An experiment in SEM

[Tuesday Island]

Hi guys.

For all those in SEM and SEO, there is a website you will find interesting. It was launched by e-channel, an Australia search engine marketing company.

www.tuesdayisland.com is a new hotel accommodation website. While other travel sites are spending between $10,000 and $500,000 per month on search engine marketing, Tuesday Island has no initial advertising budget.

Tuesday Island is a real life experiment in Search Engine Marketing, the purpose of which is to determine if it is possible for a website to grow and be successful with no initial advertising budget, in a hugely competitive market.

All information about the site, its progress and its SEM strategies will be made available in monthly reports for those who are interested. <snip>

The site has been up and available on the web since May 1 2006. So far, Tuesday Island has made $22 profit.

[sootledir]

$80,000 for that website? WOW! That really blows my mind. What exactly is your unique selling proposition? I always use Expedia, why would I switch to you?

[Tuesday Island]

Good questions, sootledir. :)

We answered them on our Blog for you. Please visit: <snip>
Hope this gives you the information you were after.

[MattUK]

I'd say you're going to struggle. For a site to succeed without any budget you need to provide people with a reason to link to you, articles, guides, travel budget calulators, whatever, but people need a 'reason' At the moment your site looks like about a million other affiliate sites.

[Marcia]

I'd say you're going to struggle. For a site to succeed without any budget you need to provide people with a reason to link to you, articles, guides, travel budget calulators, whatever, but people need a 'reason' I think nowadays that's called "creating buzz" - which is generally spurred by unique content worth linking to. But as word of that continues to spread, I'm sure there will be creative thinkers who find different ways to create buzz.

At the moment your site looks like about a million other affiliate sites.And of course there are standard techniques that have been widely used by affiliates in that space during the past several years, mainly acquiring backlinks for promotion. IMHO that's a tenuous model to rely on. For one thing, algos are constantly changing and getting tighter. Secondly, hard-core pros in that space have it down with years of experience behind them, and no doubt well established networks. Like Mike Grehan puts it, "the rich get richer."

[MattUK]

I think nowadays that's called "creating buzz
Or link bait ;)

Like Mike Grehan puts it, "the rich get richer."
It's 'possible' for anyone to compete, you just need to give yourself a chance with a good site with great unique content.

[Marcia]

Matt, I'll add: and the right links, not "thin" - and enough "aggression" in some spaces.

[MattUK]

Agree, the right links are a major factor. Somtimes you can be lucky enough to get these on account of having good contenet, other times you'll have to beg borrow and steal ;)

[Tuesday Island]

Good questions, sootledir. :)

We answered them on our Blog for you. Please visit: <snip>
Hope this gives you the information you were after.

Note to Marcia

Thanks for letting us know the rules of this forum. I will post my answer here in 3 parts.

1 $80,000 for that website? WOW! That really blows my mind.

80K is allocated to the experiment of which only 30K has been spent so far. And the remainder is budgeted over a 2 year period. The balance is to be spent on further development and SEO. Any profits will be poured directly into paid search.

2 What exactly is your unique selling proposition?

We don’t have one.

But what’s coke’s unique selling proposition compared to Pepsi. Are these guys competing on this level or do they compete on brand recognition and distribution? To these guys distribution means shelf space, to TuesdayIsland it means ranking. There is no doubt that Expedia are well and truly ahead of the brand recognition race but when it comes to distribution even a site like TuesdayIsland is in the game.

If TuesdayIsland can appear in a Google listing where Expedia don’t rank - then TuesdayIsland have a shot at making a sale. Our strategy is search engine marketing – kicking off with seo and pouring profits into paid search. If we can get the site indexed by google yahoo and msn we are in the game. To tell you the truth ever we have our doubts if Tuesday Island is capable of going anywhere. If it stands a chance at all it will be by competing on distribution. In search engine marketing speak this means optimizing the long tail of the inventory. (For more information on the longtail go to www.longtail.com - Chris Anderson). We agree with Chris 100% and going by the popularity of his book so do many others? Yes there is a long tail in the demand curve of travel inventory. By optimizing a site well (all the way to the tip of the tail) and getting it indexed in the major search engine we have a chance at appearing on thousands of the less competitive keyword niches that customers search for. We will then pour profits into paid search and use the same strategy in paid as we do in optimization. So far TuesdayIsland has made a profit of $22 dollars so Expedia is very safe for now :)


3 Why should i switch to you

In 3 words “Polygamous brand loyalty"

You can Google this term to research it further. Here is a definition, I hope it makes sense.

Polygamous – in a repertoire market: no brand satisfied more than 50% of average buyers’ category requirements with most having <10% solely loyal customers

The customer buys a particular brand due to various reasons like satisfaction, non indulgence, price, promotion, etc... Here loyalty is there for a certain time period until the next brand enters his mind frame.

[Tuesday Island]

Matt, I'll add: and the right links, not "thin" - and enough "aggression" in some spaces.

1) Links a lot! We all want lots of relevant links

2) The madness. Everyone seems to have their own spin on what you need to do to get a good link but the reality is that aside from directories and buying links the rest seems to be nothing more than a marketing exercise. Like most marketing activities there is no silver bullet. You have to keep plugging away and find the right formula. TuesdayIsland is exactly like the tens of thousands of affiliate travel sites on the web and is totally undifferentiated. In the words of the guy who designed it “it looks like a dogs breakfast”. We tried very hard to make it look the same as the rest of them just to gauge how difficult it would be to get up the rankings.

3)The mayhem. If I get one more email from some guy in India asking for a one way, two way or three way link exchange, I am going to quit seo - shave my head and join the hari christners. (or change my email address)

4)The absurdity. I can’t help think that the seo community sometimes forgets the purpose of link building. In a commercial website SEO must generate sales, therefore all link building efforts must lead to an increase in revenue. Trying to quantify how much link building effort it takes to increase revenue by X% has baffled the best of us since late last century. If the TuesdayIsland experiment can help us to figure this out, its done its job.

[rcjordan]

>real life experiment in Search Engine Marketing, the purpose of which is to determine if it is possible for a website to grow and be successful with no initial advertising budget, in a hugely competitive market.

HHH. The answer is "yes" but you're wasting your time running up a battle flag here.

[Tuesday Island]

Hi there - I don't think that i am wasting time. If I can't wave a battle flag about a search engine marketing experiment in a search engine marketing forum, then where can I wave it? I am just trying to stimulate some discussion around the “marketing” aspects of search engine marketing. There are thousands of discussions about links and general seo topics and that’s great. They serve a great purpose. I read them whenever I can and find them useful. Rather than replicate a discussion that exists many times over on the net I want to discuss issues such as – has the online hotel market hit saturation? With so many gigantic established brands, is there really room for one more? Its fine to say, yes there is but to what capacity? A one man show or can it evolve into a real business?

[Marcia]

Rather than replicate a discussion that exists many times over on the net I want to discuss issues such as – has the online hotel market hit saturation? With so many gigantic established brands, is there really room for one more? Its fine to say, yes there is but to what capacity? A one man show or can it evolve into a real business? There's a difference betwen discussing whether a new one can make it and discussing running an experiment. It's been answered that yes, a new one can make it; but it's a waste of time to think that discussing it in an SEM forum can do anything to help with the promotion efforts, because to that the answer is no, it won't.

[Tuesday Island]

There's a difference betwen discussing whether a new one can make it and discussing running an experiment. It's been answered that yes, a new one can make it; but it's a waste of time to think that discussing it in an SEM forum can do anything to help with the promotion efforts, because to that the answer is no, it won't.

Hello Marcia

I admit that my first post did intend to tell your readers about our experiment but you politely gave it the snip and asked to keep the discussion in this forum. I have answered questions in this forum and intend to post the results of the experiment in this forum for further discussion. I am genuinely trying to stimulate some marketing discussion here. I feel that we all have a lot to learn about the long term effects of search on a brand and I am interested what other search engine marketers have to say.

[jimbeetle]

Tuesday Island is a real life experiment in Search Engine Marketing, the purpose of which is to determine if it is possible for a website to grow and be successful with no initial advertising budget, in a hugely competitive market.

I think one of the reasons you might be running into a bit of resistance is your use of the word "experiment." As RC said above, yes, it's possible. No real reason for an experiment as it's been done many times over. A lot of folks here are in highly competitive markets and make their livings from organic search. Heck, using PPC and other SEM techniques is work.

Just my 2 jaded cents worth.

[Tuesday Island]

Hey there

Thanks for your view. I have no doubt that we will get the organic seo traffic up – its already doubled since we submitted the first post. I have been earning a living in seo since 1999. The question is will the site make money? Can it make money? Is the web too crowded with trusted brands; anyway I suppose this is the wrong forum for that kind of discussion.

Happy link building