Archives, Your Web Site’s Future

We live in the here and now. You have heard the old saying, “They can not see the forest through trees.”? The same can be said of business owners designing their Web sites. All too often the focus is on meeting current needs and demands and not on creating a scalable design that can grow with your ever changing demands. To that end, archives must be built around current information that must be placed in an environment where users can find it for years to come.

I am no prophet, but I can tell you that there are many “things” that will come to life over the next year that will affect your Web site. If your fall or springs plans are a redesign of your magazine or business web site make sure that archives are in your plans.

Archives are a constant topic of debate. The reason for this is very simple, people come to the net for three reasons; (1) E-mail, (2) Research and (3) Entertainment. Research is driving force behind the Internet. Enid Burns from the ClickZ Network, reported on Nov 20, 2007 that of the five major or "core" search engines, Google held a substantial lead over its rivals in September 2007, according to comScore research. Of the 9.4 billon searches performed at the five major engines, Google maintained a 57 percent share over competing search engines Yahoo (23.7 percent); Microsoft (10.3 percent); Ask (4.7 percent); and Time Warner including AOL (4.5 percent). An analysis of search activity at the top 50 Internet properties worldwide shows Google's sites lead the pack with 6.6 billion searches, followed by Yahoo (2.4 billion), and Microsoft (999 million). Thus, the ability for your archives to been “scrubbed” by search engines is more powerful then ever before. However, this dos not mean that you can or should blindly place every word of your magazine online.

I would encourage you to think about doing these three things to see significant success from your archives.

1. Get the rights needed to place articles online in perpetuity
2. Give users free access to key word heavy teaser paragraphs.
3. Make search easy to find on your site

The first step in your process toward archive success is getting the rights to place content online from your writers. Hiring a lawyer that specializes in the business of intellectual property law is mission critical. This is an important step that is often overlooked. Here is a paragraph from an online contract that speaks volumes, “Contractor hereby assigns to Company the perpetual, royalty-free right to publish said Content, in whole or in part, in any medium now known or later developed including online archives.” If you do not have language of this nature in your freelance writer contract, you need to call your lawyer. Online archives are your future. Freelances are becoming more reasonable than ever before on this issue. They may want to charge you more up front, but there is a benefit to you in the future. Most freelancers just want to be treated fairly. If a freelance writer is not willing to give you archives rights, you may need to look else where.

Second, find a content management system that will allow you to take the first paragraph of a story and make it readable to the general public free. (Google “content management systems” to find one that will meet your needs.) Then you lock down the remainder of the story behind a free registration system. If the public can read it, then the Googlebot™ can read it. This point alone is a controversial issue, but not if (a) you are a niche content provider or (b) you give the user enough reason to sign up for your site. All too often the sign up process is labor intensive or offers no reason for the user to make that step and give you personal data. This issue also does not apply to those media in the daily news business. There are far too many free no registration offerings to make site sign-up worthwhile on a daily news site. We operate in the niche media space. In this space our content is valuable and worth the price of admission. Especially if the price is just our e-mail and some basic demo information. Once you have a locked system in place you need to place as much of the article online that will meet the user’s research needs. You are not giving away the article because you have two lines of revenue, (1) you have their registration data to sell and use and (2) you can sell ads on the page as well.

Finally, make your search box easy to find on your site. This point alone is paramount to your success. Placing it in the top margin of the page is mission critical. Hiding it in the rail at the bottom is suicide by search. If the user is logged into your site than once they search they see the whole article. If they are not, they get the first paragraph of the story and then are required to sign in for the rest. The first paragraph of the story needs to show enough content that they get a general idea if they have found what they are looking for. Be sure that your editorial staff places a lot of key words in the first paragraph and writes in good old fashioned inverted funnel style and you will be set.

As niche publishers, never forget how valuable your data is online. There is a fine line to walk between free and the registered model we have discussed. I would caution you against a paid model online as it has been my experience that people are not yet willing to pay for the content especially if they subscribe to the magazine. With that said, investing in new technology that opens up the site to subscribers is emerging each day. Already many companies that offer digital solutions that have offerings to meet these needs in a variety of ways. All in all, you need to plan ahead for archives to be an important part of your web site. Never forget that meeting the current needs of your users is important, but using data from today to drive users tomorrow is your future. Get ahead of the archive curve and win in the end. Never forget what I preach over and over, he who owns the data wins.

The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature. Please listen to Ryan’s audio version of this blog online at http://www.ryandohrn.com/

2. Ryan R. Dohrn©2007

User Generated Video Has A Place On Magazine Sites, But Where?

Video is king online. There is no denying that copy cat sites ripping off the huge success of Youtube will continue to pop up on the netscape. After-all, imitation is the fondest form of flattery.

There are basically 2 types of video content; UGV and PGV. UGV stands for User Generated Video and PGV stands for Publisher Generated Video. I have seen tremendous growth in video content online, but our company’s growth has been focused on PGV. So, this begs the question, is UGV good for your site? And if it is, where do you put UGV to get the most benefit for your site and not ruin the editorial integrity of your magazine?

My analysis of the UGV situation is based in the theory that not too long ago the average “Joe” did not have access to high quality video cameras and high end editing gear. Now the general public can often shoot and edit with professional results for a fraction of the cost of days gone by. So, developing a system where you encourage UGV to be of very high quality is important. Develop standards for UGV on your site and publish those standards. If users want their videos to be featured on your site, they must comply and in most cases they will. Why? They want their “stuff” on your site. Pick the video and do not just blindly run UGV as marquee content. Truly, this is not the best way to leverage the content for long term growth. To that same end, a legal document that gives you permission and assigns the video rights to you is important as well.

As magazine publishers we are battling to maintain strong editorial integrity while growing our brands online. For this reason, the idea of building special sections of your site for UGV is important and making PGV the focal point of the site is critical. In addition, I encourage publishers to blend UGV with PGV. For example, showcase 3 clips created by your in house team and pick one UGV clip as well. Users come to your magazine site for a reason, you are the leader, you are the source. UGV is often funny, edgy and fast, but the short term traffic results garnered from UGV will not help you build a long term brand online. As magazine publishers you want to be fresh and innovative online. But, you do not want to be a trend or a fad online. This will not help you grow the important cyber/fiber relationship that is critical to your magazine’s success.

UGV holds an important place on all Web sites. User Generated Content is critical to creating that fraternal feel we all want our users to enjoy. But, be careful that you do not get caught up in the USG craze and blindly give away your entire magazine site to the users.

Listen to this blog in audio form online at http://www.ryandohrn.com

Note: The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature.

Web Stats Can Kill A Sale

Web stats can kill an Internet sale if you do not control the message. One of the biggest problems with the Internet is one of its greatest strengths; statistics. We can give an advertiser numbers down to the smallest degree if they desire. But, is this the best way to secure and keep a long term client?

When teaching sales people I sometimes refer to the legendary book, The Art Of War. To paraphrase and to make appoint I often teach that you do not want to show your enemy your full arsenal up front. It leaves you nothing to pull out to finish the job. The same is true of statistics. Long lists of numbers are meaningless to a person that is searching for a single answer. But, the only way to know what to give the prospect is to ask. He who asks the questions is in control of the sales call. Period. I always begin by asking who the prospect is trying to reach? Then I ask them if they have any recent data to support their thoughts. The reason for this is two fold, (1) I might be able to sell them an online survey and (2) I will only present them stats that meet their given criteria. How many times has a prospect said, “Just send me your media kit.” End of call. I often say back, “I would love too, what do you want me to include in the kit? We customize each media kit to each client. If I know what your goals and budget are, I can send you a much better media kit with a proposal that will not waste your time. We have thousands of pieces of information.” Many sales people overwhelm prospects with data that either (a) the sales person feels is important or (b) makes their job easier. It has been proven time and time again that customized sales proposal and customized media kits win the sale hands down. Using statistics in a meaningful way can help you win the sale.

So, you have won the sale. Good job. Watch out, here come the performance stats from your online ad delivery system. Oh my, more stats. What do you do with all the client stats? The blind answer is forward them to the client. To use another military term, SHOCK AND AWE them into submission. Overwhelm them with data and maybe they will say, “Oh my, this must be working if I am getting back this much data!” You could not be more wrong! I have been selling the Internet since 1996 and I have not ever found one instance where that was the case. I encourage sales people to not send out the full stats report. Now, many agencies will require that, but we all know that agencies are much smarter than the rest of us, so give them what they want. (wink) Instead, I encourage sales people to read and digest the stats. Then, prepare a short, brief custom report for your client. You need to explain the data to the client. If the data is bad you might have a lot of explaining to do. Never assume that even the most astute client will understand the reports that are kicked out by your online ad delivery system. In addition, watch the reports for poor performance. I often encourage a client to run multiple campaigns so that we can gauge which one is working best. Pull down the bad performers.

So, it’s time to renew, use those same stats to renew the sale. You know have POP, Proof of Performance. There is nothing sweeter than being able to prove your right. Ask my wife. Kidding.

Detailed performance statistics are one thing that print media can not offer. If you want to focus on one big difference between print and Web, that is it in a nut shell. But, if you are not careful, statistics can kill a sale in many ways. Never forget, Statistics are only as good as their accuracy and their interpretation. Be proactive so your sale does not get lost in translation.

Read more and listen to this blog in audio format online at http://www.ryandohrn.com/

The views of Ryan Dohrn are 100% personal in nature and do not represent the views of his employer, any other person, company or entity in any way. Any similarly is coincidental in nature.