High Value Publishing (Eric Shanfelt)

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/

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/

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 session

• The 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/

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/

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:

1. Monitor your email reputation to ensure deliverability.
2. Check everything for mobile to make sure you don't lose readers.
3. Consider the exclusive sponsorship model for email newsletters.
4. Integrate subscriber upsells / renewals into your templates.
5. Do sponsored emails the right way and avoid common pitfalls.
6. Adapt to the impact of Apple iOS 15 on your open rates.
7. Consider implementing DMARC and BIMI to improve open rates.

Learn 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/

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 alignment

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 Mistakes

• Order 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/

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/

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 learn

• Key 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/

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 learn

• Why 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/

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 learn

• Why 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/

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.com

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

Is Google good or bad for publishers? A Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against Google is bringing this question to the forefront.

In this High Value Publishing session, Eric Shanfelt and his guest, Kenny Katzgrau of Broadstreet Ads, delve into the implications of the lawsuit and how publishers should best interact with Google. The conversation stems from a recent subpoena request by Google and the Department of Justice concerning ad tech, triggering reflections on Google's position as either a friend or foe to publishers.

Google has a growing presence in the publishing industry not only through technologies like Google Ad Manager, Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, but through initiatives like Google News Initiative (GNI) and the funding it provides to publishers. Despite some positives, publishers should be wary. There are inherent conflicts of interest as Google is a major industry competitor while simultaneously playing a significant role in education and support for publishers. The ongoing federal antitrust case against Google highlights this complicated relationship.

The discussion emphasizes that publishers need to evaluate their reliance on Google's services and take Google's recommendations with a grain of salt. Publishers must differentiate themselves by offering unique products and partnerships that Google's platforms can't replicate. Publishers also need to approach Google's advice with caution realizing that Google is looking out for its own best interests.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Email newsletter subject lines and preheader text play a pivotal role in increasing newsletter open rates and, in turn, ad impressions, website traffic, and overall engagement with your audience.

Despite their importance, many publishers fail to utilize the subject line and preheader text effectively. Common mistakes include overly long subject lines, irrelevant or missing preheader text, and the inclusion of unnecessary elements such as 'view in browser' links.

In this High Value Publishing Session, Eric Shanfelt covers tactics to improve your email subject lines and preheader text, thus improving overall email performance. Tactics include using the brand name in the 'from' field, keeping subject lines concise, relevant and intriguing, and utilizing the preheader text to either expand on the subject line or highlight additional content contained within the email.

By making some simple adjustments, and by testing email subject lines and preheader text on different devices and platforms, publishers can significantly enhance the value of their newsletters to advertisers, subscribers, and for their own business objectives.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

SmartNews is a rapidly growing news aggregator rivaling Google News and Apple News in usage. As such it can be an important part of an overall content distribution strategy for publishers.

But publishers need to go in with their eyes wide open before agreeing to work with SmartNews.

In this High Value Publishing session, Eric Shanfelt shows publishers how SmartNews pitches themselves to publishers, but how publisher content is used primarily to benefit SmartNews itself.

You'll see how their "SmartFormat" prioritizes SmartNews revenue while giving publishers non-favorable positions for their own monetization and promotion. In addition, The SmartFormat specification and WordPress plugin use Google Analytics in a way that can be misleading. It can look like SmartNews is driving a lot of traffic to a publisher when, in reality, it's using the publisher's Google Analytics account to track content views inside the SmartNews app, not real traffic to the publisher's website.

Finally, you'll learn how SmartNews has now launched its own advertising network directly selling to advertisers, thus becoming another competitor for media companies and publishers.

Publishers, especially independent and niche publishers, need to be fully aware of these issues when deciding whether to work with SmartNews. SmartNews is indeed one of the fastest growing news aggregators in the market, but may not be the best fit for all publishers.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In this High Value Publishing session, we'll discuss strategies for publishers to simplify their digital advertising models in order to drive more revenue, including:

• Consolidating underperforming ad products.
• Limiting inventory / controlling supply and demand.
• Delivering differentiated value to advertisers.
• Having larger ad placements but fewer of them.
• Properly pricing products based on value delivered.

You'll see examples for simplifying website, email newsletter, social media, and programmatic advertising offerings. Publishers who modify their ad models in this way can significantly increase digital revenue within 12 months, even if they already have solid sales performance.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

For publishers, a podcast can be more than just an audio format. It can be a convenient way for readers to discover and follow your content, it can drive people back to your website, and eventually it can be a new revenue stream once you reach some scale.

But producing daily or weekly podcast episodes can be resource-intensive and expensive. This is where the concept of a fully AI-generated podcast comes in. By creatively combining a couple of artificial intelligence tools, it's easy to create a daily or weekly audio podcast summary of all your recently published content. Here's how.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Eric Shanfelt and ad sales expert, Ryan Dohrn, show publishers how to avoid the 7 biggest mistakes sellers make when selling digital advertising.

• The Wrong Products for the Wrong Client
• Too Many Products to Sell
• Faking It
• The Danger of Value Add
• Giving Too Many Details
• Not Closing the Loop with the Client
• Selling Magic Instead of Marketing

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

In this week's session of High Value Publishing, we're shifting focus from our usual digital strategies to reflect on what lies ahead for media companies in 2024 including:

• The enforcement of stronger email authentication by Google and Yahoo.
• The removal of third-party cookies, particularly in Google Chrome.
• The integration of Artificial Intelligence into search engines.
• Google's focus on EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) for search rankings.
• The need for publishers to differentiate their advertising offerings from competitors and programmatic offerings.
• The importance of excellence in fundamental operations like website, email, social media and subscriptions.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

As publishers, our email reputation and deliverability is critical. Google Postmaster Tools is a free tool that any publisher can use to see how well they are doing at delivering email to Gmail and Google Workspace users. Think of it like Google Search Console, but for email. It provides insights into email performance, sender reputation, and potential deliverability issues. Google Postmaster Tools provides insight into your:

• Spam Rate
• IP Reputation
• Domain Reputation
• Feedback Loop (FBL)
• Email Authentication (DKIM, SPF, DMARC)
• Email Encryption (TLS)
• Delivery Errors

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

If implemented properly, Meta Ads can be a cost-effective way for a publisher to drive website traffic and grow their email list.

In this High Value Publishing session, Eric Shanfelt is joined by digital industry legend, Dennis Yu. Dennis is the CTO and co-founder of BlitzMetrics and a former search engine engineer. He's managed billions of dollars with Meta ad campaigns.

Eric and Dennis show two different, cost-effective, ad campaigns for publishers: one to drive website traffic and another to rapidly build email lists. They show how each campaign is built, what they looked like, and how you can do it for your brand.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/

Welcome to the first High Value Publishing Q&A session.

The goal of these weekly sessions is to help magazine publishers and media companies grow their audiences, drive revenue, and improve their digital platforms.

We’ll cover revenue, audience and technology tactics including advertising, programmatic, SEO, social media, email, controlled and paid subscriptions, ecommerce, analytics, content distribution, and much more.

Whether you publish an enthusiast / hobby magazine, a B2B trade magazine / association journal, a regional consumer / business magazine, or a local newspaper, each session will have something that you can immediately apply to your business.

In today's session, we're going to review the digital revenue pipeline and talk about your brand, content, technology, audience development, and monetization strategies. Think of this truly as a pipeline or hose, and any one of these areas could potentially constrict your ability to grow your business online.

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/ 

Believe it or not, RSS feeds are still a thing. In fact, it's the primary way that news aggregators like Google News and others are notified about new content on your website. 

But if you don't manage them well, you can hurt your publication.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (or RTF Site Summary if you're really geeky). It's a way for your website to tell other services about new content on your site as you publish it, and to give them access to that content.

Unfortunately, most publishers haven't looked at the RSS feed on their website. And many publishers push the entire content of their articles out through their RSS feed leaving it unprotected and open for use by anyone.

This session shows you how to find the RSS feed on your website, how to see if you're pushing out your entire content via the feed, what the dangers are, and how to fix it.

Links mentioned in this session:

• Feedly

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 works
• How to create a Google Publisher Center account
• How to set up your site and RSS feeds to work with Google Publisher Center
• How accelerated mobile pages (AMP) can give some publishers an advantage

Links mentioned in this session:

• Google News
• Google Publisher Center
• Google Search Console

Learn more at https://nearviewmedia.com/