What would you if you were the owner of this (non-adult related) site?

[blondelover]

Please,
I would like to hear some opinions from the members of this board, which I respect much.

Suppose you live in a popular touristic city.
Suppose you have great rankings for many great (travel and non-travel related) keywords associated with the city.
That means, let´s assume, that you can talk (via your website) to nearly all tourists (both nationals and foreigners) which are coming to your city.

How would you try to make money in such situation? Both online and in the real world?
Examples of keywords: [hotels in city], [map of city], [real estate for sale in city], etc.

Any opinion greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

[priest]

Hotel reservations may be?

http://www.bookings.net/general.html...ocs/affiliates

This link is for european hotels though... If you're not in Europe search for other programs. I remember seeing lots of them in the past.

Good luck!

[blondelover]

Thanks, priest

Yes, the site is already showing some travel affiliate links (hotels, flights, car rentals, etc), as well as Adsense, and is doing fine.
However, I think that the site has much more potential than just selling ad space.

To put it in practical terms: suppose that you have a travel site about Las Vegas or London, and that the site is visited by nearly all tourists actually going to those cities. Can you see the potential?
I believe that there are many other money making alternatives, other than selling banner space; for example, I´ve considered opening a (brick and mortar) real estate agency, or renting sub-directories of the domain to other interested businesses.

I feel that I have a high potential site, just don´t know the better way to realize it.
I think this board has many clever, hard working, and results oriented people. That´s why I would like to hear opinions.

Thanks,

[Porn Meister]

Luggage.. proper attire for season.. Maybe links to citidata.com for instance. Or to other "authority" style sites that provide real information on the destination perhaps to increase your own value.
You could find out events maybe, or seasonal attractions and link to info, or sell a package maybe that includes the event. ie: maple syrup festival, rocky mt. oyster festival, lol.
Work out a coupon deal for your site visitors that a local merchant would honor or something.

Just off the top of my head since you asked.

[cd34]

A while back I reviewed some software called Midgard, and they included a 'demo' called TownPortal. I always had visions of doing that for the city I lived in. http://www.midgard-project.org/

Also, local rentals, seasonal rentals, realtors, etc. Basically, become the information authority for the city.

A client of mine years and years ago had a series of sites:
http://rockvillepike.net/ is one of them -- I can see it hasn't advanced much.

The one thing I have looked for is a CMS that had a decent classified ads and auction package with a message board. Perhaps a calendar as well. Then you could have people putting in local events. Link to a matchmaker/personals service.

Get with the realtors, and they can post the Open Houses notifications. Quite a few opportunities.

I only wish I had more free time.

[T Pat]

Blondelover I've been playing with a travel related site (tijuana-tonight) here's what I've learned on my site. The travel related affiliate program banners aren't getting any traffic.
I'm advertising for a Mexican Insurance Comapany that banner is getting good click throughs as are the banner's I have up for MexiCoach and Tijuana Bullfights. The rest of the banners I have up are just taking up space.
I have an Adult section that's making a few bucks ($3.75 to get in free for Servicemen)
The Adult banners I have in my Adult section are doing well and making me more money than everything else on the site.
I've tried flooding the Tourist Section of Tijuana with Business cards, that helped a little, but was followed up with my main competition putting up a banner on every lamp post in the Tourist Section.
Tried a photo contest that's been a miserable failure

I think a travel site will do well if you are willing to spend time knocking on doors and selling local advertising

[blondelover]

Thanks to all who replied.
TP, have you tried Adsense? It´s a few cents a click, but it adds up. Of course, don´t place the ads on your adult section.
Yeah, I will knock on doors for sure, I just want to know Which doors to knock.

And you can call me also latinalover.

Thanks again.

[Kezza]

I would take a good look at the type of programs thats are coming up on adsense for the various keywords... and find and promote similar ones on the page/s

[T Pat]

BlondeLover I agree that Adsense could be used to not only make a few bucks but to find what your surfers are interested in and to establish a minimum value for your banner space.
I just don't know enough about Google to risk getting red flagged or something becouse I tried to use Adsense on a site with an Adult Section
I would try to setup Adsense on Tijuana-Tonight in a heart beat if I knew for sure that it would't effect my SERPS if they pulled my adds

[[BV]]

I would go around to all the local businesses in your city and sell add space cheap per month. Have some statistics to show them, work some deals maybe on referrals maybe with some of the smaller Bed & Breakfast type places, etc..,..

You could sell full page adds as well as smaller listings anywhere from 100 - 20 - 10 dollars a month i would guess. Be worth a try.

Have a nice professional looking functional site to show them as well.