journalist as entrepreneur
TRANSCRIPT
Journalist as Entrepreneur
Presented 28 August 2010Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Example: Talking Points Memo - 19 February 2002
• Content: Blog on politics, government and policy
• Audience: <10,000
• Revenue:- Syndication - Donations
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Example: Talking Points Memo – 24 June 2004
• Content: Blog on politics, government and policy
• Audience: ~500,000
• Revenue:- Syndication - Donations+ Advertising
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Example: Talking Points Memo – 26 April 2006
• Content: Blog on politics, government and policy
+ TPMuckraker – Leaks, Tips+ TPCafé – Discussion
• Audience: <1 million
• Revenue:- Syndication - Donations- Advertising+ Commerce
• TPM Today:- 1.5 million
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A few fundamentals:
You can make money as a citizen journalist.
You will need to develop multiple sources of revenue, not rely on just one.+ Donations+ Advertising+ Commerce+ Syndication+ Offline revenues – training, speaking, …
Many of the tools needed are already at available to you now while other programs are developed.
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There are a few simple steps to follow:
Step 1: Content Focus and Quality. Expertise matters.
Step 2: You need a place to show your product and build an audience.
- Use your blogs as a way to develop an audience- Not just for articles, but also for video, photos, …
Bigger the audience, the bigger the revenue potential.
Step 3: Add revenue tools to your blog.
Media Distribution:- Picasa- Flickr
- Youtube
- BlogMalaysia.com- Sarawak-bloggers.com
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Treat your CJ blog as your online hub to promote your work and build an audience.
Content and Distribution: The CJ Blog
Search Engines:- Google- Yahoo!
CJ Blogs
Social Media:- Twitter- Facebook
Media Partners:- MalaysiaKini.TV- MalaysiaKini.com- KomunitiKini.com
Photo
Video
Articles
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Content and Distribution: Search Engines
Search engines are your friend – they help you build audience and revenue. But you have to help them first!
1. Text: Search engines “read” text, not photos, or videos
Do: Use text to label photos and videos – title, caption, tags
2. Focus: Search engines “understand” the content of a blog and posting when content is focused on a few topics.
Do: Create a short list of topics to guide your coverage
Do: Try to make one out of two posts about your “guiding topics”
3. Frequency: Search engines will visit more frequently, if you post frequently
Do: Post as regularly as you can. Even short posts or photo posts will do.
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Content and Distribution: Search Engines
Search engines rank your blog based on how engaged your blog is with other sites.
It’s all about links!
4. Links and Embeds: The more links to your blog and from your blog to relevant information, the higher your blog’s importance will be.
Do: Develop as many relevant links and embeds to your blog as possibleA. Blogrolls: Create a list of blogs that you follow about your
topics or location.B. Link Exchanges: Encourage “related bloggers or sites” to exchange links with you.
Do: Use links in a text post to your blog.A. Places or Organizations: Add a link to their websitesB. People: Add a link to their blog, resume page, or social media page (is they have one).
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Content and Distribution: Social Media
Social media expands your audience and improves your search engine importance.
5. : Short updates from you and your blog, including text, photos, and VERY SHORT (<10 sec) video.
Do: Set-up a twitter account and feed for your CJ blog (twitterfeed.com) Include your location when you sign up so people can find you.
Do: Find and “follow” other related Twitter users (your town, your topics) If you “follow” them, they are likely to “follow” you.
Do: Join relevant Twitter Directories like TwitterMalaysia.com
6. : You can also build distribution for your blog from your personal Facebook page.
Decide: Do you want to distribute blog articles to your personal page?
Can: Set-up a “feed” to automatically send your twitter/blog info to FB.
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Content and Distribution: Media Distribution
Media distribution sites like Youtube and Flickr can also drive new audience for your blog.
Video: Embeds or links to videos build your blogs importance and increase views.
Do: Use Youtube to embed your videos in your blog; Do: Find other YouTube videos to show and comment on (Remember text matters).
Photos: Photo galleries can also be created with Flickr, Picasa for your blog.
Decide: If you want to include photos in your coverage, subscribe to a photo sharing service (like Flickr or Picasa).Do: Add photo galleries to your blog for comment and discussion.
Blog Directories: Popular blog directories can also create traffic for your content.
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Content and Distribution: Chinese (华语 )
If you are blogging mostly in Chinese, also consider China-based Internet services to reach your audience.
Search: Google => Baidu.com, Sohu.com
Video: Youtube => Youku.com, Tudou.com
Photo: Flickr => Bababian.com
Social Media:
Twitter => Twitter.com, Sina.com Microblog
Facebook => Kaixin001.com, RenRen.com, Douban.com
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Revenue Tools
As your blog audience builds, you can add revenue tools to your site.
Donations: Volunteer contributions from your most loyal audience
Advertising: Lots of options, most depend on traffic volume and focus
Ad Networks: Simple to install. Another third party company sells the ads and you display them on your blog.
Sponsorship: Similar to a Donation, but from a business instead of an individual. Often a message is displayed “Sponsored by___________”
Ads: Requires a regular sales force and technology to sell, collect and display the ads.
Commerce: Selling product for yourself or for other companies
Syndication: Selling new or past work to third party media companies.
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Revenue Tools: Donations
Voluntary donations can build a small revenue base from your most loyal audience.
Do: Choose the simplest method for your audience to contribute“Widgets” exist for your blog, mostly using PayPal
Do: Suggest an amount for regular donations
Do: Ask for donations to fund a specificproject like a specific story.
http://vimeo.com/2041615
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Revenue Tools: Advertising
Ad networks provide the simplest and the least “conflicted” type of advertising for CJ blogs.
Ad networks do the selling for you.
Protects your independence from large advertisers.- Ad networks do not tell advertisers where their advertisement appears.
Ad networks depend on click-through on particular ads to make money.- To make money focus your content and build a large audience
Visually, ad network ads come in a lot of different forms, so they are not too disruptive to your blog.
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Revenue Tools: Advertising
In Malaysia there are two primary ad networks to work with – Google AdSense and NuffNang. Microsoft also has a small presence.
Google Adsense: - Introduction Page- Can be added quickly with an addition of an embedded piece of code- Best results come from experimentation with type of ad and placement
Nuffnang
- Malaysian based blog ad network- Offices in KL, Penang, Singapore, Manila and Melbourne- Blog needs to have at least 20 visitors daily on average to qualify
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Revenue Tools: Commerce and Syndication
Two other revenue options exist though they are still emerging in SE Asia.
Commerce: Branded Blog Products Sales- For example: calendars, mugs, t-shirts, …- Often linked to a specific project - Limited revenue opportunity, require some special technology
Commerce: Commissions- Sell products through your blogs- Limited inventory available in SE Asia- iTunes, Amazon, AliBaba, Rakuten all present obstacles to foreign sales- eBay Malaysia does have some programs but limited
Syndication: Content Sales- Independent content sales mostly through blogs in English
+ Helium.com+ Blogburst.com
- Some photo and video citizen sales sites+ AFP’s Citizenside
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Summary
You can supplement your income with blog-based audience and revenue programs.
Build your blog audience- Search Engine Focus- Evaluate creating a social media presence on Twitter and Facebook- Distribute your content through media distribution sites
Revenue depends on audience- Simple revenue tools exist to help you build a personal revenue stream- Audience drives everything, focused and large
These tools for audience and revenue building will take a little trial and error, but are available now while broader programs are developed.