How to Promote Your News Website Online and Get Quality Traffic
In comparison to marketing a real product, advertising your news website online requires more research and effort. Your domain name, as the name of your website, should be memorable, distinctive, and readily recognisable.
The next stage is to market and ensure that the news items are read once they have been created and the brand established. One strategy is to use social media to spread the word.
Internet sites like Facebook and Twitter provide readers with a way to interact with online material in a more personal way. Open accounts on all of the major social networking sites today. There are a few requirements before you may syndicate your news feed on these platforms. An RSS or Atom feed should be available on your news website. Create a TwitterFeed account with the RSS/Atom feed in hand. Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your RSS/Atom feed by following the on-screen directions. When you post a new article, it’s immediately shared on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Log in to your accounts whenever it’s convenient so you may connect with your readers and prospective readers.
There is little personal interaction between page admins and followers on Facebook fan pages. Facebook aims to encourage a more natural expansion of its user base. You post links to your posts on your site’s fan page and hope that others will “like” you. With a Facebook fan page, you can do a lot more.
Using Paid Ads
Promote your news website with sponsored advertising. As a result, your website will be visible on the user profiles of people in your target market. Businesses may target certain demographics using Facebook Ads, such as age ranges, locations, and hobbies. By looking at the estimations, you’ll also get a good idea of how many people your ad “reaches” by looking at the estimations. Having such figures on hand will be helpful when putting together a pitch for prospective sponsors. You should think about the nature of your news site before spending money on Facebook Ads. If your news site caters to a specific or specialised audience, you should put your efforts into free promotion through Twitter and search engine submissions.
Some have criticised Facebook’s advertising campaign for being too discrete and lacking in engagement. To get over these problems, you’ll need ad content that makes visitors want to read the news on your website. Imagine yourself working at a newspaper’s editorial board. You’ll need an enticing title and short teaser text to get folks interested in your product or service.
Regular Updates and Competition
Announcing/reminding prospective readers about helpful parts and highlighting milestones for your magazine (“Over two million subscribers!”) are also options to consider (i.e. Classifieds). Your teaser text should be concise and to the point. Ads announcing prizes and competitions sponsored by your magazine should not be avoided. While promoting a news website on Facebook will always be a learning process, investing in lengthier ad campaigns will improve your chances of attracting new visitors. Adjust your ad copy until you discover the perfect combination of words and demographics for your audience.
The material on your Facebook profile should be updated regularly. Regularly post items from the news to your Facebook page to keep it active. Make an effort to communicate with your audience on a frequent basis. A common social media trend for companies is interacting with customers and prospects. Engage your audience by encouraging them to not just look at your material but also to provide comments and participate further in the conversation via various means. Much like those who read print media, readers are drawn in by eye-catching images. Beautiful and colourful scenery, delicious cuisine, and timeless portraiture elicit the most interest from readers. When posting images to your Facebook page, try to make them related to the content you’ve written on your website. Follow up with a text message urging them to look at your content.
Using Twitter
Twitter raises the bar considerably. The widely used social media platform enables news organisations to have direct contact with their audience. Utilize Twitter’s tools, such as the “Find People” function. Take advantage of your existing e-mail account to find friends who also have a Twitter account if you use Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL. Don’t forget to “follow” those on Twitter who have already started following you. Twellow, for example, allows you to search for users depending on the categories you choose.
To locate people in your neighbourhood, utilise Tweet Grader (https://tweet.grader.com). Members who are likely to be interested in the latest news on your website may be followed. It’s important that the individuals you select to follow have a large following and provide new content often. Never give a second thought to how many people you’re following. Consider the kind of individuals you wish to emulate while making decisions. The saying “quality above quantity” is well-liked on the microblogging service Twitter. Finding the right individuals is more important than following a lot of people, therefore concentrate on finding the right people.
Connect with others who will either benefit from or be interested in the content you provide. Consider following prominent people who are likely to show interest in a business and its products, such as the company’s Twitter account, if you have written an article about it. If you’re writing an article on a particular event, pay attention to people who are likely to post or retweet details about the event. Deal with these people sparingly. Suppose you’re at a pub and you overhear other patrons discussing a subject you’re curious about.
Observe how the discussion moves and then jump in when you have something to say. Whenever someone asks you a question about anything you’ve written about, feel free to respond with a link. As long as you’re focused on being useful rather than explicitly advertising your news site, people will enjoy your kindness. Remember that your aim is to promote your news website; therefore, being creative should be your first priority. You won’t have to do this after you’ve built up a sizable fan or subscription base.
Message Boards
Message boards are useful for promoting articles, as you should know. Despite the fact that message boards have fallen out of favour due to social media, they are still an effective tool for building buzz and driving traffic. Create a presence on message boards that are relevant to your work and participate on a regular basis. Linking to your content should be done with caution and selectively. To put it another way, don’t over-saturate a message board with links to irrelevant websites.
Provide self-serving links only if there is a void of knowledge and relevancy. Provide a link to your website’s domain name in your forum signature. If you want to make your forum profile stand out, go ahead and do it! People are more likely to pay attention to individuals who exude warmth and humanity. You won’t have to keep advertising your website on message boards if you believe your site has generated a steady, considerable traffic.
Conclusion
Because there are so many news websites, having high-quality material is crucial. What matters most is that your news site has content that is easy to understand, interesting, thought-provoking, and helpful no matter how you choose to market it. People will turn to your news site as a resource if they can see that it is dynamic in terms of design, organisation, and content. In the digital marketplace, the news is often seen as a throwaway product, but it takes a competent content provider — with the marketing know-how — to turn the news into something worthwhile to read.