[saluki]

Restaurants are an interesting space but all around hard to make money in. Restaurants just don't like to spend money where it isn't absolutely necessary. So it's hard to sell them ads or online services.

You could look at letting restaurants claim their listings and offer them a pro package of services. Maybe menus, or even try offering online ordering. Being local you have an advantage that you can easily meet with restaurants in person.

I am always drawn to developing something for restaurants as their websites are notoriously bad, same with only ordering most aren't near as easy to use as they could be.

I don't think ad revenue is going to bring in a lot of revenue. Maybe $7 to $10 per 1,000 page views. So with less than 1k views you'll probably need to look at monetizing another way if that's your goal.

If you just want a fun website you can improve and run as a fun side project, keep going.

[eclipse31]

Yeah, so freemium services to the restaurants was one of my ideas of making money. However, as you've pointed out, restaurants "just don't like to spend money where it isn't absolutely necessary", which is an interesting and valid point.

Yeah, it was bad restaurant websites, with PDF menus, that inspired me to build the site.

[saluki]

I still feel the same inspiration with restaurant sites, so many bad ones out there. Part of the problem is even if the restaurant doesn't have a website there are usually menu sites that at least show what they offer in the Google SERP. So they probably feel like they don't need to pay for one. Even though they could control their message, photos, update their menus, etc.

If you enjoy working on the project keep it going.

I feel like the one area restaurants might pay for or give you a revenue share is online ordering. Maybe you could become the go to online ordering app for restaurants in your area. Not trivial to build though but an area they might be willing to pay you for.

Good luck with the site.

[itronitron]

regarding revenue, if your site takes off then you may be able to sell space for restaurants to include additional information and photos on their page (such as interior, staff, or food). if you go this route then you'll want to exercise some quality control so that the photos are both accurate and appealing