Community Website Marketing I'd like to start a thread about something that I have been doing since 2002 and that is hosting my own community website. Since then I have gone on to create more than 40 other websites on just about every topic under the sun. Also, I have done every form of affiliate marketing, banner advertising, Adsense marketing, you name it, at one time or the other. Still do. And I am glad I did it, for what it has taught me about SEO has been like going to school for a four year degree. As a matter of fact, having learned all this stuff, and being the type of guy liking to pass on what I know, I eventually decided to become a paid mentor to others to help them get started with Internet Marketing. In the back of my mind, though, was always the notion to pass along my one sure fire gig, and that is my community website model. I realize that it's not for everyone, either because they are too lazy, too not interested, or are just generally too fascinated with shiny objects. Gosh knows I have fallen for enough of them. It is a fact, though, that the best courses I ever bought, and I can count them on the fingers of one hand, involved actual work, and not gee whiz push button gimmicks. Community website marketing is such a thing. It takes work... But it also rewards you for your work, every time it's done properly... Here's the thing. A successful community marketing website means that you can concentrate ALL of your firepower on ONE website instead of many. That in itself is quite blessing and bonus. Another bonus is that getting local pages to the top of Google is child's play compared to ranking nationally or globally. This is well known. Having placed the idea of a local community site into your noggin, should you run out and devise your very own community website? Well, you could, if you have a background in Internet marketing, promotion, and marketing in general. However, be advised that a community website requires not only experience, but a real and for true business blueprint, because it's more than your typical run of the mill affiliate site. It's a true work at home business. Emphasis on BUSINESS. It's a biz, that when you know how it works, requires only one person to operate it, and could become as potentially powerful as your local daily newspaper. Certainly as influential as your weekly home newspaper. This is one powerful website, and not to be taken up lightly. Locally, I have seen several community type websites come and go. Mine remains. Why? Because it was designed to have staying power. That's why. I laid the right groundwork for it. That's why. I owned my own local community website years before I had ever heard the term, "offline internet marketing." But that is what it is, sort of. What it properly is, is a combination of online and offline marketing skills. A community website is neither right nor feasible for everyone. It's a challenge, I grant you, much more so than tossing up an affiliate website. But it is right for some, and the potential for local growth of the successful individual, both monetarily and personally quite rightly boggles the imagination, once you play out the scenario. I'll give you this. A local newspaper start up would run into the millions of dollars. It could be done for less if they farm out the printing. But a local community website costs less than $150 to run for a whole year if you already have the skills necessary. Think about it. Really. And it's a REAL home business with real income. I'd surely love some good feedback here on this. Naturally, I'm also in the business of teaching folks about Internet marketing, and now, about how to start their own sustainable, expandable, and meaningful local community website. I'd love to be one of those philanthropist guys, but I'm not there yet. You can help. Ha! Visit my website for more information on this notion of hosting your own community powerhouse website. Let's get a real discussion going here on this fantastic, and for real opportunity for personal success right there in your home town. Norm
How did you get the community to join your website? We are in the position of building our community right now
Hello Cliqflip, The point of a local community website is not so much getting the community go join. It's getting advertisers to join. When you build in a good experience for the local folks in your town, then you make your case to the advertising base. Norm
Thanks SEOKing! The community website model is the ONE website where you can not only make money locally, but at the same time increase your standing in the community. The potential for personal growth is only as limited as the imagination. Whatever else you do in the Internet Marketing world, you will always have your local community website making you money and friends. That is, if you craft a website that is worthy of your friends, relatives, and businesses that will support you. It's quite a bite to chew off, but with imagination and motivation, you can make your mark where you live. It's an exciting idea. Norm
Here is another spinoff for you. Suppose you already have a brick and mortar business there in town. You have a website for your business. It's doing ok, but you are looking for an idea to really grow. You start a local community website that presents stuff of interest to the community with the only advertiser....YOU. Or, you are an enterprising webslinger looking for new clients.... You visit that local biz and offer to build a local community website to funnel the community folks to that biz. What I'm offering is my decade of experience to help you understand what it takes to make a successful local community website that will stand the test of time! Norm
This concept seems amazing. A website where everybody contributes in some way to make the website as profitable as possible, and everyone gets a piece of the pie. And you said you have 40 of them. That is very impressive. I wish oyu the best of luck with this project.
Hi Norm, Thanks for the post! Do you have any community sites we can see to give us a better idea of what kind of sites you are building? Thanks, Kim
Hello there! It's impossible to explain here. That's why I invite you to visit my website, read my introduction and look at my videos. What I'm offering to everyone is to work one on one with my training course so as to allow it to happen. See, everyone and every town is a bit different. New Jersey is different than, say, New Delhi. But the core concept of starting and operating a local community website for profit is the same! Norm
Hello JM, MANY thanks for the kind remarks. I guess I didn't make myself clear about the 40 sites. Those sites are the typical affiliate and Adsense sites. I have only ONE community site. I veered off into to all the usual Internet marketing a few years ago. And it was not a bad thing! I know a university more about my craft than I did working purely locally. The good news is that a local community site is 10 times easier to get GREAT rankings for once you know how SEO works! And while I have been off roaming the world with my other sites, my huge community site has been sitting there humming, waiting for me, with a minimum of work on it.
Hello kh444, Thanks for the question. Well, naturally I do, of course. But, that's kind of putting the cart before the horse for my training course objective. I would prefer for a prospect to contact me from my WorkAtHome website who is genuinely interested. Then I wouldn't mind taking the time to show them (or you) around my community site to demonstrate what I have done, and what is possible. Not trying to be mysterious here about things, but I'm in the hopes of attracting students. Besides, I wouldn't for a minute suggest copying my site formula for yours. Every situation is different. Once we identify the needs of your town, and your strengths, then we can come up with just the right approach! That's the great thing about this personal mentor thing. You don't have to settle for a canned one size fits all solution that may not be a solution. Neat! Norm
Our website is not really about advertisers though - Our website is about meeting new people - i.e. you want to go golfing and you have no golf friends, how can you make some new ones (our website) So how could we get this to work?
Hi Kim, Sorry about that. It's WorkAtHomeGC.com.... Once you are in, you can't miss the gaudy signposts to the community website article and vids. Interesting note. You know something? I have been getting even more ideas about the benefits of a local community site since I posted here on Digital Point the first time. What happens with me, at least, is when I focus on an idea and start brainstorming it, (consciously or even unconsciously) all sorts of new ones come along. That's the beauty of Wordpad! Jot down those ideas, and start thinking of another one. That way you don't clutter up your poor brain trying to remember old stuff, while you're working on new stuff. Norm
Hello Cliqflip, Well, I dunno right off. That's mighty scanty information to go on. Were we working together on the project, I can promise that I would come at it from every angle though. In the meantime, what you set out isn't exactly a broad spectrum community site, which works even in small towns. The way I see it, if you want to appeal strictly to say, golfers, your town needs to be of some size to make it worthwhile doing. That's first. That's a narrow focus site. Second, you must first build a site to lure in golfers. Well SEO'd, first line website, with plenty of unique golf content. Now here's the good part. For a community site, say in Bucksnort TN, you write an article about whether to use woods or irons. While you are writing, or before you post you liberally sprinkle in references to Bucksnort. "My friend Eddie always advises to play golf in Bucksnort only with wooden golf clubs!" Put Bucksnort in the title, description, and keywords, and poom....you are going to rank for golf bucksnort. Then there is the whole thing with promoting it (for free) locally, which will do you more good than Google, hands down. And Facebook and Google integration, what the heck. That's the broad explanation of the SEO of the thing. Natch, there are a ton of other things to consider before putting electrons to screen, and that's where I come in, for folks who'd like to cruise around inside my experience. I'd love for you to stop around my site and talk to me if I can help. (And you really ought to be thinking of how to monetize it.) Norm
Just a thought. I realized before I started that my experience with working at home with a community website wouldn't appeal to the broad base of Internet marketers. Why? Because there so darned many easy buttons to throw against the wall to see if one of 'em sticks. Been there and done that! In the meantime, the percentage of folks who hear about this versus folks who act on it has yet to be defined. However, with the number of folks out there who do what we do, I figured it was something worth chasing...offering to instruct interested folks on how to establish and operate the one site that rules them all. Frankly, if I had a slew of takers, I'd be swamped. Because it's just me doing the teaching. Heck, I'm just getting started promoting this service. Tons and tons of opportunity out there! Wow! I've sort of made Digital Point not only a point of promotion, but also a public success track diary. So, I'll see how it goes. Norm
Another positive point to hosting your own community website if you are a web developer... While your community site is a....community website... it automatically lets folks know that you are in the web business. Of course, if making pages is your thing, you'll host your own advertising as well as theirs. I suppose it could work in the same manner for whatever you are good at. Yesterday, one of my old advertisers called me, and now I am looking at developing two standalone websites for him for his other pursuits. Since his page on my community site is up for his yearly renewal this month, I plan on throwing in the renewal for the extra business. He'll be happier, and I'll be building him two world class websites that won't be cheap. If a community site works as designed, success will build on itself as more and more people become aware of your talents, as expressed through your community site. When word of mouth kicks in, and you play your excellent cards correctly, you could become a very sought after person! Norm
Thanks for sharing Norm. I think community sites (in my case a classified one) is the way to go. It's hard to get them up and going but once you build a solid base of followers things will keep on rolling.