Fraser Darcy

No beating around the bush today. I’ve got the afternoon off from the pool so thought I’d get ahead with an extra blog this week to celebrate the fact it’s almost two years since I started this website and started Airbnb’ing out part my home with a reflection on how those two years have gone.

Website Reflection: Originally my intention with my website was to use it like a business card and have somewhere to point people if they wanted more information about my freelance outdoor instructing employment. It also allowed me to dip my toes into the adult world of ‘tour guiding’ by offering climbing and bushwalking trips on my website. With a website, I was then able to list my services on different tourism search engines. The other purpose of the website, as outlined in my first ever post, was to share more information around past trips, future trips and lessons learnt along the way. Finally, the third main purpose, was that in doing something that was outside my comfort zone at the time I knew events or outcomes that I hadn’t even considered could potentially result from it. Along with these three over-arching goals I outlined a desired outcome where I would have: 50-100 subscribers (new content once a month), an avenue into developing a freelance outdoor business and ability to generate income through coaching and Airbnb.

So how did I go?

Well, I dipped my toes into the freelance outdoor business world and had a few personal clients. It was pretty fun and worth the extra time it took to set-up the date/time/activity over emails or phone calls. Everyone needs a different ‘package’ in the adult world and you can tailor make it for them as opposed to schools who generally do the same thing. The reason that I stopped doing it and offering it was because although I never broke any laws or regulations and was also qualified to do what I was doing, I never held any insurance. At first I was brave enough to offer climbing to people I did not know without insurance because I didn’t like the idea of people who were keen to learn a new sport being locked out of it, all because no-one was brave enough to run a business without insurance. Over time though, as I got busier doing more running races and other bits of work, I didn’t have the time to sacrifice operating as a personal guide and didn’t want to do so with the stress of not being insured. So I basically disabled that part of the website and felt better immediately. It was good to do it, it made me realise that there is not a very big demand for outdoor experiences in the scheme I had envisaged and it also sadly made me realise why other providers are so expensive. I did look to purchase some insurance but when I was told by the climbing association that my qualification is registered with that their premium was being revised and it was not a good market at the time for it I didn’t bother in the end. It would’ve easily been about $3000 which meant I would’ve had to run a fair few day trips to actually turn a profit.

Where the outdoor guiding part of my website resulted in an experience below my expectations, the blog part of my website far exceeded my expectations. At first I was pretty excited recounting old trips and putting them into neat little packages etc. As I started doing more running races the race reports became something else to look forward to writing. It also gave me a creative outlet which was nice and afforded me the opportunity to sit down and collect my thoughts as opposed to having to go for a run to have some good thinking time. Now, the blog is mostly a weekly training update except for rare occasions like this. I like it this way mostly. It does mean that my ‘stories’ only go for a week in length. It would be nice to have a continual month long, year long, or multi-year reflection but that would just be too long for the website. Could be something to investigate further though. The blog also has 61 subscribers which means I ticked my goal and gets about 700-1000 views a month. More when I win races and less when I only post 3-4 times a month depending on where the weeks fall in that month. It is very far from having the number of views to make it worth running any ads on that would give me a passive income but that doesn’t worry me. I don’t advertise it enough myself to get more views and I also know from my outdoor freelance experiment that my expectations on how many people are interested are probably a lot higher than the amount of people that are interested/enjoy reading blogs (if I put the blog into an Instagram reel I think it’d be a different story seeing as that content gets shoved down a lot more people’s throat… that’s a whole other topic though). If people are interested in reading then that’s great and I’ve already had plenty of positive feedback from readers that keeps me motivated. There just isn’t a big enough market in South Australia or probably Australia for such a niche blog like mine to warrant heaps of views. Plus if I kept trying to push my view count up in order to justify having ads or brands to partner with to make some money then that probably doesn’t change what I do anyway or how I spend my money (which if I keep my current living and working and spending habits I’m fine with). So, what’s the point then? No point, besides the reasons I already write for, and that’s the best bit, I like to keep writing my blog for the fun it gives me and it’s a very good way to reflect.

Plus, finally, another major positive part about the blog is it opened up the doors for me becoming a ‘writer’ for the Snowys blog and For the Kudos (which have both made me money). Without the blog there would’ve been no chance in me having the confidence to approach either of those businesses. It also means I have now gotten my foot in the door of sports journalism after being a consumer of it my whole life. If I can continue with my foot in the door long enough, maybe it’ll lead to more developments in that industry (where it’s helpful to know people in the right places of course) or maybe it won’t but at least I’ve gotten to know and chat to some pretty cool runners in Australia. That’s that third purpose of the website achieved then, the part where something I didn’t know would happen happened all because I took a step out my comfort zone by creating a website.

To wrap up the last of the desired outcomes then (ability to generate coaching income and Airbnb money) well watch this space on coaching and keep reading for the Airbnb commentary. I am registered to complete my Level 1 Recreational Running Coach course next weekend and may become involved in running as a coach. At first I thought it might be difficult being a coach considering I’ve only ever ‘coached’ myself and have never been apart of any coaching or groups with my running but then I realise that gives me a good point of difference and may help other runners in a similar situation. The only concern I have is that by entering into the systematic world of coaching qualifications and groups I hope that doesn’t kill the spirit and independence I have developed with my running. I think it’s a point that is forgotten in too many runners about what it actually means to go and run as opposed to just following a program or what your coach says or what the herd (training group) is doing. I can however look to my climbing and kayaking experiences to give me hope that entering ‘the system’ won’t kill my spirit as I hold qualifications in both of those sports and was a ‘coach’ or ‘instructor’ for those activities and it never seemed to change my attitude in either of them (or at least I never considered that it wouldn’t so it didn’t). So we’ll see about the coaching. I’m optimistic at this stage. I could also learn a few things too through the course so it might improve my own running!

Airbnb reflection: In deciding to move to Quorn I knew one possible way I could exploit being a homeowner was through renting out part of my house on Airbnb. Friend of the blog Chad Freak had done this at his house with great success so I too wanted to try it. The goal with it was to have a cool life experience, help share my passion for the area with those visiting Quorn and lastly to help cover some costs for me. I wasn’t looking to make money from it but if it could help cover the costs of having wifi or paying my insurance and council rates for the year, well, as a single income homeowner that makes a bloody big difference!

To start with I had my guests stay in what is now my study. It had no TV and just a ceiling fan. It opens up into the main living area of the house meaning we were in each other’s pockets but could also retreat to the ‘spare room’ (which is now the Airbnb room) if we wanted some peace and quiet. It worked alright but it did mean I did a lot of interacting with my guests. That made me feel like each time I was hosting I was ‘working’. So, I instead made the decision to switch rooms and gave the guests their own space, with an air conditioner and a new TV. We now each have our own ‘wing’ to the house joined by the bathroom but guests are still welcome to hang out in the communal living area and of course use the kitchen. This option is much better and meant if the guests want to talk and chat, they can, and if they don’t they can just keep to themselves in their room.

One of the biggest highlights of being on Airbnb was hosting my friend Guangyi for several months. Guangyi was an international student from China who had completed his degree in Melbourne. He was applying for permanent residency and needed to work rurally while that application went though so he fell into a job in Port Augusta and started staying at my house. At first I was hesitant, I thought it might kill some of my independence, but by the end it was great having him stay and we remain friends to this day (even though we don’t text as much as we used to). It was a very cool life experience for me to have someone who grew up in China live with me for a few months. An experience I never would’ve got had I not put my house up on Airbnb.

That’s the same for a lot of the guest I’ve had stay with me. A scroll through my reviews is pretty cool to think about some of the more popular guests in my memory but each one was a good experience. Being a host has also meant I have a much better ability to welcoming strangers to my house and making them feel comfortable. Overall, it’s been nice to collect different life experiences through being on Airbnb (goal ticked), share some insight into the Flinders Ranges with people from all over Australia and the world (second goal ticked) and it’s made enough money to cover most of the extra living costs I have incurred by choosing to own a home in Quorn (third goal ticked). At times I could’ve made it more available to rent and thus earned more money but when I was in the mood of blocking out large chunks of dates it was because I didn’t want to be in ‘work’ mode for that period or it was because I didn’t want to be thinking about what could go wrong with an Airbnb guest while I was trying to focus on a race at the same time. I also could have increased the nightly rate a bit earlier. For the last two years it’s been $50 a night and I’ve recently changed it to $70-$75 a night. I only felt like I was capable of offering a $50 service (there’s minor blemishes with the house, i.e. the microwave screen doesn’t work, the cutlery isn’t a full 8-pce set) but now having had a successful two years I’m curious to see what happens if I do the exact same thing for $70-$75 a night. If I get less five star reviews well then at least I know that $50 was the right price! If nothing changes well then I’ll be making more money! Either way what Airbnb brings, both in life experiences and money, is a bonus, or just another part, in what I do with my time.

Future: Having now reflected on the website and Airbnb operations over the past two years what does the next two look like?

For the website, I would like to continue with what I am offering. Another form of blogging I’d be keen to try is interviewing or profiling different friends and family members and seeing if that adds anything to my website/overall reflection. Other people are just as interesting as I am and I’d like to know if there’s a mutually beneficial relationship in me writing about them as there is for them. It would also be another way to attract a larger audience to my website because basically the interviewee shares the website as well. But I also know that to make money off just writing on my own blog is a huge huge task so that’s not going to happen in the next two years but I might be closer to it if I tried writing about other people than just me. Overall though, the goal is not to just increase the viewership, maybe instead it’s to increase the quality of the viewership (it’d be nice to get noticed by a running brand or some other company through my website) through sharing it more widely and to also increase the quality of my own writing. I think the more I publish my blogs the better they will get but maybe there’s also a time in the next two years I undertake a short course in something to do with writing. Would that kill my independent spirit again though? Who knows. In summary though my goals are to maintain the website, maybe incorporate some posts on other people, share it a bit more often (set a goal of once a month sharing it at least) and increase the quality (although I don’t really know how to measure quality of a blog or quality of viewership? is it just by feel and intuition? or from feedback?).

For the Airbnb I’m kind of at a point, and have been for a while hence the price increase, where it’s just ticking along. There’s nothing ‘new’ as a collective about the whole operation. New guests are always interesting but I know how the story will generally play out. Maybe the price increase will change that though. So with the Airbnb I am in two minds about shutting it down when my current insurance ends in July or changing it up dramatically. A long long term idea is to use the spare block of land I technically own (my house is spread across two blocks so it really only looks like one block) and put another piece of accommodation on that. Tiny house, shipping container, shed, caravan, whatever. Then I could live there and rent the whole house out or I could live in the house and rent the separate building out. A new life experience it would be that’s for sure. That would be a big project and it’s not on the immediate horizon but it is possible for the next two years. It would be cool to build whatever it is myself with the help of others to save some money and add to my list of life experiences. Overall though, there’s three outcomes with the Airbnb over the next two years. 1. Kill it off. 2. Maintain it and just keep ticking along. 3. Build a separate building altogether.

Thanks for reading this unexpected blog and following along on my reflections from the past two years in these focused areas. Keep reading for the next two years to see how I go and what options I end up choosing!