Notes: Holly Homer has been blogging for 5 years. She started with a personal blog, June Cleaver Nirvana that grew into local website for Texas women, She is Dallas.
http://www.junecleavernirvana.com
http://sheisdallas.com
Part of your story is where you live.
Make sure you stay true to your VOICE in your local content.
Your readers from distant locations ARE interested.
More info on Google Analytics “ follow the path down to specific areas near your home.
Take note of time spent on site. You may find the closer to home you get, the more people are interested.
More info on Personal FB friends “ historically, your FB friends will be VERY local especially if you grew up in the town where you live. Don’t underestimate the value of these connections.
Twitaholic “ http://twitaholic.com will show you how many local Twitter followers you have. Be aware that it is based on Twitter’s profile location so those who don’t claim your home town will not be counted. Also be aware that those who use a variation of the town name like DFW for Dallas, won’t be counted either.
Emphasize the positive!
Note where you could grow quickly and tackle those areas first.
Torture your children with a magnetic sticker on your minivan with your blog address “ I did and plan on using the proceeds from advertising to pay for their therapy someday.
I use Google’s Keyword Tool to find out WHAT people are searching for. Google it, and then get lost in it for awhile!
A note about the value of guest posting: No matter WHAT you are trying to become, using this technique on your ABOUT page is valuable for building a series of hyperlinks pointed at your ABOUT page. Search engines only look at the FIRST time you hyperlink a specific URL. So, if in your post you hyperlink your blog name to your blog URL, it is used up! Or if the template on the blog where you are guest posting hyperlinks your name to your blog, that link is used up in the title of the post. This makes your about page SUPER valuable as a link in your bio. Try wording it so you are hyperlinking the keyword phrase of your ABOUT page URL in your bio and do this every time you write somewhere else.
I have followed all the followers on Twitter for Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, a local children’s museum, a local charity, local schools, small businesses that are only located in our area.
On Pinterest, I follow boards for Dallas , Fort Worth , DFW , Texas Rangers , Dallas Cowboys , and local museum and charities.
For the press, I will go on TV and talk about anything. It is ridiculous, but effective. They often are desperate enough to put me on TV during holidays when they have limited resources.
I set up DFW Bloggers to find local bloggers.
Local content is not as exclusive as you would think. The majority of your readers won’t care as long as it is in your VOICE and the content fits your blog.
If you are on a magazine-style template, consider adding an element on your front page to display local content.
It sounds like so much fun!
She is Dallas is my local website “ http://sheisdallas.com
Yep. Learn from my mistakes. If you are part of the .1% and happen to live in Dallas ¦see me after the speech and we can discuss terms of a She is Dallas website sale.
Workload “ there is NO way to compete with a huge news outlet.
Website traffic “ on your blog, the traffic potential is limitless ¦why limit it with a location?
You are not the Press “ people will just expect you to publish a bunch of their crap for free and attend a whole bunch of events uncompensated.
Local Businesses “ they are behind the times in advertising trends, they don’t get it when it comes to online advertising, they are high maintenance and don’t have a budget to take a chance on you.
If you have ANY questions, I would love to chat. I regularly host blogging-related G+ hangouts covering your questions, so don’t be shy!
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