How Local Community Directory Make Money In Rural Areas

Grab The Attention Of Your Online Rural Community And Make Money!

I explain how a local community directory can make money in rural areas to solve a range of economic, social, health and welfare challenges.

Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate; therefore, this post may contain affiliate links for me to earn a commission. RuralMoney.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Solving these problems require good information, but good information that is all about a particular community is hard to find.

Newspapers and the Yellow Pages are out of reach and out of touch with rural communities.

Therefore, creating a community directory for small towns is one place for residents to find quality online health and community information that feature local businesses to meet these challenges now and in the future.

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Create your local community directory around businesses that fit into these or your own categories:

• Customer Services And Delivery

Tagline: Get Recognized For Having Great Service And Delivery

• Marketing And Promotion

Tagline: Get Found More Often On Google With Local Community Directory

• Service Planning And Local Business Growth

Tagline: Be In The Know And Understand What Customers Are Searching For

• List For FREE

Tagline: Local Businesses Can List And Be Found Online For Free

If it’s free, how will you make money?

Securely manage their information for a monthly fee and there are more ways to monetize below.

Great service seems to be becoming a thing of the past, but if it is, more businesses will fail.

When customers spend their money with a business, they deserve to be treated well!

Make that your written policy on the bottom of the page.

Let business owners know that your directory is an extension of great customer service.

As your local community directory list all the businesses that provide solutions for economic, social, health and welfare challenges e.g. jobs, housing, automotive repairs, clinic, gas, food, etc., it could be the premier source of connection between businesses and the public.

Whether they are looking for a restaurant menu or a planning a health check up, your digital directory can lead the way to meet individual and community needs.

It could also be the “go to place” for news, weather, sports and other happenings—that residents and visitors will never see on municipal websites.

Your online local directory could provide the information solution for a happier rural town.

How To Market A Local Business Directory Without Experience

Does it take experience?

No.

How will you “sell” your local community directory to potential clients?

By building a FREE, online business directory for YOUR local community, which is a foot-in-the-door strategy—they can’t refuse.

Just tell them that a tiny ad in the Yellow Pages would cost them thousands of dollars, but all listings in your directory are free!

It is just that simple!

I did it once with CollegeParkWebCity.com and did not approach one business because when they saw I was mentioning their business on my directory, they reached out to buy ads (another monetization strategy).

Build It – Dominate The Community – Businesses Will Come

How will you build an online directory?

First, you need to get ahead of the SEO curve by naming your directory after your town e.g. Tinkertown Business Directory or Tinkertown, PA Business Directory.

Wix.com offers a nice template or pick one that fits your local community and build it up with apps to make it easy for users, and to achieve your goal.

By using a ready-made template, there is no overwhelming technical stuff to worry about e.g. html coding, graphic design.

However, you will need to know about copywriting or you can pay someone, but you still need to proofread and edit if necessary for typos!

If you need anything else, then I recommend Fiverr.com.

After your local business directory is done, it’s time to showcase it to business owners.

You can do that by delivering a slick flyer produced by a Fiverr graphic artist for $5.

The Wix site probably cost under $30 per month, but business owners will pay you to manage their listing on a monthly basis.

Charge by the year and not by the month for your services.

Tell them their free listing includes changing business hours, announcements, promotions, sales, discounts, specials, holiday greetings, store closing/re-opening, gifts for positive online reviews, uploading images, etc.

Anybody can do this as a home based/make money online business without any experience or special skills.

On the flipside, you will gain a bunch of knowledge, skill, ability and opportunities to fuel your next online income venture such as:

• Create an online local business directory
• Write copy to promote local businesses
• Local search optimization (each page has to be optimized, but Wix will show you how)
• Create a Facebook page and group and other social accounts for free promotion

You are now in my lane of Advertising, Marketing and Promotion!

Remember that it takes a village to make up a community, so don’t forget to include the foundation information that address local economic, social, health and welfare challenges.

You can ask for press releases, ask service providers for info, or find information on their website.

Don’t just re-post what people already know, dig a little for interesting tidbits about their services from business owners (factual of course) with their permission to publish.

Stay away from gossip and information that may be libelous.

Or, stay on the safe side by listing only the business in one column and what they do in another column.

If you really want to take your local business directory income to the next level, offer a video service to feature businesses with short clips.

This does not entail expensive cameras unless you already have a Canon EOS.

You can use your smartphone to shoot a 2-3 minute video of a local business in “action”!

Ask them what they would like for you to shoot.

For example, you could shoot a little footage of their busiest times of the day, how they prep food and drinks, how they keep the establishment clean, record “words from the owner”, etc.

Tip:  If you offer a professional video package (still shot with a smartphone), then you can create stunning video with Videze and charge at least $299 for the least amount of effort!

A local business directory has a lot of value and potential to make a good income.

Think of all the businesses that don’t have a website—cha ching!

When they’re listed, the ones with websites and video will STAND OUT, which is another selling point.

Again, all businesses are listed FREE, but charge another small fee to FEATURE businesses on the home page with video—under the title: Featured Local Business Videos.

Don’t be greedy—fees add up!

And, this is just the beginning!

Create a “smart” online local business directory that is a successful and profitable business model for other worldwide rural areas to see.

Sign up for my free home business promotion course so you will know how to promote anything!

By the way, don’t forget to thank me when the money starts rolling in.

Lumen5—Grab The Attention Of Your Online Rural Community Directory Visitors With Intelligently Crafted Video—Free

Lumen5 is a video creation platform powered by A.I. that enables anyone without training or experience to easily create engaging video content within minutes–free.

There is NO learning curve, skills or huge budget required. If you can click a mouse, then you can create professional videos fast and easily, without any monthly costs.

Lumen5 is the latest cutting-edge technology, all at your finger tips, that will allow you to blow your “wannabe” competitors out of the water and take your video production to the next level.

It is really hard to believe they have jammed all this into one easy to use AI software. AND, it is free!