Top 10 list idea - your feeback needed

[Chappy]

Hi
I live in a fairly affluent area of California and realized there is not much on the web which tells me what is the very best of everything in our community. I'm talking about needing to know who are the best electricians, the best bakeries, the best tree removal services, etc... you get the idea. Of course "best" is subjective.

Hence my plan is to set up a <countyname>top10.com site on which I can list the top 10 of a bunch of different categories. Sure there is Yelp but it's not easy to find everything on there for my area and as a resident I just want to know who are the best of everything.
People love top 10 lists. You probably know TopTenReviews.com has enjoyed tremendous success.

First step is get a site up and running. I'm not a web expert but have put together Wordpress sites before so that'll probably be my first choice. Something simple but professional looking.
I have no idea about SEO so will have to look into how best to get the site to pop up when people google "<county> electricians" or "best bakeries in <county>".

As for revenue I could approach vendors and have them pay a fee to be on the list. A little sketchy I know so probably not the best idea.
Alternatively I could populate the list independently from other sources and then scatter ads around or have some local retailers pay to have their banners up there or something.

Let me know what you think. I don't want this to be a big waste of time.

Thanks

 

[urlurl]

I think there is a top10 site already. but there is always room for better sites. For people to use it, it would need to have proper reviews or recommendations from industries professionals.

 

[dcristo]

umm yeah i agree with you the monetization model does seem a bit sketchy you are basically only including them in your "best" list if they have paid. i'd rethink this over tbh.

 

[urlurl]

you can have paid and promoted co's off to one side or use adsense to monetise it.

 

[Jack Gordon]

Yeah, I would do some serious, serious consideration before jumping on this. Some questions I would ask...

- Is there really a lack of this kind of info?
- How much labor am I willing to spend on one community? How about 5? 100? 1000?
- If I automate any part of this, does that add real value to the net, and by extension does that do anything to make me money?
- Why will my list be any better than anything else out there, especially outside of my community?
- if I let people pay to be on a list, doesn't that completely undermine my credibility, and therefore the whole concept?
- How will I recruit and manage advertisers in a way that can make actual money?
- If I am registering (countyname)topten.com domains, how will they all be connected? Don't I want all traffic to be routed through one portal?

I am not saying it is impossible, but I certainly don't think it is something that would be easy enough to be so casual about it.

 

[Melly]

I think it could be beneficial and possibly profitable if done right. However, is there enough interest in your city to make it worth it? How large is the city? If you do top ten is it going to be for every niche or only specific types of companies/services?

Adsense can make you money but it takes a lot of work to monetize it just right to earn from it. Selling ad space is okay but they aren't going to buy space until you are getting traffic and have some type of rank that would interest them. I thought about doing a local directory type site for Knoxville but my thought was to implement something that would be beneficial to both the company and the surfers so maybe coming up with a way the companies could create coupons on your site and allow visitors to download there. I dunno just something that I was thinking of but the problem is being able to keep up with everything.

When you do the top ten is it going to be your opinion or will you be doing polls from locals? So there's lots of decisions that would go in to your lists. What companies get the most business? I mean do you really want to put up a barber shop or a morgue? LOL just off the wall stuff.

I think that it could be a good idea but not sure if the earnings are there enough to move forward. I think you are going to have to create something GREAT and by that I mean something to offer surfers other than just the top ten if you get what I mean.

 

[Biggie]

angie's list already got firm grip for "best" local services niche' with reviews, online and in magazine form


i think they would be model to look at

imo...

 

[Chappy]

Thanks for the input guys.
There are about 250,000 people in my home county. On many occasion I've had to research vendors and service providers and all I have to go on is Yelp (or Angie's List but it sucks to have to pay for that kind of info). Then on Yelp I either get no results for some categories or a long list of results for which I have to search through the reviews which are typically mixed good and bad. All I want as a consumer is someone to tell me what are the top providers for my chosen category...which is where <localGeo>top10.com comes in!

The actual top 10 list of vendors would be picked by "consumers like you" but in the early stages it would simply be me talking to friends and neighbors, reading Yelp reviews and making my own judgments. After that I can get more savvy about it. Ultimately, when someone asks a friend "do you know any good local plumbers" the response should be "Have you checked <localGeo>top10.com?".

I'm struggling on the revenue generation bit. Like others suggested it's too sketchy to ask vendors to pay a fee to get on the list or even to participate in the program. I like the idea of having some sponsored links somewhere else on the page though.

 

[Biggie]

perhaps consider starting as a blog, to build up following, brand and some traffic

if that gets momentum, then you can migrate to plan b.

from there, with the traffic and following, you could be in position to pick and choose advertisers.

though when you say....

it sucks to have to "pay" for that kind of info

,

that's the point which is key to keeping the ball rolling.

info has a cost, data has a cost, why you think everybody (social media) trying to get yo "profile"?

 

[Shane]

I honestly think a top ten list will be useless for you. Who wants 9th best? I'd recommend keeping it short - top 3. You'd have to build a responsive website that takes advantage of mobile users GPS and CALL functions.

It'd be great to search for.. best sushi in xxxxx, visit the website, click to call (make a reservation) and then finally click to activate my cells GPS.

Just my 2 cents

 

[hugegrowth]

The advantage you have over Yelp, etc., is that you live there and have more of a finger on the pulse of things. Local sites can work out great if you have the time to spend on them. Even though 'local' is talked about a lot, it still isn't always easy to find information on places you visit. A website offering clear, easy to read and detailed information on a city provides valuable content.