Name of your website?Islandinfo
Your name?
Sid Nijhawan
Your Location (city, etc)
Curepipe
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Islandinfo started as a magazine and the website followed to give everyone a chance to read the magazine online. The website includes information that most tourists would look for when coming to Mauritius. It was designed to be user friendly.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
The website was launched to give people easy access to information about Mauritius.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Islandinfo.mu was launched at the start on November 2007 at the same time as our magazine
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name was designed to reflect the requirements of people and to say what it is all about. Island come from Mauritius being an Island, and info comes from Information. Combining the two words gave us the perfect name that would let people know that we provide informtion about Mauritius
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We have provided the information freely and easily accessible. We have included an internal website search and all the categories are colour coded with matching pictures.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The goal of the site is to give free information. It will then open up to booking hotels, flights and holidays to and from Mauritius.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We have had to cut down on investments into the site. The site is new and needs to start generating income before more can be invested. This makes the process a little slow.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We would not change the site in a major way. With more funds, we could ensure that the site is updated with all the information about Mauritius and in more detail. Maybe use some money, to attract people to our forums, so that the word passes round that there is a site which is bursting with detail.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes. The site has been designed to run itself and provide visitors complete freedom to use the site without needing an administrator.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Some costs included the forum and chat software. These are added costs that were not in the original budget. Since they were not too costly, we were able to add them from a little personal cash.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The hardest part is trying to get our site optimized. The word Mauritius is in very high demand from travel agents who have a budget and also from other longer established sites.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Using forums to let people know that our site exists, has been the best option. This includes getting feedback, providing answers for people and linking them to our site for information that will help.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Things take a little longer that expected. Getting the forum on and making sure its linked in and branded etc takes time. Generally adding more to the site is proving to take longer than expected.
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?
The site will run for as long as our monthly magazine runs. It will surely outlive the magazine.
What have you learnt in creating a website?
Its necessary to look at the whole picture. SEO from the start, flexibility to change and adapt are very important when creating a new site.
What is your website address?
Islandinfo
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