Name of your website?Sapphire Beach Resort, Ambergris Caye
Your name?
Dave Peterson
Your Location (city, etc)
San Pedro
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Sapphire Beach Resort is a new, gated community on the shores of the Caribbean Sea on Ambergris Caye, Belize. Sapphire Beach offers condos, Casitas, Cabanas and Villas for full ownership purchase. Sapphire Beach uses the highest quality construction, provides a beautiful peaceful atmosphere, and one of the best values on the island.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Sapphire Beach needs to let potential buyers know of our existence and to answer some of the most common questions we get from potential buyers.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
We launched our website in 2007 and it was www.SapphireBeachBelize.com
How did you decide on a name for your website?
We named the website after the name of the development, and added Belize to differentiate from another Sapphire Beach Resort in the US Virgin Islands.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
The Sapphire Beach website not only answers questions about the development, but also provides many resources about Belize in general. We try to provide as many links to related external websites as possible.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Once the property is sold out, the website will strictly be used as a promotional and booking tool for people looking to rent a vacation home at Sapphire Beach.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We have been very happy with the response we have received from the website, but would like to increase our visibility, especially among people looking for property in Belize.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
With an unlimited budget, we would add many more graphics and flash elements. We would also like to include renderings of the interior of our units. Our primary focus, however, would not be the website itself, but promoting the website.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
As far as we know, the demand on the website is not an issue. We can build as many homes as we have on offer.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The hardest part of dealing with the website has been our need to update the site regularly, but not being technologically savvy. We tried to outsource this, but the persons response time was too slow.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Our biggest challenge has been promoting the website and organically improving our Google score.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Our biggest success has been to partner with quality companies like Caribpro.com, AmbergrisCaye.com and other sites which drive traffic to our website or as email leads.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I didn't expect running the website to take as much time as it does. The constant need for updates, and our lack of technology knowledge, makes this a time consuming process.
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?
We have been running the website for about one year and there is no end in sight. It is a necessary part of our business, both now and in the future. I only see our web presence and sophistication increasing.
Is your website your business, or is it a promotional tool for your business?
Our website is primarily a promotional tool for our development. We do not sell anything on the website, and 99% of our buyers want to come see the property for themselves. If we could figure out a way to actually sell our units online, we would love it. Until then, the website is a promotional tool.
What is your website address?
Sapphire Beach Resort, Ambergris Caye
