Blogging in Minnesota? Submit to Newsbobber
Via Lee Odden on Twitter comes word of a Minnesota blog directory I hadn’t heard of before: Newsbobber. If you’re a Minnesota local blogger, it looks like a good place to be listed and perhaps get some extra exposure — not to mention finding other local bloggers for networking, etc.
The FAQ page describes what it takes to be listed:
“If the blog is based in Minnesota or written largely for a Minnesota audience — and the writer updates at least once in awhile — it will get listed.”
There you go. You can submit your blog here. I’ve added Newsbobber to my growing list of local blog directories. It’s now the third one covering Minnesota. What’s up with that??!
Google Using Hyperlocal Blogs as Review Sources
Sometime late last year, I was pleasantly surprised to see our Kennewick Real Estate Blog showing up in Google Maps as a source of reviews and information about local businesses. We do a fair amount of writing about local businesses on all four local blogs, and I’m glad to see them listed almost anywhere — but certainly in a popular setting like Google Maps.
Mike Blumenthal has written a long and detailed post about this, and I highly recommend you read that to understand what Google is doing with local blog content. But I’ll also show a couple screenshots of what I’m referring to below.
First, try it yourself: Go to Google Maps and type your domain name into the search box. Do any local business results show up? If that doesn’t work, use our blog as an example — type “kennewickrealestateblog.com” into the search box, and you should see a handful of businesses/listings.
All of those are places we’ve written about on the Kennewick blog. Some were only passing mentions of a sentence or two. Others, like the bottom one you see, was a full review of a local restaurant. If you click on the listing for that restaurant in Google Maps, you’ll see our blog showing prominently — not under reviews, unfortunately, but under the “more about this place” section.
The placement isn’t ideal, but it’s still a potentially good source of exposure. Google Maps has surpassed MapQuest as the number one site in the Travel/Mapping space, and Google continues to promote Maps to both business users and searchers.
What You Should Do: There’s nothing to install or sign up for; if you think there’s value in seeing your blog listed as a resource in Google Maps, try this:
- (Continue to) Write about local businesses.
- When it makes sense, include the street address or phone number of the business in your blog post. Google uses this information to match your content with its business listings.
- Be patient. This stuff doesn’t show up in Google Maps overnight.
That’s it.
It’s good to see Google recognizing the value of local blog content. I can’t help but wonder if they’re planning anything along the lines of Bing’s Local Lens tool. At the moment, that seems to be the gold standard when it comes to the marriage of search engines and hyperlocal blog content.
Run a News Blog? Check out InOtherNews.us
If you run a local news blog or web site and are looking for some extra exposure, check out InOtherNews.us. It’s a directory that specifically lists U.S.-based hyperlocal blogs, and it has specific rules about only including news-based blogs. From the “About” page:
The (loose) criteria are that the sites serve as a “replacement” or supplemental news source in areas where the local newspaper or broadcast companies are dropping coverage. The scope can be local, state or national and be niche or broad-focussed — it just needs to be a journalistic endeavor with a newsgathering mission and not part of a corporate media site. However, no hate-speech sites please, such as a community site that serves only to bash a certain group or political figure or to spread unverified/false information.
I’ve added it to my list of local blog directories post. It’s good to see more sites trying to collate local blog resources.
CNN Invests in Outside.in
Every bit as important as the recent news that MSNBC had purchased Everyblock.com is today’s news that CNN has bought a stake in Outside.in, the hyperlocal content aggregator that I’ve written about here on HLB countless times.
Today’s news makes this CNN headline from last May borderline prescient:
Indeed, it may be. There’s plenty of evidence: CNN invests in Outside.in … MSNBC buys Everyblock.com … the New York Times has launched its hyperlocal effort called “The Local” … AOL has its hyperlocal project called Patch … the Huffington Post is getting into hyperlocal blogging … the Seattle Times is collaborating with hyperlocal blogs … Fisher launched 43 hyperlocal sites in Seattle and is expanding that model in other areas … the Guardian (UK) is starting a hyperlocal news network … other UK newspapers are also going hyperlocal … and so on and so forth.
What’s It Mean for Hyperlocal Bloggers
Generally speaking: The attention on what you’re doing is only going to grow. Sure, there will always be detractors and some who have no respect for what you’re doing. Ignore them. Now is the best time to start a local blog, or to keep growing what you’ve already started.
More specifically: If CNN is going to feature feeds on its web site from Outside.in, as the WSJ says it will, you better make sure your blog is in Outside.in’s system. You can do that by signing up (for free) for Outside.in’s GeoToolkit.
Go do it!
Update, December 8: The official news release explains how Outside.in content will be integrated with CNN:
“As part of its investment, CNN Worldwide entered into a concurrent multi-year deal to use the Outside.in for Publishers aggregation and curation platform to power hyperlocal news across all of CNN.com and its related properties. The first implementations are expected to be completed in Q1 of 2010.”
(If you’re interested in reading more about the CNN/Outside.in news, there’s discussion on Techmeme.)
Turn Your Blog Into a Newspaper with Zinepal
Think of all the people in your neighborhood/town that are sitting in a doctor’s office reading magazines every day. Or sitting in the waiting room at the car repair shop. Or at the salon. Wouldn’t it be great if they were reading your blog instead of Ladies Home Journal or Sports Illustrated?
They can be reading your blog — without needing a laptop or smartphone — thanks to Zinepal.com, a service that takes any online content and turns it into a fairly customizable and printable publication. Before looking at how it works, let me show you what the final product looks like: Read more
New Local UK Blog Directory
Paul Bradshaw and Matt Wardman recently launched Nutshell, a directory for hyperlocal blogs and web sites based in the UK.
Read the about page to get an idea of the kind of blogs/sites they’re looking to include. If yours fits, this could be a nice way to get some extra exposure and promotion for your efforts.
-
-
Featured Video
