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Using News Site For Generating Money

by EvolBaby
25 replies
I work in radio and news as well as cartooning/writing/animation/law.

One of my colleagues in the alternative news biz is looking to sell his site. It's a controversial one with conspiracy theories and breaking news and tons of top guests and award winning authors.

I don't always agree with the content but that's his right to publish what he wants, however, he's been overwhelmingly accurate over the past 20 years.

His site gets around 1.6 million uniques a month and 800,000 page views a day. He's at 987 at Ranking.com.

He has NO clue about Internet Marketing and if he had a pro come in and optimize his site there would be millions to be had easily. He's been needling me to find a buyer for his site and I suggested a marketer who knows their A-Game.

Problem is it's a news site. The traffic is attractive and the income potential is staggering, however would a marketer be interested? How would they go about it for best ROI but not compromise the basic content and fanbase?
#generating #money #news #site
  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
    If he's making $1.6 million a month already I don't think he needs much help...
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    • Profile picture of the author LABEShops
      My guess is he meant 1.6 million hits, not $1.6 million.
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    • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
      Originally Posted by eljeffe77 View Post

      If he's making $1.6 million a month already I don't think he needs much help...
      My error, not $1.6 million I meant to say 1.6 million uniques per month.

      Actually a smart IMer could convert his site to make over a million $ a month.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
    personally i would find someone who knows how to generate money from it, offer them a percentage of the revenue. obviously that would only work if he wanted to keep writing for the site. just happened to me, someone had a website they wanted to make money for, they write content, i cover the marketing and monetizing, we split the profit
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    • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
      Originally Posted by chrisdafunk View Post

      personally i would find someone who knows how to generate money from it, offer them a percentage of the revenue. obviously that would only work if he wanted to keep writing for the site. just happened to me, someone had a website they wanted to make money for, they write content, i cover the marketing and monetizing, we split the profit
      That was the first thing I told him. He doesn't understand the power that a good marketer could do in just a month with his traffic an notoriety. He's in the top 50 of talk show hosts already.

      It's the same story with most of the talk shows and news sites I work with. Years ago I worked and still work with Premiere Radio. That was Rush Limbaugh and others. The ones who got marketers zoomed to the top, the ones that didn't don't make anywhere near what they could.

      I would book guests, sell ads, etc.. The webmasters didn't have a clue to marketing. Some are getting it but they still need to jump into the waters. Just think what a marketer could do with a list of already a million opt-ins?
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    • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
      Originally Posted by chrisdafunk View Post

      personally i would find someone who knows how to generate money from it, offer them a percentage of the revenue. obviously that would only work if he wanted to keep writing for the site. just happened to me, someone had a website they wanted to make money for, they write content, i cover the marketing and monetizing, we split the profit
      Again I have to quote you as that is the spot on solution. He's bending a little now.
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      • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
        Originally Posted by EvolBaby View Post

        Again I have to quote you as that is the spot on solution. He's bending a little now.
        Only thing is he'd have to actually be contributing to the site in some way shape or form and not just putting his face on it
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  • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
    I had the same problem with an online radio station. They had a fantastic following, great hosts, really high quality studio etc, and it was all being paid for by voluntary contributions etc and they wouldnt put any advertising as they thought that it might jeopardise them being independent. It's understandable that he might not want to market as email marketing and other things like that can seem spammy if done incorrectly, but by only supplying high quality information and things that are useful to the audience it wouldnt seem like anything was different.

    My current project is a 'prepper' magazine, the community is very closed to marketing and they dont like people spamming links and blogs, ive started the magazine and send out broadcast messages weekly and so far have had great conversion rates and a few sales in the short time its been available due to them trusting that i only give them relevant information.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    You don't need to buy his site. You can do the same thing pretty easily yourself. You won't start out in the millions but if you know what you're doing it shouldn't take all that long to have a positive cash flow coming in.

    My guess is he's got a bunch of news feeds stacking up the content on his site. Syndicated content. Not all that hard to do. It's targeted to conspiracies, which is a very hot market. Tons of ways to cash that.
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    • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      You don't need to buy his site. You can do the same thing pretty easily yourself. You won't start out in the millions but if you know what you're doing it shouldn't take all that long to have a positive cash flow coming in.

      My guess is he's got a bunch of news feeds stacking up the content on his site. Syndicated content. Not all that hard to do. It's targeted to conspiracies, which is a very hot market. Tons of ways to cash that.
      Nowhere near the real situation.

      He's a multi-award winning television and print and radio journalist. He comes from a stellar family all top notch in their industries. Just adding news feeds isn't what he does. He interviews some of the top scientists and journalists, authors, from all over the world. this isn't something you can do overnight with a WordPress site.
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      • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
        Originally Posted by EvolBaby View Post


        He's a multi-award winning television and print and radio journalist. He comes from a stellar family all top notch in their industries. Just adding news feeds isn't what he does. He interviews some of the top scientists and journalists, authors, from all over the world. this isn't something you can do overnight with a WordPress site.
        he has to make sure that he continues writing for the site as it sounds like he is the main attraction, people like alex jones in the same niche are the reason people go to infowars, if he wasn't posting, writing and presenting he would soon lose people!
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        • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
          Originally Posted by chrisdafunk View Post

          he has to make sure that he continues writing for the site as it sounds like he is the main attraction, people like alex jones in the same niche are the reason people go to infowars, if he wasn't posting, writing and presenting he would soon lose people!
          Alex doesnt really write all that much. But he does video/radio while other people contribute the written content.
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          • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
            Originally Posted by jasondinner View Post

            Alex doesnt really write all that much. But he does video/radio while other people contribute the written content.
            He is the face of the site though, i think people would leave if he wasnt involved

            If its that easy you should get in there, or ask someone on here... I've got a bit of free time lol
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        • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
          Originally Posted by chrisdafunk View Post

          he has to make sure that he continues writing for the site as it sounds like he is the main attraction, people like alex jones in the same niche are the reason people go to infowars, if he wasn't posting, writing and presenting he would soon lose people!
          Oh he's all for that. He's the draw to the site as well as his regular guests and correspondents.

          A marketer should go in, put up links to revenue generating goods and services, use his already hot mailing list, put ads on the radio program and newsletters. Any IM pro could do that in their sleep.

          I have a client that is a FB master. Dude must make half a million $ a month via FB. Think what he could make with a proven traffic monster.
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        • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
          Originally Posted by chrisdafunk View Post

          he has to make sure that he continues writing for the site as it sounds like he is the main attraction, people like alex jones in the same niche are the reason people go to infowars, if he wasn't posting, writing and presenting he would soon lose people!
          Actually Alex Jones got made appearing on my friend's site before Alex went postal and lost.

          I remember Jones as a kid when I worked for Parascope on AOL that was then the top spot for conspiracy sites and we had Art Bell as a member. Believe me I know all the players. I should have gotten into the broadcast end. I'd be a millionaire by now. Still have the opportunity and potential though but do I want the headache.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
    Give me an ego boost with a thanks! Seriously though, that many visitors in a hot niche with people who generally have money to spend.. no brainer really!
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  • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
    I'm getting a ton of emails and skypes about this.

    The sane consensus is to bring in a top IMer who can
    optimize the site and profit share.

    I agree and am talking to the owner of the site about it.

    I suggested he at least try it for six months and then
    see what shakes from that tree.

    So it may be I'll be posting in the hiring section soon for
    a marketer if we don't find a buyer.
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  • Profile picture of the author DrDisk
    You can start your Own! and By Smart work you go ahead of him
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  • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
    he might not want to i guess, the main objection you might get is the same one i get every time. it will look spammy or i might lose credibility if i try and sell people something, as long as the selling looks natural it will be fine!
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    • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
      Originally Posted by chrisdafunk View Post

      he might not want to i guess, the main objection you might get is the same one i get every time. it will look spammy or i might lose credibility if i try and sell people something, as long as the selling looks natural it will be fine!
      Actually people fight to get on these shows to sell books. Just one appearance and your book shoots to the top of the charts.

      I've told him this a bazillion times. He should have a book selling method there.

      Products that would really sell are self help related like getting out of debt, diet, etc.. He's a top nutritionist, wayyyy ahead of the pack.
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  • Profile picture of the author workoutstuff1
    T-shirts that support a controversial topic featured on the site / show would sell VERY well.
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    • Profile picture of the author eric w
      Since he believes he'll compromise the integrity of the site by offering advertising on it, then you need to find a way to get some of those 1.6 million into an autoresponder or at least get a way to contact them.

      You can have a site or magazine that sells conspiracy items, or whatever that market is interested in. Market this to those visitors by email or snail mail.

      In this way, you monetize the site, without using the site, per se.
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      • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
        Originally Posted by eric w View Post

        Since he believes he'll compromise the integrity of the site by offering advertising on it, then you need to find a way to get some of those 1.6 million into an autoresponder or at least get a way to contact them.

        You can have a site or magazine that sells conspiracy items, or whatever that market is interested in. Market this to those visitors by email or snail mail.

        In this way, you monetize the site, without using the site, per se.
        Oh I agree wholeheartedly but you have to understand the mindset of these talk show and news people. Hard headed!

        In the 90's I told my news service the Gannett News Service to get on the web. Same with many of the AP supported newspapers. They laughed at me and said the internet was a fad. Lo and behold look what's happened. Newspapers across the nation folded as website news sites OWNED them. I even remember when Matt Drudge used to come to our news site on AOL. Then he broke the Clinton/Lewinski story and now has one of the biggest traffic websites anywhere.

        News people are often delusional. They got over confident and got their asses kicked.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    So much potential but it comes down to him being open minded. Does he want to ramp things up, or to sell? Whatever he decides, the next step will be easier to take. Those sites are zany at times, quite fascinating at others. But overall, he needs to make the decision himself what he wants to do, and if he wants to rake in the dough, he better hire an IMer to help with product creation, promoting, etc.

    Books, ebooks, ads, paid packages, so much there for him to seize, if he's serious about seizing it.
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    • Profile picture of the author EvolBaby
      Originally Posted by ryanbiddulph View Post

      So much potential but it comes down to him being open minded. Does he want to ramp things up, or to sell? Whatever he decides, the next step will be easier to take. Those sites are zany at times, quite fascinating at others. But overall, he needs to make the decision himself what he wants to do, and if he wants to rake in the dough, he better hire an IMer to help with product creation, promoting, etc.

      Books, ebooks, ads, paid packages, so much there for him to seize, if he's serious about seizing it.
      Spot on! I've told him this so many times.

      Just ONE IMer with their A Game on and he would be making stupid money fast. Not only that but his correspondents and guests have huge websites and FB fans. He could reach all of them in a heartbeat. Dude is bleeding money opportunities.
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