My first affiliate commissions from the beginning of my online career came from running a city portal site and although I have since sold the site for a tidy profit, it continues to make money in much the same way.
For the longest time I was making money referring people to hotels, motels and hostels in my city and making referral commissions from TravelNow.com. I was able to brand my pages on TravelNow to look similar to my site but I found conversions to be higher when I didn’t.
At any rate, people that look online for accommodations have many more ways of locating deals that the SERPS aren’t always where they start looking. The site I ran used to get organic search engine traffic for phrases related to {city name} + hotels or {city name} + {hotel name}. With folks being more online savvy in general, a different approach was needed but is still effective.
Mostly now I see city portal sites asking people to use their hotel links to help support the site. The site best have some really good unique quality content for people to want to support them. Plus, the owner must be keeping track of the best deals from across the web (and being an affiliate at several booking sites) to offer the most value.
There are just so many automated deal finders that a city portal site owner must think outside the box these days to continue to get hotel affiliate commissions, but it can still be done.
Let’s start building a site in a general way before drilling into a niche.
The Way I Approach Running And Launching Most Sites Is Similar, And It Starts With WordPress
When launching almost any site these days, regardless of the purpose, from content sites to eCommerce sites, I start with WordPress. It’s just too easy not to. So after 5 minutes and the site build out of the way I decide on whether the blog should be the main part of the site or an “add-on feature” for the site. But a blog will be present regardless. The blog should have regular content (preferrably daily and preferrably video AND written), and should be promoted regularly in social circles.
Now, WordPress probably has plugins or themes to support the main needs for the site. Whether we’re looking to sell products, add a forum, have a classifieds or events engine, and so on, we did ourselves a favor starting the process with WordPress.
Now, let’s “city-ify” the site.
The “City” Part Of A City Portal Site Might Not Be “Niche” Enough These Days
With people flocking to social sites and sharing where they live, where they shop, what they are doing, etc. “big data” has a lot on us in terms of providing some great “real time” information about a particular city. They got us beat there, the little guy can’t compete.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t go more niche than that. There are people trying to target every city in the world with a web site. They might do well, but they could drill down and have a better chance. Then there are people targeting by state/province/region or country. Can we go more narrow than that? Sure, we can target just one city. But as mentioned, unless we think outside the box, “big data” has us beat. So, where can we go from there? The sky is really the limit actually.
General City Sites Have A Lot Of Content And Are A Lot Of Work
We did so well well with a city portal site for our city in the past, we looked at ways of duplicating the process in a “modular” way to spread the success into surrounding cities. This lead to my exploration of dynamic database driven web sites using Active Server Pages and the VB Scripting language.
Our sites had it all: we had local news (mostly regurgitated from other sources since we weren’t exactly on the pulse), events (a lot of work keeping that up to date), classifieds (for all categories), hotel listings, business directory, restaurants and menus, tourist information, etc, etc. It was exhausting and time consuming but profitable.
I think now there is an easier way, but a way that is much more appropriate to attract the “long tail.” We can’t be everything for everyone, even if “everyone” is defined as “residents in a particular city.”
Defining A Niche For A City Site Starts With The City
So, as an example of a niche city portal site, let’s first pick a city. Say, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where I live. Let’s pick from one of the many “features” we would put on a full blown city portal site. How about Events. Then let’s choose just one category from the events. Perhaps something that you are active in yourself. I for example bring my 3 and 5 year old kids to events around the city and I’m always on the look out for new ideas. I grab flyers, booklets and pamphlets, plus I do Google searches and check out the variety of city sites to aggregate the event listings for a given time period. I don’t know of any one site that caters to events in my city for kids in that age group. It may exist but I don’t know about it.
So, how about a site for: Windsor, Ontario, Canada events for children under 10 years old? (I would have to research a better age maximum but you get the idea). Now, that’s very very niche!
It would be easier to keep the site up to date because it’s essentially just one thing, and if it’s something you are part of, or want to be part of, all the better (and easier).
Forget AdSense On City Sites, Consider Local Advertising
Sure, AdSense might fill in some advertising gaps, especially at the beginning, and with remarketing the ads will surely get clicks, but if you were to start gaining mass amounts of traffic and chatter about your site, advertisers will start asking for your rates in no time.
Say you profiled a page on the “clowns” in your city and had some real reviews written up about them, you could sell a premium spot to a clown in the city on that page and they’d be happy to pay.
For an outside-the-city monetization idea you could look for group rates and group buys (preferrably where you could get commissions) for events outside the city. Then you can create a social avenue (a Facebook event page perhaps) for people to sign up for the event for their children. Large accommodation commission (plus buzz for the site) could be the result.
Learn The Exact Steps And Costs To Maintain The Site And Duplicate It
Now, once the system is in place and there is a routine set, if it is profitable and worth the time, it wouldn’t hurt to duplicate the success in nearby cities if it’s enjoyable for you.
You might need to reach out to one or more people in the city to share the content for the site. For example, using our sample Windsor events site for kids, you might need to locate parents in the city that aggregate event data to keep their kids entertained. They would be perfect candidates for the upkeep of the site in their city.
Be sure there isn’t already a similiar site for the city that you plan to target. If there is though, cross-promote eachother and network with eachother. If not, be sure it’s a big enough city to keep it profitable.
Lastly, if you feel that you cannot do this full-time, perhaps drilling down deeper and tacking on “summer” to the “niche” wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Other Possible Ideas For City Niche Sites
Now, I don’t want this to seem like summer events for kids under 10 is the only way to go here. Even changing one of those variables can provide a rich valuable site for the community. Perhaps have one devoted to adults. I know MeetUp.com does an OK job with that but they mostly help get the people together. Your content can revolve around history, reviews, real-time Instagram pics, real-time Tweets, etc. for various events and event sites.
Also, of course, events can be swapped out for classifieds. You might have to drop the seasonal part of it but you can create a site around: Missed Connections in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, which may or may not include a sexual orientation niche variable.
Consider an events/classifieds hybrid site centered around food or dieting, or a specific diet. Are there enough raw food dieters in your area that would benefit from knowing when the next raw food potluck is or who has a 5-tray Excalibur dehydrator for sale?
Clearly there are many “niche variables” in the equation for a city portal site that there are limitless options. I personally feel that if a site, regardless of the topic, involves something that is part of your life day to day, it can be a profitable experience for you in many ways, not just talking financially.
I’ll tell you: the how to “build”, and how to “monetize” a site questions have long since been answered. It’s time to just pick a niche, and don’t be afraid to drill down, and understand that you don’t have to be everything for everyone. Remember too that outsourcing is your friend and later on down the road keep in mind that “systems” can be duplicated.