There is no doubt that local area search represents a huge opportunity for web developers. An increasing number of people are using search engines like Google to find local businesses and websites serving as resources for these web searchers are often MIA. Heae that? It’s opportunity knocking.

Creating a local area guide seems like a daunting task with data entry serving as one of the main nightmares on the road thought about being travelled but ultimately abandoned. Luckily there are tools out there to help us – you just have to know which tools to use. In this case we’re going to use an amazing plugin for Wordpress called WFReview. This plugin acts as a review plugin for Wordpress and when applied to our Local Area Guide concept using a Yellow Pages Scraper (we’ll get to that) we can create a local area guide with thousands of listings in about an hour. And if you don’t believe me…. just watch as we build Baltimore-Lawyers.org from start to finish in this WFReview Tutorial:

Part 1: Concept And Basics

Things you need and need to know:

• You need WFReview
• You need a Keyword Research Tool like Wordze
• You need to buy a Domain Name
• You need to get Web Hosting
• You need a Yellowpages Scraper Tool (link?)
• Search for domain names at Domain-Tools
• I did not PLAN for the sirens to go off as soon as I said “Baltimore”… home of “The Wire” baby – there is a reason our BBall team was named the Baltimore Bullets. Unfortunately they all shot each other and had to move the team to Washington (take a joke).

Part 2: Installing Wordpress

• Install Wordpress using Fantastico or Manually – I prefer the latter.
• You’ll need an FTP Client like Filezilla.
• Plugins Used: WFReview and All-In-One SEO Pack
• Theme Used: Limau Orange

Part 3: WFReview and YellowPages Scraper:

You need a YellowPages Scraper. I would lend out the URL of mine but the chances that it would be abused are a bit too high. If I know you and/or you’re a frequent commenter and can be trusted, hit me up and I’ll give you access to mine on BuildAndEarn. Otherwise, hit up WickedFire and search around for one to buy – it shouldn’t cost more than $20-$30. If someone is selling a YellowPages scraper hit me up and I’ll link to your site as a resource for this tutorial.

Part 4: Importing To Wordpress with WFReview:

Part 5: Customizing WordPress
At first I wanted to show every step of customizing the theme but it proved to be way too much back and forth randomness and irritation for a screencast. Instead I just give a brief overview of what I want to change and Step 6 shows the changes. If this is a part you really, really wanted/needed to see let me know in the comments and I’ll see if we can work something out:

Part 6: Final Product & Monetization

Summarized: WFReview is awesome. Buy it and prosper.

Building and Earning vs. Spamming and Earning

Some folks (bleached whitehats) might think this devious… meanwhile blackhats are laughing at the thought. But I think if you look at this site as is – from a neutral standpoint – it offers immediate value with the opportunity for a lot of long-term potential. Someone searching for a lawyer by name could likely find their address and phone number through this website. People are searching for this information and at the moment they have NO good resources. Baltimore-Lawyers.org provides a starting point.

If this website were in my long-term plans I may have done things a bit differently. They practice area of lawyers plays a huge roll and this whole realm is neglected. However, re-evaluating its probably a good idea I left it out. Most lawyers and legal groups span a bunch of practice areas – why not apply lawyers to specialty areas only if they purchase a premium listing and/or category listing? All lawyers are simply listed in the general “lawyers” category and are added to specific practice categories if and when they purchase a premium listing. This will not only further the usefulness of the website but also add value to sponsors.

The issue of “rating” lawyers is somewhat of an issue because you can’t validate the reviewer was an actual client… but isn’t that the case with most review sites? Dealing with this issue now is getting WAY ahead of yourself – one. step. at. a. time. Right now we’ve got a killer website thanks to WFReview and we can apply this concept to a bunch of categories/industries in various locations.

I’ll keep you guys and gals updated on the progress of the site but I can’t promise I’ll be working on it frequently. Perhaps checking in now and then until I decide it either deserves more attention and not. Until then we have more important things to worry about…. like building more sites and more content and more resources that will help other people… while helping us earn!

WFReview & Improvements

There are certainly some things about WFReview I’d like to see added and/or improved. For example, API integration with Google Maps would be wonderful. Lets keep in mind this thing wasn’t designed specifically for local area guides… we are merely using it this way. Furthermore, the developer of WFReview is committed to continually developing the product to meet the needs of the WFReview community. And the larger the community the more rapid the development.

If you liked this article/tutorial I hope you’ll do one or both of the following:

• Subscribe to my RSS Feed
• Purchase WFReview through my affiliate link

Thanks and I’m eager to hear your comments/thoughts/opinions!