I had the luck to buy "exactnameofmytown.com". Now I need the knowledge to make most of it. Existing official site of my town is weak; I can beat its traffic and SERP easily. I plan to get money for advertising local businesses. From them. I am asking about your advices or sites with advices, how to make this mutant of "yellow pages" + some city info + lot of advertising banners. I need it acceptable in free directories, but of course it is advertising, "spam" site in its essence. /Btw, one of many obstacles is that directories want English and users want Serbian homepage / Its value for clients, its usefulness, is: they will get a page with info and photo with that banner. How to plan it expandable, how to organize pages? Any good examples? Thanks.
Maybe you should have two versions with a language select button? I would keep the site free of advertisement for as long as possible in order to get approved by most directories. Have lots of content. Make the yellow page section free for the first year to get people to add their stuff. Most of us like free stuff. Once your site is successful and drives customers to local businesses, they will have less of a problem to pay you. Offer virtual reality panoramic views. Offer city maps (just don't copy it from a copyrighted source) Make it visually appealing without flash or java.
By giving free stuff you are also receiving, in the long term. If you are starting, you need to motivate your visitors to stay and return to your site. Giving away free services, to begin with, helps creating a faithful group of visitors. Offering free add placements is a great idea- you will have free content and it will give your site a "busy" look People always stay away from empty sites.