Happy 1st Birthday aboutmarmaris.org

It was a year ago when aboutmarmaris.org was born. Yes it was on May 4th when I gave aboutmarmaris.org a home on the internet. LOL!

When it was first designed, I had no idea of how I could talk about Marmaris as there were so many websites on Marmaris on the internet already, and really old and established ones too.  I felt that it had to be unique. The website needed to contain original content that should show how much we love Marmaris.

The domain itself was a present to me; and when I received it, I was told that aboutmarmaris.org should one day become “my baby”. That I should care for it. LOL!

Well, it was a difficult start. So I decided that the best thing to do was to begin writing about information on Marmaris – things that people search for.  Although today, I think that that was a very boring start, but at the time I think that I had no option – it was a start.

The design started out as a ready template which I later custom designed.  aboutmarmaris.org went through many facelifts; color and design changes until one day I decided to change it for the last time when one of my visitors said “I haven’t been on the site for a while. But what you’ve done to the site is great!”

Throughout the summer I tried to write blogs on Marmaris; its villages and about the holidays here as well as the holidays or tours I personally went on.  The more I wrote, the more enjoyable it became adding content. Today, I must have at least 7ooo or more photos of Marmaris and the villages and bays, as well as my holidays and other festivities.  Of course not all the photos are on the website.

Later I felt that I had to make this site known so I opened a facebook account as well as accounts on other sites such as twitter and digg. I shared my articles throughout the web.  This triggered an increase in visits to the site.  It was not until the beginning of the demolitian of the old Tansas building, the site became more and more popular.  I think it was because, other than the news agencies, I was the only site keeping up-to-date on the demolitian of Tansas and the progress of the new roads and parks and the new city square.  I have videos and photos starting from the first day of the demo, right up until the completion of the project – on a weekly basis.  Probably material that no one else has. LOL! of course I did not post them all. But I will …. one day!

Companies were asking if there was advertising spaces to place their banner ads.  There wasn’t at the time, because I never thought of aboutmarmaris.org as a site intended for making money.  But later advertising space became available. I didn’t promote advertising on the site back then. I do now.  But still, I would say that there are maybe a dozen companies currently advertising on the site.

The later developed original plan was that this site would be like a information portal and also my journal. A place where I could express my feelings on Marmaris through the photos and videos I took, and articles I wrote.  There are few recipies which I hope to add more later on.

With the increase in interest, after keeping the visitors updated on the Tansas demolitian, or storms during the winter, etc., I decided to try and keep it up. Between work and a minor personal life, it seemed that I could not write much, but enough to keep it fresh at least once every two weeks.  I later placed an ad for voluntary bloggers to help me share Marmaris.  I also added sections for listing apartments for rent, property for sale, gulet charters and yachts for sale – which also generated interest.

Then one day, as we were nearing the completion of what is now the new city square (Musical Fountain Park); formerly Tansas building, I met a couple standing in front of the project looking at the 3D render on the posted board (as seen in the above photo to the right corner).  I turned to them and simply said “Isn’t it beautiful?”…. LOL! well that started a small conversation between us, which later developed into a facebook friendship. I told them about my website. Apparently, later when they returned home (in the UK), this lovely couple, had mentioned my site on the Marmaris forum on tripadvisor.  I did not know this at the time.  I did realize though, that all of a sudden one day my site began skyrocketing with visitor hits. I hadn’t written an article or posted any photos. It was strange, but very exciting!  This surprising traffic had to be generated from something I thought.  I would like to add that I had added them onto my facebook friend’s list.  About a day or two later after this burst in traffic, I received a facebook message from the English couple. They told me that they were mentioning aboutmarmaris.org to their friends on tripadvisor.  Now everything had made sense. What a wonderful boost of energy it gave to the site.  I could not thank them enough.

Thank you Hullman – you and your wife are wonderful people and I’m glad that I met you that day!

Since that time, aboutmarmaris.org has done well and getting more and more visitors by the day as the site has become stronger on the internet and in search results.

I have met many more wonderful people on facebook who have also visited my website from finding it on the internet through my articles and media.  It has taken a year now, to realize just how many people really love Marmaris as much as I do, and how sincere and caring they are about what goes on in Marmaris.  What a wonderful feeling! I hope to continue with my site as I feel quite motivated by those who show their interest in what I write about and have to share about Marmaris.

A toast to our first year…and hope for many more ahead…

A very big thank you from me to all of you for motivating me to keep aboutmarmaris.org alive and ticking!

The whole point of it is such like my motto from the start… “Let’s Share Marmaris“