Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site
 

I've been off of the board for quite a while for various reasons - I mainly had to go back into the job world, which I'm still in.

Just a couple of things. First, if Sandi is still on here, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about how I came across at one point - I believe I was out of order. I wanted to mention that first.

I have a question about a community site I started a while back. Now, I don't know the viability of community sites these days. I also had researched City America previously and found that many members were not doing well after I had contacted them.

However, I feel that I have great domain for a rapidly growing city, Henderson Nevada. Don Alm had originally suggested the city and the domain name to me. Please note that most of the business on there at this time are only samples.

Please, can anyone give me some suggestions on how I could make a real go of it? Otherwise, I suppose I'll take it down. I need some really strong ideas, and not just putting the weather on there, info about local shows, ect. I don't even know if classifieds would be a good idea or not.

If someone has any inclination to do a JV, I also would not be closed to the idea.

Anyway, here is the link - and thanks:

http://welcometohenderson.com/

Re: Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site
 

"Go Video!"

Whenever I've mentioned "Websites" to local business owners, their reaction has been negative. They don't "need" one or they know some kid who'll "put a site up for them for peanuts."

HOWEVER....their whole attitude changes when I mention the words, "OnLine Video Commercial" for their biz.

Whether they have a site or not....their eyes glaze over, their WHOLE ATTENTION shifts to me..... and their reaction is, "How Much?"

So....instead of trying to "Fight" for customers....make it easy on yourself ....tell them you're putting together a "Video Website" with VIDEOS of local businesses.

And....even those with sites will WANT an "OnLine Video Commercial".

You don't need to go buy a CamCorder. Just a digital cam and PhotoStory3 or Windows Movie Maker...both Free.

Here's a couple of examples;
www.VideoSomething.com and www.WhatsHotSouthJersey.com

In fact....to help you get started, take your digital and go visit an independent-owned retail business. Go in and tell the owner you'd like to make a Sample Video Commercial of his business....at NO obligation.

Take 10 to 15 photos of the outside, inside and of some products. Put together a PS3 Video with Title, Text and background music. Burn a DVD disk.

Go to Wally World and pick up a Portable DVD Player (Phillips $80)

Put your DVD into the Portable DVD Player.....go show the owner. Explain you'll put this video ON your website for $590 which includes 3 months hosting. $295 now and $295 when the video is online.

2 of these a week and you have a biz that's putting $1,000 in yer jeans every week. And....after 13 weeks (26 orders x $590 = $15,340) you get to start collecting $75 x 3 = $225 for the next 3 mos, from every customer.

Works for me.

Don Alm

Re: Returning After an Absence, Question About Community Site
 

Thanks, Don - I'm glad to see you're still here. Actually if you notice, I do have a sample video or two on the site, but of course I'm sure I could do some better ones.

Could you or others suggest how I can promote the site (low cost and big time) and then convey that to owner? And if people have some more ideas, please keep them coming.

Re: Returning After an Absence, Question About Community Site
 

If I was the business owner you came to with that site full of nothing but ads, I'd want to know what's in it for me. You get the bucks for the ad, but what do I get?

The only answer that's going to make me write a check is, "Your ad will be seen by at least 800 Henderson residents every day. Here, look at these web logs and you can see the local traffic the site gets everyday."

I suggest you put up a forum where locals can rant and rave about practically anything that affects them and their town. People love local chat, as proven by the Topix forums. Here's a Topix example from my town.

Then you just have to let the locals know there is a place they can go to express their opinion about the new mayor, or the latest scandal with the school board. Tell somebody that knows somebody, and keep telling until the traffic builds. "Hey Mary, did you see the comments on the Henderson site about the city councilman caught with his hand in the till?" "Henderson site? What's that?" So you tell her about it and how to find it...and she tells a few of her friends. Few times of that, and you'll have some traffic to sell against.

Then, place the business ads in amongst the various threads.

Re: Returning After an Absence, Question About Community Site
 

I suggest you put up a forum where locals can rant and rave about practically anything that affects them and their town.

This sounds like a great idea that I'm going to seriously consider; thanks! ;)

Re: Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site
 

The guys who operate http://www.videosomething.com do NOT need to draw people with a "chit-chat" site....and....they get BIG Bux for their vids AND their clients STAY with them.

Don Alm

Re: Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site
 

Thanks Marty.

What I would do is mix-and-merge a few ideas from
Don Alm, Linda Caroll, John Palma, Skip Rosell etc.
Lots of good ideas from them in the archives.

Google shows that you already have 2 worthy competitors:
http://www.cityofhenderson.com/
http://www.hendersonnevada.com/

Your domain name is weaker than them.

So you have to differentiate from them. At the same time, find a way to earn money.

1. I saw that you have a "Important Numbers" page on your website.
Could you put together something like:
http://makemoneyalert.com/mms/mmssl.htm
A magnetic sheet with ads on them along with a few important numbers?

2. Then give away these magnetic sheets to people to register at your website. You get their information. They become part of a community + get a magnetic sheet for free. You make some money by selling ads on those magnetic sheets.

3. Use something like Ning.com to create your website.
Give visitors a few reasons to stay:
* Forum
* Place where they can post news and links
* Where local events are shown
* Where people's twitter stream is merged with their a/c
* People can post classified ads

All this is provided by Ning. So I would say - create your website with Ning and you won't have much of a website creation headache.

4. You then earn money by providing:

* a local dating portal add-on (maybe something like Thread.com - but for local folks)

* and making a few categories of the classified section paid - when it becomes popular. (Learning from craigslist - you don't want to make the entire classifieds section paid. Just the real estate section.)

* You also earn money by making deals with offline shops - restaurants / laundromats etc. And send out their coupons by email to your entire list.

5. This brings us to the biggest question: where does the initial traffic come from?

You could probably use a grass root fish-bowl idea. You put up a fish bowl in local restaurants and shops. People can put in their business cards for a reward. And once a week - you can collect them and do some data entry to add these people to the website - and then mail the magnetic sheets to them.

Trying a joint venture with the local radio station should also work.

Re: Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site
 

Yes, I was having second thoughts putting the discussion on there, and the fact that you meniton those clients stay with them indicates they must be doing something right. I'm going to check this out thoroughly.

Hope things are going well in my old stomping grounds.

Re: Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site
 

Thanks, Ankesh, for this great info and your addressing this. I'm headed out the door to work right now - I'll plan to go over thoroughly later when I return, if all goes well! ;)

Re: Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site
 

Welcome back Marty - from someone who occasionally goes mia himself every now and then. :)

I think the idea of a local video site is great and it's something I've been toying with for forever - you've gotten some great tips from the others here already, but I'll add my thoughts and you're free to take what you like and leave what you dont.

For starters, I've never really liked those city america type sites 'cause I thought they had too much fluff and not enough real content. In my area there are no shortage of sites that list name, address and phone for everyone in town...but I've already got the yellow pages for that, why do the same thing while providing little else to stand out from your competition?

If I can get myself together here's the plan for what I want to do. Using wordpress you can get a great community site together. Offer local businesses a free webpage with a couple of photos and paragraphs. Everyone else will give 'em just a name, address and phone for free - here you can provide something of real value to them and your cost is next to nothing.

Offering a free detailed listing gives you a way to get a foot in the door and find out who the owner/manager of the place is, and it increases the odds they'll reciprocate and have more interest in what ever additional services you'ld like to sell them.

Now if you're going to offer video, please offer them real video - move still photos around and add music to it and you'll get a nice slideshow...but it's not a real video! Sure, you can do some creative things with sites like animoto...but that's still not real video in my book and it's something a business owner could easily do themselves.

If you're going to do video learn how to do it right, but you don't need to spend a fortune to get started. For $200 or less you can get a decent FLIP cam or a still digital cam that will also take video clips - and you can find free video editing software out there, or download a 30 day trial of something more powerful like Sony Vegas Platinum Pro. Make one sale and you've paid for the full version which goes for about $70 retail or less when they offer rebates. Spend $60 on a decent video tripod and for less than $300 total you'll have all the basics you need and you can upgrade as you go.

Just know that proper sound is important for great video and as soon as you can you might want to upgrade to a camera that'll let you plug in an external wired or wireless mike.

As far as pricing goes - my thoughts for a 1 minute video where I'm interviewing the owner while showing shots of their products services in the background - would be $30/month paid up front for the first year ($360) then continuing monthly after that. I think thats affordable enough that many people would want one just because they know their competitors have one, and if it results in just one or two new clients for them, it's paid for itself. I'ld also let them use the video on their website too in addition to listing it on their profile on the community site.

Take a look at some real professional video at www. bostonweb.tv - he charges $500 for a slightly longer commercial (2 - 5 min) but then they own it outright. I think you'll have to test and see what works best in your area, but when its so inexpensive to host video these days, I couldn't think of charging someone an arm and a leg to host it on my site...unless you can deliver them plenty of pageviews and new clients on a regular basis.

Oh, and for the $30/month i would think of charging someone, I'd also let them contribute informative articles to the website - the kind of thing that would really educate their clients and prospects and add value to my site while helping the search engines find it too.

Of course, once you've got that foot in the door with a free listing there are all kinds of other things you can sell them besides video. Email marketing help, web design for those that dont have one or want to redo their site, direct mail marketing - get your foot in the door as a trusted advisor and there's no shortage of ways you can profit from your relationship.

I'd also ask the businesses you signup for free to display or hand out flyers for your site where their customers can find them online - and you should also build two email lists of your own. One of the businesses you signup so you have an easy way of contacting all of them and can eventually sell advertising in it - and one of the locals that come to your site so you can provide them with info and special offers from the businesses on your site (and of course charge the businesses for advertising in it too!)

Sorry if I'm all over the place with all these ideas here, but hopefully you can find something of value in this.

Steve