Starting a Local Community Information Site To Dominate Local Search Terms

[ExploringInfinity]

Whats up Warriors? I hope you're all rockin' it hard today!

I've got the bright idea to create a local information site and rank it for pretty much all of the local search terms that I can. There is very weak competition in my city still, so I want to be the one who dominates it with SEO.

This could turn out to be an insanely profitable site if I do it right, but I need a bit of advice on how to put it together properly from the start so I don't have to go re-doing stuff when it breaks.

I want to feature a free online classifieds and a local community forum, I also want to provide business listings, events, movies, and other stuff that goes on in the community, but the first thing I want to do is put up pages that rank in the SEs for local business terms like "CITYNAME bankruptcy lawyer" and others which are actually ridiculously easy to rank for in my city. Once the pages are ranking, I am going to rent out #1 spot on google to the highest bidder.

My questions are mainly what the best way to go about setting up a large authority site like that would be.. I need to know mostly about what the best suggestions are for hosting free classifieds and community forums on a website like that.

I'd also be happy to hear any tips or ideas on how to make it the most profitable, because yes, I am doing this purely for profits.

[ExploringInfinity]

Holy cow, bumped to the 2nd page already!? wow... Yeah I guess.. BUMP.

[oda]

Just doing the same thing mate,
I registered a domain inrocky.com (I live in rockhampton}

My plan is to build small sites on subdomains for each type of business.

So for hairdresser I would do hairdressers.inrocky.com. Then I plan to interview, video, record and generally get as much stuff as I can on each business that wants to be a part.

Combine all that with social bookmrking fan pages and traditional linking methods and I should be rich.

Now I just need to get off the forum and do some more work.

Take care man

ODA

[Eyetrap]

I'd like to hear from someone that has successfully done this and what ended up working best for them.

[ExploringInfinity]

I'd be very happy to hear from anyone who has done this already and had success, yes.

I'm preparing the first stages of this project. It's funny, the site has already been indexed and is ranked 5th on google for it's domain name term..

Such low competition for this city that I'm going to be laughing once I get some real work done!

[JohnMac]

Originally Posted by ExploringInfinity

I'd be very happy to hear from anyone who has done this already and had success, yes.

I'm preparing the first stages of this project. It's funny, the site has already been indexed and is ranked 5th on google for it's domain name term..

Such low competition for this city that I'm going to be laughing once I get some real work done!

Could you use www.edirectory. com for this idea?

John

[tonyscott]

Hi Exploringinfinity,

I run a couple of local directories. It's a good business model but involves more work than you'd think. It's not simply a case of building a site and getting it ranked, you still have to sell the thing.

Could we see your site?

If I had to start again, I'd probably run with Wordpress MU - plenty of plugins for classifieds, forums etc.

Tony

[ExploringInfinity]

I haven't got the site set up yet. For once I am asking and preparing before jumping into something!

What is Wordpress MU? I'm going to have to check out whatever this MU stands for, but yes the site will be in wordpress.

[infohog]

Originally Posted by ExploringInfinity

I haven't got the site set up yet. For once I am asking and preparing before jumping into something!

What is Wordpress MU? I'm going to have to check out whatever this MU stands for, but yes the site will be in wordpress.

I highly recommend you grab Mike Johnson's Auto Blog Blueprint 3.0. He had an WSO going where you can pick it up for $57. Just do a search if you're interested.

The key is, whether you're doing regular blogs or auto blogs, to start out slow with 100% original content and let the search engines find you. Mike's course is many hours long but the detailed instructions on what to do and NOT to do to get your blog ranked and profitable is priceless.

Best of luck!

[ExploringInfinity]

Originally Posted by infohog

I highly recommend you grab Mike Johnson's Auto Blog Blueprint 3.0. He had an WSO going where you can pick it up for $57. Just do a search if you're interested.

The key is, whether you're doing regular blogs or auto blogs, to start out slow with 100% original content and let the search engines find you. Mike's course is many hours long but the detailed instructions on what to do and NOT to do to get your blog ranked and profitable is priceless.

Best of luck!

I think you misunderstand what I am asking here. I'm not an IM or SEO noob, I'm looking for advice on setting up free classified ads, forums, and a community based website... Not learning how to blog or looking for another info product. . although auto blog blueprint was an alright course, it wasn't really worth it for me because by the time I got to it, I already had learned most of the stuff in there on my own or from other info products that I had gone through previous to it.

[Jesus Perez]

Originally Posted by ExploringInfinity

I haven't got the site set up yet. For once I am asking and preparing before jumping into something!

What is Wordpress MU? I'm going to have to check out whatever this MU stands for, but yes the site will be in wordpress.

MU=Multi User. It lets you easily setup subdomains like hair.mylocaldirectory.com using one universal WP installation. It's also the framework that powers wordpress.com. It was originally created to allow visitors to create their own blogs.

If I was going to roll out any kind of directory, I'd go straight for the best script: phpMyDirectory - Web Portal, Business Directory, Classifieds, Link Indexing.

However, as previously mentioned, you'll still need to "sell" it to businesses. They aren't just going to jump in and give you money.

You also have 2 major limitations.

1) You're trading your time to develop the site and local results. It will need constant nurturing as businesses come and go. After all, a stale directory is useless.

2) You'll always be geographically limited and your income will eventually plateau. There are only so many visitors and business in XX city.

Both of these make it a "no" in my books....but everyone's books are different.