Your first two weeks: WEEK ONE
Each day's schedule below should be possible to complete in little over an hour. You will be surprised how great your site can look in a week.
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Day 1
- Sign up to the site (already done that!), add payment details, add some events to the calendar (Memorial Day, Labor Day, Father's Day, Mother's day) so it looks like the "lights are on".
- Create a document (or a notebook) and think about the major influencers in town (the fire department, the police chief, the mayor); follow them all on twitter/facebook/instagram, etc.
- Delete the automatically posted welcome article, and if you are ambitious, which we hope you are, add one of your own -- even if it's just the weather report.
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Day 2
- Write another article (or two!) -- don't worry, you can delete it if you want in a day or two; just have something there.
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Start thinking of your editorial "calendar" like the one mentioned in the previous article. To refresh your memory, it could look like this:
- Monday - Events on the calendar coming up this week
- Tuesday - A short profile of a local business-owner
- Thursday - Weather outlook for the weekend
- Friday - Weekend events and things to do
- Saturday - Pets who need good homes
- Sunday - The week in review
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Day 3
- You should have received your first newsletter today (if you have added payment details and written an article). Go you!
- Write another article -- or two, if you are ambitious.
- Add a "short post" -- perhaps a "news-tip" which welcomes people to your community posting area. If you have an old bike you want to get rid of, add it there also.
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Day 4
- Add a few more short posts so it feels like "the lights are on" there also.
- Add an article. It can be short, but get in the habit, because your newsletter goes out every morning, but only if you have written something new.
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Day 5
- Think about adding a logo (you don't have to), which you can change on your "organization basics" page. If you want to change your 'highlight color' etc. you can do that there also.
- Write an article and publish it immediately.
- Write a second article and schedule it to publish the following day ("publishing options" in the create-article page).
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Day 6
- Start recruiting a few friends to sign up for your newsletter now. You can add their emails on your Dashboard. Ask them "am I doing the job you need done from a local news site? Ask them what they want more of -- what they want less of. Get feedback from friendlies, without going full-release.
- No need to write another article unless you want to -- your previous one should publish and trigger the newsletter for the following day.
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Day 7
- Take a break! Job well done. If you still feel the itch, it never hurts to add more to the site.