Today we’d like to introduce you to Rahuldev Rajguru.
Hi Rahuldev, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I have been traveling for the past 20 years. So far, I’ve visited 62 countries and lived in six of them. For the past 8 years, I’ve been blogging about my experiences on numerous platforms such as TripAdvisor, Quora, Booking.com, and others, with over 2 million readers.
I’ve met and talked with a variety of travelers, whether as a co-passenger or while sharing a table in the airport lounge or in hotel lobbies. I enjoy interacting with people and starting meaningful conversations because I believe that everyone has a story to tell. I enjoy hearing about their travels and what led them to a certain destination.
During my many interactions with them, I realized that they all have the same problem. When it comes to planning their trips, they rely significantly on the information available on the Internet. They often arrive at their destination only to discover that they have been tricked by false and misleading information. They feel cheated and exasperated, and eventually, end up spending a lot more money to salvage their trips.
Once bitten, twice shy; they spend a significant amount of time planning their next travels on the Internet. They are perplexed as to which travel content and reviews to trust. They contact bloggers in order to hear firsthand and real experiences, only to wait interminably for the information they need. Most bloggers react to comments in 2 weeks on average, and sometimes you may hear from them after you return from your trip.
For a year, I conducted my own research and discovered that the Internet is swamped with misleading, fabricated, and paid-to-write travel articles. When someone makes a google search, such content, unfortunately, takes precedence over authentic and honest content.
I personally know at least 50 genuine travel bloggers who abandoned their blogs after only 1-2 years. The main reason for this was their inability to market and monetize their content. Writing good travel content and marketing it is an entirely separate game, which many bloggers don’t know until they’re up against paid and sponsored content.
I considered building a traveler’s community where I could share real, authentic, and unbiased travel stories to assist travelers in discovering the information they require.
This way, I can give travel bloggers and content creators a platform to market their content to a large audience and create revenue prospects for them. Because there was a pandemic and mobility was limited, I decided that now was the best time to begin, and Turuhi was born in early 2021.
Turuhi now provides over 300 travel stories and articles from more than 20 countries and 150 cities. More than 25 contributors from around the world contributed their stories, with the youngest being 16 years old and hailing from a tiny island of Fiji.
Although the platform is available to everybody, we do not approve every piece of content that is contributed. More than half of the content and submission requests are turned down. We only host content that is both real and unbiased and tells a story.
We do not accept mundane travel blogs. We do not accept travel stories from contributors who have been compensated or incentivized in any form. In the guise of travel content, we do not offer hotel or airline reservations.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There is never a smooth road when you are doing a startup. In fact, a bumpy ride makes it more challenging and interesting. When you achieve something, even an intermediate milestone, you feel that your hard work is paying off.
We had a tough time bringing contributors on board, hosting authentic travel stories, and bringing travelers to Turuhi at first. We didn’t give up and instead focused on growth marketing to organically reach out to more travelers and contributors. As a result, in the last four months, our website traffic has surged by 8X.
We now receive an average of 30K visits each month, and our traffic is growing at 20%. We reached a total of 20K followers on social media. All of this is done 100% organically, without spending a dollar on advertising. We already have a few partners who consume and help monetize our content.
We still have a long way to go.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Turuhi?
Turuhi (https://turuhi.com) is a startup founded by two founders, Rahuldev Rajguru and Devang Thakkar. Both of us have been working together for the past 20 years. Both of us have been entrepreneurs for 12 years and this is our 3rd startup together.
We’ve both traveled extensively over the world. Our work as information technology professionals took us to many different parts of the world, some of which are off the beaten path for many tourists. Devang is a hard-core techie who enjoys building technology. Rahul is a business and marketing professional that enjoys interacting with others and building a community.
Turuhi is a community that connects travelers, travel content creators, and travel companies. We share real, authentic, and unbiased travel stories from contributors all over the world. We ensure that contributors aren’t trying to sell or promote anything for monetary gain.
We also make certain that all of the photos and videos they use in the story are their own and have not been overly modified. In our travel stories, we strictly prohibit the use of stock photos. We strive to show travel destinations in their natural setting, without any embellishment. Turuhi’s entire travel content is thoroughly verified to ensure that it meets our high standards.
We want to provide our readers with the best experience possible, which they might not find anywhere else. Unlike the majority of content providers, we do not offer hotel or airline reservations under the pretext of travel content. We assist content creators by marketing their content and presenting them with monetization opportunities.
We never publish anything solely to increase traffic to our website and trade backlinks. When it comes to content quality, we have a strict no-tolerance policy.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
The greatest source of motivation for us is our readers’ passion for our content. Nothing is ever taken for granted.
All criticisms are taken into consideration, and we strive to improve the experience for all stakeholders in this community. You’re bound to make mistakes while dealing with content.
We acknowledge our users’ participation and honest comments as well as resolving any ambiguities or discrepancies they may present with our content. Turuhi is adored by them as a result of this. In a nutshell, our users deserve all of the credit since you can’t truly develop a community without them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://turuhi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turuhicommunity
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/turuhi
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TuruhiCommunity
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/Turuhi
- Other: https://in.pinterest.com/turuhicommunity
