Local Sites

[MJ]

I have a fetish with the idea of making local sites, I bough my city/state .org and a couple other nearby cities, one of which is a tourist town (wisconsin dells) - was hoping some other affiliates were interested in sharing ideas and networking since for the most part we aren't competitors (unless you too are targeting my town lol).

Anyone here have any local sites? Found any good affiliate networks for targetting local niches? I think I need a mentor.

I can say that I've barely started and it's pretty obvious there is huge volumes of traffic to be had.

[PTC]

I think a key is monetizing vacation/travel/lodging traffic... mostly lodging and hotels. The best solution I have found costs about 5K to start up and this just gives you access to the database of rental properties (I think this gives you 100 properties, live data and booking). You still have to negotiate with rental management companies or property owners after that to make money. I thought that was a little steep for me since I knew I would have a learning curve anyway.

Im just banking on the philosophy that if I create value; they will come, and whoever they are, they will pay good money. Im mostly on adsense for now and not pushing it hard as I build. Ive contacted some property mangement companies and given them free listings... a great lead up to me charging them for a more comprehensive listing in the fall I hope.

[MPC]

MJ, I've decided to give this a try as well. I would love to brainstorm and collaborate with you on ideas. Let's see how two noobs can manage to fuck things up! lol

Seriously, I'm going to start putting some ideas down in terms of content, site design, structure. Will likey go with wordpress on this one. Maybe we can chat next week? I'm busy this week.

[MJ]

Sounds great - I love the idea.

[doovde]

Sounds like a focus group is in order!

[Matt Geer]

Sounds like a focus group is in order!

+1 - I'd be up for that myself.

[jdwanchalk]

I have my domain set up and ready to add content. I would certainly be interested in hearing others' ideas and progress.

[cernus11]

Im interested too. Got a few ideas myself.

- James

[DealerDan]

Localized dating information is very good, to the point that I'd even recommend CityStateDating.com or whatever. Easy sites to handle/maintain, and you can even get a lot of unique content via users providing feedback on dating programs, stories on they experiences with these sites, or just dating in general in that city.

[Graham]

I have started buying some locally related domains. I think there is a good future in this. I have bought things like cityname then real estate or restaurants and things like that.