Hyper Local Blogs – Getting Back to the Basics of Early Real Estate Blogging
This was a comment about the hyper local landscape from Greg Fischer in the TurnOn Facebook Group yesterday (moderated by 1000Watt):
Yesterday, I met with two different people who are creating hyper-local media assets. One is further along than the other. Its starting to feel like a big cluster of the same information. One outfit is curating content and re-purposing/re-posting it, yet the originator (say, a local eatery) is also publishing the content regularly (happy hour specials, etc) and has their own social media/web strategy anyway which likely reaches the same/similar audience as the hyper-local curator does. Additionally, there are other niche sights (say, Foodie blog) that is also duplicating the information. So the audience in the hyper-local area is seeing the same information multiple times. Apply to any other category of local business.
Hyper-local has morphed from a natural state into a commodity.
Greg’s right. There are tons and tons and tons of people trying the same hyper local strategy. Yet almost everyone fails.
What’s missing?
Flawless execution over a sustained period of time. Same as what’s missing in most businesses.
Lets get back to basics here. Multi-author blogs such as RainCityGuide were some of the first successful real estate blogs on the web. And you know what? They are STILL the most successful real estate blogs on the web. It’s really really hard work to keep up fresh content for years and years by yourself. It can be done, but very few have the motivation, stamina, and desire to actually do it.
Multi-author blogs are the solution.
Want to dominate your hyper local market? Here’s what I would do if I was in your shoes (and I actually am in your shoes right now building a multi author travel blog)…
- Start a multi author blog focused on your city, neighborhood or ZIP.
- Recruit 10 local business owners or local influencers (maybe someone on the PTA board) to be authors.
- Bug them non stop and make sure they actually put out at least one article every two weeks. This part is hard.
- Give everyone ad space for their business, or simply a prominent about the author module with their photo with each post and a recent authors module on the sidebar (here’s some code for you).
- Focus on one post per day, everyday.
- Ensure everyone that writes there is vested in the long term success and is marketing the blog to their own respective spheres of influence.
- Build a community
Now, go do it.
[Photo via Brad Andersohn. If you’re reading Brad, it’s been way too long since you’ve posted here..]
Kirk Eisele
Posted at 15:30h, 21 JulyYou are right on about how hard it is to create consistent content. Super tough. Seems like you either have to go multi-author or infrequent posting with a very tight focus on high-value content. Not easy! (Which is exactly what you said.)
Drew Meyers
Posted at 15:32h, 21 JulyYup. One post a day, everyday. That’s the right frequency for a blog IMO.
Very few achieve that though.
Patrick Hake
Posted at 15:51h, 21 JulyWow, awesome idea. I have thought about reaching out to these types of folks to guest blog, but I had not considered creating a completely seperate community blog with handpicked contributors. Could be like hurding cats, but I can definately see the upside potential. I can think of a couple people already who are usually long winded in their Facebook posts. I need to give them a place to tell everyone how much they know 🙂
Drew Meyers
Posted at 15:55h, 21 JulyIt IS like herding cats. I’ve been doing this (running multi author blogs) a long time, and it takes a LOT of time and energy to herd the cats. But worth it in the long run.
Greg Fischer
Posted at 10:54h, 22 JulyWho you calling a cat 🙂
Drew Meyers
Posted at 10:57h, 22 Julyhaha. I guess you? 🙂
I do less herding here than when I was helping manage the Zillow Blog. Getting people outside the core blog team to contribute was quite a chore.
Geordie Romer
Posted at 10:25h, 22 JulyDrew- I think the strategy depends on what you call “hyperlocal.” I would argue that a blog like RCG isn’t hyperlocal since it covers the Seattle metro area. For a larger area like this, a daily blog post and large crew of bloggers sounds great.
My little blog covers a zipcode of 6000 residents. I would overwhelm my readership with a daily blog post and I think I’ve done well by having a few returning guest posters.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 10:49h, 22 JulyYou’re right – it does depend on the scope of your site and how wide a region you are covering. # of posts and guest contributors will vary if you’re targeting a tiny community.
Victor Lund
Posted at 09:58h, 23 JulyIf you want to see a great example of hyper local blogging, check out http://ggvalues.com/ That is the hub site of 28 different neighborhood websites around San Francisco and Marin County California. All of the websites are on the first page of google for targeted keywords, but moreover, people in those neighborhoods talk about the site. Google any neighborhood name plus the word real estate and you will find this agent’s sites tucked in nicely just below the portals. ie Noe Valley Real Estate
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