Creating a local portal

Is anyone aware of successful portals for local communities. I have been thinking of creating one for my area, even though every newspaper is advertising their web site daily. I have been thinking of some unusual ways to attract attention to one, IF I decide to go ahead with this idea.

By the way, I am interested in portals created by entrepreneurs who don't have a ton of money to advertise them.

not necessarily a portal: but you might
get an idea of what a non advertising
driven website can do for a community:
The site is below.

Is anyone aware of successful portals for
> local communities. I have been thinking of
> creating one for my area, even though every
> newspaper is advertising their web site
> daily. I have been thinking of some unusual
> ways to attract attention to one, IF I
> decide to go ahead with this idea.

> By the way, I am interested in portals
> created by entrepreneurs who don't have a
> ton of money to advertise them.




http://craigslist.org

What do you consider "success?" Is it cash flow? Or are you just looking to help out some friends?

The reason I ask, is that I decided to put together a local directory of professionals - sort of as an online "friends of John" referral directory. I thought the inbound links could help everyone out, plus I had some ideas I wanted to play with. So, my concept of success was somewhat limited.

Here's the link to the site, but don't go there yet: http://www.SDProfessionals.com

I started the site in January of this year; and did a soft launch in February. I haven't put a dime into the project beyond securing the name.

Now, here's a test, and it may or may not work depending on the state of the Google dance. Go to Google (click on the link and it'll pop up in a new window), and type in as a search phrase "san diego business transaction attorney directory" without the quotes.

The #1 listing (as of this week, and it seems like it may actually settle there) is my little directory. There is only one business transaction attorney listed, by the way, and it's my friend Chris.

Drop the word "directory" in the search phrase, and the website ranks #2.

I consider that wildly successful, especially considering the speed with which it happened. Right now, my attorney friend is paying for Overture clicks for those terms, but he's essentially getting a #1 or #2 Google ranking for the same terms, free.

To be honest, I thought I'd be one of the bigger "winners," but there's a lot more competition for my keywords than his.

Anthony's link, above, is truly inspiring, and I can see that my ideas are neither new nor unique. I may start trying to convert www.SDProfessionals.com to a paid listing model after it achieves more penetration and better stability in the search engines.

But, as I said, making money wasn't my objective; helping some friends and proving a point were.


Tightwad Marketing: free advertising and marketing advice and resource reviews for small business

I am in the process of creating a regional portal. To make it work, strategy is critical.

The revenue model will be subscription. To make it attractive to all businesses and organisations I believe the following has to be present...

1. The site has to have the right theme. Does the theme of the site excite the potential subscribers/adveertisers to say I want to be part of this?

2. Does the site generate the right type and amount of traffic that will benefit the various type of businesses and organisations that will subscribe to be present on it?

3. Do the tools of the site allow for the subscribers to manage their content therefore eliminating or substantially reducing the admin overhead?

4. are these site tools easy and intuitive to use?

5. Is the site full of quality and informative content that is going to benefit the visitors?

6. Are the site tools easy enough to use for the average content provider to be given authorisation to make regular updates?

www.edgeNZ.com is my attempt at the above. We have only just launched but the response has been positive, with lots of support to get the content together. We are just about to begin a sales campaign for business subscribers... check out the "Where to stay" and "luxury" area to see our first customer or click on site of the week.

This site comes out of a passion of mine to brand our region "The Worlds Edge" and help turn what has for some time a depressed economy into one of countries most vibrant.

love to hear some feedback
Ross


e-cluster - Knowledge Management Systems