Lately, I have made some personal reflections concerning my hyperlocal blogs that have resulted in changes to the way I’m doing business. I have faced some cold hard facts. The first icy cold fact that basically bitch slapped me in the face, is I have finally realized I am not Superman. We all like to think we are, but running a hyperlocal blog or several, is very hard work if you want to do it correctly.

For almost a year now I have been running 4 hyperlocal news blogs. Until recently I have had some help running the sites and producing content. Times and people do change and for the past little while, I have found the day-to-day responsibilities mainly falling into my lap.

If you have any experience in hyperlocal journalism, you know that we are all experimenting in this new frontier sometimes refered to as citizen journalism. Each day brings on new ideas and thoughts. What worked last week may not be working this week. A fantastic, can’t lose idea of a new revenue stream can sometimes, more often than not, fall flat on it’s face. One day you can experience amazing highs followed by amazing lows in just 24 hours. All of this, and you just keep on plodding because after a while, hyperlocal blogging becomes a part of you. The benefits far outweigh the negatives.

I have decided to consolidate 3 of my hyperlocal websites into 1 main site and create community tabs that will cover the different geographical areas that I want to cover. Running multiple sites can be hard to keep fresh content on the main page of every site. By creating community tabs, it is much easier to always have fresh content on the front page of my “flagship” site.

Create Community Tabs for different geographical areas in your community.

Create Community Tabs for your Hyperlocal Blog website.

You can visit my hyperlocal blog in Monroe, NC to see how I’m doing this on my site.

The community tabs are actually “Pages” I created in WordPress. I created a page and named it one of my communities. I am able to write articles (posts) and have them show up directly on a specific page. I have the ability to let the new article show up on the main page, community page or both. I was able to do this with 2 WordPress plugins I added to my site.

How To Create A WordPress Post and include it in a WordPress Page

Here are the links to the 2 plugins that allowed me to exclude articles from the main page and publish them to a Wordpress “page” I created. Another words, how to include a WordPress post in a page and exclude it from appearing on the main page of your site. I’m sure there are many more ways or more plugins that will do the same job, but I found these and so far they are working just fine for me. If you know of more, pleast list in the comments below.

• Ultimate Category Excluder
• Include WordPress Posts in Pages

Matt McGee at Hyperlocal Blogger has recently written a similar article about how he is creating hyperlocal topic pages. Matt is using SEO on his topic pages to drive additional traffic. Check it out if you would like to see how he is creating “authority pages.”

Everyday I am seeking ways to make my life easier and more simple through technology. I may never totally make it but I want to eventually make as much passive income with my hyperlocal blogs as possible. Consolidating 3 sites into one will certainly help me as I move forward.

2010 Bloggerlens.com

Traffic is what we all live and breathe by. Today’s hyperlocal blogging tip may actually be just plain common sense more than a helpful tip. However, if you are not an experienced hyperlocal blogger, I think this may help you.

Where do you get your news from these days? Most likely you have a wide variety of sources. I’d also bet that most of it is online. In my case, I get 90% of my news and information online from various sources.

As a hyperlocal blogger, you are competing with other local sources for site traffic. Your local newspaper is one of your competitors. Your local paper may also have an online presence. They also have paid staff and resources that you do not have. If you take a hard look at their content, it’s also mostly news type content. It’s content that is here today and gone tomorrow I like to say. If a bank in your town gets robbed, that’s a current event that may capture a lot of traffic in the present moment. In 2 weeks, how many people are going to search for the robbery? Not many.

The news outlets have a mindset that you do not have to participate in. Editors are notorious for the midset of “If it bleeds, it leads.” You on the other hand are free to write about the raffle at your local high school that will benefit a local charity. This is basically reporting a niche article in your community. The interest in this article will mostly come from the school itself, employees, student and parents. The local charity will also be very interested in your article.

Create Unique Content For Your Hyperlocal Blog

If you are smart about it and place proper keywords and tags and proper links, your niche article can appear in the serps from now on for many various searches. Over time, your article can be viewed many more times than the armed robbery article that was hot for a day.

It can be very hard for you to compete with the local news outlets for breaking news stories. On the other hand it is very hard for your local news outlet to compete with you for stories that contain unique content about small niches in your community. The news outlets do not have the time, staff or resources to chase those type stories. Remember, they have a different mindset and this is your opportunity to create unique content for long term traffic.

Do not disregard the small stories in your community, there is an audience for almost every article you post on your hyperlocal blog.

Always take advantage of breaking news stories if you can. Never lose an opportunity to get in the thick of things with breaking news. If you will put forth your main effort on unique content in your community, you can win the competition for long term website traffic and a very loyal following of readers.

Establishing yourself as part of the local media has it’s personal advantages. As time has progressed for me and my hyperlocal blogging efforts, I’m able to do things now, that a year and a half ago would not have been possible.

I write about a lot of things here on BloggerLens but my main job and focus in my real life are that as a citizen journalist in my hometown. The relationships that are possible when you become a hyperlocal blogger can certainly open doors and opportunities if you will only pursue. When you establish credibility in your local community as a citizen journalist or blogger, you will begin to see opportunities present themselves to you. Your site, social media presence and your content can take you a long way in this day and time.

I want to share with you today an event I was part of back in November. My local town sponsored the Warriors & Warbirds Airshow. I was invited to participate in a media flight with the T-28 Trojan Horsemen Flying Team. It was one of the biggest thrills of my life. The video below is my flight from start to finish, shot in HD with my Canon XH A1. I added very little music to this video as to capture the natural sounds of this flight. If you have never experienced close formation flying, you will be amazed at the skill of these pilots. I was required to wear a parachute during this flight. That get’s you to thinking a little and wondering if you made your last life insurance payment.

The benefits of being a citizen journalist are many. I hope you enjoy the video.

2010 BloggerLens.com

It’s been one heck of a week. I became a Grandfather on Monday morning. His name is Carter and as hard as I try to be a badass tough guy sometimes, this little booger melted my heart the moment I laid my eyes on him and I instantly fell in love with this little guy. He’s why I haven’t been too busy on Blogger Lens lately.

Back to business now. I implemented something new on my hyperlocal site this week, MonroeScoop.com, that I think is pretty cool and should add a lot as far as multi-media goes. It is something that I think you should consider doing on your hyperlocal blog also. Through the use of Google Voice, I added 2 telephone interviews in the body of my articles. You can check out my earlier Google Voice Review. Google Voice gives you a very easy option to record your telephone conversations by simply hitting the number 4 on your keypad. To stop the recording, press the number 4 again. The recording will be stored on your Google Voice page and you can simply hit the play button to listen. Very, very cool in my opinion.

At this point your work is not over. When you record with Google Voice, you will hear a prompt that your recording is started and ended. You do not want your listeners to hear this if you place in one of your articles. You have to do a little editing at this point. As of now, Google does not give you a way to embed the recording through the use of a widget, you have to get it there yourself. Here is what I do.

• I play the recording on my computer (Mac) and I record the internal audio as it’s playing. I record as a QuickTime movie. Those files are .mov
• I then go in and trim the ends of the recording and take out what I do not want to be there. If you have QuickTime Pro, you will have the ability to do this. If not, you can purchase QuickTime Pro from the Apple website for around $30. You can also do this with Garage Band.
• Next, I covert the recording into an “aif” file from my QuickTime menu.
• Next, I import the recording into iTunes.
• Next step. Convert the “aif” file into an .mp3. (easy to do).
• Upload the .mp3 file to your web host
• Embed the recording into your article using the PodPress Wordpress Widget.

If that seems a little hard and a lot of trouble, it isn’t. Those steps only take a few moments. If you are using a Mac (you should be) it’s a breeze. Do it once and you can do it with your eyes closed from then on. If you are using a Windows PC, I cannot instruct you on how to do it. I’m sure it can be done however.

Here are the benefits as I see them.
#1. I can drink beer while I’m doing a telephone interview and no one knows what I’m doing.
#2. I can scratch myself if necessary.
#3. I can pick my nose and can’t be seen. I do not have to leave my house.
#4. Save gas. I don’t have to drive anywhere.
#5. I can…well, you get the idea.

Here is an example of how I used this on my own site. I placed a headshot photo of the person I spoke with. Yesterday I spoke with the Marketing Director of our local shopping mall and I also spoke with the Executive Director of our local Red Cross. Getting these type interviews are very easy once you have gained the trust of these people in your community. I’ll talk about trust in another article but it’s important that as you build your hyperlocal blog, you determine your mission and you gain the trust of the leaders in your community if you want to invite them to be part of your website. I doubt that many folks in your community would be willing to display themselves publicly unless you have built the trust with them.

Here are the 2 telephone interviews:
[display_podcast]

You can visit my site to view these also. Monroe Scoop.

I can tell you right now what Allyn Hane will say about this feature. He will tell me to use it for paid interviews and articles from local merchants. What if a local car dealer or store was having a blowout sale and needed the extra publicity that you could provide? An article and a telephone interview could land a few extra $$ in your account. What do you think? Who would like to hear me interview Allyn Hane by telephone and play it here?

I hope this helps and gives you some additional ideas to use on your hyperlocal blog. Be as creative with your site as possible. There are no rules. No idea is stupid unless you figure out it doesn’t work. If you have some more ideas regarding this, please share them with the readers, I’d love to hear them.

Copyright 2009 BloggerLens.com

Google Voice Review

How many of you have heard of Google Voice? I heard about it months and months ago and I signed up to receive it when it rolled out. I had not given it anymore thought until last week when I received an e-mail from Google telling me I was accepted and to go and select my new phone number. “Woo Hoo” I thought, but I didn’t know why I was excited. The more I have messed with it over the last week, the more I get excited about the possibilities.

The Google Voice e-mail I received, sent me to my Google Account and it directed me to select a phone number that I desired from quite a long list of available telephone numbers in my area. All of the numbers that were listed, were in my own area code. I went through and selected a number that looked easy to remember. I won’t reveal my new number here yet because I’m not sure who I want to have it yet until I have it all figured out.

Once I selected my new number, I was instructed to select a phone number that I wanted my Google number to forward to. I selected my mobile number of course. We have not had a land line at my house in over 3 years. How it works, is that anyone you give your Google number to, when they call it, it will actually forward to whatever number you set up. What I like about this is I don’t have to give my real number to anyone that I don’t want to have it.

Here’s what happens when you call my Google Voice number. You will receive a prompt from Google the first time you call me and they will ask for your name. Google records your name and then my phone will ring. When I answer, it tells me that I have a call from Joe and I hear Joe as he spoke his name. I’m asked if I want to accept the call or send it to voice mail. How cool is that? it’s like I have my own private secretary and I can screen my calls. The number that comes in to my cell phone is always a 605 area code which I now recognize as a Google Voice call.

Folks, it gets better if you are a Geek. I love this stuff. Let’s say that I let your call go to voice mail. When you leave me a voice mail and hang up, I receive a text message on my phone telling me I have a new voicemail and also a transcribed text message of your voice mail. I don’t even have to go listen to your message. In addition, I receive an e-mail telling me I have a new voicemail and it will list the phone number it came from. Now even better, it gives me a link where I can just play your voicemail from my computer in my Google Voice account. The voicemail recording as well as the transcribed text is in my account and I can refer to it there.

I have not tried out all of the features yet but another thing it will do is record your telephone calls. This could be a very good feature, especially for someone like me who suffers from CRS. Can’t Remember $hit. If you have called me on my Google number all I have to do is press the 4 on my keypad and it will record our conversation until I press 4 again. The caller on the other end will hear that the conversation is being recorded so they will know. If you didn’t want them to know, just cough real loud for a couple of seconds when you press 4 and they will probably never hear the fact that they are being recorded. Now I didn’t just say that. The recorded voicemail will be stored in your Google Voice account and you can listen to the recording immediately. I think it will be a wonderful tool for bloggers who may want to do telephone interviews. The recording quality is excellent.

Just below is what I’m really excited about. The ability to place a Google Voice Widget on this blog that will allow you, the reader, to make voice comments about this blog or a particular article. I think that will give a new dimension to your blog and the interaction with your readers whether it be a hyperlocal blog or any kind of blog. It’s very simple if you would like to make an audio comment. It’s free. Your name and number will not be published. All that I will see is your phone number. To place the call, you must type in a name of some sort.

I would really love for you to help me with this experiment. This is a first for me and if anyone else on the internet is doing it, I’m not aware of it. If you will leave me an audio comment and if you don’t mind, I’ll publish your audio comment here in this article. I think it will be fun.

Make sure you have your phone with you

Click the Google “Call Me” graphic below. Type a name (fake if you want). Enter your phone number. Click the connect button. Your phone will ring. When you answer, you will hear it ring and then you will hear my greeting. After my greeting, just leave whatever message for me that you would like to. If you think I’m a big goober, that’s ok, tell me I am. If you are planning to name your next son after me, tell me and I’ll leave him in my will when I die. Say whatever you want to say. Hang up.

What I will do, is embed your voice message in a player here at the bottom of the article. Come back later to listen to your message and any others I receive.

Example: Here is a test call that I made using the Google Voice widget. Why don’t you give it a try, I’d love to hear a message from you!

If you are an e-mail subscriber, you may have to visit the site to listen.

Thanks to Medic who was the first to give it a go below. Thanks Medic! Give it a try for yourself!

[display_podcast]

Sign up today for your own Google Voice Number.

I found this video review on YouTube that you might be interested. The video is pretty informative but a little long and a little boring, but if you watch the videos I make you are already used to that!!

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Copyright 2009 BloggerLens.com Hyperlocal Blogs & Citizen Journalism

Today, I thought I would share with you how I make graphics for my hyperlocal blog. I’m of the opinion that graphics, and photos and bright colors attract attention like bees to honey. I try to do that with with hyperlocal web site, Monroe Scoop, Monroe, NC. I do not have any formal training in graphics or art. I design what looks good to me. If I’m satisfied, that’s all I can do.

I work 99% from my Mac for all of my video and graphics. I have a MacBookPro 17″ and I use a program that is part of the Apple iWork Suite of programs called Keynote. I’m using iWork 08 but there is a newer version now available, Apple iWork ‘09.

In my opinion, Keynote is sort of like Power Point on steroids. I”m not a PowerPoint user, but there is no way it can be as powerful and user friendly as Keynote. I have found Keynote to possible be the most useful application on my Mac. To say I love it, would be an understatement.

I have not made a screencast like below in a long, long time. I’m going to show you some of the steps I do using Keynote to create graphics for my hyperlocal blog. If you work primarily on a Windows PC, this screen cast will not help you. If you own a Mac and you are not using Keynote, this screen cast should open your eyes to the wonderful possibilities for design using Keynote. What you will observe in this screencast is just the tip of the iceberg for Apple Keynote. It does so many wonderful things. You can even make movies, but I’ll cover some of those details in a future post. I hope you enjoy it. If you have not added the Apple iWork Suite of software to your Mac, you should do so right away. It’s incredible what this user-friendly powerful software can do.

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.

Copyright 2009 Bloggerlens.com Hyperlocal Websites & Citizen Journalism

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.

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.

Copyright 2009 bloggerlens.com Hyperlocal Blogs & Citizen Journalism

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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