My attempt at creating a local business directory / community site
The site is www.mid-cheshire.co.uk. It is aimed at people living and working in this part of England. There are four main towns and a good number of satellite villages. The county of Cheshire is just south of and fairly central between the conurbations of Liverpool and Manchester. It is seen by some as an affluent part of the country, however Mid-Cheshire certainly contains areas of deprivation. I would estimate the population of Mid-Cheshire to be around 100,000, and according to my research there are at least 5,000 businesses in the area.
Rationale and features overview
The site is intended to be useful to individuals and businesses, but obviously I would also like to make some money! It is not intended to provide me with a full time income, initially at least, but I believe it could provide a reasonable supplement to my salary and provide a stepping-stone to the relative freedom of working for myself eventually.
In order to build up a user base and provide reasons for people to use and return to the site I have implemented a number of features :
- Community section - which includes a forum; extensive user profile possibilities; personal messaging system; event calendars; gallery; possibility to have own blog on request; facility to report problems eg. potholes in road, fly tipping, to relevant local council; 'hotspots' which are map-based with the ability to add photos and text linked to a particular location; and finally newsfeeds from the local police
- Main business directory - extensive selection of fields for each business; basic fields free, some additional fields chargeable, business owners can choose which individual fields they wish to pay for (ie. they are not forced to pay for a package of features); rating system and review facility for each entry; each entry can be placed in up to ten categories; entries can be edited by owner whenever they want
- Food and drink directory - more specialised directory catering for bars, pubs and restaurants; as above basic fields free with some additional fields chargeable; rating system and review facility for each entry; entries can be edited by owner whenever they want
- Marketplace - classified adverts; free to post basic ad; small charge for including an image; dedicated section for vehicles to follow (aiming for end of May); vehicle ads will incur small charge; additional charge for image gallery
- The site is responsive
Monetisation
All of the 'community' features are free of charge, although to make full use of the facilities the user has to register. At present I have implemented login / sign-up using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn credentials as well as the dedicated site sign-up. The money-making model is based on businesses and those placing classified adverts paying for additional information in their entries.
My initial thoughts on pricing for the business directory are :
Basic information fields that are free would be business name, entry in up to 10 categories, slogan, short plain text summary, tags, address and map, telephone numbers, payment methods accepted, fax number, text number, one promotional image.
Fields requiring payment (per annum) would be company logo (£2), rich text 'About us' with wysiwyg editor and 10,000 character limit (£5), email (£2), website link (£2), business hours (£2), image gallery of up to 10 images (£20), video gallery of up to 5 videos (£20), brochure download (£5). Should a business want all the paid fields this would cost them a total of £58 (about $85) per year. To get an idea of what a listing with a lot of the fields populated would look like you can visit Business Directory - Shopping / Retail - Toys and Games - Bags of Creativity.
I am unsure whether or not to charge for email, website link and business hours. I want to get a balance between providing sufficient useful information for users browsing the site and getting money in. I invite your opinions on this.
Possible other methods of monetisation :
- Providing a video production service - I have neither experience nor skills in this area, could be something I could broker?
- Providing a brochure design service - I have the technical skills to do this, but not the design skills. Again this could be something I could act as a broker for.
- Full website design and production - I could provide a service for businesses that do not have a website or would like their existing site updated.
Any ideas for other methods of monetising the business directory would be welcome.
As for the food and drink directory this is an area that I need to work on, but my thoughts on monetisation are on similar lines to the business directory. Possibilities would include charging for eg. an image gallery and menu download. Another thought I've had would be to charge a fixed price for entry in the food and drink directory which would include an enhanced entry in the main business directory as well.
The classifieds section would provide money by charging £2 to include an image in an advert. The ads would appear for a limited time, say one month. Vehicle ads would cost £2 (including one image), with a further £5 for a gallery of up to 10 images. Again these would would be live for a limited period of time.
Things I would appreciate opinions and ideas on
The home page of the site has a 'Business showcase' slideshow, latest forum posts and forthcoming events at the top. Unless you are logged in this is followed by a strip promoting some of the facilities of the site. Do you think it is worth keeping this as is, or should I lose this from the home page and include it on a dedicated page covering the site's features?
I have deliberately kept the header area very clean, some would say plain! Does anyone think that the site would benefit from a header image? This would have to be in the background as otherwise it would take up valuable real estate.
The home page has a map that shows businesses in random categories. Next to that is a business search that I intend cleaning up a little so that it does not take up so much room. Do you think these elements would be better at the top of the page, immediatelt below the menu / breadcrumbs?
The bottom strip of the home page has a slideshow showing random pictures from the gallery component. To the right of this there is at present a simple module showing some random business names from the directory. I intend replacing this module with either latest classified ads or randomly showcasing entries from the food and drink directory. Which do you think would be better, or does anyone have any other ideas?
When the site is launched the forum will be virtually empty. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting the forum populated reasonably quickly? I have to be honest and say that I do not like the idea of creating 'false' users and posting things under their names to make it look as though the site is being used, so other suggestions would be very welcome. In a similar vein does anyone have ideas to help get people to post classified ads?
What sorts of fields would it be useful to have on member profiles for this sort of site? I do not want this part of the site to be too 'business' oriented, although I shall add a 'business' tab to member profiles for those users that have businesses registered on the site.
I have put basic information from quite a number (over 1,000 at present) businesses up to seed the site, and will be adding more over the coming days. Businesses can easily 'claim' their entry once registered. When the site is officially launched my rather unoriginal plan is to offer free enhanced listings for the first couple of weeks or so, or to the first so many businesses. Does anyone have any other ideas to encourage businesses to add more of their information, even if it just be in free fields, to the site?
Any other comments or suggestions about any aspect of the site would be welcome. It is certainly not a finished product yet, but I feel there is enough structure for people to make meaningful comment on. I promise that all comments will be read and carefully considered, as I am certainly not here to waste other people's time. I hope that as well as asking questions I have provided some useful ideas that others may make use of in their own endeavours.
Thanks in anticipation,
Mike.
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Freebiequeen1999 -
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