Disintermediation in Reverse – Can online Newspapers be commoditized?

First of all. If you are reading this without reading the other two posts in the series. Please go back and read them. They are here and here.

With that accomplsihed, here is where I am coming from. Online newspapers have reduced themselves (due to competitive pressure) to essentially an interactive blog and maybe a forum mixed in powered by a national newsfeed. The VALUE ADD that they provide is local journalists adding color and commentary on local news and local events. They charge for this by selling ads to local businesses. How is that different than this? (It is just a shell at the time of this writing…)

Looking that business model over for a second, why would a professional services provider like a mortage broker, or real estate agent or other service professional be interested in BECOMING the online newspaper or in participating in a group set out to do the same? Why wouldn’t they become the OWNER of said online newspaper rather than RENT it from others? The links that this site builds and the online authority it creates are THEIRS.

Because the margin could be NICE…and the barriers to entry have shrunk to where it CAN be done. That’s why.

“Never pick a fight with a guy who buys ink by the barrel.”

Yes that’s true. But why not SUPPLANT them?

They are still inherently inefficient since they still have full time “reporters” and “editors” and much of the cost structure associated with them. Most of them (to save development costs) have outsourced their classifieds sections and other sections of their online “paper” to other entities or groups, who derive their income from charging readers and charging for ads as well.

The bottom line. Bloggers (by and large) fact check just as well as regular reporters and their biases are typically disclosed anyway. That is not saying that bloggers are anywhere near par. It is saying that traditional MSM has gotten very lax in this regard.

RADICALLY SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF MY BUSINESS MODEL

What I have put together in Southern Indiana is a SMALL BUSINESS NEWS COOPERATIVE. We will happily have local journalism students contribute stories in exchange for a piece of our monthly advertising take. Regular contributors also get journalism experience that they can take into the industry.Small businesses can be listed in our service directory for a small annual fee. Ads on the front page are a bit more and are monthly.

There are a ton more details about HOW this works, but time and space limit the full description of it.

The basic shell of what I am starting is already up. Much more work needs to be done including the addition of FREE classified advertising, a MODERATED forum, a business directory and a welcome guide. I have already partnered with several content providers and their stuff will be going up in the next couple of days.

HERE’s the COOL part. Do you live in a small town? Do they have a less than adequate online newspaper presence. Would you like to OWN rather than rent your online presence? Here’s your chance to get in without limited monetary investment (like $0!).

Give me a call. I will partner with you (if we are a good fit) and handle ALL of the technical details and help you get it set up and get you trained on how to add local news posts as well as advertisements. I will be a partner in every sense of the word. You recruit the writers and generate the content. We split the proceeds.

If you are interested in this concept, let me know. It is just one of many that I am willing to work on as a partnership with qualified individuals. Seriously. Give me a call for the full details.

Search Engine Optimization Purpose of Pinging-in plain English

I get asked occasionally from Search Engine Optimization clients about my recommendation that they “ping” Google after each addition of content to their site. “Why do I need to do that after each post or page?” “How do I do it?’

With WordPress as your blogging platform or website CMS, pinging could not be simpler, but first the WHYs… Let’s start with the obvious ones. It get’s your site indexed in Google and other search engines quickly. Simple as that. Many’s the time that I have optimised a post for search engines and published it, followed by a “ping” and the page was indexed almost immediately and post ranked in Google almost that fast.

It is eery the first time you do it. Magical the second time. Downright addictive after that.

But there is a better reason. You may have heard of “scraper sites” – -sites that “scrape” your post and then put it on your blog. Here’s a test: Put a post up on your blog and wait for a couple of weeks. Go to copyscape and SEE where it has gone on the web. You will see at least a couple of copies of it floating around.

Search engines’ only way to determine WHOM to credit with the original ownership of the page is the first one that they have found (or indexed). Being first helps assure your ownership. You would be surprised how quickly other sites grab your content.

There are the WHYs…a couple of pretty doggone good Search Engine Optimization reasons to “ping” after each post. Fortunately in WordPress, the how is a piece of cake. I use a plugin called Sitemap Generator that generates a new sitemap (taking into account my latest post) AND it pings all in one step. This gives me everything I need in one click of the button. Download the plugin and install it in the usual way, with the files under Content – Plugins. Activate it and you are SET.

First, I finish the post and publish it. Then I go to the OPTIONS menu in WordPress. After activation, there will be a menu item under options called “Sitemap”. Click on that and click the “Manual Rebuild” button.

Pretty simple huh?

Posting to your blog or adding pages to your website should be a process of lather-rinse-repeat. Post great content – Publish – Ping.

For other practical insights on how to Simply and Effectively get to where you want to be on the search engines with a WordPress blog or WordPress based Website, feel free to contact us. The form on the upper right hand corner of this page will work just fine.

Thoughts from others on pinging?

In for a change? Want to sell your domain?

Southern Indiana web works has clients looking for local domains in a variety of industries. Domains have value. If you are closing down a shop, shifting to a new line of work, retiring, or otherwise in for a change, your website and its domain can have value to others. Here are a few tips to keep your domain value as high as possible:

1. Don’t let it expire- It has value. Many sales professionals (insurance, mortgage, real estate, etc) let their domains expire and needlessly throw away much of their value. It is like bending a baseball card can remove much of it’s value.
2. Plan ahead to sell it– It may be worth a little or a lot. The difference is often in PLANNING and taking time to find the RIGHT people to sell it to. Southern Indiana Web Works can help. We will happily offer free appraisals of your domains value and show you EXACTLY what adds value to your domain and who would be best to sell it to.
3. Avoid hustlers and shysters- There are a lot of people out there buying domains. Did you know that? You need to talk to experts and not simply take the first thing you are told as the gospel truth. Respectable people in the world of websites will be happy to give you a list of others to check with on the value of your domain.
4. Don’t be dissapointed if the value is less than you thought–you can increase it’s value and then sell it!! Unlike baseball cards, you can actively build the value of your domains! Want to know how? Give us a call, we will be happy to consult with you! The time to get started on this is NOW.

How to Stop getting hosed by REALTOR.com…

I read one of the BEST posts in recent memory on REALTOR.com and how they are screwing the REALTORS of the country out of MILLIONS every year. Kudos to the bloodhound blog for posting that. A picture TRULY is worth a thousand words!

Yet woefully, I started reading the comments….”We will leave R.com if they charge us more than $3,500 this year ” (paraphrase from one comment). Others were similar.

How about this comment! “We don’t negotiate with extortionists!”.

Then I thought to myself…Maybe the reason that folks are continuing to use REALTOR.com is a combination of ignorance and fear. They are afraid that they might lose one buyer (even though they cannot remember the last one that they GOT from REALTOR.com). So i figured I would share my recipe on ERADICATING the extortion pressure from our business.

Want the secret? Here it is!

Step 1: REALIZE that R.com is our competition!

They compete with US for exposure for OUR listings and then CHARGE us to ENHANCE them. Isn’t that the classic definition of extortion! Sure sounds like it to me!

Step 2: EDUCATE SELLERS (and yourself)

Well, it is actually quite simple. Take your customer to REALTOR.com and SHOW them that only a SMALL percentage of the listings are actually “enhanced”. The percentage is ONLY those who have multiple photos. (Check this out)

So in Louisville, just at 12% of the listings have multiple photos. Ask your customers, why do 88% of the REALTORS NOT use REALTOR.com’s enhanced services. (HINT: If they were attracting buyers in today’s market, they’d be all over it!) It DOES NOT WORK!

Go to Google (if REALTOR.com is not on the TOP of the search engines–which they often are NOT) and SHOW them that they are NOT getting traffic (at least in your location) from the search engines!

For the coup de gras, ask them if they would rather search for a home on a site where 88% of the homes have only one photo or would they rather go to (insert site at the top of the search engines here).

STEP 3: TAKE ACTION

Take the money that you would spend on going to REALTOR.com and use it to develop your OWN web presence. Even if all you did was to take that $3,500 mentioned in the comment of the Bloodhound blog and plunked it down on Pay per Click advertising, at $2.00 per click it would still bring 1,750 RELEVANT clicks to your site. Your odds of closing more business than what you are getting from R.com are MUCH better!

Talk to other agents and get them to get out of R.com as well! Explain to them that it is not benefiting them (this will not be a tough sell!).

Here is what we did…

We put our efforts into getting ahead of the interlopers. And they ARE in my opnion the KING interloper. We started going after the channels that THEY dominated like:

a) Getting to the top of the search engines with ALL of the photos and much more of what the customers actually want.

Seriously Errol and Alan…you cannot expect us to buy that the customer ACTUALLY wants to look at that presentation you call a site.

b) Teaching our agents the art of new advertising channels like Pay per Click (another favorite of interlopers) see above. Our agents are getting great results and making sure that we are staying ahead of the competition. We do not go there, because we do not want to bid against them.

The results? Check out your extortion eradication metrics in your town:

Metric #1: Percentage of multiple photo listings on R.com! You want this as low as possible.

Metric #2: Search Engine Rankings on Google and Yahoo for REALTOR.com for city real estate, city homes, city homes for sale type of keywords, etc.

There you have it. A simple recipe for focusing your marketing expenses in a useful direction, thoughts?

How to Search Engine Optimize a small business site (10 part series)

One of the challenges facing a small business owner that is trying to get their business online is that they do not know where to start. What I am going to do over the next 10 posts is provide a BASIC guideline of best practices for small businesses as they drive their businesses online. PLEASE notice that the planning for a site begins WAY before any code is ever written.

Most SEO companies ASSUME that you have this already done, but the truth is that most sites do not, so let’s start at the start.

I  also thoought “why not use a REAL example?”! So that is what we are going to do! I have been contemplating creating an online newspaper for Southern Indiana for LLOONNGG time.  I think it will be a solid vehicle to drive business into our community and help others in the process. I like the idea of using websites to garner revenue for our local, hometown folks!

STEP 1: What is your business? An online newspaper that provides LOCALLY focused, interesting stories, a positive outlook and derives revenue from the advertising of small businesses in the Southern Indiana area.  (25 words or less- you need to be concise here)

STEP 2: Who is the target audience for my site? Who do I want to frequent it?  The online newspapers target audience is 24-48 year olds in Southern Indiana who want a place to visit for current events, style, places to go, news, school events and news without the negative tone that the local papers offer.

STEP 3: What keywords would the target audience use to search for your site? Don’t know? In my next post, I will help with some links and resources to find out who is searching for what and how. Please keep in mind that we are looking for MANY different search terms. Rarely is there just one or two terms… For example, the real estate site that I work with locally, pulls only a VERY small percentage of its traffic from “Louisville Real Estate” (even though we are #1). The rest comes from the long tails (industry speak for smaller keywords that are searched infrequently, but are fairly easy to optimize for…). In part two, we will pick the KWs for our new paper.

See you then!