subject: Local blogging - easy street or blogging nightmare? [print this page] Local blogging - easy street or blogging nightmare?
There are a large number of local bloggers hitting the scene. I define a local blogger to be a person who blogs about the area in which they live and/or work. Running a local blog is becoming very poplar on the internet.
So is local blogging easy street or a blogging nightmare?
I guess that will depend on your intention for getting into it in the first place.
As with all blogging if you have no interest in your topic, no passion for it and you got into it because you thought it would "make you money" you won't last long as a local blogger and it will become a blogging nightmare for you.
There is something all local bloggers need and that is commitment because it takes far more commitment to make it work as a local blogger than a regular affiliate blogger.
If I am an affiliate blogger I sit at my desk and I happily blog about the product or service I want to promote. There isn't much more to do.
If you want to be a successful local blogger (with the emphasis on successful) you are going to have to love the following:
hanging out in your local area
going to events in your local area
meeting people who live in your local area
Because a successful local blog relies on you being out there and finding out what is happening in your local area. To be really great at content creation and to provide content that local people will enjoy reading you need to get yourself off to the local government meetings and report back on your blog what went on. You need to go off to the local hospice fundraising day and take photos, maybe even bring your video camera. You need to spend time at business events not only so you can blog about it but also to let your local businesses know you exist so you can get yourself some advertising revenue.
Can you rely on your readers to report back on what is happening? Yes you can.... eventually... but as with all bloggers you need to spend some time establishing trust and building relationships. Starting a new local blog and telling people to add their stories can work to a small degree but that shouldn't be the sum total of your marketing plan! At the beginning you are going to have to rely on your efforts to raise your local blog up until it becomes popular enough that people want to contribute to it too.
Yes, the life of a local blogger is a varied and exciting one. It involves more than just sitting at your desk hunting for local news in your area. A truly successful local blogger will be out in their local area and sharing what they find on their site. They will be engaging local people in discussions and debates.
They will have a commitment to and a love of the area they live in because the work is hard, the hours are long and the only way you make it is if you keep that blog active and alive.
Being a local blogger definitely isn't easy street and if you have a passion for your local area it doesn't have to turn into a blogging nightmare either.
Are you a local blogger? What keeps you going? Why do you love your local blog? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
