WikiTravel

WikiTravel is an amazing idea. I wish I had thought of this. Basically, anyone on the Internet can come to this website and write travel guides for places around the world. People will participate in building guides because a lot of people are really into traveling. A lot of people will use this resource because of how helpful it is.

Finally, this site can easily be monetized in a number of partnerships. For instance, WikiTravel can partner with sites like TravelZoo (TZOO) to place TZOO ads on each page. For example, someone looking at a travel guide for Taipei can click on a link that will reveal cheap air-fare prices to and from Taiwan. This kind of partnership generates revenue for the owners of the site, gives users easy access to a good resource, and increases exposure for the advertiser. Everyone wins.

The travel business is a billion dollar industry, and this site is a really smart way to tap into the market. First off, your users are creating the content for you, for free! Second, these kinds of sites grow exponentially by word-of-mouth advertising. Third, the owner incurs little cost/time for running this type of website. Just pay for the webhosting, pour money into advertising, and watch your users build your site for you.

So far, the owners have not decided to monetize their site, which is okay, but I envy them because they’re sitting on a goldmine.