow of traffic. It has hundreds of well researched articles both on tropical islands and cruises. We have a bit of a co-brand built into the site which is creted by World CHoice Travel, a division of Travelocity. It has produced zero monetization. We do earn roughly $20 a day from Adsense but since I own many other sites that are very successful with Adsense, I realize this site has the potential to earn hundreds of dollars a day with Google Adsense alone, let alone earning additional income from real bookings. I know the travel industry sites are highly competitive but we have nice rankings in very popular searched terms. I am looking for help that can guide us in re-designing the layout to produce better flow and in the end, better revenue. I look forward to your advice. I am also willing to pay someone that can prove they know what they are doing to help make thi happen. Glen
I only just posted it so yes However, I need those interested to provide me with their resume', that is, experience in travel, site management, traffic flow, forums, monetizing sites, etc. If someone truly has experience they will know what and how to post / send me.
I know you did not solicit a review of your site but for someone who knows the caribbean quite well, I was interested in taking a look at your forum. A couple things that I noted : 1. you say The posts do not seem to be real people talking. They seem to be general comments that are not very useful and encouraging to the reader. I loved the design and warmth of the site but I did not feel compelled to join and participate even though, I love talking about the caribbean and talking to others about it. I think the existing posts need to be of substance and need to look like they come from people who either have travelled there or people who are asking genuine questions about the possibility of travelling there. 2. I noticed also there were many posts that had no comments or answers to the posts. I think this hinders the forum because people assume no-one is active and also because people feel their questions will not be answered. It might be worthwhile to have someone knowledgeable to be on hand to answer these questions. At least in the very beginning until the forum picks up speed. 3. Lastly, although the site looks really good on the home page, the only reason, I looked for the forum was because you mentioned it in your post. If your forum is important to your business model, then maybe it needs to be more prominent. It appears as though it is one of the services and not somewhere for people to participate. Love the site ~! Like I said, you did not ask for advice but I thought I would let you know my observations. Hope it can help you a little.