Scaling Traffic for Your Google News

Website
HO W TO GO FR O M 10, 000 TO 30, 000, 000 PER MO NTH

Experience
With the pioneer project I led, we went from 10, 000 page views per month to 30, 000, 000 plus
in peak traffic
It took us three to four (3-4) years to achieve the peak traffic for the pioneer project, but lessons
learned were applied to other projects that enabled a few to break even in a short as three (3)
months
Content strategy should also be complemented with technology strategy

This presentation details content strategy but along with technology strategy, it should also be
complemented with a great organizational culture

About the Author

Worked for International Business Times AU
Worked for iDigitalTimes AU
Worked for Movie News Guide

View his LINKEDIN Profile

Content Strategy
Two strategies:
Going wide first (horizontal)
Niche positioning (or, going deep or vertical)

You will need to factor in:

Branding - a well defined brand also restricts the content you can host on your news site
Marketing - if you chose to acquire an existing website (as we mentioned in previous presentation, it
may already come with an existing positioning. A tech news site could not suddenly transform into an
entertainment news site

Going Wide
If you have a flexible brand (or a generic brand such as "Global Business Times" or "Time"), you
have greater flexibility in terms of the kind of content you can host on your site
But, you will need to maintain a core news content that you will display on your front page for
the purpose of your branding.
Going wide works if you are not a destination website (one that has a lot of brand recall and
direct traffic) since it pulls your audience towards your site by amassing audience via other
source of traffic (search or social media)
If you have a niche positioning, you have limited options in going wide, but employing a well
researched marketing strategy may help you attract your target audience

High Yield News Content

For an online news site, the following generates the most traffic:

TECH
ENTERTAINMENT
SPORTS
INTERNET NEWS

The first three (3) are traditionally generates the most traffic even in offline media. The fourth
one is unique to online news outlet
You can deploy it all at once. Or you can do it modularly or one by one.
Remember that you have limited resources, so you will need to focus on high return in terms of
traffic
In the next slides, we will discuss each kind of news content and how it may help you scale.

General Team Structure

You can start by hiring at least five (5) reporters for every "section team"
Target of increasing it to ten (10) per section with one (1) editor and (1) team leader. You can
accomplish this in three-six (3-6) months

Setting up a team requires reiteration so expect high turnover

You may prefer those with background on particular section or beat (this might be restrictive for
your recruitment) or you can train in house (but this requires top-bottom approach, where you
hire a competent editor. It may be too costly)

TECH News Content

High yield news content on tech typically centers on devices (Apple generates a lot of excitement
online)
Patent infringement cases generated a lot of stir, and continues to do so. Conflict stories work
even for tech news content.
Comparative articles generate traffic in the long term
Release dates and rumors generate traffic all year round but peak a month or so before the
traditional or announced official release of the devices
These types of content are easily sourced, and through strategic networking with industry players
(most of them are tech savvy so you will not have trouble networking)

CONS: Tech news has a steep learning curve, so you may want to hire someone with existing
technical knowledge to cover it.

Entertainment News Content

Entertainment news has become somewhat of a commodity. Every news website seems to produce
this type of content.

For entertainment news, you have to be aware of the fan base. "Twilight" may be a polarizing series,
but it does have a strong fan base at least for Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson
Book series and subsequent movie adaptations also have a "built in" audience for news content, such
as in the case of "Divergent" series and "Mortal Instruments"
Audience for entertainment news consumes news "reiteratively" (or the same news repackage over
and over).
TV series, like book series, could sustain you through the year as traffic on news content for these
ebbs and flow weekly.

Beauty tilts generate a lot of traffic especially in terms of picks, betting odds, and live coverage.
Consumers of entertainment news love slideshow or photos of celebrities

Sports News Content

Live streaming for Sports has a lot of audience (but you need to be aware of Digital Millennium
Copyright Act)
Sportsmen seems to be involved in a lot of "scandal" so through news on these, they generate a
lot of buzz and eyeballs for your site
Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather commands a lot of chatter online. Boxing news is one
beat that every online news provider should have.

Betting odds get some decent traffic, and going neg on popular sports men generate a lot of
interest (and hate)
WAGs also generate a lot of traffic

Internet News Content

This is a relatively new type of news that for the past decade, traditional media grappled with.
This appeals to "late majority" audience because essentially this a "early majority news" (it's
news because everyone is talking about it)
You can call it trending news or viral news. "Explainer" articles work the best for this kind of
news.
Late majority audience often wants to know the profile of popular Internet personalities.

It could also be "user generated" e.g. "Best Reaction to Miley Cyrus-Nicki Minaj MTV Feud"

Pairing With Analytics

You can leverage analytics and see what kind of news content is working for you (and produce
more of the same on your site until you developed association for it)
For example, we produced a lot of Robert Pattinson news articles and saturated the platform
until we have strong correlation with Robert Pattinson-related keywords. That means, when you
produce another Robert Pattinson, you are more likely to be found by the right audience
Eventually, you will have enough data to know in what areas you can develop expertise with high
yield and deploy your resources there.

Baseline Traffic
In order to scale, you will need to host content that will not be "season" sensitive or those that
will generate content throughout the year.
Think of it a ladder, where you will not have to start from the bottom every time

You can measure this by asking, "How much traffic will I get without producing new content?"

If you want to learn more, you may

contact me:
Name: Lawrence Villamar
E-mail: lawrence.villamar@gmail.com
Skype ID: lawrence.villamar

Mobile/WhatsApp: +639154222936