How to promote my site for a specific city.

[MPinelli]

I live in Long Beach, NY out on Long Island. Its a surfers/beach lovers area and is tremendously busy in the summer. Also real estate is HUGE down here between house rentals, apartment rentals, the thousands of co-ops and condos, the local activities, local eating, etc.

I bought the domain name www.longbeach.li It fits perfectly and as much as people think the .li is dumb, it actually makes sense. And god knows how much the .com would cost.

So I made it into a craigslist type site and I eventually want to charge for real estate listings down the road once traffic is steady and consistant. But to start off I'm not going to charge for anything.

Does that make sense?

Whats the best way to promote the site? Like how do new websites claim their spot in the public eye in the beginning? Since I'm only promoting to one town, and maybe 2-3 surrounding ones later on, whats the best way to get people to start using it?

[unholy1]

1. Post an Ad on the local newspapers
2. Distribute flyers or Ask the local deli to give a flyer to each customer order in exchange for a free listing. Ask them staple it on the paper bags or wrappers or whatever it is they use to wrap the food.
3. Make an account on digg, Squido, Gather and Zimbio and create a few related articles with links to your site, this could potentially drive huge Free traffic to your site over a short term period enough time to a least get some signups.
4. Adwords campaign - could be expensive though...
5. Create a 2 minute Video and post it on Youtube and other media or social network sites.
Heck, it doesn't even have to be a video, it can be a powerpoint presentation, just make it creative and thought provoking, make sure to add your site's name on the start and end credits.
6. Spread a Rumor in your community related to your site, Word of mouth is still the most effective free advertising there is or ever will be. - Sometimes stone age tactics work too...

[MPinelli]

i like number 2. but the site is going to be free for now. and ads that people post will probably be free forever. I would only charge for real estate related ads.

do you think emailing real estate offices telling them that they can post their listings for free on my site is a good idea? or do i need traffic first?

[unholy1]

do you think emailing real estate offices telling them that they can post their listings for free on my site is a good idea? or do i need traffic first?

You could but in most cases they'll probably treat it as spam and just dump it in the trash folder.
Direct approach would be better, i.e. go to their offices and pitch your sales.
Just make sure you have a game plan prepared, have a presentation ready, a portfolio, etc. Throw them a plan that is hard to refuse.
Even if the traffic is not there yet, you can still sell provided you make some guarantees that it will be to their benefit, just make sure you live up to them...