The reason I do not do a blogroll on the sidebar as many bloggers do, is that I don’t want to send my readers away from my site and make it easy for them. I want them to hang out with me for a while. I’m happy to feature your blog in a story and link to you from there.

If you lived in my area and told me about the story above, I would be on it like a duck on a june bug. I’m partial to video, so I would shoot a video interview and maybe break it into 2 or 3 segments. I would get a lot of mileage out of 3 short videos with articles and photos. One video of the bull alone!

Here’s an idea for you. Since your population triples in the summer due to tourism, I would consider an e-book for tourists on your blog. Make it a free download when someone subscribes to your blog. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just highlight the things that tourists do in your area. Put a lot of pictures in it. Possibly see if one of the hottest restaurants in your community would be willing to sponsor it. Charge the restaurant a few bucks or do it for free. The restaurant advertising would give your blog some street cred with other advertisers.

To answer your signed release question. No, I do not have anyone sign a release. Most of my videos are shot in public and the public is fair game. It is perfectly normal for a large organization like the hospital to ask for a release. Big organizations have attorneys getting involved in all aspects of their business. I have had people to ask me not to shoot them on video and I honor their request. 99.9% want to be on video and ask where it can be seen. Besides, if anyone were to sue me, good luck. You can’t get blood from a turnip.

I’ll tell you a couple reasons I want to do this blog. First, sounds like fun. I’ve looked over your cool monroe site for ideas and have a few other ideas.

Second, the main news station for us is 90 miles away. By and large, we’re ignored. Our area is small, but very diverse. We have farming, but our population triples in the summer due to our New England type harbor going into Lake Michigan. So much untapped potential.

Third, our news stories leave out so much of the story. I know they have to edit because of all the news they have to cram into a short time, but there’s no freedom to it. They can take a good story and sterilize it.

Example: This guy was almost killed by a bull and I was the paramedic who took care of him. The hospital did a good job, too, and he is doing remarkably well. He was so grateful, he called everyone and their uncle to get the story on the news. My kids had a blast watching the taping and seeing the bull. Almost 2000lbs! Anyways, out of my interview, they only showed one sentence, the dramatic one, of course. My partner didn’t even make the news and she did a good job in the interview.

They also didn’t mention my compliment to the first responders on the news. Without the first responders, it would’ve taken much longer to get him off the scene and time was critical for him.

That is why I wanna do this. There are stories out there that would be cool to hear that nobody does or are edited to the point of truly missing the whole story.

Sorry so long.

I will send you the link to the wireless microphone I use. Because of your comment, I may do a little re-editing and include the link in the article. A Pro like you always see the obvious.

As you know, I’m a huge fan of raw videos. They are real, just like the person.

BTW, I loved Hamburg. Didn’t do any “window shopping”, though

2 questions:
1) what kind of reaction did you get when you told the folks at Whitley about it?
2) can you send me your affiliate link to buy this same mic? I need one and would like to buy it thru your link.
(PS–you should include a link to this mic in your post above too)

You are very very correct about sound quality. As you know, my vids are very raw on purpose. however, the majority of “critiques” I get via email have to do with sound. Even shooting indoors I still get “complaints” which is why I really value my fellow bloggers like you… we can all learn from one another. I never thought about a wireless mic before… cuz I am just ignorant lol
(and you have good taste in music and beer too, so that helps)

AL

For this particular video I used my higher end equipment. The camera was a Canon XH A1 which is a professional model high-def camera. My wireless mic is a Sennheiser G2 which is also upper end. Do not let that deter you. You can do the same with virtually any equipment.

I will be doing product reviews on every piece of equipment I use as a hyperlocal blogger very soon here on Bloggerlens. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

Cool idea. I’m just trying to figure out how to do a hyperlocal blog in my area. I live in a much smaller populated area. Not many online searches for my county. One town gets more than the county searches, but still not a lot and I don’t live there.