The thinking behind the Lawrence Marketplace directory

http://jeffcroft.com/blog/2007/apr/03/ljworld-marketplace/

"I’ve found myself using this thing constantly as we’ve been developing it. It’s really, really useful. But at the same time, it’s a tremendous advertising opportunity for local businesses and a nice money-making venture for us, as well. I think it really goes to show that it is possible to make both advertisers and users happy. These two groups don’t have to be at odds with one another. Give users honest and tasteful advertisements for products and services they may actually be interested in, and provide them with a lot of useful content along the way, and I suspect you won’t hear many complaints from either party."