Back in January, I revived one of my 6 years old domain names and started a local niche blog about Living in Hawaii. At the time, I also made a post here at Success with Todd with 5 reasons to start a local niche blog.

Over the past few months, my Alohateam blog has grown to the point where it’s getting about 100 visitors a day, (with about 85% of those coming from search engines). For those of you who either have, or have thought about starting your own local niche blog, I thought I might share a few “lessons learned” from my first couple of months.

1. Unless you’re studying journalism, Do Not try to emulate your local newspaper and become some sort of “reporter”. If people want real news, they’ll go to the newspaper’s site. They have the resources for those type of stories. If you try to compete, you’ll burn yourself out.
2. Find your own unique voice. The whole purpose of a local blog is to share your unique perspective with the readers. Basically, don’t be afraid to be yourself, and share some of your personal adventures.
3. Seek out, and fill in, under-served topics. One of my most read posts to date is about the Grey Boat ferry that runs between Iroquois Point (where I live) and Pearl Harbor. I had to ride it for a week because I was taking a class over on that side. When I searched online to try to find the schedule, I came up with a big fat blank. So, during my week of riding I did a story about the boat. Since then, I’ve received literally dozens of requests for information … lol, I’ve somehow become the grey boat expert … which in a way feels kind of cool.
4. Probably the most important lesson I’ve learned so far, it to try to find a “good” reason to post every day. This is definitely something I struggled with for the first couple of months. Then about a month and a half ago, it hit me that I already love taking pictures, and bring my camera with me almost everywhere I go … so, I started posting a Hawaii Picture of the Day. I either take a new picture, or go through the thousands I already have in my archive, find something interesting, and write a couple of paragraphs. It’s funny, it took the “stress” right out of blogging. I actually look forward to my daily post on that blog now.
5. When it comes to building links to my local blog, I’ve primarily relied on commenting on blogs that I already read. One advantage I’ve discovered is that I can easily use a keyword focused name such as “Todd in Hawaii”, and nobody really objects. Whereas if I was to try something like “Make Money Online with Todd” (pointing to my “Earn Extra Income” niche blog), unless I already know the blog owner, there’d be a chance I’d end up in Akismet.
6. Wrapping it up, I’d say the most important thing to remember when it comes to local blogs, is to Have Fun, and Be Yourself. If you do that, people will come.

There were a couple of other people who started local niche blogs at the same time as I did. These are a few (but certainly not all inclusive) that I think are coming along nicely:

• Anna Maria Island News
• Michigan News Along the Lake Shore
• The Red Deer Digest
• The Yeppon Chronicle
• Evansville Metro News
• Westport Kids

If you’re a local blogger, and theres ever anything I can help you with, feel free to leave a comment, or drop me a note any time.

Keep havin FuN!
Todd