Submit Your Blog to EveryBlock.com
by Matt on Nov 6, 2008 in Industry, Promotion
EveryBlock is a very interesting player in the hyperlocal space, and one that I’ll be watching in the future. If you blog locally about the cities that EveryBlock covers, it’s also a site that you should submit your content to for possible distribution. (more on that in a bit)
Where many hyperlocal sites focus on town-level or city-level news, EveryBlock focuses on what its name suggests: every block, every street corner in the cities where it’s available. Of course, you begin at a city page, like this one for Seattle:
See that “Explore the City” section in the upper right? You can dig into the site by neighborhood, zip code, or … get this … street. And no matter which path you choose, you might eventually land on this phenomenal content page for the 700 – 798 block of 5th Avenue North. Look at all the hyperlocal content on this page:
- nearby news articles & blog posts
- nearby fire dispatch calls
- nearby building permits
- nearby photos
- nearby liquor license actions
- nearby business reviews (from Yelp and/or Menuism)
- etc.
Amazing, isn’t it? EveryBlock has developed relationships with government agencies to tap into their databases (for restaurant inspection results, building permits, crimes, etc.). They tap into newspaper and blog content that specifically references streets, intersections, and addresses. They get local photos from Flickr’s geo-tagging system, local classifieds from Craigslist, and much more.
I recently traded emails with the founder, Adrian Holovaty, and asked him if he considers local portals like Topix.com or MapQuest as the competition:
I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re competing directly with Topix or the MapQuest Local site — only tangentially. We’re a bit more granular, in that we give news at the *block* level, or the neighborhood level, as opposed to the city level. Our closest competitors, per se, are mashups, such as crime lookups, that display specific information on maps. We’re pulling everything together in one place.
If you’re a hyperlocal blogger, the question you want answered is this:
How To Submit Your Local Blog to EveryBlock
EveryBlock does rely heavily on hyperlocal blogs in the cities the site covers. Here’s a list of EveryBlock’s Seattle news sources, and you’ll see plenty of local blogs included.
Here’s what Adrian said about getting your local blog on their radar:
Local bloggers can just drop us a quick e-mail for inclusion in our indexing process. We look for local blogs that write about specific locations, like neighborhoods, local schools/parks/restaurants/businesses, real estate, etc. Our goal is to point people at anything and everything that’s being written about in their immediate geographic area.
The email address to use is info [at] everyblock [dot] com.
If you’re curious to learn more about EveryBlock, their about page is the best place to start. Fascinating web site, I say — a great example of what hyperlocal is and can become.
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5 Responses to “Submit Your Blog to EveryBlock.com”
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Nice write-up, Matt.
Everyblock seems to have a lot in common with Outside.in. Would you agree?
I wouldn’t say “a lot,” Matt. The common area is that they both pull in local news and blogs, but EveryBlock goes way beyond that with the liquor license reporting, crime reporting, building permits, and all the other local information from government-type sources.
Hey there. No doubt outside.in and everyblock are playing in the same sandbox. We love what Adrian and his team are doing and think it’s a pretty big sandbox and we can grow together.
one important distinction is that while we both offer distribution to hyperlocal bloggers, we are really focused on being a larger platform for hyperlocal by also trying to provide a suite of tools — including free geotagging and storymaps — to help hyperlocal bloggers build out your sites too.
You’re right, Mark — thanks for adding that. I was focusing strictly on the sourcing of content, and should’ve mentioned that outside.in also offers those tools you referred to. Sorry about that.
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