Costa del Sol Spain,Twitchingspain.com

[neillcc]

Hectic week with lots of sightings and photographs.
Hoopoe's, spotted fly catchers, Crossbills, Fan tailed Warblers, Melodiuos Warblers, Olivaceous Warblers, Serin, Little ringed Plovers, Sandpipers, Cattle Egret, Bee Eaters, Bonneli's Eagle, Little Owls, Wheatears, Stonechats these are just a few that we have seen on our last weeks tour.
please visit website gallery for all pictures. www.twitchingspain.com

[Colin Key]

Neil,

Briefly, you need to take some professional advice before you proceed much further. The spelling and grammatical errors in this post and on your website will not attract birders. The two photos posted here are counter-productive and the "Gallery" on your site does not work. You also "pull back" by saying that the apartment is being modernized and will not be available until 2009.

Your prices are not at all competitive; I cannot imagine anyone paying £1,000 for one person or £800 each for two, for five days birding in Andalucia - totally ridiculous. You can go to South America for that sort of money.

I stated in an earlier response to one of your posts that you were entering a difficult and very competitive market. I know a number of expert birders who could undercut you price-wise by at least 50%.

Colin

[AndyB]

Colin really tells it like it is eh?! :err:

Hi Neil, thanks for posting and I hope you take all comments here as a constructive feedback that might help you grow your business. I had no problems with your photobucket gallery and I'm afraid I have no point of reference in terms of rates for birding holidays there. I do think it's not a bad idea to only highlight your best photos. You have some really nice ones in your gallery that would help sell your tours better probably. Best, Andy

[neillcc]

Hi Colin,
Firstly thank you for your comments
if you read the website section on accommadation it says that 1 apartment is up and running and the second will be available in 2009 as for Gallery it has worked fine for everyone else.

As for pricing before we even started we checked out all the competitors and we based our prices slighly lower than theirs and offer more.
Most tour operators dump you in a hotel then cram as many as possible into non airconditioned cars and give you on average 5 hours a day birding.
we however have luxury accommadation, airconditioned 4x4's and will spend a minimum of 7 hours a day birding.
We also have a number of bookings ( deposits paid) for 2009.

Last week we had 2 very professional and well travelled ornithologist's here for 3 days and one stated that in all his travelling around the world he had never had such a great time, seen and photographed so many birds in such a short time and the accommadation was well above what he was expecting.
They are in the process of writing an articale for one of the U.K based magazines.

I knew that I was entering a competative market thats why I researched as much as possible, I have spent 6 months at lots of locations finding the 10 most productive.

Thanks for your concerns and maybe you could proof read the site and forward all to me then the IT people can edit It

Neill




Neil,

Briefly, you need to take some professional advice before you proceed much further. The spelling and grammatical errors in this post and on your website will not attract birders. The two photos posted here are counter-productive and the "Gallery" on your site does not work. You also "pull back" by saying that the apartment is being modernized and will not be available until 2009.

Your prices are not at all competitive; I cannot imagine anyone paying £1,000 for one person or £800 each for two, for five days birding in Andalucia - totally ridiculous. You can go to South America for that sort of money.

I stated in an earlier response to one of your posts that you were entering a difficult and very competitive market. I know a number of expert birders who could undercut you price-wise by at least 50%.

Colin

[neillcc]

Hi Andy,
Thanks for your comments at present we are testing different photo gallery's and you are correct we should only highlight the best and this will be done.

Neill


Colin really tells it like it is eh?! :err:

Hi Neil, thanks for posting and I hope you take all comments here as a constructive feedback that might help you grow your business. I had no problems with your photobucket gallery and I'm afraid I have no point of reference in terms of rates for birding holidays there. I do think it's not a bad idea to only highlight your best photos. You have some really nice ones in your gallery that would help sell your tours better probably. Best, Andy

[Colin Key]

Colin really tells it like it is eh?! :err:



Andy, where a business prospect is concerned there is no point in doing anything else other than be honest.

Neill,

I hope you do not take my comments as being anything other than helpful - you have started a business and I would like to see you succeed, but any business (even one combining a hobby and passion with a money-making venture) is tough, and likely to get even tougher over the next two to three years.

I have to admit to writing a much longer response (including my views about the big 'hole' which the premature death of John Butler left in the Spain bird-tour market, how that hole was quickly filled, and how his widow found it difficult to continue with the business), but I pressed the wrong button somewhere and lost the lot so had to begin again with a shorter missive!

My overall impression of your website was that you had gone off "half cock" (by the way, I still cannot view the "Gallery") and that the couple of very poor photos which you did put up combined with the lack-lustre list of species and the way they were presented would not entice many people to part with the sort of money you are asking. The punters want Marbled Duck, Spanish Imperial Eagle, White-headed Duck, etc., not Stonechats, Hoopoes and Bee-eaters.

By the way, have you arranged to have a "Stand" at the Spanish Birdfair in Tarifa in September? - if not, you should.

Colin :smile:

[neillcc]

Hi Colin,
I have sent you a private message that I think you should read but going back to your comments here i take note of all comments an turn them to my advantage.

But I dont see how you can critacize the pictures on my website, I took a look at your website today and all I saw were some pictures of COOTS and a DOG both species that are plentyfull here and in Portugal.




Andy, where a business prospect is concerned there is no point in doing anything else other than be honest.

Neill,

I hope you do not take my comments as being anything other than helpful - you have started a business and I would like to see you succeed, but any business (even one combining a hobby and passion with a money-making venture) is tough, and likely to get even tougher over the next two to three years.

I have to admit to writing a much longer response (including my views about the big 'hole' which the premature death of John Butler left in the Spain bird-tour market, how that hole was quickly filled, and how his widow found it difficult to continue with the business), but I pressed the wrong button somewhere and lost the lot so had to begin again with a shorter missive!

My overall impression of your website was that you had gone off "half cock" (by the way, I still cannot view the "Gallery") and that the couple of very poor photos which you did put up combined with the lack-lustre list of species and the way they were presented would not entice many people to part with the sort of money you are asking. The punters want Marbled Duck, Spanish Imperial Eagle, White-headed Duck, etc., not Stonechats, Hoopoes and Bee-eaters.

By the way, have you arranged to have a "Stand" at the Spanish Birdfair in Tarifa in September? - if not, you should.

Colin :smile:

[Joe stockwell]

i cirtainly would not pay that much for a birding holiday in Andalucia, i have seen nearly all of those birds in the last seven days on a "family" holiday in the alps and im hardly even trying, and the name of twitching spain, does this mean that you take your guests all over spain to twitch its rarities?

[Colin Key]

Hi Colin,
I have sent you a private message that I think you should read but going back to your comments here i take note of all comments an turn them to my advantage.

But I dont see how you can critacize the pictures on my website, I took a look at your website today and all I saw were some pictures of COOTS and a DOG both species that are plentyfull here and in Portugal.

Neil,

I received your PM but did not bother to reply; that sort of thing does not "cut the mustard" with me,

Your comment "I took a look at your website today and all I saw were some pictures of COOTS and a DOG" speaks for itself, and again I would not wish to respond.

I was only trying to be honest and helpful, and my interest is in that I am often asked for references and recommendations by visiting birders for contacts in Spain.

I will now be more honest and say that your website is not in the least enticing (and you do have a lot of competition), your prices are way "over the mark", your photo-gallery is absolute rubbish (would you like me to correct all your I.D. errors?), and your site name "twitchingspain" is (as Joe points out) totally misleading - it is obvious that you are a low-level birdwatcher and "twitching" (as in the promise of showing your clients rarities in your region) is something which you know nothing at all about.

In addition to this, the spelling and grammatical errors in your "website" (as well is in your posts here) were what prompted me to suggest that you take some professional advice before you move any further forward. If you are going to succeed then you need to make an initial impact, and you don't.

If you cannot spell "criticise", or identify a "Common Sandpiper", then I would not be recommending anyone to take advantage of your services.

It will be interesting to see how things work out for you.

Colin

[Collalba]

Hectic week with lots of sightings and photographs.
Hoopoe's, spotted fly catchers, Crossbills, Fan tailed Warblers, Melodiuos Warblers, Olivaceous Warblers, Serin, Little ringed Plovers, Sandpipers, Cattle Egret, Bee Eaters, Bonneli's Eagle, Little Owls, Wheatears, Stonechats these are just a few that we have seen on our last weeks tour.
please visit website gallery for all pictures. www.twitchingspain.com

Hi Neil,

We all have to start somewhere and without setting your sights too high, then I see no reason why you should not fill a niche in your own stretch of the Costa.

Good luck to you.

[neillcc]

Hi Neil,

We all have to start somewhere and without setting your sights too high, then I see no reason why you should not fill a niche in your own stretch of the Costa.

Good luck to you.

Thanks for your support much appreciated. Neill

[neillcc]

Hi Neil,

We all have to start somewhere and without setting your sights too high, then I see no reason why you should not fill a niche in your own stretch of the Costa.

Good luck to you.

Hi Thanks for you support much appreciated Neill