Start A Review Site
So you love the haunt industry and everything to do with haunts and you would like to start a review site. Well be prepared to put in a lot of time and effort into your site if you want it to be something to be proud of. Creating a good site can't be done overnight, but starting way before the haunt season is recommended. Here are some tips in creating a ghoulishly good review site.
Be Creative
There are many review sites on the internet and to set yourself apart you have to be creative. Make sure your design is something different that will catch a visitor's attention and have them coming back for more.
Accurate Information
Make sure the information you provide on your site is accurate. The worst thing that can happen is having one of your visitors visit a haunt on the wrong day or time. People need to be able to trust your website for their haunting needs.
Update
Ok so you may not have time to update every week with information, but you need to update your website frequently throughout the haunt season besides just reviews. People need a reason to return to your site.
Variety
Don't just provide your visitors with reviews even though this should be the focal point of your site. People get bored easily and if you want them to visit regularly make sure to have something besides reviews. You could include interviews, pics, articles or whatever you'd like. Remember that some of your visitors may not even be from your state. So you need to have something that they can enjoy and come back to.
Redesign
Make sure to redesign your website every year so people have something new and exciting to look at. You won't become board either since it will practically be a new site and a new experience.
Communication
Even though your review site will most likely be non profit you still need to be able communicate with your visitors when they have a question, problem or comment. You could create a message board, guest book, chat room, MySpace page and don't forget your email address. Loyal visitors will help you improve your site and you need to be able to communicate with them.
Loyal Staff
Yes you can create a review site on your own, but what fun is it when you are going through a haunt by yourself? It's not and having more than one person to help with your site is a good way to improve in a quickly manor. A loyal staff can help with driving, costs of gas, taking pictures, contacting haunts and much more.
Advertise
You need to make your presence online and what better way then advertising your haunt with banner exchanges, on message boards, blogs, podcasts, link pages and whatever way you can advertise free on the internet. Advertising on anything besides the internet can be expensive and your audience won't be as large.
Offer Advertising
If you are a well established review website you can offer advertising to companies and haunts. A lot of expenses goes into creating a haunt review website. This includes web hosting, web design, travel expenses etc. No haunt is forced into advertising, but you can make the option available either way.
Make Contacts
Be sure to keep in contact with haunts and to get as many email addresses and instant messenger names as possible. It's a lot easier communicating with haunts over the internet than it is over the phone. Also be sure to have a MySpace page and to communicate with haunts on theirs. Haunts seem to communicate almost always on their myspace than they do through their website's email address. During the haunt season it may be hard for haunts to communicate with you because they are so busy and on the off season they aren't as busy. They may be busy with something else like building their haunt, family, their job or whatever.
Email or call In Advance
You need to let haunts know that you are coming so they aren't suddenly surprised by your presence. Some people may disagree and say that a haunt shouldn't know when you are coming so the haunt experience is the same for everyone. Well this is true, but who cares if a haunt improves itself that night on your behalf. But sometimes they may overdo it with their acting and the set up of scenes. But this one is your call. Either way you are more likely to go behind the scenes, get free tickets, merchandise and skip lines if you call, chat, or email. Remember that if you have a quality review site, you will be investing time and money to put it together. You need all the help you can get. The publicity from your review rather good or bad is worth a lot more to haunts than a couple of free tickets.
Be Prepared With a Flyer
Yes, make sure that you always bring a flyer with you when you go and review haunts. Many haunts have no clue what you look like or who you are and some are impossible to get a hold of. But when you have proof of what website you're from it's an easier process in getting tickets, skipping the lines, taking pictures, talking to workers or whatever. If you are visiting many haunts in a night you need as much time as possible and skipping lines helps big time.
There are many more tips that I can list, but you will find out yourself when building your review site. It's a process and a fun one at that.
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