How to start a subscriber site?

[dickbaker]

I have an idea for a site where retail stores engaged in a specific product could be listed. The site would be searchable, so that someone from NY looking for a store in CA would be able to find all or all of the CA subscribers to my site.

The problem is, I can't figure out what the best way to get subscribers might be. Nobody's going to want to be the only one on the site. I''ve thought about offering a six month's subscription for free, but taking care of the site would be pretty much a full-time job.

To the best of my knowledge, there's no site like this on the web, so I wouldn't be stepping on anyone's toes here by asking for opinions.

So, what's your opinion? ;)

[dickbaker]

Ooops. I should have said "any or all of the CA subscribers.."

[rfung]

Your site sounds like the yellowpages.com?

I have a site as well that relies on users buying and selling on the site. Now of course the problem lies on who's gonna want to sell something on a site that doesnt have any buyers, and vice versa?... my problem can be fixed with advertising, and, i have an advantage that i do not charge anything to anyone, so there's less that barrier from getting users.

Is your site REALLY focused on some particular industry? if is,that may be easier to get started, versus some broader interest listings.

[dickbaker]

Hi, rfung. Yes, this site would be tailored to a specific type of store, let's say it's ski shops. A user who wants to find out what ski shops are near a location that he's interested in could either use a map of the state and click on little stars for each shop, or select the state and then scroll down through the cities in that state that have subscribing ski shops.

When the user selects a particular shop, he's directed to a "mini-webpage" that presents whatever information about the shop that the shop owner wants to feaure. The page can have photos as well, if the owner wants them. If the shop has a site, the owner can post a link to it.

Direct mail advertising the site to ski shops might be a possibility, but the response rate on direct mail is low. It would be difficult to get email addresses for the shops, and I'm not sure that email is the way to go either.

I'm leaning towards calling the shops directly, but that's an expensive and time-consuming proposition.

There may be a way of successfully getting subscribers that I haven't thought of, which is why I posted this request for opinions.

I'm glad to hear that your site is working well for you.

Dick

[onlineleben]

Start with a directory type listing first to gather enough traffic and also clickthroughs to the stores.
When your site is established, offer the mini-webpage to these stores. You could also setup a few as demo (maybe changing every day, so that no-one benefits too much from the free demo)
For the mini-webpages, offer different pricing plans like monthly, quarterly, full year subscriptions, whereas the FY subs is the most discounted.

Good luck and let us know more on how things work out.

[nakulgoyal]

Do you have any platform in mind for this? I mean *nix or Windows Servers? or PHP/mySQL or ASP/ASP.NET/Access/MSSQl etc etc?

[dickbaker]

I'd be using MS SQL Server and ASP.

To get more SE exposure, I would have pages devoted to legislative news, press releases from manufacturers of the products the shops sell, informational pages on the products the shops sell, and a calendar for events such as competitions.

I've already done a site for one shop like this, and it has about seven or eight pages detailing the manufacturers' products. Those pages alone account for about 16,000 visits a month. Since there's a lot more than eight manufacturers in this industry, I feel certain that I could be getting 100,000+ visitors to the site in a few months.

My initial plan was to offer six months for free, and then offer a subscription for $10 a month. But the owners of these shops are notoriously cheap, and not always internet-savvy. So, I've also considered putting Adsense on the pages, having a book section related to the industry and sign up with Amazon and then, when the traffic to the site is respectable, approaching a few industry-related online businesses to run banner ads.

I've been making some phone calls to shops around the country to get their opinion. A little less than half say they would subscribe, others say they wouldn't be, and others would want to see the site first.

Getting this going and maintaining it would be a full-time job. With about 12,000 shops to contact, just getting subscribers would take several months.

Any opinions on this idea are, again, much appreciated.