Kyle Thomas

The Website of Kyle Thomas (KyleWith)

Going Joint Venture

Nothing is set in stone yet and I don’t even know what I’m going to be approached about, but I know that it may be something about making YkOnline.ca a joint venture. YkOnline.ca is my local or hyperlocal blog that I started almost a year ago. It is my pride and joy and I truly see the potential within it and the need for it in the community.

That being said, I want nothing more than for it to succeed. That is why I am torn about the possible opportunity of making YkOnline a joint venture. Losing something that you built from the ground up is hard, especially something you’re passionate about. That is not to say I would loss the site completely, but going into a joint venture I would loss a certain percentage of control. I’m personally worried that once another person comes along I would fold to any idea they offer. In some areas I’m not very good at standing up for myself, which is a self-confidence issue.

Part of my reasoning for being a little paranoid about a JV is because I don’t understand what it is. I’m obviously looking for help with the site; it is hard for me to keep it up-to-date with current information on a daily base. What I was hoping for in a partnership was someone who shares the passion of the community rather than someone with a journalism background. That’s not to say that wouldn’t be great, but as someone with out any journalism background I would feel intimidated and feel as though I didn’t have the smarts or any good ideas for that matter to contribute.

Then we run into the question of money. I have put countless hours into YkOnline.ca over the last year where I have made no money, then add in the cost of running the site. There is no way I could give up 49% of the site with out getting a good deal in someway or another.  The site currently makes no money but come the end of April I will start to push getting advertisers and try to generate revenue through ads. If YkOnline.ca were to split between more than me, how would we split the revenue? Considering I would probably sell the ads, invoice, and do all the dirty work, what does that entitle me to. Many of these questions will be answered upon meeting the possible partner, but I’m just putting them out there so I have an idea.

Now you know the situation, so my question is how would you go about this if it were about your blog, or hyperlocal site? What you even consider it? What would you want out of it? What is your general opinion of Joint Venturing a site like YkOnlineca?

What is Hyperlocal Blogging? Is it my niche?

I have struggled for a long time to find my blogging niche. I love blogging but I have felt I don’t blog about anything interesting and what I constantly am trying to do is create myself online.

So it wasn’t until I moved down to Dawson Creek did I realize I had found my niche, I just hadn’t realized it. After seeing how successful YkOnline was or could have been had I still lived in Yellowknife I thought I would try a similar thing for Dawson Creek.

I think subconsciously I like to create these types of blogs because not only does it bring community together online but it also helps me get out into the community. Meeting knew people has always been a fault of mine so by giving myself these projects to keep up with it forces me out there. Then once I start to grow the readership I continue to do it because I feel it is expected of me. Make sense?

So what type of blogs are these? Well they are referred to as Hyper Local Blogs.

Hypelocal described by Wikipedia:

Hyperlocal content, often referred to as hyperlocal news, is characterized by three major elements. Firstly, it refers to entities and events that are located within a well defined, community scale area. Secondly, it is intended primarily for consumption by residents of that area. Thirdly, it is created by a resident of the location (but this last point is discussed because for example a photo or a gov stat can be hyperlocal but not locally produced).

This type of content should be contrasted with local news which tends to be less geographically constrained.

There are other types of data which have local or hyperlocal relevance, or be of interest to residents – e.g. a government statistic on crime rates in your neighbourhood. Such data, while relevant to residents are of a qualititively different type.

I guess some would call it just a Local Blog and would say that I am trying to be a Citizen Journalist and maybe I am. Watch the quick video below describing citizen journalism and tell me if you think that is what I am doing.

Whatever it is I am doing, I enjoy it and want to peruse it with all the information I can get my hands on. Over the next couple days I am going to do some more research on this niche and will write about it so 1. I can understand it better and 2. you have a better idea of where I want to go.