Budgeting 2009 Web Strategy - Analytics

In Part Two of our Budgeting 2009 Web Strategy series, we’ll cover Analytics.

Analytics
Cost: Free - $20/mo
Time: 1-2 hours setup for each site, 1/2 hour weekly analysis for each site
As I mentioned last year - as well as on many posts since - analytics is a critical facet of your web strategy not only because it provides measurement, but it is one of the most valuable research tools you have at your disposal. Most people install analytics on their website and never look at the data again. There are many reasons for this. Some people don’t have time and most just don’t know what the data means.
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Budgeting 2009 Web Strategy - Hosting

Last year this time we posted about setting up a budget for your web strategy.. So, we decided to do the same this year. When we plan a web strategy for our clients it always includes a cost budget and time budget . Here’s a generic version of our web strategy budget, including what 48Web budgets for our web strategy. This post turned out extremely long so we’ll be releasing it in chunks - for easier reading. In this post we’ll cover the hosting aspect of your web strategy.

Hosting
Cost: $5-$100/mo based on your needs
Time: 1 time setup approximately 2 hours, 4 hours maintenance per month
We raised our cost estimate this year because, well, our hosting costs went up and we added some new services. Our costs went up because we host many websites and the traffic for some of these sites went up tremendously in 2008. If you are running a single website or blog your hosting costs should not be more than $15/mo.
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aWeber Popups Increase Opt-Ins

If you are a visitor to this website you likely noticed an experiment I was running throughout the month of November - aWeber popups asking you to subscribe to the GetANewBrowser email newsletter…

Why did I implement this? Well when we added the email newsletter feature I wanted to test some opt-in internet marketing tactics. Rather than writing a post about the email newsletter I went with a delayed modal popup asking the readers to subscribe. I did this for a couple reasons. I wanted to see the effectiveness of this method without broadcasting it - so that the numbers would not be skewed by visitors from the RSS feed.

Secondly, I wanted to verify the effectiveness of popover requests… And guess what - it works as advertised. aWeber featured a post stating a 1000% increase in subscriptions using this method. ProBlogger wrote a post regarding the ridiculous increase in subscribers to his photography blog using this method.

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Chris Snider - The Future of Journalism is Now

I stumbled upon a great line the other day that made me think about how we do journalism online: “It’s not about doing print journalism online, but doing online journalism.” I couldn’t find the source, but I think it was Doug Fisher.

Journalism, to me, is about connecting people with information. It’s about giving people the information they want, when they want it, in the format they want.

It wasn’t too long ago that we had one shot a day at sharing that information - the daily newspaper. But suddenly we have the tools to connect with readers 24 hours a day. Suddenly the print newspaper can compete with the immediacy of television and radio. Suddenly it means something to be the first person to break a story again.

We have a wealth of ways to touch readers, a wealth of ways to connect with them. Obviously we can’t use them all, but we certainly can and should figure out which ones can help us in our core mission.

With that in mind, here’s my list of 8 things all journalists need to do to thrive in this super-connected world.

Start a blog. I don’t care if you blog is about your beat or your love of beets. Nothing will give you a better appreciation for what it takes to grow traffic and build community that trying to build a blog from scratch. I assure you, it’s not as easy as you may think.

Become a PR firm of one. Promote your own work. Now that you have learned a bit about building community, it’s time to apply that to what you do. If you break a big story on the Iowa football team, go to other sites about the Hawkeyes and post about the story (with a link to the story, of course). Join Facebook groups related to your beat and interact with others who have an interest in that topic. Keep you own personal e-mail list of people who will want to be the first to know when news happens on your beat.

Make sure your paper has an online distribution plan. We learned long ago that we can get more readers by taking the newspaper to them. We need to do the same with digital content. Find out where your potential readers are, and put your content there. That means Facebook applications, widgets, iPhone sites, actual participation in social networks, etc. And don’t just push your information in front of people. Stop, talk and listen a bit. You might hear something important.

Try out the new tools. You don’t have to try out every new tool that comes along promising to be the next big thing online. But you should try out at least some of them. See what’s working for others and give those a try. Here’s a good list to get you started: Twitter, Facebook, CoverItLive, Mogulus, Digg, Ning. Give them a try, and think about how they might help your beat.

Try out the new tools, Part 2. There’s no shortage of online tools that can actually help you do your job better and faster. RSS feeds. Google alerts. Jott. Pageflakes. Simplynoise. Search “online tools for journalists” on Google and you’ll find more.

Study the numbers. Don’t follow them over a cliff. But look closely at your traffic. There are some stats in there about what your readers need and want – and about what they don’t need or want. Which of your stories had the most visitors? Which got the most comments? Do you see any trends? Do something different (post at a different time, perhaps), and see if the numbers change. Then do it all again.

Have a healthy mix of journalism with a “big J” and with a “little j.” Do the journalism that readers WANT and that they NEED. Rob Curley calls this getting your steak but eating your broccoli, too. Readers may want to look at nightlife photos, but they need to know what the government is doing with their tax dollars.

Think about money. There used to be a hard and fast rule that the journalists didn’t mix with the advertising people. Might compromise our integrity. I think you can be a person of high integrity and still think about how the advertising department can best monetize your work. Break down those walls.

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Small Newspapers and “Web-First” Web Strategy

Mark Van Patten wrote a great post a couple months posing the question - “Does ‘Web First’ Strategy Make Sense for Small Newspapers?“. Before I go into details, I want to let you know what I think…. and it’s a resounding YES, OF COURSE!

If you are a reader here or know me or heard me speak you know this is a passion of mine. I’ve had many conversations - online and off - regarding the use of the web and the inevitable revolution it is forcing in the media industry. I think it is very important for the success of any traditional media outlet to adopt a “web first” web strategy. In the context of Mark’s post we are talking newspapers - and in his post he references small newspapers. I know small - I grew up with a very small newspaper and live with a relatively small one now.

So what is a “Web First” web strategy that Mark discusses? It’s the idea of treating your website as the first source of news. Mark discusses that his paper waits until the paper is printed before publishing articles on their website. The managing editor at Mark’s newspaper has this to say about a “web first” strategy:

Alexieff [Managing Editor, Bowling Green Daily Newspaper] points out that there is no threat online that can compete with the Daily News. He sees no threat on the horizon because of the capital investment required to launch a site and get a staff in place. He cites the cost and lack of potential revenue as a reason to stick with print instead of adopting a “web first” strategy.

Feel free to read that quote again… That’s what prompted this blog post and the initial reaction of “Seriously?”. He claims not to want to give the readers any more reason to drop their subscription because the website is only bringing in 5% of their revenue. Here’s a tip - it’s because you have the model backwards! When you move your content online first you will get more eyeballs - I promise.

I’ve heard the argument before regarding small town newspapers - “But most of our demographic still doesn’t get their news from the web”. Well then how is a web first strategy going to hurt your subscription base? Repurpose your content - toss it online first. The sooner Google catches it the better off you are.

The longer you refuse to adapt the less agile you will become - and one day your readers will realize they can get their news 100 other places. Upon this realization you will face a huge uphill battle - because people like me got there first. Now I’m not an advocate of ditching the print subscription model. There is still a viable market for that. But don’t tell me that a web-first web strategy is going to hurt that model. If anything at least you will be ready for when the old model collapses for good.

Alert: You should be much more afraid of people like me on the outside that want to change the model than losing your print subscription base.

Mark makes a great point in his closing:

If an entrepreneur sees a crack in our dominance of covering the news, a wedge could be driven in and cause readers to abandon our print edition and our online edition.

What are your thoughts on a web first strategy? Something all newspapers should adopt? What about local television news? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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