Love this concept! How do others feel?

**bbwolf5** · April 16th, 2010, 3:42 PM

Been watching and thinking about buying these sites for yrs.
Sites like Cityamerica, Cityusa and 360directories are very interesting to me. Seems like for minimal start up one could buy several and do very well with them but all the ones they have sold seem to not really ever do anything. Except for the 360 sites but they want 30000 to start.
Anyone have any experience with sites like these? Insight?

Thanks in advance!

BBWOLF5

**Clinton** · April 17th, 2010, 8:11 AM

Sorry, bbwold5, I don't quite understand the business plan. Could you explain? Are you talking about running a collection of local guides? And what do you mean by the "360 sites"?

**bbwolf5** · April 19th, 2010, 4:35 PM

yes these are local guides where you pay for a site that covers a city like New Orleans. Then you make money by selling advertising and listings on the the site. I think buying and running several at a time could be great. They cost around 200 to start up plus a monthly fee of like $75. 360 directories seems to be the best of all I have seen but cost 30,000 to start up. My plan would be to hire sales pros on commission. Does anyone have any experience with these types of sites.

**Clinton** · April 19th, 2010, 4:52 PM

Over the years I've seen several models that require an active sales force to get the business in. I wouldn't dabble in that unless I had some confidence in the figures. Having a sales force is not a guarantee that the business they bring in will pay for their salaries and leave a profit. That said, I know that there are several very clever local guide models where they pull in feeds for weather, flight arrivals, car park spaces and other data to the point where the site is completely automated.

How do you aim to attract traffic in the huge numbers that you'd need to get advertisers?

**ClaytonL** · April 19th, 2010, 6:41 PM

For reference, he is referring to the directories powered by http://www.360directories.com/ when he discusses 360 directories.

I've seen many local directory websites attempted and only a few succeed. As Clinton has stated, the hardest part is getting the business side of the business to be profitable. You'll need to attract enough visitors that an advertising business will see a return on its investment. Then you'll need to be able to reach businesses and convince them that their investment will be worth it. Once you've spent the money to do both attract enough visitors and convince businesses to pay, then you'll have to make a profit on top of your other business expenses.

The sites I've seen do the best seem to be local media businesses branching out. For example, a local radio station or news paper will leverage it's existing advertising sales force and contacts as well at it's "free" advertising inventory.

**Clinton** · April 21st, 2010, 4:44 AM

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. We have a local expert here, chicago. You around, chicago?

**tvanslooten** · April 21st, 2010, 9:20 PM

You'd be better off creating niche sites for local businesses and then selling them off or leasing the space. For example, you build "ChicagoDentist.com" or "BestChicagoDentist.com" and you get traffic to it - maybe slap AdSense on it or something so you can get some clicking metrics. Then you approach dentists in the Chicago area and give ONE dentist exclusive right to the site.

Local guides/directories are a dime a dozen and don't provide much value to your average offline business person - but approach them with a site tailored to their business that is ranking well and bringing in traffic and you've got a winning plan.

Travis

**ClaytonL** · April 21st, 2010, 10:08 PM

tvanslooten's post reminds me of Shoemoney's local lead generation guide http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/11/04/...iate-programs/

**tvanslooten** · April 21st, 2010, 10:43 PM

Thanks for sharing that post by Shoemoney. That guys amazes me. He brought in over $41,000/month working with just one car dealer??? That's insane. These local niche sites are definitely where the money is at these days. ShoeMoney said it was today's Gold Rush and that was back in 2008. Two years later it's still the same. The Gold Rush still hasn't ended.

Travis