Jason Demant, the author of the blog Life After Cubes recently launched a new travel platform called ‘UnAnchor‘. It’s a place where travelers can create personalized itineraries, sell them, or purchase some before their next trip. Jason took a few minutes to answer some questions about UnAnchor, which officially launched earlier this week.
In a tweet of 140 characters or less, what is UnAnchor?
UnAnchor.com is a platform for writers to create travel itineraries for sale to other travelers–an “App Store” for travel itineraries.
Who is the primary target user group for UnAnchor?
When I began UnAnchor I thought my target would be flashpackers — backpacker types with a little bit more disposable income, but as I began to get the word out, people approached me with itinerary ideas I would have never thought of. For example: itineraries based around seeing sights from a book or doing a tour around a certain food. So, for now I’m really not targeting a specific user, as long as they travel I think they’re a potential customer. It will all depend on the itineraries that end up getting written for the site.
With UnAnchor one can create any type of travel itinerary. The editor is as easy to use as Microsoft Word (you can also type the itinerary offline and just paste it into the editor). You can add pictures, maps, whatever you need.
The price is also completely up to you. There is a minimum of $1.00 though.
How much money can users make from creating itineraries?
The total amount is essentially infinite. By creating high-quality itineraries for popular destinations that cater to a wide-range of travelers, I believe you could potentially sell quite a few itineraries. The nice thing about creating itineraries is that once they’re created, not much updating will need to be done in the future. It can potentially become a nice source of passive income. However, it will require a good amount of work upfront.
Another idea for creating a few itineraries is starting with a 7-day itinerary for a particular destination and then customizing it for 5-days, 3-days and 1-day as well.
The best question I think to keep in mind when writing is — before you went to the travel destination, what information would you have wanted to know and would have been willing to pay for?
For me, this information is: what sights do I have to see and what can I miss. How to *specifically* get around in the most cost efficient way or the most scenic way. Any “insider tips” on the destination. What are the best restaurants? What recommendations do you have for hotels/hostels? Detailed maps. How much things cost.
Another objective I have for the itinerary writers is — using just the itinerary, can the traveler get around the destination without any additional research?
What is your vision for UnAnchor; where do you hope to take it?
Right now, my primary focus is finding people who are interested in writing itineraries for the site. The site just launched a couple weeks ago and still needs to get a solid base of itineraries.
Long term however, the vision is to help travelers in two ways:
1. UnAnchor will help travelers stop researching and save money so they can just get out there.
2. Writing and then selling travel itineraries on UnAnchor is a perfect way for travelers to make extra money.
Jason, thanks again for giving me the opportunity to interview you about UnAnchor. You can create your own itineraries and post them for free as well as browse for ones in preparation for your next trip at UnAnchor.com.