Start a Blog in 3o Days
When you hire the City Living Network to start your blog in 30 days you’re paying for quality, for convenience, and for the fact that you know your business is being built right by someone who has done it countless times before.
You’re surpassing the trial-and-error faze and ensuring your business is being set up for success. You’re backed by an amazing network of women who are all doing the same thing in their own towns, who are all just one or two steps ahead of you.
When you hire the City Living Network you are paying for accountability, for coaching, for exclusivity — and because you know you will be owner of your own beautiful business in just 30 days.
The sky is the limit on potential.
HOWEVER, we live in the age of Google, of ChatGPT, and of Elon Musk. You can ask the Internet anything and learn everything.
I’m first to say, I haven’t re-invented the wheel, I’ve just made it EASY AF.
If you’re the type of person who loves a DIY, I see you!
I’ve put together a 10-Step Guide for “How to Start a City-Specific Blog,” CliffsNotes style.
Here are my tips…
1. CHOOSE YOUR NICHE
Focus on the best parts of your city and get specific. Think about all the different areas and communities of your town, the coolest hotspots, historical facts, inspiring people. Start off by making listicle-type articles. (Google loves those and it’s a great way to highlight a lot of businesses at once.)
*Pick 5 content pillars to divide your blog into (some of my favorites include: STAY, PLAY, EAT, CULTURE, and WELLNESS).
2. PICK A DOMAIN AND HOSTING SERVICE
Choose a memorable domain name and use a reliable hosting service like Wordpress or Squarespace to ensure your blog runs smoothly.
*The reason I chose Squarespace to build all of City Living Network’s publications is because it’s very user-friendly, great for SEO, easy to learn, and I want to send all my CLN clients out into the ethers feeling confident and like a real web design pro!
3. BUILD YOUR SITE
All hosting providers offer stylish, easy-to-use templates. Some are free, some are not — but they are all customizable.
*Each CLN site is created from a custom template that I personally created exclusively for the City Living Network which builds cohesiveness across all of our sites. This can not be bought anywhere else and is strategically designed based on what I’ve seen work the best in the industry and what brings in top results both content-wise and aesthetically. Additionally, each CLN site is further customized to the unique style of the city and Editor.
4. BRAND YOURSELF
You’re going to need a logo, color palette, and font selection — and you’re going to want it all streamlined for both Squarespace and Canva so your branding stays consistent.
*Branding can be very expensive or very cheap, depending on where you’re looking. But remember… you’re paying for quality and experience. Your website is the front door to your brand, so you want it all to flow seamlessly and look legit. (Which we def make sure of!)
5. CREATE HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT
Plan an editorial calendar, write engaging posts, and use visuals to make your blog stand out.
*At the beginning of launching your blog you’re going to want to bust out as much qualitycontent as possible to attract a loyal local audience and position yourself as the go-to guide in town. You’ll also want to pair each article with an Instagram post. (We supply around 30 re-usable Instagram and Pinterest graphics to make social media easy-breezy.)
6. LEARN SEO
You want your articles to rank on Google so they’ll be shown to people for eons. To do this you will need to understand SEO — keyword research, headlines, graphics, content, backlinks, and image utilization are the main players.
*In the CLN course I create a customized video on how to do this specifically for your site. We want you to start ranking ASAP so we actually write the first 10 launch articles for you, all SEO-optimized!
7. PROMOTE YOUR BLOG
Share your posts on social media, network with other bloggers, and build a subscriber list for email marketing.
*For each site I create I immediately create an email strategy to start collecting email addresses before we even launch. Offering a freebie like “5 Facts About [Your City] Only a Local Would Know” is a great way to get people to subscribe ASAP.
8. MONETIZE YOUR BLOG
Explore affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and selling ad space to turn your blog into a revenue stream. ($$$)
*You’ll need to create a professional media kit with packages that are chock full of content local businesses NEED at price points people can AFFORD. I like to look at my packages as investments so valuable a local business would feel stupid saying no to. (Fun fact: we create all of this for you, obviously.)
9. TRACK YOUR STATS
Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor your blog’s performance and make data-driven improvements.
*Squarespace also has a great built-in Analytics tab that shows information like geography, what content is performing best, where users are coming from, and how many users are visiting each day.
10. STAY CONSISTENT
Regularly update your blog with fresh content and keep up with SEO trends to stay ahead of the curve.
*I suggest sticking to one article a week, but the more the merrier! Have fun with it — get some interns, make reels when you’re out to dinner, put up a poll, reach out to a local hotel and do a “staycation” in exchange for an article. Running your own city publication is a dream come true if you know how to do it right!
The Internet is a big place and there’s room for everyone. The main thing is to stop thinking about it and just START.
If you know you’re the type of person who needs a push, accountability, or you prefer to pay someone to get your blog up and running in 30 days instead of spending months/years/decades dreaming about DIY-in’ it… let’s make it happen together!
Time wasted is money wasted.
Book a call with me to learn how you can become the Go-To Guide for your city… stat.
Want to see our Media Kit?
From the founders of Laguna Beach Living, the City Living Network is an ALL-IN-ONE web design agency that builds hyperlocal digital publications from the ground up, leaving you with the knowledge on how to launch, maintain, and monetize a successful city blog... in just 30 days.
