Recently, I surveyed the bloggers who subscribe to our occasional newsletter, asking them questions about their blogs and themselves (a big thank you to everyone who submitted answers!). While I don’t purport to have conducted an in-depth, analytical survey of the entire blogosphere, at least one the questions I asked received some answers that definitely warrant further examination.
I asked the bloggers – the majority of whom identified themselves as ‘hyperlocal,’ bloggers – what motivates them to blog. I listed four possible answer choices:
For money
For fun/as a hobby
For fame/notoriety
Other
The answers I got broke down like this:
What surprised me was not how few of the bloggers said they were motivated by money. My interviews with bloggers have already told me that very few bloggers (particularly hyperlocal bloggers) are making significant income from blogging, and those that do make money are generally motivated to write by something else. For these bloggers, any income is simply a happy bonus.
Rather, what surprised me was how many bloggers selected the mysterious ‘Other’ as their motivation. After reading through the write-in answers, though, I realized that I had left out an important and likely answer choice to the question. What was it?
To increase community awareness/to make a difference/as a public service
Public service! It makes perfect sense. So many of the bloggers I’ve spoken to say they not only feel an obligation to their blog audience, but they also feel a larger sense of purpose and dedication to their communities.
Even though most of the bloggers I’ve interviewed don’t think of themselves as journalists, strictly speaking, a lot of them speak about their devotion to hyperlocal blogging in words similar to those a journalist might use to speak about their obligation to the truth. (Some bloggers do think of themselves as journalists, of course, but let’s not open the whole blogger-versus-journalist can of worms today.)
Instead, today I’d like to hear from more bloggers:
Why do you blog? What motivates you, and how have those reasons evolved?
Last week, we ran a simple contest on our blog. We offered entrants a chance at winning a scholarship to an online, self-paced course on Hyperlocal Blogging, which is being taught by our friends at The New York Times. As promised, we randomly selected two lucky winners from the entries we received, and they are… (drum roll, please)…
Clay Williams, a NYC blogger, foodie, ‘professional geek,’ and aspiring photographer who’s interested in learning hyperlocal blogging skills (always great to see photographer-types getting in on the fun: photography is a core blogging skill, and it’s one that’s especially useful for hyperlocal bloggers);
Ginger Fawcett, a St. Louis-area real estate agent who’s interested in learning how she can launch a hyperlocal blog in her neck of the woods (a stellar example of one thing real estate agents can do to really stand out: after all, there probably aren’t a whole lot of people who spend as much time thinking about their communities as real estate agents).
Judging from the conversations I’ve had with each of them so far, they’re both really excited to begin the course, which starts today.
We’re certainly happy to sponsor both of them and we look forward to seeing how their hyperlocal blogging projects evolve (No pressure, guys, seriously! Just have fun with it and learn as much as you can).
Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Ellie Ashford, who blogs about Annandale, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC. I used to live in Northern Virginia myself, so I know that the area is a huge suburban expanse– however there’s also a diversity of communities that exist within the general ‘NoVA’ umbrella. Annandale is a unique enclave all on it’s own, and its residents are lucky to have a dedicated hyperlocal blogger like Ashford, who’s always looking for new happenings and stories to share with her friends and neighbors.
That said, what I found most compelling about Ashford is her obvious passion and her intense curiosity about the world around her: this is clearly her driving force. So, let’s all take a cue from Ashford and explore some of the ways we can continue learning and becoming even better bloggers.
TIP #1: KEEP REINVENTING YOURSELF
When I first started blogging, I began because my job was winding down and I knew I would be laid off. So I started the blog as a way to make some contacts and learn about blogging and social networking and new media. It’s been great. My background was in education writing, so now that I’m freelancing, a lot of my clients are in education. I’ve gotten a blogging job working as a freelancer on a technology blog, too– blogging has just been really helpful. I’m working on lots of different projects and I’ve met so many people doing it.
TIP #2: TAKE A COURSE ONLINE
I’m always looking for ways to learn new things, like how to promote my blog using Twitter and Facebook. I’m also taking advantage of online courses at Lynda.com– they have all these technology subjects you can learn about. You can explore all the classes for free, and then you pay $25 a month for unlimited access to the classes, which are all on video online. I’ve taken classes on WordPress and also SEO techniques. It’s a great place for people who are new to blogging.
TIP #3: SEE PARTNERSHIPS AS LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
I’m a part of TBD‘s network, which has been great– they’re starting to offer some free classes to whoever is in their network through an arrangement they have with American University– I’m taking a class this Saturday!
Some of my blog items are also posted on the local WUSA Channel 9 news website. I usually post two or three pieces a week on that site– after I post them on my own blog– to increase visibility for my blog.
Local bloggers should also try to get listed in whatever networks and directories they can find, like Outside.in, it really helps. Ask your local newspaper if they have a blog directory, too. Partnerships help you to keep learning about new technologies, stay current and meet other people.
TIP #4: USE TECH TOOLS TO STAY ON TOP OF TRENDS & STORIES
Fairfax County has all kinds of alerts you can sign-up for through their website – they’re a really good tool for bloggers. Google Alerts have also been really great for getting story ideas. I find a story idea that way almost every day. Here’s a really good example: I have an alert set up for Annandale, and I just found out there was some kind of cake decorating contest in Oklahoma, and the winner was a guy from Annandale. They have a catering company here, but they don’t even have a store– but they’ve been on all these cake decorating shows on TV. That was one of my favorite interviews.
Oh, and I just got something about 10 minutes ago from the school system, too– one of the National Merit Scholar Finalists is from one of the local high schools. So, I found her name on Facebook and sent her a message asking her to contact me, because I’d like to highlight her.
TIP #5: YOUR COMMUNITY IS YOUR CLASSROOM
I’ve been involved in community affairs all my life, so it come naturally to me. I’m involved with the Fairfax County Superintendent’s Advisory Committee right now, so that helps me get story ideas. I’ll also write about the issues that the Community Association is involved with, and I go to a lot of Chamber of Commerce events. I’ve learned a lot about how local communities work, how local government procedure works.
I’ve also been covering a lot of the Planning Commission’s meetings lately, because they recently approved a new plan to encourage landowners to consolidate small pieces of land to encourage developers to do larger, multi-use developments. Things have been in kind of a slump economically, but as soon as it picks up, there will be a lot of changes here.
TIP #6: LEARN HOW THE PROS DO IT… THEN FOLLOW SUITE
When I started doing this, I went to an event and I said: ‘I want to be at the media table, I’m a blogger,’ — and they let me. I’ve been a ‘professional journalist’ in my career, I have a degree in journalism. I use the AP Style Guide, which I’m comfortable with, and I try to verify facts. I won’t put out anything that I haven’t confirmed. So, yeah, I treat myself like regular media and that’s how they treat me.
Sure, I’ve had things where people have come in and submitted clarifications and I’ve published them as comments. But I think in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, being online — being able to correct things immediately, as opposed to having to wait for the next printing and burying the correction — that almost improves things.
We recently heard that our friends at The New York Times are now offering a course on Hyperlocal Blogging, which we think is great news. The online, self-paced course is designed for people who want to start a blog to serve the news and information needs of their community— no journalism experience required (though experienced hands are welcome as well). We think this is such great news that we’re offering scholarships to two lucky individuals who want to take the course.
If you’re interested in winning a scholarship, it’s easy to enter, but you have to act FAST: simply fill out this form by midnight on Thursday, October 7.
The two lucky winners will be randomly selected on the morning of Friday, October 8. Winners will be contacted via email and then announced publicly, right here on our blog.
According to Jim Schachter, associate managing editor of The New York Times:
There is no single right way to establish a successful community news site. But the experience that we’ve gleaned publishing The Local sites in and around New York – combined with our rich, deep experience as reporters and editors at The Times – gives us a lot of wisdom and short-cuts to share with anyone who wants to dive into this emerging world.
Taught by Deputy Metro Editor Mary Ann Giordano, Hyperlocal Blogging will cover:
The fundamentals of community journalism and local reporting, including how to find and present information, how to check facts and how to preserve fairness in local coverage;
Fundamentals of designing a site and building it out;
How to find and develop an audience, how to use social media to get a blog noticed, and how to get the community (including potential sponsors) involved and engaged.
Too excited to wait on contest results? Visit www.nytimes.com/knownow for more information or to register for Hyperlocal Blogging.
The first session of this brand-new course begins October 12, and runs through November 8, with course registrations accepted through October 10. Cost for the course is $175 (unless you win a scholarship, in which case it’s FREE!).
I didn’t know that, either… until I spent some time reading the Adirondack Almanack and chatting with its founder, freelancer John Warren (as John put it: “The size of the Adirondacks is incredible. In fact, the Adirondack Park is the largest protected area in the contiguous United States. It’s larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Canyon and Great Smokies combined – and it covers 7 counties and 2 Congressional districts.”).
It turns out that Warren is not only a great local blogger (or, in this case, regional blogger) but he’s also a historian, among other things– so I learned a lot of interesting facts from him. Here are a few of my favorites!
FACT: The Adirondacks are more than just a tourist destination (though they’re that, too).
It’s also a place where people live, year-round. It’s like a microcosm for the country, because there are a lot of issues that are important here that are also national issues: development, the environment, the outdoors. That makes it a unique place and a great location to blog about.
Like any tourist place, the Adirondacks is divided between locals, newcomers and tourists. The newcomers tend to be more environmentally focused. The locals tend to be more interested in hunting and fishing in their backyard. So, the different camps come into contact a lot in terms of development issues.
FACT: Adirondack Almanack was started because Warren felt that local media outlets weren’t covering issues like development well enough.
Development is a big issue here: how do we develop an area that’s supposed to be a park? There are also economic issues involved: the need for industrial and good-paying jobs, for instance. We have traditionally had industries like logging and paper-making here, a lot of forestry products. Mining as well. But those jobs have basically disappeared over the last 50 years, and now ours is a tourist economy. So, affordable housing for locals in a tourist economy is another important issue.
I saw that none of the local papers were covering these important issues. The papers are usually pro-development– to a fault. They’re also usually against the Adirondack Park Agency — it’s been a traditional target for the local media for years. Property rights advocates and local newspapers have really hounded the Adirondack Park Agency for years, as well as the Department of Environmental Conservation. So, we needed another voice in the local conversation [which is why I started the Adirondack Almanack 5 years ago.]
FACT: The Adirondack Almanack is a group effort and a labor of love.
At first [the blog] was really me ranting [about local issues], but over the last 3 years or so it’s really transformed into a regular media outlet. We now have over 20 contributors from all parts of the Adirondack region. They write about different topics, from natural history to outdoor recreation to local politics, commentaries and family events. I write about history. They’re all volunteers I found and approached, and they volunteer for a variety of reasons: some want their voice to be heard, and some want to raise awareness about issues that they care about.
I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve had the ability to gather contributors who are all quality writers. They understand the issues they’re covering in-depth. They really contribute to the community. No one person can do this thing at all – there are over 20 people who make it happen.
FACT: You can also run a locally-oriented site without a small army of volunteers.
New York History is another site I run. I just do it myself – it’s mostly media-release driven. It’s kind of an interesting thing, because it shows how a local site can operate with low energy input. I don’t write all the press releases, I just re-craft the press releases. I edit them, then publish them using no byline, which is what a lot of major media sources do. I think of it as a resource for history, which is important because public history is really suffering. They’re closing historic sites all the time. I’m confident that New York History will help – that it’s going to be an up-and-coming sort of thing.
FACT: Bloggers can add a fresh voice to their local conversations.
We are providing a voice that wasn’t heard before in local media — the voice of the people who support the environment. But it’s not just an environmental blog. We also provide other perspectives: not just from the property rights angle, but also from those who just want to paddle down the river freely, even if it happens to flow through private land.
I also grew up as a hunter and a fisherman, so I understand those issues, too. I remember what it was like to have nothing, not even a movie theater. So, I have a different take on things. We live here in this park, so we have to work here and live here and survive, and we can’t do that without some development. But we’re interested in smart development – it’s the last real wilderness East of the Mississippi, and it’s something that we need to protect. I want to see every town connected by snowmobile trails, but they shouldn’t go through ecologically sensitive areas.
FACT: Your local blog can help you land a book deal (& get other cool gigs).
[Blogging] helps raise recognition of my work, for sure. For instance, the History Press contacted me and asked me to combine some of my essays into a book, which was published last year: Historic Tales from the Adirondack Almanack. So, I got a book deal. I’ve also gotten some research jobs — I do research for documentary films about the Adirondacks. It’s boosted my freelance work, for sure… only now I have less time to do freelance work.
You have to have a bunch of ways to make money [when you live in the Adirondacks]. I work several jobs: I teach media production and new media at Burlington College. I also work at the New York State Writer’s Institute, and I do development work for Maryland Public Television. I also get to go to conferences to speak, to lecture here and there. I recently found out that the Adirondack Mountain Club is going to give me their Communications Award this year. It’s a great honor, because it’s not given out to just anyone.
FACT: Bloggers shouldn’t be afraid to contact local sources for their stories.
Sometimes I’ll contact people who are in the news. In the winter, we had somebody who survived an avalanche. So, I found them on Faceboook and said:
‘Hey, would you mind writing a guest post about your experience’?
No one else did that. And you know, people are reluctant to talk to the [mainstream] media — but here [was] his opportunity to tell his story in his own words.
FACT: Even if you’re not a “Professional Journalist,” you can still set your own journalistic standards for your blog.
I try to have reasonable journalistic standards on the blog. I teach media, so I know what journalism standards are. We try to present a balanced story – which doesn’t always mean two sides, since there aren’t always two sides of a story. It means we try to have a variety of voices and tell stories that aren’t told. Are we doing straight-up journalistic reporting? No, we’re not. But we try to adhere to good balance, and I think that’s important. We label something as ‘commentary,’ if it’s commentary.
I also believe that in journalism we all have a point of view. There’s no such thing as not having a point of view. Be clear about what your intentions are — it’s this foggy middle ground that just uses deceptive wording to send a message — that’s what really gets me. Every person who writes regularly knows that they can change a word or two and add a little phrase here or there that will change the meaning of a story.
“You know, there was all this stuff about ‘hyperlocal is the big wave of the future,’” freelance writer L.J. Williamson says, when I ask her what prompted her to start her own hyperlocal blog, Giga Granada Hills.
“I thought I’d give it a quick try,” she adds, “but it very quickly became more than just a money-making scheme and a career option.”
[Laughter.]
This is where L.J.’s great sense of humor begins to shine through. She clarifies:
It’s been much less than a money-making scheme, actually. In fact, I’m making no money at all. No bloggers are making any money. In the interim, though, I’ve gotten totally hooked on it. I’ve learned more about my town than I ever had before.
So, while she may not be making money, L.J. is having fun with Giga Granada Hills. A lot of fun, in fact – almost as much fun as I had interviewing her for this post (she had me in stitches several times). With that in mind, I thought I’d share with you some of L.J.’s funnest (yes, I know it’s not a real world) ideas for hyperlocal bloggers…
DO FUN STUFF WITH HYPERLOCAL COUPONS
We’ve all seen the success that local deals companies like Groupon and LivingSocial have enjoyed, right? Well, why not think about doing something similar– though seriously scaled-down– for your own blog, as L.J. has done?
When I first started the blog, I walked into a local pizza place I like and I ask them if they wanted to put some coupons on my site. It’s like an ad, and when I go into the pizza place the [owner] says he gets my coupons coming back on a regular basis. [For my part], sometimes they give me $50 and sometimes they just give me a pizza. It helps that they’re one of the best pizza places in town. I feel good about having them as an advertiser. It would put me in an awkward position if I hated their food.
(We should add that L.J. does NOT think ad sales is fun: “I hate going around and selling ads. I did it the first week [after I started the blog], and 99 percent [of the local businesses I approached] said ‘NO.’ Selling is HARD. I don’t dig selling at all!”)
HAVE FUN WITH YOUR BLOGGER POINT-OF-VIEW AND PERSONA
There’s definitely an upside of not making any money: I don’t have to worry that I might lose an advertiser if I say something too sassy. You can get bland anywhere. So, I try to offer something else. Why not be opinionated? I’m not making any money so I might as well be having fun.
LEVERAGE YOUR BLOG TO CREATE FUN CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
I’m a freelance writer, so the blog has helped me a little bit. One of my stories was picked up by L.A. Weekly, and another story I pitched to them and ended up writing for them. I expanded a story that was a local story, about a community sports field [being re-claimed for industrial use by the Metropolitan Water District]. That was my biggest story in terms of being real reportage. Most of the time I’m just dicking around, but that was a real, reported story.
HIGHLIGHT FUN FOLKS IN YOUR COMMUNITY
I do some [more serious] reporting, but I try to balance that with local color. A lot of the stuff I do is mostly about meeting interesting people in the community. Like, we have a milk man. People are usually like, ‘wow, there are still milk men out there?’
I’ve also profiled a local piano teacher, and a lady who was on the Neighborhood Council and thought that all of the money for the council should go to homeless cats and dogs [instead of other initiatives]. There are so many interesting characters in this neighborhood. If we just went person by person, I’d have more stories than I could ever write.
PLAN SOME FUN PARTIES
I did a big event recently. That was really fun. The Neighborhood Council was doing a movie night where they get an inflatable screen and show movies outside. So, I said, ‘can we team this with the Food Truck Fest?’
There’s a big food truck revolution here [in Los Angeles], but a lot of the food trucks don’t even bother to come here. We might as well be on the moon as far as the food trucks are concerned. So, I went and rounded up as many food trucks as I could and it was a smashing success. They were flabbergasted by the response. I asked for donations from the food trucks, too, so I took a portion of that for myself [as an organizing fee] and 50 percent of that is also going to be donated to the local library.
CELEBRATE THE FUN THINGS GOING ON IN YOUR COMMUNITY
I did a story about this woman who has a local belly dance troupe, and I found this really great local band that I love. And I would love them even if they weren’t from here. So, yeah, it’s funny because Grenada Hills has this reputation for being really boring – so my mission is to find the coolest stuff that’s going on here and bring it up to the surface.
HAVE FUN WITH THE OPPORTUNITIES AFFORDED TO YOU AS A BLOGGER
You know, it’s nice having a context. If I see someone walking down the street that looks interesting, or a guy on a motorized tricycle with Mylar streamers, I engage them.
Before the blog, I may have felt intensely curious about someone but not talked to them. But now I have a context, an excuse to start random conversations with strangers. I’ll go up to someone and say:
‘Hey, I wanna write about you on my blog… what’s your story?’
As you may have already heard, we just released a brand new Outside.in Hyperlocal News API — the latest addition to Outside.in for Publishers suite of powerful publisher tools to create hyperlocal experiences easily, efficiently, and economically. We built the API for creative and savvy publishers looking to innovate ways to engage their consumers with hyperlocal news and information.
What can the API do? Quite a bit. Publishers can build and design mobile apps to custom web experiences by tapping into our massive database of more than 54,000 sources from local bloggers, journalists and mainstream sources for any neighborhood, city, state, and ZIP in the U.S. API users can filter the results by various parameters such as date, number of stories, source attributes (e.g., vertical/category, format, author type), and keywords. A few ideas:
Take local to the next level by bundling the right source of neighborhood news targeted at specific demographics like moms, foodies, or college students
Add dimension to existing personalization experiences by empowering readers to find and save news for neighborhoods they care about
What clever ideas do you have? Get going and introduce the API to your developers: send them to check out the documentation on our API portal where they can get an API key to start playing around.
What are the benefits?
User Engagement & Advertising Opportunities: The API opens the door to tons of local content that publishers can slice and dice to fit their editorial and user needs, all of which create robust streams of targeted advertising inventory.
Reliability and Speed: Outside.in provides a proven hyperlocal platform that meets the scale and performance needs of some of web’s biggest publishers such as CNN, Tribune, The New York Post, and MediaGeneral (with more to announce in the near future). In fact, we first previewed the API earlier this year to power the local news on CNN.com and the CNN iPhone app.
Hyperlocal Expertise and Support: With so many possibilities to explore, our Partner Relations team is available and happy to help publishers vet ideas and provide the necessary guidance and support along the way.
How do I get started?
1. Check out the details here and introduce your developers to the API. Have them sign up for a dev key to see what the API is capable of and take it for a test spin.
2. Give us a shout via email to discuss any of the following:
Terms for a commercial relationship. (Note that the API is free for non-commercial use up to 5,000 queries per day.)
Enable curation on API implementations via the Outside.in Hyperlocal Publisher Dashboard.
Transition to an API-powered experience. (If you are an existing Outside.in for Publishers partner, we can generate a separate key for you to ensure that the API inherits your curation settings from the Publisher Dashboard.)
There is a lot to take advantage of, so start building your own unique hyperlocal experience today! We can’t wait to see what you will create!
*P.S. Follow @outsideinAPI for the latest scoop on the API.
Have the courage to write what you really think or feel.
Be gracious about it when you write something controversial or potentially offensive. Think twice. (See #1).
Your blog is not an island. Be grateful for that fact. Celebrate it.
Fear is not an excuse not to write. Just do it. You’ll learn from the doing of it.
Have a viewpoint. Know what you want to say. You wouldn’t write a press release if you didn’t have any news: the same goes for a blog post.
Go into yourself. Know yourself. Figure out what’s motivating you to start your blog, because that’s what’s going to motivate you to keep writing. Figure out what it is you’re trying to share and why.
Your blogging will impact your professional life. Consider that. If you’re constantly critical, no one is going to be brave enough to hire you.
Your blogging will impact your professional life. Consider that: “I’ve gotten about $40k in work over the past 5 years [that I wouldn't have gotten had I not been blogging]. Blogging has brought me a lot of professional and social connections, some of which have been financially rewarding.”
Give yourself more credit. Give others more credit, too.
Don’t pressure yourself to blog every day.
Get over yourself.
“It’s really important to keep the technology of your blog current. If it still looks like 5 years ago, it makes others wonder about how serious you are about building a community on that blog. There are crappy-looking blogs out there that have incredibly large communities and are very influential, but those are rare. If you’re going to blog, put as much love and care into the design of your blog as you do the content. People want your blog to be a fun place to come.”
You don’t have to hit your readers over the head with a 2×4 in order for them to ‘get it.’
Chris is one of our AWESOME developers here at Outside.in. Chris likes to keep things simple, so he’s developed something of a uniform for himself, which he rarely deviates from:
bedhead +
black glasses +
black T-shirt (Uniqlo) +
blue jeans (Levi 507s – sadly discontinued) +
Chuck Taylors (black, obvi)
Today is Chris’ birthday (happy birthday, Chris!), so as a surprise, we thought we’d all dress up like him (even Olive the dog joined in!):
Exhibit B
We even tried copying his signature smirk:
Exhibit C
And Lauren even dressed up her signature birthday cupcakes (she really outdid herself this time, they were even MORE delicious than usual, if that’s possible… and Vegan, too (I didn’t believe it, either)!):
Exhibit D
Later, we’re all going out for drinks to celebrate. So, if you happen to stop by Rye House tonight and you see what appears to be a nerdy improv troupe enjoying some beers… it’s not. Just us Outside.in nerds, enjoying some frosty beverages together… ’cause that’s how we roll, son!
… When we’re not getting all hyperlocal on the internets and writing code and stuff.
P.S. Want to join us? Well, you’re in luck, ’cause we’re hiring (interns, too!).
I’m on vacay, but Bloggers We Love are here for you!
I’m on vacation this week – but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about you guys! That’s right, this week we’ve got the Bloggers We Love clip show post! Please enjoy. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.
10. Adelle says: “Just Do It.”
One of the biggest benefits of blogging is just starting the blog and acknowledging that creative desire and giving in to it — and then, once you give in to it, it just opens you up to so many other things.
In January, we started holding monthly Meetups. We go out into Brooklyn neighborhoods with our cameras and explore them — and invite whoever is interested into the group to come exploring with us. For instance, we went to Gowanus, right after the Gowanus [Canal] was declared a superfund site — more than 35 people walked through Gowanus shooting [photographs]. It was great because I got to meet all these people that I correspond with on the internet.
We’ve done huge things with the Kimpton hotel group. For instance, we did a survey last year just looking at the demographics of our readership [and those that completed the survey had a chance to win a free dinner and hotel stay from Kimpton]. We’re getting ready to plan our second birthday party, and we hope to partner with them again. Another great partnership we’ve started has been with the 9:30 Club. We do concert ticket giveaways each week– it’s fantastic.
- Blogger We Love Tom Bridge of We Love DC, on why partnering with local businesses is a good tactic for local bloggers
7. Caroline says: “Relax.”
Try to write every day — just don’t pressure yourself. I’m able to enjoy [blogging because I don't pressure myself too much]. I used to actually write every day, but then I decided to take the weekends off.
I do make some money off of my blog – but it’s just like writing: your money comes from a lot of little different places. Some of my income comes from local ads, some of it comes from internet ads, and some of it comes from freelance blogging projects: for instance, I contribute to a local TV station that has a mom site. When you’re a writer, you very rarely have one income source—that’s something I always remind bloggers of when they start out: they should diversify. It’s really tough to make it happen any one way—and, as a blogger, you have to straddle the editorial/advertising divide, which are usually separate in traditional media. It’s a full-time job in and of itself to sell ads.
I love nachos. I used to talk about nachos so much that the girl I was dating at the time made me a ‘I <3 Nachos,’ T-shirt. I wasn’t even in New York yet. I was living in China, and I was blogging there about the city I was in. When I came back I wanted to start another blog because I really enjoyed it – and my friend was telling me how it had to be niche, how I had to find something I knew and liked. Nachos was, like, the first thing I could think of – I love nachos.
Take your time and go at your own pace. Don’t compare yourself to other blogs. Do your own thing. If you like to use photos, do that. If you want to make videos with your Flip cam, do that. But don’t feel obligated to do things you’re not interested in.
One good piece of advice in terms of local blogging relates to the fact that you often have a lot of people trying to do the same thing, and blogs kind of fade in and out. It’s not so much about how many people are doing those things; it’s more about how you’re doing it a little bit differently and a little bit better – that makes it interesting. Try to pay attention to your readers – tailor your feature content to the things people will like. We do pay attention to our page statistics and we pay attention to our Twitter feed and we engage people and we listen. We always strive to be a resource that’s listening to our community instead of just being an outlet that pushes out information.
I’d love to take a sabbatical from my job for a month and work in a restaurant kitchen — or go work on a farm, that’d be great. Haha, yeah, the chefs would probably be like, ‘who let this YAHOO come in and cook in my kitchen?!’ But I’d love to do it.
Blogs die for the same reason that any project dies. Something gets someone mad or passionate about that subject, and eventually people move on [to other projects]. If someone has a blog that’s passionate for a while, why is that invalid? I wouldn’t want someone to feel obligatory about something they’re not passionate about anymore.
- Blogger We Love Steve Shanafelt of the Spartanburg Spark on how it’s OK to start a blogging project and, when the time is right, move on
P.S. Local bloggers, don’t forget to register your blog here. It’s quick, simple, and will help drive traffic to your blog.
P.P.S.: If you’d like to be featured in our ‘Bloggers We Love’ series (or you’d like to nominate your favorite local blogger(s) for inclusion), we’d love to hear from you! Simply send an email to esther@outside.in
Mike Doyle
I’m on vacay, but Bloggers We Love are here for you! 
