Hey Lisa and everyone-
I have been reading earnestly about building a website. I am thinking of ording SBI. I have a couple of questions about what I am thinking of doing and was wondering if you guys could give me some feedback.
Here is my idea:
I was laid off recently from my job at a local newspaper, where I was in charge of listing current events going on in my city. I worked on a site through the newspaper, where people could submit their local events, meetings, etc. and the site displayed a master calendar of events for each day, as well as the future.
I was thinking of starting a site that focuses just on family events in my city. A searchable site that display only family-friendly one-time events (festivals, carnivals, concerts), as well as information on recurring family events held at libraries, local businesses, etc. There is really no other site that does this in my city.
So the questions I have are:
Will SBI be able to help me build a site that features a calendar that I, and other people, can submit events to?
Do you think this niche is too narrow?
I was thinking that I could market the site by simply sending the information to local Mom's groups, posting flyers about it a libraries, etc.
Do you think that I would be able to generate income from this site? What are the chances of getting local family businesses to advertise on my site?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions or comments you may have!

Hi auntcarrie4 and welcome!

I think your site idea is fabulous, especially since there aren't any in your area that you know of. Local advertising will definitely be the way to go and I do think SBI! can help you get started. You would use the brainstorming tools to determine if there are enough searches done for "your city + family" or whatever keywords you'd be targeting.

You can also start by using AdWords' tool to see how popular it is...

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Now, in terms of the calendar, that will require some additional programming if you want other people to be able to post to it. Not sure SBI! is the best platform for that kind of functionality due to some software limitations at the moment.

So that leads me to think you may want to try a regular host if you're thinking of adding some kind of user interactivity with calendars, etc. I'm no programmer, so I'm not exactly sure what's the best way to build a searchable calendar like that, but maybe some more of our technically savvy folks can offer advice in that arena.

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I don't think your niche is too narrow, and if there's not much around like your idea then its a fabulous opportunity to get going on something.

If your a novice at web site building I would suggest using a CMS, through a normal host however I've come to a little Dilemma SBI! is better for you in the sense that it is so easy and they help you all the way, but it may not support a calender. I would email Kens team and Sitesell.com and see what they say.

If you want to do it the normal way your going to have to buy hosting from a company, and then install your CMS.

I found a calender that you can add to the Content Management System

http://www.cmscalendar.com/

Where you can submit events to and then the admin (you) can approve them or cancel them very simple.

Good luck with your decision making.

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As I've heard SBI! doesn't have support databases, however to store all events and manage them easily and quickly.. database is the only way to go.

Can you tell me a little more about this cmscalendar.com site? I'm not sure what to do? Would I use this on my site built with SBI?

I wanted to add that maby you could start out not charging people to post their events but later on when it gets bigger charge a little for them to post their events. This gets you money and if your site works they will pay.