How to revamp model?

[jahseng-lee]

Context

There's no strong differentiator between my site, Reddit/Facebook and Nomadsphere - at least, not enough to get people to funnel in.

Need to think of ideas to to
a. get users onto the site and using it, AND
b. have a strong, paid product offering

---

Reinforce search/filtering, profile to add personal preferences to the filter

PROS:

• building on top of what's already there
• soft (not strong) validation because NomadList already exists

CONS:

• still don't have validation people are willing to use the site
• what's the path from free user -> paid user? what will people pay for? how to validate?

Non-user:

• finish location listing experience
  • add a rake task to finish adding descriptors to a lot of locations ✅
  • update GPT API call to format the returned paragraph ✅
  • manually go through and upload banners images for a lot of locations ✅
    • up to Rouen, France. It's getting niche, just look through the rest of the locations and see I haven't missed anything ✅
  • add a rake task to batch "disable"/delete locations ✅
    • delete all that don't have a description once most with a decent population are filled out ✅
    • add ability for admin to manually delete locations ✅
• Location tags ✅
  • create a preset list of tags in the app ✅
  • create an API call to hit ChatGPT and get it to apply most relevant tags ✅
  • admin can manually add/edit/delete tags
  • add filter buttons to the home page ✅
    • ideally, locations with most matching tags shown first, then progressively less
    • if that's too hard, just do a simple "OR" then rank by rating ✅
  • find a way to add the tags for each location in the search result, potentially remove the description ✅
  • display the tags on the Location#show page ✅
  • apply .is-active to the tags within the location search results too ✅
  • go though each location and check the tags look sane ✅
    • up to (but haven't done) Glasgow ✅
    • may be worth adding a couple of rake tasks to add/delete tags - console is slow and error prone ✅
• add "useful resources" to each location (country? both? country to start off with?)
  • Grab for SE Asia locations, Naver for Korea, etc.
• fix search ✅
  • easy way could be to make search only work for location name
• remove all the content-bot reviews - don't add much value ✅
• remove locations in non-popular/dangerous locations (N.Korea, Gaza, etc.) ✅
• update "join now" to be less restrictive - allow for viewing of reviews, viewing of chat ✅
• add ability to add travel warnings to each location/country ???

Free experience:

• can add reviews ✅
• can use the chat functionality ✅
  • BUG: clicking on the replied message in chat doesn't highlight it anymore ✅
• make User#show more of a FB like profile page ✅
• /profile should be similar with an extra "Edit" button for the relevant sections ✅
• can save locations for later?
• can save "things to do" for later?
• itinerary/journal ???
  • can add unlimited amount of things
  • can only upload (5? 10? 15?) images/videos per location
• rollback the need have an active stripe subscription - just let people sign up ✅
• notifications ???
• ???

Paid experience:

• itinerary/journal ???
  • can upload unlimited images/videos per location
  • integrations? (Google Calendar, GMail for auto-scraping tickets/bokings, etc.)
• ???

Paid experience (option 2):

• once everyone is signed up for a free, unlimited version (1000? 2000?) and I've built a hot-shit website, sunset the free version and moved to a paid model
  • RISK: everyone leaves when I move to this model. Do I keep the free users free? Charge them less than new users?

Admin:

• set up analytics ✅
  • using Umami ✅
  • track (unique) visitors to the site
  • track people who click sign up but don't make it through
  • track people who sign up but never confirm
  • track people who sign up

---

Change the website to a "list your nomad event/retreat/meetup/webinar" bulletin style website

PROS:

• don't need to build anything complex, just a sign up, listing board, update stripe integration

CONS:

• throwing away a lot of work

Initial launch plan:

• source as many upcoming nomad events as possible, reach out and ask if they'd want to list for free
  • listings include:
    • a location field (freetext that links to Google Maps?)
    • an external link that leads to their website/ticketing website/facebook event/whatever
• consider organising a few meetups
• once there's an decent amount of things on the site, start showing general audience

Paid plan:

• once there's enough traffic to the website, tier as such:
  • meetups are $10 to list
  • webinars are $10 to list
  • conferences are ~$100 to list
  • retreats are ~$100 to list

---

Nomad community specifically around people who are wanting to/trying to get into it

PROS:

• don't need to build much, can use Circle/Mighty Networks/Podia
• there's definitely a demand for "how to find a job", "I'm going to travel soon!", etc.

CONS:

• pivot from existing stuff
• what's the lifespan of a community member if tailored towards inexperienced nomads?

A community which provides:

• courses around jobs specifically for Digital Nomads
• articles and guides (best first locations in Europe/SE Asia/Americas, which things to bring, best luggage cases, backpack recommendations, things to not forget, etc.)
• links to nomad job boards, tutorials, etc.
• chat (obvs)
• weekly newsletters with trends in the Digital Nomad space (new visas, job trends, travel updates)

---

A discount membership site for common Digital Nomad services

PROS:

• a very real cost-benefit for users, as long as they're using more than they're charged
• a user base outside of Digital Nomads - just people who travel a lot
• a very real cost-benefit for business, as long as they're getting a customer base they normally wouldn't get

CONS:

• fucking hard to build - most of this comes down to going to many, many places in the world and convincing the business to give me the time of day
• may need to raise capital for business development

Target

• shared offices (WeWorkRemotely and other co-working offices, etc.)
• accomodation (accomodation chains/hotels, Booking.com, etc.)
• airport food, lounges and other amenities