How I created a free cheap flight alert site and got my first 1000 subscribers entrepreneur how earn by blogging blog

Background—A few weeks ago I started a site that sends out cheap airfare alerts for free.

If you want to check it out here’s the site

The current subscriber count sits at around 1000, which was achieved mostly by sharing the site on multiple travel forums, mailing travel bloggers and my subscribers talking about it.

How do I find the deals?

Being an avid traveler, my frequent use of Google flights and later the backend software ITA matrix led me to discover hidden gems aka really cheap airfare. Persistence is the key here— a cheap fare would present itself eventually that is if I kept looking.

Why did I begin a newsletter?

I thought about sharing the same deals with other travelers out there. But instead of them coming to a site and checking it every now and then in the hope they find a good deal, I thought why not alert them whenever something comes up.

Updating their sites is what a majority of the sites in this niche do. They keep posting new deals and expect users to just show up on a gut feeling. Deals are time sensitive. Error fares are often gone in minutes.

I felt that an email approach would be the ideal solution.

People are always on their email and these days’ smartphones have made it easy, showing them a notification when a new mail comes. Presently, I am focused only on International flights from the US and Canada.

Here are some fares that I sent out not long ago: * Oakland to Paris Roundtrip at $284 * Edmonton to Shanghai Roundtrip $400 * Multiple US and Canadian cities to Costa Rica Roundtrip starting $226 * Miami to Switzerland Roundtrip at $220

Probably because the oil prices are lower than ever before airlines are able to offer many more deals than they would have ever done.

Monetization angle

I have thought about it long and hard. The problem with using affiliate links is in order to drive more clicks I might tend to send higher priced deals or not so good deals.

I don’t want to be an affiliate but that’s still an option on the table. Other than that, I could have a donation link on the site but that requires visitors to be overly altruistic. I am not sure though.

The third and most favorite option (currently) that I am considering is setting up a premium plan with more deals going to premium subscribers than free subscribers.

The free subscribers would still get alerts albeit in a lower frequency. This also gives me an option to convert free subscribers to premium ones. However, there’s a big fear in me that with subscriber numbers being so low if anyone would really sign up to the premium list. What are your thoughts on this?

Current costs

The current costs include payment to my VPS which sits at $59/mo and the cost of the email tool that is $17/mo (this is going to increase quickly). As more and more people join, I need to quickly decide on a monetization angle and stick to it. The costs keep adding up when you aren’t making any money from the venture. I am a freelancer and that keeps the lights running for now.

Proof of subscriber count: http://ift.tt/2whTLyU

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