The Local News Site Income Formula

Part 1

Create a local news website

I used WordPress with the following plugins.
add widgets to page http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/add-widgets-to-page/
Contact Form 7 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/
Google XML Sitemaps http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
My Page Order http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-page-order/
One Click Plugin Updater http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/one-click-plugin-updater/
Really Simple CAPTCHA http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/really-simple-captcha/
SEO Smart Links http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/
WP-Polls http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-polls/
WP-Stats http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-stats/

Create Pages
Front Page
News
Contact Us
Advertise
Legal
Apply

Go to Settings –> Permalinks and select custom structure, enter in /%postname% and click the Save
Changes button.

Go to Settings –> Reading and under the first section for Front page displays click the radio button
next to A state page (select below), set Front page to Front Page and Posts page to News.

Under that set Blog pages to show at most to 5, then skip to For each article in a feed, show and click
on Summary. No reason for someone else to use the content made for you.

Click Save Changes.

Theme

I used a three column theme, VooDoo Dolly 1.0. It has a nice small header, to allow more above the
scroll page to be seen and bringing the top three ads in to view nicely.

Widget placements
In the left siebar I placed Text (Top Left (TL)), My Page Order, Categories, Archives, and another Text
(Bottom Left (BL)) widget.
In the right sidebar I placed Text (Top Right (TR)), Recent Posts, Links, and another Text (Bottom
Right (BR)) widget.

Using add widgets to page I placed three widgets, a poll, a copy of the recent posts and recent
comments.

Top Left Text Widget (TL)
This ad space is 135 px by 250 px, see TopLeft.txt for more information and coding.

Bottom Left Text Widget (BL)
This ad space is 135 px by 600 px, see BottomLeft.txt for more information and coding.

Top Right Text Widget (TR)
This ad space is 200 px by 250 px, see TopRight.txt for more information and coding.

Bottom Right Text Widget (BR)
This ad space is 135 px by 600 px, see BottomLeft.txt for more information and coding.

I hard coded two ad spots, 468 px by 90 px in to the pages, top and bottom, plus, I hard code an ad spot
in to each post. See HardCoding.txt for more information and coding.

Each ad spot uses the rotator, supplied in rotator.zip, with all the files that you will need and instruction
on which places to edit to make them work for your site.

I have included the coding for the application, see ApplicationCode.txt, so you can cut and paste that in
to your Contact Form 7 and in to your Apply page.

I have included the code needed to add Really Simple CAPTCHA to your contact us form, and code to
enter it in to your Contact Us page.

I have included enough recipes to make it through 2 years, get these scheduled so you have them ready
to go.

Read the local paper to see what is happening and make some posts about it. Get a little life going for
it, 20 to 30 posts made to publish over the next few days. If you can add a couple weeks worth of stuff
all the better. A suggestion is to read the paper, or scan it, daily to add current topical content to the
site.

Make fliers for help wanted and distribute

Yes, this sounds like an old method that people have used to make money, but, there is a twist to this.
You WILL be employing people, or, more accurately, contracting people to make you money.

What made this such a scam before is that BHers are, in some cases, dumb. Yes, DUMB. They go for
the quick buck, burn out a method, and move on, not stopping to realize that they can make more
money yet.

These fliers to not have to be anything special. We used standard sheets of paper with 4 ads printed on
each, then used a paper trimmer to cut them in to their four sections. This was done in about as an
unprofessional manner as possible by us to see if the concept still worked, and, given the low quality,
how well such a pathetic means did work.
It worked well, for the quality.
We also did not hit key targets, using bulletin boards in gas stations and stores.

Take applications and give test

Send the people to your application, which they of course fill out.

We did not use an auto reponder for this, although you could, just make sure that you do not set it to
reply immediately. Make it look like you looked over their application.
Now, the test for the people will be to write about the CPA offer that they select from your list. Give
them a variety and not force feed them only a few offers.
The reason for this is two fold.
First, it allows you to break up the traffic to your offers, and, second, what they write will be used later.
Have them write about the site, what do they like about it, what do they dislike about it, have them do
the offer and write about the experience, their likes and dislikes about it.
If you blackhat the offers, using non incentivized offers, you may get your account, at worst, closed
with no payments at all, or, at best, have those offers scrubbed.

This original content that they write about will be used on the mini sites/blogs that you can create.

Your initial contract employees will be your basis for your next line of income.

Part 2

Contract people that have taken test to be ad sales reps.

This process is simple.

They will go out and solicit businesses in your area to place ads on the site.

With 7 ad positions, each having 6 slots, you have 42 ad slots to sell per month. Our working average
price was $120.00 per month, or $5,040.00 per month, minus 25% commissions, for a total of
$3,780.00. We did a lot of exclusive businesses, which makes the average $180.00 per ad slot, so we
had more income than reported.

Depending on your area you may be able to charge more, or less, on average.
You may be able to increase the number of slots.

There are variables to this that only you can determine what your area will tolerate before they do not
give you money.

Unsold ad slots should be filled with CPA ads.

Now, making the ads is not a major issue. Some businesses have them already, and others have
business cards that you can use.

Scan them in and edit them to fit using GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) a open source version of
PhotoShop. It works just as well, and, can use a lot of PhotoShops plugins, plus, it is FREE.

Take local For Sale classifieds ads

Local classified ads can make you great money on their own. Hundreds of people are looking to sell
items in this economy. Set your prices at better than the local shopper/penny saver’s rate, set up your
form, and start taking money.

I would not overly automate this, you do not want spammers and scammers to ruin your business.

Make the ads better than the others, space is cheap online, so they can have bigger ads, more pictures
and text, with a lower price than you competitors.

More on contractors

After you start getting money in you can start taking it easy. Hire pay per article employees and
recycle part of the funds from advertising in to getting them to write articles.
Leave some for reimbursing the writers for things like admission fees and the such.
Create a basic HTML bio page for the writers. This lends a bit of credibility to them when someone
can look them up.
Using a CPA offer send them to vistaprint to get business cards made up, offering to give them their
shipping fee back.

Remember that contract employees can not be given set hours, but they can be given deadlines. Do not
over contract people, too many will not bring in enough money to make anything, and too few might
get over worked. In both cases you have to start over.

The object here is to make others do the work for you and you make the big money.

Part 3

Talk to local businesses about free advertising via gift certificates, have winners fill out CPA offers.

This is a way for businesses to get more business. Start with the businesses that are already
advertising with you. Then have your ad sales reps find more.

This is a basic sign up and fill out the CPA offer to win the gift cert. The spin on this is, that they get
the gift cert.

Work out a deal with one of the businesses that you work with to give out the gift certs for you, or a
few of them. If not ask a couple others to do it.
It is free advertising and traffic from them, well, almost free, as they do have to give people the
envelopes.

10 businesses giving you 50 gift certs, and a 100% winning rate, gives you $500+ dollars for the offer.
No real work and no cost. Incent offers should be used, but you can try blackhatting it and using non
incent offers. Be prepared for you CPA account to be closed, or non payment of the offers completed if
caught.

Part 4

Self Help

People like self help things, so, why not offer them ebooks, guides, and the such?

Running a local online ebook store you can make some great money. The books, ideally, will be on
topics pertaining to the local conditions and needs. Which would be better placed, you, or a blackhat
marketer in Pakistan?

Part 5

Local business still need a good way to have their sites made and hosted. By this time you have a
reputation for being a local business person with integrity, offering good products and services for a fair
price.

Using WordPress you should be able to set up a site in a short amount of time. Using GIMP you can
create the graphics, or outsource it.

Too keep your ad sales reps busy have them drop off the promotional material for this.

This part mainly comes in to play when business and business owners are expecting their taxes back.
Just like you will be. Your goal is to take their money and keep yours.

Part 6

More advertising.

You are now a local business guru, and you have a lot of ways to make more money yet.

Businesses always need people to come in to their doors, and, you can help them.

This section can be 100 pages long, but I will only put in a few ideas for you to think on and make
money from.

Door Hangers
Place mats for restaurants
Walking billborads
driving billboards
Community Map booklets
In hotels you can place books in each room, just work out a deal for them with giving them something
for doing it. Usually cash works, but work out a low percentage.

Other notes

When you need regular employees try using people with disabilities. This does not mean people with
mental disabilities. We have employed people that were missing an eye, deaf people, and others.
This helps you out with a larger local community and will help you make more money, since they know
that you are employing disadvantaged people.

Tagged As: Creat a local news site, Local business, Local income