Exclusive Interview with Tony Korologos From Hooked On Golf Blog
You've started various golf websites such as The Golf Server and The Golf Space. What are your main objectives in undertaking these new projects?
To rule the online golf world. Next question? Hehe. I love golf and I love "building" things. So building golf sites is something I like to do. I started the blog (hookedongolfblog.com) first for my own fun and ramblings. It quickly took off and became fairly popular and grew beyond what I ever thought it would. I began developing some kind of "community" idea when I started up webcountryclub.com. Then thegolfserver.com I saw as a way to get golf bloggers and forum users together. That didn't really fly though partly because I'm better at building than promoting I suppose.
Then one day I almost drove off the road when the idea for thegolfspace.com hit me. It was what my cranium had been grinding in it's gears for over 1.5 years, a golf networking community. I see HUGE potential for The Golf Space. I hope to see it grow to be one of the biggest golf sites out there and become a hub for personal and business users who are into golf.
The objective now for my sites is growth. Maybe some day one will sell for half a billion bucks like myspace did. Well, maybe not.
From the looks of it, you have plenty of blogs and websites to keep you busy throughout your day. How do prioritize your time throughout an ordinary day?
I have many more than just the 4 golf sites. I have some other sites which vary from blogs about my favorite college sports team, blogs about my "real" job which is in the audio industry to fun blogs about crazy stuff in life.
I've been a rock & roll musician (drummer) for my entire adult life. So I'm a night owl and that's when I find the time to do my web geek activities. I'm usually paying the bills during the day and doing my sites 'till the wee hours of the morning.
The Golf Space seemed to receive good feedback with hundreds of sign-ups within the first month or two of it being online. Originally, what was the biggest source of traffic to the site and to what do you contribute the success of The Golf Space to?
Well The Golf Space is about networking but to get people there I had to network about the networking site! I have made many good friends in the blog and golf web worlds and many of my friends helped me with a media blitz of sorts. Many sites like eatgolf.com, golfdiscussions.com, grouchy golf, shottalk.com and my own sites helped me to promote and get the ball rolling and I'm very thankful to them.
Some other sites/admins who I THOUGHT were my friends seemed to have more of a "Nazi" attitude toward the whole thing though, shunning the whole idea. I'm not sure I get the mentality of that but I guess some people think that any other golf site is their competition. (I think we all know who they are) They seem to think that if I get members to my sites that they lose members. That isn't the way the web works. After all there are hundreds of millions of surfers out there. The pie is plenty big for everyone to have a piece. If all the sites use the blog mentality of promoting each other, then the rising tide can raise all the ships. If we share members we all grow.
And of course any of those sites who promoted TGS were/are welcome to promote THEIR sites there too. That's what the networking thing is all about!
In the creation of all your web sites, what's the most difficult obstacle you've had to overcome?
Hmm. Good question. The whole process isn't really all that difficult. There lots of great "engines" out there that you can use to build blogs or forums or whatever kind of sites you want to build. Coming up with a decent logo and theme is a pain but it's fun (the building thing again).
I'd say the worst obstacle was back in November when my server crashed and all 20 of mine and my client's sites went down. Some I had decent backups but some I didn't. It took me a good 2 weeks of daily grinding to get HOG back to where it was. Since then I'm paranoid about backing up because no matter how good your service is, it will go down sooner or later.
And advertising/promotion is a big hang up for me. It just isn't my deal. And eventually if my sites are to go beyond a certain point, someone else will have to step in and take care of that end...
What's your favorite golf course to play and why?
I haven't played Pebble or any really famous course like that. The most famous would be La Costa I suppose. So I can't compare those types of courses to what I normally play.
My favorite is probably a local country club here that I play once or twice a week called Hidden Valley. It's 27 holes of awesome traditional tree lined design. The course is always in amazing shape, very hilly and never crowded.
I'm sure WHEN someone takes me as a guest to Augusta National, my favorite course to play will change...
Do you have any plans for other golf sites in the future?
I do. My focus now is The Golf Space though because the potential is SO great. But the new site will be a joint venture between me and one of my web admin buddies (who isn't a Nazi). It will be non profit type site dedicated to helping junior golf.
That's it for now for other site ideas, unless of course another one hits my cerebral cortex while I'm driving down the road... :-)
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