Trying out the latest spa offerings -- caviar wraps, coconut oil and honey masks, brown-sugar body scrubs -- is a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.
That's the thinking of Chill Out LA founder Erin Mahoney-Harris. She launched the website, at www.chilloutla.com, three years ago to focus on uncovering affordable spa deals in Los Angeles for health and beauty devotees.
Though the perks are great -- weekly massages, anyone? -- the pay has been minimal.
Revenue at the business may hit $20,000 this year. That level was fine when Mahoney-Harris pulled in a full-time paycheck as an editor at Citysearch. But she quit her day job last spring to jump-start her online venture.
"The readers love us; the businesses love us. I know the potential is there, but I need somebody with the business acumen to take us to the next level," says the 30-year-old new mother.
Her focus has been first-person reviews of local spas, yoga studios and Pilates classes. Businesses don't pay for reviews, but most of them offer an exclusive deal to Chill Out LA visitors and the 4,600 subscribers to the site's weekly e-mail newsletter. She charges her business clients $150 for short, paid advertorials that run below the first-person reviews.
That formula has worked to an extent. The website, which grew out of a failed book proposal on affordable spas, now gets 25,000 page views each month, Mahoney-Harris says.
Traffic and revenue are growing, but more slowly than they had been. So the sole proprietor is dreaming of a site redesign with enhanced functions, possibly snaring national advertisers and perhaps parlaying her chic polar bear logo into a line of related products
To do it all, Mahoney-Harris has $15,000 to $20,000.
Internet marketing expert David Towers was enthusiastic about Chill Out LA and offered a broader vision for the online effort and a more targeted approach for its owner. Towers, vice president and managing director of the Los Angeles office of Avenue A/Razorfish, reviewed Mahoney-Harris' operation with the help of his creative team at the Internet services firm.
"We loved the concept. She's definitely on the right track," says Towers, a former vice president of e-commerce at retailers Liz Claiborne Inc. and J. Crew Group Inc. "But there are some things to consider."
First, the health and beauty site needs a little polishing. Adding images to the site is also crucial, Towers says.
