Slashdot Mirror
Wanted - An Online Publishing Business Model?
Eric Smalley asks: "Wanted: an online publishing business model that falls somewhere between lone weblogger and corporate media behemoth. Technology Research News (TRN) has been publishing original news stories for over five years, but we have yet to find a way to cover our costs. We are fairly popular and well-woven into the fabric of the Web; we have over 200,000 unique visitors per month, we are well represented in Google, Yahoo and MSN search results, and we are regularly slashdotted and pointed to by Wired News, other media sites and countless weblogs. Our overriding goal has been to keep the news free, including our archive. Is there no place for a small, independent media company founded and run by journalists?"
"We make money by selling subscriptions to a PDF edition, selling white-paper-like reports through our site and resellers, supplying other media sites with our content through a newswire, selling subscriptions to an off-line electronic edition through a reseller, collecting fees from Lexus Nexis and other online databases, and carrying Google's Adsense advertisements. Most recently we have begun a PBS-like fund drive. That's a lot of revenue streams, but they don't add up to enough. Our costs are modest: two full-time editors, one contributing editor and two part-time staffers."
You have a page rank of 8/10. Thats insane. You have one tiny Google Ads box. While ads can be annoying, just choose non-annoying ads. With such a high page rank you should be exploiting that.
Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
Is this a joke? Seriously- with 200K unique users a month, if you can't keep your head above water, you have a business problem. Not all ads are annoying. You don't need pop ups and Java ads. Throw some text links on there.
If you want to be a zillionaire, that may not work for you. But lots of sites have ads and people aren't annoyed. Those who expect ad free, cost free content are out there, but anyone with a brain understands someone has to pay the bills. And PBS fund drives? Keep in mind PBS also gets taxpayer support, and they have unobtrusive ads (This show brought to you by Archer Daniels Midland, Supermarket to the world...)
We make money by selling subscriptions to a PDF edition I would never pay for any pdfs, I hate them, but thats just me.
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
A website of mine was linked to on the front page of Slashdot last year and I had Google Adsense on it. After 30,000 pageviews that day I made a little over $1 ;)
"You may need to scroll right to see all the ads"? Are you serious? Nobody's gonna do that.
Do one of two things- 1) follow the advice of the people posting here. 2) Hire one of the people posting here as an ad consultant, if it makes you feel better (give them a percentage of the increase in revenue), then follow their advice.
Seriously, your present scheme is about as wrong as it can get.
First, yes there is "a small, independent media company founded and run by journalists." The key though is that you need to run it like a businessman, not as a journalist.
I know hundreds of people who want to be freelance writers or journalists. Some of them quite well. But, for every one I know who makes a living at it, I know two dozen who don't.
The secret? Treat it like a business first.
What's your business plan? You describe several tried, true and _lame_ ways of making money from journalism. Online advertising and newsletter subscriptions are the only ones that have a proven track record of working.
How many online publications do you see making living money from the methods you describe? I can't think of any.
Google ads by themselves though, won't cut it. You need someone who spends all their time looking for advertisers.
If you go the newsletter route, you typically have to become the Expert in one area that people with money want insider information on.
Now, that can be pretty broad. Fred Langa does very well with his personal computing newsletter, the Langa List (http://www.langa.com/), but Fred, former editor of chief in Byte in the good old days of print tech. journalism, already had a lot of fans.
OK, so those models can work, but you also have to content people value and want to read.
200K unique readers a month is good, but it's not good enough.
Still, with 200K, and aggressive, non-intrustive advertising, you should be able to generate enough cash to survive on.
But, income is only part of the equation. In a real business, yoy must learn how to manage your money. This isn't a skill that for some reason many writers or journalist have, but learning how to keep costs as low as possible while maximizing revenue is a must.
That sounds simple. It's not. It's a skill your group must master though.
I've made more money in journalism years ago than I am now, but I'm doing much better overall. My secret? I finally learned finance 101.
Finally, you really aren't staffed up enough to "deeper understanding of the wide swath of research discoveries poised to affect the technologies driving day-to-day life and business."
Pick a narrow area of technology, stick with it, and you can probably provide the "deeper understanding," you're striving to cover. Once people learn that your site is The site for nano-engineering, which seems a reasonable goal based on your existing coverage, you can probably make a go of it.
Good luck.
Steven,
Senior Editor, Ziff Davis Internet (http://www.eweek.com/
Editor, Practical Technology (http://www.practical-tech.com/
Chairman, Internet Press Guild (http://www.netpress.org/
I don't agree.
Here's some pointers:
1. You need more traffic. Right now you don't get enough views. Maybe run some PPC ads on google and yahoo to get your readership up. You may also want to either narrow or broaden your focus, to make your site more appealing to a particular range of readers.
2. Put big adsense ads in the middle of the articles. Yes, its annoying, but your CTRs will go up dramatically. Its not about so many adsense ads, its the CTR which counts.
3. Build a list. Use email to let readers know when you have something big going on. Get them back to your site more regularly. Sure, RSS is great, but use email as well to be sure. People can unsubscribe if they don't like it.
4. Offer some high end offers. eg consulting or coaching. When you have readers, they're interested in what you're writing about. Maybe you can take on custom research projects or offer training in particular areas you have expertise in. You could be doing contracts worth $100k+ every few months just from your current site traffic. Ask your readers what they want.
5. Look at how other online journalism sites are doing it. Techdirt has some custom stuff they do for big companies. Others have other approaches. Look at everyone and pick the right one for you.
5.
1. Make the look and layout of your site more appealing... pretty, even.
2. Narrow your scope and specialise in one interesting niche sector, then branch out slowly.
3. Place ads where people will see them and check that your content generates useful adsense ads. Double-check the ads, they are critical!
4. Cut your business costs, every day.
5. Find a more memorable name. I already forgot it. Also, a slogan, a logo, a mascot, a symbol. Anything to stand out a little.
6. Increase your traffic considerably: 200k unique visitors is not enough to live on.
7. Find sponsors systematically: for band width, for hosting, for special issues, whatever.
8. People will not pay to read tech news unless it is really, really, special. Make it so. Then charge for it.
9. Allow people to discuss articles and issues. Get your audience involved and clicking.
10. Find excellent writers/contributors. People will read the articles and come back, if the articles are very good.
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