Get Ready for Frequent Updates
The first thing that publishers need to do is prepare for frequent updating of content. Readers online expect more timely content. The result is that on-line you are no longer a monthly publication. In this age of Twitter™ and Facebook™, you need to give your reader a reason at least once a week (better everyday) to come by and check out what you've just published. This is not quite as daunting a task as it first seems. It requires some adaptation to make the most of your content online but there are also simple things you can do to give your site a regular and fresh look.
Keep Your Homepage Fresh
Your homepage should change daily, for example. This can be as little as changing some images or rearranging feature stories. In Metro Publisher there are headline stories which occupy a dominant position on the homepage and include large images. By simply changing the order of the stories, the homepage can appear more fresh.
Get Your Blog(s) Ready
Blogging is a necessity for online publications. Regardless of the frequency of your print publication (or if you are launching an online only publication) you will want to launch with one great blog. If you know that you can support more than one blog at a time – by all means launch a second but err on the side of caution. It is important to publish only what you can keep up with. Each Blog requires at least 3 – better to publish 5 blog postings per week. Multiply that times 4 weeks and that means you are looking at roughly 20 postings per month. So before launch of your new site, you need to decide what blogs you are going to launch with initially. You can always add more later. Back-fill the content if possible or have a list of ready to go blog entries to keep up the momentum.
Since you must do regular and frequent blog entries, don't be afraid of short posts. It is a standard practice on the web and will help keep the continuity and flow going. Because blog postings tend to be short-form and more informal than articles, they are a great way to engage your readers and learn what they are particularly interested in through their comments. This feedback can generate new ideas for magazine stories, not just for blogs.
And finally, there is another less obvious reason to blog. Search engines pay more attention to frequently updated sites, so when you maintain a blog and frequently post new blog entries your web site's overall search engine ranking can increase.
For more ideas on blogging and sample blog schedules, read our Guide to Blogging.
Organize Your Sections and Subsections
Each section or subsection should be viewed as an entry into a new market. The content should be robust and have enough value so that it positions the website as the number one resource for that type of content in your city or region. A common mistake is to launch with too many sections, all of which need to be updated with fresh content. The quality of the content often suffers when the quantity becomes too difficult to keep up with. The structure of the website should be plotted and purposeful to build quality and impact.
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