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How to promote your online news website and get quality traffic

Promoting your news website online requires more due diligence than promoting a business that sells a physical product. Just like your site name, your domain name should be unique, recognizable, and something people can easily remember. After setting up your brand and generating content, the next step is to promote your news articles and make sure they get read. One way is to promote through social media.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter offer opportunities for readers to connect directly with web content. Create accounts on the most popular social media platforms. In order to syndicate your newsfeed on those services, there are some prerequisites. Make sure your news site has an RSS/Atom feed. With the RSS/Atom feed at hand, create an account using the “TwitterFeed” service. Follow the instructions and link the RSS/Atom feed to your Facebook and Twitter. Every time you post an article, it appears on Facebook and Twitter automatically.

When it’s convenient, be sure to log into your accounts and interact with readers and potential readers.

On Facebook fan pages, there is limited personal interactivity between page administrators and fans. Facebook appeals to a more organic growth. You promote the articles on your site’s fan page and wait for people to “like” you: that’s not a formula for success. You can do more with a Facebook fan page, much more.

Consider running sponsored ads for your news site. This allows your site to receive exposure in the user profiles of those within your target demographic. Facebook Ads offers businesses the opportunity to serve ads based on a specific age range, location, and interests. You’ll also see very detailed estimates of how many people your ad will “reach.” Those estimates will come in handy when putting together a pitch for potential advertisers. Before you invest money in Facebook ads, consider the nature of your news site. If your news site appeals to a narrow or niche demographic, you should focus on promoting your site for free using Twitter and submitting your site to search engines.

Critics of Facebook’s advertising program have said that Facebook’s ads are too inconspicuous and unappealing. To overcome these issues, you need to have ad copy that emotionally engages people to read the news on your website. Think like someone at a news desk. You need a captivating headline and concise claim copy that draws people to you. Consider mentioning milestones for your post (“Over two million subscribers!”) and announcing/reminding potential readers of nifty sections (ie Classifieds). Your teaser copy should be clear and focused on one topic. Feel free to place ads announcing sweepstakes and contests run by your publication. Advertising a news site on Facebook will always be trial and error, but the likelihood of getting new visitors will increase when you invest in longer ad campaigns. Continually tweak your ad content until you find the right wording and demographics.

Your Facebook content page needs constant maintenance. You should fill your Facebook page with news articles on a regular basis. Be sure to interact with your readers regularly and have a chat with them. Human interaction is a popular trend in social media for businesses. Encourage readers and viewers to not only view your content, but also comment and participate in other ways. For example, readers respond favorably to captivating images, just as they do in print publications. Readers tend to respond to photos of stunning, colorful landscapes, food photos, and timeless portraits that readers can relate to. It is preferable that the images you upload to your Facebook page relate to the articles on your website. Follow up with some text that encourages people to check out your articles and features.

Twitter takes things to the next level. The popular social networking service allows news sites to interact directly with people. Take advantage of features that Twitter has, such as the “Find People” option. If you have a Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL email account that has contacts, use that email account and Twitter will search for contacts who also have a Twitter account. Be sure to “follow” those who are already following you on Twitter. Sites like “Twellow” (http://www.twellow.com/) can help you find followers based on categories. Tweet Grader (http://tweet.grader.com) allows you to find and follow users who live in your community. Follow members who would be interested in your website news. The people you choose to follow should also have a large following and update regularly. Never think about the number of people you follow. Always think about the type of people you want to follow. Quality over quantity is a welcome adage on Twitter. If you focus on finding the right people, and not on following too many people, you will be successful.

Connect with users who benefit from reading the articles you publish or who would be interested. For example, if you have an article featuring a certain company, follow popular users who are likely to express interest in the company and its product, including the company’s Twitter account. If you have an article covering an event, follow popular users who are likely to post or retweet information about the event. Interact with these users in moderation. Imagine that you are in a bar and you hear people talking about something that interests you. The best way to participate is to study the flow of the conversation and then participate once the opportunity to do so arises. If someone asks a question about a topic that appears in one of your articles, feel free to answer it with a link. People will appreciate the kindness as long as you focus on being witty and not directly promoting your news site. Remember, you’re trying to promote your news site, so being resourceful should be your main goal. Once you develop a large following or subscriber base, you no longer need to do this.

It is important to note that message boards are good for promoting articles. While message boards are now taking a backseat to social media, they are still very useful for generating buzz and traffic. Register accounts and regularly participate in message boards related to your content. It is recommended that you link to your material responsibly and in moderation. In other words, don’t spam a message board with links. Only provide self-service links where there is relevance and an information gap. Provide a link to your domain name in your forum signature. Also, feel free to customize your forum profile. People will be more attentive to those who have a strong human presence. And once you feel that your site has developed a substantial and consistent amount of traffic, you won’t need to continue promoting your site on message boards.

News websites abound, which is why it is so important to have quality content. No matter how you promote your news site, the goal of your news site is to have articles that are clear, engaging, thought-provoking, and resourceful. When people can see that your news site is dynamic in design, organization, and content, they will use it as a resource. News is often seen as a disposable commodity in the digital marketplace, but it takes a good content provider, with the promotional know-how, to make the news worth reading.

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