Running a travel website, Do It While You’re Young, has been a crash course lesson in how to build a website, a community and make money while doing it all.  It’s not easy.  In fact, there is no way I could’ve done it without my bestie, Kristina.

When starting out, we really didn’t know what it takes to build a website with a big community around it.  In fact, we didn’t realize we needed a community at all.  When we built the website, we really had no idea about what it took to really build in SEO, what page rank meant, or how to write proposals to potential advertisers.  Having worked in web marketing I knew enough to help get my clients started although I didn’t honestly know the work it took to sustain a successful website. I knew how important regularly updating content was, how necessary good images and design was including how vital alt tags are on images and I knew where the eye went first and last up on seeing a website.

All of that information is good knowledge to build a foundation on.  Here are some of the things that I neglected:

1. Networking. I don’t mean occasionally talking to people on Twitter through RTs, liking their pages on Facebook or linking back to their sites on your link love page.  I mean really, really talking to these people.  Commenting on people’s blogs that you really like is important.  I’m such a lurker and it needs to stop.  In real world terms, I’m a wall flower. And I think most people who know me, know I’m not a real life wall flower, so why am I one on the Internet? Probably because I’m all business.  I go to people’s websites to see what they’re talking about it, what they’re doing and how I can apply that information to my website.  Creepy? Probably.  Sorry. I need to stop being such a creepy mcstalkerson and start chatting with people more on their blogs and through Twitter. And I mean really talking to them, not just saying thanks for the RT or whatever. It will help my business a lot more in the long run, I’m sure of it.
2. Understanding the importance of linkbacks.  We never really thought about what an anchor text was or even exchanging links with other websites as important to search engines. In fact, I just thought it was good to get a link back from anyone as long as you get one. I’ve learned a lot since those silly days.  Since I’ve been so slow to the world of linkbacks, I use Linkvana (Linkvana 5 Day Trial (Now 14 days)($147 Billed Every 1 Months)) and really enjoy it, despite how expensive it is.  I’ve seen the visits to our site increase 150% since we started it back in February.
3. Something I never counted on was being a boss. DIWYY has had a few employees in our time. One thing my boss, who was a multimillionaire, told me when I was a PA in Beverly Hills was: be slow to hire and quick to fire. I know that now.  If you have instincts that something is wrong, you’re probably right. Not everyone has your company’s best interest as heart.

Here are some things we did right:

1. We started a newsletter in the very beginning. Over the past year, our newsletter has gained more than 1,400 subscribers.  We use aweber and I love it. Kristina hates it.  But I think it’s because you do need to know a little HTML to really customize the newsletter format.
2. We focused on our Facebook page. It has almost 8k likes.  We seriously have THE best community ever!
3. We utilized Twitter, although we rarely have time to really get into it like we would like. Luckily, we have an amazing online community manager. I mean, really, the most amazing one out there.
4. We formed partnerships early on with Contiki, Kelty, 3floz, A Girl’s Gotta Go, Banana Saver, The Humanity Exchange, Edge of Seven and Tripping. We love our partners!

The past year and a half of running DIWYY has been an eye opening experience. I will definitely never take for granted the work put into a website again.  I love DIWYY and have seriously considered that maybe I would rather work on it all the time and not continue with my school work to become a doctor. Doubtful that would happen, but that would be nice..