Hey all,

A friend and I were trying to think of an idea for a website that could possibly generate us a few extra dollars in cash. We realized that our town doesn't have a real web presence for restaurants and reviews. There are those typical yahoo and yellow pages listings and there is a site called Yelp! that has reviews. We were thinking we could include the restaurants menu and allow a user review/rating (kind of like newegg). Other ideas include trying to organize deals/coupons between restaurants that would aid both businesses. We envision a site that our local restaurants would recognize and want to be on

We obviously would need to be free and build credibility to start, but then we could gain revenue by having advertisements for the restaurants with a pay-per-click or monthly fee.

Another idea could include providing online ordering.

Please give me your thoughts, thanks

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Brett Shegogue

-Website I made for my father- http://www.thetelltalepen.com

Who is your customer?

A lot of business people, or would be business people, lose sight of one of their most important points of reference. You have to ask the question, "Who is my customer?"

When I read your proposal I'm not sure you have answered that question yet. Perhaps you have, but perhaps you haven't either.

If you want to make your money through local advertisers you better write your own descriptions of the restaurants, etc., with a view towards being sales oriented. That doesn't mean not providing accurate descriptions for the public, but you won't write what some reader comments might say, "They were rude and didn't cook my steak like a wanted!"

If your readers are going to pay the freight, how? And how much?

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Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

That's an excellent point James. If you're more interested in getting participation from the general public (i.e. restaurant reviews), then that could have an impact on advertising from local businesses.

I actually have a friend here in Dallas thinking of doing something similar and because of that very reason she is doing the reviews herself and once her site is up and trafficked, she will solicit advertising from the local businesses.

So as James said, I think it would be helpful to know which way you are going to take this.

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Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

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