Local Events Listing Website

[Irish]

Looking for feedback for an idea I've been mulling over lately. A local event listing website.
The plan would be to contact a huge amount of local businesses via an email at the start of every week. Bars, sports clubs, theatres etc etc.

1. Anybody can add an event to the website via a form which then goes into a moderation queue.
2. The site will have filters which break down listings to more local areas and types of event.
3. For €5 I will add your listing to the site for the week, your listing will then be listed as premium. So, possibly a shiny border or tag and also appear top of the listings.
4. You can pay to have an advert banner sit at the top of the site for a month as an alternate form of revenue.
5. The 'local' population I am aiming for is about 3 million and includes a capital city.
6. I can build this myself and estimate the cost of the build out of the site at less than €500.

The main problems I see with this are as following:

1. Laziness. Will local businesses be bothered to fill in a form and will I have the patience to put up 100's of listings every week? Apart from the form I can't think of a way of automating the input of listings. I could possibly pull listings from other sites like facebook and eventbrite but then the site becomes less bespoke and more of an aggregator.
2. Permission. I could, in theory, find every local listing out there on the net and manually put it on my site, but I would need to contact those event creators for permission wouldn't I?

Wondering if anyone has built anything like this before and if it's worth a shot?
Here's a quick MVP I built to give you a better idea of what I'm thinking of: Events MVP
Appreciate any feedback or ideas.

 

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[Dufresne85]

Looking for feedback for an idea I've been mulling over lately. A local event listing website.
The plan would be to contact a huge amount of local businesses via an email at the start of every week. Bars, sports clubs, theatres etc etc.

1. Anybody can add an event to the website via a form which then goes into a moderation queue.
2. The site will have filters which break down listings to more local areas and types of event.
3. For €5 I will add your listing to the site for the week, your listing will then be listed as premium. So possibly a shiny border or tag and also appear top of the listings.
4. You can pay to have an advert banner sit at the top of the site for a month as an alternate form of revenue.
5. The 'local' population I am aiming for is about 3 million and includes a capital city.
6. I can build this myself and estimate the cost of the build out of the site less than €500.

The main problems I see with this are as following:

1. Laziness. Will local businesses be bothered to fill in a form and will I have the patience to put up 100's of listings every week? Apart from the form I can't think of a way of automating the input of listings. I could possibly pull listings from other sites like facebook and eventbrite but then the site becomes less bespoke and more of an aggregator.
2. Permission. I could, in theory find every local listing out there on the net and manually put it on my site, put I would need to contact those event creators for permission wouldn't I?

Wondering if anyone has built anything like this before and if it's worth a shot?
Here's a quick mvp I built to give you a better idea of what I'm thinking of: Home
Appreciate any feedback or ideas.

If I understand correctly, this is what's called a directory website. Your monetization is lead gen.

The only question is,... do you know how to generate website traffic and leads for these local events? If you do, prove that first and then they surely would use your website as a lead gen channel. Don't start by creating a website and hope people magically will pay you 5 euros for a listing.

Quick tips:
nameofcity+events.com
claim all socials with this domain
blog frequently about the events (you need SEO for a directory website)
generate lots of traffic via paid ads
add a newsletter as soon as possible
only monetize when you hit a few K visitors per month
be prepared for this to take a long time (at least 1 year of frequent blogging and capturing traffic)

 

[Irish]

If I understand correctly, this is what's called a directory website. Your monetization is lead gen.

The only question is,... do you know how to generate website traffic and leads for these local events? If you do, prove that first and then they surely would use your website as a lead gen channel. Don't start by creating a website and hope people magically will pay you 5 euros for a listing.

Quick tips:
nameofcity+events.com
claim all socials with this domain
blog frequently about the events (you need SEO for a directory website)
generate lots of traffic via paid ads
add a newsletter as soon as possible
only monetize when you hit a few K visitors per month
be prepared for this to take a long time (at least 1 year of frequent blogging and capturing traffic)

Thanks for those tips. They make sense.
"do you know how to generate website traffic and leads for these local events? If you do, prove that first and then they surely would use your website as a lead gen channel. Don't start by creating a website and hope people magically will pay you 5 euros for a listing."
In a word, no. I mean, I understand lead gen, sure. But I have never done it in any practical, consistent way. I think your last line re: a year went some way to backing up my own concerns. I'm sure this could work but would, as you say, take a long time to build up the content, SEO, social media and interest. That is not necessarily a bad thing, and a lot would be learned in the process but is the reality for sure.

 

[KiwiEC]

This looks interesting. You may need to put a lot of efforts in branding and reputation.

This would include:

• Website building, as your website will be more than a landing page, I would recommend to do it on WordPress or Webflow, other tools I know (Wix, SquareSpace, Carrd, etc.) may be limiting but other Fastlaners could complete this point.

• Branding must look attractive, think about all the small things that may reflect what you want to bring (logo, colors, tone, etc.). Canva is a nice and easy tool for quick and easy selfmade designs.

• Social medias are obviously a big focus. To help you manage them, I would strongly recommend you Buffer which allows to merge all your SM accounts on the same place, scheduling your posts and preparing them in advance.

• To show a proof of value (and attract more people to those events) you need to cover them with pictures/videos. You can do it by yourself at first and then outsource to freelancers.

I hope those small tools will help you on your journey.

 

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[ironmind]

I have to address 2 problems.

1. You're going to compete with Meetup.com, which does exactly what you want to do, at least in my country, and I guess in all of Europe and the world. Meetup.com has a much better position than you, referring to SEO and marketing budget, and if you want to go to an event, it's the first option for most people who attend those meetings.
2. I am not a lawyer, but in my country, and I guess in all EU countries, it is illegal to send cold sales emails. Maybe you can be reported if the other person is an a**hole, and with a greater probability, if you send lots of emails, they will go to the spam folder.

 

[Irish]

I have to address 2 problems.

1. You're going to compete with Meetup.com, which does exactly what you want to do, at least in my country, and I guess in all of Europe and the world. Meetup.com has a much better position than you, referring to SEO and marketing budget, and if you want to go to an event, it's the first option for most people who attend those meetings.
2. I am not a lawyer, but in my country, and I guess in all EU countries, it is illegal to send cold sales emails. Maybe you can be reported if the other person is an a**hole, and with a greater probability, if you send lots of emails, they will go to the spam folder.

Good points.
1. I don't think meetup is a direct competitor. Meetup is more for 'clubs'. A hiking group that meets every week for instance. My site lists events. For example a bar that has live music this Friday night. I would say eventbrite and Facebook are more the competition to be honest. What I have found with meetup and eventbrite is that they are very city centre focused and miss hundreds of local events outside the city. Facebook does capture a lot of everything but I don't think the events feature is that great to be honest.

2. Yes, a good point. Probably worth the risk of sending one mass email out there though to gauge interest? It is likely I would have to build it up as a blog or something first as Dufresne85 mentioned earlier.

 

[Runum]

Local libraries, museums, and Chambers of Commerce would also be sources of event information.

Your direct competition would be FB groups.

When I travel I usually join local FB groups for leads on area events and it has worked out rely well for me. They allow e to ask questions, find the locations, and se videos and pics. It also allow for different people to respond to my requests.

Good luck.

 

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[Irish]

Local libraries, museums, and Chambers of Coerce would also be sources of event information.

Your direct competition would be FB groups.

When I travel I usually join local FB groups for leads on area events and it has worked out rely well for me. They allow e to ask questions, find the locations, and se videos and pics. It also allow for different people to respond to my requests.

Good luck.

Yes, they are good ideas for resources. Hotels usually always have something on during the week as well so my mailing list could potentially be huge.

I have used FB groups in a similar way when travelling myself and also meetup as mentioned earlier.

One thing that I think could set my site apart is pure local knowledge. It is after all, my local area and as such, I have a strong sense of the culture, the way people socialise and the nuances of growing up in my own country. I think that lends itself well to writing about the local area and possibly understanding the pain points for local businesses. It doesn't take away from the fact that this would require a lot of work.

I am warming more and more to the idea however. If we put revenue and fastlane goals to the side for a moment I do see benefits from building this out.

1. Building a better social life for myself. Lots of events, lots to do.
2. Building connections with local businesses which ultimately could lead to opportunities for business down the line.
3. Learning more about my local area and community and maybe getting involved more. I've always been a guy who travels a lot and a bit of a lone wolf.
4. A nice little CV piece if I ever do go back to the 9-5 grind. Lots of moving pieces including web dev, lead gen, marketing, customer service etc etc.
5. Becoming an 'expert' on the local area. Potential to appear on radio, TV, write for newspapers etc. Not something I'm currently that interested in on a personal level but certainly worth considering.

 

[BizyDad]

If we put revenue and fastlane goals to the side

Uh oh.

You aren't thinking clearly.

I've had a similar idea and if kept to a hyper local level, I think it can be done. However, as it scales, the coding needs and server horsepower will likely outstrip the ability to hire proper coders to fulfill the requirements to maintain a proper standard.

So putting revenue to the side is a big mistake if you want this is be, in any way, not a complete sinkhole for your time and enthusiasm.

 

[Irish]

Uh oh.

You aren't thinking clearly.

I've had a similar idea and if kept to a hyper local level, I think it can be done. However, as it scales, the coding needs and server horsepower will likely outstrip the ability to hire proper coders to fulfill the requirements to maintain a proper standard.

So putting revenue to the side is a big mistake if you want this is be, in any way, not a complete sinkhole for your time and enthusiasm.

That's fair. I guess I am either trying to convince myself to give it a go or talk myself out of it. I have a tendency in the past to jump in and build fast and then lose motivation as time goes on. Ultimately you are right though, if it's not gonna make money then it's not worth it.

I think on balance I have the right local area in mind in so much that it could scale reasonably but not so much that the server and maintenance requirements would get out of hand.

Can I ask what stopped yourself taking a pop at this?

 

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[BizyDad]

Can I ask what stopped yourself taking a pop at this?

I've had a similar idea and if kept to a hyper local level, I think it can be done. However, as it scales, the coding needs and server horsepower will likely outstrip the ability to hire proper coders to fulfill the requirements to maintain a proper standard.

So putting revenue to the side is a big mistake if you want this is be, in any way, not a complete sinkhole for your time and enthusiasm.

I think I just answered that.

I MIGHT do this someday for my city, mostly because it is a service I would want to use, but it would be a labor of love and networking play. First, I'll tackle the more lucrative ideas that are easier to execute.

 

[Irish]

I think I just answered that.

I MIGHT do this someday for my city, mostly because it is a service I would want to use, but it would be a labor of love and networking play. First, I'll tackle the more lucrative ideas that are easier to execute.

Interesting. So, you may do this as a passion project in future but don't consider it worth doing in a fastlane sense. You would do it for similar reasons to some of the personal benefits I listed above but not for the money. Bottom line you don't consider it worth doing at the moment compared to other ventures. That's a good data point at least.

 

[Andy Black]

Thought these might interest you:

At about 30 mins in he talks about his local newsletter:

Google Podcasts

With Google Podcasts, you can find and listen to the world's podcasts for free.

podcasts.google.com

And he writes about it here:

How we grew a local newsletter to 10,000 subscribers

In December 2020 I was hanging out with my family at a cabin in the mountains brainstorming what a local newsletter for Boise could look like. I've been a fan of what Andrew Wilkinson has done with Capital Daily for Victoria, BC and

nathanbarry.com

 

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[Skroob]

I was part of a startup team in 2016 that build out a local event recommendation app. It wasn't exactly the same, we used machine learning to build a recommendations model for each user, but same general idea.

It worked, but it was nearly impossible for us to monetize. Users won't pay to use it, small events can't afford to pay to be listed, and larger events usually have enough free press that they don't need it. We tried to build up enough user base to convince smaller events (and businesses) to pay, but we didn't get there before the VC well dried up.

All that to say: Your competitor is Facebook. That's where everybody is (and was back then) doing event announcements. It's not good, but it is free. Don't lose sight of that.

Part of our issue was enormous costs involved in getting the app out the door. Doing it lean and mean, a website and a newsletter, might give you the time to build up that user base.

 

[Irish]

Thought these might interest you:

At about 30 mins in he talks about his local newsletter:

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtLr

http://

Thought these might interest you:

At about 30 mins in he talks about his local newsletter:

Google Podcasts

With Google Podcasts, you can find and listen to the world's podcasts for free.

podcasts.google.com

And he writes about it here:

How we grew a local newsletter to 10,000 subscribers

In December 2020 I was hanging out with my family at a cabin in the mountains brainstorming what a local newsletter for Boise could look like. I've been a fan of what Andrew Wilkinson has done with Capital Daily for Victoria, BC and

nathanbarry.com

Nice. Thankyou. Really interesting to see what it takes and what is and isn't realistic.

 

[Andy Black]

http://

Nice. Thankyou. Really interesting to see what it takes and what is and isn't realistic.

I'd love to start a local newsletter, or few. It's on my long Trello list of "business ideas on hold".

 

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[Irish]

I was part of a startup team in 2016 that build out a local event recommendation app. It wasn't exactly the same, we used machine learning to build a recommendations model for each user, but same general idea.

It worked, but it was nearly impossible for us to monetize. Users won't pay to use it, small events can't afford to pay to be listed, and larger events usually have enough free press that they don't need it. We tried to build up enough user base to convince smaller events (and businesses) to pay, but we didn't get there before the VC well dried up.

All that to say: Your competitor is Facebook. That's where everybody is (and was back then) doing event announcements. It's not good, but it is free. Don't lose sight of that.

Part of our issue was enormous costs involved in getting the app out the door. Doing it lean and mean, a website and a newsletter, might give you the time to build up that user base.

Thankyou. As I've talked about it with people the past week or so I kept asking myself, would anybody actually pay and this puts some real colour to the picture. I have seen similar Freemium models work in the past that went fully paid but getting people to pay in the early days is probably a non runner.

I agree re: Facebook. It's not great but people use it. Myself included actually, even though I find it very frustrating.

As you mentioned and some above have alluded to, maybe building a content site and a newsletter list is the way to go. Funnily enough like the author of the article I do know a few people who could give me a boost with building a small following.

It's interesting that a few people have had this idea already.

 

[Shrimpfriedrice]

Thankyou. As I've talked about it with people the past week or so I kept asking myself, would anybody actually pay and this puts some real colour to the picture. I have seen similar Freemium models work in the past that went fully paid but getting people to pay in the early days is probably a non runner.

I agree re: Facebook. It's not great but people use it. Myself included actually, even though I find it very frustrating.

As you mentioned and some above have alluded to, maybe building a content site and a newsletter list is the way to go. Funnily enough like the author of the article I do know a few people who could give me a boost with building a small following.

It's interesting that a few people have had this idea already.

I have heard about this being executed, this was back when FB was still new-ish. Their specialty was Chicago ladies in their 20's and 30's with high-end taste looking for social and networking events, as well as restaurants and events that were the "cool place to be." This was called Cheeky Chicago, co-founded by Jessica Zweig, who now runs a 7-figure personal branding agency called SimplyBe.

I think what made them successful was nicheing far enough down that groups on Facebook of that caliber are difficult to find and interact in. You want very specific people, with tailored events, very specific taste. Induce FOMO, I would think?

QQ...what are the distinct purposes behind the blog vs. The newsletter? If I was to build something similar for my biz, what kind of content goes in which bucket?

 

[Jrjohnny]

Looking for feedback for an idea I've been mulling over lately. A local event listing website.
The plan would be to contact a huge amount of local businesses via an email at the start of every week. Bars, sports clubs, theatres etc etc.

1. Anybody can add an event to the website via a form which then goes into a moderation queue.
2. The site will have filters which break down listings to more local areas and types of event.
3. For €5 I will add your listing to the site for the week, your listing will then be listed as premium. So, possibly a shiny border or tag and also appear top of the listings.
4. You can pay to have an advert banner sit at the top of the site for a month as an alternate form of revenue.
5. The 'local' population I am aiming for is about 3 million and includes a capital city.
6. I can build this myself and estimate the cost of the build out of the site at less than €500.

The main problems I see with this are as following:

1. Laziness. Will local businesses be bothered to fill in a form and will I have the patience to put up 100's of listings every week? Apart from the form I can't think of a way of automating the input of listings. I could possibly pull listings from other sites like facebook and eventbrite but then the site becomes less bespoke and more of an aggregator.
2. Permission. I could, in theory, find every local listing out there on the net and manually put it on my site, but I would need to contact those event creators for permission wouldn't I?

Wondering if anyone has built anything like this before and if it's worth a shot?
Here's a quick MVP I built to give you a better idea of what I'm thinking of: Events MVP
Appreciate any feedback or ideas.

I’ve had the same idea, I eventually dropped it as I saw a safety concern for some, and also realized there are a few like that out there.

 

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[Shrimpfriedrice]

directory website

Hey @Dufresne85! What is the difference between a marketplace and a directory website?

In my head, as a customer, I'm almost thinking a marketplace acts like a directory too?