SoGlos.com - James Fryer
Launched the week of the floods in 2007. Founded by two journalists from the county.
Do:
- Be great! - Niche websites work, they can capture audiences. All of our content is exclusively written by professional journalists - it's about high-quality content.
- Search engine optimise - 5,395 pages - 75% of traffic comes from Google.
- Know your market and products - make sure you know who your advertisers will be and target them with research, clear suite of products. Keep clear differentiation between ad and ed.
- Establish a clear sales strategy - Either divide your role to focus on sales some of the time, or get a professional. Make the process as easy as possible - and provide great reporting.
- Forge partnerships - work with radio and print. Syndicate your content in a controlled fashion - but cash is almost always better than a contra deal.
Don't
- Compromise your model - stick to the plan
- Be afraid to stand up for yourself - lots and lots of problems with plagiarism. 25 organisations have plagiarised 200 individual infringement.
- Spend all your time on Twitter - make sure your social media activity is bringing you an audience and money.
- Rely on UGC - think this decade will see a resurgence in professional journalism
- Stop moving forwards - Redesign coming, iPhone app, franchise model for sites...
And this is their most popular video:
