Started a weather-centric travel website. Looking for next steps / partnerships

[JamesB23]

Hello! I launched betterweathernow.com earlier this year. I came up with the concept, then worked with a developer to build it.

The idea was inspired by living in Portland, OR, for the past 20 years. As you might imagine, the months with minimal direct sunlight can take a toll. Out of curiosity, I attempted to find the shortest driving distance to better weather (rarely practical). So, I'd use sites like Skyscanner and Skiplagged, sort by least expensive fares, and then check the forecasts for those destinations. My website allows you to select your preferred high temperature range, sorts the destinations by price, and provides you with a link to Skiplagged. For example, on 10/23/19, I'm currently finding multiple $40-$70 one-way fares from Portland to 70°-80° in Vegas, California, and Texas. Ta-da!

So, I have my minimum viable product, but now I need to drive traffic and monetize. I launched the site for 3 reason. It's something I'll use, gain the experience of building a business, and income.

Now, I feel stuck taking the next steps. Should I turn it into an app and charge a fee? Ads? Partnerships? Ideally, I'd find someone with marketing skills and/or a developer who see the potential and will work in exchange for a percentage of profits.

So, that's the general idea. Please make use of it! Yes, I'm intending to add options/filters for more specific weather, outdoor activities, events, celcius, and foreign currency. I'm working with a limited budget for now and staying focused on the core function. Thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[damyst]

Congratulations on launching the website. You might get more specific feedback on Indie Hackers than you'd get here.

My sense is that the value you're delivering isn't enough yet to ask users to pay for it directly, so your path to monetization is via ads or (more likely) affiliate links.

Strongly consider developing your marketing skills rather than trying to outsource that aspect of the business. Marketing isn't rocket science.

Keep us posted on your progress :-)

[Luap595]

For monetization, you should be able to work a deal with a travel site once you've got enough traffic - ie, you send traffic to them from the people who have looked up fares on your site, they pay you a bounty.

As for marketing, I have a bit of experience in this area, specifically SEO marketing for new products. Start by identifying a core audience. It sounds like you count yourself as one of them, so that's good. Figure out what they will be likely to be searching for, especially just before booking a trip where weather is a big factor. You're looking for keyword phrases like "who has the best weather in january" or something. Start checking those results with a tool like Ahrefs to see what gets actual traffic. Try to come up with a decent list of keywords, and see (again using a tool like Ahrefs) what people are paying to advertise for those keywords. If CPC is decent, it's a sign that it's a "money" keyword - one that people search just before making a decision.

You'll then want to write a really good, detailed post on the keyword topic. Once it's done, submit to Google for crawling via Google Search Console... Now repeat.

That's a start anyway. You'll also want to do some link building and other work. It takes time to build traffic this way. With experience, at least 6 months, learning as you go, at least a year.

[hodedofome]

Yes refer visitors to specific hotels or sign up for specific credit cards to get reward points to take a trip
to that specific location. There’s a buttload of money to be made referring credit card signups.