Better Ad Route - AdSense or Local Businesses?

[jiminoc]

Just curious what you guys think about these two approaches...

1. Try to create a large national based site relying on things like AdSense or affiliate programs

2. Create localized sites, IE one site per city that sells banner ads to local businesses in that city

I'm tending to think you might be able to do better with a local setup. thoughts?

[davesplace1]

The local sites sound great to me. I would start with AdSense and then when you sell to local advertisers switch to their ads. AdSense is getting really good at delevering local ads.

[jiminoc]

has anyone had success with local businesses advertising on your sites?

[Chris]

The local sites will be infinitely more difficult to manage though -- AND Google can target adsense ads to localities.

[Cutter]

I am aware of someone who launched a local blog for the city he was in. He was able to sell ad space before even launching the site. A lot of small business don't pay any attention to ROI or metrics so if you have a good salesperson you can make decent money.