GoHyperLocal

Newsletter Reminder

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:50:05 -0600

The Hyperlocal News Newsletter is delivered weekly. It's the second chance to catch up on the links and articles that you ment to read this week, but didn't.

Subscribe for free now.

Who

For writers and publishers of independent online news ventures, like the ones listed in our hyperlocal news directory.

What

Links to the best articles, discussions and useful new tools. Hand picked and crap-filtered in order to save you time.

Where

In the web's orginal killer app: your email inbox.

When

Delivered each Saturday morning. You can open it whenever you want.

Why

Because you're busy churning out local news and feeding the Twitter and Facebook all day, and don't want to miss out on important news about your industry.

Check out past newsletters from the archive in this site's sidebar.

Local News of the Week

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:35:54 -0600

These are the stories I enjoyed this week and are all great examples of local news content. You know, content, the only thing about a hyperlocal news site that really matters.

Cone-ing: Apparently it's a thing, and it's happening in Hoboken, NJ.

Multi-space parking meter technology: Is coming to Red Bank, and now the folks there know.

Haunted Hospital to become senior housing: LA building last used as set for ghost hunting TV shows.

Lingering tension between public safty offices: Richmond, CA officials trying to work together.

Happy 350th Birthday: Nice little history lesson for the residents of Bensonhurst, who might not have known otherwise.

Occupy Tucson Evicted: Account of the events as they took place, from both sides.

Warm Weather: Sign of the times, as ducks take over an outdoor ice rink in Chicago.

School News: Part of a detailed series about underachievment in a weathly Lakeland, FL school system.

Football to help the Homeless: Story of pretty neat volunteer effort in Edinburgh.

Well done.

Expanding Your Media Empire

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:38:46 -0600

After an independent news publisher has the hang of editing, writing, sales, webmastering, and everything else that goes into a quality hyperlocal news site, they might start thinking about expanding.

Good reasons for this include building the brand, doing good in your community, or just banking some extra cash.

Here are a couple ready-built and slick ways to do it.

MindMixer

MindMixer is a platform offering Idea Collaboration for Better Communities.

Independent news site Noozhawk is a partner in a project using MindMixer as a public-engagement platform called Let's Talk Westside.

LocalWiki

Everyone knows about Wikis, with Wikipedia being the most famous community edited encyclopedia of everything.

LocalWiki is a new open-source, ready to install project designed to help build a local community encyclopedia.

ShopCity

The more entrepreneurial site owner can use their skills to help local businesses sell some stuff. ShopCity allows businesses to work together to connect with local customers.

Local publications like The Batavian in NY, and Magic City in Birmingham, AL have recently launched their own ShopCity marketplaces; ShopBatavia and ShopBirmingham.

Foursquare Has a Useful Social Media Button

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:47:17 -0600

Here's another social media button to add to your website, and it even looks useful for publishers and readers alike. Foursquare, the location based check-in service, has released a new feature, Save to Foursquare.

The idea would be to attach it to articles about specific places and businesses. If your reader is interested in visiting that location, they could click the button saving it to their Foursquare account. Then, the next time they are in the area, Foursquare would remind the reader that they were interested and that your site was where they read about it.

Of course, for any of this to work, the reader would have to be a Foursquare user with the application installed on their mobile device.

Magic Right?

Sounds like magic, but it requires a little effort on your part to get it working. First, your site will need to identify the place or business in a way that the application can understand. The best way is by using some metadata called an hCard. There are plenty of plugins avaliable to do this on your site, and it is a good practice anyway. To see how it works, try out the hCard Creator.

Real World Usage

Here's a screenshot from Time Out Chicago. Just a simple listing of name and address.

Thing to Consider

Do any of your readers use Foursquare? Check it out on this site with maps and statistics. It's very popular in many metropolitian areas, but determine for yourself if it would be worthwhile.

Features Add Structure to Content Strategy

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:46:48 -0600

TV networks don’t just air Dancing With the Idols, or House’s Anatomy, whenever the producer brings in a finished tape. Think of the chaos!

No, they make a schedule. They let us know when each show will be on. They even bundle similar programming, then brand it. For the most part, it works. It should work on your hyperlocal news site or community blog.

Regularly scheduled programming

Recurring features have several advantages. Themes are reusable, so after you come up with the first one, the rest get easier and better. They are also easier on the reader. After the first couple, they know what to expect.

Do it well, add in a little branding and the reader will come to associate the feature with your and come back for more.

Feature Ideas

Of course, news about the neighborhood is you main feature. Here we’re talking about finding one or two types of articles, and running them regularly on a particular day of the week or month. It doesn’t have to be hard news, just something interesting to you.

If possible listing them on their own special page and even attaching a nice logo. Something to make them stand out.

Open Threads: Write a short post asking an open ended question. Follow-up on each comment with a response. Also, there’s no law against having a friend or two seed your comments at the beginning. Just to get the ball rolling.

If successful, this participation should eventually spill over into other articles as well.

Example: Open Thread Sheepshead Bites

Holiday/Festival Page: There’s some type of big, yearly community happening in every town. Write a couple articles about it every month and you’ll soon be the go-to place for news about that event. Add them all to one search engine friendly page for an added bonus.

Example: Holiday Page West Seattle Blog

Take Up a Cause: Find something in your community that needs changed and beat the hell out of it. You don’t have to take down the mayor or anything, but they are always things that could be fixed if someone would take the time.

Example: Prescription for Abuse Noozhawk

Thing of the Week: Pet the Week, Person of the Week, Pothole of the Week, you get the idea. These can be fun and informative. They work great with a couple nice big picture, and short bio.

Example: Pet of the Week Sun Valley Online

Op Ed: Every news organization should have an opinion section. If, for no other reason than to just let off some steam. Give it a snappy title with some local flavor and become a real person to the reader. If you can’t find at least one thing each week that pisses you off or makes you happy, it’s probably time for a vacation.

There are also the Guest Posts, someone interesting who can be talked into writing a regular column. Local historians work great, but in a pinch realtors and lawyers always have something to say.

Example: Daft Old Duffer VentnorBlog

Example: Jon Stevens CamanoCommunity

Photo Series: Go for a bike ride and take a bunch of photos, or set up a group on something like flickr. Each week add a post with an interesting picture and a little description. Good variations are Photo Hunts and a Local Architecture series.

Example: View of Knoxville Knoxify

The Roundup: Meetings, School Sports, Top Stories, Social Media. Repackage the best content of the week. Add some extra depth and a follow-up, give it another chance to be seen.

Advertisers/Business: Give a shout-out to your advertisers, let the reader know the advertiser is supporting your site. Profile a local business, maybe gain a new advertiser in the process. No harm in letting partners contribute sponsored posts.

Other Stuff I’ve Seen: Weekly Poll, Jigsaw Photo Puzzles, Weekly Recipes, Faces in the Crowd. Little things like that get readers used to spending time and interacting with your site.

Be creative. If it works great, if not you can always cancel it and program something else. Let me know what regular features you’re running. I’d like to read them.

Links for 2010-09-04 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:00:00 PDT

West Seattle Blog… » High-school football: Final score – Port Angeles 41, Chief Sealth 0
High School Football, Video
After lost year, Kennedy football returns – Richmond Confidential -- Richmond, California News, Information, Art and Events.
Hich School Football, video, story
The Buffaloes bounce back | Blue Ridge Muse
High School Football, Close-ups
Go Hyperlocal | The Very Basics of Reporting High School Football
High School Football Coverage
Go Hyperlocal | Submit Site for Gallery Inclusion
If you have a website that you think should be included in the Go Hyperlocal news site directory, please complete the form below.

Links for 2010-08-29 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Baby squirrel rescued from Ballard man’s stove » My Ballard
A stove, A Squirrel, Ductape... Happy Ending?
10 Characteristics of hyperlocal « Sarah Hartley
Another good answer to, "What is Hyperlocal"
A weekly political round-up of interest to Ravenswood residents. | Welles Park Bulldog
Local Chicago Politics: Always a Fun Read

Links for 2010-08-20 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

5 Common SEO Mistakes with Web Page Titles | Six Revisions
Fix page title problems with these tips
Go Hyperlocal | Pledge Offers Guide for News Bloggers
Fair and balanced is nothing more than a catch phrase if it’s not backed it up by real actions.
For Reals: William Shatner Interviews Mary Kay Letourneau & Vili Fualaau
I don't know, I just don't know.

Links for 2010-08-14 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Go Hyperlocal | Is TBD.com Doing Anything Useful?
TBD.com launched to some fanfare this week. It’s a huge site which offers local news to the Washington D.C. metro area.
A Day 1 Appraisal of TBD.com, Washington's New Hyperlocal News Site - DNAinfo.com
TBD.com, which launched with all eyes in the media world upon it, is the latest site catering to hyperlocal news.