New Post!

Listeners of the World,

Wow.....it has been over a month since the last post for the OurTown blog! A lot has been going on around OurTown with the new site development, process of adding video to the site (vADz Video), process of adding towns in the UK, and more! We have been very busy and wanted to update everyone on OurTown and it's progress.

- The new site is taking a lot longer than planned due to many of the changes, the development of our new ad system and process. We are still focused on getting this site up ASAP and to make sure that it will do and have everything that our local editors need. We have our new look completed and will also have our new training material and schedule when the site is ready!

- We are now encouraging video on the site in a few different ways. We have always had a YouTube feature on the site to be able to add videos, and now we are in the process of adding another solution which will help you create your own teaser videos.......vADz Videos. This will allow our local editors to add their own videos that they created. Now that is just the first part, the second part is with the addition of video ads! We are making it so that you can use the vADz Video system to create video ads for your local businesses. This will create more interest in your page and also help with the local ad sales.

- We have been adding a lot of new great local editors as of late, but one that we will be adding is a little different from the rest! Starting this week we will be adding some towns for the UK to the OurTown site. We have seen the need to be able to expand to other countries and have been working on making the site ready to handle this change. We soon hope to have many towns not only in the US, but also in the UK!

These are just a few of the many projects, additions, and changes that are keeping us busier than ever! We will start having weekly and bi-weekly updates again to help keep everyone updated with everything OurTown, Hpyer local news, Online News, and Social News!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

Listeners of the World,

What is news? What do you consider important? The below link is to an article written by Bill Keller who has great insights about aggregation compared to reporting. I believe anyone who is in the hyper-local arena should read this! Please enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/magazine/mag-13lede-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

Video Ads and OurTown!

Listeners of the World,

It has been stated over and over again that this is the year of video and that video will help increase your engagement, conversation, and sales. Well OurTown is listening and working to make sure that our local editors get in on the action! OurTown.com already has video capabilities for articles/stories, but now we are starting to offer video capabilities for their local advertisements as well.

We have a great advantage since we are associated with vADz.com which is a cost effective video ad solution for small and medium sized businesses. We are able to offer to our local editors something that most sites or news organizations can't..........video ads that they can create and price themselves! vADz is an easy to use system where you mix and combine images, videos, text, transitions, and audio to create 15 to 60 second ads. They will have the ability to also add coupons, maps, and other attachments ( ex. car-fax, menu, catalog, etc.).

We have started to introduce this to many of our local editors and for now they can create video ads on the vADz main site, but soon this will be a built in feature! They have the ability to embed the video on the site, include a link in a story or in a rich text ad.

Video is everywhere and will be everywhere on OurTown.com! This is only one of the main new additions to OurTown that will make it better than the rest!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris