Travelling frequently in South East Asia and of no specific handicap, he can usually be found at the driving range of the cities in the region still attempting to 'perfect' his swing technique as much as he is intrigued by the learning process of the game of golf that so far has seen more of a battle between his rate of improvement and that of his own maturing process but which nonetheless, as an off-shoot nurtured along the way, the idea of GOLFnTours to bring golf tours, golf trips, golf holiday, golf vacation, packaged golfing tours, golf packages to many more interested.

But ahem...that was last year, and albeit still far from being perfect of course, he's improved a lot and gained much experience since. In fact apart from the regular practices devoutly undertaken by him and also the hard work put in to further improve the quality of services offered, GOLFnTours.com has recently been interviewed by Webmaster's Blog - a leading blogging and web directory company promoting blogging as a key tool to any internet-based setups - in which questions requiring an in-depth look at the golf tours business, the hardship and capitalization of the internet as the platform for marketing etc. were posed. Questions and answers of the interview can be found on the interviewer's website.
Here are the excerpts:

1. Please give us a short summary of your website?
GOLFnTours.com facilitates golf tours, trips, vacation, holiday, golf packages in Southeast Asia. Tell us where you would like to play golf, we'll arrange all. You just arrive, enjoy your stay and play golf!

2. What inspired you to launch your own website?
I am a golfer myself and I travel frequently to hot golf destinations in Southeast Asia. I understand the frustrations in trying to organize your own golf trip. So why not link up the local agents and my clients from my website.

3. When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
We are new. We started out in 2006 and we are still trying to make the site more popular than it is now.

4. How did you decide on a name for your website?
Well, it is by combining 'Golf' and'Tours' isn't it? So, why not GOLFnTours? Albeit by now after dabbling with some SEO things, I just might have preferred GOLFandTOURS.com. But I like GOLFnTours, anyway. I think it's a great name for my site. Hope the name sticks in the mind of our visitors.

5. What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We operate on a small scale. Because of that we are able to offer some very attentive services e.g. we call up our clients on our tour packages to see how things turn out! We find out on the spot whether clients are getting what they should be getting. What other travel agents can do the same?

6. What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To make GOLFnTours.com 'the channel' through which all golfers visiting Southeast Asia would love to be in contact with.

7. How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We manage moderate success, thanks but no thanks to the overwhelming competition from both ground and internet-based competitors, even though we very much like to have more traffic coming to our site. This is quite possible if only we have a larger capital base (Any venture capitalists out there?). In this respect, we sort of matching success with our investment.

8. If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We would still strive for high quality services and at the same time further improve on our website and marketing campaign. I am sure, if we have more money on hand, we can easily make GOLFnTours.com the top site for all your golfing needs, not only for golfers coming to Southeast Asia but also to other hot destinations fringing the region as well.

9. If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We always try our best during good times or otherwise. Being able to provide a service like ours, even on a much larger scale, is honestly not a very hard thing to do. We are confident we can cope with any sudden increase in demand. It is in the area of maintaining the quality of service which we provide now that's of more concern to me. I think with our experience, we can manage.

10. What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Luckily so far we do not have much of these, touch wood! Generally we prefer not to have to encounter situations of disputations with our clients who ought to be enjoying their tours organized by us. And the way about it rests with a diligent service and good organization, which remain what we always strive to do better.

11. What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge has been to complete our website so we can come out top in the company of the more established setups in the online world. So far, in our niche, we manage pretty well. We are always found for what we offer and we sit right there with some of the better knowns. If at all, we hope to achieve a click-through and conversion rate much higher than what we have presently.

12. What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
We are an internet-based company. Naturally we rely a lot on good SEOs. And good SEOs consist mainly of good content. Albeit so, let's face it, ultimately our clients must be happy receiving our service. I think that's truly where we are most successful in promoting not only our website, but also our business integrity and quality services.

13. How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Our site is new. We have to rely on our sheer determination to cope with many new things being constantly introduced to the internet technology. We learn as our business grows. It's more than just being able to tackle 'teething' problems. We take it as part and parcel of our business challenge to provide high quality service. It has been, and certainly will continue to be so, an enriching process trying to be at the forefront of internet marketers.

14. How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
It is part of the mathematics of our business that we constantly keep an eye on. I won't dig into piles of spreadsheets with unending versions of the original forecast and masterplan for the simple reason that we actually did not have one right from start. We have been in this for two years now and judging from what we have been enjoying doing and achieved so far, we are very confident we would be able to carve out something. Hopefully we do not have to provide an objective answer to your question...(lol)

15. Would you consider branching out of your core business using the same platform of internet-marketing?
[ This question was given to be framed by us ]
We've been toying with this idea as we go along building a successful website as after all if we thrive on internet marketing, we can surely achieve something else using the same platform. We have not done much since then. For underlying the business we are building, or for that matter all businesses, internet-based or not, it is the high quality product and service we aim to provide to our valued customers that remain our number 1 priority. So if branching out to other lines satisfies business appetite, continuing to better and expand on our existing quality services would provide equal satisfaction, and if we can achieve that, we've built a world!