What are the Best Hyperlocal Blogs in the U.S.?
by Matt McGee on Oct 8, 2008 in Industry
That’s the question outside.in is trying to answer recently. They’ve been doing a series of posts on the company blog called “Department of Blogiology,” which takes one city at a time and features the best blogs and most active blogging neighborhoods in the city.
It’s really terrific material, and a great way to learn about some new local blogs in other parts of the country. Here are the cities they’ve covered so far:
outside.in even describes the methods used for ranking these hyperlocal blogs:
Our rankings track local buzz by analyzing a mix of variables including: total number of posts, location of posts, links from other sites in the community, and feedback from Outside.in members.
My hometown is way too small to ever get featured in a series like this, but I’m sure Seattle has more than enough local blogs to make the cut. My guess is that Seattle will get featured soon.
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thanks for the mention! Seattle huh? Duly noted!
–nina, outside.in
What a great idea for a series; thanks for the heads-up on this, Matt.
You’re both welcome — it’s a great series, and I’m looking forward to more (like Seattle).
[...] you may not have seen — HyperLocal Blogger. I found another great piece of content through this post — a series featuring the top hyperlocal blogs in specific US metros from [...]
Hey Matt,
Thanks for rolling out Hyperlocal. I was tipped off about it via David Mihm’s blog. I think this will be a great resource.
On a more personal note, this Summer I relocated our family from San Francisco to Spokane. I notice Spokane didn’t quite make the list for top hyperlocal cities on the web
It’s interesting. In the big cities it’s easy to be a follower and just join an existing group, forum, or activity (both online and off). In small town USA, it requires you to be more of a leader. I think your new site will encourage and educate more people to get involved in the conversation and take an active role.
Hi Ed — that’s a good point you make. As the outside.in series will prove over time, hyperlocal blogging is mostly a Big City thing right now. When you get into smaller towns, there just isn’t a ton of local blogging activity. Yet. I think it’ll change over time, don’t you?
Seattle’s got to make the list! Some neighborhoods, like Capitol Hill, have muliple blogs– even one that posts all in Haiku (http://hillku.blogspot.com/). West Seattle Blog is giving the local newspaper a run for its money, and even the East Side has blogs in almost every city.
Hey Matt,
Yep, I absolutely agree that hyperlocal blogging will make it to small town USA. It will just take a few passionate people per town to get the ball rolling in each town. It might take a little longer to reach a critical mass, but it will happen in my opinion.
Rex Blog isn’t hyperlocal, but he does blog about hyper local issues occassionally.
Thinktrain.net is an excellent Nashville hyperblogger.
And yes, Outside.In is a great place to start. I think the folks over at Yelp are helping create a platform for people to blog in a hyper.local manner about local food + businesses.
Great topic. Can’t wait to hear more.
As others have said, my town is probably too small to make the list on Outside.In, but we’ve gotten a great reception to our blog since starting up in July.