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Wednesday 29 February 2012

Start-up story

Around this time last year I began work on a project that has radically changed my life. Whereas in the past I worked regularly on hubpages and affiliate marketing both with some level of success, on the 1st of January last year I changed direction and become a co-founder of group hotel booking website. I have learned a lot in the meantime, both with regards to business and myself.

Dingadeal started with the question: How can we simplify group bookings? Both myself and my two co-founders have experienced difficulties in organising group trips. We have organised numerous stags(bachelor parties in the US) and sports trips. Organising these is time consuming and stressful. Having spoken to hotels we saw that there is also difficulties for them when accommodating groups, this includes getting rooming lists from the group organiser.

We were lucky enough to get backing from Enterprise Ireland and the Endeavour Programme. Enterprise Ireland are an Irish state agency that offer an assistance to start-up business and have been very helpful to us throughout our journey. The Endeavour Programme is one of the most highly regarded incubator programmes in Ireland. It is based in Tralee, Co Kerry and it has the support of Jerry Kennelly of stockbyte and tweak.com fame.

As part of the Endeavour programme we regularly had to pitch to panels of investors about our business. These stress panels helped us refine our business model and thought us about how to manage money and grow our business.

There were downsides to working on this project, my work on Dingadeal has meant that I haven’t had the chance to continue writing as many hubs as I used to in the past. This combined with the Google algorithm change has meant my hubpages account has suffered and income resulting from hubpages has taken a nose dive. Similarly, the affiliate websites I own and maintain have lost a bit traction, this is due to me focusing on Dingadeal and not on these sites. I suppose my time like everyone else is limited and it is impossible to do everything.

How hubpages has prepared me for the business world

  1. I spent a lot of time while working on hubpages learning about SEO and Social media. I didn’t realise how much I knew about both topics until I started talking to other people about it. This has given me a marketable skill and a place in a very talented team.
  2. Similarly, articles from the founder of hubpages.com Paul Edmondson have acted as inspiration. This hub in particular is one I have been reading over every now and then when I am in need of a kick in the backside.
  3. I also learned how to write for the web. Writing for the internet is definitely different from writing for a newspaper and magazine; it requires a different style and different formatting. I learned how to write for the web and have kept a blog about our experiences as a start up that has turned out to be quite popular.

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