Back in 2009, J-school professor; Jeff Jarvis, and Mark Potts of BackFence fame, asked me to contribute some online sales expertise to their ongoing research in hyper-local business models for news. These meetings, held at CUNY (City University of New York) were chock full of academics, journalists, investment and editorial execs. As the lone Internet revenue…
Frustrated by digital growth? So were we. That’s why we started Get Smart Digital. We’re all about local, online sales strategy…..that works NOW…..not sometime in the future. We’re known for blunt, yet highly effective methods that push you to run your website as a ‘profit-first’ business. First, we remove common choke-points that stunt your digital growth. Then we…
Back in 2009, I was invited to moderate a panel at a newspaper conference in Hershey, Pa. The session was called: Best Practices of Successful Local Media Companies. For the panel. I picked 2 of the leading voices in hyper-local news at the time. One was Michael Rosenblum, an un-filtered, tough love kinda guy. Best known…
What have we learned about managing a WordPress powered, hyper-local news and info website since 2011? The following is a list of best practices. Ignore them at your own peril. WordPress is the best online publishing platform. Now serving 30% of the world’s websites. Even 3rd party companies that claim to specialize in Broadcast or…
Nothing kills Internet revenue for hyper local media…. like crappy banner design. You work so hard explaining the benefits of advertising on your local news-site. Then you blow it. You either have an overworked print designer create the banner, or you outsource the design work to someone who has no idea what the client wants….
Design and development of graphics is a critical part of any website management plan. It’s even more important for those running Hyper-Local news & info sites like DownbeachBUZZ.com or ACprimetime.com. Marketing campaigns should always be developed with a ‘digital-first strategy.’ Once a campaign is designed & developed for online, it can then be ported and…
The old school media death rattle is getting louder. Once trusted sources of information, local newspapers are either shutting down or dramatically scaling back their operations. In the process, they’re losing most of their main asset: community influence. That’s what really matters. Websites and social media will not bail them out. A New York Times…
The shit is really starting to hit the fan for local media. This time, with more shit and a more powerful fan. Newspaper, Radio & TV managers are in a heightened state of panic due to their lack of digital revenue success. Pink slips are flying, private equity is taking over, and being a digital…
After all these years, do small businesses STILL struggle with common internet marketing challenges? Yes, many still do. When made aware of their web marketing shortcomings, the smart ones fix ’em. Others ignore ’em. And yes, some business owners are taking advice from those with questionable, digital marketing skills. Not updating Google for Local Business….
How to drive more revenue from your radio station website and audio stream. This quick video highlights some easy ways to immediately boost your online sales efforts.