Anita Campbell Publisher, Small Business

Trends@smallbiztrends

Atlanta Tribune Technology for Business TNT (Tips 'N Tricks) Webinar Series - Hosted by Brent Leary

How to Create an Online Publication (Not Just a Blog)

Brent LearyCRM EssentialsAtlanta Tribune

Twitter: @BrentLeary

Agenda

•Introduction/Housekeeping•Featured Presentation•Q&A•Twitter use #TribuneTNT•Facebook.com/TechnologyForBusinessSake

SmallBizTrends Network

• Award-winning online publication

• Premier source of news, resources, and advice for small business owners, entrepreneurs and small biz managers

Snapshot • What We Do

• News and information site • Laser focus 100% on small businesses - 0 to 100 employees • Everything small business owners and their management staff need to

know: news, people, products, services, resources, books, events, government policies, research, advice, motivational tips and more

• Focus on the practical: how small business owners, managers and entrepreneurs can apply the news, resources and information

• Special events: Twitter chats, webinars, Hangouts, Awards programs

• Editorial Staff Includes• Professional journalists and editors formerly with publications such as the

Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur magazine

Tagline: “Small business success … delivered daily”

What it Takes to Run It• A Team

• 5 full-time• 18 part-time• 400+ contributors• Service providers and partners: UX Department; Freelancers on ODesk and

Fiverr; other freelancers

• Customized Platform• Customized WordPress (Pligg for Awards sites and BizSugar)• Many third party plugins not robust enough; custom coded

• Process• Time is money!• Remote workers increases challenges • Reducing friction & inefficiency is key to profitability and quality

Creating Content • Sourcing Content - Where We Get Stories

• Public GMail tips address: sbtips@gmail.com • MyYahoo account we call News Central -- with small business feeds and our

pitch inbox.• Individuals emails and calls received by Editor, Publisher and writers• Writers or team sometime suggest topics• Twitter! • Date-driven (e.g., Small Business Week, earnings releases, conferences)

• Process - How We Work Internally• Morning editorial meeting - chat and Nextiva for voice calls• Assignments for writers entered into Simple Author Manager system• Google Apps / Drive used for collaboration

Creating Content Cont’d• Tools We Use to Write and Edit

• Tweak Your Biz title generator tool (titles are 50% of success!)• Yoast SEO Plugin• Shutterstock licensed images (or images intended for media)• Copyscape Premium for contributed articles• A good spell checker

BizSugar Snapshot• What It is

• A community sharing site• Focused 100% on small businesses• A place where small businesses can share their blog ad video content for

others to see. • The best content is voted on and surfaced to the “Hot” area• A great listening source used to learn “what’s happening” and “what small

businesses are talking about”• Who uses it

• Over 1 million registered accounts worldwide• Hundreds of thousands of active users in a given six-month period

• Features • Weekly Top 10 newsletter• Active social accounts• Special events such as “Ask Me Anything” and Branded Contests

Tweak Your Biz• What It is

• A group site for entrepreneurs and small businesses to share• An international audience, with good participation among the British Isles,

Ireland, Europe, Australia and the United States• Professionals, small business owners and entrepreneurs write original

articles

• Features • Smaller, more intimate feel• Engaged community• Active social accounts

Traffic VISITS

1,000,000

PAGEVIEWS1,400,000

NEW VISITS51%

TIME ON SITE

5:58Source: Google Analytics

Other Key Metrics

125,000 RSS

SUBSCRIBERS

220,000SOCIAL

MEDIA FANS

17,000EMAIL

SUBSCRIBERS

Community EngagementActive Social Sharing & Community Involvement

10,000 SHARES PER WEEK

1,275 COMMENTS PER MONTH

Audience: Business SizeSmall Business Trends draws a targeted small business audience

Source: Bizo

Audience: Industry

Source: Bizo

Audience: Decision MakersSmall Business Trends visitors are senior level and owners

Source: Bizo

Audience: Functional Area

Source: Bizo

Source: Bizo

The Bizo Marketing Traffic Index of 2014 places Small Business Trends among the top 10 in sites that attract the largest percentage of marketing traffic at #7

Amplified Marketing

Audience: DemographicsAge Male / Female

Education Household Income

18-54 52% / 48%

College Graduate $64K – $120KSource: In-house Survey; Alexa; Facebook

We look forward to working with you in the very near future.

Thank you!

SmallBizTrends.comContact: Tamar Weinberg

Chief Strategy Officertamar@smallbiztrends.com