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Blog Idea

by fredjr1978
9 replies
Hello,

I wanted to give my thoughts on a blog idea and see if anyone has any ideas on the direction I should take it to make money with it in the long run?

The town I live in is growing FAST! And at the same time there is a lot of people that visit here for vacations. I wanted to build a blog that would be tailored to the locals, but still give information to those that visit on all the hot spots and things to do and so much more of course!

This is a passion for me because I love the city I live in and want to watch this baby grow. My problem is, I am not sure how I can make money at this if at all??

Any ideas on the direction I should look at for this?

Thanks!
#blog #idea
  • Profile picture of the author Nickolie0990
    well there are hundreds of things you could do. The first thing I would do is start surveying & interviewing people, just random folks and see what they want. That would give you a list of things that you could do on your blog. Also, check your cities website, and see what they are missing. Here are just some ideas off the top of my head:

    1. Top X number of Uncommon Facts about the city
    2. Good places to eat, get a hotel, visit, hot spots, museums
    3. The history of your city
    4. Top 10 places to visit in your city

    As for monetizing the blog, there are tons of things. You just need to get creative. For example: you could offer coupons for free on your blog for restaurants, and other local hot spots in your city. And the way you get paid by offering free coupons is, the merchant pays you for hosting there coupon on your blog. This of course means you will need to have the traffic.

    I would recommend that you go to your city's website and just look for ideas.
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  • Profile picture of the author Toby Lewis
    Sell advertising to local businesses and tourist attractions for a monthly fee. It doesn't have to be blatant banners, you might do reviews or include them in a post about things to do while in town.
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  • Profile picture of the author thedogtreatjar
    I live in Lexington, KY and we have a site - www.topsinlex.com that is surprisingly lucrative.

    They spend a ton on advertising, I mean like billboards off the highway...but they make some dough.

    Is this the sort of thing you were thinking...

    If not, why not try an "underground" feel. College/High school kids love that crap...you could get advertising monies from local places looking for that market.

    As far as traditional advertising you might get some local google adsense revenue but for the most part I think offline places would find it beneficial. That also means a lot of offline marketing.

    Good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author farasens1
    Why do you limit yourself to such a small niche? [ altough it's a growing fast city ]. Better do a bigger blog about traveling and stuff for a larger audience. Just a question, if it's your passion you can do everything you want and get some local advertising from turism stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author digigo
    you like what you are about to do.. with passion.. that is the great start... go for it..nobody can offer better information, insights than you... great niche... as for making money part.. you can start with putting adsense.. then sell ad space to local B&B.. tourist hotspot.. etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author AllyW
    I would suggest that you go to SiteSell dot com, and browse around to get some ideas. The SiteSell website is an incredible resource for ideas, and if you go to the bottom of most pages you can click the link for the Site Map. There are links in it that will take you to various travel related sales pages that highlight different websites that SiteSell members have created. Go to these travel sites and see what they have done. There's nothing wrong with looking at what other people are doing, and then trying to do something similar with your site/blog/city. You can definitely make money with Travel sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jvsnow01
    Hi Fredjr1978,

    The informaton given above is a great way to start.

    Once you have set up your blog, you can also consider setting up JV's or Affiliate links with others that may want to make an extra income from promoting your site or some of the products/services you offer.

    This will also give you residual income over some time.

    All the best for your your great idea


    Jvsnow01.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave777
    Study and learn from the endless Local related Blog business models through the following directories and search engines for all kinds of ideas...
    Latest Blog Posts | Placeblogger
    Metblogs
    Blogdigger Local: See what they're saying in your neck of the woods!
    Outside.in | local news in 57,830 neighborhoods

    Dave
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