I’ve gotten some questions about how I’m building City Games, here in Grand Rapids. So… What, exactly, is City Games? City Games is a hyperlocal gaming platform that turns a town into an interactive game. Residents play free challenges connected to local places, businesses, history, events, and culture. They might answer a trivia question about a landmark, identify a location from a photograph, solve a puzzle, visit a participating business, complete a Side Quest, or compete in a seasonal promotion. The goal is not simply to entertain people online. The goal is to get residents paying attention to their community and interacting with local businesses in a way that feels more like play than advertising. City Games is not live trivia, although trivia can be part of it. It is not a one-time scavenger hunt, although location-based challenges can be included. It is not primarily a coupon app, although businesses can offer rewards. It is an ongoing local media product built around participation. How the Audience Side Works Residents join their local City Games platform for free. Once inside, they can play games, complete challenges, earn points, unlock rewards, and participate in larger seasonal competitions. Some challenges can be completed from home. Others encourage players to explore the community, visit a location, attend an event, or interact with a participating business. The content can include: - Local trivia - Photo-identification challenges - Puzzles and riddles - Predictions and polls - Location-based challenges - Business-sponsored mini-games - Themed Side Quests - Seasonal competitions - Prizes, rewards, and achievements - This creates something most local advertising products do not have: active participation. A resident can scroll past an advertisement without thinking about it. City Games asks that person to make a choice, answer a question, watch a short video, visit a place, or complete an action. The advertiser becomes part of the experience instead of sitting beside it.

One of the biggest prospecting mistakes is treating every local business as an equally good opportunity. They are not. Before you begin calling, emailing, or walking into businesses, spend an hour learning the territory. Define a specific area you can realistically own, such as one small town, downtown district, suburb, or cluster of nearby neighborhoods. Then identify the places where residents already eat, shop, gather, and spend money. Start by building a list of 50 strong prospects across several categories: - Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and breweries - Home service companies - Health, beauty, and wellness businesses - Realtors, insurance agents, and financial professionals - Retail stores and family entertainment businesses - Community organizations and event venues Do not build the list entirely from Google. Drive through the territory. Visit the downtown district. Look at local Facebook groups, chamber directories, community event sponsors, and the businesses already advertising in local publications. Businesses that sponsor festivals, sports teams, fundraisers, and community events have already demonstrated that they understand local marketing. Next, rank each prospect based on three simple questions: 1. Is this business locally owned or locally managed? 2. Does it need customers from this specific territory? 3. Does it have a clear reason to participate in your first product? Your strongest prospects will usually be businesses that answer yes to all three. Those should receive your personal attention first. Finally, look for clusters. If three popular businesses on the same street participate, the fourth becomes easier to sell. If one respected business owner joins, ask who else they believe should be involved. Local business communities run on relationships, and one trusted introduction can outperform dozens of cold emails. The goal is not to contact every business in town. The goal is to identify the right businesses, understand how they fit into your local ad ecosystem, and approach them with an offer that makes sense for their market.

The Profit Is in the Prospecting is officially live inside Town Publisher. You can have a great local advertising product, attractive pricing, and a market full of businesses that should buy. But none of it produces revenue if you are not consistently finding the right prospects, starting conversations, and following up. This course gives you a complete system for doing exactly that. In this comprehensive course, you will learn how to define your ideal advertiser, map your territory, build a qualified prospect list, reach business owners through multiple channels, start natural conversations, follow up without becoming a pest, and measure the activity that leads to sales. You will also get the practical tools to put the system to work, including scripts, worksheets, a prospecting CRM, weekly scorecard, follow-up templates, and a 30-day pipeline sprint. This is not a course about waiting for businesses to discover you. It is about building the daily prospecting habit that keeps your pipeline moving and makes your local publishing business predictable. The course is available now. Start with Module 1, complete the assignments as you go, and begin building your pipeline.

A list of business names is not a local directory people will actually use. You can collect every restaurant, contractor, shop, and service provider in the county, place them on a website, and technically call it a directory. But if the information does not help someone make a decision, you have only created a digital phone book. A useful local directory solves a specific problem. - It helps a parent find a restaurant with a kids’ menu and outdoor seating. - It helps a homeowner quickly compare local roofers, plumbers, or landscapers. - It helps a new resident discover independent shops within walking distance of downtown. - It helps someone answer a real question without sorting through hundreds of unrelated listings. That is why the best place to begin is usually smaller than you think. Instead of building a directory for every business in your county, create something focused: - A family-friendly restaurant guide - A trusted local home-services guide - A downtown shopping and dining guide - A wedding vendor directory - A guide to locally owned businesses - A seasonal guide to patios, holiday shopping, or summer activities The narrower the purpose, the easier it becomes to explain why someone should use it. A focused directory is also easier to build, maintain, promote, and eventually monetize. Give People Enough Information to Decide Every listing should provide more than a name, logo, and phone number. Include the details people are actually searching for, such as hours, location, service area, specialties, price range, menus, maps, booking links, and useful notes. If you are building a restaurant guide, tell readers which locations have outdoor seating, take reservations, offer gluten-free choices, or are good for groups. If you are building a home-services directory, organize businesses by service, territory, availability, and the types of projects they handle. These details turn the directory from a collection of advertisers into a genuinely useful local resource.