your own CFI website?

[sbe]

A question for those of you out there who have your own website to promote your teaching. (Whether you be freelance or are associated with a FBO)

How much success have you had with it? Inquiries, actual meetings with/intro flights with prospective students, actual work from your site?

I will be freelancing out of the FBO where I did my CSEL and CFI ratings. I am currently narrowing down my strategies for marketing myself, since hanging out at the FBO waiting for walk-ins and calls is not an option. I am more than welcome to teach, but I have to bring my own students and work.

I have made business cards and flyers, and have been spreading the word the best I know how. I am curious if anyone has had success with the website. As a graphic designer with a web developer for a sister, getting it designed and up would be an easy task. I don't, however, want to spend the money if it is not worth my while.

TIA for any help. 1 month since checkride passage, and I'm ready for a student!

Sarah

[MidlifeFlyer]

I've had some success with mine. About 90% of my students came through it. But I only teach part time and only take on two students at a time, so "success is relative."

The key is to get noticed by the search engines, so that when someone Googles "learn to fly Kansas City" you're there. It's a bit of a chicken and egg thing, though. People visiting raise your level and raising your level brings more visitors. Unless you're going to pay for ranking the single largest determining factor is content. If you take the time to update regularly, at least people who stop by once might stop by again.

It took me about a year for my site to get noticed by Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. I was on the first page on all three for a while. Then, things got busy, I stopped updating content, and within a very few months, disappeared.

[sbe]

Thanks so much for the info. regarding the search engines. That will be very helpful!

I'd be more than happy with two full-timers at any given time, as I work full-time as well, and most likely will only be teaching for the enjoyment of it. (i.e. not planning on using teaching as a tool to build hours for bigger and better things.)

After researching hosting and some other things, it's looking like I'll at least give it a go and see what happens.

Thanks again.

Sarah

[BobDDuck]

Something that may work for you better then males would be finding woman's groups of different sorts and trying to get them to sign up for an intro flight. Some of them may take to it. One of our DPEs out here tried doing that while her husband was in military flight training. She signed up all the wives to take flight lessons. If I recall from the story it didn't work because the flight school she was trying to work with wouldn't go with it.

As far as the website, it may be a good second point of contact for people to go look at AFTER they have met/heard about you from something else.

Ethan

[Josh]

While it isn't organized, I send my students to my site all the time.

I've been doing that for job related stuff for years though. Faster to get something online yourself, than wait for someone else to get around to it.

Key is, have an easy to remember, and type in, domain name.

[wheelsup]

The first ever website I made was for students - I was planning on steering them there after first contact for them to get more info on me, have the manuvers I taught and the way I taught them posted, etc. etc.

It was a big flop in that department but I really didn't put any effort into it. It's definately a good asset to have, and at $50-$70/yr for average hosting you really can't go wrong.

[ QUOTE ]

The key is to get noticed by the search engines, so that when someone Googles "learn to fly Kansas City" you're there. It's a bit of a chicken and egg thing, though. People visiting raise your level and raising your level brings more visitors. Unless you're going to pay for ranking the single largest determining factor is content. If you take the time to update regularly, at least people who stop by once might stop by again.


[/ QUOTE ]

Picture this: Low time CFI in need of multi time. Working at a darn good school but almost exclusively primary students, almost no multi students what-so-ever.

This person was given the chance to re-do their website, and guess where he/she put emphasis on? You guessed it, multi engine ratings.

Google "multi engine rating" (with or without quotes, and with or without a '-' between multi and engine) and this school is in the top 5 or so (hint, this CFI used to work in central florida). Page hasn't been updated for about 10 months. Search Engine Optimization is a science .

If you know what you're doing you can really corner the market. Updating does help to a certain extent (it certainly doesn't hurt) but it doesn't make it or break it.

~wheelsup

[E_Dawg]

sarah, I had a relatively extensive cfi site for a while that brought me ZERO students... only a few 'how do I become a pilot' inquiries from halfway across the country.

The students I had while freelancing liked the fact that they could go online and checkout my site; it made them feel that they were getting their money's worth out of me... then I got hired at a 'flight school' type place and put much less emphasis on the site.

I believe it is a good tool to have because you can put the site on your business card and someone who would not have called otherwise will see your site and increase the chance of getting a return on your business card.

The greatest benefit my site brought me was it forced me to learn the material I had online. Just through making the site, I learned A LOT about flying.