Any Seeds of Wisdom for Me?

Hello,

I've just surfed in, on a referral from someone at the Friends In Business site. I'll be bookmarking this forum too!

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for me on how to generate income in a part of the world (Whistler, British Columbia) that relys heavily on tourism and logging - both of which are severly hurting at the moment? Never before have there been so many people out of work here as our lumber mills are shutting down and tourists are afraid to travel. So needless to say, trying to make a dollar and sell anything here seems near impossible.

I operate a travel/tourism website that, although it is unique from all the others in that it encompasses our whole region (including 5 communities - Whistler included) rather than just one community - I average only around 10 hits per day, compared to Whistler.com that averages a few thousand per day. Yes, I am listed in yahoo, google, excite, etc. but only the "free" listings. I can't afford to pay for premium listings, although I am often in the "Top 10" anyway.

I do offer a free, opt-in newsletter, but I only have 20 people signed up so far. I need some incentive to get people to sign up, and then some way of generating income from it. So far the newsletter is just to inform people about what's happening in the region (especially in Whistler).

I'm still trying to figure out what my "niche" is, or USP (Unique Sales Proposition) that will make me stand out and become irresistable.

Any ideas?

Thanks very much,
Anya.


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