A Great Content Idea for a Local Blog – Free WIFI Locations
“What do I write about?”
I hear that question over and over (and over) from real estate agents who are just beginning to get into blogging. On Twitter this morning, I saw a Tweet from Karen Goodman in St Louis that reminded me of a great content idea with considerable traffic potential — Free WIFI Locations. I actually implemented this exact strategy on the Oh Hey World travel blog I was working on over the summer while abroad (with posts such as WIFI hotspots in Valencia & Rethymno, Crete). Here is Karen’s post for St Louis Free WIFI options on her Arch City Homes blog. My recommendation to agent would be to create posts detailing the best WIFI locations in every neighborhood or community that you cover — and even ones you don’t – as a way to build long tail traffic over the long haul. In Karen’s case, I’d write posts titled “Best Free WIFI Locations in Ballwin”, “Best Free WIFI Locations in Clayton”, etc.
To really maximize your time and effort, don’t just write about wifi options based on what you find on the web — go there, talk to the staff, and write from first hand experience — and send the owners of those establishments the link to your blog post once you’ve written about them. Better yet, use that email as a conversation starter and convince the owners to blog for you on your local blog (that’s the holly grail)!
This is fantastic way to reach the geeks who work virtually in your area looking for a new place to vary their daily routine. And the best part about it, is the people looking for WIFI are likely the ones blogging, tweeting, sharing on FB, etc — the ideal target person to spread the word about where they got the recommendation (as long as the place is good & they have a good experience).
What else are people in your local area looking for? How can you help them find it?
Karen Goodman
Posted at 20:46h, 23 JanuaryDrew – I’m thrilled you like the idea of my WiFi post. I actually put together the list because I was looking for a list for myself, and couldn’t find one. I agree that the long tail SEO would be better if I had a separate post on each community, but it would defeat the purpose of giving everyone a comprehensive list. In a city like St. Louis, you can get to half of the communities on the list within 20 minutes. Most of us know about free WiFi in our neighborhoods…it’s when we are in another part of town where we need a suggestion. I’ve got plenty of people who said they bookmarked the list and refer back to it when they need a new spot.
The post that has brought the very most traffic for me is my annual free summer concert list. This one brought in 11k+ pageviews over the last 2 spring/summers and was on Google page 1 for a bunch of search terms related to free summer concerts. http://www.archcityhomes.com/2010/04/stl-summer-free-concert-list/
drewmeyers
Posted at 21:01h, 23 JanuaryYea, I initially started doing the wifi locations posts on Oh Hey World because I was looking for a list for myself as well.
I think the best implementation would be to link out to “best free wifi locations in Ballwin” post from your main best wifi locations in St Louis post. And have all of those individual posts link back to your St Louis post. You could actually create pages within WP, and use the parent page feature for this.
Karen Goodman
Posted at 21:20h, 23 JanuaryGood idea! I like the idea of creating a post for each community that could be a weekly series since I wrote the main post over a year ago. Each week I could refresh their memory about the WiFi list, plus offer a link to search for homes near these WiFi spots and more housing/community info (it is a real estate site after all) and link back to the main page too.
Just what I needed, another project! Thanks Drew for a great way to take this to the next level.
Five cool posts discovered in Google Reader | Peter Fletcher. New media strategist.
Posted at 21:39h, 23 January[…] the Geek Estate blog Drew Meyers recommends blogging about local free wi-fi hotspots. It’s a cool idea. He suggests doing more than just grabbing information off the web but […]
Rod Johnston
Posted at 07:27h, 28 JanuaryI tweet California mortgage rates daily at 9:30 AM as you can see at http://twitter.com/rodsrealty I will take a look at the idea of local WiFi stations! Thanks for the idea Drew!
MegBarberVA
Posted at 18:13h, 29 JanuaryThat is a fantastic idea Drew. Being a virtual worker myself, I sometimes want to venture out of my home office for a change. But I’m always struggling to find free WIFI locations other than the usual Starbucks or Panera. Would love to have a reliable list with first hand reviews of the locations.
This is a great content idea that I will encourage my agent clients to consider for their blogs.
A Great Content Idea for a Local Blog – Via GeekEstate Blog | The BVAS Connection
Posted at 12:31h, 30 January[…] A Great Content Idea for a Local Blog – Via GeekEstate Blog January 30, 2011 By Megan E. Barber Leave a Comment via geekestateblog.com […]