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Offline Marketers:I need your input and suggestions.

by hock1
12 replies
Ok So I've been reading about offline marketing alot lately and figured it might be something I could get into since I live in a small town So I purchased material to learn what it took to succeed in this endeavor.

This included several free,paid and PLR ebooks on the subject, may have picked up a few in here as well, come to think of it yeah, I did buy a few from here.

So I got this wonderful manual on how to build a town portal and i followed it step by step and yard by yard, (member that ole Three stooge bit?) anyway that was off the subject..Back on it.

I set the portal up by following this superb ebook and have it set up at http://shelbyvillebusinessdirectory.com (Is this too long a name?)

So now here is the question for you guys, What would be your next step..What else would you add
or take away? Should the first page be more of a "sticky"site(whatever that means, just read it in one of the books) I get the idea but what do you think?

I really want to get this off the ground and start earning from this, Been out of work almost a year now and this is a have to. So any suggestions, tips or thought on moving forward would be greatly appreciated.
#input #marketersi #offline #offline advertising #offline business #suggestions
  • Profile picture of the author gcjmarkets
    The first thing I would do is go out to local businesses and offer them a free 30 Day listing on your site, I would also add a place where visitors can review businesses and encourage them to do so with a call to action. I would talk about relevant information for consumers and small business owners in your town and make that my appear on my home page. Right now it just looks like an online yellow page.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ralf Skirr
      Your question is hard to answer since you did not really tell what your goal is.

      You mention offline marketing. Does it mean you want to use the portal to sell web sites?

      Or do you want to monetize the portal itself?

      Ralf
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      • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
        I would say that the subject is too wide. No-one is going to search for "shelbyville business". They are more likely to search for "plastic surgeon shelbyville" or "florist shelbyville" - or whatever you have in SV.

        I just looked and there is already a directory on Shelbyville dot com.

        Try and think of something that hasn't been done yet. If your aim is to make money from the directory try and pick a niche with lots of potential advertisers.

        If your aim is to get to the top of Google and pick up off-line SEO or web customers, then a smaller niche will do.

        Here and here are two that I run that work.
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        • Profile picture of the author hock1
          Originally Posted by rosetrees View Post

          I would say that the subject is too wide. No-one is going to search for "shelbyville business". They are more likely to search for "plastic surgeon shelbyville" or "florist shelbyville" - or whatever you have in SV.

          I just looked and there is already a directory on Shelbyville dot com.

          Try and think of something that hasn't been done yet. If your aim is to make money from the directory try and pick a niche with lots of potential advertisers.

          If your aim is to get to the top of Google and pick up off-line SEO or web customers, then a smaller niche will do.

          Here and here are two that I run that work.
          I just picked the domain out of the air, and it was available It kinda conveyed the idea of what i wanted the site to be about.

          Thanks for showing me the shelbyvilledotcom site, I didnt even check to see if we had one before I started this.This may have been the site steve told me about.

          Ah yes, let me tell you about steve, He is the head instructor for the TTCS a technology center here and pretty much has everything to do with the somputer setups around town, They do work for the police department,library,the chamber etc.

          I met him when i went to school there back in '97 and I even impressed him enough that I taught a class there before I took a job in Nashville.

          Fast forward to March 2009 I was let go after 8yrs of service due to the problems they were having with our economy.So now i decided to go back out to the school and re aquaint myself will all the new advances in Technology.

          I had not seen him in those 8 yrs but when I went to get an application to apply. He was like "MAN!!, I was just talking about you the other day and wondered what you were doing."
          We went inside and he showed me all the new stuff that they had going on and i showed him the business directory.

          He told me that no one was doing anything like this and that i had a real moneymaker.
          he mentioned that there was one site out there he told me the person who ran it naturally i forgot, But he stated that it was not doing anything for shelbyville and i could work on this while going to school.

          My hopes is that i can make this a one stop directory not only for the local businesses, but for our town and surrounding counties,similar to what shelbyvilledotcom wants to be.

          What you have going on at muchmarcle, That is the look I am striving for my homepage.
          I wanted the directory part to be second or third, so I know i got some work to do there

          I am creating this with Joomla, I have never used joomla before so im learning as I go.

          The keyword research is next and your suggestions are exactly where i am at, I do know enough in general some terms to target based on the research I have done, I am not a novice even though I do not have anything signifigant to show for my efforts YET.

          So thanks for all these suggestions and hopefully, I have given some clarification to my vague and broad post.

          If not, I can always Try again. you guys are the best and most patient group of people, I have had the priviledge to get to know.
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      • Profile picture of the author hock1
        Originally Posted by Ralf Skirr View Post

        Your question is hard to answer since you did not really tell what your goal is.

        You mention offline marketing. Does it mean you want to use the portal to sell web sites?

        Or do you want to monetize the portal itself?

        Ralf
        Sorry about that Ralf et al, I do realize now I did not give enough information, I wrote the post late so I only had one eye open and one foot in the bed.

        Basically I want a site where local businesses can advertise their services, Get more traffic and clients to there existing site, I do want to monetize it in this way.

        I don't know if i want to offer websites yet, as I am only a one person wrecking crew here.
        but I thought that if they had an existing site, I could help by listing the site on my page and help them get more traffic through my SEO effort.
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        • Profile picture of the author Dave Hardin
          Originally Posted by hock1 View Post

          Sorry about that Ralf et al, I do realize now I did not give enough information, I wrote the post late so I only had one eye open and one foot in the bed.

          Basically I want a site where local businesses can advertise their services, Get more traffic and clients to there existing site, I do want to monetize it in this way.

          I don't know if i want to offer websites yet, as I am only a one person wrecking crew here.
          but I thought that if they had an existing site, I could help by listing the site on my page and help them get more traffic through my SEO effort.

          A quick GOOGLE search shows that there are already several business directories in your area. Instead of offering a "me too" service, why not offer a full service package to your business community?
          A friend and fellow off-line marketer in Madisonville, TN is doing that and is having great success building simple sites for local businesses and then driving traffic to the sites. He has picked up a women's clothing store, a restaurant and a motorcycle shop, all without leaving home.
          Granted, Madisonville is twice the size of Shelbyville, but John has a real handicap. He has a broken back and works strictly from home.
          You can outsource much of the work, really help your local businesses, get some "upfront" money and build yourself a nice residual income.


          Think about it.
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          • Profile picture of the author hock1
            Dave that is another good suggestion that i will take into consideration thank you. How did your friend go about getting this work with no face to face meeting?

            I did see the directories that are listed however I dont believe they offer anything in the way of Seo and getting customers more business.
            I know a few business owners around here and when i asked if they knew they had a listing on a certain directory site they had no idea.

            Also the majority of those sites are run by people that are not even local to the area
            so i highly doubt they actually went to the business and discussed the pro's of being listed. I could be wrong once again.

            Thanks for the suggestion.
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    • Profile picture of the author hock1
      Originally Posted by gcjmarkets View Post

      The first thing I would do is go out to local businesses and offer them a free 30 Day listing on your site, I would also add a place where visitors can review businesses and encourage them to do so with a call to action. I would talk about relevant information for consumers and small business owners in your town and make that my appear on my home page. Right now it just looks like an online yellow page.
      The online Yellow page Idea is also one that i thought about, But I wanted more a site where people could come and check there local news, weather, lottery,etc.
      and be able to look up whatever local business or service they need at the time.
      This would be a way for me to get continuous traffic so I actually have something to sell.

      Your Ideas are great and this is something I will implement,Once I am ready to show the site to potetenial clients.
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  • Profile picture of the author Derek Allen
    So you live in Shelbyville. I live in cleveland tn near chattanooga. You know where that is?

    Anyway, I agree with rosetrees. You need to find some keywords to get your site ranked for EX: shelbyville painters, shelbyville dentist something like that. Then, you need to optimize your site so that it will show for those keywords in google when those keywords are show. Once, you are showing in google you could hit up those particular businesses and sell them a spot on your site. You will need to keep working on finding keywords for your town.

    The bottom line is no one will pay for a spot on the site if it can't be found. So, that is what you need to work on first. Usually regionally targeted keywords are easy to rank for especially since you say it's a small town. If you need some ideas on what kind of businesses to target check out your local chambers of commerce. These businesses are already paying big bucks to be a member so they are usually good targets to start out with. Just mention to them that you are running a special for chambers members. This works well.

    Another tip is, get the site ranked for your keywords. Don't worry about if it gets searches or not. Most businesses will be thrilled to know that they are able to be found on the first page of google anyway. As far as the site goes, it looks good and is very well organized.

    If you need anymore help just shoot me a pm and I will help as much as I can.
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    • Profile picture of the author hock1
      Originally Posted by Deezy View Post

      So you live in Shelbyville. I live in cleveland tn near chattanooga. You know where that is?

      .
      Yes Sir, I know exactly where that is at, When i was in High school, our Shelbyville Eagle and eaglettes played some games in cleveland I believe.

      Our Chamber of commerce has a website, and that is one of the places I go to get some ideas, I will definately PM if I need a brain to pick.
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  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    Read these 15 pages... should help something gel

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...BVRbc40bpOh9WN
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    I'd suggest doing some things to make the directory look more "local". Pull in local rss feeds (if there are any), take some pictures of your local community and rotate them. It will help it look less cookie cutteresk.

    I also agree though, with what was mentioned that you could narrow things a bit. You could create a network of sites, such as mytown restaurants, mytown salons, etc., and hook them through what you already created. This would give you a shot to get each nich ranking for their individual keyword phrases, and also allow you to offer something more targeted to your local community.

    Matt
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