Name of your website?Dubai United Expat Tennis (DUET)
Your name?
Miguel Perito
Your Location (city, etc)
Safa Park, Dubai
Please give us a short summary of your website?
It is a non-profit expat tennis social group in Dubai formed in 2006 to cater to increasing numbers of expats craving to play in Dubai. It is consist of more than 200 working expats originating from Argentina to Venezuela. We have weekly meetup once a week, a tennis socials night where everybody plays non-stop fun doubles with rotating partners.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
To make it visible to almost all of the expat members and get their output, make them active by allowing them to post comments and get their feedback or maximise their participation for the scheduled and future events of the group.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
It was launch on the last week of August 2007.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
It is formerly known as Deuce Mio in Yahoo Groups, then I met another group of expats and we decided to merge and rename the group as United Expat Tennis. Later on, since the group always plays doubles, we changed it to DUET for Dubai United Expat Tennis that also means two, duo, partners, doubles.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
In our group you can easily socialise with fellow expats who has passion for tennis and find buddies that eventually become your regular playmates. You will always have an on-call tennis partner and even an on-call tennis trainor to lift your game.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To promote unity amongst multi-cultural society in Dubai through the sports of tennis. To sell advertising space online in our website to help finance the group's activities and continuous existence and find sponsorships for future tennis events. Find a partner or sponsor for our group to become a mainstream tennis club with its own tennis court.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
At present it is all one sided in terms of my investment on time and money as advertising and sponsorship are still a reality bound to happen.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I will improve the website and manage the group to make it into a mainstream tennis club, have our own tennis court and participate actively in local club tournaments.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
It is just time management and keep on promoting it online, remove inactive members and replaced with new joinees and active players.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Cost of hosting the website, expenses paid for the web designer during website contents revision and editing. Paying the booked courts and players will not show up.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Organising a month-long tennis tournament without a dedicated tennis court exclusive for the group. But we managed to play any available court from one location to another.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Post it on any expat websites in Dubai, make a yahoo group for it to make a database for members. Join free membership online web portals and promote the group or create a group similar to the group's name and activities.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I never thought it would be taxing as you have to check the website daily for updates and comments coming from the members.
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 3 months already and will keep it until I am still a working expat in Dubai. I just renew my job contract for another 3 years, so I am hooked in Dubai until 2010. For the sake of my passion on tennis I will still continue hosting and organising the group and the website even if I won't make profit.
Why is it that construction of public tennis courts in Dubai is a last priorioty for the government?
Dubai is synonymous to business and profit. So building a tennis court will shy away expats who pay huge amount of memberships for a health club with a tennis court faciity. But not all expats can afford health club memberships and becoming a member cannot guarantee that you will have someone to play with, so another hassle is inviting a non-member to play with you and pay his/her entrance fee.
What is your website address?
Dubai United Expat Tennis (DUET)
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