Surfing The Web For Surfboards
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“I surf pretty much every day,” says Neal Kido, and he means that in both senses of the word - surfing ocean waves and surfing the web.
As owner of the SurfboardShack.com, a classified website dedicated to surfboards, Kido says his goal is to make his site better than others so that it is the leader in the industry.
Kido started the Surfboard Shack website in 2003, and this year he started a second business in search engine marketing. Since its launch, surfers from Los Angeles and San Diego are posting their surfboards for sale on the site in addition to Hawaii surfers - with more than 3,000 boards listed.
“I’m amazed at the traffic that goes to the site,” he says about the 2,000 visitors a day. “We get lots of folks on the East Coast looking at the site. Maybe they’re tired of the cold weather and they want to look at surfing stuff in Hawaii. They want to feel like they are in Hawaii for a moment.”
Kido has included the best spots to surf and surf accessories on his site along with photos and videos.
“I want the site to be a good resource,” he says.
He notes that folks from the Midwest, Australia, Canada, Japan, France, Brazil, Portugal, Denmark, Mexico, Ghana, Ecuador, Poland and French Polynesia have also logged onto the site. He plans to build the brand recognition of the website. So far he’s done some promotions online, and posted the site on message boards.
Kido started Surfboard Shack.com because he wanted to sell 10 of his own surfboards. After the University of Hawaii student specialized in search engine marketing, he sold a few surfboards, which encouraged him to make it a business. After going surfing he’d put a flier on nearby cars, and in a few months traffic to the website increased to where it is today.
He believes that since his surf company is doing well, community service is important. He has put a link on his website so people may donate to causes he believes in.
“I want to give back,” says Kido, a Manoa resident. “I believe in the causes that support things such as beach access and clean water. I want to help.”
Kido says his long-range plans include opening up some surf shops.
For more information, log onto www.surfboardshack.com
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