Would a big bad city site work?

I live near a big city with a lot of problems. Many people in my area never go into the city. But still there are things to do, great restaurants, sites to see, etc. I'm thinking of creating a magazine style website about the city.

Does anyone have experience with something similar? Is it possile to make a site profitable with something like this?

 

Yes, why not?
Nearly every city has a site like that made about it. If your city doesn't, then there is definitely a hole there for you to fill.

 

I agree with forumbulge, give it a go, it should only take a couple of weeks to get a lot of content as you can contact the restaurants, theatres and other places of interest to send you articles on why people should visit them, once you have made this initial contact and you have told them it will cost them nothing to have what is basically free advertising on your site in the shape of the article it will be easier in the future to approach them about paid ads on your site.

Go for it, with your local knowledge you could produce something useful and profitable.

 

I have kinda site, sort of, and I'm making +1k/month. So go for it. Write articles about shops and restaurants - remember to use some good keywords too. Don't expect any big money per click, but lot of traffic will bring lot of 10 - 30 cent clicks.

 

i bet you live near alice springs, but i wouldnt call it "big"

 

I assume you're not talking about Alice Springs in Australia?

 

had to work there for 2 months, and it was the worst city i have ever been to.
its dirty whereever you go: plastic bags, glass, cans and cardboxes all over the place, parkbanks covered in birdshit, lots of wrecked cars outcide the city center, an atm was vandalized just 20m away from police station. alice springs has the highes crime rate in australia. the guy next door lost 5 cars to car thiefts in only 6 months! i was waiting for someone at the street in my car, after 5 mins a guy knocked on my door asking me what im doing here - he had mistaken me with someone else because they had some serious problems with burglars in this area. first advice i got in this city was "dont leave the house at night, always lock all doors!".
i meet someone who moved from another city to alice springs because he thought ist a much better place to life, but he also had this belive ayers rock is an alien space ship

 

Local sites of this type can work well if you take the trouble to look at what your competitors are doing and either do it better or concentrate on the areas where they are lacking.

What lots of city info sites miss is allowing the people who live there the opportunity to comment on and discuss their hometown, the local takeaway, etc. There is a great UK 'town guide' site called KnoWhere ( http://www.knowhere.co.uk/ ) that should give you some inspiration.

 

No, not Alice Springs, kind of the opposite side of the globe, USA, midwest.

Thanks for the encouragement.