Lex DeVille
Sweeping Shadows From Dreams
FASTLANE INSIDER
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The other night I put on the local news. They opened with a headline about Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden's home town. Perfect local story except... I don't live in F*cking Pennsylvania. I bet I'm not the only one who gets sick of biased national media stories when I just want to know if my town is on fire. Was thinking if someone wanted to put in the footwork, you could create a YouTube channel laser-targeted at your local area.
Talk about the weather, crime, sports whatever...just be local. Tell me when and where the food trucks will be. Tell me when festivals and 5ks are coming up. Tell me about businesses that opened their doors, or those that closed them and why. Tell me about school closings, and the latest local COVID numbers. Tell me about ANYTHING that has to do with something relevant to my life because it exists at the local level, and I will be all in with your channel.
If your town is too small, cover a wider area like a county, but don't go too wide so you don't lose focus. If you're at the state or multi-state level, you're getting pretty wide.
Since most YouTubers aim for a broad audience, it's easy to get found for local topics. They're search-friendly and share-friendly. You could even combine this with a media-style blog if you wanted a little more reach. As it grows you can take advantage of the typical adsense route. You can also sell ad placements in your videos, or even do sponsored promotions, similar to what traditional local news has done. Your videos can be live or pre-recorded. Doesn't really matter as long as you put out new content a few times a week (prefer daily) so I can keep up with local happenings.
A side benefit is that you'd get out and meet people. Get to know your area. Make connections. Network with business owners, churches, and others in your community so you can stay on top of the latest and most relevant stories. Maybe someday, you'll become the dominant news outlet for your town, siphoning viewers from the LocalWithANationalAgenda media companies. You might even become big enough that they buy you out. I hope you stay just under that so the news stays local, but if not, at least you might go Fastlane.
Talk about the weather, crime, sports whatever...just be local. Tell me when and where the food trucks will be. Tell me when festivals and 5ks are coming up. Tell me about businesses that opened their doors, or those that closed them and why. Tell me about school closings, and the latest local COVID numbers. Tell me about ANYTHING that has to do with something relevant to my life because it exists at the local level, and I will be all in with your channel.
If your town is too small, cover a wider area like a county, but don't go too wide so you don't lose focus. If you're at the state or multi-state level, you're getting pretty wide.
Since most YouTubers aim for a broad audience, it's easy to get found for local topics. They're search-friendly and share-friendly. You could even combine this with a media-style blog if you wanted a little more reach. As it grows you can take advantage of the typical adsense route. You can also sell ad placements in your videos, or even do sponsored promotions, similar to what traditional local news has done. Your videos can be live or pre-recorded. Doesn't really matter as long as you put out new content a few times a week (prefer daily) so I can keep up with local happenings.
A side benefit is that you'd get out and meet people. Get to know your area. Make connections. Network with business owners, churches, and others in your community so you can stay on top of the latest and most relevant stories. Maybe someday, you'll become the dominant news outlet for your town, siphoning viewers from the LocalWithANationalAgenda media companies. You might even become big enough that they buy you out. I hope you stay just under that so the news stays local, but if not, at least you might go Fastlane.
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