Returning After an Abscence, Question About Community Site

[Ankesh]

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.

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!

Originally Posted by Ankesh

Thanks Marty.


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.

True, but do think my name is leaning more toward indicating a welcome service or mini-welcome service and that if I incorporated something such as the small magnetic boards or postcard mailings (which I had contemplated previously) or including an option for printed coupons or gift certificates going to new movers, that it could be effective perhaps even better?

What or your thoughts on this?


Your other suggestions seem great. Again, I'm going to review it more later. Thanks for your great help!

Wow... it's been a long time since I visited the board.

A lot has changed for me over the last couple of years.

Just want to make a couple of comments.

The first is about how I ended up back on SOWPUB this morning, and suggest a tip that might be helpful for y'all.

First tip...

Set up a "Google Alert" for, at the minimum... your name.

I recently set up a Google Alert for my name as well as my offline business, and the comment from Ankesh that had my name in it popped up this morning due to the fact that he mentioned me, and my Google Alert caught it.

I clicked on the link that the alert provided, and found this thread and the discussion that Marty had started.

The Google Alerts are free, and you never know what might come of them... like this morning.

Since I set up my alert, I have been reading them everyday... thinking about the power of the alerts... and pondering how they might be leveraged into money making opportunities.

I have only been using them for a few weeks, so let me state right upfront, the following comment is just theory as of today (Jan 21, 2010) since I am just venturing into and experimenting with them and how they might be used.

But here's one possibility.

Let's say you have your own product, service, or even an affiliate product that you wanted to market.

If you created a number of Google Alerts that contained keyword phrases for your product, service, etc., then whenever a post was made in a blog or discussion group like this one, you might be able to capitalize on it and, using some "stealth marketing", make a post with a link to a squeeze page and make a few bucks.

I'm sure that with all the brainpower on this board, there may be other ways to use the alerts, so if you have a few ideas, maybe a separate thread might be in order... if not... no big deal!

Again, I'm just seeing the power of the alerts, so I may be way behind with my "new found cyber-toy"... there may already be folks that have developed the concept to a much higher degree, so I don't mean to imply anything other than the fact that there seems to be some possibilities with using the alerts to create some income opportunities.

Now, having said that, I will try and explain how this post relates to Marty's question and a few of the responses to him.

The movement of the comments and suggestions for Marty gravitated towards online video.

But I think that the "video" discussion sort of misses a bigger picture.

The bigger picture is what actually spurred on the reason I even set up my Google Alerts in the first place, and that is the whole movement... into social media and the new marketing models it is forcing local businesses to take, video being ONE of the new models.

A few weeks ago, I responded to an email from one of my local telecom suppliers (I have an offline phone system installation business) to attend a 2 hour session on "Social Media For Small Businesses".

The email wasn't full of hype, the 2 hour session was free, so I thought... what the heck... I'll sign up.

I thought there might be 25 people attend, as it was on a workday (a Tuesday), and was from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.

I really didn't think it would be very well attended, and I almost skipped it... but decided to attend at the last minute.

Boy... what a surprise.

I walked into the place, and was SHOCKED!!!

Over 400 people responded!!!

The speaker was really good, but more than that, I was fascinated by the "hungry crowd".

The presentation was for an hour and a half, then they opened it up for 30 minutes of questions and answers.

Then the second shock wave hit me... and that was the enormous "haven't got a clue" questions that the attendees began asking.

Being a person who loves observing, analyzing, and poking around for opportunities, I immediately saw some BIG potentials.

Here were hundreds of business owners, obviously acutely aware of something they needed, and... based on their questions and comments of what THEY needed, they were looking for a leader... for someone who could help them navigate their "business boat" through the rough waters of an approaching storm that threatens to push them into the rocks and sink their business.

It wasn't an issue of how to thrive... but how to SURVIVE in the new social media frontier!

So Marty, don't just look at an online video scenario.

Grasp the fact that the bigger picture is... how can you position yourself as the person who can ride in on a white horse and save the day... wielding the sword of effective local marketing utilizing the power of "local" social media... video being just one of the tools.

Anyway, since the seminar, I have immersed myself in the task of getting my head around the whole social media scene (books, online blogs, social media articles, etc), and am now assembling a business and service focusing on how small businesses in my area can harness the enormous power of the whole arsenal of available social media weapons in the marketing battle they (we) find ourselves thrust into.

This social media thing is more than a new wave approaching the beaches of local businesses... it is a TSUNAMI that's coming... or really... is already here, and based on the questions OVER 400 people had... they don't have a clue as to how to respond to the threat!!!

I really think that if the seminar had been positioned as "How to use online video for your business" it wouldn't have pulled in 400 people.

I could be wrong... and it wouldn't be the first time :-)

Anyway, I am developing a whole new business to... well... maybe that's info that might need to be discussed on another discussion thread.

Please don't take my comments as being critical of anyone or any posts.

I'm just trying to expand my own horizon's, and thought I'd share a bit of my latest musings with you folks.

Just my 1.5 cents,
John Palma

Great info, John - thanks. I hope you can come down my area again soon. If so, please let me know.

[Ankesh]

Thanks Marty.

If you focus on new movers - then yes - your website URL is definitely better.
But for new movers - do you even need a website?

One time booklet with coupons and information is simple and good enough - no?

1. Find a source of data that lists all the new movers in the last week
2. Create a sell sheet and mail it to local vendors.
3. Follow up with these vendors and make the sale - they pay $x and you include their gift certificates / coupons.
4. Mail these gift certificates booklet to the new movers.

Why complicate things with a website? (Unless you think you can get a bit more from vendors if you throw in a website listing...)

[MMacGillivray]

Hi, Marty - I notice that you are using wordpress for the site - and wondered if you had considered running ads via an affiliate program. For instance, it would be possible to sign up for one of the hotel programs and put in details for your local hotels, possibly also vacation rentals and bed and breakfasts.

People moving to your town need accommodation while they check out property; people living in the town, with visitors, might need to book accommodation for events such as wedding parties.

Creating a category for hotels and adding in one post per hotel promoted will allow you to use their keywords and marketing in your website which should also help the seo. Some of the hotel affiliate programs also provide affiliates with a lot of useful advice on local amenities - so it might speed up the content creation quite a bit.

Hope that's a new slant on things
best
Margaret

Margaret,

It definitely is a new slant and worth exploring. Thanks for this valuable input.

Marty,

You win the Most active thread communication Award for 2010!

Nice to see a Good mix of SowPubber's sharing Great information once again...

Just to add on to Margaret's ideas...

A few Excellent Local search engine related resources for Researching, Networking and Spying
on Endless other Local Blogs etc...

Creatively duplicate the Many Successful blog business models Simply by Adding a nice little “Twist” into a Fresh new idea...
http://www.placeblogger.com/
http://www.metblogs.com/
http://local.blogdigger.com/index.html
http://outside.in/
http://outside.in/cities

Phil

Great advice, Phil, as usual. I guess I joneust want to communicate with everyone who responded, and I also appreciate the value in what people have brought forth.