I received an email from Jason a few weeks ago introducing me to his plans of selling travel itineraries online. The interesting part of his business plan was to let any writer post an itinerary on the site. The itineraries will be made available for sale on the UnAnchor.com and the writer gets bulk of the revenue from the sale. I had a few questions to Jason on how the whole thing works and how viable is the business model. Here is the Q&A I had with Jason on the idea of UnAnchor.com
What is UnAnchor all about?
UnAnchor is a new travel website with the goal of helping travelers figure out what to do in their next travel destination. Travelers will be able to find high-quality, do-it-yourself travel itineraries detailing what sites to see, how to get around, the best restaurants, hotels, etc.
From a writer’s perspective, it’s a place to write about a travel destination you know well and help out your fellow travelers. What makes UnAnchor different is that each itinerary is for sale starting at $0.99. The writer sets the price on the itinerary and keeps 75% from each itinerary sold.
How do you think your itineraries are better than self researched tour plans that a traveler can make by looking up on the internet? How is it better than guidebooks?
UnAnchor itineraries will solve the issues that researching on the Internet and guidebooks currently have. UnAnchor came about because of my growing frustration with both researching my own travel plans and my frustrations with guidebooks. I’ll go through your question backwards, as that’s how my path to UnAnchor came about.
What I’ve found with guidebooks is that they are a pretty good introduction and offer some helpful recommendations, but they are never complete enough. I always had to supplement the guidebook with additional research online, asking the hostel/hotel staff and asking fellow travelers. I began to wonder why I paid the money for the guidebook to begin with. It was heavy and lugging it around wasn’t the most fun thing to do. In addition, with Lonely Planet specifically, I began running into some bad hotel and restaurant recommendations. Talking with fellow travelers, they also expressed their frustrations with Lonely Planet.
Researching is an extremely time-consuming endeavor. I spend hours upon hours researching how to get to my next travel destination, what to do once I got there and how to get around the city. Most of the sites and information I come across are incomplete, an advertisement masked as a recommendation or just outdated. I always kept thinking to myself that there has to be a better way.
Where I believe UnAnchor solves these problems is first by having an independent expert writing up the itinerary; someone who knows the destination inside and out. Additionally, other people will be reviewing the itinerary, which is UnAnchor’s key to a high-quality product; you’ll quickly be able to assess the itinerary’s quality and see other people’s recommendations that have purchased the itinerary. If something is wrong or out of date, reviewers will point it out. Finally, the writer will always be able to update their itinerary to ensure it does not become outdated. The combination of these aspects is what will make UnAnchor itineraries better than guidebooks and self-research.
What is the content of a typical itinerary? How do you ensure that it is complete in all aspects? What kind of a guarantee do you give a buyer?
There is no template or official guideline to writing an itinerary and I’ve done that on purpose. Sometimes you want information on a particular activity (a hike for example), other times you want information on just one particular city or country and other times you may just want to know the best way to get between two cities.
While there’s no official template, I do have recommended guidelines for the itinerary writer.
The first question I always ask writers to consider is whether or not they would be satisfied with the information they’ve provided at the price they’ve requested. That’s the key. Is the information useful enough to justify the cost? The answer will hopefully always be a resounding yes. And ideally, the traveler will find more information than they even had hoped for.
In addition, the two primary aspects I ask the itineraries to be focused on are
- Give a specific itinerary of what to see in a given destination. Don’t just list the 20 sites in a city with a two-sentence description. Tell the traveler which ones can be missed and which ones shouldn’t. Give a specific order as well so if time is a constraint the traveler sees the best sites.
- Provide clear directions to each location using the most efficient transportation. It’s not easy getting around in a new city. I’ve requested that the itineraries give clear subway, bus and walking directions, so that travelers spend less time getting lost.
Before each itinerary goes live on the site, it goes through a review process. This currently consists of me reading through the itinerary, offering suggestions and ultimately approving the itinerary before it goes live on the site.
Finally, the buyer gets a guarantee. If they’re not happy with the itinerary, they can simply send me an email and I’ll gladly refund the money.
What is your delivery medium? Do you have versions for handheld devices?
As of now, it’s only online. You can view the itinerary on the website or download a PDF version to your computer. I plan on offering itineraries on your handheld device in the future, as I think this will be the most useful way to use an itinerary. As of now, however, the only way to view the itinerary on your handheld device is by transferring the PDF to your cell phone. Unfortunately, I think only savvy users will be able to figure that out.
How does one become an itinerary writer? What qualifications do you require?
The great thing about UnAnchor is that anyone can become a travel writer. Even if you’ve never traveled before, you could write an itinerary for your home town.
What is the incentive for writers to enroll and participate? How much do you expect itinerary writers to earn from their works?
The primary incentive is monetary, with writers keeping 75% from each itinerary sold. In addition, for the first 50 itineraries submitted, I’m offering writers 90% from each itinerary sold.
As for how much writers can earn, the potential is quite high. If an itinerary is well-written and provides extremely helpful information to the traveler about a popular travel destination, I believe the writer could make a good chunk of money.
Do you also syndicate the itineraries to other publications?
Nope, I do nothing additional with the itineraries. Writers also do not give up any rights to the itineraries when they are published on UnAnchor. Writers are always free to do whatever they like with their itineraries. It’s your hard work after all.
Travel blogger Mridula has been a victim of plagiarism from mainstream media several times. This time the culprit is Hindustan Times. She is fighting it out and contesting the claims from the editors who say this was an accident. It is a wonder how so many such accidents have been happening these days. Like an accident that NDTV website had with one of my images. Blog aggregators like desipundit and blogbharti are full of incidences of such theft from mainstream media.
I have written to the editor of Brunch Ms. Poonam Saxena now. By evening she replied agreeing that there has been a mistake because copyright issues were not clear and they are willing to issue a correction and talk about compensation. I strongly disagree.
Here is more about the incident it from Mridula.
“Where is Law College?” I asked a policeman who was standing guard in front of a building. He looked bored. Without speaking a word, he lazily lifted a hand and pointed to a road to his left. Subsequent questions I asked him to reassure my directions were responded with nodding or shaking of his head. He was not in a mood to talk. A little ahead on the way, I encountered a man who was coming from the other side. His appearance made me conclude that he works in one of the many government departments nearby, and would know the area better.
“Excuse me,” I stopped him and asked, “which way to Law College?”
Without a doubt or hesitation, he pointed me in the direction exactly opposite to where the policeman had pointed me. “It is a short walk in this direction,” he told me pointing his finger, “you will find it just a little ahead this way.” I decided to trust this man instead of the cop, who I thought would be here on work and may not know the area as well as the other man. Wrong move!
We are not a country where people are comfortable saying “I don’t know.” It was a day for me to see everyone trying to be helpful and preferring not to say those three words.
On a hot summer morning in Bangalore, I got down from a city bus and started looking around for Law College. My destination was not the college itself, but ‘Indian Council of Historical Research’, which was located in the college premises. Walking past busy Mysore Bank Circle along Palace Road, I entered Bangalore University’s city office and asked a watchman for Law College. The confusing directions that I started receiving from that moment took me all over the place and had me walking for next ninety minutes, searching for the elusive ICHR.
The watchman at the gate looked at me as if I am a latecomer, and shook his head and said, “They have shifted to the university campus in Mysore Road; there is no law college here. It has been almost six months.” When I asked him if he had any clues on ICHR, he dismissed me quickly, indicating that he hasn’t heard of anything that sounds like it. Just as I retreated, another man, someone who seemed to be of authority and sitting nearby listening to our conversation, called me back. “It is this way, at the end of the road,” he told me, pointing to the large intersection just 100m away. Indeed, the law college was there and a sign said so. But there was some construction in progress, and no one seemed to be inside. I also found a locked door where a sign said ICHR. The deserted building made me believe that they have indeed packed up. Just to confirm, I walked in and looked for some signs of life.
There were two private security personnel inside, and one of them shook his head and said “no college,” even before I said anything. “What about ICHR?” I asked him, “Are they here?” Neither of the security men seemed to have any clue of what ICHR could be. When I asked if they had moved out of here, one of them pointed me to the same gate from where I was sent here. “Go inside that gate,” he told me, “you will find it in Bangalore University Campus.” He seemed confident enough that I took his words. But when I did go in and inquire with more people, no one seemed to have any clue of anything called ICHR. When I asked for directions to ‘Indian Council of Historical Research,’ a few men there looked at me as though I was speaking Greek and Latin, After some frustration, I decided to start asking for Law College, with a hope that ICHR would have moved along with law college. That is when I met the policeman and the other gentleman.
Having decided to ignore the policeman, I went in the opposite direction and asked a few more people for Law College. Some young chaps who looked like students seemed to be the right people to show me the correct directions. They looked at me as though I am lost, and asked to me head towards the area where I initially started from. After searching for some more time and finding nothing, I finally decided to trace my way back and went again into Bangalore University Campus, to give it one last try. A watchman I met inside said he is new here and has no clue. When I asked another security guard if he had any idea where the law college had moved to, he looked surprised. “They haven’t moved anywhere. It is in the same place. Classes are going on everyday.” Another contradiction. It must have been more than an hour since my search was on and I had got every possible answers to my questions except the right one.
Finally I told myself that I will go back, make a thorough inquiry at the Law College building I had stumbled earlier, and return home no matter what the outcome is. This time the private security guards were not there, but a student was studying all alone in an empty room. When I asked him if the college had moved, he replied in the negative. “They are moving next month,” he told me, indicating that the college still operated from this building. “Today is a holiday, you can come back tomorrow and it will be open.” It was a day off owing to Ambedkar Jayanti, which explained why the college was empty. The private security guards I had stumbled into earlier meant that today is a holiday, when they said “no college.” But what about ICHR? I tried to check with the student. “Do you know if ICHR operates from here?” He seemed to have no clue again, and asked me to come and check the next day.
The whole search for an hour and a half had now brought me back full circle. I went home and never returned to check! I had found an alternate source for the documents I was looking for, at the ‘Mythic Society of India’, which I had stumbled into when people sent me searching in all directions. They had in their library, everything I was looking for!