Labor pains in giving birth to Travel Moor
Identifying the community I want to serve and how I should serve them was the easy part for me. Actually letting go of the product I’m building for them, setting it free from my overprotective, perfectionist grasp into their hands for feedback? Not so easy. Very hard — for me, at least. But the fact that sending a newsletter was a requirement for the CUNY Entrepreneurial Journalism program forced me to close my eyes and jump off the proverbial cliff.
I cushioned myself by only sending the newsletter to people who I could trust to keep it real with me, but in a helpful way — about 75 people with whom I’d already discussed Travel Moor. I anxiously awaited feedback, sometimes pestering some friends who didn’t respond.
Design makes all the difference
But it turns out there was nothing to fear. Sure, I had created a safety net for myself, but I had also worked hard and drawn on a lot of knowledge and experience to create something that would be well received. And it was — for the most part. The tone, the mission, and the stories I’d curated about travel to homelands resonated strongly with everyone. But the logo I’d spent hours designing myself was given thumbs down all around.
One well meaning graphic designer friend put it bluntly:
Him: You need a designer. Badly. Especially for the logo.
Me: What’s wrong with the logo?
Him: Umm…everything. The font, the colors, the drop shadow…all communicate “teenage girl’s website from the 1990s.” You’re a writer, not a designer, Ghazala.
The sad thing is, I’ve taken several graphic design courses and was the in-house designer at my first job out of college almost 10 years ago. I need to update my skills, apparently!
Thankfully, my friends are teaching me the importance of design and branding and the difference it can make before I embarrass myself and my startup before it even gets off the ground. The next newsletter’s formatting was improved since I switched from TinyLetter to MailChimp, but the red color to highlight links was roundly rejected as being “too harsh.”
I have a dream that one day, my newsletters will not be judged by the color of their links, but by the content of their articles!
I’m pretty sure that’s what Martin Luther King, Jr. said.
But until that day comes, I will continue to do my community’s bidding, because I do want my content to be read.
Money, money, money
The second challenge I’ve been struggling with is bringing in revenue at this early stage for Travel Moor. My short term revenue plan is to monetize Travel Moor’s content, before I tackle my long term revenue goal of organizing group trips. Based on my research about the appeal of young Muslims to big brand marketers, it could be very lucrative— if I had a sizeable community, which I don’t have yet. So I’ve decided to follow the strategy of reaching out to smaller, Muslim-targeting businesses that may be willing to take a small chance on advertising to a small but highly engaged community of young Muslims like that Travel Moor’s.
If I build it, will they come?
Which brings me to another challenge: accepting “slow” and small traction while trying to iron out kinks. It’s certainly possible to come out of the gate with a huge following and advertisers beating down your door — but I need to remind myself that I don’t have to have a website, newsletter, every social media platform, a podcast, an app, and everything ready all at once for thousands to fall in love with on Day 1. It’s okay to tackle one thing at a time in order to do it well. The “likes” and ad deals will come organically over an extended period of time. In the meantime, testimonials from my now 150 highly-engaged subscribers are just as important as big numbers. Patience and perseverance are key. It may not be the fastest route, but judging by the success stories of the startups we’ve been studying (like Narratively), it’s the smartest.
