Having already made some decisions on the type of local site you’re setting up, the first major decision to take is which platform to use. The right platform for you will depend on the activity you intend and considerations such as whether advertising is part of the mix and who will be involved in the creation/management of the content.
For the hyperlocal site that I’m getting started (www.richmond.n0tice.com), the decision was in effect made for me – I’m using n0tice.com because it’s a platform that I’m also working on to develop for independent publishers and so using it for this can help inform that process.
The most commonly used platform for this type of publishing would probably be WordPress.com – for sites which don’t require advertising options – and the self-hosted version WordPress.org for those that do.
But there are plenty of other options depending on your needs. I’ve started this spreadsheet of some of those I’ve come across with details of their particular properties.
Please do feel free to add any others by editing the spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkidpwJVgP8cdDN4WkQ2OWUxdUIxcVg5Y2VZTXduQnc.
Dim Sum Digital 