Local (non gambling) Sites

[MJ]

Hey folks, I'm wondering if anyone out there has made a "city name" type of website as a fun resource. I've recently started one and discovered there is a TON of traffic out there so I'm jumping feet first into a couple other ones.

It's pretty exciting owning my city .org knowing the search traffic is in the millions a month, unlike poker where I get excited if a term gets 5k a month in search volume. Monetizing a site like this in my eyes will be both easy and a challenge, in that adsense is easy and does add up - but obviously there is huge oppurtunity in selling adspace as well - and possibly even consulting? I ran a local flooring website for several years that gave me good insight on just how broad local search terms can be, it's mind boggling.

Bottom line:

Content is easy, subjects never run out.

Traffic is easy, people search for all types of things - there will be huge volume (in my case I'm a 300k metro with 65k students "big ten" school).

I'm confident a site like this can easily be in the thousands of pages, and achieve tens of thousands of visitors a month - but beyond that - I'm curious what if any other people experiences have been?

Thanks in advance, I'm anxious to discuss this type of project with other affiliates.

[jdwanchalk]

Do you mean like "mytownca.org"? Surely most town names are already owned as far as domains go, plus the exact match aspect would be good since most people would type My Town, CA instead of just "My Town."

Make sense?

[Unknown Webmaster]

I'm pretty sure that there are 2 guys working full time on a site with user submitted reviews of restaurants and bars in 4 cites (total population of 1.5 mio.) where I live. I'm not sure if the company are profitable yet, or if they are still running on venture capital...

The people running the site is friends, of a friende, so I'm not comfortable sharing the link publicly (erring on the safe side). If anybody want it just send me a PM.

[MJ]

I love it personally.

I bought MadisonWI.org exactly as JD described. I'm super excited just to have fun with it. Also purchased a few others like WIDells.org which is a huge tourist attraction, etc.

I'm just getting started, and looking for a bit of insight I guess. Unknown, care to expand or link to said site?

[PDX Nikki]

Now that sounds like some fun new content to write...always good to switch it up so you don't get bored...your brains amaze me MJ

[CasinoKev]

You're right MJ, there's a ton of traffic for local terms.

I've been thinking about jumping into local niches as well. I've heard others say that there's money in paid advertising and lead generation, but I really don't know the best way to monetize the traffic.

I thought about registering sites like citynamerealestate and citynamecardealerships and trying to sell leads to local agents and car salesmen. But where I get lost is the best way to capture and market the leads.

I know Jeremy did this successfully in the past, but he was an agent himself.

Perhaps the best thing to do is rank number 1 for business categories (real estate, heating and cooling, car dealerships... ) and then approach the larger companies and sell them monthly advertising.

I think Dave does some local stuff. Maybe he (or anyone else who's done it) will share their secrets with us.

[Unknown Webmaster]

From what I have heard, one of the "common" ways to get started selling advertising to local businesses is to use a service that will track and record phone calls, and then get paid pr. lead.

I have also seen people collect an email address and information about what kind of house/apartment someone wants to buy/rent. I'm assuming that they then sell some of the email addresses to agents.

[MJ]

Kev I'm 100% convinced there is money in it, I'm approaching the project knowing that adsense alone will be worth it - and as traffic and trust grows the sky is the limit in terms of monetization.

I also think there is good potential to generate quite a bit of usability and user driven content, but that's way down the road.

I considered running with cityname+niche type domains but in the end I thought that using the city+state variation was worth the small investment I had to make in buying the domain on the aftermarket, because there is SO much stuff to write about that should rank easily I didn't want to limit the niche. Plus an official .org just feels well, official.

I hope this subject stays active, I'm extremely interested in it.

[Dave]

I knew as soon as local search was bought up someone would call me out

I'm really busy with business and personal matters right now so this post will have to be more brief than usual.

If you've had any success at all bringing in online poker traffic you will find local traffic ridiculously easy to aquire. Pathetically easy.

Just follow Randy Ray's timeless advice..... lots of keyword rich local content and a few relevent backlinks and you will dominate your local SERP's with ease.

Monetization of your traffic is also easy with some experimentation.

OK... a lot.

This isn't get rich quick..... it takes time and effort....

Personally I miss the days of being nothing but an affiliate.

Send traffic..... make sale... send money to NetTeller.... send money to bank account.

Spend money.

Building websites for local businesses and SEO consulting sounds simple and straight forward but we live in a world of morons when it comes to the net and business marketing.

Even the most successful small business people in your town are morons.

Trust me........ web design and marketing is a tuff sell to these people.

Adsence clicks can add up on local websites, but CPA networks like NeverBlue and MaxBounty is where the money is, eharmony $9 per lead, diet plans $35-$40, credit reports and online money making ads also pay well.

Even a good ClickBank product on the right page can sell with the right traffic.

You could buy yourtown-dentist.com or some variation and then sell leads to local dentists or sell or rent the site to a local dentist.

Real estate agents, dentists, building contractors, lawyers and tourism are good topics to start with.

The possibillaties are truly endless in your local town.

Jeremy was way ahead of his time with his Rockford real estate site.

Here's a forum for local small business owner you'll find useful:

Small Business Ideas, Issues, Resources, News and Help | Small Business Ideas Forum

If you want to start a full-flegded local directory ckeck out these links:

Home - CityAmerica.com

phpMyDirectory - Web Portal, Business Directory, Classifieds, Link Indexing

onlinebusinessdirectories.info

eDirectory.com - Online Directory Software Solution, Custom Development, Business Directory Script, PHP


Random links from my favorites list that will get your head spinning with ideas:

The Warrior Forum - Offline Clients Beg Me To Take Their Checks

Local Business Internet Marketing

Dental Websites

Local Search Tips, Tricks & Secrets

Local Search Optimization and Getting Your Site on Google and Yahoo! Local

Real estate websites : Custom IDX Solutions : Realtor Web Site Design

Local Advertising Journal – Local Advertising and Marketing Tips

Any post at the WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums by Andrew Cavanagh is worth reading.

All of his "offline marketing" products are also excellent.

Enjoy..... PM me with questions but you'll have to be patient for an answer.

kaus, Hazo and CasinoKev..... I'll get back to you ASAP.

Dave

[CasinoKev]

Thanks for the great info Dave. I did some searching for Andrew Cavanaugh's posts and found this great PDF full of his posts on local marketing.

http://www.pegasusteam.com/OfflineGoldForumThread.pdf

It's an excellent read and very motivating for anyone interested in doing local consulting, lead generation, and/or portals.