The Weekly Bulletin | August 6, 2024

Hi SODP community,

Let’s recap on what’s been happening, the new content, industry updates, tips, and more.

TIP OF THE WEEK

PhoneArena is a premium digital publisher focusing on mobile technologies. They publish in-depth product reviews of the latest smartphones and tablets and cover the latest industry news. The website has been online for 23 years. At Monetization Week – an online event we hosted in May – we heard from Gabriella Petrova, Head of Revenue Operations at PhoneArena.

Gabriella shared six key areas publishers need to focus on while trying to monetize their affiliate marketing efforts:

1. User Need:
   Everything else you do starts from this. Identify the products that are relevant to your audience, and provide information that can help them make a confident buying decision. Also, provide information about reliable sellers and the best offers.

2. Audience:

   Figure out your audience interest categories and try to identify niches where you can develop publication authority. Find ways to reach your audience (traffic sources). Try to gain an understanding of your user base, and identify things like buying intent.

3. Featured Products:

   The next step is to identify topics that generate a lot of interest while also being commissionable. For example, Apple products are very popular, but they are not commissionable. Try to maintain editorial integrity and avoid bias while selecting products.

4. Content:

   The body of content has to demonstrate expertise and provide needed information to the reader to help them make a buying decision. Try to find a balance between evergreen content and single deals. Try to target a broader audience with different buying intent.

5. Partnerships:

   Networks are great entry-level choices for building connections with multiple brands. Retailer availability can fluctuate depending on region and product vertical, but they offer the best chance of deals and price cuts. Direct partnerships with brands only make sense if you have the appropriate scale for it.

6. Tracking & Optimization:

   Relevant KPIs can include CTR, CR, AOV, CPA, and EPM. Monitor KPIs for evergreen content separate from single deals and try to make insights understandable to everyone involved.

LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER

Monetizing Sport News in the Age of First-Party Data

Learn how to scale your first-party data collection results and maximize the revenue potential of your current data sets

🗓️ 8 August 2024
🕓️ 4 PM Sydney | 2 PM Singapore

What the webinar will cover:

• Zero party vs first party data

• Leveraging your existing data for maximum reach

• Generating more revenue from existing data sets

• Creating an always-on content plan

SODP POSTS

Man of Many Q&A: Using AI to Complement – Not Replace – Human Creativity

Scott Purcell is a co-founder of Man of Many and a CFA Charterholder. He is a renowned figure in the media industry.

With a special focus on lifestyle content, Scott has collaborated with leading international brands like Apple, Samsung, IWC, and TAG Heuer. Under his guidance, Man of Many triumphed as the Best Media Platform at the B&T Awards, 2023, and clinched the titles for Best Engagement Strategy, Website of the Year, and Publish Leader of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards, 2023.

In this interview, he explains Many of Many’s approach to AI, his hopes for how it will help the media industry, and the risks that publishers should be aware of.

READ MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ BBC Studios is looking for a part-time audience engagement editor who will work across curation, SEO and audience (London, UK). SEE MORE

➡️ Newsport is seeking a skilled and experienced Editor to join its team based in Port Douglas to manage and develop a team of journalists (Cairns and Port Douglas/Mossman regions, QLD, Australia). SEE MORE

➡️ News UK is looking for a data storyteller to join the Strategic Development team to use its vast and varied first-party data to help maximise commercial advertising revenue (London, UK). SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

Industry News

➡️ Google Search Console is rolling out recommendations within Google Search Console for some users. Google said this is an experimental feature and gives you insights and recommendations to improve your site’s performance on Google Search. READ MORE

➡️ Hanging by mere Threads or a big Zuck-cess? One year in to Meta’s microblogging experiment. READ MORE

Social Media Discussions

➡️ Ryan Y. Kellett on LinkedIn:

I stopped in to the Axios offices yesterday to wrap things up before I head out to Cambridge/Boston and Nieman/Havard this fall.

I wrote the newsroom a note that included an "impartial catalog of what I care about more than others" in my absence, and thought I'd share here too. In bullet list form, of course...

- Your web/search/social audience is your future newsletter audience. It’s connected and worthy of your time to invest.

- Metrics matter. Internal data allows you to ask and answer questions about your audience and your own habits. Be rigorous about it, not just throwing out a big number and celebrating.

- It’s better when you talk to and inspire your Product, Design, and Engineering peers. They want to elevate the journalism, be it a minor workflow change or the biggest story on the planet. Thank you to every non-journalist I worked with.

- No single platform or channel will save you. Diversify, experiment, and try new things, even if they take a while to cook.

- Trust the youngs. Seriously, your young millennial/Gen Z/alpha colleagues are some of the most important indicators of our future success.

CONTINUE READING HERE

These are the highlights for the last week.

Until next!

Vahe Arabian and the editorial team at SODP