I received an interesting request for business advice today for a new online restaurant review site. Below is the request and beneath that is my advice. Let me know what you think of the advice and if you have any suggestions, add them in the comments…

hi. i’m planning to get a website built for restaurant reviews. i envision a wikipedia of info. i found your name on a website that demonstrates why i have a better idea. any thoughts? especially on how to make money from it. thanks.

Here’s how I see it. If the reviews are written by others, the advantage is that you don’t have to generate content. The people who write the reviews will generate it for you. If you are writing the reviews, then the work is on your back. However, it gives you more control.

I write restaurant reviews for a review website but they are paid for by the restaurants. That is how the site makes money.

If you write your own reviews or if other people review the restaurants, then you need a revenue stream and the only three I can think of for something like that is:

1. selling advertising
2. Google Adsense
3. Affiliate ads

No one is going to buy advertising space on your website unless you have huge traffic numbers which is going to take at least three years to build (regardless of what the so-called “gurus” might tell you).

Google Adsense might make you a few hundred dollars a month eventually (again, when you get the traffic numbers up high enough).

And affiliate ads can make you pretty good money if they are well targeted.

For a site like this, it’s all a numbers game. How many eyeballs can you get to the pages of the site. And the only thing that gets eyeballs to a site is content. You need to generate a lot of content for a site like that.

Hope that helps!

Good luck!

Bob

Adendum: This guy is making the same mistake most business people do. They have a great idea for a business and then they go looking for customers or how to make money from the business. The really smart people first  find potential customers who have money and a need and then start a business to fulfill their needs. That’s why innovators and cutting edge businesse ideas rarely do anything but make investors poor. If you don’t believe me, look up the stock price of  SIRI? – Sirius XM Radio Inc.

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