The Problems of a Growing Community (Blog)
Good post today on Talk About Local by Clare White about the problems that crop up when you have a growing community on/around your hyperlocal blog/site. It’s a point that I don’t think gets talked about too often: We all love and want to grow our readers, commenters, community … but more people can mean more problems. Clare talks about these:
- The anonymity-causes-idiocy problem
- The Control problem
- The ‘we’re too small’ problem
- The ‘we’re too big’ problem
- The business-plan problem
And it’s not just a list of problems; Clare also covers some possible solutions for each. Here’s the full article: Community surgery: how to tackle the problems that could kill your blog.
WordPress Users: What Theme Do You Use?
A little while back, I came across a WordPress blog theme that’s been developed specifically for hyperlocal news sites. It’s (appropriately) called The Local, and looks pretty nice to me.
If I ever get around to launching the real Tri-City news site I have in my mind, I’d consider using it. But I don’t think it’s appropriate for the four community blogs we’re running now, none of which are geared toward hard news reporting.
So my questions to all you WordPress users are as follows:
- What theme are you using for your local blog?
- What do you like about it?
- What do you dislike it about it?
Comments are open, so have at it.
Using Ning as a Hyperlocal Home
You may recognize the name Becca Martin from the comments here on Hyperlocal Blogger, but even if you don’t … that’s okay. Becca is the founder of Live Here Oak Park — a hyperlocal community site that uses the Ning platform.
I say “community site” because it’s more than a blog; it has a forum, photo sharing, videos, and much more. It serves many of the same community-based purposes that a blog would, but comes from a slightly different angle.
Becca’s written a guest post on the Ning Blog that explains how she’s using Ning to create this hyperlocal home. If you’re just starting out, you might find that Ning is what you’re looking for more than a blog; if you already have a hyperlocal blog, you might find that a Ning community site could be a strong complement. Either way, it’s recommended reading:
Guest Post: Creating a community for a community
6 Things I’m Struggling With as a Hyperlocal Blogger
(This is a guest post by Mike Ramsey who is the owner of Nifty Marketing, a local SEO company operating out of Burley, Idaho. He writes a monthly column for Search Engine Journal, and in his free time runs GoBurley, a hyperlocal news site for his hometown.)
My name is Mike Ramsey and I started GoBurley.com, a hyperlocal news site for the small town of Burley, Idaho. The site was started back in October 2009, and has actually seen a fair amount of success considering that my hometown has more cows than computers. I started the site because our county only has one local news source (name not mentioned to protect the not-so-innocent) that has caused a lot of issues and contention within our community. So, my goals are to directly compete against this once-a-week print newspaper, give our town an alternate news source, and save it from utter destruction (mellow-drama emphasis added).
Since starting the site, and competing directly against a staffed news company. I have come across six areas that I am having a hard time being consistent in. GoBurley.com is not my full-time job (my guess is most other hyperlocal sites are in the same boat), so I am looking for creative ideas from the hyperlocal community on how to best handle these six issues:
1. Topics, Ideas, and Series to Write On…
Breaking, Sports, City Government are the basics, but what are people doing that is fun, and tends to draw comments and crowds. Has anyone ran a successful series, has a weekly post that people look forward to?
2. How to Get Contributors?
Outside of asking on your blog for people to send in original content, how have you been able to gain contributors who are bringing quality content on a regular basis?
3. Planning Your Content
I have a feeling that many hyperlocal bloggers are not professional editors, journalists, or any other title that deals with news. Is there a “best practice” for when to publish at certain times, and how to plan out a week of content?
4. Advertising Your Site
I am interested to know if anyone has run an advertising campaign that has proved successful at bringing awareness and subscribers to their site?
5. Basic “best practices” for reporting
Considering my non-journalistic background, I am wondering if there are certain key things that you need to do when reporting.
6. How to Monetize your Hyperlocal Site
Are there creative ways that people are able to bring in revenue? Anything from taking donations to charging for subscription?
I know that there are a lot of questions listed here to think about, but I am sure that I am not the only person running into these issues, and hope that we can all benefit by sharing with each other.
[Note from Matt: If you have some thoughts, no matter how big or small, that might help Mike and other readers with the same questions, let me suggest the following ways to reply:
1. Leave a comment on this post.
2. Write a blog post about one or more of these questions, publish it on your own blog, and then drop the link in the comments below.
3. Write a blog post about one or more of these questions and have me publish it here on HyperlocalBlogger.com as a Guest Post.
Any of the above will work, so if you have something helpful to say, we're looking forward to it.]
What can Hyperlocal do that Traditional Media can’t?
Catching up again on bookmarks I’ve come across over the past week or three, and here’s a good piece from Alex Gamela about what separate hyperlocal news/sites/blogs from traditional idea. He asks five people in our industry — Adam Westbrook, Adrian Holovaty, Josh Halliday, Rob Powell and William Perrin — for their thoughts about what hyperlocal sites can do, or do better, than mainstream media web sites.
There seems to be a somewhat common theme related to the use of technology and collaboration, but don’t take my word for it; here’s the full article, a good read to start your week.
How Often Do You Post?
If you read the tips-based article I mentioned in the previous post, Nine Tips for Starting up a Local Site, Blog, you may have noticed two pieces of advice that seem to contradict one another.
Debbia Galant of Baristanet gives this tip: “Post often: five times a day during the week.”
Chrysanthe Tenentes of Brooklyn Based says this: “Make it meaningful. Avoid content overload.”
Hmmmmm. That makes me curious, so let’s tap your expertise:
How often do you post on your hyperlocal blog? How do you decide what’s too much? Would you post more often if you could? Is there a “sweet spot” that you’ve discovered in your hometown?
Comments are open.
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