Unfortunately, the only people who read the kinds of excellent articles as the one above are fellow Internet marketers.

However, once we can educate local businesses on the advantages of marketing online, then the market will take off.

I agree wholeheartedly that the local / SMB market for online marketing services is still hugely untapped. I am shocked by the number of inquiries I receive on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis, and there is simply a shortage of people who provide quality services at affordable prices. The impending foray by NetSol and Intuit/Homestead is only going to increase our value as people become disenchanted with their templated websites and horrendous customer service.

My .02 would be to at least try things on your own for awhile. As Miriam said, there are plenty of people you can partner with for things that you are not necessarily an expert in. I am starting to do that with link building & social media for my clients.

You’ve got a great voice & brand going with your blog, and if it hasn’t happened already, I would expect that your own network will start to grow. It only takes one or two clients to start seeding your client list to the point where it grows organically. Stay broad with respect to the topics in the industry that you follow, but figure out what you enjoy doing the most & really develop your expertise in that.

I think the future in vertical will be taking advantage of the natural branding that comes from the name of the town, city,county etc.

After our names, where we live is the “brand name” we recognize most.

We’ve taken the approach that we want to be very good at a specific number of tasks. Those are Web Design, Copywriting and SEO for small businesses, including local
SEO. That sums up what we offer, in a nutshell.

What we don’t get into: heavy programming (PHP, ASP, Coldfusion, etc), Link Building, high levels of Marketing, most Social Media. Being a two-man shop means there is a limit on what we can handle in-house. What we do means we can put together a complete designed, written, optimized website for most small businesses, but if these other skills are needed, we parter with someone we trust to do them. That enables us to expand our offerings where necessary. Makes sense, right? At the same time, some of our colleagues partner with us for the various things we are good at.

If you are going solo at this, perhaps the best thing you can do is determine which areas you have the greatest affinity for, and work toward getting known for these skills. For example, you might simply work as a Local SEO consultant. You might not even do any of the on-page work yourself. You might simply consult. Or, it might be some other area you love best.

I think the thing we’ve seen over the past few years is that different folks are thrilled by different aspects of the web…it really shows in their blogging. Your strong love of local seems, to me, to be pointing the way for what you might do!

Good luck, Tim, and thanks for the lovely read.
Miriam

I actually contend that just the opposite will in fact happen. The Internet will become more ‘localized’ so as to accommodate how people actually exist.(as local creatures subject to geographical limitations).

Today’s Internet is based upon 2 main but TEMPORARY principles that will not last 5-7 years.

First: Technology, national players have it, local players don’t. Add some trickle down economics to the situation and things move towards ubiquity. And no, the VC backed national players will not be just that much farther ahead. Technology doesn’t work like that. Horse and buggy to automobile was a big jump. Chevy to Lexus is a very minor detail.

Second: Content. Syndication and other technology will allow content to be free. Don’t think about as though the information is ‘pushed out’ to other distribution sources for that’s not how information propagates. Information is static. What happens is that technology allows more mediums to grant access to stationary information. And what types of mediums are going to take part in creating better access? Local mediums.

Pizza joints are a type of vertical restaurant because the vertical concept works. The Internet changed to accommodate people rather than the other way around. Local vertical is the ultimate destination of the Internet.

As to answer your question about joining or striking out on you own, VideoHomes would love to hear from you. We have a network of over 500 local websites. Pick most any major US city, region or state and they all follow the http://www.ChicagoDirections.com and http://www.ChicagoVideoHomes.com branding scheme.

Convert(online content) offline. How about offline in Orlando? Print OrlandoDirections.com and people know it’s purpose. Does it sound like an online map of Orlando? Mention it in a coffee shop. How about a shopping cart? Branding must be purposeful and geographically specific. This is easy to do in one market. Trick is to get total market coverage without breaking the commonality of the brand. The best websites will allow consumers to shop local…anywhere.