Name of your website?Access Durango Colorado
Your name?
Mary Middlebrook
Your Location (city, etc)
Durango
Please give us a short summary of your website?
AccessDurango.com is an online community for Durango, Colorado.It provides local news and information on restaurants, real estate, outdoor activities, events, vacations, lodging, and more. We also offer a business directory and free classified advertising.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Durango is a rural area, and I was having a very difficult time finding quality information online. So I decided to create my own one-stop shop for everything Durango.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website was http://www.reefsource.com. It was a business website for my company, Marine Specialties International.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I was looking to access information about Durango online, and could never find it easily. So when I named the website, Access Durango Colorado was the obvious choice.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We live in a tourist town, and pretty much all of the websites about our area focus on the tourists. Mine is the only website that focuses on information for locals, by locals.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I'd like to see the website grow and be a source of income in the future.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Right now, I'm still in the start up phase. So there's lots of time and money going in and not many rewards coming out! But the site is growing more and more every day, so the potential for success is definitely there.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I'd like to be able to hire people to write articles with a local flair.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes. I have some good people that I could hire on a moment's notice if it becomes necessary.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Upgrading my software to include different features I wanted for the website has been my main cash outlay. Headaches are trying to come up with new ways to drive traffic to the site.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The sheer time involved and having to learn new software from scratch.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Definitely myspace.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It hasn't really. It's doing what I expected at this time.
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 has been up for almost two months, and I'm willing to invest my time and money to grow it until the end of 2008.
What is your website address?
Access Durango Colorado
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