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New local site - my latest project
By Gil | February 21, 2008
My newest web site that I have been working on is for a local/regional audience. My wife was considering starting a new offline business, so the whole reason for the local site was to develop some local traffic so that I could provide some ’free’ premium ad space for her on my site.
She has since scrapped the idea for her offline business for the time being, but I have decided to go ahead with the local site. The more I think about, the more I think that the site could be a decent source of revenue.
Before I explain why I think the site can do well, and how I plan to monetize it, allow me list some of the features that I plan for the site.
- Local news and weather feeds
- A free, full featured classified ad listing
- Local restaurant pages, with links to menus
- A ‘Deal Around Town’ section where locals can submit various bargains around town, such as a gas station with below average prices, or a great deal on Hot Pockets, etc… (I know I could use a good deal on gas)
- Articles of local interest, maybe with some guest contributors
- A bulletin board/discussion forum
- Since there is a large college student population here, I think a text book exchange/buy/sell page might go over well also
Now, I did check out the competion beforehand and found several other local sites, but they all seem to focus around a specific area, such as employment, news, or sports. I estimate on one site that focuses on employment only, a monthly revenue of about $800-$2000+, as estimated from their posting rates and postings listed. Other news sites in the area had some classifieds that charged anywhere from $10-$20/week for a listing.
I think that my site will have a particular advantage over the competition, as my site offers the same basic services, plus more, for free - which I can do cheaply and with minimal maintanence as a one person operation.
Since the services and classifieds are free, I plan to monetize the site with Adsense contextual ads on the classifed ad pages, and then sell some premium 125×125 ad placements, and possibly a banner at the top of the page. I expect, as on the other local sites, local businesses and maybe some local political candidates will be the market for the premium ads.
One thing I must note, I am probably in a perfect size town for this type of site (about 140,000 people + some near-by small towns). It’s small enough so that the content is relevant to everyone who might visit the site, yet big enough to have some decent, repetative traffic.
I’m really exited about developing this site… so more updates to follow on its success (or failure ) in future posts.
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