Bitter Queen
If only I made enough from
doing this to visit all the towns I list, I'd be a very happy camper. But
the simple truth is, I don't, not even close! So the way this works is,
I spend countless hours scouring the net, so that you don't have to. I
cross reference every place I list until I am certain it is there. That's
trickier than it sounds because many web sites list some places but not
others and the really tricky part is knowing when they last updated their
listing. The bar could be long gone since they last updated it. Its all
well and easy if the place has a web site, but many, especially bars, don't.
I've come to know reliable and unreliable sources. Sadly, the unreliable
ones heavily outweigh the reliable ones, but as I mentioned above, I spend
my time figuring it all out so that you don't have to.
When I first started doing
this, a web master of another tourist guide said to me that if advertisers
account for 5% of my income, I'll be doing very well. But being new to
the game, I knew better. There were enough gay businesses in my town alone
to easily surpass that figure. Obviously, he didn't know what he was talking
about.
More fool me! How right
he was. It took me no time to discover even the places I frequent have
one reason or another why they don't want to advertise...and those were
businesses where I frequently spent more in a night than they'd pay for
a year's publicity! So disillusioned and turning into a Bitter Queen, but
realizing I was likely to make more enemies than friends out of this new
venture, I decided not to even bother trying to get advertisers and opted
for a different route. That one being commissions on hotel bookings and
the (all hail) Google stuff you see everywhere, which I'm happy to say
amount to enough for me to stick with this.
In view of the above, I'd
like to mention that I do list everyone, whether I like them or not, because
this guide is not for them, its for you and I really don't see the sense
in trying my hardest to make an accurate guide, then not list someone/somewhere
just because I don't like it or more correctly, them (and there are a few).
They also get what everyone else gets, an accurate discription of the place,
not my opinion of it (even if I really would like to give it!).
Having said I list everyone,
this is a gay guide and although I am a friendly-gay, I'm not running a
'gay-friendly' guide. A place has to be mostly frequented by gay folk to
be listed. Just being gay owned or even super-gay-pink-dollar-friendly
doesn't hack it. If the majority of its clients ain't gay, it don't get
a stab at your pink dollar/pound/euro/yen/scarf/whatever.
Ok, now you know what to
do, don't you? Yes, you got it, go book a hotel from me and help me make
enough money to check that hotel out for myself. I need a vacation!
Gaz |
