CONCEPT:

Create a local area guide and directory, using wordpress as the front housing articles and information integrated with a phpmydirectory (found in /directory) that would contain a complete area business directory. Monetize by selling advertising and sponsorships to local area businesses in addition to some other methods (adsense, travel affiliates, etc) and enjoy.

PROBLEM:

The scope of my project kept getting bigger and bigger as I wanted this guide/directory to generate a large amount of income. All of a sudden, I was unclear how to integrate the concept with Wordpress. Should I use posts/categories/pages? I just wrote about 15 more questions and deleted them for your sake… the point is… there were problems fitting my concept into Wordpress box.

THE DEBATE:

First of all, the best solution is probably to not use Wordpress. It might be best to have something custom made to my specs or use something a bit more flexible. But right now, I’m a one man show with limited resources, so I have to press on.

I started with a magazine style wordpress theme which makes obvious sense and I edited the index.php file to give it a static front look that is essentially a portal with “area overviews” that link to each given “category” or section. Take a few areas that ANY local area directory should have: real estate, entertainment and restaurants.

Unfortunately, if you have the “Real Estate” section as an actual wordpress category, there are some drawbacks.

1. It will put all your posts in yourdomain.com/category/real-estate
2. You can change the text “category” to read something like yourdomain.com/custom-word/real-estate but the problem is still the same
3. We want our main areas to target main keywords and be sort and sweet, increasing the keyword density of the url: yourdomain.com/real-estate
4. It’s also not as easy to set page title, keywords, description for categories and just creates another hassle.

Categories can’t do this, so we’re left with using either posts or pages. Which one should we use? Well… if we were to make the “real-estate” section simply a “post” and chose %postname% than our post WOULD look like yourdomain.com/postname.

Not so fast… this creates a heckuva lot of problems once we start building out our local area concept a bit more. Your posts have to go in SOME category… would you call it “main sections”? You wouldn’t be able to customize the sidebar for each “area”, extremely limiting your flexibility when it comes to including relevant, targeted content and perhaps more importantly… ad space.

And even further… what happens when our idea expands and we want to start making weekly posts about restaurants, real-estate updates or entertainment happenings around the community?

THE SOLUTION:

Turn your pages into categories. You can easily set each page to utilize a different page template in wordpress: read the tutorial here. Your sidebar templates get called up within the content of the page template, allowing you to call up a custom sidebar.php file you’ve created or embed the sidebar code directly in the page template.

Should you choose, your page could just include the title “Real Estate” and the content could be left blank. The custom page template you use for this page could house all the content, giving you flexibility in the design and allowing you to link out to other pages with more detailed information such as: “homes for sale”, “neighborhoods”, “school districts”, “demographics”, etc… whatever information you want to keep there.

Chances are you will just nest this other content as a page child of the “real estate” section, but if keyword density is important to you, it’s just as simple to make it have no parent and link it out like so.

The difference would be:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/real-estate/school-districts
• http://www.yourdomain.com/school-districts

Of course, some keyword research might tell you what the best option is… but you should probably stick with a single pattern so you can easily navigate your various pages later on. While keyword density is important, all the links you’ll drive to the site will probably do just fine. Afterall, the density of the “real-estate” section is the most important.

Using this “page” you can also use your custom sidebar to have a “featured realtor” which you will sell in as an advertiser. Link directly to their site or let them have a page hosted on your site. Why not make THEIR page an actual “post” in a “sponsors” category? It will be easy for yourself and visitors to view the site’s sponsors, starting with the newest ones on top! Nonetheless, a customizable sidebar will let you list relevant content in the “real-estate” section without using a page or category… tremendously important.

Perhaps most importantly… this infrastructure will be set up to SCALE. If you want this site to grow and become more than static info, you’ll easily be able to twist it yet again to fit the needs of your growth. How? Thanks for asking…

Simply create categories that mirror the pages you created. I’d replace the “category” term with “articles” to give yourself more of a “fresh” sound. Change around the page template for the section you want, such as “real-estate” to accomodate dynamic content. This is so flexible because you can keep your static content in there, linking to more static content while using the wordpress loop to call up recent posts directly from this category in any format you want.

By any format you want, I mean take a look at the wordpress codex and what other themes do… you could just have your section home display the most recent article with a picture and excerpt as a “featured article”, list other “recent posts” in the sidebar for that section by calling up only posts in that category and have the rest remain the static content that is important to your users for their real estate needs.

It takes some legwork… you’ll be jumping through some hoops… but think about it… the work basically comes in three steps:

• Use this infrastructure to create a static site that serves as a resource
• Sell the heck out of it to local businesses and promote the heck out of it to get it ranked for various keywords
• Decide to grow and twist the page templates again to accomodate daily/weekly content from hired help

If your site grows to the point where you WANT a customized solution, you’ll probably have plenty of capital to pay for it by the time you reach step 3. That’s what I’m hoping for in my own venture. Just make sure your URLS stay the same so you don’t waste all that link juice you’ve built up!

IN SUMMARY:

This exercise has definitely proved to me that this approach is the way to go. I was really contemplating what was the best method and really thinking things through and getting your ideas down on paper helps. I knew this blog had a purpose!

A few more great ideas to get your directory up and running:

• Use a scraper to pre-populate your business directory from YellowPages.com and send out a direct mail piece to each one letting them know you’ve included them. Make sure to tell them they can upgrade (for a small fee)… you’ll generate buzz, traffic and hopefully land a few deals.
• Have sponsors underwrite advertising costs. Put together a sponsorship package that not only includes exposure on your website, but inclusion in radio ads, newspaper ads, magazine ads, etc… Dedicate a percentage of the ad to mentioning them and their slogan or message and make sure their combined price exceeds the cost of advertising. You’ve just been paid to advertise your own website!
• Join the local chamber of commerce and have business cards made SPECIFICALLY for this website. Join networking groups in the area. Express that this website is a business in and of itself and people will really start to look at your website as an authority. But… it better have some damn good content and resources!

Now get off your butt and take over your local area before someone else does! Speaking of which, you’ll probably have a ton of competition to begin with but take a closer look. Usually, you’ll find that your competition has some soft spots. Combine the best elements of all your competition when making your own site. And… exploit the opportunities they haven’t taken advantage of… many of these competitors aren’t SEO savvy and you’ll have a huge edge!