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This Website About Tourists Visa Is Making $21K MRR
Indie Hustle
October 16, 2023
What is the business and who’s behind it?
Meet Hari Krishna, the visionary behind Visa List, a groundbreaking website that simplifies visa information for travelers.
Hari's initial confusion about visa requirements sparked an idea. He realized that many travelers face similar struggles. His research revealed the lack of comprehensive visa information, leading to canceled trips and visa hassles.
Determined to solve this problem, Hari embarked on a mission. He aggregated, organized, and presented visa information comprehensively on Visa List—a game-changer in the travel industry.
How was the business started?
Hari explained on this post on how he started VisaList:
“In 2018, I embraced the digital nomad lifestyle and set out to explore the world. I had my heart set on visiting all the countries that caught my fancy.
However, I soon discovered that obtaining visas could be quite a hassle. Some countries offered Visa on Arrival (VOA), while others required a visa from their embassy in my home country, India. I grew tired of waiting for weeks to obtain visas and decided to research countries I could visit without the lengthy wait. After scouring numerous blogs and websites, I finally found a list of such destinations and embarked on my next journey.
A few months later, when I wanted to explore another country, I had to repeat the same tedious process. The old list was nowhere to be found, and a new site listed even more countries with VOA options.
One of my friends mentioned how, during his search for a Vietnamese visa, he came across almost ten confusing .gov websites. It was clear that many blogs didn't provide links to official embassy websites. And so, the idea for Visa List was born!”
What are some of the marketing strategies used?
Visa List employs a variety of marketing strategies to promote its services and generate revenue:
Expanding Visa Information: The initial strategy was to create a comprehensive and user-friendly platform offering visa requirements for numerous countries. Over time, it evolved to cover 100+ countries and incorporated additional data points such as visa exemptions, dual passport requirements, flight prices, weather, distance, economy status, and travel advice. This continuous expansion of content attracts and retains users looking for comprehensive visa information.
Partnerships and Affiliate Marketing: Hari actively sought partnerships with companies relevant to Visa List's user base. A significant breakthrough was achieved by partnering with Skyscanner, providing users with flight information and generating additional revenue. Furthermore, a partnership with iVisa, a visa service provider, opened up a third revenue stream. These partnerships not only boost earnings but also enhance the overall user experience.
Launching constantly: Hari regularly launched and posted about Visa List on various platforms like Reddit, HackerNews and Product Hunt. He shared in this article on how his post got viral on Reddit and brought in over 40k users.
Interacting with the indie community: Visa List's interaction with the indie community and constant updates demonstrate a commitment to users and a dedication to improving the service.
Interested in more growth strategies?
Check out this extensive database of over 300+ growth strategies from various indie founders.
With this database, you would be able to find out stories of:
who got 100 paid users in just 1 day for his SaaS
who used a pricing strategy to hit almost $15,000 in sales for his digital product
who shared a step-by-step process to finding journalists and their email address in order to get free PR coverage for your business
who went from merely hundreds to over 200,000 monthly search impressions implementing just this one strategy
how this creator went from 0 to 2,500 email subscribers in just 30 days
who generated 6 figures from a digital product in just 2 weeks
How does the business make money?
From Visa List Open Stats
Here are the main revenue sources for VisaList:
Pro Subscriptions: Visa List offers a pro subscription service (priced at $9.99 per month) that provides users with additional benefits, such as visa advice, up-to-date visa requirements and other advanced features on the platform. Users subscribe to access these premium features, contributing to the website's revenue.
Partnerships: Visa List has formed partnerships with visa agencies and travel-related services like Skyscanner. These partnerships likely involve referral or affiliate programs, where Visa List earns a commission for driving users to these services or facilitating bookings.
Advertising: While Hari initially had reservations about ads, Visa List eventually incorporated advertising as a revenue source. The site likely displays ads from various advertisers, and Visa List earns revenue based on impressions, clicks, or other engagement metrics.
AdOps Optimization: Hari invested time in learning AdOps (Advertising Operations) and experimented with ad sizes and placements. This optimization likely increased ad revenue significantly, making it a substantial income source for Visa List.
You can check out VisaList’s open stats (revenue chart, users, traffic etc) here.
