Am I Doing This Right?

It's nice to see The Silent House and If... being highlighted, but if I was looking for a serious indie video store I wouldn't be checking to see if they had blockbusters (The Dark Knight, as good as it is, is available everywhere) or some of the better-known films you have noted. Indie video stores, for me anyway, always mean getting my hands on something which isn't online, and learning from the people who work there.

More information, and maybe opinion, on obscure or lesser-known releases will drive the specialist customers to the store. It is a hard balance to keep, between alienating those who want to settle in with something familiar and comfortable, and courting the few who want to seek out the complete works of José Morica Marins, or who are still hunting down Si Buta Dari Gua Hantu on DVD. There is no "right" way of blogging, as everyone has their own style, so you can use whatever you feel beneficial and ignore the things which give you more work than reward.

When it comes to blogging, there is somewhat of a learning curve when it comes to what you're trying to do, who you're trying to reach and how to reach that audience. So far it looks like you have a pretty good focus. I'd say just keep at it. The only thing I would suggest is maybe tinkering with the layout and template, it's a little bland for a movie blog. Also, did you turn off comments? I was actually going to comment on your Three O'Clock High post.

If the site's aim is to get people to come in and look around, you might want to see what can be done to gain more local traffic. Blog about local film festivals or filmmakers, perhaps? Host some contests through the blog that are open to people in your area? I know with my site, given the broader content we focus on, the uphill battle has always been with generating local traffic. With a blog that's trying to drive actual customers to come to the store, it'd be beneficial to find more ways to directly appeal to people in your area, in addition to covering larger stories.

The quick blurbs can be effective, but for an indie store I think it might work better if you try to link to items that are a little different from what's already out there. For instance, you can still post something about The Dark Knight Rises, but instead of embedding the studio trailers, maybe you could link to a fan trailer (like this one) that's a mash-up of all three trailers. It's different, but still TDKR related; best of both worlds, and it makes your site someplace people want to visit to find cool stuff they may otherwise not be aware of.

See if they'll let you establish a twitter account. Tweet about new posts on the blog, local film events, retweet local businesses tweets.