Seeking Advice on Promoting News Site

[Paulo_s News]

I'm looking for tips on how to promote my news site, Paulo's News, which I launched last week and have since been refining.

My goal is to have a popular news site, updated many times a day by me, that posts primarily blog-sourced journalism with a more-mainstream demeanor. In other words, I wouldn't hesitate to post anything brutally critical of a political establishment figure, but my site would leave off the more coarse filler material, i.e. "HAHA his MOM and DeLay's should eat crap!", etc. I have two target audiences: 1. lefties who don't have time to sift through blog postings all day, and 2. more moderate readers who want the hard news but not the lefty attitude on the front page.

Unfortunately, I'm caught in a Catch-22. With my day job, I can really only update the site once or twice a day. The site could replace my day job if, I estimate, I get 50000-100000 views per day. But if it's not updated all the time, it's a weaker site, and it's safe to assume it'd draw fewer readers. And jeez, DailyKos gets 600000 views per day. Crooks and Liars gets 200000. 50000 would be damn huge.

Since I get the impression that DU is full of experienced bloggers/publishers, do any of you guys have any advice on what I can do to grow the site's readership?

(You can get to know some of my personal political views in the "Editorial" I wrote a few days ago. It's not my best writing, but I think I get my points across.)

[Speck Tater]

1. Unless I'm mistaken...

That heading "Support Paulo's News" right above the google ads is a violation of Google policy. You can't have any wording on the page that overtly encourages people to click the Google ad links.

Why would you update the news by hand instead of RSS feed? Do you plan to write all your own news stories? How much content can you create in a day?

The the big question you need to ask is why would people come to your site instead of any of the thousands of other news sites on the Internet? What makes your site special? Figure that out and then focus on what makes it special.

Promoting websites is tough. There's loads, and I mean LOADS of competition for viewers. Paid advertising is one way. Search Engine Optimization helps. (There are some good books on that). But above all, in the long run, it's content that matters. Paying good money (if you take out paid advertising) to get people to visit your site for the first time won't do any good at all if you don't have something there to bring them back the second time and the third time. If people visit the first time and then decide it's more interesting to watch paint dry, you've not only lost them that one time, you've likely lost them forever. They won't be back.

You have one chance to hook them. If you blow that with a lackluster site lacking in content, you won't get a second chance. I should know. I have six failed web sites under my belt to prove it. (And two brand new promising ones in the works right now. But neither is ready for prime time yet. Many more weeks of php coding and debugging to go.)

[Tool Fan]

2. Re

websites like blogger.com offer tips on popularizing your blog, I'm sure you can find other websites (and blogs) on the art of blogging itself. Promote it everywhere you go, participate in messageboards like this, and target places like AOL and Yahoo.

Your best bet is going to be to present "un-slanted" news...most bloggers do it because they have opinions they want to express, un-biased views are more rare. Example: in my blogsite, I provide links to "Redstate" and "Free Republic" along with DU and other leftie sites.

[file83]

3. I'm not sure of how to promote, but I'd sure as hell move those

Google ads off to the side of the page. Putting them in between the 3 column layout makes it cluttered.

And, I wouldn't seperate the main "headlines" from the 3 column layout with that search button - again - it looks cluttery and the eye doesn't know how to "organize" the site quickly. Remember, if the "eye" doesn't know where to go, then the mouse won't start clicking.

Third, you need to put at least one graphic image up as the "center" of attention, the "anchor" if you will (not just the title). That doesn't mean it has to be in the center - it could be placed on the left side of the page. Every news aggregate website uses a graphic image, and for good reason. People are visual - they need a non-verbal emotional draw to the page - text is difficult to process quickly - graphics are near instantaneous.

Finally, I'd "frame" the title of the webpage a bit - nothing fancy - maybe just a horizontal line below the title graphic. It seems a bit on the large side too - maybe shrink that title graphic by 20% (it takes up too much valuable space!)

Just my .02 cents. Good luck.