The Banks Project Cincinnati Blog

[TheBanks]

The Banks Project is an urban development project in Cincinnati, Ohio and I'll be writing about it in The Banks Project Blog. My blog will cover the developments that occur as construction, tenant selection, and (expected) community outrage occurs.

Living in Cincinnati and witnessing the development is an opportunity to take part in urban renewal project and I want to provide a play-by-play commentary via blog.

Please feel free to comment on my blog. I've just begun posting, but I'm looking for any suggestions such as

• content suggestions for such a blog
• WordPress best practice that I might be overlooking
• Suggestions regarding SEO
• Future monetizing of a blog of this type

Thanks in advance for any input.

[rjleaman]

What an interesting idea! I'd say you've got a lot of content ideas built right into the blog concept, as the development unfolds -- but definitely, it would be great to see a lot of images here. Especially as you've got a very plain and simple theme. Zoom in on the details, not just wide shots: architecture is always attractive to the human eye, and people also love to look at photos of other people for some reason... Similarly, short "human interest' stories about how the project is affecting real people would also be great. As you say, "Scenes like this will be a subtle reminder that the city is human."

No particular suggestions for WP best practices and SEO (WordPress is generally pretty well SE optimized by its very nature, so that may not be a pressing issue) but you're likely to pick up interested readers through social networks (such as Twitter) by searching out others in your local area, or those who are interested in urban renewal issues, etc. As for monetization... you may want to think about moving to a self-hosted WordPress installation down the line, to open up your options: WordPress.com limits what you can do in the way of 'commercial' blogging. I would think that there's a good chance of rounding up corporate sponsors, down the road, if you can create a good meaty blog with lots of compelling content.

[TheBanks]

rjleaman - Thanks for your feedback and suggestions!