For the last several years I’ve been using one method that brings me in a good amount of cash month after month. I live in a suburb outside of a major city. There are quite a few small businesses in my immediate area and for the most part, they don’t have a clue about advertising online. Many have used old html programs to build their sites and I doubt 1 in 100 know how to SEO optimize the sites the do have up. A good many are still using free webhosting services like Angelfire and BraveNet.

So what did I do? I built a local directory and sell advertising on it plus I make some money from Adsense and affiliate marketing. If you’d like to learn how to do this, then read how these guys build a local directory using WordPress.

Now I don’t follow their example to a ‘T’. That’s the beauty of the Internet, you can experiment with different strategies to see which one works best for you.

Once I have the site up and structured the way I want, I then start building links to the site and submitting it to a wide range of online directories. Once that is done, I then start hitting up local businesses to advertise on my site.

Why Local Small Businesses Can Be Your Ticket To Making Money Online

Times are tough. Especially now and many small businesses are looking for ways to increase sales. Now be forwarned, they will not throw money at your and your local directory just because you have one. You’ll have to show them the benefits of your site verses some “Web Design” company who raked them over the coals by charging them way to much for their crappy website!

This is why having your website ranking for some local terms will really pay off.

If you’re really lucky, you’ll find some small businesses that are looking to get online. These are generally easier sales that existing businesses who’ve been online for years.

Dentist, Attorney’s, Flower Shops and Home Service companies are some of the best to start with. Tha’ts because most of these are Mom and Pop businesses and they don’t like being out done by their competition. If Bob the Attorney see’s that Charlie the Attorney down the road advertised with you, chances are good that he’ll want to advertise with you as well.

I charge monthly fees on my website plus I have several layers of fees. Top of the page is the ‘Featured’ business and below these are the ‘Premium’ businesses. The rest on the page are the ‘Standard’ listings. I give the ‘Featured’ businesses space to write a short bio about their business. This helps sell these spots because they cost nearly double the amount as the ‘Premium’ space.

Diversify Your Local Online Business By Offering Other Services

I know people who are pulling down a lot of money by building these local directories. They also offer local businesses simple web site building, SEO and other online services. These can add up to some serious money over time as your business grows.

And all you have to do is treat your Clients well. Make sure your local directory ranks well for your local terms. If you have to spend some money to get it ranked, then do so! You will recoup this cost by keep your existing customers and gaining new ones.

You see, if you are serious about finding ways to make money fast online, there are a number of ways to do it. You don’t necessarily have to do it the way everyone else is telling you. Think outside the box for ways to make money online!

If you’re one of the many people who rely on one or two websites, or techniques, to make money online, you could be living in a glass house in a town full of rock throwers. You’re living on the edge.

The wise Internet Marketer will have a variety of ways that their income is spread out to reduce their risk.

Think about this. Let’s say you have a half dozen sites making money with Adsense. Now the people at Google have been known to get a little crazy at times. What will happen to your income should they decide to pull the plug on your Adsense account? Do you know how long it will take you to replace that income, if ever?

I read a post on Shoemoney’s blog a while back about a man who was pulling down 60k per month. There was only one problem. He was using one Adsense account and he was using a script to create thousands of pages with Adsense on them. These pages had junk for content. As I remember it, I think the guy had like 6 servers and only used like 40 or 50 sentences to create all the content on his sites.

Then one day Google found him out and pulled the plug on his little scheme. From 60k per month to nothing! Can you imagine how that would feel?

Diversity Is The Key To Long Term Income

No in the example above, the guy was a spammer. But this happens to legitimate people all the time. They wake up one day and find out that their Internet income has packed up and left.

Don’t let this happen to you.

If you’re making money from Adsense, good for you. Why not try building some other sites and use Affiliate Marketing to spread out the risk. Who knows, you might find out that you make more from affiliate commissions than from Adsense. I know I certainly did!

There are any number of ways you could diversify. Just don’t wait until it happens to get started. Building websites and getting them ranked for your keywords takes time. That’s why it would be wise to already have a network of different websites up and running and making income from different sources. If one source dries up, then you’ll have others to fall back on. The pain of losing income won’t be nearly as bad!