It all depends. What is your reason for starting a community blog? What do you hope to accomplish or gain? How much time and effort are you willing to invest? These are individual questions that I have asked myself a hundred times. I guess all bloggers have high’s and low’s. There is no difference when you publish a community blog. There are good days and there are not so good days. I can honestly say, I don’t recall a bad day of hyperlocal blogging.
When you run a site, you most likely keep a close check on your stats. I certainly do. I don’t always check them every day but rarely do I go more than 2 days without checking. Stats are important for me at this stage but I’m not overwhelmed by them. I guess the reason for this is because I’m doing what I want to do and it makes me happy. I’m not so concerned about everyone else and my stats. If you caught my earlier article “Build a great hyperlocal blog and get paid for it”, you want to create something for yourself that does not feel like a job. If it feels like a job, your efforts will show it.
Is it worth it? If you base it on monetary value, it’s hard to say at this point. In my case, I’m just starting to to try and implement a strategy to make money from the site. There are many hyperlocal blogs that pay the bills for their owners. Two that come to mind which are a couple of my favorites are West Seattle Blog, and B-Town Blog. These two sites are a must for your bookmarks folder. These are full time monetized sites that are making their publishers a full time income. I’m positive if you ask them if it’s worth it, they will say yes.
My wife sort of brought this point home to me this morning. She understands what I’m trying to build. She is very supportive and constantly inspires me. This morning while sipping a cup of coffee and going through my e-mails she reminded me and encouraged me to keep doing what I do. Something came on TV to prompt her comments at me. She said that what I do was sort of a “Pay it Forward” system. Provide a service to your community, individuals and businesses. Sometimes it takes someone outside peeking in and those words of encouragement to make things clear.
So, my answer to the question, Is hyperlocal blogging worth it? For me, yes. I’m sure the answer for you will also be yes. Why not give it a try?
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