Concept for monetizing a vb site

[DCX000]

I have a concept for monetizing a new vb site and would like to know if anyone here has comments on this. Tried and failed, tried and works, great, sucks, etc. I have been kicking the idea around for a long time and have a vb4 suite license looking for a purpose.

My idea is this - Start a community on a regional topic that interests a specific group. A close example would be "Dallas Horse Owners Community". Lots of horse owners in/around Dallas, no online community currently on this topic, people enjoy chatting about, sharing pics of, asking questions about, horses.

How to monetize - Try to get local small business owners to advertise directly. No AdSense or other ad networks. This is not a high value keyword topic. There are literally thousands of small businesses, many mom and pop, serving horse owners with related products and services. Very few use online ads. Mostly word of mouth maybe some yellow pages.

If an active community can be established then offer local on-topic business advertising at a low rate, say $10-$30 month. Advertising is managed through the native vb subscription system allowing people to join the Dallas Horse Business Advertisers group. This group can advertise their business in signatures (Others cannot) and post messages in a Dallas Horse Products and Services forum. Maybe allow them to post promotions in a specific calendar, maybe use banner ads, maybe promotional articles and blogs.

To work this model would require a substantial number of local small business participants and a pretty active community. This happens to be subject and place I am personally enthusiastic about which might be clouding my reasoning. I would really like to see it work but am fully prepared to go to a general audience AdSense and ad network site that has served me well before. My websites pay the bills so it can't be all fun and no profit.

I'm on the fence right now. Opinions?