By Stephen Bucaro

Operating your own city guide on Web can be interesting and very profitable. Almost every city already has at least one city guide. But there is always room for one more. For example, I live near Phoenix, Arizona. I could call my site "The Best Guide to Phoenix", "The Official Guide to Phoenix", or "The Complete Guide to Phoenix".

How do you generate revenue from a city guide? 1. You charge a fee to list restaurants, accommodations, and other businesses that are located in city. 2. You sell books and videos about city, and city souvenirs and mementos.

You should develop your city guide in phases.

Phase 1. Create non-commercial sections of Web site. Some cities, like Chicago and New York, are popular for their cultural attractions. Some cities, like Phoenix, are popular for nearby natural attractions. Some cities are popular for their artisans, monuments, or history. Create an attractive front page that displays photographs related to unique attractions of city.

Develop an "Attractions" section of your Web site. You might also want to develop a "Maps" section. When you have a reasonable amount of content, begin promoting your city guide to start generating some traffic.

Phase 2. Create commercial sections of Web site. You should develop an "Accommodations" section, a "Restaurants" section, and a "Businesses" section. You might also want to develop a "Search" section.

Contact all large businesses that you want to list in your city guide and offer them free listing. Yes - free. In order to get things rolling, you will have to fill up commercial sections by offering free listing. Don't tell them you are going start charging as soon as you get sections filled out.

By Stephen Bucaro

Today, everything is a cold plastic manufactured product. In "old days", everything was painstakingly hand-crafted from wood. People love quality and warmth of hand-crafted wood products. If you like to work with your hands, you can profit from demand for these products.

If you are inexperienced with woodworking, you can start by making simple scroll saw puzzles and wood toys. You can see some examples of type of products you can make at http://home.att.net/~brad247 where Brad sell's them for $4.00 to $9.00.

You will find free downloadable patterns at Skill Power Tools Web site: http://www.skil.com/projects/projects.htm or you can purchase patterns like "The Little Choo Choo" at Wood Toys and Joys Web site: http://www.toysandjoys.com

When you get a little more skill, you can make kind of products sold at Wood Expression's Web site: http://www.woodexpression.com For example, they sell a 19 x 21 inch oak shelf for $30.00. The Wooden Wood Art Web site: http://www.woodlandmanufacturing.com sells beautiful wood letter signs for $4.00 to $5.00. They also sell custom personalized signs. Check out: http://familysigns.com where they sell cute crafty personalized wood signs for $10.00 and up.