[Pro] Big question, simple site with advertising

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1

Hi chaps, for my own amusement I am thinking of building a site listing dog friendly pubs etc in my home town, then I thought if businesses wanted me to include a link to their website and pictures etc I could maybe charge them a few quid a year.

OK I know this is a big question but does anyone have any experience of doing this or am I going to create a monster that becomes a rod for my own back ?

Any advice very welcome.

Roger

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2

The first hurdle will be how you answer this question: “I’ve already got my
own website, why should I pay you for links to it?”

–
Ernie Simpson

On Sat, Jan 5, 2013 at 8:46 AM, Roger Burton email@hiddenwrote:

Hi chaps, for my own amusement I am thinking of building a site listing
dog friendly pubs etc in my home town, then I thought if businesses wanted
me to include a link to their website and pictures etc I could maybe charge
them a few quid a year.

OK I know this is a big question but does anyone have any experience of
doing this or am I going to create a monster that becomes a rod for my own
back ?

Any advice very welcome.

Roger

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3

Thanks Ernie, well I’m thinking (rightly or wrongly) that the basic free listing would only be the name and tel No. but if I received, say, £10/year I’d make the listing more interesting with some ‘observations’ and pictures and maybe a point on the page with the town map and yes a link to their site (otherwise the visitor would have to do a google search) ! … good of you to take the time, just the sort of comments I need to help me formulate my idea … Roger

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£10/year

Hard to refuse when that inexpensive - especially if you go and pick it up.

But I can’t see that your time should be as cheap as that - don’t sell yourself short.

But a flaw in the plan might be that who thinks to search for ‘dog friendly’ pubs in a town that they are going to visit - and surely locals will know exactly which ones will allow their pooch in.

D

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5

There is a revenue model that involves a bit more work and can net better
incomes – why not publish a local online “magazine”.

Instead of simple links, you can then write a whole page article about a
business, mention it’s dog-friendliness or other amenities, even show some
photos. This will honestly improve SEO for your customer, theoretically
driving more business their way.

For smaller customers you then sell ad space on the site - the simple
graphic link you spoke of. Again, don’t undersell yourself, but you see how
you could then build something that generates revenue for you, contributes
to community awareness, and creates honest seo content for your customers.

Taking Dave’s point, I think you would want to target non-local locals -
iow, folks from out-of-town (tourists?) and locals from neighboring
communities who are less familiar with your own. In that case, you could
shop your services to that larger community, aiming to become a hub of
human-friendly information for the larger group. I suppose.

Then you will have to advertise yourself, as what good is any listing or
information if you don’t have anyone looking at your service?

If that is the way you’re heading, then planning is how you get there.
Identify the steps, what will take to make each one, plan when to take them
then start.

–
Ernie Simpson

On Sat, Jan 5, 2013 at 12:14 PM, DeltaDave email@hidden wrote:

£10/year

Hard to refuse when that inexpensive - especially if you go and pick it up.

But I can’t see that your time should be as cheap as that - don’t sell
yourself short.

But a flaw in the plan might be that who thinks to search for ‘dog
friendly’ pubs in a town that they are going to visit - and surely locals
will know exactly which ones will allow their pooch in.

D

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6

Actually Dave - the two points you made were what made me think about creating the site … when we’re going to a new area with our pooch I always search for “dog friendly ******”, there are ‘national’ sites but they are generally too cumbersome for a ‘local’ search and OK locals have a reasonable idea of who do and don’t allow dogs but after over two years here I’m still not sure and visitors certainly would have no idea. As I said it’s a bit of fun (I’m retired now) so the money’s not a biggy though maybe a tenner’s tooooo cheap.

Yes Big Erns, that sounds good … a magazine … and I will be pitching it more at visitors but hope that I’ll offer enough information of general interest to appeal to locals as well … I’m hoping to get ‘free’ editorial coverage of the site to promote it, when it’s up and running, from local newspapers and the freebies we get constantly through the door and there are lots of other ‘doggie’ (no not dogging) sites that might give me a link … I’ll post a link when I get it up and running and you can crit’ it for me.

Off to gun-dog training classes now, we don’t shoot but the dog enjoys running around like a mad thing !

Roger

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