Journalist as Entrepreneur

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.