An Online Home Based Business - Operating A City Guide Website

Here is an online home based business that very few people think about but can be quite profitable. If you like being involved with the city or town you live in, owning a city guide community website is not only a great way to be involved, but also a way to give back to your community by offering its business owners a place that they can advertise at a very low cost.

Small business owners may spend hundreds of dollars each month on advertising. Go to a small town newspaper and place an ad. A small ad could cost $100 for just one week. So business owners are always looking for a way to advertise that is inexpensive. By owning a community website you give people a chance to show off their goods and services in a way they could not do in a newspaper or radio. They have their own page on your website where they can update it any time they want. They can post pictures of their store and special sales that are going on. It is all under their control.

So how do you make money with a city guide website? As the owner you set a monthly or yearly price to rent a page on your website. Say you rent a page at $10 per month and you get 50 owners to sign up. That is $500 each month. Not a lot when you first look at it but when you keep adding businesses it starts to add up. Also you can have banner add space for companies who want to advertise on your main page and set prices according to the size of the banner they want. If you like affiliate marketing you can promote products and services through ClickBank or Commission Junction with banner ads and getting commissions. How about having E-Bay in your site map. Visitors click E-Bay and they see live bids going. If they decide to buy a product through your website, you get a commission.

What if you do not know how to build a city guide website? If you Google "your city guide" you will find a few companies with ready made websites. All they need is the name of your city/town and in a few hours your community website is up and running. The monthly costs to operate these sites are very low so you already are ahead in initial investment and they are set up to start making money immediately.

The next thing you have to do is get business owners to sign up and start driving traffic to your website. Remember, these owners are your clients and they are paying you to drive traffic to their web page. You are their promoter, so learn how to advertise effectively.

So operating a city guide website can be a very profitable online home based business if run effectively. It can be fun as well as rewarding. Your imagination can go wild with ways to make your site a go to place for your community.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6269210

facebook dislike button carlos santana may 21st doomsday ralph macchio danielle staub