An opportunity for synergy?

[paul]

I receive a newletter written for online copywriters ExcessVoice (http://www.nickusborne.com/friend_excessvoice) . Todays issue has an article about "How to Differentiate a Commodity Product Online".

You can read it for yourself, but the basic idea is copywriters struggle with what to say about comodity products like hotels in resort areas. They cost about the same, offer the same features, so how do you make one stand out? The answer was to provide a place for their customers to interact, post comments, pictures, reviews etc.

That sounded a LOT like what many of you are doing/attempting with your forum(s).

What if those of you with technical skills in this area contacted the owners of some of these look-alike sites and offered to help them stand out from the crowd by developing their user community? Maybe do it at no up front cost to them, but you get a commission from sales attributable to your efforts plus any revenue from the forum(s).

Who knows, you might even have to do some on-site research :)

Just a thought...

[intelliot]

Interesting idea, paul. Where can we find these look-alike sites?

[paul]

Try a Google search for "cancun hotel" or a similiar popular destination of your choice. I suspect the guys who come up number 11 in the search would make a good starting point :)

Seriously, there must be many small time operators who don't have a prayer of ever ranking high for the popular key words, but do have a devoted following of repeat customers. I think a community building process that made it easy for them to tell their frinds about the place, that offered deals to community members, etc. would be quite effective.

[davesplace1]

Hi Paul, it sounds like you are on the right track, lots of resort webmasters need lots of help. Now how to price the work.