I'm interested in starting a website that entails the whole ratemy.... idea.. I would like it to be similar to www . ratemyprofessors . com but it would be based on rating local business professionals in my area.

I need pointers on how much something like this would cost and a push in the right direction on finding the right people etc. I can not build this myself and i do not want to spend an arm and a leg as i dont see how i could make up a lot of money in advertising until the website got going for a year or so.

I just need some useful advice etc.

I dont feel as though i would have a problem marketing and getting it active in my local area.. but the problem i see is getting it started and the building process.

As far as the technical aspect, I would start off with a SharedHosting/Small VPS account, and see if the website takes off, and then move to a good colo/dedicated server.

As far as the website, it is probably best to get a backend working first; there are probably scripts already out there, free and open source at a website like hotscripts.com. If you cant find anything acceptable, I am sure you could find an experienced PHP/Perl programmer to make that (somewhat) simple script for around $100.

Hope the above helped in your decisions on what to do next-- I am not much a PR/Marketing guy :), but good luck on that part too.