Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hey all,

Just over six months ago I started an online news media site for my small town with one very well known editor from the area and some other associates. Ok, ok, our spouses, but I digress...

As I continue to monitor our traffic, I constantly worry about revenue stream. I`m trying to get more local advertisers and at the same time get community involvement.

Our site is based on the blog format and we allow anyone to leave comments on ANY story. With policies and restrictions of course that we base on journalistic guidelines set forth by our editor.

But can you report `news` and at the same time get community involvement? Granted, getting a "Way to go town council!" in an article about sewage rate increases isn`t going to happen.

But what else would tempt people to get involved? Give feedback? Ideas? Suggestions?

I think you can definitely report news and get community involvement. I can`t tell you how many times something in the news has evoked some sort of emotional response out of me. Granting your community the ability to comment on news stories is a great idea and is also a great way at keeping a community feel for the site.

Keep in mind though, that the vast majority of your viewers will not comment. This is speaking both from personal experience as well as what I have read and seen from other blogs. Consider problogger.net. The most recent post has 84 comments. Compared to the amount of traffic this site pulls in every day, 84 comments is an extremely small fraction of the amount of viewers the blog has.

I`d suspect that the more your blog/news site catches on in your community, the more comments you will get. However don`t fret if they are not as high as you had hoped. Keep in mind that sometimes posing a simple question at the end of the article might encourage your viewers to comment more as some viewers may not even realize that they can comment.

That said, is it only comments that you are looking to increase? You sound as if you are content with the viewership (or viewership growth), but wish that your viewers would comment more. Is that a correct assumption?



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Motivation for Entrepreneurs
Entre-Propel.com

Hey Matt,

The most recent post has 84 comments. Compared to the amount of traffic this site pulls in every day, 84 comments is an extremely small fraction of the amount of viewers the blog has.
That`s a good point. We see 100+ unique visitors a day and we`re lucky if we see one comment a week. Granted 100+ isn`t much to some, but when you consider our population is roughly only 2,400 or so in the zip code we cover, that`s not half bad at all.

Keep in mind that sometimes posing a simple question at the end of the article might encourage your viewers to comment more as some viewers may not even realize that they can comment.
DEFINITELY trying to implement that. The problem is my editor (God love her and her amazing talent) is use to newspaper writing. Which, how does that always end? With a period. That`s it. Not left open ended or encouraging others to respond.

Our post with the most responses thus far has seen roughly 850 visitors in the last 6-months and received 24 comments. Why? Coz it`s a short editorial on `remembering when` about our town. The other most commented stories? Controversial situations that could or would involve tax dollars, kids safety, etc.

That said, is it only comments that you are looking to increase? You sound as if you are content with the viewership (or viewership growth), but wish that your viewers would comment more. Is that a correct assumption?
In a way, yes, but in another no. I want the comments, but I want it to create a community involvement. Just like the post I mentioned above, people got involved because it reminded them of days gone by or was a bit controversial.

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Powerful, Free Marketing Tips to Help Grow Your Business!
Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com Follow me on Twitter @FreeMarkTips

David,

So when you looked into the stats of visitors/pageviews versus comments, did you arrive at a percentage that you felt comfortable with? 1%? 5%?

The more I get feedback from here and other forums, I`m beginning to realize that the commentary may not be nearly as high as I would like it to be no matter how hard I try to leave it open-ended or ask for feedback.

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Powerful, Free Marketing Tips to Help Grow Your Business!
Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com Follow me on Twitter @FreeMarkTips

Isn`t there some way to allow Guest authors to a blog, and to allow unrestricted access, but they have to go through a sort of master editor? Or maybe that`s only available for something like a "multi-user" version of a blog? I believe WordPress has something like that, but I don`t know all that much about blog applications.

I can understand that. No reason to fret over something you can`t control.

But that`s where I`m a bit blurred on a "blog" vs an online newspaper. Can I combine the two and develop greater feedback and commentary?

Yea, there is. But I worry about my editor getting overwhelmed with reviewing articles and not having time to write her own. We are getting A LOT of submissions now and I know she`s buried.

Plus factor in the "what`s in it for me" element and now we have people wanting payback or something for their work. C`moooon people, do it out of the goodness of your heart!

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Powerful, Free Marketing Tips to Help Grow Your Business!
Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com Follow me on Twitter @FreeMarkTips