Here’s an idea that I’ve considered doing in the past because it has great profit potential and minimal risk.

I’ve just been too busy with other projects to devote to this so I’m laying it out for someone else to take and run. The market is huge so there’s no worry of competition.

Many small businesses have no idea how to market their brick and mortar stores. They usually just rely on word of mouth or walk-in traffic. If they get the chance, they’ll use coupon and/or postcard mailers.

What you’re going to do is offer them a chance to have their business listed in your local business directory.

You would register a domain name, set up a directory script, create a unique design and then contact local businesses.

By setting up multiple categories for specific cities, you could generate huge revenue by charging people either a recurring monthly charge or billing them annually.

The preferred method of contact would be postcards as they’re cheaper than regular mail and you can get higher conversions if you have the right message.

What do you put on the postcard?

Like in online marketing, it’s always best to test.

Start the first test by putting your website URL on the postcard. When businesses see this, they will be curious to see what other businesses are already listed.

Here’s is roughly what my postcard would read:

Is your business listed in our local directory yet?

Visit: http://www.localdirectorycityname.com to find out.

Be the first to get listed and we will grandfather you into

our discounted rate of $19.97/month. (time limited offer)

Visit: http://www.localdirectorycityname.com for more

details…

You ask them a question to get them thinking. In marketing, the more interaction you get from the audience, the better.

Then you give them the url to check out your site because they’re curious to see if they’re listed. You then offer them a special

discount to trigger an impulse purchase. The pricing is very cheap so it makes it more likely that they’ll make an impulse purchase.

When they get to your site, they can register themselves a free account. You have their email address so you can email

them whenever you want with upgrade pricing etc. Let’s look at the income potential of this method. You spend approximately 40 cents to mail out a single postcard.

In your first test run, you send out 500 postcards which costs a total

of $200.

You charge $49.97/year for upgraded listing and only 2% of the businesses bite. Your profit is about $500. You only need a conversion rate of .80% to break even. Even if you generate a 0% response rate, you only spent $200 to test the idea.

Unless you royally screwed up somewhere I don’t see why no one would order an annual listing in your directory. It’s only $50 and they often times spend thousands to advertise their business. Let’s say a lamp store wants to have a listing.

If they generate even one sale from that listing in a year, they’ve made a profit. You could even increase your conversions by targeting businesses which are already advertising. You can check out the papers, postcards, flyers around town to see who is already spending money to advertise their business.

Let’s say that your first test run generates 8 orders. You’ve just generated a 100% ROI or doubled your money! Just send out more postcards. You can sale a successful campaign up and test and tweak as you go along.

This whole process should not take long at all. Buying the domain, setting up a directory script and designing a header graphic for your site should take no more than a day.

Designing and mailing the postcard should take another day. 2 Days and $200 could net you a potential six figure annual business that doesn’t require much work. There’s no reason not to try this.

To get addresses you would create a script or find a script which scrapes the online Yellow Pages website.

To create postcards, you can use Vistaprint.com or various other companies you find online. The php directory script is also up to you but make sure you get one which has the ability to email members.

If you succeed at this, make sure to let me know.