With the economic downturn which has affected the media industry and forced many journalists out of their jobs, one of the options open to continue to practice the profession is to launch a website.
Some journalists have taken this option and are doing their best to succeed in this new terrain, while others are still contemplating joining the bandwagon.
Considering that it is a matter of time before every media organization must have a very professional website or individual journalist launch one, here are some suggestions by Lekan Otufodunrin on what journalists planning to have their websites should know before, during or after becoming an online publisher.
Become computer and internet literate.
There is a lot of computer and internet operations involved in website operations which requires some basic know-how by anyone who wants to be an online publisher.
Even though you can afford to hire experts to work on your website, you should know enough about what can give you some level of control in the day-to-day operations of the website.
Your operations can easily be sabotaged if, for example, you don’t know simple things like changing the passwords for your control panels.
For a start when you can’t afford to hire staff to work for you, you should be able to source your content and upload them on your website. You should not allow anyone to hold you to ransom on uploading the latest content of your website.
Don’t let believe the lie that the knowledge needed for website operations is too technical for you to comprehend.
Gone are the days when computer operations in the media are completely left to computer staff. To be sure, I can upload the website of the company I work for from anywhere I am, even if I am on my bed. It’s that simple.
Be active online
While waiting to launch your website, you need to be active online with vibrant social media accounts that can get you large followings on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and others.
When you eventually launch your website, you will need social media accounts to publicise your site. Someone with maximum 5000 real, not purchased Facebook friends and massive Twitter followers can easily draw attention to his or her site than the other who is not well known on social media.
Website content generation requires a lot of efforts and disciple. Experimenting with a free blog may be a good way to know if you have the capacity to sustain an online publication.
Linda Ikeji, Nigeria’s Number one blogger until recently operated her blog on the free blogger.com
There is no point starting a website which you have to abandon after a few months considering the financial implications involved.
Online publishing is tough
For the avoidance doubt, online publishing is not as easy as many imagine. Except your plan is to have cut and paste content from other websites, which cannot get you far, generating reports that can draw traffic is hard work.
You need to think beyond general content available to all which you may not have the capacity to get as quickly as major media organizations can.
You need to be imaginative and provide additional perspectives to compel readers to come to your relatively unknown site.
For a start, you have to be a jack of all editorial work and master of all. Not only will you have to source and write the content, but you should also be able to edit, proofread, write compelling headlines, get good photographs and write captions.
After publishing on your site, you need to extensively share links to your stories on social media and engage with your friends and followers.
Online news publishing must be based on 24 hours work model to compete with other numerous websites globally.
Unlike in traditional publishing when stories cannot be accommodated after production deadlines, in online publishing, stories can always be published no matter when it breaks.
The online audience is global with varying time zones. While your Nigerian audience is sleeping, Nigerians in other parts of the world and other nationals who visit your website are awake.
It takes time to start making money
Like in any business, which online publishing is, breaking even or recouping some of your investments takes time. To attract adverts, you need to build your brand and make it compelling for advertisers to want to part with their money.
You may get some initial complimentary adverts from people or organizations you know, but in the long run, you need to justify why anyone should advertise with you.
You need to generate enough traffic to earn income from clicks on Google Adsense and other native advertising platforms.
You will be asked for your website analytics, which provides information advertisers need to consider and compare with others competing with you for adverts.
Websites and blogs earning lots of advert revenue today have come a long way and are still working hard to continue to be the preferred platforms for advertisers.
A blogger once disclosed that it took her almost two years before she started making money from her blog. It doesn’t have to take that long, but be sure it takes hard work and time.
There other options for making money online which you need to find out and work on if you intend to live on earnings from online publishing.
Have a business plan
Like I indicated above, online publishing is like any other media business which success or otherwise will depend on how it is properly managed.
However small, do some feasibility studies to decide if you have what it takes to plunge into this constantly evolving publishing terrain.
You need to know what it will cost to start, however small you want to, and sustain the publication for a period of time.
Find out the kind of website or blog you need to publish to remain in the business.
What will be your Unique Selling Proposition? considering the thousands of websites, blogs and social media platforms coming online every day.
Have short and long time goals and objectives.
Find out the secrets of the success of some web publications and why others are have failed.
Apart from online content publishing on your website, think of other ancillary businesses you can do to supplement your income. Your goal should be to establish a media company, not just an online news website.
If your goal is not to earn returns on your investments, you don’t need to worry yourself about all the things I have enumerated above. If you need to make money, you have to be business-like in your approach and don’t begin on assumptions.
Don’t ‘walk’ alone
While you may start alone and be the one doing virtually everything from content sourcing to marketing, you need to know when to find additional hands to enhance your operations.
You can easily be overwhelmed by the enormity of what is required for your website to grow. There will be a limit to the variety of content you can generate and how effective you can be to promptly reach a wider audience if you don’t have other persons to work with, either on freelance or full-time.
Instead of launching a website alone, you can find a colleague who you can partner with to have a more formidable platform and grow faster.
If you don’t have what it takes, don’t
This piece is not meant to frighten journalists who started online publishing without the proper understanding of what is required or those who are still contemplating joining the league of online publishers.
My goal is to highlight pertinent factors required to make a success of this endeavour which will determine who will and can continue to lay claim to being a journalist or involved in information dissemination in the nearest future.
Having read my views on this matter based on my experience, my counsel is if you don’t have what it takes, don’t do it.
There is no point in launching your own website just because it has become fashionable for many journalists to claim to be online publishers when they still have a lot to learn about the business.
The earlier those already in it update their knowledge about what they should know the better, while those still about to move over should know enough before deciding it is it worth trying or not.
