According to Don Nicholas, internet marketing consultant and managing partner, Mequoda Group, LLC, indepdendent publishers don’t need to stray too far from their larger counterparts’ multimedia publishing strategies. For over fourteen years Nicholas has helped design, launch and optimize dozens of internet marketing systems. The advice he gave at the MPA-IMAG Independent Publishers Conference last week was that independent publishers “simply must work harder to achieve these goals for their companies, but that’s nothing new to them.”
Here are Nicholas’ strategies for online publishing success:
1. Editorial
Use many platforms to build strong user relationships. For a good example, go to the independent publication/website KnittingDaily.com. http://www.knittingdaily.com/
2. Business
You must choose the right online business model in which to generate revenue. Don’t go for a model that is too big for your website.
3. Keyword
How friendly are you going to be with Google and on how broad of a basis? Use the free Google keyword tool which will tell you how much daily use you are getting out of certain search terms. Also use keyword clusters
4. Website
Once you draw the user to your site, you must keep them there and turn them into subscribers. Know the difference between organic landing pages, in which the purpose is editorial, and dedicated landing pages, primarily used for advertising or transactions. Organic pages are more on the content side and dedicated pages are on the marketplace side.
Extra tip: Use a rapid landing page, which basically offers something free with no commitment from the user.
5. Email
Must choose best strategy to maximize customer lifetime value, not just get them to read a few emails and then have them block you. Don’t email too often and keep your message short.
6. Organizational
Organizing by platform is required. Decide which different organization strategies will work for each medium. For example, do you need separate integrated, online and print teams? What works best for you?
7. Reporting
Correct management of key metrics is essential. Here are some unusual data points publishers should be looking at:
- Google visability index
- Inbound links (who is linking to your site)
- Average email subscribers