5 Ways to Grow a Local Blog
by Matt on Feb 16, 2009 in Guest Posts, MY BEST POSTS, Promotion
This is a guest post by Koka Sexton, a hyperlocal blogger in Concord, California. Koka recently launched the Mayor of Concord, a local blog focusing on his city and surrounding area.
I have been blogging for a long time and about six months ago was struck with the HyperLocal Blog bug. I wanted to use my talent to write about the news and events in my area that seemed to be missing from mainstream news. Traditional media like newspapers have so many restrictions placed on them by management that many stories that should be published never see the light of day. A local blog helps fill that gap and I am happy to share some of my tips on promoting and growing a local blog.
1. Using Twitter To Spread the Word
After the initial launch of the site, I set up a special Twitter account just for the blog. I use this Twitter account to announce new posts on my site as well as feed news from around my immediate area to my followers. At first I had one follower (thanks, Dad) but after a few weeks I saw my numbers growing in mass and this is how I helped kickstart that growth.
Follow the people in your area
I used a Twitter application called Monitter to see anyone in my area that was using Twitter. Depending on where you have a local blog there may be 20 people or 2000, but whatever the number, start following them. Get to know the people in your area and ask them for story ideas. It was surprising to me how many of the people I initially followed had something they wanted to say through my local blog.
I then turned to another Twitter application called Twollo. This service auto-follows people based on keywords you specify. For some people this may seem excessive, but I used it to track keywords like my city’s name, surrounding cities’ names and other keywords that were specific to my area — for example, “oakland riot” or “BART Police”. I found that many of the people I started following also started following me in turn and then started re-tweeting my stories to their friends. All of this created a snowball effect and my exposure to people in the area grew quickly.
The key to using Twitter is to stay connected to your followers. Take the time to thank people for following your local updates. Ask them for input and let them know if there is something they want attention called to, that you are available. All of this will help you connect with your followers on a deeper level and push more readers to your local blog.
2. Using Craigslist for Traffic
I wasn’t sure how this was going to work out for me but it turned out to be great. I went to the local section of Craigslist and posted a couple snippets in the “rants and raves” section talking about a local blog post I had just written. Within an hour I saw that people were visiting my site from the rant and people were leaving comments. I did this for a couple weeks when I wrote a post that I wanted to draw some new readers to and it hasn’t seemed to fail me yet. You can get even more creative and write a long story in the rants and raves section as a standalone post and leave the last sentence as, “If you want to know more about what’s happening in your city check out www.yourlocalblog.com.”
3. Let Your Readers Know You Care
Not always but more often than not, when people leave a comment on my site, I will either comment after them in response answering a question or just saying thanks for the comment. I have also emailed the people directly if they leave an email address, letting them know how much I appreciate their readership. People want to know that they are heard, and by connecting with your local blog readers, they are more likely to return regularly and turn your site into a community.
4. Local Content is King
You should write about things going on in your community. Some of these stories will come from your readers. (Make sure you have an easy way for them to contact you.) I know a local blogger that has a police scanner in their house and they post on police and fire activity in the area almostin real time. All of these are things that a local reader community wants. Some stories I pull from the newspapers and give my thoughts and opinions in ways traditional reporters are not allowed. The idea is to start a discussion about your city or neighborhood and let those discussions carry the post to a new level.
If there is a new mall being built or the streets are flooding in an area, grab a picture and put something up about it. These are things most news agencies could care less about, but your readers will be thankful. You will see the comments come in and your local blog will take on a life of its own.
5. Local Advertising
Currently I do not charge for an ad on my site. I have taken a donation or two but nothing I would consider advertising dollars. Start with the places you frequent most. What’s your favorite restaurant? Write something up about them and next time you go in, let them know about it. They will appreciate it and, in the times I’ve done it, they have told their family friends and other businesses about your website. All of which could get other businesses interested in exposure through your local blog.
Final Thoughts
I have enjoyed getting to know the other local blogs in my area and have talked with the local newspaper about my site, as well. The best thing you can do if there are other local blogs in the area is start a dialog with them and see if there are things you could do together. Sometimes this doesn’t work and they see you as a threat, but don’t let that discourage you. Blog on and keep writing about your area.
(Here’s more information about guest blogging for Hyperlocal Blogger.)
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16 Responses to “5 Ways to Grow a Local Blog”
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Thanks Koka and Matt. I learned several things I didn’t already know, especially the Twitter apps. I’m going to look into the Craigslist idea also. This was a very helpful article and thanks for helping those of us out here in the trenches.
I really appreciated the opportunity for this guest post. I think that blogging about your local area has many advantages and is a great way to get local news and information to the people in your community. Twitter has been very good for this and I don’t use Craigslist very much but it has been of some use.
Once your local blog is up, use your network of friends and family to spread the word and you are sure to start building a small community of followers online.
You can always give me a shout on Twitter if you have any questions.
Have you tried to enlist the local government in your efforts? Was wondering what types of questions you encountered if any. Trying to determine if I want to take the leap into this area for my area. Thanks for the information.
Frank, I think you’re asking that question to Koka, but I can reply by saying that we intend very soon to reach out to the local govt’s to introduce ourselves. If possible, might report back here on the blog about how it goes.
Interesting. I had never thought of using Twitter or Craigslist in that way.
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You know whats amazing Matt – we had a local company we taught about Twitter give away 9000 free meals in a day because of Twitter – sometimes it works to well! LOL
Totally agree on your advice about what to do with other blogs in your area. The more people put out there, the more accustomed to reading blogs the audience becomes, and the more traffic there is for everyone.
I’d also recommend that bloggers work on their distribution. Feedburner has several great tools to that end. And at the risk of shameless self-promotion, outside.in does a nice job of organizing bloggers by location and distributing their stories on the core site and across the partner network on sites like nbclosangeles.com/news.
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I love Twitter for connecting with people in our area! Thanks so much for the mention of those Twitter apps as I hadn’t been using them. We have been reluctant to try Craigslist but I might just take a look at that as well.
Great guest post! Thanks for sharing and adding to an already awesome blog..
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