Hyperlocal Website Pre Launch – Part One

Dreams are Nice – Reality is Better

Get Your Feet On The Ground & Do It Right

Introduction

So you want to build a hyperlocal website. You’ve heard about it and it sounds like a great opportunity. Something that you could enjoy and potentially create a great source of revenue for yourself . Better yet, by launching a hyperlocal website you could lock down a long term niche. You have an intimate knowledge of the topics you will cover and have identified an audience who is interested in what you have to say. You’ve got a bit of cash, evenings and weeknds free and your not a total idiot on a keyboard.

Your off to a good start and with any luck you will be the new media mogul in town in no time flat.

So what’s next?

Obviously ideas are great but when it all comes down to it someone’s gonna have to do the work. Will it be you or will you build a team to help you. If so, who will you hire and how much will you pay?

Put on your work boots and let’s take a more detailed look at some of the pros and cons you will encounter as you begin to move forward in the creation of your hyperlocal website. It’s not as easy as you might expect and in fact it will require you to draw on a variety of skills and resources only comparable to that of an entrepreneur in a new start-up business. In fact Hyperlocal websites are a start-up and to treat them as anything less is simply foolish. The hyperlocal website starts from an idea and grows into a well oiled machine. The steps and process of setting up and running a hyperlocal website require all types of decision making and actions in order to get it to the finish line. (If that Even Exists)

Shall We Begin?

The Pros of Creating and Launching A HyperLocal Website

Let’s start by taking a look at the bright side. Hyperlocal is a bright idea and it’s not just bright because people think its new and cool. It’s bright because of the money that sits as a potential to be made. It’s actually not new money or money from a different place. In fact it’s money which is coming right from you and me. Money which is falling out of the hands of the mass media machine and seeping back into the hands of the grassroots networks. The trick now is how to get your share before the machine sweeps the hyperlocal markets. Look at the bright side:

1. It’s A Good Long Term Investment
• If your not thinking about the future and seeing the pure gold mine that hyperlocal portals will offer in the future you’re simply asleep at the wheel. As the web continues to grow online communities will continue to aggregate around niche interests. In specific hyperlocal websites and networks will begin to become the voice and point of contact for communities around the world. Staking your claim in the hyperlocal gold mine is not only a good idea it’s a great long term investment. Don’t you wish you had bought premium domains or Microsoft stock in the early days when it was cheap. Hyperlocal websites and hyperlocal networks offer the same long term potential to 21st. century investors that these 20th century investments did. If your reading this blog and actively seeking to learn more about how to get your share of the hyperlocal pie then you most likely know that the creation of a hyperlocal website is a great long term investment.

2. The Time is Right
• If you’ve ever heard the term "right time – right place" then you can see the opportunity that is awaiting hyperlocal website owners. As media around the world continues to change, the centralized control of mass media is dissolving and putting ‘YOU’ in the position of using your own voice to make and be in charge of your own media via hyperlocal websites. The time has never been better to step forward and become the voice for something you believe in and represent. Stake a claim and become the authority of your niche or neighborhood. It’s the right time and you’re probably in the right place.

3. You Can do it Yourself
   
   • The best thing about the hyperlocal opportunity is that you can do it yourself. No technical or support team needed. With limited tools and online access you can now run your own website all by yourself. No need to get permission from the editors desk to post your story. Post what you want and as often as you like. It’s your choice and it’s so easy that your 70 year old grandmother could even run here own hyperlocal blog. You can do it and you won’t have to go back to school either.;)

4. It Doesn’t Have to Cost A Fortune
   
   • Not only can you post as much as you like. You don’t have to pay a fortune to do so. Quickly departing are the days of high bandwidth fees, limited online space and $50 / hour website changes. Now you can store thousands of photos and multimedia creations online for a relatively cheap. Throw away your html code books and grow your data base into the triple digits. Building a long time community archive can be affordable for almost anyone with the ability to balance a checkbook and pay their monthly website hosting bill.

5. You Can Do It Quickly
   • Not more than a five years ago building a community portal was still a big undertaking. A typical community portal could take anywhere from 2 – 5 months to build and cost in the range from $2500 to $30,000 or more. Trust me.. I built them and they weren’t cheap and it wasn’t easy. From working with programmers to finding a graphic designer who could design for the web. It was a complex undertaking to launch any type of website. Social networking apps didn’t exist and literally every change or modification you wanted to make could take a few hours or days to do. Today however things have changed. With the right tools and planning you can launch a hyperlocal website in as quickly as a few hours. Free widgets, plugins, templates and stock scripts exist which can be purchased instantly at low cost anytime day or night. A motivated individual who knows the proper steps can quickly buy and host a domain and launch a fully stocked community portal within a few hours. This quite an amazing demonstration of just how far things have come in such a short time. Hyperlocal websites for anything and everything.

6. You Can build Community Connections for Networking, Marketing, Sales & Trade
   
   • Once you build your hyperlocal website you will need to decide if you will implement social networking elements such as user profiles, online chat, private messaging and more. Running an online community can not only create hundreds upon thousands of connections for yourself but also provide benefit to all of your users as well. Suddenly your hyperlocal website doesn’t just represent a place for people to read and learn more about the community they live within, but it also offers them an online space in which to congregate, network and make connections. These community connections can prove invaluable and can be used to create all sorts of benefits from marketing and sales to trades. One quick posting on your site or newsletter mention to your community could get you a free dinner for your family or a weekend away at a local bed and breakfast. Think of the potential and use it wisely.

7. You Gain a Voice in Your Community
   
   • Often times in the world we live, it’s been the little guy who takes the hit. The person without the voice (i.e. money) and recourse to have proper and fair representation for their point of view. This really sucks because suddenly this creates a society in which those with money talk and those without are simply silenced. Hyperlocal blogging and hyperlocal websites empower users to share and express their own point of view. Whether they are running a site to make money or to share their thoughts with the world. The bottom line is that everyone deserves a voice and freedom of speach. By creating a hyperlocal blog you are actively participating in creating a more free and democratic society. Not only can your website provide you with a platform for you own voice but it also can encourage others to step forward and share their voices as well. They can then either create their own hyperlocal websites or you can invite them to share their voice through your hyperlocal website (microphone).

8. You Can Run it From Anywhere
   • Of course one can make an assumption that in order to run a hyperlocal community blog one must live in the area, but this is not true. The truth is that an individual can live literally anywhere in the world and as long as they have online access and an intimate understanding of the topics they are covering it can work. You can work from home, on the plane, take a trip away or relocate for good. Once you setup your systems and have your network in place chances are that you can work remotely and still be more intimately aware of information which even local residents won’t be aware of.

9. The Longer You Do It the More Valuable it Becomes
   
   • Establishing a hyperlocal website is all about being the first mover. The second part of that equation is that the longer you are established the more valuable you become. But, I have to add a clause in here. You only become more valuable if you can adapt and change with the time and technology. Or in other words as long as the content you create remains valuable to the online user. The one benefit you have is that by establishing yourself early in the game the better long term value and memorability you will have as you begin to have competitors.

10. You Can Keep it Simple
    • Remember you can keep it simple. Don’t take on the world or even your city. Take on your locality. The places you go… The places you know. You can keep your hyperlocal website simple and therefore valuable. If people want to get lost in information they can go to the major network sites. If they want specifics they can come to you.

11. You Can Create A Win-Win For Your Friends and All Involved
    
    • One reason why it’s going to be very difficult for mass media to conquer the hyperlocal markets is because it is highly people dependent. Don’t look at your hyperlocal website as a solo endeavor. Use this as an opportunity to create a win-win situation for your friends and everyone who is involved in the site.

12. You Can Be Yourself
    
    • Fortunately online you can be yourself in ways that are more acceptable than if you were in person. This opens alot of doors and opportunities for you to cut loose and be yourself in way that engage your audiences and builds a true long term connection. Take it or leave it. If your audience doesn’t like what they are seeing they can easily go and see the other guys blog.

13. You Can Network with Other Hyperlocal Bloggers
    • As a hyperlocal blogger you will have the opportunity to reach out and get connected with thousands of other people around the world who are all actively working to build their communities and go hyperlocal. This can be exciting and inspirational as you can teach, trade and speed up the learning curve for all involved parties.
14. You Can Make Money on Your Site
    • Depending upon how your website has been setup and the scale of your monetization plan the opportunity exists for you to make money, lots of money. From classified listings, to online banners, premium listings to featured reviews. You can choose creative ways to make money and enjoy the fruits of your labor. In the end if you setup good systems, they can end up taking care of you rather than you taking care of them.

So as you can see there are several great reasons on why you should start a hyperlocal website. If you have more I’d love to hear what you have to say. Just post them below. In my next blog I will cover the topic of The Cons of Creating and Launching A Hyperlocal Website. Jam packed with real life experience of some of the more hellish aspects which I have experienced. – Thanks for Reading.

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