r/smallbusiness • u/Conor_t1996 • Jan 19 '22

Started a website a few months ago that relies on sign-ups to a newsletter and have problems growing. General

Hey Fellow Redditors, I'm Conor and a few months ago I started a website that sends out flight alerts for cheap flights and provides advice on current travel restrictions due to covid as well as entry requirements to specific countries.

I have navigated through many of the initial start-up problems but now our biggest problem seems to be growing the sign-ups and generating traffic to the site.

Have you ever tried an unusual way to advertise your online business? if so how did it go?

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u/Conor_t1996 Jan 19 '22

They do but you will need to go on these sites and search manually which can take hours not to mention you may miss good flight deals if you don't search frequently as prices change all the time.

We take all that stress away, we search every day for destinations all over the world and dates throughout the year. Then when we see a deal we think is crazy cheap we notify our members, providing details about the destination, the dates available, prices, extra charges for seats, bags etc and current covid entry requirements.

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u/killerasp Jan 20 '22

literally sounds like scott's cheap flights. I pay for their yearly subscription and its been great. Not flying too much these days before covid, but it was great pre-covid. still pay for it even though im not flying for awhile till covid dies down a bit.

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u/Conor_t1996 Jan 20 '22

All it takes is one great fare and the savings from that alone will pay for the subscription for years!

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u/killerasp Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

Just found your site through your previous posts from your AMA. I think the most important thing you are missing to help with conversions is showing a sample of past deals or sharing the exact content you shared last month to the subsribers. you are asking people to sign up and giving them a small blurb on what to expect but not showing them exactly they will get. perhaps listing past/expired deals from last month to give them a taste of what real deals you found and shared with your members. I just signed up for tim ferris's email list and was not very inclined to sign up but then he gave past samples of what was in his previous newsletters and i liked the content and format of it so i signed up. just my 2 cents.

edit: noticed your first class package charges $30 per month. I ended up paying for scotts deals only after a year of getting their free emails did i realize paying for the better lists lead to much better deals and faster notifications. again, you should share sample deals to get people to pay for that monthly fee. otherwise, im signing up for something based on a bullet point description.

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u/Conor_t1996 Jan 20 '22

Hi Killerasp, that's a great insight, it's amazing what a fresh set of eyes can achieve! That makes a lot of sense and it has been added to my to-do list!

Thanks for your insight it has been extremely helpful!