Adventure Girl interviewed by Technology News Examiner

April 13, 2:10 AMTechnology News ExaminerTimothy Nichols

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AdventureGirl.com was recently interviewed by the  National Technology News Examiner of  Examiner.com 

When was your company founded?

I was one of the first 1500 commerical websites out there. Early 90's- before Network Solutions! It began as "Travel Partners".

What's the story behind how you started the company?

I was this young kid who wasn't sure even what the "World Wide Web" was, remember when that was what they called it!

I had teamed up with a couple of techies out of the Silicon Valley and told them my idea of sharing my travel tips with my e-mail friends, who would ask me where I was and what was there to do where I was. I was a model at the time and would travel with companies like Coca-Cola and Skil Power Tools, Miller Beer as their representative and was on the road constantly. E-mail made communicating easier. Ann and Jason- my origonal web team, loved the idea of what I was trying to do, so they packed up and came along with me, developing my site on the road and putting my adventures online. I developed a contest called Adventures with Adventure Girl (since everyone online who knew me was calling me this), so my fans could actually join myself and my film crew. We would do these behind the scenes video shoots and upload our location schedule and made it pretty interactive for those nacient internet years.

Little did I know I was not only the first travel entity online, but also the first reality show online. Pretty soon another site was hosting my video adventures, and the rest is history so they say.

Other offers started coming in, and I began appearing as Adventure Girl on other sites, and on television news shows talking travel. It was then the natural progression to write about my adventures in my book, Adventure Girl's Guide to Finding Adventures...without breaking a nail!" and became an editor for two luxury magazines further entrenching me as a travel expert and television personality.

What is your company all about? 

It's about exploring the World and having fun while doing so. It's living life adventurously or maybe I should start saying "curiously", whether it be at the top of the Andes, or just outside your backdoor. I always say, you can even change your lipstick color or get a haircut and be adventurous, it's about attitude and being curious about life. People say I am selling "adventure", which I am- but I am really selling "life and living it". 

How is your company different than your competitors? Competitive advantages? 

I am different because if you sell travel, you're a travel agent, if you are a travel journalist, you mostly write about it from research and behind a desk, if you are adventurous, then some people will leave being adventurous at that and have no wants to market what it is they do. 

I try, and hope that I am successful at rolling all the pieces of each individual pie into one pie. Although, I don't sell travel as an agent, I understand the business of it, and I think this gives me an edge over my competators. Also, because I am not just a "journalist", "athlete", "adventurer", and have an entertainment background, I can be multi-facited and change business "hats" quite easily.  My advantage, I am told- is that I am a commerical marketers dream, because I have cross over appeal into many lifestyle arenas, and experience that comes along with years in the entertainment side of the business, as well as actually going, doing and experienceing what I talk about first hand for my fans.

What are the main challenges your company faces?

Always staying on the forefront of technology. I have been in a redevelopement faze of my adventuregirl.com website. Each company I meet with in hopes that I can find the right fit to work with, gives me a different mspin, and I am finding that there is no symbiotic platform out there to meld all my needs without it being a major cost factor and or cost prohibitive.  

Finally, what's your goal for the next few months?

My goal is to continue to deliver to my fans a unique spin on living life's adventures, and share what comes across my desk with them, since I am privy to travel deals and scoop that they might not be able to get otherwise. I'll be traveling for the next few months for business and gathering first hand informaiton on places like Germany, Tasmania, Greenland and Switzerland- which I have now code named for my Twitter friends- "Twitzerland"- since I'll be tweeting from there constantly. And, of course, to expand my brand into a couple of more areas, which I am currently in talks with some business entities to do just that. 

I will just have to keep you posted on what comes from my life adventures.