How To Start A News Blog, Run and Open a Successful website: My $200 daily earnings experience
A blog is much more of a personal touch, meaning that it is run as a one man show and the contents are basically a reflection of the thoughts/analysis of the publisher.
However, the website version is much more multidimensional . It s usually on a large scale, with lots of columnists and contributors on the site. To run such a site is a little bit expensive because you need to invest on social media seriously ( Facebook and twitter especially), hire writers e.t.c.Typically, most physical companies in this niche are the ones running accompanying website whereas individuals/independents usually start out with a blog. The model of setting up either model is the same with WordPress.
For anyone wanting to venture in this niche, I strongly advise that you start with the blog niche and gradually grow/scale up everything into becoming a full fledged website ( I started with this model and still using the model, I average the sum of USD200 per day from Google Adsense earnings ).
Introduction
As far as I know and understand, notable questions like legal requirements and implications for regions like India, USA, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia e.t.c. should not deter you. There is no legal law stopping you from running and opening your own news website. However, what I have discovered from my own experience and from clients likewise is:
- Unless you are running your own original content with your own written stories, then no problem
- However, if you are recycling or typically borrowing some text/words or stories from the original source, it is mandatory to always quote the source of the story either in the middle of the story or at the end. More than 75% of viral websites like Buzzfeed, Viralnova embraces this model ( Check this out on how you can set up your own viral sites)
- Doing this is better to avoid litigation problems
- On the issue of image and content copyright infringement ( one of my readers on Linkedin asked this question). First is to always use free images ( You can get them here) and secondly, if you copy other people new’s content ( verbatim i.e word for word, then you need to include the source at the end of the post)
- Again, if you are accepting payments ( advertisement) from companies/corporate entities, it is important to be tax compliance, especially if they are making the payment to you either through bank transfer or to your registered company/business name. To be on a safe side, you might consider using this on kwetu shy blog for collecting your payment in USD ( American dollars) if you are not resident in USA ( you will have a USA bank account and also a mastercard).
I recommend you check and and obtain a free domain name and discounted hosting from the form below.
Requirements
To create a news website, I have categorized the steps required into three: the skill’s requirement, web requirements, and promotion/marketing, now let me explain:
- The Skill’s Requirements
The skill’s requirement is the foundation and the most important factor when thinking of starting successfully. In this internet age, anybody can wake up and decide to launch his/her own version of Huffington post or new York times portal; however, the long-term success of your aspiration is determined to a large extent on the following valid points.
- Choose a niche
- Get facts directly from sources
- Be passionate, be committed and think of sustenance
- Excellent grammatical expression
- Be Unique, and have original content
- Curate or simply aggregate your stories or trending /latest deveopments
- Start off strong
I launched a story based ( similar to rollingstone) website called madailygist.com ( and it is doing well)- the model and principle I used is what I am trying to teach you with this tutorial.
With the above summary, the following is a brief explanation on each, I’m of the view that you need proper information before you can get started.
- 1# Start with a local news website
Starting and launching a general news blog is not advisable for a starter, except if you have the budget to fund it. My candid advice is that you start local.
For example, wanting to start something like the new York times or the Huffington post can be a great daunting task because of the wider horizon involved, except if you are ready to: hire writers, work optimally 10 hours a day, commit meaningful budget, hire SEO experts for increased traffic and social media optimization.
The fundamentals on how to start a local news website is so easy and also, the start up capital is small; after launching out, you can then scale up your growth projections with hard work, re-investing your capital and keep moving with the vision!!
Most small scale successful bloggers usually start with niches e.g. technology , celebrity , Kwetu shy blog or even an ordinary local news blog. Starting a blog is easy, but maintaining it and achieving monetary success over a long period of time is tough if you do not set the right purpose in motion at the beginning.
Recommendation: Start from a small focused niche first
- 2# Be Unique and have original content
Please, you must have it at the back of your mind that there are similar and lots of site out there, so what is going to make yours unique? To succeed entails that you provide a unique and original content to the satisfaction of the readers and also to the integrity of the search engines ( mostly Google). You need to be unique in your approach with the new blog and let your readers feel your touch. Share your opinions, either controversial e.t.c.; however, it should be one that calls for action from your readers, either through the comment section, sharing on social media e.t.c.
Recommendation: Strive to have unique and original content ( this is one of the single, most important factors to rank high and be on Google first page)
- 3# Get facts directly from sources
My very good friend ( http://africaoilgasreport.com/), started from a humble and wise beginning. When he started , he would simply subscribe to the latest update section/portal of leading oil and service companies, and get fresh, undiluted stories directly from the horse’s mouth. On getting these information’s, he would then publish them on his blog ( he has now gone global, and travel the world over and rarely does this any longer). This simple and effective idea should be implemented if you want to start a successful website in this niche; simply look for the people, company, brand, celebrities e.t.c. in your niches, subscribe directly to either their tweets, latest updates from their site from them directly. And to even spice it up, you can edit the information and add related details to their press releases
Recommendation: Do this, and you are on your way to success
- 4# Be passionate, be committed and think of sustenance
If you just want to start this business to make quick money, you will fail!! ( that’s the honest truth). To succeed involves patience, commitment, and an unwavering passion. If you don’t love what you are doing, it means you will fizzle out within 1 year; are you passionate about this dream and goal? will you be committed to the challenges?
Another vital point to note is sustenance. You should have a plan, for the short term and long term; and these plans should be anchored on sustenance. Ask yourself some questions like, ‘”will I be able to run and manage this website if I did not recoup my initial investment after one year” ? will the blog be functioning if I did not make a profit after 6 months to 1 year? you need to think of how the site will be sustained financially!!. Simple solution to this is to monetize the site from the beginning ( this is very important!!).
- 5# Excellent grammatical expression
Nobody wants to come to your blog and read nonsense, poorly written English words and expression. You just have to be a thorough and professional blogger and web publisher. Before hitting the publish button from your dashboard, make sure you proofread your content very well.
- 6# Curate or simply aggregate
Being the first person to break a news is golden and you should strive to get to this point. However, if you don’t, that does not mean you are not a good journalist of a sort. What most people does now is to curate and aggregate information from different sources, publish on their blog and place a link to the original source. If you cannot report a fresh update, then be the best aggregator for your niche.
Recommendation: Be the best aggregator!! From my personal experience ( Read more below), the best aggregator plugin is wpematico, ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpematico/)
- 7# Have a strong business model
If you are a business minded personality like me, then it is important you have a solid business model in place. For a start, you can do all the things yourself, but as you grow in readership, organic visitors, influence and in revenue generation; you will soon begin to realize that you need help and support. Make initial provisions for an assistant ( probably Virtual Assistants). However, the most important aspect as earlier mentioned is to have a business model with adequate attention on advertising. Check out your competitors and study the sort of advertisement they have. The purpose behind this is that you will be able to contact those advertisers directly yourself. But before that, make sure you have an edge over your competitors ( you can study their organic traffic, download their advertisement notice/study their terms e.t.c.), then come up with your proposal to targeted advertisers.
Lesson learn: To start, launch and create a successful news website and blog; establish a strong business model and stick to it!!
- 8# Start off professionally and strong
I know of so many bloggers that started so well and they maintained that tempo till date. Start off by being consistent in your publications, contents e.t.c. And of course, have a professionally looking blog design!!
- 9# Use Social Media to your advantage
Social media has become and is, in fact, the leading force to the success of any website ( no matter the niche). Spend quality time and money ( by automating most tasks). Now, I need to tell you some deep honest truth. I remembered when I helped a client to launch and make her site ( http://skynews24.com) about 6 months ago. At present ( as at April 21, 2016, when I checked), she has altered some settings which are not good at all. I told her then that the major success of this venture is to treat it as a business, I specifically told her ( the owner) to invest in social media ( basically Facebook and twitter) which she did not.
“Friends, you need to invest money, time and little manual labour on FB and twitter to realize success. How?
Open an account in the name of your blog and join the following sites:
- Facebook ( create a Facebook page)
Once done, grow and increase the twitter followers to nothing less than 100k ( its tough but this is the sacrifice you need to DO!!). Secondly, make use of Facebook Ads to promote your new FB Page. From personal experience on helping clients like naij.com (https://www.facebook.com/naijcom), rsadaily.com ( https://www.facebook.com/rsadaily/) e.t.c.; you can invest USD5 a day to get between 300-500 likes every day. On the part of twitter, don’t use twitter Ads because it is crazily expensive, but one major tool I use is Manageflitter. Though it is not free, it cost anything between 11USD-29USD per month.
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