Your first two weeks: WEEK TWO

Awesome! Your site should really be shaping up now. Let's move it a couple giant-steps forward this week!

  • Day 1

    • Write an article; you should be getting into the groove now.
    • Add more (local) events to your calendar.
    • Ask your friends what they think of your newsletter and content. Think of the job you are doing for them -- what is it that they want? What do they need to know to get through their day? Ask them if you are doing that job.
    • Think also if you know people in town who might want to "contribute" to your site: a local funeral home posting obits; a yoga studio posting wellness content. Think also of places like the local library or playhouse that would want to post events to your calendar. Write them down in your notebook.
    • Take a look at your traffic stats and newsletter stats. You should see them starting to come to life on your dashboard; don't worry, they will grow -- remember it's mainly you right now.

  • Day 2

    • You have to get yourself into the mindset of a publisher, so start thinking about advertisers. Think of local businesses you have connections to. Get that notebook (or Google doc) and write them all down.
    • Write another article or two (get the idea?).

  • Day 3

    • Do some homework -- follow those businesses on social media and take note of the number of their followers, take a drive or walk around town and take a photograph of advertising billboards put up by a local business. (These are local businesses who ALREADY spend on local advertising!)
    • Write another article or two (get the idea?).

  • Day 4

    • Start thinking about Social Media (if you haven't already). Open a Facebook account for your news site, and a Twitter account; we recommend Instagram as well. If you have added your logo, add it to those pages.
    • Write some more articles (yup).
    • Think of a business owner of whom you would like to do a profile -- especially one which you frequent or know the owner. Build up your courage to call them and ask if they would let you do a very quick article on them.

  • Day 5

    • If you chickened out on calling the business owner on Day 4, it's ok. Try again today. Once they say "sure," (which they will), follow our "short business-profile playbook" script here. This gets easier with repitition.
    • Call up one of the folks you thought might want to contribute to the site and ask them if they would.
    • And of course, another article. And if you want, Write another one scheduled for the following day.

  • Day 6

    • If you scheduled an article, great! Otherwise write one (even if it's a short one from your "fallback list"
    • Do your interview. Congratulations! You have also created your first advertiser lead.

  • Day 7

    • Take a break. Job well done.
    • Schedule a follow-up call with the Labs team to check in and be told how awesome you are doing, and to arrange time with our ad-selling coach.

WOW!

At this point you should have a great looking home page, a number of friends on your email list giving you feedback (hopefully good!) and you should be filling up your ideas of "business profiles" which will build your stable of leads for advertisements.

You will have at least one contributor (even if it's a friend) writing content for free to the site. At this time it's time to start reaching for a broader audience.

Write an article about one of the people with big followings on social media and tag them when you post it. They may share it and drive traffic and new users to your site. Ask your friends to invite other friends to your newsletter. Get the word out any way you can. Start actively sharing your posts and other things to your own social media as well as the two business accounts you set up for yourself.

You are on your way. The most important thing here is building audience. Don't be afraid to ask people to sign up for your newsletter -- even in the body of your articles: "Want to read more on the High School? Sign up for free email updates from the Springfield ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø!" It doesn't hurt to ask!

Be patient. Keep creating a valuable site. Don't get discouraged. Rome wasn't built in a day, and nor was the New York Times. But you will get there with great local content and consistent cadence.

And we are here to back you up all the way.

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Business Profile Playbook