How to start a news website online portal newspaper (2022): This tutorial is a practical proven guideline on creating a successful local online news portal like CNN, Washington Post, Reuters, Aljazeera, eNCA, etc.
But First;
Important Business Plans For Online News Website
Most local news website publishers failed because they did not have a business plan right from the beginning. Before I forget, the approximate starting cost is about USD150-430 ( 90% of this cost is for the first year). It reduces sharply in subsequent years); the following are the 10 points business plan for an online news website.
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Invest Heavily On Social Media
Let me tell you about my first mistake when I was about to start a news website i.e. a local news website in Cape Town, South Africa. I thought that having original, quality content was all I needed; I was pretty wrong. I employed two writers writing original news articles, but there was no traffic, so I was not making money.
Then I had to talk to a friend based in the USA but has a news website in Nigeria, and he was making money. He told me he had to invest a lot on Twitter and Facebook. So I stopped writing and focused on building followers on Twitter and Facebook. The truth is that I made sure I had nothing less than 60 000 followers on Twitter and about 300,000 likes/followers on Facebook. After this, I resumed writing. To my major surprise, Twitter and Facebook were my only traffic sources ( about 20,000 a day). Gradually, Google and other search engines started giving me traffic.
My friend, if you are not ready to invest heavily ( spend money) on these social media platforms from the beginning, you will be frustrated.
So this is my first and number 1 business plan you MUST have and achieve.
Be Purposeful as you start a news website
Having a clear purpose is the second business plan. You should know that you should not try to go into this kind of business just because your friend is doing that and successful. You must have a genuine passion for it. Your passion fuels your resilience, persistence, perseverance, commitment, and ability to stay focused.
Some fundamental truths are painful to know but vital for you to understand.
Start a local news website.
Creating a local news website is a personal suggestion from my own experience. Established news websites like the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN are significant corporations. To run an online news website like them, you will need to invest a lot of money. For example, hiring writers, getting an expensive server ( stand-alone server), maintaining it, etc. The best suggestion is to start from the local perspective, and as you grow, you scale up your growth and expansion.
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From my personal experience on how to start a local news website, the total cost should be approximately USD180-450 per year (excluding fees for writers and, to some extent Facebook Ads). I am considering the price of a domain name, website hosting, premium templates ( WordPress themes), and the cost of your internet connections (data).
Be the First to Break a news story.
No matter how popular or unpopular a story might be, always try to be the first person to publish such on your online newspaper site.
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People subscribe to their news updates because they feel safe knowing that they publish well-researched news and stories.
To be a success factor when you start a news website, try always to lead the way!!
Have a Clear Business Plan ( Long And Short Term)
To have a plan means you should have a solid business plan for the immediate short term and long term. Some of the things to consider when you start a news website are:
- how to get funds to start ( especially if you are bootstrapping everything all by yourself),
- how to maintain the funding for almost a year ( before consistent and reasonable profits start rolling in, this is needed if you are considering boosting your posts on Facebook, running Facebook Ads and probably paying your writers),
- Maintenance and daily running of the website ( are you going to run it by yourself 24 hours a day or get help from your girlfriend/wife and probably outsource these tasks to a third party).
Think about all of these!!
Build a Team as you start a news website
No man is an Island!!
To be honest with you, doing everything all by yourself will cause fatigue, burnout, and slow growth to you and the site.
The best option is to start with your spouse, girlfriend, or friend that believes in your dream project.
Forget About making money in the first six months.
The myth of making quick money is one of the bitter truths you may not want to hear when starting an online news website business. I am not saying your news website newspaper portal will not give you money in the first six months, but you should not even think of it. Your focus, in the beginning, should be on building and growing the news site on a daily and consistent basis. However, if you implement the first business plan, I guarantee you will be making money within this short time. Still, it also takes time ( approximately 3-4 months to have decent followers and likes, as mentioned in the first plan).
And to be honest with you, you may realize that only trickles of earnings will be dropping to your account for the first six months. It is usual for any business, and this online venture is not an exception. Do not give up; maintain and pump up the momentum as you are about to start a news website.
Start a News website (Legislation and Laws)
The online news business segment is an unregulated niche, and there is no legislation stopping anyone from launching out.
That is why most individuals, even the big online behemoths (Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc.), are fighting the government not to censor or regulate the industry.
When you start a news website, you must do the right thing once you start making money and profit from your online newspaper. You will need to submit taxes, report revenue, and probably register it as a company/business entity. This government guideline will help you.
You are free to start your online newspaper website portal without being caged by any law or legislation. By the time you start making money, obey the country laws and do the RIGHT THING!!
Be a thorough Professional
By being a thorough professional means, you should run the business concerning people’s privacy, publish only true stories, do not use the medium to harass people, curse, or try to use the medium to support a particular political party.
The essence of journalism and news is to be transparent and report up-to-date, accurate news/stories; stick to this, and you will be recognized as an authority very soon.
Be Consistent ( Its the Key)
Please note that punctuality and consistency are the lifeblood required for the survival and success of the site.
It would be best if you had a plan on how you are going to handle this aspect. For a beginner, you must post at least five ( 5 -10) stories/news in a day. You need to get your audience on social media busy and engaged with your consistent postings.
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Make a news website (You are alone)
When you are about to start a news website and launch out, please note that you are alone in this project, except if you are a team from the beginning. You will need to invest a considerable amount of time writing your articles, news stories/specials all by yourself before editors and columnists start contributing.
Step 1: Start A Local News website Portal.
There are typically two types of news, and that is; bad or good news. Generally, there are three forms of news niche, and they are:
- Online Newspaper Portal
Print media houses typically run online newspaper portals. In essence, the leading newspaper company has a print paper version ( which is their primary business model). They publish/post the print version contents on their websites.
- Local News Website
I always recommend that starters or Journalists intending to launch in this niche should start locally. Starting a local news website is quite different from having a newspaper parent company. Anybody with little financial capital can start. Starting a local news website will give you higher leverage and an easy way of launching out.
- International News Site
CNN, Aljazeera are examples of international news sites. One thing about them is that they are not running a physical newspaper print version. They only concentrate on the website and their media outlet ( basically TV).
Copying News From Other Websites
One thing should be understood and known; A news website, online Portal, and or local channel should publish undiluted, original, non-partisan news and stories. Copying information from other websites should not be practiced by you at all. If you aim for a long-term goal of being successful as you start a news website, then why stain and kill your journey by plagiarism from the beginning?
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Though I started copying and scrapping other content from authority sites, I was penalized by Google search engine. I learned painfully, and since then, I have decided to do the right thing.
During the trump/Clinton campaign in 2016, the large media companies improved their algorithm to detect plagiarized content and remove them. The issue of copying and pasting news stories used to work before this time, but from then, it has stopped.
Even if you have millions of followers on Facebook and Twitter, you will discover that little traffic is coming from them.
I explained the issue of permission, laws, and legal developments when opening this type of niche business below.
How to Create a News Website in India, Nigeria, UK, USA, and others
Whether you are in India, Nigeria, the UK ( United Kingdom), the USA, or other countries, the guidelines you are about to read in this tutorial apply to all. You may probably need to find out about the regulations as earlier mentioned above.
Step 2: Buy WordPress News Website Themes
I was asked how to make a news website in WordPress; the good news is that It is the most straightforward task to do and accomplish, and I will show you the steps to take.
In this 21st century, designing your news website is no longer an impossible task if you do not know about website designing or programming. The answer is in the use of the WordPress platform.
WordPress software now powers more than 30% of all websites out there ( according to W3Techs), and I will show you how to create a news website in WordPress.
You need to approach WordPress designing companies and buy their professionally looking templates (WordPress themes) for as low as USD 35-USD120. The fee is usually a one-time fee. You will use the template forever ( though some companies require you to pay maintenance fees annually – usually around USD5-50).
To start a news website, I recommend the following ready made online news templates;
1
2
3
4
5
6
You will find all the templates/WordPress themes above at Mythemeshop company below.
10
5
You will find all the templates/WordPress themes above at Themeforest company below;
When you visit these companies, search for your preferred designs (you can type newspaper in their search box). But the template and download the ZIP files on your computer. Once done, just relax; continue reading the tutorial on how to start a news website (we will come back on how you will install it in the course of this tutorial)
I will be using the first template (template 1) as an example of the installation and configuration).
Step 3: Buy Domain Name And Webhosting
As you are about to make a news website, please note that the best Webhosting company for such a niche is Bluehost. Before going to hosting, you need to think of the name you will call your news website. The name you give it is also going to be the technical name the web understands.
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For example, www.nytimes.com, www.washingtonPost.com, www.huffingtonPost.com, www.reuters.com, www.facebook.com, are all called New York Times, WashingtonPost, Huffington Post, Reuters, TimesLive, and Facebook, respectively.
In essence, the name of your website is called the domain name.
The first task is to:
- Sit down and think of a good, reasonable, short, memorable, sweet, and brandable name that can be used for your domain name and also your name.
- Write down different names that come to your mind on your notepad or your diary.
- Then, you will need to search if the name is available to be used ( and whether other people are not currently using it)
- At the same time, you will also need to check if you can use that same name for your Facebook page and Twitter account ( this is important because of the branding advantage I earlier talked about)
To do that, use the form below to check if the name is available; I strongly advise you to buy it and register immediately).
If the name is available, take that name and register it on Twitter and Facebook pages. To do that, type twitter.com/thename and facebook.com/thename on your browsers; if it is not available, it will show a 404 error, but it will bring about the profile if used.
After that, go to twitter.com and facebook.com (page) and register using that name. What I am trying to explain is shown in the scenario below:
- Name of website: www.haceweb.com
- Twitter account: www.twitter.com/haceweb
- Facebook page account profile: facebook.com/haceweb
- Instagram account: www.instagram.com/haceweb
Take time and do a thorough search to get the perfect domain name, and then register it immediately!!
Use the search box below:
Web Hosting of the Domain Name
Without the domain name, there is no Webhosting and it means you cannot start a news website because no one will see it, and the domain name will not be accessible on the internet.
The act and process of website hosting of the domain name is just a way of buying a space on the internet to store your domain name and the contents. This step is crucial when you want to make an online newspaper website or start a news website.
With the company mentioned above, Bluehost gives you a seamless / hassle-free experience of getting the domain name and hosting the domain name. I recommend you buy the hosting because:
- I am personally using Bluehost for my news website ( based in CapeTown, South Africa).
- They are reliable, economically friendly, dependable, and highly secure.
- Once you buy the hosting, they waive the fee for the domain name (approximately USD17) for an entire year, meaning you will not pay for a year.
- For as low as USD3.5, you can get started with a brand new website; other website hosting companies start from USD25 per month.
Use my link below for your hosting and get started for just $2.95/month (63% off your hosting plan) from Bluehost and get a free domain name registration.
Step 4: Install WordPress
Now, for the domain name registration and hosting, just follow the step-by-step guidelines shown on your screen by Bluehost.
For further understanding, I have screenshots of the steps you need to take below:
Skip this; you are going to use the purchased themes.
The overall summary of everything is this:
- You will receive the login for your Bluehost account ( please keep it safe)
- You will also be given the username and password for your WordPress login account ( yournewwebsite.com/wp-admin); in most cases, your username is your email address or just admin.
- Sign out of your Bluehost account, and from your browser, type in the login for your WordPress account ). In most cases, it will be yournewwebsite.com/wp-admin.
- Type your username and password, once you successfully log in, you will see your dashboard, and from here, real work has just started as you about to start a news website.
- Type your username and password, once you successfully log in, you will see the dashboard, and from here, real work has just started.
Forget about any other thing they are telling you; follow the following steps below.
Configuring Your Website And Plugin Installation
For an easy understanding of creating a news website, the pictorial guidelines below will be of much-needed help.
From your dashboard, the first thing you should do is to upload the website design template (themes) you bought earlier. Locate your ZIP file ( the downloaded, purchased template) and upload the design.
Follow the screenshots below.
For the best result, it is advisable to upload the demo ( so that your new news website will look exactly like the design displayed from where you bought it. However, after uploading the demo, you will need to delete those contents one by one as you start uploading and posting your own stories. The demo is sometimes good for easy guidelines).
To do that, follow the steps below:
- Go to your ZIP file ( locate where you downloaded it on your PC or laptop)
- Unzip it or simply double click it to reveal the contents
- Find and locate demo.xml ( on some, it may not show demo, but just locate anything looking like .xml)
- That is the demo; upload it
Step 4(1)
Essential Task To Do Immediately
Because you are a newbie ( just starting), there are some things you need to implement on your new site immediately.
- Go to Settings ( from the left dashboard) to permalinks; change the default permalink settings to ‘name.’
- Go to ‘reading ( under Settings); select ‘search engines should not index this site box.’
- This step is essential because, at this stage, you are still configuring your site and would not want the demo contents and others to start appearing on Google search.
Remember to uncheck when done with the setup.
Remember to come back after you are done with the configurations and demo stuff to uncheck the box. If you do not, Google and other search engines will not see your site.
Step 4 (2)
WordPress Plugins
Having and installing a WordPress plugin (s) is one crucial step as you are about to start a news website business. Plugins are the core factors and tools that make a WordPress-powered website function optimally. You need to install the following plugins on your news website immediately.
- Yoast SEO: You need it for SEO.
- W3 total cache: It turbo speed your site to an incredible level.
- SumoMe: SumoMe is the best social media sharing plugin; highly mobile responsive.
- No follow: Makes outgoing links nofollow
- JetPack: Multipurpose plugin
- Akismet: Stops malicious attempts and fake login, the best security plugin.
- Yoast Google news Plugin ( this is very much important, though it is not free)
Step 4 (3)
Page Set Up, Menu Settings
I earlier mentioned that I would be using the above template ( newspaper template) for this tutorial. I am also assuming that you have uploaded the demo contents and your website is up and running.
To create a news website, you need to set up some essential pages and they;
- About pages
- Privacy Policy page
- DMCA page ( Very important for this niche )
- Disclosure (critical)
- Advertisement page
- Contact pages
e.t.c
The uploaded demo has most of these pages, so look for them and edit them to your content/style.
But if not, follow the below steps to create a page:
- From the left dashboard, locate and click on pages
- Click add page
- Fill in the details required ( as shown below)
- Publish the page
If you do not know how to craft out the contents of some of the pages e,.g DMCA, privacy policy, advertisement, etc.; I recommend you check out the pages from the websites below and use them to write your own ( do not copy and paste but rewrite and redraft yours). This task is important as you are about to create a news website or online newspaper portal.
- www.nytimes.com (see the privacy policy, DMCA, terms of use, advertisement pages, e.t.c.
- www.washingtonPost.com (see the contact page, privacy policy) e.t.c
However, the contact page has a different concept because you may need to use a form. To do that is easy; follow the steps below.
- Create the contact page as usual (following the above step)
- Ensure you have installed the Jetpack plugin ( it is among the list of plugins I recommended you install).
- After installing the plugin, connect it to wordpress.com and activate the Jetpack plugin features (don’t do anything on wordpress.com).
- Come back to your website, go to Jetpack settings, activate the contact, click save, and go back to your newly published contact page.
- Refresh the page, and you will see an icon to insert the contact form (as seen in the image below)
- Follow the image below to create your contact form and then publish the page.
- You can also study the contact pages of other websites and use them to design yours. If you need help, you can contact me through the live chat box below.
NB: first, check if you have a published contact page; if you have, then go there and edit your information. But if not, follow the guidelines as stated above.
Setting up your categories
When you want to create a news website, you must understand that this niche is different from other websites. Any published story, news, or article is categorized or arranged under a particular category.
To make a news website and get started, you will need to create the following categories:
- News
- Business
- Politics
- Local
- Relationship
- Metro ( transportation)
- Investment
Those are the ones I can remember; for now, you can check other websites for more ideas:
To create a category, follow the steps below:
- From the left dashboard, locate and click on categories, then click on create new
- Create your category as seen below, then click on publish
So, any story, news, article, or specials you want to publish should fall under a particular category.
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Setting up your Menu
Your menu gives practical navigation to the entire website structure. The image below is an example of what is called a menu. Using the theme examples I listed earlier, the following pictures briefly explain the menus.
On most templates or newspaper themes, the standard menu is the primary and secondary menus.
On a menu, you can adjust and set your categories and pages to show on it.
In the template we are using for our practical guidelines, the menu below is used as an example:
- If you want to edit this particular menu, follow the steps below:
- From the left-hand side of your dashboard, under appearance, locate and click on the menu.
- Click on save, then refresh your page (please note, if you do not constantly refresh your page after doing any work or editing, it will not show or reflect)
- Then check your homepage to check out the new changes.
And if you want to create a new menu, you will also follow the above guidelines.
Widgets settings for a news website
The widget is the engine room for any sort of editing, adjustment, and configurations you want to carry out on any news website. You can set up a news website from the widget properly ( including adverts, sidebars, etc.)
Every template or theme you buy contains the widgets, and it is from here you can carry out adjustments like:
- We add information to the right-hand sidebar, e.g., Facebook like widgets, Subscription forms, latest posts, trending topics, etc.
- Editing or configuring the entire homepage
- Suppose your template is Google AdSense ready and optimized ( that is why I have already recommended those themes to you). In that case, from these widgets, you can add your codes and do anything you want to do.
- Even from the widgets, you can upload your logo to the header and practically carry out anything you want to do.
All you need is patience, studying diligently, and using your common sense to set things up properly.
Step 5: Account Set up ( News Writers/Contributors)
Setting the account is a significant development when thinking about how to make an online newspaper website portal. Remember that you are the administrator and sole owner of your website; therefore, any posts and news published matter to your integrity.
But suppose you want other people to be featured on your site, e.g., editors, columnists, contributors, and all attribution to be given to them. In that case, you need to create an account for them.
Creating an account for them makes it easy for them to upload content and stories on the site from the comfort of their home and workplace. This act is called front-end submission.
The picture below will be of essential guidelines:
To do that, follow the steps below:
- From your dashboard, go to settings, locate users and click on it
- Create users (choose whether they will be editors, contributors, writers, columnists, e.t.c.)
- Type in their emails
- Upload their picture ( passport-sized photographs)
- Give a brief description of them and click publish
WordPress will send a notification email to their email address containing the login details. With this approach, they automatically become privileged to start writing and posting on the news website.
Front-end submission
If you want people to contribute their news and stories on your site directly, then you need this feature. You will see ‘submit your stories/news’ on some templates at the top of the header (familiar with most viral websites).
- The first task is to get a template that has this feature, as seen below:
Secondly, if you do not have it, you can install the Front end submission plugins ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/frontend-uploader/), ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/pipe-video-recorder/.
Go to the setting page of the plugins and adjust the settings ( e.g., disabling automatic post of submitted content until you approve it, etc.)
Step 6: How to get your news stories
Getting a news story is one primary source of headache as you step out to start a news website; I got to know about the trick from my former boss and mentor. He runs africaoilgasreport.com; follow the below steps to get ideas:
- Subscribe to the latest updates on most companies websites and press release sections
- Follow most companies, celebrities, politicians, business people on their social media accounts. Most of them post an update about life and the following line of actions on social media. A perfect example is Donald Trump, the former president of the USA (a Twitter addict, www.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump). However, his account has been suspended since 2021.
- Subscribe to most press releases
- Study other top websites, study trending posts/articles, and copy their latest posts (but rewrite and redraft it completely, with news headlines, etc.)
- Go to meetings, network with journalists and other website publishers.
- Go to buzz sumo ( https://buzzsumo.com/)to get ideas on the latest news and trending stories.
Step 7: Publishing your first news, stories, or a unique piece
If you follow the above instructions and guidelines, then I must congratulate you on your perseverance. I think everything should be ready by now, and if you need assistance, you can contact me through my contact page.
Now, it is time for you to publish your first news, stories, piece, or even articles; to do that, follow the guidelines below:
Open your dashboard (if you have closed it), and if not, locate posts (towards the left-hand side of the dashboard), click on ‘add new.’
Give the posts a title, select, and choose a category, upload a featured image. The image below will be of help.
Step 8: Website Set Up on Google
Now, it is time to get Google involved as you set up and start a news website. There are two experimental stages:
- Submitting your news website to Google News ( there are strict conditions required); I suggest you check out their requirements and check if you qualify; read here.
- By visiting the Google search console to get your site indexed, it is imperative.
For the Google search console, follow the steps below;
- Go to Google search console at google.com/console ( https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home)
- Click sign up (you must have a Gmail account, and if not, just sign up for a free Gmail account)
- Once signed up, you will need to submit your website for verification, submit your sitemaps using the Yoast SEO plugin I recommended earlier)
- Follow the below guidelines (pictures) on how to get this done!!
How to get Google to index your posts and news website
Please remember to uncheck the do not index this site’ option; I earlier mentioned this. You must uncheck it so that Google and other search engines can crawl and index your websites with the posts.
Suppose you submit your news websites on the Google search console and remember to submit your sitemaps and publish your posts consistently. In that case, Google will naturally crawl the site and all your news stories/posts. For faster indexing, make use of the “fetch as Google” tool, as seen below.
I recommend you read and install these plugins ( https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/)
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MARKETING / PROMOTION / SUCCESS TIPS
To create and start a news website business is easy, as demonstrated above. Still, the real test of running it successfully depends heavily on the promotion and exposure to the internet.
Step 9: Getting and setting up Facebook Page Account
Facebook is the powerhouse and the bloodline of all successful news websites out there. Trust me, If Facebook should die today, 90% of websites will die along with it.
With that said and done, it is essential (not negotiable) you open a Facebook page. To do that,
- Go to Facebook.com, scroll down, and click on Page (or instead, if you have a Facebook account, you can open a Facebook page for your business).
- Create a page for your news website ( remember to use the name of your site, I made mention of this vital point earlier)
- Use a creative background and profile picture to represent your business’s brand, logo, and purpose.
- Complete the profile information
Creating Facebook Ads
Just setting up your Facebook page is not enough; you need to let people know about your new page and website. The first task is to send an invitation to your friends, family members, colleagues, etc., for them to like the page and be a follower. Please note that you can only run Facebook Ads from your FB page and not your own personal Facebook account.
After this, you need to spend money (invest) to get lots of likes (followers) on FB. From my experience, 1000-1200 dollars will give you approximately 35,000 – 80,000 followers. I will not be able to discuss at length how to get lots of likes from running a Facebook Ad; visit Neil Patel’s blog to learn more.
Use my link below for your web hosting and get started for just $2.95/month (63% off your hosting plan) from Bluehost and get a free domain name registration.
Please, to run and manage a successful online newspaper portal, you need to invest in Facebook, get to engage with your followers, etc.
Step 10: Getting Facebook Traffic ( Tricks)
After you start a news website and you want it to be successful using Facebook, traffic generation guidelines are essential. Please note that without Facebook, your news website can never become successful. You need FB more than you think. However, with the recent Algorithm tweak, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get traffic from the world’s largest social networking website.
However, you can follow the below guidelines to get the best out of FB.
- Do not automate posting your articles/news stories to FB ( this means you should not use third-party automated tools. Do it manually.
- Share and post your articles at optimal times to get the best exposure (notably in the morning and also anytime from 5 pm till 11 pm)
- Try as much as possible to commit time in engaging with your followers by responding to their likes, comments, shares, answering questions, etc. ( you can hire a staff to do this for you)
- Another trick is to focus on Facebook groups. Join many FB groups related to your niche, become a friend of the group’s Admins.
- Convince the group administrators to be sharing your posts with their group members.
- Another trick is to open more than one Facebook page for your news website. Instead of just opening the FB page for the site, spread the FB page for each popular category and share each post on the main FB page and the category pages. This trick is what transformed https://www.legit.ng/ into the most popular and successful news site in Nigeria.
Step 11: Twitter Account – Set Up And Followers Growth
Twitter is presently proving to be more effective and efficient in sending massive traffic to a news website. What I discovered is that Twitter has an organic influence on Google search rankings than Facebook.
I use Twitter a lot, and I recommend the same to you.
Go to www.twitter.com and sign up (remember to use the domain name for branding purposes). If you want to get the best out of Twitter, you need to also engage with your followers, reply to their comments, like them, retweet their posts likewise.
However, the significant benefit and challenges are getting lots of followers. To do that, I will never advise you to use Twitter Ads because it is expensive. To get targeted Twitter followers, I recommend the use of an App called Manageflitter. I recommend you check them out (Manageflitter Apps).
If you grow your follower diligently and non-stop daily, I will not be surprised if your followers become 30,000 in two (2) months.
After this, anytime you publish a story, share and tweet the story on your timeline. You will be surprised by the viral effect sensation you will get.
Step 12: Leverage Networking Potentials!!
Networking is an essential tool, and I need to remind you. Remember that the focus of this stage is to share with you proven ways to market your news website, give it maximum exposure, and get massive traffic to it. One of the ways to achieve this, aside from using Facebook and Twitter, is to network. This strategy works great if you want to start a news website, get traffic and be successful.
Let me explain!!
Anything that has to do with the newspaper, news, etc., has something to do with Journalists and their associated groups. So, your first task is to become friends with most Journalists. By doing this, you will be able to get first-hand information on the latest news and also be able to make your site popular.
Go to meetings, conferences, symposiums, luncheons, and network with other minded people!!
Step 13: Make a deal with social media influencers
Have you heard the phrase ‘Work Smarter and not harder!!’
I am a personal testimony to the powerful effects of leveraging this simple idea when I was about to start a news website. Why do you think companies and brands pay so much money to celebrities and famous people on social media?
I started with FB Ads, but over time, I embraced this idea, and to my amazement, the flood of traffic from Twitter and Facebook blew me away.
How do you handle this?
Look out for famous individuals with lots of followers, fans, and subscribers on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Reach out to them to help you share and spread the contents of your site. You can read more about influencers and how to get and engage with them in my earlier post on creating a successful video website like YouTube.
Step 14: Using Press releases
Sign up with significant press release websites and receive first-hand information and updates about events, trends, and issues. However, the best use of PR is to help your content and stories reach a broader global audience.
Due to the research made by mequoda.com, the following are the best and most recommended PR sites you should check out ( they are excellent even to help your content gets on Google news):
Free Press Release sites:
- PRLog.org
- PR.com
- PR-Inside.com
- Newswire.com
- OnlinePRNews.com
Premium (Paid) Press Release sites:
- PRNewswire.com
- PRWeb.com
- BusinessWire.com
- MarketWired.com
How to start a news website and make money
Someone sent me a message saying, ‘how can a news website make money? I understand that the essence of business is to make money and be profitable. Please know that you will most likely not make money in your first six months (or at least make good money every month).
With that settled, let me explain all the complete details about making money with your newspaper website. There are three proven ways and methods of making money in this niche, and they are;
- Using Cost Per Click (notably the use of Google AdSense)
- Direct advertisements
- Press releases
Cost Per Click (Google AdSense)
Google runs this program, and it is by far the most reliable, effective way of making money on the internet.
Nearly 98% of all news websites use it because of the accuracy of the displayed advert and zero efforts from your end. However, there are specific rules you need to abide by if you wish to get accepted into the program.
If a visitor checks out a story on your website and clicks on an advert (provided by Google), you get a commission and get paid for that click.
I know websites that make more than USD10 000 – USD100,000 per month using this program alone. However, publishers of these news websites use mobile responsive WordPress themes optimized for Google Adsense earnings. You can check out these Google Adsense Optimized WordPress themes ( if you want to use them or build a site focusing on using Google Adsense monetization.
Direct Advertisement
Offering direct advertisement gives you more money and more control, e.g., running a 360 by 360 Ad for one month, etc.;
Press Releases
Buzzfeed and LadBible, the online viral website behemoths and other notable giant online newspaper sites, use this money-making model to make a killing amount of money every year.
Companies, advertisers approach them and pay a high amount of money. So what they do is to come up with a solid well-researched post about the product, company, etc., and then publish it with the links of the product or company. Suppose you want to run a successful news website. In that case, I highly recommend giving a premium press release a priority in your initial marketing effort.
When you start a news website and wants to make good money, press releases are a more effective method because it goes to the targeted audience. You can also embrace this model, and you will be surprised by the insane amount of money you make.
Conclusion
If you want to start a news website, this guideline is a handy and practical tutorial to help you get started. I am open to helpful suggestions and help.
If you find it helpful and resourceful, please bookmark it, link back to it from your blog and site, share it with your friends and families, and share it on Facebook.
If you need help to start a news website, kindly reach out to me; I will be of service ( not free, I will be a consultant to you, and you have to pay GOOD money for my time and attention because I am busy).