Social Networks: Works of art or businesses?

Are you a business or an artist if you don't have sales or marketing functions that actually create revenue?  WAYN.com, the largest travel social network by a country mile is about to relaunch their website - branding, business model, the whole kit and caboodle.   Presumably as a result of their struggles to make a decent return on their huge audience (15 million members) and some slowing in growth.  The focus on rebuilding the business model is a clear sign of the times and of common-sense returning to the market.

For me, the most interesting change within this announcement is the focus on building a highly targeted advertising network based on travellers answer to the question:  "What are you up for doing?".  Now, since they scrapped subscription fees, WAYN has been a site which like many others, has relied on easy (but crappy) money via the old affiliate / adwords / display ads revenue sources.  What we are seeing here is, thanks to the economy, a more realistic approach to running a business.  One that realises the most important function to insource is the bit that drives revenues.  They are focusing on driving user content and intent that is directly relevant to paying advertisers and they will presumably (hopefully!) use a sales force to sell these advertising opportunities.  If so, they will be following in the wise footsteps of Tripadvisor.com who long ago made the decision to insource their contextual advertising rather than relying on adwords (and they are about the only social network I can think off with a great revenue model).

This is my point, how can you call yourself a business if you are not fully in control of your revenues?  Any entrepreneurs out there ruminating a new start-up need to be aware that they're going to have to get their hands dirty and do a bit of old fashioned selling.  Unbelievably, I've met a couple of entrepreneurs recently in the London tech scene, who have founded community sites with fantastic traffic (200k - 600k per month) who have absolutely no interest in making it pay.  In the words of one, who runs a successful local listing site: "It's going ok I suppose, we've got great traffic growth but we're struggling to get the small businesses on the site to pay."  He goes on, "To be honest, I'm not really interested in the commercial side of the business, building a sales force, I just like building cool applications".  Is this not the attitude of a high minded artist than a businessman?

So any web startups out there ask yourself, "am I asking any of my users or suppliers to pay me, if not why not?"  In most cases I suspect, it will boil down to a reluctance to do the grunt work.  With the drying up of investment funds to support the "growth now, revenue later" businesses, I suspect they are going to have to start getting their hands dirty sooner rather than later.

travel inspiration - seeing, watching or reading?

Last week I wrote about the importance of navigation and search in helping travellers find ideas and inspiration for their next trip.  Here, I want to talk about the importance of layout and media in inspiring & converting a product view to a desire to purchase.

Yesterday we visited the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and it really gave me the travel bug.  In analysing what made me want to visit all these places, I concluded it was the stunning photos paired with simple well presented text descriptions that allowed me to quickly dive in and visualise myself travelling wherever the subject of the photo was.

New tools & tricks to inspire independent travellers

Our friends at joobili.com are now in open beta and like us they are trying to move online travel beyond a transactional experience.

Nowadays there is almost too much information when it comes to planning travel online. Generally if you go online looking for inspiration you'll be faced by a complex booking form asking you where you want to go, when you want to go etc.  Problem is, at this point you don't know yet! you are looking for something to take your fancy.

Hitting Milestones

I can hardly believe that it is now close to the end of February.  It doesn't seems like a second since Christmas and at the same time, I feel a bit like I've aged about 10 years since starting work on Tourdust last summer, most of that since we launched about 6 weeks ago!  But, now that the snow has melted and spring feels like it is well and truly on the way, it feels like a good time to take stock and look at some of the milestones that we have reached...

1)  We now have over 200 local experience providers on Tourdust offering over 270 individual experiences. For those of you who have been following our progress, you will know that we have pretty much contacted each and every one of these providers ourselves! (In fact, I just found one of my first tweets from 27th November proudly announcing our 20th experience on the site.....).  Anyway we now really need to prioritise the development of the referral channel.  It will be an interesting experiment to see if businesses will refer other businesses in the same way individuals do on facebook et al.  We have seen it happening already with Tourdust informally so fingers crossed.  We believe it will work because there are already established networks within the world of small & passionate operators.  

2) Had our first piece of press coverage in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago.  Not a huge mention, but a mention all the same.  

3) Have been covered in several blog reviews, including Alex Bainbridge, Travel Rants

SandWagon, Ineffable and New Bamboo 

4) Been showcased as website of the month for Travel Notebook  and website of the day for Enterprise Nation.  

5) On a personal note, metaphorically speaking we are giving birth to our 'second' baby this year in a couple of weeks.  We are expecting our third little girl, making that three kids under 4 plus a start-up.  I think we need a holiday!

ALTERNATIVE HALF TERM IDEAS

Half term already? It can’t be. Not all of us can afford to go ski-ing this year, so how about some day trips out in the UK which might be fun for the family and won’t break the budget….

Alternative London Sight-Seeing – What better way to bring history alive in half term, than with Simon on his silvercane tours of the capital. His vivid tours take you through the scenes of politicians, murderers and scientists and he brings the past alive as he walks. All tours can be totally bespoke, giving you a truly unique experience. Prices start from £90

Winter Wildlife Watching on Mull – Take the family to Mull and spend some time in the company of passionate wildlife guide, David. Your three night stay will be in eco-accommodation, where Joy, David’s wife will cook you delicious breakfasts and dinners. During the day, David will spend the day exploring with you pointing out the hidden and beautiful visitors to this magnificent island. Prices from £270

Rail & Cycling Trips in the North West – Enjoy a ride on the famous Settle Carlisle Railway to its most famous landmark, Ribblehead Viaduct, where your guide will be waiting at the station with  bikes and everything you need for your trip. You have the whole afternoon to enjoy the ride back down Ribblesdale but before setting off you might like to visit the fascinating museum, on the station platform, which charts the history of the line and its construction - in particular the building of the famous Ribblehead Viaduct. Prices from £35

All quiet at the Travel Technology Show

What struck me most from a day spent wandering around the stalls at the travel technology show was how quiet it felt compared to last year.  Still, I managed to speak to loads of interesting people and found out about a couple of interesting projects.

Most interesting find: yourtour.com a hugely ambitious project that is the result of years of mathematical research.  The site appears to build itenaries on the fly from a database of visitor attractions (sourced from Lonely Planet) and accommodation (sourced from booking.com).  You put in your starting point, tell them whether you want a one way trip or round trip and how long and it builds a detailed daily itenerary.  It even offers an array of sliding bars to indicate your interest in topics like history, art, nature etc. and ammends the itenerary accordingly.  If it works well I can really see this site being a success, but they set very high expectations in their users and the challenge will be in not letting them down.

Most interesting observation:  Talking to Alex Bainbridge at the TourCMS stand, a chap came round with a bunch of quotes for booking systems that varied from 6 figure sums down to £50 per month for TourCMS.  Makes you realise there is still a lot of fat in the travel technology industry.  One assumes the more expensive options offer more functionality in some way but then TourCMS is hardly light on functionality.  The Software as a service model (SAAS) is clearly the future - and there must be plenty of disruption to come in this industry.

Most amusing sight:

After an insigtful presentation on building a startup Hugo Burge was swamped by startups wanting to chat.  A faint plea of "I'm not looking for investments" was the last thing I heard. Seriously though, Hugo made a strong case for bootstrapping and minimising investment in the early days, citing examples of startups who are distracted by both the funding process and the investment.  I do agree, but still think that having investment and 'name' backers can help a lot in getting the press to take you seriously - and press is rather important for start-ups.

The best bit of all:

The best bit had to be the opportunity to chat with interesting people.  At one point I was sat at a table with a bunch of other startups: Sally from Yoursafeplanet.co.uk, Jared from Joobili.com and James Dunford Wood from WorldReviewer.com.  Later on there was bunch of bloggers hanging out at the TourCMS stand: Alex Bainbridge,  Kevin May, Guillame Thevenot, Edd McArdle and myself albeit slightly out of place.  Which made it worth the train journey alone.

By the way if you're interested all of the above people are on twitter if you want to follow them:

http://twitter.com/worldreviewer

http://twitter.com/travolution

http://twitter.com/alexbainbridge

http://twitter.com/eddmc

http://twitter.com/yoursafeplanet

http://twitter.com/joobili

http://twitter.com/hotelblogs

http://twitter.com/hugoburge

Stand out from the crowds - 3 great alternatives to Skiing

Some snow based holiday ideas for those of you out there looking to escape in the next couple of months.......

It's that time of year when everyone (who still has a job that is) is taking off on their chalet skiing holiday to spend a week queuing for ski lifts, lugging skis around and being out-skiid by precocious 4 year olds. The next few months of dinner parties will be dominated by tales of apres ski and how talented little Johnny is, attacking black runs at the age of 6.  So instead of joining the throngs on the slopes this winter, why not try something a bit different?

Riding in Winter Wonderland - Spend the week exploring Southern Transylvania by horseback. Whilst riding through the snow, look out for the wild boar, red deer and lynx that inhabit this magical place. At night time, curl up in front of a roaring fire and listen out for the howling wolves..... (Prices from 850 Euros)

Snow-shoeing the Sierra Nevada - Explore the beautiful Sierra Nevada away from the crowds. Climb some of the peaks for breathtaking views and then descend through the magnificent forests. Trips are entirely tailor made, so no 2 holidays will ever be the same. (Prices from 70 Euros per day)

X-Country Skiing in the Pyrenees - Let James guide you along 130 km of stunning trails in the Pyrenees. The key to his holidays is flexibility, you can potter around at a slower pace, or push yourself, it's up to you.  After a hard days work, why not chill out with a glass of vin chaud and enjoy the fantastic views? (Prices from £645)