Would you like to develop a 6-digit reader revenue stream without launching a paywall? If so, look no further than The Berkshire Edge, a small, regional publication in Massachusetts.A couple of years ago, The Berkshire Edge launched an online membership that was donation only ... no paywall. They now have over 1,600 members approaching $120,000 per year in donation revenue.David Walsh with Web Publisher PRO joins Eric Shanfelt in today's High Value Publishing session to talk about the The Berkshire Edge's donation model.Together, they will show you how they launched it, how to position a donation model with your audience, and talk about which markets a donation model would be best suited for.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Did you know that Google Analytics is misleading you?If you look at analytics regularly, you see a lot of web traffic coming from the Direct source.Most publishers think this represents people who directly type in their website URL. But it doesn't.Up to 90% of "direct" traffic is actually "unknown". Google Analytics doesn't know the actual source, so it classifies unknown as direct traffic.This misleads us into thinking our audiences are more loyal than they actually are, and hides how effective our social media, Google News, and email programs are.We need to fix this immediately and during this High Value Publishing session, I'll show you how.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Google Search Console is the key to understanding how Google sees your website and how get more traffic from search.However, it is amazing how many publishers don't have Google Search Console set up, don't know how to use it, or don't use it regularly.Let's change that! Learn how Google Search Console works and how you can use it to improve our visibility in search and grow your website traffic.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Cobranded social media ads are a strong, 6-digit revenue stream that most publishers haven't tapped into yet. It's not difficult to implement and you only need a few social media followers to do it.With cobranded social media, you sell advertisers the ability to reach your audience through your Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn accounts. This gives you a unique selling proposition that no advertiser or agency can do on their own. And your inventory is virtually unlimited.This week's podcast, Eric Shanfelt shows you how cobranded social media ads work, how to set them up, and how to package and price them. The timing is perfect for you to add this to your sales mix for 2023.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Gone are the days of utilizing our email deployment system solely as a distribution platform. To stay competitive as media companies, we must incorporate muti-channel communication (broadcast email, automated 1:1 emails, text messages, website messages, chat, snail mail and more) ... and our email systems must aggregate reader data and handle marketing automation. Using automations to trigger activities and tasks to improve response time and decrease people time to manage.Watch as Eric talks through the various features and how they all fit together, even pointing to some of the systems that will work best for publishers / media companies.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

As publishers look for answers to declining digital media sales, the answer is sometimes not found in what they are selling but how they are going about selling it.During this session we talk about some of the most common mistakes publishers make in their approach to selling digital media. From trying to sell too many programs, using digital programs as incentives, to losing the energy and excitement following a new program launch. All are simple changes publications can make to start regaining traction with their digital media sales.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Watch as we take an in-depth analysis – on-the-fly – at the website of Los Angeles Magazine, a consumer city magazine. We'll identify what they're doing well and what they could improve upon.In the analysis, we'll look at the design of the site to see how effective it is for content, advertising and audience development ... both for desktop and mobile devices. We'll also do some search engine optimization (SEO) analysis of the site and look at other technical factors as well.You'll walk away with some insights that you can apply to your own publication website.P.S. If you have a site you'd like to recommend for our next "Fix My Website" session, please contact us at eric@nearviewmedia.comLearn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In this High Value Publishing session, we’ll go over the right way for publishers to set up Facebook Business Manager and how it relates to the new Meta Business Suite.To be honest, most publishers haven’t set up Facebook Business Manager properly and it’s hurting their business. And some publishers don’t even have a business manager account.In this session you’ll learnWhy you should still use Facebook Business Manager instead of Meta Business Suite.How to switch between business manager and business suite.How to manage users and why you should enforce 2-factor authentication.Why you should check user and partner permissions regularly.How to consolidate all of your Facebook pages into a single Business Manager account.How to integrate all of your Instagram accounts into Facebook Business Manager.Why most publishers only need one ad account … and when you should have more than one.How to manage tracking pixels and make sure it doesn’t slow down your website.Why and how to verify your website domain(s).Why it’s important to verify your legal business details and how to do it.How to register as a Facebook News Page and the benefits of doing it.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Sponsored emails are a big revenue generator for publishers. But the creative advertisers send us are usually horrible.From single big images, to ultra complex HTML emails, advertisers and agencies often send creatives that:Don’t work on mobile devices.Aren’t compatible with popular email clients.Don’t solicit the kind of response that they should.In this High Value Publishing session, I’ll show you a simple sponsored email template you can quickly implement to solve all of these problems.Not only will it make your life easier, but it will make your advertisers more successful and encourage them to spend more money with you.You’ll learnWhy single image sponsored emails are bad for users, advertisers, and get flagged as spam.How complex HTML sponsored emails often don’t work as well as desired.A simple template that works great for readers, is simple for your operations team, drives more response for advertisers, and drives more revenue for you.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

On July 1, 2023, Google will replace the current version of Google Analytics (also called Universal Analytics) with Google Analytics 4 (GA4). But I'm counseling all publishers to implement GA4 by July 1 of this year.In just over a year from now, Google will no longer feed data from our websites into the current Google Universal Analytics And they will not bring over any data from the old Google Analytics into Google Analytics 4.To see any trends or annual growth, you need at least a year's worth of historical data when Google shuts down the current Google Universal Analytics. That's why you need to convert now.In this session you'll learnKey deadlines for converting to GA4 and saving data out of Universal Analytics.The biggest differences between Universal Analytics and GA4.What you need to do right now to prepare your site and your staff for GA4.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Are you considering a paywall or registration wall for your website? Are you having problems getting the kind of results you want from your paywall / regwall?My guest during this High Value Publishing session is Peter Ericson, founder of Leaky Paywall and host of the Paywall Podcast. During this session, Peter and I talk about the keys to a successful paywall for publishers, hard versus metered paywalls, and the biggest mistakes we see publishers make when implementing a paywall.We also talk about registration walls for non-paid publications.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

As publishers, all of us want more subscribers while cutting the cost of subscriber acquisition. But our own subscription forms are often our biggest problem!During this session we talk about the 7 biggest mistakes publishers make with their subscription forms. We then look at subscription forms from multiple publications to show you these mistakes and how to fix them.Whether you have a paid or controlled / free subscription model, this is a session you don't want to miss.Subscription Form MistakesOrder forms with no sales copy / benefits.Too many screens to place a subscription order.Too many subscription options / offers.Showing a field for promo / coupon codes.Distractions on subscription forms (navigation, content, advertising, popups).Missing Google Analytics and remarketing tracking and conversion tags.Poor mobile friendly design and missing mobile payment options.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Advertisers often have poor campaign alignment. The objective of the campaign doesn't match the creative the advertiser delivers. Or the metrics they use to analyze the success or failure of the campaign doesn't match the objective or creative.As a result, the campaign doesn’t meet expectations and they (or their agency) blame you, the publisher. They pull their campaign and instead divert money to Google, Facebook, or other programmatic ad networks.Do you want to sell more digital advertising? Then be sure you work with your advertisers / agencies to set the proper alignment of goals, creative and metrics.During this session, me and my guest, Dan Affrick with Seamans Media, discuss:How to align advertiser campaign goals, creative and success metrics.The difference between direct response and branding campaigns.Common problems when advertiser expectations are not met.Direct response creative best practices.Branding creative best practices.When to work with advertisers on campaign alignmentLearn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In just a few short years, Sean Griffey and his team at Industry Dive have built an impressive B2B media company. But even if you're not in B2B, there is a lot that ANY media company can learn from their approach and success.As a digital media company built from scratch, Industry Dive currently serves 23 industries with 53 email newsletters. They have over 2.5 million email subscribers and last year did over $100 million in revenue at a 30% EBITDA margin.During this session, Sean and I talk about:How Industry Dive got started.How email is the key to their success.How they built an email database of 2.5 million active B2B email subscribers.How websites fit into the strategy and thoughts on the longevity of email.How Industry Dive chooses their business model and industries.Why they acquired a content studio as part of their business.What's next for Industry Dive and B2B media in general?Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Email is the lifeblood for media companies. It's a revenue stream in its own right, but also drives web traffic, live and online event registration, and is the most effective channel for generating new subscriptions for paid, free, and controlled publications.But I still see media companies make mistakes that hurt their deliverability, open rates and thus, revenue. I want to share some critical email tips for publishers to address the mistakes that I see most often.In this session you'll learn how to:Monitor your email reputation to ensure deliverability.Check everything for mobile to make sure you don't lose readers.Consider the exclusive sponsorship model for email newsletters.Integrate subscriber upsells / renewals into your templates.Do sponsored emails the right way and avoid common pitfalls.Adapt to the impact of Apple iOS 15 on your open rates.Consider implementing DMARC and BIMI to improve open rates.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

With audience extension advertising you buy digital ad inventory from programmatic partners, remarket to your audience as they visit select websites, and then resell that inventory through your own ad system.Some publishers already resell programmatic display advertising through 3rd party networks in order to supplement their owned media. However, this can create problems:There's a different sales process for programmatic ads that can be complicated.You use a different system to place the ads instead of your website ad server.Reporting comes from a different system instead of your own ad server.It's difficult to combine owned and programmatic inventory into a single campaign.There is no unique selling proposition as anyone can buy programmatic display advertising.Sellers can get enamored with programmatic at the expense of your owned media.Audience extension advertising is a way for publishers to take advantage of programmatic display advertising, but overcome all of these problems. You can buy millions of high quality ad impressions at a low price, and traffick / report on them through your own ad system.In this session, you'll learn how to launch audience extension advertising for your publication, how it works with your ad system, and some companies that you can work with to implement it.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

When it comes to SEO for publishers, most of us still have a lot of room for improvement. Sure, we have some big advantages over other types of companies. We have a TON of content that often ranks well for unique search terms. And we get a lot of traffic and inbound links organically because we regularly create good content for our market niche.But very few publishers take a methodical approach to search engine optimization. SEO is about building your publication's authority and trust in the eyes of your readers and Google. There are, of course, technical items that need to be covered. But there are also on-page optimization tactics by your editorial / production staff, as well as link building and management strategies.This session gives you the structure of a good SEO strategy for any kind of publication. Make sure to watch this before yet another marketing firm approaches you with an "SEO audit" and tells you how they can improve your search ranking. 🙂Topics covered in this SEO for publishers sessionThe importance of EAT (expertise, authority and trust) to Google.How to improve the EAT of your publication.Technical SEO items that publishers should check.The importance of Core Web Vitals.How editorial and production staff can improve the SEO of content.How inbound and outbound links improve SEO.What toxic links are and how to manage them.The importance of Google News and Google Discover.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Despite wanting to be digital-first, most publishers are still stuck in a print-first publishing model. Our editorial calendars and workflows revolve around print production cycles. We may talk a good digital game, but if we take an honest look at ourselves, our web, email, social and other channels are too often afterthoughts or subservient to the print product.For most publishers, print is the hub and everything else is a spoke.But when I consult with media companies, I have one sure way to know if they have embraced digital and become a true multimedia company. They publish digital-first. Their website is the hub and print is a spoke.For multimedia publishers like these, editorial calendars and production processes focus on delivering a steady stream of content to their website. They immediately push it out via other digital channels. They then compile the best digital content to create their print issues.In today's High Value Publishing session, I go over:How print-first publishing hurts your business and puts you at a competitive disadvantage.How to move to a digital-first publishing model.How content should flow from your website to social, content distribution, apps, website notification, email and eventually to your print product.Common objections I hear from publishers and editors about moving to digital-first publishing.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Why do some publishers still sell advertising the old way with print-frequency rate card discounts? As modern media companies, we sell print, web, email, events, data and more. But one look at most magazine media kits and it’s obvious we’re still stuck in a print-only mentality that only rewards advertisers when they increase their frequency in print.Our goal isn't to sell more print. Our goal is to get advertisers to spend more money with us regardless of which media they choose. So let’s stop perpetuating a sales model that no longer works, abandon the old print rate-card frequency model, and instead reward advertisers based on their total spend.In this session of High Value Publishing, Eric shows you:How to switch from a frequency rate card to a total spend discounting model.How total spend discounting benefits you and your advertisers.How it grows your revenue and increases yield.How it helps prevent "value add" of digital for print.How to set up and manage a total spend discounting model for your publication.Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

If you’re a magazine or newspaper publisher of any kind, you need to have a Google Publisher Center (GPC) account. GPC is the key to getting your content more easily found on Google news “surfaces” like Google News, Google News on Search and even Google Discover.For some publications, these Google news surfaces can generate nearly as much traffic as regular Google search, so it’s critical that you set up GPC properly for your publication.In this session, Eric shows you:How the entire Google News ecosystem worksHow to create a Google Publisher Center accountHow to set up your site and RSS feeds to work with Google Publisher CenterHow accelerated mobile pages (AMP) can give some publishers an advantageLinks mentioned in this session:Google NewsGoogle Publisher CenterGoogle Search ConsoleLearn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/