Publisher Profitability: Laying Down the Basics to Base Your Content Monetization Plan
The following is the first in a series detailing steps online publishers can take to monetize content. This is a relevant issue because everybody is becoming an online publisher. From outlets on music to food and investing, there are millions of sites with original content and many get in the way. Even with respectable traffic, most of these destinations make little money.
Therefore, the first step towards successfully monetizing content is without hesitation to analyze visitor traffic. To build strong traffic, an online publisher has to look at the patterns of traffic to discover what’s working. The following are key traffic indicators to take notice of:
• The traffic a site receives and its repeat visitors: Overall number of unique visitors heading to a given site is a good stat to know who is coming in, but this number tells only part of the story. What’s key is whether these folks are returning, hence becoming repeat visitors. A certain site might have only 10,000 unique visitors, but if 9000 are always coming back it means your content is drawing people in — and keeping them there.
• The page views - Another way to determine what content on a site is more popular than others is to calculate its page views. If a publisher finds that a particular page of the site is getting more page views than another that can be a telling sign of which content is of more interest to viewers. Page views can also let a publisher see how which particular pages on the site are being visited by users when they stop by.
• The actual time spent (a/k/a stickiness) — Another traffic statistic is the amount of time visitors spend on any given site. Though average time the user spends on a particular site will usually depend on the content it is safe to say that if a visitor is spending less than a minute on a site, the person is not having a good time and isn’t likely enjoying the content. On the flip side, however, is that when a visitor spends a lot of time it could also be result of confusing content or layout…and that person not finding what he/she has come in for. Though it is an important (and much discussed) statistic, the fact is site stickiness can be interpreted in multiple, often incorrect, ways.
• The origin of the traffic — Maybe the most important traffic statistic is where it emanated from. Any online publisher must know where his or her traffic came out of. Here are among several places where traffic comes into a site:
o Organic search —Simple search for a site on a search engine.
o Paid search- While on a search engine, a Web site is listed and highlighted to the side or above organic search results. (This is because a Web site paid to have a more prominent placement and results when a search is aptly conducted.)
o Links from other sites and blogs — With proliferation of blogs and news sites visitors now find places to dive into through links in articles or on blogroll recommendations on the side of their favorite blogs.
o Paid source banner —People end up there after they click on a banner advertisement for something related to that Web site.
o E-mail - Many sites buy ad spots on push newsletters sent to subscribers who purposefully opt-in to receive.
As for which option works the best for any site, a publisher has to try a number of tacks in order to determine the option that ostensibly brings in the most amount of traffic. From attempting multiple ways to attract traffic, a publisher then determines percentage of traffic coming into a site through particular means. As with anything you try for the first or second time, when it comes to increasing traffic “trial and error” works best.
During each trial, you find a new route. Worst that happens? You learn something.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Allan Levy’s series on monetizing content in Adotas…
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Reader Comments.
Great article and I look forward to the next installment. I want to comment on how publishers can easily manage and syndicate content through Internet 2.0 Widget applications. Published content such as blogs, articles, video, games and commerce can be easily distributed to consumers who adopt the use of Widgets or Gadgets. These Widgets can be monetized as ad driven, branded, sponsored and e-commerce enabled.
A simple Widget strategy can create an uninterrupted pipe with content consumers, create the stickiness and increased time spent with brands, entertainment, e-commerce and advertising.
The latest statistic is that there are over 30 million Widgets being served per day.
SpringWidgets allow content owners, publishers, brands, marketers and advertisers the opportunity to capitalize on this direct connect with the end user on the web and on the users desktop. SpringWidgets are web enabled and can also be placed on the users desktop. Widgets parked on the consumer’s desktop are able to pull in updated feed information even after a web browser is closed. This is truly a direct connect.
The social media space is training Internet users that “THEIR” content is king! So get out there and create a widget that the end user will find useful, entertaining, social gratifying and expressive to those you consider your target market.
The cold hard fact is that the webpage is dieing and we are moving into portable Widget applications spliced together by end users who are creating custom start pages of their own. SpringWidgets can provide any company with Widget Strategy and development support.
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