Make Money from Home

Creating Local ToursCrafting Tours with the Right Tech for Today

www.builtstory.com

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours2 www.builtstory.com

Coronavirus has hurt travel, keeping people in local, isolated bubbles.The travel industry will feel the impact of closed borders, quarantines, and distancing measures for a long time.

It will be months, or even years, when the once-thriving travel and tourism industries boom again. Thanks to the coronavirus, many people will avoid travel for a long time—outside of perhaps the most urgent business trips and family visits.

Airlines, hotels, cruises, and other related service industries will continue to suffer major losses through 2021, with even Disney remaining closed potentially through June or even as late as January 2021.

With travelers grounded and long-term changes put in place, local tour guides will feel these effects intensely, as their operations rely on the curiosity and wanderlust of travelers and locals alike. Without the steady stream of plane, bike, and foot traffic, the tour business has some significant challenges ahead. But with the solutions presented as you read on, you’ll be able to adjust and thrive.

Changes in the Tour IndustryThe tour and sightseeing business is centered around the steady stream of tourists and locals in dependable, seasonal bursts. Since the pandemic, many tour companies have furloughed tour guides with tour cancellations as far out as 2021. As summer nears, it is even more challenging to imagine how these companies, and the guides employed by them, will continue to stay in business.

How are tour guides being affected across the world?

Puerto Rico – “Mr. Knapp, 39, a tour guide working and living in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, has been out of work since March 15… ‘I am thinking about quitting because of this hit. I love this job, even though I know I’d do financially better in other places.’”

Washington, D.C. – “A tour guide says she’s had to take out a reverse mortgage on her home because she can’t work during the coronavirus pandemic. ‘If this is your primary source of income, it is very scary.’”

Utah – “Half of tourism-related businesses in Salt Lake City, Utah predicted they would run out of cash within 60 days… Many of those on the sharpest financial edge, too, are smaller, so-called mom-and-pop operations with five workers or less.”

London – “I’ve had to shut down, basically. I can’t go out; we’re not able to meet up in groups to deliver the normal tours. All of the work I had booked going into the summer—the busiest time—has just been cancelled or postponed. Literally overnight there was no work at all.”

Jerusalem – “A Jerusalem-based journalist said that all three tour groups from the US he was set to brief during their visits to Israel in the next week canceled their trips in the past two days.”

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours3 www.builtstory.com

With tours canceled and rescheduled for later this or even next year, at least half of responding tour suppliers are temporarily closed, with others operating reduced hours or having employees work from home. And that doesn’t even consider that most companies are not designed to accommodate a remote setup. But despite restrictions imposed across the country and world, people will still seek the outdoors and experiences.

They will want to have access to modern, contactless, flexible tour delivery options, to stay within local ranges, and to take tours solo or within smaller, isolated groups.

Have you been negatively impacted?Has the halting of travel negatively affected your tour business, forcing you to consider alternative revenue sources? Do you have extra time on your hands? There are opportunities available to help adapt your tour business for the world after coronavirus.

Many people want to stay within local areas, happy to get out of the house.

As they avoid busy hubs of activity and practice social distancing, people will be focusing on taking available local tours within close ranges of their homes and neighborhoods. These will include tours within walking, biking, and driving distances.

Maybe walking and biking tours won’t be enjoyed by international travelers this year. But locals are itching to (safely) get out of the house. 20-somethings and 50-somethings, singles, couples, people with pets, families with preschoolers, families with teenagers. You’ve got an eager, captive audience of locals who are looking for safe, responsible ways of getting outside.

Mobile searches for “things to do/activities” + “near me” have seen a 6X increase over the last two years.

Many people are growing tired of staying inside their houses in quarantine, and so are beginning to venture out — cautiously. And when they do get out to explore, it won’t be to the same far off places as before.

But, they will want to explore within a reasonable distance from their homes and within their neighborhoods.

How do you encourage existing customers

to visit your platform more often while

attracting new customers? Building a

platform with relevant products for locals in

addition to travelers. According to research

by Skift, local residents … crave unique

local experiences showing them the parts

of their city they have never seen.

The right tour on the right platform can help keep people entertained with uniquely crafted content.

People are looking for safe,

responsible ways to get outside.

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours4 www.builtstory.com

People are still looking for authentic experiences.

Before COVID-19, there were many options for things to do, but travelers were still looking for the authentic, one-of-a-kind experiences. It simply became not enough to take just any local tour. Tour Takers want to experience great sites like the St. Louis Arch, but they want it interwoven into the rich fabric of the local history, hidden gems, and stories around. Even now, in the age of COVID-19, that has not changed.

People will avoid large tour groups with people they don’t know. Tours may occur in smaller, more isolated groups or even solo.

Amid the concern over the spread of coronavirus and social distancing, people will not want to participate in large group events, where they could potentially be exposed to illness. They will not want to associate with strangers, and often even with members beyond their extended family isolation group.

Even before the spread of the pandemic, 61% of people felt that a negative aspect of travel was being in places with large crowds. This sentiment has only increased, bringing challenges to the travel and hospitality industry. There are

solutions for this shift towards solo and single-family touring.More about that shortly.

People expect technology that allows for convenient, contactless delivery.

With coronavirus and the fear of contamination, contactless everything has become the solution. Look at the rise of Zoom, Google Hangouts, Instacart online shopping, and others. Technology has become the solution across many industries. Many companies have already rolled out touch-less delivery, payment, and pick-up options, allowing for safe practices. Tours can use the same digital solutions to ease the transition and provide people peace of mind.

People already want more on-demand, flexible options.

Most people make their travel plans last minute, tours included. In-person tours don’t often allow for this sort of flexibility, but in the transition to digital, technology can support more fluid, customized, on-demand options for tour-takers.

Almost half (48%) of tour and experience bookings happen while travelers are at their destination.

Restricting your business to specific tour times and capping group sizes excludes a wealth of potential Tour Takers. Why limit yourself to delivering in-person tours the old way, when there are so many opportunities to expand your reach?

The Built Story Mobile App features fun local tours in any area with directions to and from each stop.

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours5 www.builtstory.com

How Technology Can Help Your Tour Business Adapt

Built Story is your solution to make a passive income in the next 12 months.

Connecting people to place has been our mission from day one. Our user-friendly platform is designed to help you take your touring to the next level, allowing Tour Takers access to a diverse collection of exciting, self-guided tours on a modern interface with flexible applications.

The Built Story platform is the perfect way to keep your customers engaged while monetizing your own knowledge. Join us and share your story with the world. Your customers are waiting.

Explore the only local marketplace connecting Tour Takers and Tour Creators.

Join the first ever tour marketplace of self-guided tours, connecting Tour Creators (you) with your customers. No tour is conducted in-person. You build the tour, from the comfort

of your home computer. Add photos, audio, video, or text to each tour stop -- it’s all up to you! What do you want your clients to experience along the way? Your customer, the Tour Taker, then buys your published tour. Through the app on their phone, they receive your tour, and are provided walking, biking, or driving directions to each of the tour stops you created.

Not a dry directory of information, Built Story is dedicated to the art of storytelling and delivering a meaningful user experience. Our focus is on savoring the journey and building an online community of storytellers and Tour Takers.

Why Host Your Tour With Us?

Get paid for your passion, without any extra work, without leaving your home.

With the travel industry sluggish, at best, and unemployment claims passing 33 million in the weeks since this novel coronavirus, the financial impact on everyone has been swift and painful. For anyone seeking some extra revenue, creating tours is a win-win.

The Built Story Tour Creator Dashboard allows tour guides to create, edit, and manage tours

on the desktop site.

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours6 www.builtstory.com

“The process of creating tours on Built Story is simple and straightforward. For each stop I just add the location, a short description and a photo! I love being able to share my favorite spots: whether it’s hidden gems in my hometown of San Jose or some awesome foodie finds in Ann Arbor.” – Jesus Espinoza, Tour Guide & Creator

Easily search for local tours in an area with the Built Story App.

Monetize your passion! Convert your knowledge into education for people worldwide. Reach more people faster, and earn money each time someone buys your tour.

You know the history, the neighborhoods and the stories. Now share your knowledge with our passionate audience of eager Tour Takers, who value your local experiences. Help people discover their next adventure with Built Story!

Perfect for anyone stuck at home with time and knowledge on their hands, your tours will make you money without having to do much on your end. With each tour sold bringing you approximately $5, it is easy to see how a successful tour can multiply your revenue, easily becoming a great source of income in an uncertain time.

Your Revenue Potential for Tours Sold

Tours Created

Each tour sells 1x/

month

Each tour sells 100x/

month

Each tour sells 1000x/

month

1 $5 $500 $5000

5 $25 $2500 $25,000

10 $50 $5000 $50,000

*Some processing fees apply.

Built Story tours are priced to be accessible to all levels of tour seekers. This means that your tours can now reach a wider audience base, expanding your sales funnel and introducing your content to those who may have missed it otherwise.

Giving away lower-priced content is a shockingly successful strategy that businesses employ regularly not just to expand their sales funnel, but also to build brand equity, demonstrate their value, and position themselves as experts in their fields.

Similarly, with Built Story you can create easily accessible, entry-level, self-guided tours chock-full of some of your strongest content acting as a gateway to your in-person business. Once customers see the value that you provide in your $10 tours, the brand awareness and trust you build will make it so much easier for them to commit to your higher-priced, in-person offerings.

The best Tour Creators are passionate about the places and stories that they want to share. Let our app help you turn that passion into tours that are easily shareable — and profitable. With convenient features that make creating tours quick and easy, you can make money for doing what you love.

The Built Story platform allows you to actively promote your website and business. The innovative Journal feature allows Tour Takers to share their exciting tour posts, photos, and any media to their social media accounts, which is a great

way to increase exposure for your brand and tour business.

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours7 www.builtstory.com

Tech can provide flexible, on-demand, contactless delivery for your customers.

Perfect for social distancing requirements, digital delivery with the Built Story app will allow you to make your tours contactless, so anyone can enjoy a self-guided tour without having to worry about crowds.

Basically, any nation, city or company that works in tourism has turned to virtual reality or digital technology in some capacity to compensate for the loss of business.

With Built Story, never give a tour in person. Your created content is provided to your customer at each stop using several choices of media. Directions are provided between stops. Your clients can easily search, create, and enjoy memorable travel experiences with family and friends.

Our tours are all digital and self-guided, so Tour Takers can escape crowds and time commitments, free to go at their own pace. Crafting them this way allows for last minute bookings,

which account for a significant portion of tour experiences. In fact, almost half (48%) of activity/tour/experience bookings happen while travelers are at their destination.

The Built Story platform gives everyone more flexibility and freedom, allowing Tour Takers to use it anytime, without the fuss. Tour guides no longer have to wait for guests, as people can take tours on their own time.

And the best part? Build tours from the comfort of your home.

Help locals lose themselves in the buildings and sites around them, and recount the rich tales they have to tell for a brand new audience. Create self-guided local tours of your community, or the communities you know well, now.

What’s your expertise?

Whether you are a professional tour guide or a retired professor, local critic, academic, historian, foodie, travel guru, or architecture buff, this is the perfect opportunity for you. Get paid for your local expertise, and use your professional knowledge to help others experience the hidden adventures in your neighborhood.

Tour Guides

Local Writers and Authors

Travel Gurus

Foodies

Architecture Buffs

Connoisseurs

Local Critics

Historians

Academics

Is this you? Create a tour and start earning today.

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours8 www.builtstory.com

Ease of Creation and Maintenance

Create your tour on the Built Story platform and then, sit back and relax.

Built Story makes tour creation a breeze. You can sell tours 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Create it once and you are done. Once your tours are published, earn money each time someone buys your tour. Upload your tour once—and earn money while you’re at home, at the gym, or even asleep!

Easy-to-use platform with no-hassle creation and maintenance.

Easily create a tour on the desktop site. Simply login from a home computer into your Tour Creator Dashboard and easily build tours for others to learn from and enjoy.

View tours you’ve sold, monitor your revenue, and manage other tasks related to running your business right from your dashboard.

Exciting features will keep users coming back for more.

Built Story’s user-friendly features will allow Tour Creators and Takers the flexibility, ease, and convenience of creating and taking tours on their terms.

Travelers want more control over their trips than ever before, and new digital tools allow them to co-create a trip within the structure of the apps and services they already use. The technical plumbing is now in place to allow a new wave of engagement with travelers from a wide range of industry giants ranging from Google to TripAdvisor and relatively new players like Airbnb.

Create tours of any kind! Easily label your created tours by age level, mode of transportation, or by category: Architecture, Art & Culture, Children’s Activities, Cuisine & Bar, Fictional Storytelling, History, Literature, and Nightlife. Build memorable experiences for locals (and travelers, later).

The platform even does the work for you, guiding Tour Takers with customized navigation, providing directions to each additional stop on the tour.

Creating tours and adding media is easy with the Built Story Tour Creator Dashboard.

Upload Photo

Cancel Done

Max. 5 MBJPG, JPEG, GIF or PNG format

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours9 www.builtstory.com

Discover exciting local tours on the Built Story marketplace.

Expand the reach of your tours, and gain valuable exposure!

The Built Story platform gives you the ability to customize your tour as your own and build recognition for your unique brand identity.

With the wonderful Journal feature, the people who take your tours can note what they learned, enjoyed, or saw. They can capture selfies, actively engage with their surroundings, and create unique posts while taking a tour. They can keep their journal entries private, for days, months, or years later when they want to remember something … or they can share it directly to social media. And when they share a stop to social media … it’s an advertisement for you, too. Their friends and family will learn about the safe, educational, entertaining tour you have created. They will want that too. This is the perfect way to build up your social media presence and watch your business go viral.

Make it your own.

Let everyone know that your tours are yours. Each listed tour features your display name, photo, or logo. Additionally, your Tour Profile links to your Facebook page and personal website, so users can navigate to your site to learn more about you and your business.

With a dedicated audience of viewers, our platform filters help travelers easily find your tour so that you can spend more time telling your story and building your business. Reach a global audience from anywhere, as the Built Story app puts your tours on smartphones around the world. Your tour will be featured in a community of tour seekers who are looking for stories and experiences that only you can offer.

Benefits of Joining Early

A first mover in its online tour marketplace, Built Story offers valuable advantages to early adopters joining the platform:

A Harvard Business Review study found that early adopters experience “first mover advantages” over their competition:

57% said that becoming an early investor in technology drives business growth and innovation … An analysis shows the growth of early adopters as “more than twice the growth of companies identified as technology followers (the early mainstream market) and three times the growth of cautious technology adopters (the late-adopting mainstream market).”

Joining early means Tour Takers get to connect with you even faster. Why is this beneficial? The longer your tour is hosted on Built Story, the more reviews you will receive. Tours with more testimonials are statistically more successful, generating more money for you long-term. More reviews translates to more validation, more tours, and more money.

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours10 www.builtstory.com

79% of travelers surveyed said they view up to 10 experiences before making a decision, and also read up to 10 reviews for each experience.

The majority of travelers focus on recent reviews to get the freshest perspective. Adding your tour to the Built Story platform early increases exposure, builds reviews, and increases engagement. A successful $10 tour can drastically multiply with frequent downloads. And the longer your tour

Easily script, build, and manage your tours in one convenient location with the Tour Creator Dashboard.

Why creating tours on Built Story worked for me!

“I spend a lot of time researching and planning the best activities at

the places we visit. There is a lot of thought that goes into each location. From the hours of research to driving around for the best parking spot. We discovered this great way for us to take what we have planned and what we’ve learned and share it with you. Having the research already done for you and the area tested is super convenient. We discovered this new app @built.story.” – Kimberly Blank

@blankfamilyadventure

“We chose three spots near and dear to our hearts for our first Built

Stories, but we had so much fun making these, that I’m sure we will be adding more as we explore!”

– @thefunemployedfamily

“Built Story lets me guide people through the unique, less-visited spots in town.

Self-guided + avoiding busy areas is the best combination for the perfect tour experience. Plus I earn money on each tour I sell. It’s a win-win!” – Naomi Binnie

gains exposure and earns interest online, the more money you will make!

Make Money from Home Creating Local Tours11 www.builtstory.com

Register as a Tour Creator and start earning money today!

Share your wealth of knowledge with locals looking for nearby activities. And, when the world is ready, your inventory of tours will be there, waiting for your international customers to select, purchase, and enjoy a specially designed tour from you.

The Built Story app connects you globally – and locally – with folks looking for the unique, the one-of-a-kind, and the stories around them. Build tours for them from the comfort of your home, using a variety of media to curate their experiences. Take your tours online, and to a much larger audience, with the Built Story platform. Follow our easy steps to tell your stories to more people today.

Additional Built Story Resources

Built Story Academy

Learn how to create high-demand self-guided tours that keep

customers coming back with tools, tips, and strategies to help you

design engaging, local community experiences.

Built Story Help Center

Get access to knowledgeable, dedicated support in the Built Story

Help Center, where you can find guided tutorials and walk-throughs to help if any questions come up along

the way.

Webinar Trainings

Discover the latest research, tips, and strategies by joining Built Story

in a regular series of live chats, studies, and Q&A sessions featuring

industry experts.

Learn more about joining the Early Adopters program today.

www.builtstory.com

Join the Built Story tour marketplace and start earning

money today!