Name of your website?iStadia.com
Your name?
Rob Robson
Your Location (city, etc)
Henley on Thames
Please give us a short summary of your website?
iStadia is a global community that connects professionals and businesses in sport and exercise across disciplines, and provides the opportunity to build a professional network. By adding content such as blogs and articles, members can also promote themselves or their business and reach out to potential customers.
iStadia has also developed a jobs section, which features fitness and sports jobs from around the world.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I was interested in building a web community around sport, and my business partner was keen to pull together a professional network that could collaborate on client projects. We decided to merge these together as iStadia.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website was a sport psychology site, which I used to promote my services. I learned through that the value of creating and updating content.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
We played with words relating to sport, testing ideas out on WHOIS all the time to see what existed already. Eventually we settled on iStadia - which captured the idea of a place where people would get together that was sports related.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
We are a niche site focusing on professionals, while most of the sports sites are built for fans. There are business networking sites, but not many that specific to sport.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
In the shorter term, to build a solid, self-sufficient business. We will certainly need investment in terms of finance and expertise, but I don't know whether we will sell.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
So far, it has been tough. We started work before Facebook became huge, and so a lot of our assumptions were blown out of the water! Obviously the financial climate is hard, but we are surviving. I'd by lying if I said it was making me rich, and it is very hard work keeping things moving.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I'd like to really focus on usability, as well as making it more attractive. We have ideas for building sub-communities to focus on specific areas of sport and exercise such as sports marketing and sport science and would like to get into video communication a lot more.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
The site is robust, and our hosting plan is flexible. Because we are niche, I don't see it suddenly getting millions of members. I think we need to improve a few things such as our conversion rate to make the most of big changes in demand.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
We use quite a lot of services in the US, and we sell on behalf of some US businesses, and with the exchange rates between the dollar and the pound changing, or cost base has increased. We had a developer on board initially as a co-owner, but he dropped out so development has cost us.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Keeping movement forward with very limited funds has been a big challenge. Every decision needs careful consideration.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
I'd say using social media - networking sites, forums and bookmarking to build links. It has been slow and steady - but cheap!
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
To a certain extent we thought that we could build it and then the members would drive things a lot more. We have to be a lot more active on the site than I thought.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
It has been live for just over 18 months now. I have a day job, and it is hard to work around that. I would like to stay involved but get more people involved.
What is your website address?
iStadia.com
