AuthorHouse Blog

Some of you that have been following the atGeist.com project for the last three years will be happy to know that we finally launched our newest project, atFishers.com. This website and print newsletter is in nearby Fishers, Indiana, contiguous to the atGeist newsletter distribution and targeting over 12,500 new residents. In addition to the experiment to see if we can launch remote local websites that are run by local publishers, we are also testing a new platform that is a Craig’s List-type website designed to encourage user interaction.

What we found was the holy grail of atGeist is the free classified ads we provide online. Residents love to shop for items within a few miles of their house, especially in upscale neighborhoods. We print these classifieds each month in our print newsletter as well to get even more exposure for the resident…all for free! We aren’t making Craig’s List nervous, but give us a few more years and a rich uncle and we might be able to cut into their online-only classifieds service.

I came across a guy in Fishers that was publishing a local blog called FishersBlog.com, Kevin Hood. He was very web savvy, had a sales background, has a great writing style, and was doing his website as a labor of love. He was a perfect fit for what we are trying to do. We provide him with the website infrastructure, marketing materials, invoicing and back office support, and a cell phone. He follows up on leads (both web and phone), edits the website and newsletter, and dictates the tone of the website. This keeps the flavor of each local newsletter and website as clean as possible without being polluted by “corporate” or the “publisher”.

I would invite you all to check out atFishers.com. We’re migrating atGeist.com to this new platform in August, 2006. Once we have atGeist migrated over, we’ll be looking to launch other local portals in a town near you!