#101 Aquabumps – Sydney’s most popular retail attraction. And it’s a small business!

Eugene Tan started Aquabumps in 1999, when as a frustrated Creative Director he combined his three passions: photography, surfing and the web.  In the nineties blogs hadn’t evolved yet, but Eugene,  better known as ::uge (yooj), thought he’d provide a nice daily break for his mates to see a bit of surf at work.  The daily updates started flowing more consistently and the first handful of friends became thousands of people logging on from all over the globe. Even Aquabumps’s Facebook page is a hive of activity with 58,000 followers (as at Sept 2012).

Aquabumps is now the third most popular tourist attraction in Sydney behind the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House (according to the Lonely Planet Guide). It’s a small business doing big well … everything!

This is a great story about one guy’s decision to follow his passion. And it’s paid off big time.

• Uge has a major gallery selling his prints and book right in the heart of Bondi.
• Uge gets invited (all expenses paid of course ;0) by tourist bureaus all over the world to photograph their beaches and post them on the Aquabumps site.
• The Aquabumps site benerates a steady stream of income via advertising and sponsorship.
• Uge has one beautiful coffee table book already published and another on the way (and you know how much I love books as a marketing channel).

Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode ..

Netregistry – Check out Small Business Big Marketing’s sponsor for all your online marketing needs.

AquaBumps – Ugene’s pride and joy.

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