Need ideas how to monetize a local handyman website?

Hi all, i really hope you guys can advise me here. I have developed a local lead gen site for a handyman service in my town. I have a twilio number and call recording and call forwarding set up to sell the leads to a potential local handyman.

Before i go ahead and do this method, is there any other ways to use the site to potentially make even more money? I'm not a handyman myself so its no good me doing the work.

And how much is a lead worth?

i look forward to your ideas, thanks in advance.

Ask people to submit via your site, a recorded video of them introducing their business. Feature it on youtube with a nice video intro, and then add adsense to the video.

Link to your site, and then link to their page.

if your site is ranking well / getting some traffic, maybe try to sell ad space on it

Here is how I go about it:

For the record, if you run any ads there you are going to kill your credibility. You can get away with a "Featured Providers" slideshow, but you put adsense there and you are shooting yourself in the foot, until you are an authority site.

yes its getting traffic right now.

How about approach local businesses/individuals and rent it to them for a monthly fee. Rinse and repeat with local plumbers, dentists, gardeners etc..

Another idea is to try to make money through related business. This is coming from someone with zero experience so laugh at me if you want. For example you can sell supplies to handymen, ask local hardware stores if they will be interested in advertising with you, etc.

Hire some handymen and pay them half what you charge the client. Get leads from your website, send your employee out and drink beer while you think about other people busting their ass so you can drink more beer.

You have a huge push for a handyman/honey do list for the holiday season for Christmas Lights to more to cash in on between Halloween and now.

pxoxrxn said:

Hire some handymen and pay them half what you charge the client. Get leads from your website, send your employee out and drink beer while you think about other people busting their a** so you can drink more beer.

Click to expand...

This is sort of the right idea. Lead generation requires the lead generator to either be paid up-front, in advance of any leads that may never happen, or may be completely useless and not profitable, or lead generation is done on a "per lead" basis where you also expect the worker to pay for the lead in advance of finding out if it's profitable or not, OR you have to chase them around after they've done the work, got paid and maybe they pay and maybe they claim the lead was now good.

Bottom line, Contractors are notoriously resistant to the idea of paying for leads, period. Any leads, any time, anywhere, any quality, any money at all. Not $20.00, not $2.00 not 20 cents, not 10% and not .0001%. Contractors that are worth a squat can generate their own leads, get their own website, set-up their own appointments and do their own advertisement and they don't need help that they can't directly control. Contractors that NEED help with leads also need help getting out of bed in the morning, help getting to work because their truck broke down, help getting back to the jail before 7:00 pm because they are on work release, help with doing the job right because usually their work looks like it was done by a 9 year old.

You don't want the people that need you, is my point.

However, what you are proposing isn't that much different from being a General Contractor. Do the advertisement, maintain the website, generate leads, get a contract with the client, pay the sub-contractor and keep your percentage. The beer drinking part (from above) is nice for shading and texture, but really there's quite enough of that in the industry and customers aren't looking to hire idiot contractors that look at work as an interruption in their beer drinking, they are looking for workman that do good quality work at a fair price, show up on time when they are supposed to, dressed appropriately, not leaking oil on their concrete driveway, not smoking in the garage or house, or even on the property (non-smokers are preferred), etc... There's money to be made a General Contractor, and confusing the drunks and the drug addicts with the people that are making it is a big mistake.