I was an intern for a local web development company (in Baltimore) that tried this with "netneighborhoods.com" around 1999 - 2000. Simply, the idea was to crea

I was an intern for a local web development company (in Baltimore) that tried this with "netneighborhoods.com" around 1999 - 2000. Simply, the idea was to create a hyper-local business listing as a way of letting local people know about the local businesses. (The local businesses would pay for being listing, which was really a mini-website for the business.) Ultimately it wasn't sustainable and only lasted - to the best of my recollection - a couple of years. Providing a profitable service to local businesses and communities is very difficult. As others have said here, you're competing with limited budgets and high expectations. Edit: Fixed a typo and added more content.