Do-it-yourself publishing – case studies

You can’t beat FREE and 24/7 accessibility, at least not easily.  What we will (try to) do here is make things EASIER by pointing out “who did what” using Local4All’s online publishing tools and how they did it.

In the Events category: Neill Andritz of River’s Edge Canoe & Kayak and Darla Bernot are two of our most prolific contributors to the free Local4All calendar.  Three samples are given:

e34480.local4all.com – Although finished for 2009 (and automatically hidden from the public view), this event and its content remain available for Neill to simply change the date to the correct date for 2010 and click ‘Submit’… very easy to change from year to year plus any other details can be changed at the same time.  (For business owners, “more is better” when it comes to favorable publicity.  Note that Neill included his name, company name, and a link to his website.)

e34294.local4all.com – Also finished, this instance of her weekly, ongoing event took Darla Bernot only 15 seconds to add it to our calendar.  When a user is logged in, the user ID is used to make events easy to edit, copy or delete.  In this case, the handy ‘copy’ tool was used.

cc.local4all.com – An event with a slightly different look, the special prefix helps make the URL easier to remember, otherwise you have to remember e509.local4all.com.  This Crooked Creek Triathlon event page was first published in 2003 and has saved me as Race Director HUNDREDS of hours answering questions, including what might be the most important and time-consuming… how do you find Crooked Creek Park?  Static information on the page includes links to downloadable course maps and a special Local4All location map, m18.local4all.com.  Flexible information includes lost and found, highlights of each year’s race, and links to race results.

Next category – Photos: Expect a few hours delay before your photos are public.  We make sure all of them are child-safe, family-friendly before publishing them.

We are especially fond of volunteers

Also – Stories: We have two tools for stories.  One is used to write a story from scratch and the other is to link to stories already on the Internet.  Story headlines and a few paragraphs to stir curiosity are shown top center on our individual community pages.  Sample page – fyi, the comments from Allan Walzak lead to an article on the Post Gazette website:

Story samples...

Online Mapping: If you’ve used MapQuest, Yahoo, or Google maps, you probably have been lost a time or two.  The map referenced above for the Crooked Creek Triathlon has helped hundreds of athletes find the right place and never in eight years did I give anyone turn by turn directions over the phone.  Also, I’ve never heard a complaint of anyone getting lost trying to find it.  The mapmaking occurs in three steps:

1. Place a pointer on the map and click ’save latitude and longitude’
2. Add a map description including a special mention of anywhere the Google map has incorrect street names, etc.
3. Click ‘Submit’ and make a note of the assigned URL.

Example 1:   m18.local4all.com – Crooked Creek Park

Example 2:   m12.local4all.com – River’s Edge Canoe & Kayak

Example 3:  m258.local4all.com – StrongLand Chamber of Commerce