help

Nearly three years ago, I created WestwoodBlog to develop a greater sense of connection with this community. I saw what Brian Keaney had started in Dedham with MyDedham, but I didn't call this site "My Westwood" because, as a recent resident, I thought that would be presumptuous, and I wanted to learn more about the town. I hoped I could stir up conversations and contributions from people in town--to hear what they had to say and share that--not become a reporter for the town. But I did write a lot. I did some reporting, but mostly I related what I knew about and what other people started to tell me. I limited my opinion, but I was not unbiased.

Now, I think the term "blog" has always had a negative connotation. When most people think of blogs, they first think of some individual's website where they announce the details of their life and have half-informed opinions on things. Or maybe they have a political agenda to promote. Perhaps the name is not that big a deal, but I'm going to strike the word blog from the title of this site now and renew my call to residents for the type of participation I think will complement what news sites like Patch, Wicked Local, and now the Boston.com's Your Town Westwood provide.

This is Our Westwood. It is a site you can use to tell your stories, announce your events, and relate context to the news. It's not a place to vent your random opinions about things not Westwood, but you can certainly say what news of local impact means to you. I will use the Community Guidelines I announced earlier this year as a basis for promoting respect and civility. What I would really like is for people to contact me for assistance in becoming regular contributors. Not as freelance reporters or columnists but as first-hand participants. Share what you are doing to make the town a better place--your work  on a board or commission, the community project you started, or whatever you would like to share with the community and get feedback. This site is here to help you do that.

Since its launch in November 2007, WestwoodBlog has been visited by almost 20,000 unique visitors, primarily from Westwood, Dedham and Norwood. It's not as popular as Boston.com, but there is no other online property that can deliver this targeted an audience: people who are interested in what's going on in Westwood. Based on analysis from Quantcast, our readers are wealthy and educated. For every one person who posts, there are several hundred who return to the site weekly, if not daily, to see what is new.

On Facebook, the site has over 200 fans. We are not looking to compete with the popularity of celebrities, but the consistent and ongoing engagement with a real community means this site is deeply and authentically grounded in "hyperlocal" community. It is not a substitute for news, but a connector of people and information that will continue to grow. In the last 30 days, we have had close to 2000 unique visitors.

I have experimented with positioning ads on the site. The large 300x250 box you see at the right earns me pennies and I don't control what Google decides to display there. Starting March 31, I will be offering ads on the site to local businesses who want to take advantage of this opportunity to reach the community. In this initial phase, I will be booking ad units as 300x250 medium rectangles or 150x150 squares. I do not have a formal rate card yet, but I will structure a combination of sizes that will allow a business to remain visible to residents for the entire month starting at about $100 per ad per month.

If you are interested in being part of this "charter program" send me an email at datkinsg@gmail.com.

I finally got around to writing up a privacy policy, terms of service and community guidelines. Please take a look at these to better understand how this site is intended to function in the community...

I just recorded this 5-minute video as I was posting the WCC article below. Check it out to see how you could post things to WestwoodBlog.