Most cities and towns have an official website that is maintained and updated by the local Chamber of Commerce or Tourist Bureau.
But with this business idea you can pick up where they left off.
A website that focuses on a specific niche within your community could very profitable for you.
And it could also be a great income booster for the businesses you feature on your site.
In my city, besides the local Tourist Bureau site, the only other quality site I have found is one which features all the local bed and breakfast establishments in the area.
And this is in a town of about 90,000 people! Imagine what a boon a site would be for specific types of shopping such as arts and crafts galleries and boutiques, or antiquing sites, flea markets and estate sales.
And of course there is always the dining industry, a listing of all the great restaurants in town along with ratings and information about the cuisine served would be great.
You could also cover the themes of recreation, historic attractions, nightlife, events, alternative health care or services such as home improvement, etc.
So how can you earn an income from such a site?
The primary way of course would be to sell advertising on your site to the businesses related to the theme you are covering.
You could also market related items and even work with the local advertisers to set up certain promotions, coupon books, and community events of which you would receive a commission or percentage of profits.
You should determine if your site will be primarily targeted to the local residents, to tourists, or to both.
Another great market to target would be new residents of your city. Think about what you would want to know if you had just moved to a new town.
Grocery stores, health and medical services, schools, apartment rentals, good real estate agents, these are just a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head.
To create your own community website, first research what sites already exist for your area on the internet.
This is easily done just by typing your city and state into Google and checking the first few pages of listings.
There may be more, but if they are not on the first few pages, they really won’t be relevant competition for you at this time. Especially if you use Site Build It to
build your website.
Now look at the websites that do exist. Are there any sites in the niche you are interested in? If there are not any or if the ones that exist are sub par, great!
You can start brainstorming on what you would like to create for your own website!
If there are a few already, you will need to find a different angle or approach that has not yet been covered and offer your visitors something different.
This is really easy, considering you live in the area. Who would know about your town better than you?
Now consider the information that you will feature on your site.
What information would you like to know about your community that isn't already available online? Thinking like the reader is a great way to get a successful website going.
You will also need to decide what cities your website will focus on. Will it just be yours, or will it include other cities nearby?
You could even do one for your entire county.
On the other hand, if you live in a larger city, such as New York or Los Angeles, then you would definitely want to think smaller and find a community niche within the city to target.
How will you entice local advertisers to pay for an ad on your website?
You could go to each business in town in person with information about your website in hand, or you could send out individual emails or letters to them.
Drive around and check out the local businesses. Sometimes you will find some that you didn't even know were there! You can also bulk mail a printed flyer to each resident so they know about your website.
Get business cards and/or flyers printed to pin up on bulletin boards all over your city.
You can also offer your information in print form.
This is also a fantastic way to earn more advertising profits, because businesses will pay more for a print booklet that they know is being sent out to every resident.
Steps Toward a Successful Community Website:
1. Discover what readers want to know and can't get anywhere else.
2. Brainstorm your ideas, and find the angle that best suits your community.
3. Create a prototype of your website, what information will be included, how it will be set up, etc.
4. Use a quality website building program such as
Site Build It
to get started.
Following the Site Build It process to build you site will automatically get you good listings and traffic as your site grows.
5. Market, market, market! Get the word out about your new site in as many ways as you can think of.
If it's good, word-of-mouth buzz will soon spread about your new site, and people will start checking it out when hearing about it from their friends and family!
Hopefully you are inspired to start researching this business idea more.
The start up costs are low, just the cost of a website and some printing to start.
And this is one of those home-based business ideas that truly has limitless potential, and once you get started you will probably be amazed at how the ideas keep multiplying.
