Web strategy for magazines

Paul BradshawSenior Lecturer, Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media, School of Media, Birmingham City University, UK (mediacourses.com)Blogger, Online Journalism Blog

Web strategy for magazines

3 Rules

1.A service, not a product2.Community and

conversation3.Your readers are your

distributors – go where they are

Service, not product

• It’s interactive, stupid• Users, not just readers• Database-driven (e.g Future, What

Car?)• Platforms• Personalisation• Multimedia – video, podcasts,

animation

Community

• Always at the heart of a successful magazine• Members’ club• Forums• Events (Eventbrite)• User blogs (Wordpress, Blogger)• UGC• Blog comments• Social networks (Ning, Crowdvine)• Video (YouTube etc.)• But not without…

Conversation – party host or party guest?

• Blogs – Linking– Informal– transparent– Open– Inclusive– Responsive (e.g. answer comments)

• Post comments on other blogs• Guest post on other blogs• Invite bloggers to guest post on yours

More conversation

• Twitter • Video conversation (Seesmic, etc.)• Blip.fm, Last.fm• Social networking (FB, Bebo, MySpace, LinkedIn)• Social bookmarking (Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon)• Tagging• Voting• Virtual worlds (Second Life etc.)• Games (WoW etc.)

Multimedia

Conversation =

Distribution

Readers are distributors

• Sharing (email/SMS to a friend; bookmark; digg)• Widgets• RSS feeds• Embeddable video and audio• Wallpapers, themes, etc.• Creative Commons licensed images?• Open APIs• Posting on video sharing sites (YouTube etc.)• Posting on image sharing sites (Flickr etc.)• Facebook apps (Dapper)• mobile apps (Widsets)

The Google factor

• What makes Google rank a webpage higher?

• Incoming links

• Outgoing links

• Frequently updated (including user activity, e.g. comments, uploads)

• URL, page title, headings, clean code

• Content

Measuring success

• % of visitors coming from links

• PageRank

• Technorati: blog reactions (incoming links)

• Time spent on site

Monetisation

• Advertising – including on partner blogs• Syndication• Sell things (Mixmag downloads; NME tickets)• Affiliate schemes• Merchandising• Broker models (middleman)• Sell services (gambling, dating, adverts)• Mobile downloads• (…But basically, no one knows)

Once again…

1.A service, not a product2.Community and

conversation3.Your readers are your

distributors – go where they are

Do something now

• You will need:• 1 idea for a magazine• a community it is intended for• 3 ideas for how to serve/contribute to

that community• 4 ideas for how to create content

that people will want to distribute• 5 ideas for how to bring people to

your content/platforms

Play

• Social network• Sign up to Delicious, bookmark pages,

create network• Comment on blogs and forums• Start conversations on Twitter• Join groups on Flickr, YouTube• Sign up to Facebook groups• Create your own social network on Ning or

Crowdvine

Further reading

• Clay Shirky – Here Comes Everybody• David Weinberger – Everything is

Miscellaneous• Charles Leadbeater – We Think• Making money from journalism:

http://bit.ly/1fZZ3k• News distribution in a new media world:

http://bit.ly/2p7vNV• C is for Community: http://bit.ly/yc4gF

Paul BradshawSenior Lecturer, Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media, School of Media, Birmingham City University, UK (mediacourses.com)Blogger, Online Journalism Blog

paul@onlinejournalismblog.com