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If this fails (which is a high likelihood), I am back to my 9-5
Posted by on May 18, 2026 at 7:25 pmHi Reddit community. I’ve been working on TheOpenFairway.com and am looking for some honest feedback as to what users might think is wrong with the site as I can’t seem to generate consistent traffic. (Leaving out what the website specifically does, as I would like to know if it’s clear from the home page.)
I’ll be honest in saying that this is my last resort as I was initially hoping family and friends would be able to provide more feedback. My close friends and family always said that if I decided to take a risk and do my own thing that they would be there to support in any way possible… but when I finally got there and reached out for help, I got nothing but crickets. So, I am here as a last attempt in hoping the reddit community can help me with some constructive feedback. I’m genuinely wanting to learn more through this process but am struggling with where to begin.
Some questions I have are:
1. Is the site clear as to what I am offering or is it confusing?
2. Is there a better way for me to present this information to potential customers?
Any feedback or comments would truly be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
Disclaimer, I have beginner knowledge of SEO but would really like to learn more
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1 Reply
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Does this scrape the course sites alone or the resell page like GolfNow? The big players all have access difficult to compete with.
My advice would be to start local. Put on your sales hat and work with courses around you to beta test. Maybe have a few times reserved for your platform to see if it resonates. That assumes local awareness, but it’s also something they can partner with you on.
I wish you all the success. Here’s the sad truth about golf post-COVID: Courses don’t need help filing the tee sheets anymore.
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As a golfer who markets for a living, I have a couple of thoughts:
The overall concept is clear to me, solves for a genuine pain point, and is well explained.
However:
* It’s going to take a while to build organic search volume: things like “Pebble Beach tee times” are kinda competitive, while the lesser courses won’t have a ton of volume. Are you doing anything else to promote it?
* I ran the site through SEMRush, and found that you’re really only showing up for a handful of course names. (None in the top 50 positions, but that’s to be expected given that the site seems pretty new–you’re not starting out with any domain authority.) FWIW, I was initially confused by that b/c it didn’t look like there are any courses listed, until…see the next couple of points…
* The 3 boxes in the hero section (pick a course, set the details, wait for a ping) look like buttons that should be clickable, but aren’t.
* The scroll of states looks clean, but it’s not immediately obvious (even with the “click below” copy) that you should click those to learn more/check out your coverage, which at this point is your main proof point to get people to take a trial. As a Michigan resident, it took me almost 20 seconds from reloading the page to get my state to scroll by so I could check out what courses you have that I might have heard of/be interested in. Most people aren’t gonna stick around that long, and your drop-off rates will be higher for states that are further back in the alphabet.
* Putting the last 2 points together, I’d recommend rethinking that part of the page experience. As someone who sometimes crosses the border to other states for golf, I’d probably prefer a page with a view of all the courses available that I can just filter myself, rather than having to go back and select a different state to see what’s available there.
Hope that’s helpful – again, I think the idea has potential, and the golf booking space is both highly fragmented and massively infuriating to navigate, so I wish you luck in trying to improve it!
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Man I knew golf was a rich people activity but $15 a month just to get notified about a vacancy? Do people golf frequently enough for that to ever be worth the subscription cost?
Beyond that, the site was completely clear to me in terms of what it’s for and what it does. It’s gonna be hard to find keywords and you will need a proper content strategy plus social media strategy to get any SEO results.
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