Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Where Can I Get a Cheap Travel Website?
By Tom Ogg

Imagine looking to invest in a start-up business opportunity without a plan or inclination of what you wanted to do, but instead wanting to get the cheapest price. What if someone was driving down the road and saw a retail location for lease, stopped and negotiated a really cheap price on the space and executed a lease because it was so cheap. When it came time to open his new business, the sign painter would show up and ask the leasee “what would you like me to paint on your sign?” Stumped, he would have no idea what business he was going to start, only that he got a really cheap place to start a business of some kind.

It seems that almost every week someone posts the question about where to get inexpensive websites for their travel agency on HBTACommunity.com. As you can easily see, having a plan of action should proceed the acquisitionof a website. One should be able to answer these questions before exploring the various alternatives. What do you want the website to do? What are your expectations from your website? How much time, money, effort and thought are you willing to invest in your website? Do you want to build one yourself or have someone else build it? Do you want to use one of the industry venders that offer travel agent websites? Do you have a business plan for your website, or is it just something that you think that you should have because everyone else does?

Websites can be magical in the way they affect your business and they can also be a nightmare.  Understanding the impact of a website could have on your business is essential to whether to enter into a web promotion or not. Because of the importance of having a web presence, I am writing several articles that are designed to help those new to the issue of developing a website. I sincerely hope that these will help you.

What Do You Want Your Website to do for You?

These are the questions that you need to ponder. Do you just want to have a web presence simply to say that you have one? Do you want to offer a booking engine and why? Have an affiliate site? Is it going to be a special-group site? How about a revenue-generating site from new potential clients? How are people going to find your website? Why would people book on it? What is its value proposition? How are you going to manage it? Who is going to build it? What are your revenue expectations from the site? Is it going to be for existing clients or potentially new clients? Is it going to be keyword niche oriented? Is it going to be geographically oriented? Would you rather have the potential clients contact you, or your booking engine? What special USPs do you offer on your site? Why would people book from your site? Why would people contact you from your site? What is your site going to project that will compel potential clients to contact you? What is your site going to project that will get clients to book online with you? I could go on and on.

Invariably, when I ask “what do you want your website to do for you?” I get no response. Then, everyone jumps in with the stock answers “try Wordpress”, “Vista Print” or some other “free web host”. Of course, I bite my tongue and refrain from adding more comments.  There are several types of travel website genres that travel agents can explore and each has its own special requirements and result areas. The important thing to remember is that each website should produce profits. They are a business tool that should serve your overall promotional and revenue generating objectives. If you are currently maintaining a website that does not generate profitability, you should ask yourself why? Here are some of the more common types of websites you may want to consider.

Basic Web Presence:I suspect that this is the kind of site folks are thinking about when they ask “where can I get a cheap website?” Creating a basic web presence will be the topic of next month’s article.

Blogs: While not really “websites” many agents use blogs as their web presence. We will explore the wonderful world of blogging and how to set one up in a separate article.

Reservations Web: Many travel agents are using booking engines and “cookie cutter” websites operated by companies connecting suppliers with agents using web technology to bring turn-key booking engines and travel specials to consumers.

Special Group Websites: With the advent of throwaway urls and easy web technology, agents are using websites to control their special group marketing and operations.

Niche Websites: Agents specializing in small and unique niches such as, river cruising, surfing, SCUBA diving and so on are operating highly focused sites gaining traction with the search engines.

Affiliate Websites: With the explosion of affiliate marketing in the travel and tourism sector of online sales, affiliate programs have mushroomed and agents taking advantage of travel affiliate sites are cashing in.

Community Websites: Social media technology has empowered agents to operate social networks that are focused geographically, by niche and many other genres.

In the coming months we will explore each type of website and delve into specifically how an agent can get focused and also negotiate the best price to meet their specific objectives.