The Value of Local Blogging

Originally when I started blogging I went straight into business blogging here at iBrian - not because I wanted to gain business attention, but because I just wanted to share some of the things I was doing or thinking.

The problem is, blogging about business is irrelevant if there’s no goal or return, so while it was fun to share, I soon slowed and then stopped the blogging because there were far better things to invest my time into.

However, the exception is that over the past year I decided to set up a local blog about where I live - My Nairn.

There was no goal, no business idea, or any consideration of reward - just a way to relax by covering local topics - news, thoughts, experiences.

As a blogging experience, I’ve found it far more rewarding. Traffic to the site is very low - but so what, as I’m not trying to monetise it.

Instead, it’s allowed for some excellent exchanges of ideas and thoughts about the area I live (Nairn) and changes to make for the better.

It’s precisely because of this blog I’ve been making the effort to go to local political meetings and planning events, met up with other bloggers face to face (we’ve had two blog meets this year).

Even though I’m too busy with work to get involved with everything, it has allowed me to connect with other people in a positive way, care more about the place I live, and become more tuned into what is actually happening in the town.

As the town is very small, there are not many of us blogging, so already I’m a “leading” light online - or, in plain speak, I’m one of only a few people opinionated to put their thoughts online about what’s happening.  :)

The discussions have been very rewarding as well - on my business blog, all I attracted was low life Indian spammers trying to get a keyword link in the comment - even though they were nofollowed. Sheesh.

And yet on the local blog, there have been some very real and involved discussion - take this latest thread about development issues facing the town: Nairn needs development.

Except for a sole instance when a spam bot grabbed one particular entry (”Comments added to the right hand side”) the amount of spam has been minimal.

Surprising, as already if you search for “Nairn” on Google the site is listed in the Top 10. Not bad for a basic local blog with no real promotion behind it.

One of the highlights recently was getting BBC coverage. I noticed at a relative’s house that the AA Roadmap did not show the local beaches - surprising as it’s part of a 20 mile stretch of golden sand. So I contacted local press, and ended up getting coverage for my blog post highlighting the omission in various local papers and radio stations, and even a link from the BBC website.

(As I’ve said about link building, the best way is to be a news generator, and promoting the local story also served as good practice for another project I’m launching at the beginning of next year - Alternative X - by learning news editor contacts, and think hard about how to attract media interest.)

While the blog remains non-commercial, it is both relaxing and invigorating to develop a local voice.

I know people repeatedly recommend setting up a blog for business purposes, but frankly I think most of its bollox.  Seriously.

Consumers have little interest in business blogs unless there’s something to offer, and business audiences for business blogs are often leeches just trying to find some new way to spam Google, or be given an easy guide to doing something they have neither the interest or effort to do themselves - so I refuse point blank to provide business information that can be misused or serve as a lazy guide to the outright lazy.

In the meantime, the only real warning about running a local blog is to be careful with your time - going to meetings, no matter how infrequently, plus research time, can really add up.

But as I said, it’s a great way to unwind, and especially if you’re passionate about your area, gives you something constructive to focus upon and get away from business for a while.

I’ll be trying to take it to the next level, soon - my local interests mean earlier this year I bought the domain Nairnshire.co.uk for a grand from another company, and am currently developing a portal and forum for community discussions there.

I had hoped to have it live by now, but commercial demands means I need to keep focused on business, and develop interesting side projects outside of that time.

In the meantime, I fully recommend anybody to consider setting up a local blog as opposed to a business blog. The audience, the discussions, the topics, can be far more interesting.

And, overall, be a more constructive way to engage online in a personal way.

Fin.  :)

(PS - A let a couple of secrets out there, if you’ve picked this up on Google alerts, Des.  :)  ).