Following guidance from Sarah Hartley, who's chair of the panel that I'm speaking on at the first Journalism Enterprise Summit (#JES2015), below are a list of things that we've tried over nearly ten years of running our Isle of Wight News publication, OnTheWight.
Sarah impressively boiled down her speaking guidance to three points: What have you done?; What have you learned by doing it?; and, What are you doing next?.
Below are the first two. They're made up of our experience, of course others may have had completely different outcomes.
If they don't make sense, or need more clarity, do get in touch.
What have you done? | What have you learned by doing it? |
---|---|
Gained the trust of the Island - Quite a challenge Published 23k articles Built a commenting community - 112k comments Built uniques peaking at 100k/month |
Readers will support you - become advocates Their loyalty brings protection and they will 'Fight your corner' News in and of itself doesn't pay - - Brings attention, but time consuming to create - Barrier to entry is forever dropping - Unsure that the majority appreciate quality |
Tried and stopped | |
As VB - Had non-standard sized adverts | Don't do it! Art work will have to be custom You can't use ads from ad networks |
Social media campaigns | Take care - don't pollute your social media stream |
Competitions | Don't bother. Applications are limited even for massive prizes - Dream Holiday - New kitchen |
Built Web sites | Takes you away from your core business Client back and forth extensive Long term commitment |
Presenting / Fronting other videos | Not bad Decent money Enjoyable |
What we've stuck with | |
Event promotions | Generally easy Unsure - Are they too cheap? |
Display ads | You need someone dedicated to sales - a sales person Need good graphics skills - internally or externally Educate clients - It's not just about clicks, it's about brand recognision You need guidlines for ad creatives - It's your publication this will be on. Respect your readers' eyes - and their bandwidth |
Sponsored Features (Native Ads in the new world!) | It's highly effective for clients Great distribution - Published to our site; 20k+ Social media; Highly placed in search results Offering different packages - eg Small business start-up packages |
Take Overs | THE best way to be noticed Quite bit of desigin/programming work - Three versions. Desktop/tablet/mobile ... but quite a bit of money |
Still trying to | |
Have tried to recruit sales people | You can try sales yourself - but mindsets are different. You also struggle to find the time Don't pick just on personality - Doesn't work. You need a 'closer' - An actual sales person with proven track record |