Thanks to a few twists of fate, my long term plans were turned into short term tasks! As most of you know, Carrie and I sold our shares in the travel agency that we helped build from scratch. The details of "why" are reserved for a more personal format. (grin) I had hopes to fan the flames from the embers of ideas I had but figured it would have to wait until next year. Well... things have changed.

As it would appear, I am left holding a number of domain names that are receiving a good amount of traffic. It's a result of some of my search engine optimization efforts for the old agency. Bottom line, I could let that traffic fall into the abyss or I could leverage it to my advantage... guess what I did? Yep.

In the span of about 2 hours, I created some 303 redirects on all 75 pages of the old site and built a new website. This site will use an affiliate relationship with some of the online big boys. Carrie and I had a strong opinion about the internet and I may write on it in the future, but the bottom line is that I would do well to leverage this online booking phenomenon. At least try don't you think?

In that same 2 hours, I was also able to create a relationship that gave me access to more than 120 vendors of travel. The idea is simple, service the online community with news and information in the hopes they click my links and pay me commission. If I can build the traffic, I will be able to capture some of the billions of advertising dollars spent on tourism and travel. Well... just a little piece.

In the end, I won't have to worry about the booking, cancellations, pissed off customers or bad trips. All I have to do is help people find the right vacation and right place to book it... simple enough eh? Well... here goes.

http://www.carriedawayvacations.com/">

New logo for new travel agency

I've already received some encouragement from my friends. Thanks one an all. This is what I wrote to a friend of mine on his forum and I thought I'd share it here.

Thanks pal!! I can only hope. I printed a screenshot of the site for my wife and she was actually excited. I was a little concerned since I had kind of pushed her into the business before. She likes the idea of "do it yourself" with the possibility of making a few dollars.

Fact is, there are some work at home promoters suggesting that the online travel industry is the fastest growing commercial application on the Internet. They also suggest that it is a $1.3 TRILLION industry AND that 85% of all personal travel is booked online by the traveler. Now, I have no way to verify that information but I do know how much money ran across my American Express last year through the travel agency we owned.

Anyway, using an affiliate program, I'll just make a spiffy site for now. If it grows in popularity then I'll invest more time. Bottom line is this has to provide an ROI on the 6 hours invested or I'm only going to reinvest effort that directly commensurates with the earnings.

Thanks for the encouragement. I got the idea for the logo from an FBO operation in ST Croix. They kind of borrowed it from the TV show survivor... it is attractive and will look really cool on a coffee cup. The tag line I made up myself. The layout of the site was from a free template as well as the color scheme. I'm withholding enthusiasm for now... let's see what happens.

http://www.carriedawayvacations.com/">

posted by Soky at http://blog.davidfrancis.org/2006/09/new-logo-for-new-travel-agency.asp - 5:50 AM