Hi all,

I am not a typical businessman but computer professional. Once an idea clicked in my mind to collect the information about businesses operating at different levels and catagories and prepare their directory.

I am planning a web site to upload that information.

So far i din't make any money out of collecting that information. The information i collected is something like this... Super Stores, Colleges, Universities, wholesale and retail business, different types of services.
Mainly i have the information that what are their products and services, special offers etc.

Please help me and give me some ideas that in how many ways i can make profit out of that information.

PS: So far the information I have is limited to my own city. I can expand the scope to the whole country and beyond.

This sounds very much like a business directory listing.

The best thing about a business directory is that you can make money from it. The specific amount you can make is going to vary greatly depending on the size of your city and the number of businesses in say eash catagory.

This is somthing i have been planning to work on but i will let you in on the way i was planning to make money from it over here. Basically some cataogory's can become very crowded for a city like for example here in brisbane there is probably 200-300 or more Car Dealerships. If you have anything that doesnt show up on the first page of results you probably wont be noticed. So the dealers that have a name like "zzz auto's" could pay say $50 a year and have there business placed as a sponsored listing at the very top of that catagory. Now you do need to limit though to say 2-3 at the most, because otherwise you will have everyone wanting to pay for the listing to be at the top and it will defeat the purpose.

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Joel Brown - Orion Networks
Techie-Central - Forums | SEOPTIMISA
Books | PHP

I would be interested to know how you are collecting the info just doing it on your own or do you use a program to pull the information together? I worked for a company a few years back that had a similar model they were making a national "local search" or whatever you want to call it. They had people working 24/7 collecting url's and building the search engine.

Alan

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Alan Moore
www.1stcalltechnology.com

I havent started collecting information yet, but the way that i was planning to go would be the one which will get you in front of the most businesses.

I was looking to start by having the site fully ready to go, then create a basic flyer outlining the site and such with the details on how to get to it. Then walking the street going to every buisiness and asking if they would like to be listed in the directory free of charge. All they have to do is give you a business card, and you leave a flyer. Any business that says no would have to be stupid, it will get you a full directory and once you have the details you can create a direct mail form letter offering the sponsored listing for 2 or 3 businesses per catagory.

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Joel Brown - Orion Networks
Techie-Central - Forums | SEOPTIMISA
Books | PHP

I have another idea to make the directory more interesting.... a little different that a simple directory containing contacts... WHY not make a whole page for each client. It is more appealing than a few lines of introduction.

What you people say about this. It seems appealing but on the other hand the question is... is it economical?