All in all, the site couldn't be doing
better!Our traffic has more than
tripled just in the last 5 days, and with the recent addition of a large banner
advertising our site on the main street, I expect usage and traffic to continue
to increase rapidly.
So, now comes the question that everyone is
asking...How did you do it so fast?
The answer is a combination of several factors and
strategies.First of all, Casco Viejo is
a small city, part of the larger Panama City.However, since it is a Unesco World Heritage Site , the number 2 tourism
destination in Panama and one of the hottest real estate investments in all of
Central America, I felt that it was still a worthwhile project.But, because of its size and location, my
competition is very little, although it certainly does exist.But this factor alone was key in the speed at
which we went to the top.
Secondly, I am using a new development platform
which MediaOptions.com is now going to be offering to its customers (contact me
for more info).This platform provides
for extremely fast, customizable and highly effective website launch with very
little cost and up and ready in as little as 1 week.No, this is not a "mini-site".This is a full fledged website, like we have
done for CascoViejo.org .The best part,
is that the backend (content management system) is so userfriendly, my
grandmother could do it with her eyes closed!Changes and additions can be made and live in seconds.
In order to increase visibility quickly, I relied primarily
on Facebook & Twitter .By connecting
to as many people as I could find which are living or somehow connected to the
area, I was able to get a solid traffic base right out of the gate.
Now, I don't know this for a fact, but I have been
told that Google gives preferential treatment to .ORG domain names.Aside from the fact that my friend who owns
the .COM version won't sell it to me, I thought that I would have a potential
advantage by using CascoViejo.org when it comes to Page Ranking.On top of that, I chose an alternative
business model which doesn't rely on any PPC revenue or banner
advertising.I am providing good,
unbiased, unsponsored content to readers which will help drive traffic and
repeat visitors.Because of this fact, I
felt that my site provided value to local businesses.Instead of offering them advertising spots, I
am offering Premium Business Listings .
I am giving every business in the community a free
listing and for a small fee that can purchase a more complete listing which
includes email address, website link, contact info and a logo or photo of their
business.Their listing will also be
featured at the top of their category.
Even in Panama , where online advertising has
barely even entered a stage of infancy, the local businesses are responding
very well to this model.It is a
win-win.
This was our first test run with our new
development platform, but we will now start rolling out 1 new website per month
along the same lines as CascoViejo.org .Either local community portals or business directories within a certain
niche.The platform is flexible and can
also work for many other models, but for the time being, this model works, so
we're sticking to it.
Contact us if you're interested in using our new
platform to launch one of your domains into a website!
