Hello everyone, just a quick post here on Bloggerlens as we get ready for the 4th of July. I hope all of you have a tremendous weekend and each and everyone of you gain at least 3 lbs. from drinking beer and eating hotdogs. Drop the diet this weekend and enjoy it.
Everyone who has a blog and offers e-mail subscriptions through Feedburner may find this helpful. When people subscribe to your blog, they usually receive the e-mail with a static blog title that you set up in Feedburner. Now, you can go into your “Publicize E-mail” section and add a bit of code that will deliver your subscriptions with the latest title that you used.
Just add ${latestItemTitle} to your e-mail subject line. I’ve just added this to my feedburner for Bloggerlens. I’m going to also add it to my hyperlocal blog, Monroe Scoop also. I’ll check my e-mail tomorrow to see if the feature works as they claim. I hope so. I think your subscribers will be more encouraged to open and read articles when they see a relevant title in their in-box.
That’s all for today. Just a heads up that may be helpful to all of my hyperlocal brothers & sisters.
As a hyperlocal blogger, it’s necessary to carry a few items around with you for those “just in case” moments. My hyperlocal blog is heavy in community videos so it’s an absolute must that I carry the proper equipment with me. I get e-mails from time to time asking specific questions about some of the equipment I use. I’ve been asked more than once about wireless microphones. Unless all of your videos are shot pretty close to the camera, you will soon find that you need to add a wireless microphone system to your hyperlocal blogging tools. Your viewers will usually forgive you for less than great video quality but if your audio sucks, they are going to leave your site.
I’ve had too many situations where I’ve shot some pretty good video only to find out once I started to edit, that the audio was so poor that I couldn’t even use the video. Do that once or twice and you will be purchasing a wireless microphone system very quickly. I have 2 set ups. I have an expensive set up that is more professional in quality that I use when the situation calls for it. I also have the Audio Technica Pro 88W that is economical and produces excellent audio for my videos. Unless you are shooting professional type video, you will find that this wireless microphone system that I’m reviewing today will meet your needs 99% of the time.
If you decide to add a wireless mic system to your video equipment, make sure that the video camera you are using has a microphone input. Most of the time I’m close enough to the camera that I could easily just use the built in microphone supplied by the camera. What you will find however, that once you start using a wireless system, you will use it a lot because of the high quality audio it produces.
I go in to depth a little on this review of the Audio Technica Pro 88W and show you it’s capabilities and features. I also have a little fun on the video also. I hope you enjoy it and it helps you make an informed decision if you decide to add this to your arsenal of video equipment.
Audio Technica Pro 88W Wireless Microphone Review Video
Here is the direct link to the Pro 88W on Amazon. I use and recommend Amazon for your online purchases. Amazon’s return policies are unmatched. AUDIO TECHNICA PRO88W-R35 Microphone from Amazon
By the way, while I was on the front porch doing the demo, I got stung twice when I disturbed a wasp nest under our little table. OUCH! I can promise that I was not able to use the audio I produced when that happened. Just want to let you know what I’m willing to go through for my readers here on BloggerLens!
If you are considering starting a hyperlocal blog, don’t forget my free offer to help you.
Are you making it difficult for Google and other search engines to find your hyperlocal blog? Everybody needs a little help now and then, even the Big G. I thought I would write about the guidelines I use whenever I write an article for my hyperlocal blog, the Monroe Scoop.
I have 2 things I would like for you to do this week.
Let me state right now that I’m not an SEO Expert (search engine optimization). I’m not an expert at anything with the one exception of enjoying an ice cold Blue Moon in a frosty mug at the end of every day. There are a few things that I try to do with every article I post in the hopes that it will help the search engines find my site. If you apply the same principals on your site, I think it will help build your traffic, it certainly will not hurt.
Doing SEO on a hyperlocal blog is not the easiest thing in the world to do. If you try to do everything perfect, you will go crazy in the process. I want you to focus on just a few things that will eventually become second nature to you. It’s easy. Two things I enjoy in my life. Free…me and free get along great. Easy…I’m a simple dude and don’t like things real complicated. I want my stuff on cruise control if possible.
Heres how I roll:
Since I’m simple, I’ll do my best to make this simple.
I’m going to assume your site is built on the Wordpress platform. If you are using a free blogging platform, that is ok as a supporting site to send links. However, stop wasting your time and effort and get on your own site and your own hosting. If you carefully read the terms of service on free sites, you will most likely find that you do not officially own the content and they can shut you down on a moments notice. Do Not Risk It!
Make sure you install the All In One SEO Pack Wordpress plugin. Every time you post an article, fill in all of the information into this plugin. I won’t go into the details of this plugin on this article. There are plenty of sites that will do it better justice than I. Just Google it. It’s a very easy plugin and pretty much self explanatory.
I rank #1 on more local terms in my community than I could shake a stick at. I try to write naturally for the most part and just let it happen. No way I can SEO for everything. I rank #1 simply because I post articles and Google has determined that I’m the authority. Google will do the same on your hyperlocal blog also. Ask Matt McGee, he’ll tell you that he can easily rank for just about any term he wants on his hyperlocal blogs.
Here are a few of my personal guidelines I try to do at least 90% of the time.
I focus on 4 terms mostly. 2 variations of my city name and State. 2 variations of my County name and State. Those 4 terms are most likely the 4 most searched terms in your community. Either through a broad search or an exact search.
Whenever I use my city or county name in my article title I always use my state also. Ex. Over 500 Union County, NC Students Screened For Pre-Kindergarten. I could simply write Union County and everyone in my community knows what I’m talking about. To Google, how many Union Counties are in the USA?
I always use an H1 Tag at the beginning of my articles. I start every article (mostly) with my geographical location. Check out the screen shot of the beginning of the article. See the big bold Union County, NC? That’s just my little message to Google.
Screen Shot
Now I just write naturally throughout my article or I post a press release. If the press release uses the word Union County in it, I will usually add the “NC” or “North Carolina” to it. Not always but usually. Use your best judgement.
At the end of every article, I take the opportunity to once again mention my County or City and State, and I also add a link back to the homepage of the Monroe Scoop. I think every SEO Guru out there will tell you that deep linking within your site is very good. I show a link and I “bold” it all.
Screen Shot
At this point and time, it’s time to start adding “tags” to your article. This is very simple to do. Simply start perusing down your article and add tags for the pertinent information in your article. Names, organizations, locations etc… If you notice in the screenshot, you will find that I tagged many of the words that were in my article that someone might do a search on in Google or in my own site search bar.
Screen Shot
Always, always, always add “alt tags” with keywords to your photos. I get a lot of traffic to my site from Google images.
Now here’s a little secret that you may or may not know about but I feel it can be very effective for your hyperlocal blog. Check your stats and look at the search terms that people are finding your site from. Look at the pages on your site they landed on. Take some of those terms and go back and edit those articles by adding those tags to that article or do some editing by adding those terms in the article. Tags will create more Wordpress pages for Google to index and give you more terms to be discovered by.
Make it a habit to link to other articles within your site. If you are writing an article talking about the Humane Society and you have previously written about them before, link back to the previous article using good keyword terms as your anchor text. This deep linking helps greatly as the Super Duper Guru’s will tell you.
These are very easy and simple steps that will help your site with the search engines. If you start applying these ideas, it will soon become second nature.
Copyright 2009 BloggerLens.com Hyperlocal Blog & Citizen Journalism
A little something new here on Bloggerlens.com. A video intro to my latest article. If you have an opinion on this, good or bad, please share in the comments. No need to mention I need a shave, I already know that. I’m pretty scruffy! The intro was made with my favorite little flip camera, the Kodak Zi6.
Have you planted any seeds lately in your hyperlocal garden? If you are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, I’m talking about networking and building relationships in your community. When you make the decision to go hyperlocal, you will immediately broaden your horizons and your your circle of friends and business relationships will start to grow.
If you are new to Bloggerlens, I started this site to share my ups and downs on my journey as a hyperlocal blogger. If I find something that works for me I will share it with you. If I find something that bombs, I will share that with you also. What may work in my community, may not work in yours and vice-versa. Wherever you are and whatever type of site you publish, it’s a good idea to plant seeds everywhere in the hopes that one day the harvest will come.
Today I’d like to share a little harvest with you. I’ve been working on a business relationship that is starting to pay off a little and I want to share how I did it and how you may apply the same principal. I created my hyperlocal blog, the Monroe Scoop, in an effort to create my own job. The site gives me tremendous personal satisfaction as well as the potential of a full time income in the future. I have tried not to be stupid with it so far as to not alienate certain parts of my readership. I want everyone to feel welcome when they arrive and I want the site to be beneficial to my community.
Here’s the Scoop. This is how it all went down from the beginning. My little case study:
Early on I republished some articles and information I found that pertained to our local shopping mall. I was basically passing on some good community information I found readily available and used my hyperlocal blog as an additional outlet for exposure to the Mall. Every time I published anything, I would go to the Mall website and use the contact form that was provided and notify them of what I did and give them a link. (you can easily do the same in your community)
I probably did this 3 times and finally received a response and a thank you from the Director of Marketing of the Mall. The Director wrote me a nice e-mail telling me how much she enjoyed my site and felt like I was filling a need in the community. She especially liked the fact that I posted a lot of community videos. That did a lot for my ego as well as send me a message that I was on the right track.
I did the same thing a couple more times. When I would send an e-mail, I always asked to let me know of any special events at the Mall so I could cover them on the site. I always received a thank you email from the Director.
One day I received an email from her with a press release that the Mall was going to have a huge fashion show which was co-sponsored by prominent local businesses. She invited me to cover it on my site. I agreed and expressed that I might even shoot some video. She was thrilled at the possibility. Long story short. I covered the Fashion Show and shot video. I met the Director of Marketing that evening as well as many local prominent business leaders that she personally introduced me to. I handed out business cards all over the place. I was pleasantly surprised when many told me they were already aware of my site and they visit everyday. I was extremely encouraged at this point.
I worked pretty hard on the video I shot that evening. My goal was to establish a business relationship with the Mall. I wanted to impress them with what I could do. I also hoped that other business would see what I did for the Mall and it might open up more opportunity. Here is the video that I shot of the Fashion Show.
Monroe Mall Fashion Show
As you might guess, the video was a huge hit in my community. I received a ton of traffic to my site. I gave free publicity to the Mall. I had a very happy Director of Marketing. This was actually very good publicity, not only for the Mall, but for the Director personally. These folks are usually looking for anything positive they can send to their bosses and it helps build their portfolios. I burned a copy and gave to the Director for her to use in the future and the video was also played at the next Board of Directors meeting for the Red Cross in my community.
The video was actually worth several hundred dollars if someone were to pay for such a video, but I did it for free. Sometimes you have to give before you receive.
Let’s move on. I have now basically worked my ass off for free but I have developed a relationship that I previously did not have. I have spread some good will in my community and more and more people are becoming aware of my site. One of the other features on my site that I do are called 5 x 5 videos. I shoot 5 video clips that are 5 seconds each in my community. You have to guess where I’m at. As it turns out, the Mall Director loves these videos. The 5 x 5’s are not my idea as I’ve seen them posted on other sites. The one’s I’ve seen are usually just that, just 5 x 5 clips period. I decided to put a spin on the idea and make people guess where I’m at. They have been popular on my site. These are quite easy to make. Here is an example of one below.
5 x 5 Video
Here’s the good part. She liked them so much that she wants the Mall to sponsor 2 of these per month. The Mall will be giving away Mall gift certificates to the winner who guesses all 5 locations. It’s taken quite a while to get to where I’m at in my opinion. I feel extremely fortunate and a little bit lucky. Many hyperlocal bloggers will tell you that you can’t really expect to monetize your site for 2 years. I was definitely on a mission to break that time frame. Just like a hyperlocal blog that focuses on a community or even a small section of a city, I focused on a business that I wanted to be my flagship sponsor. I’m seriously hoping that Mall Sponsorship will give me the street credibility I need for other advertisers to jump on board. I can’t discuss the financial arrangement but I’m happy that the site is going to produce income.
Just this week, I kicked off the article and video interview with the Director of Marketing announcing the Mall Sponsorship. My 5 x 5 videos start next week. Here is the video interview that appeared on my site this week.
Director of Marketing Interview
Harvest Time
Building a hyperlocal blog is not easy, it’s hard work and requires a time commitment but the rewards are out there. I consider myself to still be somewhat new at this and I never know what’s waiting on me around the next corner. Why don’t you start a 5 x 5 video series on your hyperlocal blog? They are a lot of fun and will get the attention of your community. Get out there and start building some relationships. Do you have your eye on who may be a great flagship advertiser of your site? If so, my advice to you would be to go do something for your advertiser for free and let them know about it. Plant those seeds. Plant them all over your community. At some point in time, the harvest will come.
Don’t forget my free offer to help you get set up with your own hyperlocal blog in your community.
I made the quick intro video at the top of this article with my favorite flip camera. The Kodak Zi6. I recommend that every hyperlocal blogger get one. Go get one today.
Good morning or good afternoon to all of my friends here on Bloggerlens. I trust that all of you had a great weekend. It’s now time to get back to business and see what we can discover together about making a strong hyperlocal blog.
Today I’m going to feature just one of the tools I use on my hyperlocal blog. I use many and they are all important to me. Since I do a lot of videos on my site, I thought I would give a video review of the Kodak Zi6 HD Flip Camera.
I love this camera! Ok, review over….no just kidding there, but this is one of my favorite tools in my hyperlocal arsenal. For a long time, I had a flip camera in my sights and I lusted to own one but which one? I’ll be honest with you, they just looked like they were flat out fun! Now that I own one, they are flat out fun!
As many of you, I started reading reviews and watching video reviews trying to figure out which flip camera would suit my needs the best. It was a little confusing to me but one camera seemed to be taking the lead the more I researched. The Kodak Zi6 seemed to be the overall favorite for so many people. I made the decision to buy the Zi6 and I couldn’t be happier. I have had so much fun with this camera and I never leave home without it. Literally folks, if I drive off and forget it, I turn around and go get it. I bet many of you do the same thing if you forget your cell phone. If you are, or become a hyperlocal blogger, you will feel the same way about your camera. I figure, sure as the world, if I leave home without it, I’ll stumble upon the biggest local story of the year and I will not be able to capture the event because I was too lazy to turn around and go back home. You do not want this to happen to you.
Let’s get on with the review. I could keep blabbing away but why don’t I show you? I would appreciate all of you keep the snickering to a low roar. This is my first attempt at a video review. The review goes into a little depth on the camera and I hope that if you are currently sitting on the fence, that this Kodak Zi6 Review will help you make a decision. If you have any trouble viewing the video below, here is a link to the same video on YouTube. Kodak Zi6 Review.
My video review of the Kodak Zi6 HD Flip Camera
Ok everybody, wake up, the video just stopped. LOL! I hope you are still awake. Here is direct link to the Zi6 on Amazon. It is my affiliate link and if you make a purchase, I’ll make a couple of bucks and it helps to support this site. Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera on Amazon
I want to show you an example of when I grabbed my camera just in case I could shoot a video and post it to my hyperlocal blog. A while back, a brand new IKEA Store opened in Charlotte, N.C. I live on the outskirts of Charlotte and for months, the news of this store was all the rage in my area. I’m a guy, I don’t understand these things but that’s ok. I understand taking a club, killing my food and cooking it over fire, that’s it. Shortly after it opened, my wife informed me that I would be accompanying her to the store for a glorious afternoon of hand holding and shopping. Oh please…kill me now I thought.
I went with a smile on my face. I grabbed my trusty little Kodak Zi6 (notice the bold-faced keyword for SEO purposes) and headed for Charlotte. I hate to admit this, but I had a great afternoon of hand holding with my wife and the store was cool as hell. We even ate dinner at the store. The Swedish Meatball Specialty they served were enough for me to break at least 2 commandments. It’s the biggest single store I’ve ever been in. The Swedes make awesome furniture and right now, I’m typing this blog article on a desk that I went back to IKEA and bought. So much for my caveman exterior I try to keep. Check out the video below and see how I turned a shopping trip into an article for my hyperlocal blog.
I shot this video realizing that my target audience would most likely be the ladies. Most guys are not shoppers. I think it’s important when you shoot a hyperlocal video, try to understand who will most likely be watching the video the most. If you notice in the video, I stop talking at one point and try to shoot the tour to give an idea of what you can expect to see when you visit.
Example of hyperlocal video using the Kodak Zi6
The store is located in Charlotte and not necessarily hyperlocal to my community. However, everyone in my community was buzzing about this store for months. Here is a link to the article that appeared on Monroe Scoop. It was a great article and video for my blog. Here is the gravy. In my area, when I type into Google, IKEA Store Charlotte NC I usually find myself on the first or second page. I have been in the #1 spot many times when I check. As I write this article, I’m sitting on #13 in Google in my area. This article and video has sent my blog a lot of traffic and continues to do so.
Never miss an opportunity to post a hyperlocal video or article. Sometimes when you least expect it, an opportunity presents itself. Make sure you add some sort of video camera to your tool kit. Take it everywhere you go. Please tell me how you use video on your hyperlocal blog. I am very interested in hearing about it and I’m sure you would be helping the readers of Bloggerlens.
Here is a free download of the song I used in the IKEA video. “Shopping” by Bare Naked Ladies. Be my guest to download and put it in your own hyperlocal video if you get an opportunity. Review a local store and drop it in your video.
If you are considering starting a hyperlocal blog in your area, don’t forget my free offer to help you get set up and going. It’s never too soon to start.
I finally did it. I put myself in front of the camera and shot a video for my hyperlocal blog. I am so used to being behind the video camera that I was actually nervous about it. How will I be perceived? Will I look goofy? Will people laugh at my feeble attempt? You know what? I really enjoyed it and I don’t give a crap what anyone thinks about it. I don’t answer to anyone on my hyperlocal blog and I’ll do what I damn well please. That felt good to write, yea! I’m not really a hyperlocal video Rockstar yet, but that’s what I’m working towards. Why not? So should you.
It’s something that I have been wanting to do and I would encourage you to do the same. Now, I have to give credit where credit is due. My good buddy, Allyn Hane over at Blogger Illustrated is a video blogger and he lays it on the line everytime he posts a new video. By watching him and the fun he has with it, I decided to make the jump from director to Rock Star!
To set it up…I recently had my lawnmower repaired and the shop gave me outstanding service. This is a lawn equipment sales and repair shop that is pretty far out in my county and they have a very good reputation and have been around forever. I took this opportunity to do a video review of their business. If you are a hyperlocal blogger and receive good customer service from a local merchant, I advise you to post an article about the business. You don’t have to go to the extreme of publishing a video, but an article and a few photos do wonders for your blog in your community. Here are a couple of links to two articles I have posted on my hyperlocal blog. I call these “Good Service Alerts!” Here is a Good Service Alert I wrote about Tire Town. Here is another Good Service Alert I wrote about Artistic Imprints. These articles spread good will in my community and also sent me traffic. They do not take long to write and publish. That is why I stress to you, always bring a camera or video camera when you leave the house. You never know when an opportunity for a hyperlocal article will present itself.
I shot the video in my yard and driveway. I’m talking about lawn equipment so what better way than on my lawnmower and in the grass? I was by myself so it took a little while to set up my shots and try to make them look good. I used my Sennheiser Wireless Lavaliere Microphone so I would have good audio. This is an awesome wireless mic I use that will actually transmit through walls. It’s on the upper end of the scale but it creates professional audio for your videos. *Tip, good audio is always necessary, your viewers will forgive you for bad shaky video but they will click away with bad audio. Once I shot the video, I was surprised to see just how much video I had shot. I had to edit it down to 5 minutes. I felt like 5 minutes was plenty and maybe even a little too much. Once I started editing, I tried to mix it up a little with a couple of photos of the business and also some zoom edits where it appears that I have a camera man zooming around.
The resulting video I have almost termed as a hyperlocal infomercial. I felt like Billy May’s or the ShamWow Guy. As soon as the video was published, I called the owner to let him know what I had done and he was very appreciative. Enough blabbing, have a look. Here’s a link to the article I wrote that accompanied the video.
That was my first attempt and I hope I will get better over time. Even though I got a little bit fancy with my editing with graphics and a little music, you do not have to do that on yours. That’s not what it’s all about folks. It’s about your content. Shoot videos of your local community and upload to YouTube. Post them on your blog. Do it over and over. Your community will find them, I promise. They will appreciate it. Your traffic will increase. What are you waiting on? Be a hyperlocal Rock Star in your town!
I would love to hear your comments, good or bad. Have a great weekend, wherever you are.
Enjoy or download for free, the outro music I used on the video. “Paralyzer” by Finger Eleven.
I have a friend I’ve been exchanging some really detailed and long email messages with in the past couple of days. Some of what we’ve been writing about deals with hyperlocal blogging and it inspired me to write this article.
“How To Start A Hyperlocal Blog And Keep Your Full Time Job”
My disclaimer here is the fact that I consider myself a full time hyperlocal blogger. The fact that you may hold a full time job shouldn’t hold you back from starting a hyperlocal blog in your community and delving a little into citizen journalism. My situation is different than most. I started my community web site in the hopes that I can eventually earn a living from it. I wrote about my situation in an earlier article. Build a great hyperlocal blog and get paid for it.
You have the rest of your life ahead of you so why not get started now? You don’t have to create an award winning site that rivals anyone. All you have to do is get started slowly and lay the foundation for what can happen in the future. What if in 5 years your local newspaper shuts down? You would have a jump start on everyone in your community to move in and provide. It’s a supply and demand issue.
Here are some very easy steps that I would do to start a hyperlocal blog and keep your full time job This is so easy and will be so meaningful to you in the future that you will actually feel the urge to send me an Amazon Gift Card or name your next son Steven.
Take out a domain name now and a hosting package. I would use your town’s name in the url if possible. For example, Bakersfieldscoop.com or Indianheightsgazette.com. You get the idea. I recommend bluehost.com to everyone for domain names and hosting. It’s what I use on all of my sites.
Use Wordpress for your blog. There are more free wordpress themes out there for you than government bailouts. You may want to consider some sort of magazine/news style theme. Free blogging platforms are ok but not necesarily for the long term. You never actually own your own content when using someone else’s free software. Don’t even go there for your main site. Don’t argue with me on this one, trust me.
Once you have your blog set up, go to Google Alerts. I want you to set up a Google email alert for a ton of related searches that pertain to your county and city that will be sent to your in-box once a day. Here are some ideas:
Bakersfield Kansas
Bakersfield KS
Bakersfield County
Bakersfield Kansas Government
Bakersfield Kansas Police Dept.
Bakersfield, Kansas Mayor John Kingston
Bakersfield Kansas School System
Bakersfield Kansas Blogs
Bakersfield Kansas Videos
You should understand where I’m going here. Think up as many terms that relate to your community as you desire.
I want you to take selected articles from your Google Alerts and re-post the article to your new hyperlocal blog.
I want you to give credit and links back to the original article at the bottom of your post. Never re-print anything without without giving credit and a link back.
If an article says that you cannot publish and it’s copyright protected, try to contact the author by phone or e-mail and ask permission. Most likely they will allow it and actually link to your article from their site. That would be good Google Juice
Scour all of the video sites such as YouTube, Veoh, Viddler, Vimeo, Blip, Google Videos & Yahoo Videos to find any videos that were taken in and around your community. If the video allows embedding, put the video on your site and give credit and a link back. If at all possible, contact the owner of the video and alert them that you have posted their video. 99.9% will love you for it and probably link to your blog. Good Google Juice again.
Add one page on your blog that encourages readers to submit their own news story or community event. Make sure you have a contact form on that page. Here is an example of the page I use on my hyperlocal site that encourages readers to submit stories to me. Submit your news to the Monroe Scoop.
Contact all of your local non-profits and asked to be placed on their e-mail press release lists.
Never leave your house without your camera. Take a photo of the crowded parking lot at the mall and post it. If you think that’s silly, you don’t understand hyperlocal. SEO your article with the name of your town and the name of the Mall. Very important! Place alt tags on your photos so they will show up on Google image search.
This is very important and you must do this on every article you post. It’s also very easy. I do not want you to get carried away with SEO. As a matter of fact, I only want you to SEO four things in your articles. If you are going hyperlocal in Bakersfield, Kansas I want you to put a variation of these 4 terms in every article. Not all 4 in every article. Pick one per article and vary them each time. Each time, I want you to put the term at the start of your article in H1 tags. I want you to repeat it again at the bottom of your article in bold letters.
Bakersfield, Kansas
Bakersfield, KS
Bakersfield County, Kansas
Bakersfield County, KS
That’s it. That’s all I want you to SEO in your articles with the exception of alt tags on your photos
Now here’s the kicker. I want you to do this once a week, that’s all. I want you to spend time with your family and take care of your full time job first and foremost. Full time jobs are hard to come by and you must take care of those who butter your bread.
Once a week gives you 52 articles per year. In 5 years you will have published 260 articles and you will be ranking #1 for so many search terms in your town that you will send me my second Amazon Gift Card. You will have no doubt picked up a little extra money from your site with Google Adsense or Amazon links or even a local merchant may want to buy a little advertising. When you approach retirement, your hyperlocal website will be waiting on you to go full time and dominate community news in your hometown. Your site will probably be at least a Google PR5 or PR6 by then. Everyone will know about your site who lives in your community. You will own a valuable piece on internet real estate.
All of this and you only have to spend an hour and a half per week to lay the foundation for your future in Citizen Journalism. This is my simple recommendation of how each of you can start a hyperlocal blog and keep your full time job.
There are so many Twitter statistics pages out there, that it’s hard to keep up with them. I should probably start a bookmark folder for all of them I stumble upon but I don’t. I guess that’s because I’m constantly switching back and forth between Safari browser & Firefox. I should get better organized. By the way, while I’m thinking about it, the new Safari browser sucks. I find bugs in it everyday. Firefox rules supremely. Ok, I got that out of my system.
Back to Twitter. I recently came across a new Twitter page called Twitterholic.com. Many of you may say, “Dude, where have you been?” Well, I’m sorry, I just found it. Twitterholic will rank you according to where you live, assuming you have it listed in your profile. The page tells me that I am ranked #1 for Monroe, NC. I use @stevesherron with my hyperlocal blog, monroescoop.com. I thought that was pretty cool, but I already knew that I should rank near the top. I live in a small city on the outskirts of Charlotte, NC with a population of around 30,000. I’m constantly searching for people in my town or county to follow. My city has not yet jumped on the Social Media bandwagon. Slowly but surely, they are coming on board.
I see great power in Twitter in the future. No telling where Twitter will end up but I think it will be extremely valuable. I don’t have a billion, zillion followers but that’s ok. I have a little over 300 followers and honestly I don’t see how people obtain 15,000 followers when I check profile pages and websites. I see a lot of junk and it amazes me that they have so many followers. I wouldn’t follow most of these people if they were dropping $5 bills at the mall. Are these people on Twitter full time? Do they have a hired staff that spend all day following people in the hopes that people will follow back? When I come across one of these Twitterers with so many followers, I go check out their web site and peruse their tweets. I may go through a couple of pages to see what they are tweeting about to determine if I want to follow this individual. Rarely do I find such pearls of wisdom that makes me hit their follow button. Occasionally, but not often. I think most people are sheep that see such a massive following and through Twitter Hypnosis they are powerless as their twitter finger left clicks and they slowly exhale as if they just toked a joint. I don’t get it. Woo Hoo, I just became follower 31,973 to this person. I feel such a feeling of acceptance now. If I asked these sheep what the person’s name is, I doubt they could answer.
I thought I would do a little experiment here on bloggerlens. I’m assuming that most people who land here on this site has found me through some sort of search for hyperlocal blogs, hyperlocal blogging or citizen journalism. I would guess that at least some of the readers have their own hyperlocal websites or are considering starting one. Twitter must be in your game plan if you are going hyperlocal.
I thought I would take a random sample of my visitors from my stats and use ip addresses to determine who is the number one Twitter user in their area. I may actually follow some of these people if they are hyperlocal bloggers with my @hyperlocalblog Twitter name. What will this accomplish for me? I have no idea. I do think that one should work towards being the #1 Twitter user in their respected area. Let me make a disclaimer right now. I use my Twitter account for my Monroe Scoop website, @stevesherron, to socialize and gain friends. I use @hyperlocalblog to mostly post my articles from bloggerlens on Twitter.
All opinions that follow are exactly that, opinions. I don’t claim to be an expert on anything, just making a few observations along the way. If I offend anyone, well I’m sorry…grow up.
I’m using twellow.com to determine the top users in a particular city for my findings below.
Geographical visitors to bloggerlens determined by IP Adresses and the top Twitter users for that area.
Should these folks be going hyperlocal?
Greenville, S.C. Duncan C. Wierman is #1. @duncanwierman Over 41,000 followers. Not a hyperlocal blogger. It would be extremely hard to overtake this guy. Duncan actually followed me but I did not follow back. No way I could create a friendship online with Duncan. He’d never see me. He’s a real estate investor and I generally do not follow real estate people. His profile web site takes you to a landing page where he is trying to sell you his real estate course. He’s probably a very nice guy, but why would people follow him after they clicked his web page? He is using his Twitter power on a national level. Can you imagine his media power if he were to take it local?
*No user in top 10 for Greenville, SC appears to be a hyperlocal blogger. The #10 user in Greenville, SC has over 3000 followers. When I checked her blog, she mostly embeds YouTube videos from others and her feedreader shows 74 subscribers. Over 3000 followers and only 74 subscribers on her blog? WTH? This young lady appears to be some sort of designer and only has a paypal button on her blog. She should seriously consider re-directing her energy to hyperlocal blogging.
Moving on…
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mike Brenner is #1. @mikebrenner. Over 8000 followers. Mike is an artist and appears to own a gallery in Milwaukee. His web site listed in his Twitter profile. http://hotcakesgallery.com/. Mike’s website is weak for a gallery owner. I can’t buy anything from his web site. It doesn’t appear I could buy local advertising either. He should be directing all the locals in Milwaukee to his gallery from his Twitter page and become the cultural center of his town. He curses on his tweets. Bad move.
#10 in Milwaukee is a public radio station. @radiomilwaukee. Over 2500 followers and concentrates mostly on Milwaukee.
Population of Platteville listed around 10,000. Andrew, go hyperlocal brother. You could dominate after a while and probably take over the other communities close to you.
There are only 3 Twitterers listed for Platteville.
Moving on…
Port St. Lucie, Florida. Orrin Woodward is #1 with 47,000 followers. @orrin_woodward. Orrin is an author and a speaker. His web site listed on his profile page. Orrin Woodward. Orrin sells a book he authored on his blog through Amazon and embeds his and other YouTube videos. He doesn’t send out a ton of tweets. He puts out a lot of quotes from other famous people. I don’t really understand this. I think when people do this, it’s because they can’t really think of anything to tweet about. I’d rather see a twitpic of someone’s lunch than read a quote from an obscure author. He far overdoes the quotes. I would unfollow him. His best tweet after pages of searching? This twitpic of shark fishing. Now that’s what I’m talking about! Not sure how he inspired 43,000 followers. Who am I to say? I only have 300.
#10 is Port St. Lucie is a Pastor with 201 followers. @myministrybytes. As far as Twitter goes, hyperlocal is wide open in Port St. Lucie. Pastor Mike only follows 21 people. He will probably not be very successful at Twitter unless he increases the amount of people he follows. I rarely follow those with low follow counts and high follower counts. Pastor Mike does not list a web site. Pastor Mike could probably go hyperlocal religion in his community and build a tremendous following.
Moving on…still trying to find hyperlocal bloggers who are using Twitter effectively
Jacksonville, Fla. Robert Oliver is #1. @f4fanthom. 1482 followers with no web site listed on his profile. Robert is in home repairs and remodeling. Uses the standard Twitter avatar. Does not appear to use his Twitter account to do anything hyperlocal or build his own business. This totally does not make sense to me. No web site, no profile pic, nothing special about his tweets. I would never follow him but many sheep have. Robert should be driving hyperlocal customers to his own remodeling business instead of mindless tweets about affiliate marketing and contests.
#10 in Jacksonville, Fla is Jessica, @MsBoricua09 with 105 followers. No web site listed. Attention all people of Jacksonville, Fla…You could easily take over Jacksonville, Florida on Twitter and become a social media force in this city of over 1.3 million people. You are allowing a home remodeler with no web site and a standard Twitter avatar to school you. Someone in Jacksonville, please get off your ass and pick the fruit that awaits you.
Jeremy Cox is listed at #8, @Jeremy_Cox and should be dominating because he’s a local reporter. He’s got 158 followers and actually has hyperlocal tweets in his twitter stream. Jeremy, I’m screaming at you brother…take over Jacksonville, Florida for goodness sakes!
Moving on…
Jersey City, NJ. Maria Perez is listed as #1 with over 6700 followers. @profnet. Maria is a journalist and lists https://profnet.prnewswire.com/ as her web site in her profile. Maria appears to make a lot of hyperlocal tweets but not focused to her community necessarily. She has the experience and know how to dominate if she would focus strictly on her community but a lot of what she does appears to be on a national level also.
I’m going to jump to #12 in Jersey City. He is Zac Clark. @rockertycoon with 1150 followers. He runs a local rock music blog. He has local videos and photos. He’s got the right idea. He needs to get a wordpress blog and should cover even more of the local scenes. He should blog about the restaurant where the music is being played. He should blog about the drink specials and interview the owners. It wouldn’t take Zac long to be the #1 hyperlocal blogger in Jersey City with a niche like local rock music and restaurants.
Moving on…let’s do one more city that has previously visited bloggerlens.com.
Warwick, Rhode island. #1 is Practical Manifesta with over 1300 followers. @practicalmanife. Does not list his name on his Twitter page but has a picture of himself, I presume, on his Twitter background photo. This is stupid to not put your name. Whoever he is, he lists his web site on his profile as http://www.practicalmanifestations.com/. I visited his site and it’s a conglomeration of junk in my opinion. I saw nothing that would make me follow him if I were checking his web site listed on his profile. He’s into Universal Attraction. Must be working with 1300 followers and he doesn’t list his name. More sheep following I guess. His bio says follow me and I will follow you. No thanks dude. See if you can find his name anywhere. Pure snake oil it looks to me but he is #1 in Warwick.
#10 is RI Bridal Event with 324 followers. @specbridalevent. The website is listed as http://www.spectacularbridalevent.com/welcome.htm on their profile page. They specialize in bridal events in R.I. their web site looks nice and they are going hyperlocal in their niche. The tweets they put out are excellent in my opinion. They are mixed with a good focus on the bridal business. They understand what’s going on. If these folks decided to move to other niches in Warwick, they could dominate. I did a random sampling of their followers and they are for the most part very focused on their niche. This is probably the best example I have found today of hyperlocal examples and people using Twitter to their advantage.
I’m very surprised at my findings today. Once again, I’m not an expert at anything but the majority of the Twitter users I highlighted today are not using Twitter very effectively. Many are being followed by Twitter Sheep. Virtually every community in the USA is prime for a hyperlocal blogger of some sort. Restaurants, sports, news, charities, community videos…you name it. I’m a huge advocate of wasting time on the internet. I love to do that, but I also try to balance it with being constructive and building something useful for the future. Your community awaits you. No one in your local area can out-social media you unless you let them. Start a hyperlocal blog, even if it’s just in your neighborhood and join the revolution.
Caution: The article that you are about to read contains extreme bias on my part.
Traffic, that’s what an internet marketer can teach you about hyperlocal blogging. I could stop right there and this article would be complete. If you take a moment and give it some thought, what else do I need to say? Internet marketers are brilliant when it comes to internet traffic. At least the good ones are. An internet marketer depends on traffic to make a living online. As a hyperlocal blogger, I depend on traffic to build my media empire. No traffic, no empire, no advertising, no money.
I study internet marketers for a reason and you should too. A good internet marketer knows SEO. A good internet marketer understands link building. A good internet marketer understands affiliate programs and how to use them to his advantage. Rarely do you find an internet marketer willing to share their knowledge without pushing some sort of bullshit (sorry) product on you. Personally, I follow only 4 internet marketers faithfully and today I’d like to highlight my favorite internet marketer.
Allyn Hane of bloggerillustrated.net. I found Allyn through some comments he had made on one of my other favorite sites. I clicked through and that’s when I found Blogger Illustrated. Allyn is one of the most entertaining video bloggers on the internet. He teaches his viewers about the nuts and bolts of internet marketing and how to build traffic to your site. Let me warn you right now about Allyn before you visit his site. If you are an Oprah or Dr. Phil type sensitive person who just wants to feel good about yourself and your blog and no one reads it but you and your mommy, don’t bother. Allyn will sense you watching his videos and will reach through your monitor and open hand slap you where you sit.
I trolled Allyn’s site for quite a while and every now and then I would make a comment on his blog. I studied Allyn’s videos and what he teaches and I apply much of what he says on my own hyperlocal blog. Although I have never met or spoken to Allyn, I was connecting with him through his videos because I felt we had a lot in common. Surely that happens to all of us. How many of you have a co-worker or someone you see on a regular basis and you just feel a click with but do not actually know? That’s human nature folks, we tend to gravitate to those we are most like.
I found myself always looking forward to Allyn’s next video and actually get pissed off at him if he doesn’t put them out fast enough. Allyn drinks beer on his videos. I drink beer while watching Allyn’s videos. How cool is that? Allyn uses a whiteboard to get his point across. I drink beer while watching Allyn use a whiteboard.
Allyn truly cares about your success online and he is the master of his own domain. Allyn usually sets his camera up in his kitchen and talks to you as if you had just dropped by to bum a beer after watching him cut his grass. Funny how folks stop by after the work is done. He leans over the counter and tells you straight up how to be successful online. There is always a cold beer on the counter and he’ll grab his laptop and flip it toward the camera to show you something trying to make a point.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard a new rock song by the group Shinedown. The name of the song was “Sound of Madness”. As I listened to the song, I thought to myself that’s got Allyn Hane written all over it. I had an idea. I would create Allyn a video introduction for his videos. He would be able to use it as an intro and an outro for his videos. I spent a while doing some editing and using a picture of him found online, here is what I created.
I had no idea of how Allyn would take it or think about the video I made for him. Why did I do it? I did it as a sign of appreciation for what he does. I do a lot of video work and I know first hand how much work he puts into it. What else could I do? I could have sent him a case of beer but I would rather drink it myself. Only 8 out of 24 would have arrived.
What happened after I sent my video to him, just blew my mind. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything for anyone in my life who showed as much appreciation. Allyn’s a humble guy and I never expected his response. Allyn’s very next video was a video review of my hyperlocal site, the Monroe Scoop. Grass Roots Internet Marketing. Go Hyperlocal. I was blown away and I appreciated the review very much. Allyn’s review has sent this site and the Monroe Scoop a ton of new traffic. Below is the video review from Blogger Illustrated.
You may watch a video of Allyn outside while grilling some chicken on his deck or he may post a quick video of his thoughts while sitting in his car. You should be able to get a sense of his passion and excitement from the video above. Folks, you ain’t seen nothing yet until you head over to Blogger Illustrated and watch all of his videos. No doubt you will become a fan.
If you want a better hyperlocal blog with more traffic pay attention to what Allyn teaches and implement it on your own site. Your site will be better, Google will find you and rank you higher, your traffic will increase and you will be a happier blogger.
Enjoy or download for free, Shinedown. “Sound of Madness”.
Let me state right now that I’m not an SEO Expert (search engine optimization). I’m not an expert at anything with the one exception of enjoying an ice cold Blue Moon in a frosty mug at the end of every day. There are a few things that I try to do with every article I post in the hopes that it will help the search engines find my site. If you apply the same principals on your site, I think it will help build your traffic, it certainly will not hurt. 
so I would have good audio. This is an awesome wireless mic I use that will actually transmit through walls. It’s on the upper end of the scale but it creates professional audio for your videos. *Tip, good audio is always necessary, your viewers will forgive you for bad shaky video but they will click away with bad audio. Once I shot the video, I was surprised to see just how much video I had shot. I had to edit it down to 5 minutes. I felt like 5 minutes was plenty and maybe even a little too much. Once I started editing, I tried to mix it up a little with a couple of photos of the business and also some zoom edits where it appears that I have a camera man zooming around. 
I trolled Allyn’s site for quite a while and every now and then I would make a comment on his blog. I studied Allyn’s videos and what he teaches and I apply much of what he says on my own hyperlocal blog. Although I have never met or spoken to Allyn, I was connecting with him through his videos because I felt we had a lot in common. Surely that happens to all of us. How many of you have a co-worker or someone you see on a regular basis and you just feel a click with but do not actually know? That’s human nature folks, we tend to gravitate to those we are most like. 
