Ok, I have been tossing around this idea and I think it could be a real money maker if someone has the time and effort to devote to getting everything off of the ground.

This would/should work well with a medium sized city. The idea sprung from my frustration with selling web design & seo services to businesses who know the internet can be a great lead-generation tool but just won't part with the money to have a professional website.

So, why not create a website for the area. Let's just say the name of the city is Medina. Let's call the site www.medinacoupons.com or some derivative. Just like it sounds, a portal dedicated to that particular cities merchants and consumers.

Now, this idea is not new, but I do believe there are enough junk portals out there that do not deliver and have a very stale flavor.

My twists are these...

1) Instead of relying solely on search engine traffic to bring visitors to your advertisers offers, be PROACTIVE!!! Spend some revenue on advertising locally, touting the site as a way for local residents to really get great deals on everything imaginable. Take out newspaper ads, post flyers, stickers, etc. Give the site the image of being an invaluable part of that city.

2) Offer visitors the opportunity to enter their name and phone number for "special" offers that are not on the site. Then send out a weekly, bi-weekly email with these special offers.

I mention phone number because I think SMS marketing is becoming and will be huge. People typically look at text messages IMMEDIATELY, this would be a great perk when trying to sell to advertisers.

Last night I did a test ad on CL in the for sale section advertising free coupons for my area to their cell and had a few people hit my landing page and enter their details. And, once submitted the page was redirected to a CPA offer!!! Maximize your efforts!

If you can show businesses the potential, and if you incorporate the weekly emails and SMS messages, you should easily be able to pull $100 per business per month. Trust me, this is cheap for effective advertising!

100 businesses would net $10,000/month. Plus if you do things like the CPA offer I mentioned above, you could bring in even more.

You could easily employ a part-time salesperson to get started and gain your initial advertisers. Just offer them a nice percentage.

You could use automation to your advantage by allowing advertisers to log-in to the site and manage their own listings if you wanted, or you could do on your own or pay somebody to work for you.

I just wanted to think what others on here thought about this model, from my experience it would work welll but you need to be willing to dedicate the time and not put out some junk website that relies on just search engine traffic.

Are you asking questions or are you giving a blueprint to what has been done many times? I have seen this over at a few different forums. Not being a jerk or abrupt.

With what you have described. You have great potential to make some insane amounts of money if you have the right budget and you like you stated have the perseverance to continue to do the hard work even if you don't want to. This is where the budget comes in, you can probably find a way to outsource all the repetitive and mundane tasks.

As a wise once said, set your mind forward and watch the presents come in!

Originally Posted by ni99a

Are you asking questions or are you giving a blueprint to what has been done many times? I have seen this over at a few different forums. Not being a jerk or abrupt.

With what you have described. You have great potential to make some insane amounts of money if you have the right budget and you like you stated have the perseverance to continue to do the hard work even if you don't want to. This is where the budget comes in, you can probably find a way to outsource all the repetitive and mundane tasks.

As a wise once said, set your mind forward and watch the presents come in!

Like I clearly stated, I realize this is now a popular "model". I have sold and consulted on many different forms of advertisng for smaller businesses, and the model described in most threads I would see businesses having trouble wanting to pay $100 or more per month. Most of these "portals" are very weak, in my opinion, and do not do much for either the business or the visitor.

My thought is that by pushing a hard, offline campaign to target visitors and both email and sms opt-ins to the site, and making the site more community interactive, you can push the value up to where $100 or more per business per month would be realistic.

I see no point in charging $20/month (or around there) unless you have a very large city. Don't get me wrong, 100 businesses x $20/month is $2000, but for the work involved I'd just assume work a job. But at $100/month, I think the work necessary, no matter how many businesses you had, would be very worthwhile and would also allow you to outsource some tasks.

From my experience, even just stuff that people are trying in my moderately sized city, most of it is junk. If I were a business, I wouldn't waste my money. But with the angle I'm using, being proactive and really pushing the site as a resource for residents, I think you could really push the value up and create a very lucrative, long-term business. Not for everyone, but if you have time and a small budget, a viable option to those looking for something solid.

Where I currently live there is absolutely NOTHING that has anything to do with online stuff... my city is mainly the Hispanic community and most dont even have computers. I wonder what offline type advertising would be good. Our population right now is probably about 140K

Is this population surrounded by a larger, english-speaking population? If so, then I'm sure business owners would be interested in a way to reach this population, especially if there is some type of language barrier.

Can you give me more details on what you are thinking about?

PM sent over wildcherry, we can talk then and I'll let you know where I live

Originally Posted by wildcherry

Is this population surrounded by a larger, english-speaking population? If so, then I'm sure business owners would be interested in a way to reach this population, especially if there is some type of language barrier.

Can you give me more details on what you are thinking about?

Hey mate,

I like the sound of your idea. You say there are similar sites with this business model already out there. I have to say where I live (UK) I'm not aware of, nor have I came accross such a site.

Would you mind posting or PMing me a couple fo example sites that you are aware of who employ this similar business model, I'd love to have a look at them.

it may have been done before, but how many of these have really approached business in the way you are talking about? Not many would be my guess. If you can put some nice spins on it like text messaging etc, then this has to be a winner. Don't forget though 100 business is alot. you could probably sign up 1 a day on your own, with all the other things you have to do. so thats like 20 weeks in total. sounds great guy, like my friends nike say "just do it"

How do you build up a SMS text messenger that will hit up your whole list?

Furthermore, how do you organize and maintain such a list?

Originally Posted by chobo

How do you build up a SMS text messenger that will hit up your whole list?

Furthermore, how do you organize and maintain such a list?

Technology.

Do some work.

Uh...

Who say you have to LIVE in or near a community where you want to do this? All of the work is is done over the phone or internet. People don't know or care if you are 5 miles away or 5000 miles away, as long as the service is what they want.

You do need to be familiar with the area, so pick someplace you know something about (Austin, Houston, etc.) or can study up on. Every city in the US now has some sort of newspaper, and they're all online.

I say this because I live on the Left Coast, and I built a directory featuring Chicago that does quite well. I haven't been to Chicago in 2 decades.

Originally Posted by xziler8r

Where I currently live there is absolutely NOTHING that has anything to do with online stuff... my city is mainly the Hispanic community and most dont even have computers. I wonder what offline type advertising would be good. Our population right now is probably about 140K

Actually, depending upon your business model this can be very good. I put together an ebook at the beginning of the year on making $50/hr with offline marketing using a business directory. I just uploaded a updated version of it.

I have two very profitable directories going taking advantage of what the "yellow pages" and others who imitate the yellow book do wrong. The secret as I discovered is not only in driving traffic to the site but keeping traffic coming to the site on their own, day after day after day.

There are quite a few ghost towns out there when it comes to directories. The secret, as with everything on the Internet, is driving traffic to you and keeping them coming. The real secret is to quit hiding behind your computer and get out and talk to people even if it's to hire someone to go out and sell the advertising/listings.

My primary directory site starts listing fees at $99 and goes as high as $350/mo. You just have to have the right script, the right host (more difficult than you think) and a good business and marketing model. It helps if you live in an area with more than 100k population. 8)

where can we find that ebook?