The following is a guest post from Wendy Card, a hyperlocal community website builder in New Bern, NC. Wendy has found local success with a brilliant blend of old media (print) and and new media and has become a media force force in her local community. I invited Wendy to share her story here on [...]]]>

The following is a guest post from Wendy Card, a hyperlocal community website builder in New Bern, NC. Wendy has found local success with a brilliant blend of old media (print) and and new media and has become a media force force in her local community. I invited Wendy to share her story here on Bloggerlens and she graciously accepted. If you are involved in building a local media presence, you will especially enjoy the following article. Wendy understands how to build a community.

New Bern Now, based in New Bern, NC is a community (hyperlocal blog) website and blog that went live in May 2009. My goal was to provide a “One Stop, Information Shop” about the Greater New Bern, NC area!

New Bern, NC is located in Craven County, NC and sits on the bank of the Neuse River. The river empties into the Pamlico Sound in coastal NC.

Bridge going over Neuse River into New Bern, NC

Starting my site
After conversing with a local merchant and learning how expensive it was for businesses to advertise locally, I decided to create a community website to provide free local business listings during the difficult economic times.

In December 2008, I bought a book on HTML/CSS for dummies and went to work researching local information and creating the community website. I had no idea this small city of approximately 30,000 residents had so much to offer. It took 6 months to build from HTML.

As a free website, there were no plans for charging for advertising. It was truly a “grassroots effort” to spread the word. I credit local New Bernians and visitors who stumbled across NBN for sharing it with their friends.

In the early stages, I was frustrated with the low number of visitors when I checked the daily website and blog statistics. Then the emails and phone calls started to come in. People began sharing information about their community groups, civic organizations, non-profit agencies, businesses, and before I knew it a large calendar of events began to take shape.

Local residents are the backbone to NBN. Without their input, NBN wouldn’t have succeeded. Since then, I’ve met people from all walks of life.

The website and blog have developed into our “Community’s website” aka “hyperlocal website”.

In February 2010, I finally met my first supporter and confidant in person. She is a native New Bernian, retired school teacher, philanthropist, and wonderful lady! She expressed the need for a New Bern publication that provided basic information about dining, shopping, lodging, community announcements, and calendar of events.

I loved the idea and considered the costs, then decided to “go for it”. That’s when the NBN’s 12 page newsletter was published in April 2010. 1,000 hardcopies were distributed at the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport and numerous businesses around town.

How did you actually distribute those first 1000 copies?

(Wendy)…I sent emails to all of my business and non-profit contacts and people responded asking to be distribution points. I also walked into businesses who didn’t know they were featured in the newsletter and were happy to give some to their customers. I decided to print more in May because local businesses were asking for more copies. Since it was New Bern’s 300th Anniversary Celebration, a lot of the visitors and residents wanted hardcopies as souvenirs.

Two weeks later, people were asking for more hardcopies. The newsletter was revised and 1,000 more hardcopies were distributed in May 2010. Note: NBN’s newsletter is available online in color. The second edition was published in July 2010 and 3,000 hardcopies were distributed.

Realizing I couldn’t continue to pay for printing costs out of pocket, a handful of local businesses paid for “text ads” in the July and October 2010 edition. When I started the newsletter project, I didn’t realize it would succeed, so I didn’t have an advertising plan.

Tell me about your decision to start charging for ads in the newsletter.

(Wendy)…In July and October, I charged the sponsors $150 for text ad at the bottom of the pages. The text ads were paid by business owners who I personally knew. They believed in the newsletter and just wanted to help out with the costs. It helped, but didn’t cover all of the costs. Then a friend gave me advice and I created an advertising kit for January 2011’s Ledger. The smallest ads costs $75 and the largest was $150 (2 small ads combined). I also offered a discount for online advertisements for businesses who advertised in the Ledger. That helped boost the funding!

After much thought, guidance from local residents, and the creation of an advertising kit, New Bern Now’s Ledger was born in January 2011. It was the first edition with the printing costs paid by local businesses. My online traffic peaks every time new print editions go live.

Click here to view my very first New Bern Now Ledger.

Things have come full circle and the community (and visitors) are viewing and providing information to NBN on a regular basis. Special thanks to all who have supported New Bern Now!

I have discovered that the community loves videos, so I have started shooting local video. Here is a video I shot with the help of local merchants.

What advice would you give to those who would like to build a community website where they live?

(Wendy) …My advice to other hyperlocal bloggers or website folks…if I don’t learn something new every day, I’m not living!

If you ask locals about their passions, civic groups, and businesses, they become invested in what you’re doing because you actually care and some people love to see their name or business on the Internet.

They tell their friends, coworkers, and family about your efforts because they believe in it.

- Wendy Card

Side note: I recently had the privilege of visiting New Bern and fell in love with this town on the river. My wife and I spent the afternoon walking the downtown, visiting the shops and eating some awesome food. You could feel the history and we were made to feel very welcome by everyone we met. I was very happy to find Wendy making such a positive impact on this community we fell in love with. Have you considered building a community blog and making a difference in your town?

Over time, I have discovered that people better understand when I tell them I build community websites instead of explaining I am a hyperlocal blogger. I usually get that deer in the headlight look when I mention “hyperlocal”. For all of us involved in this type of media, we know exactly what the term means. [...]]]>

Over time, I have discovered that people better understand when I tell them I build community websites instead of explaining I am a hyperlocal blogger. I usually get that deer in the headlight look when I mention “hyperlocal”. For all of us involved in this type of media, we know exactly what the term means. However, hyperlocal is one of those catch phrases that I’m not so sure will ever catch on with the public at large.

There’s a little bit of both in the title of this article and that’s the reason why. I’ve been building community websites now for 2 years and I never refer to my sites as blogs anymore. I am a publisher of a community website. When I explain what I do in those terms, there seems to be a complete understanding.

Last week I was asked to be a panelist at the Charlotte Observer Hyper-Local Publishing Seminar. In my area, there is a great interest in community websites and publishing. The Observer is leading the way as a focal point to help the entire area to become a part of this trend.

Community websites are trending upward and I doubt it will ever cease. Too bad the stock market is not doing the same. As a whole, community websites and citizen journalism have become too powerful for the Observer to ignore. They have been smart to place themselves smack dab in the middle of it.

On a personal note, I would like to see the Observer start gradually moving away from referring to the movement as hyperlocal. Most of us cover entire counties and in my opinion that is where it ceases to be hyperlocal.

I was asked to create a handout for the seminar and below is the result. The seminar sold out quickly and it was attended mostly by beginners.

I tried to create a document that would have been helpful to me on the very first day I started.

I learned through trial and error and studying what others do. What works for my community site, may not work for a site that is geographically based 30 miles away. It can vary greatly. The only way to learn success is to earn success through trial and error.

I made a bold statement when I spoke to my audience about the guidelines. I guaranteed success to all who followed my advice.

Ok, maybe it was bold and showboating a little but I was damn serious. I challenge any new publisher to do exactly what I have listed and fail. It is impossible if you have a functioning brain.

What we do is not brain surgery or rocket science. Success comes to those who get in the game. How much simpler can I make it?

Your level of success is directly related to your effort I will add. Oh crap, that sounds like one of those A-list a-hole bloggers. I think I just saw a unicorn run past my window.

Make sure you re-tweet this 897 times if you really want to waste some time. I make mention of Twitter in the handout also.

This is not the list to end all lists. There is a lot more that has to be done. Each of these tips must be expanded upon until you find the sweet spot. When you find it, hammer it.

I hope you find the list helpful if you are new to community website publishing.

You are more than welcome to download, print and use the handout.
Community Website Tips.pdf

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 [...]]]>

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 Hyperlocal Blogging

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 [...]]]>

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.

If you are a hyperlocal blogger you absolutely should have a Facebook Fan page. The benefits to having one are many as you can imagine. Today, however, I want to discuss with you one aspect that I think is important in managing your Facebook Fan Page associated with your hyperlocal blog. There are a lot [...]]]>

If you are a hyperlocal blogger you absolutely should have a Facebook Fan page. The benefits to having one are many as you can imagine. Today, however, I want to discuss with you one aspect that I think is important in managing your Facebook Fan Page associated with your hyperlocal blog. There are a lot of things you should do, but let’s focus on one small aspect today.

I want you to consider the Fan Page as your personal internet piece of real estate and treat it such. Yes, it’s called a Fan Page but it is an extension of you. What happens on the page and what you allow is a direct reflection of you. Protecting your fan page is like protecting your reputation in your community. If it’s full of negative, you will be perceived as being negative. If your page is lively and fun, you also will be considered in the same way. Get that into your mindset and you will be well on your way to creating a successful Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook Fan Page Tip

I’m going to share what I do on my page. You may disagree and that’s ok, but this works for me. Do not allow anyone or any business to promote themselves or their business in such a way that it doesn’t benefit your community as a whole.

If you allow your page to become a community billboard for self promotion, you can kiss it goodbye. It will become a place for spammers and you will be taken advantage of.

Businesses will be on it everyday promoting their own special interests without regard to you or the other members. Who wants to see the “Buy 3 Tires, Get One Free” ad every other day? What is the benefit of the community by allowing these type posts on your Fan Page? Zero.

I have my guidelines clearly posted but every now and then someone breaks my rule. I immediately delete the post and then I send a nice direct message explaining why I did what I did and I always offer alternatives.

Here is the note I have placed in the sidebar.
Please, read this! We support community events and local business. If you would like to post an event or promote a business, we ask that you first contact us and inquire about a promotion using the Fan Page. Please read “notes” tab at top of page.

Now, when they read my guidelines, here is what I have written.
Due to the large amount of Facebook members on the Monroe Scoop Fan Page, we feel it is necessary to post some guidelines on appropriate use of the Fan pages.

If you are not already a Fan, please become one. This is a great Fan Page because of our members.

I rarely have anyone break the guidelines I have set. Our Facebook page is a vibrant page with a lot of interaction and no spam. As a result we are growing in numbers every week. I personally believe this policy I have put in place is one of the main reasons for the growth of our Fan Pages. I run 4 hyperlocal websites and each has it’s own individual Fan Page. When you total the Fans from each site, it is believed that my network has the largest Fan following in my county.

I wish you success on your community Fan Page. This is the absolute first thing I would do when starting a hyperlocal Facebook Fan Page.

I’ll be bringing you more practical tips in the weeks ahead. I’ll soon be focusing on how video can make a real difference. Make sure you subscribe, you do not want to miss any of these tips.

Being a “Hyperlocal Blogger” carries with it certain benefits. Since I started my community website back in December of 2008, I have been fortunate enough to meet a lot of local leaders.

I’ve gained quite a few friends and I’m on first name basis now with a lot of our local community leaders. I [...]]]>

Being a “Hyperlocal Blogger” carries with it certain benefits. Since I started my community website back in December of 2008, I have been fortunate enough to meet a lot of local leaders.

I’ve gained quite a few friends and I’m on first name basis now with a lot of our local community leaders. I have worked very hard to gain the trust of my community and I run a pretty neutral site as far as politics go.

I report news as news but I do stay away from political infighting and I don’t take a stand and voice any personal opinions. I would rather play the part of citizen journalist. I don’t want to piss off 50% of my readers. I save this site to piss everybody off.

I guess because of this, I do not have much trouble at all when I ask someone to give me an interview or to make a statement on my site. I feel like I have gained their trust and they don’t fear that I will show them in a bad light or put a spin on their statements. As a result, I have gained some benefits and I get to go where many are not invited. I say this because you can do the same thing in your community.

I have gained a lot of trust and made quite a few friends at my local Police Department. About 2 weeks ago I received a phone call asking if I wanted to ride along on a SWAT bust in my city and bring my video camera. It took a microsecond to accept the invitation. It would be an early morning bust before the sun came up.

We met a 5 am and all of the officers were briefed and went over the plan. Each officer was assigned a duty and each one knew the room of the home they were going to cover. I was in on everything and one of the SWAT Officers were actually assigned to me to cover me in the event of this thing going wrong.

Once the briefing was over, all the SWAT Officers put on their gear. It is just like TV. Helmets, masks and automatic weapons. We all piled into a police van and headed for the house with search warrants.

Shooting video in the dark presents a problem. When there is not a lot of light, you open the iris on your video camera all the way and try to stay still because light will trail.

Become a Hyperlocal Blogging Bad-Ass
Ok, that may be a little extreme, but I felt like one for a little while. I outfitted one of the officers with a wireless mic and you will be able to hear him easily on the video below. Heavy breathing also. As the SWAT Team entered the house, I could hear everything through my headphones super clear. I knew what was going on inside and these individuals were having a bad day.

Their adrenaline was probably sky high and so was mine. It was a pure rush. This is just a clip of the actual entry made. No editing, just raw video. Most of all the video that I shot will be turned into a police training video and also be used for recruitment.

I wish I could give more details to you but I’m not a liberty right now. I hope you enjoy the clip below. I certainly recommend that everyone start a hyperlocal blog in your community. Become a video journalist. The fringe benefits can be very exciting.

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 [...]]]>

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.

2009 Hyperlocal Blog

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 [...]]]>

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.

Copyright 2009 bloggerlens.com Hyperlocal Blogs & Citizen Journalism

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 [...]]]>

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.
• Re-publish photos of your community that you find on Flickr under the Creative Commons. Once again give credit and links back.
• 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.

Copyright 2009 bloggerlens.com Hyperlocal Blogging & Citizen Journalism




]]> http://bloggerlens.com/how-to-start-a-hyperlocal-blog-and-keep-your-full-time-job/feed/ 12