Manny Coulon was looking for something fun to do with his son and his friends. He turned to the Internet, thinking it would be bursting with ideas. He was disappointed. “I was amazed there was nothing on the Internet to help parents find things to do with their kids.” He mulled it over in his head and talked to some friends. Like him, they thought the Internet should be the perfect place to look for this kind of thing.
That was 18 months ago. Manny went part-time at his job as a management consultant and set up his own website, ideasforthekids.co.uk. It does what it says on the package: you type in either your postcode, county or the type of attraction you want to find, such as wildlife park, and the site finds you those which are closest to you.
He started with four staff, including a web developer who now works part time. The three full-time staff work in the office which is based at the University of Warwick’s science park just outside of Coventry. They see to the day to day running of the site. Most of this involves updating the information on the site. There are currently around 11,100 venues listed on the site and, as Manny says, their usefulness depends a lot on how up to date they are.
“The level of confidence people have in the site increases if they know it is not out of date,” he says. He recalls the frustration of looking at postings about venues which were months if not years out of date. The staff contact venue providers and check that information such as opening times, seasonal events, etc, are current. Increasingly, as the site gets better known, this is likely to be done with an automatic six-monthly email reminder.
He started with four staff, including a web developer who now works part time. The three full-time staff work in the office which is based at the University of Warwick’s science park just outside of Coventry. They see to the day to day running of the site. Most of this involves updating the information on the site. There are currently around 11,100 venues listed on the site and, as Manny says, their usefulness depends a lot on how up to date they are.
“The level of confidence people have in the site increases if they know it is not out of date,” he says. He recalls the frustration of looking at postings about venues which were months if not years out of date. The staff contact venue providers and check that information such as opening times, seasonal events, etc, are current. Increasingly, as the site gets better known, this is likely to be done with an automatic six-monthly email reminder.
Yellow pages
The basic listing of a venue is free in order that the site is comprehensive. If venues want to enhance the information available to readers, for example, by adding photos, they pay a small annual fee. “It’s a bit like the Yellow Pages,” says Manny, adding that photos can increase traffic by up to 20-fold. The revenue from this fee plus adverts on the site is its main income.
Besides the listings, the site has a reviews function where parents can add their own views about a venue. It has a top ten of most searched venues which are solely based on clickthrough rates. Manny says the main ones tend to be soft-play venues, perhaps because parents of pre-schoolers are more likely to need things to do during the week.
The site has also just set up discussion boards for parents to exchange information on things like what are the best venues in their area, fairs, fetes and summer playschemes. Manny says summer camps or playschemes are harder to put into the main search function as they are temporary, but the organisation is looking at strategies for integrating them with the main site. “It needs to be simple, though,” he says.
Awards
He adds that the feedback from readers has been “fabulous”. So much so that the site has been nominated for some awards. It is through, for example, to the Midlands final of the HSBC start-up awards. It is also gaining publicity in the national press.
Manny is also interested in spotting trends from the site, noting that the recent bad weather at half term led to a surge in searches for indoor play areas. Many other searches are seasonally based.
When Manny set up the site, he thought there was “a compelling case” for it. His hunch seems to have proven right.
www.ideasforthekids.co.uk
www.ideasforthekids.co.uk
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