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high end accommodation directory

by Superior Content Creation
4 replies
I've been on the road for about a year now. I was in this one country about six months ago, and I've been doing some keyword research to see if any of my experience there is marketable. The keyword tool I've been using is the google adwords one, which I am not sure is reliable or not. It turns out there are almost 150,000 searches per month for high-end accommodation in this country, and when I put the same keyword string into google with quotes I've only got 17,000 competing sites. I'm really new at this, but to me that seems like a winner, and I'm considering a hotel directory as a way to capitalize on this. Any advice on the best way to go about this? Can anyone reccommend a good template to start with, and should I contact the companies directly to set up some kind of commission arrangement, or do most of these establishments already offer programs I could take advantage of? Does anyone have experience with this? I'm thinking a lot of what I don't understand could be outsourced, and I was considering having a blog on the site to help with search engine optimization.

Any comments are really appreciated.
#accommodation #directory #end #high
  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    You offer some great ideas, and while it is good to study your options, I have always been a proponent of working with your ideas, and developing them. I think a great place to start is with the very people that would be paying you money. Get on the phone with some more independent hotels and see if you can talk to them about what they are doing now to get clients.

    You could surely start up a directory and start adding hotels, do some directory submissions to get yourself on the map, post some articles to build content, and start telling hotels about your site. Maybe you could ask the hotels about specials or coupons you could pass on to consumers.

    Anyways, best of luck with your directory. Directories are my specialty and I always enjoy seeing people find new ways to develop directories.
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    It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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    • Profile picture of the author Blase
      Dru-man,

      I run a directory and they are very good.

      Go to dmoz.org and look at all of the directory listings.

      Here is the golden tip! If you do a directory

      go to phpMyDirectory - Web Portal, Business Directory, Classifieds, Link Indexing and buy it!

      It is not easy, but it is powerful. I use it, I work with it,
      but I hire out a lot of the work. It's quicker, faster, cheaper.

      Also there are members that will sell you a list of high end hotels
      and install the list on your directory.

      Good luck,
      Blase
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      "Nothing Happens Until Something Is Sold"
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    Great, you have a couple of different choices to consider for software to run your directory. We also provide support, and can import hotel lists as well. It's pretty easy to get data these days, and your site would be fun and interactive if you used maps to display the hotels. We could help you with that (and surely the other script can do the same).
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    It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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  • Profile picture of the author archivefive
    You should look at getting a product data feed from a hotel affiliate program, which will give you all sorts of information and allow you to earn affiliate revenue. Check out the usual, CJ and LinkShare.

    Also, look at World Choice Travel, which is a high end travel affiliate program, and I believe they offer data feeds.

    You'll need to do some programming to deal with the affliate data feeds though. Can't tell you much about that.
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