Question on monetizing organic traffic

There are bound to be more sophisticated revenue models as well, it's probably best to study what the established sites are doing. A typical directory offers free listings but charges for featured listings, the big boys provably have promotional networks that tie in with travel agents.

Expect to test a few schemes, you might find that advertising traveler accessories or insurance might work best.

Travelocity has an affiliate program

Here's an example of a service that tourist venue directories might employ

I hate to break it to you, but that traffic number may not be as solid as you think. When someone searches for ocean city hotels, most would assume that the searcher was looking for a place to stay. I would assume, from the plural 'hotels', that the searcher was looking for a list of hotels in Ocean City - for some undetermined reason.

They could be looking for a hotel to stay in. Business or pleasure? Length of stay? Time of year? Budget?

They could also be building a prospect list, expecting to market a myriad of products and services, from bulk toilet paper to commercial insurance and financing.

If you want to sell banner ads to local hotels, you'll need some established traffic numbers, as well as contacts for the person or company responsible for buying ads.

If you plan to review the hotels, you'll have to answer some of the questions above before you can write an effective review. Otherwise, there are a ton of sites with generic hotel reviews and many with actual guest experiences. Even if you manage to lure traffic with SEO and search traffic, you have to be able to offer those visitors something to make them stay on your site, as opposed to the many other options available.

You've made a classic misstep, finding the keyword and then trying to figure out how to make money with it. It should be the other way around. Figure out how you plan to make money, and look for the keywords that support that.

John & Kerry make valid points.

Concerning monetizing, are your local hotels part of major chains as Commission Junction have many of the major hotel chains as members and you can get affiliate links for the hotels through there if your an approved member.

I would try to do adsense and sell clickbank problems.