How To Start A News Website And Make Money ( Newspaper Online)

Learn how to start a news website and make money online with a newspaper idea. This tutorial is a practical proven guideline on how to launch a local online newspaper portal and become successful.

How To Start A News Website

The following are the best practices to launch, create and start a successful news business website.

1. Make A Business Plan

The first step to take when thinking on how to start a news website is to come up with a business plan. Most local news website publishers failed because they did not have a business plan right from the beginning.

When you are about to create a news website or starting an online newspaper portal, you need a business plan. The following are the 10-points business plan for an online news website.

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 52 000 followers on Twitter ( see below) and about 40,000 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, when you are about to start a news website and 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.

SWOT Analysis (How To Start a News Website)

To be successful, you need to handle your news website as a business, hence this need for a business plan. When starting a business, doing evaluation using SWOT analysis is very important.

SWOT analysis in news website business plan conception!!

• Check your strength
• Check your weakness
• Check your Opportunities
• And also the threat

As an individual wanting to make a news website, there are definitely some areas you are good at. This will serve as the motivation and impetus to move forward. Your strength can be proof reading, writing, organization.

Watch this video to know how to implement SWOT analysis:

You cannot have all it takes to run a news website. Once you identity your weakness, then your partner /wife or girlfriend can then assist you with their own strength and move forward.

In addition, check your competitors, do due diligence to know the areas you can improve on in other to gain an edge in the market over them.

Do market research to identify the many opportunities around you when you launch out. Check their traffic statistics ( your competitor) using third party tools. Forge ahead with your strength and opportunities to create your new website.

Take note of the threat that easily destroys start up businesses, be smart and try to avoid them.

Have A Clear Purpose ( Starting 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 Locally

Starting 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.

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 portal. 

To be a success factor when you start a news website, try to always lead the way!!

Have a Clear Business Plan (Long And Short Term)

When planning on how to start a news website, please consider some short term and long term plans like the ones listed below;

• 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!!

How To Make A News Website (Build a Team)

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.

On how to open a news website i.e. local news website, kindly know that the approximate starting cost is about USD250-630 (90% of this cost is for the first year). It reduces sharply in subsequent years)

The myth of making quick money as you start a news website business is one of the bitter truths you may not want to hear.

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. As you thinking on how to start a news website, understand that this is somehow normal for any business, and this niche is not an exception.

Do not give up; maintain and pump up the momentum.

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 ( It’s 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.

2. Pick A News Niche

To build a news website, you need to be focused and pick a niche, you cannot be jack of all trades. 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. Running 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).

If you ask me again, I will honestly tell you that you should concentrate on creating a local news website, and then grow it aggressively!!

3. Get A Good UI /UX Design ( Mobile Responsive)

I was asked how to make a news website in WordPress some few months ago; 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 themes has excellent UI ( User interface) and UX ( User experience). Go for mobile responsive templates and I have listed them below for you.

To make a news website, I recommend the following templates and companies where you can get more of these templates:.

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).

You will get all these templates from the company below ( highly recommended);

• Mythemeshop
• Themeforest

4. Register A Domain Name

A domain name is like your passport, it is an identity on the world wide web. The domain name is the name and address people type on the browser to get to your site. One of the crucial steps on how to start a news website is to get the right domain name and set it up correctly.

For example, take a look at the following names:

• nytimes.com
• dailymail.co.uk
• theguardian.com
• ewn.co.za

The above are all examples of domain names, the next question is, how can I get a domain name for my news site?

How Will You Get A Domain Name?

Please understand that it is not a rocket science. As a general rule when considering excellent user experience, branding and SEO for a news website, consider the following;

• The name for your online news website should be short, unique, classy and free from numbers.
• Avoid the use of jargons or slogans for your news site domain name.
• The domain name should be a name that people can relate with and remember easily.

Getting Domain name Extensions!!

For example, nytimes is the name, nytimes.com is the full domain name. The .com after nytimes is what is called the domain name extension.

Domain name extension can either be:

Generic domain name extension

When looking for how to start a news website, the generic domain name extension is most popular, and they are of three types:

• .com
• .net
• .net

However, the .com is the most popular one!!

National top level domain name extension

When looking for how to make a news website locally, in your country, locality or region, then you may think of using the national top level domain name extension. Examples are;

• .uk,
• .in
• .ca
• .us
• .ru
• .au etc

New Generic name extensions

These one are the new ones on board now. Examples are;

• .news
• .usa etc.

With Bluehost, the domain name search and registration is free for one year; I personally encourage you to go to Bluehost platform now, check if it is available and register.

There can only be one domain name in use. Two people cannot use same domain name, so act fast now.

5. Chose A Reliable Web Hosting

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.

When planning on how to start a news website and get it hosted, Bluehost is the go to. 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 this blog you are reading right now also 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.

6. Set Up The Website

Now, for the domain name registration and hosting installation, just follow the step-by-step guidelines as displayed on the screen.

Skip the option of buying their themes ( because their themes will not fit the core purpose of a news website)!!

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.

Set up (1)

Configuring Your Website and Plugin Installation

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.

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

Set up (2)

Essential Task to Do Immediately

Because you are a newbie (about to start a news website), 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.’ ( it is temporal, after the whole set up, come back here and uncheck it)
• 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.

Set up (3)

WordPress Plugins Installations

WordPress plugins takes away the hassle on how to start a news website; the plugins gives you optimal performance.

You need to install the following plugins on your news website immediately.

1. Yoast SEO: You need it for SEO.
2. W3 total cache: It turbo speed your site to an incredible level.
3. SumoMe: SumoMe is the best social media sharing plugin; highly mobile responsive.
4. No follow: Makes outgoing links nofollow
5. JetPack: Multipurpose plugin
6. Akismet: Stops malicious attempts and fake login, the best security plugin.

Just go to the settings page, and type the name of the plugins above in the search, then click on install.

Set up (4)

Page Set Up, Menu Settings

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 etc.

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 page’s 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). 

• www.nytimes.com (see the privacy policy, DMCA, terms of use, advertisement pages
•  www.washingtonPost.com (see the contact page, privacy policy)

Set up (5)

Setting up your categories

When you want to start 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, then click on publish

So, any story, news, article, or specials you want to publish should fall under a particular category.

Set up (6)

Setting up your Menu

When making a news website using WordPress, your menu gives practical navigation to the entire website structure. 

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.

If you want to edit a 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.

Set up (7)

Widgets settings for a news website

Please understand as you are about to start a news website, the widget is the engine room for any sort of editing, adjustment, and configurations you want to carry out. You can set everything up 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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How can writers, columnists, contributors write on my news website?

When running a news website, one of the fastest ways to growth, popularity and making money is to have other people write and publish on your platform. In such a case, you need to create an account for your editors, contributors, guest writers, columnists etc.

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.

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, etc..)
• 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

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.)

Can I copy news from other news websites?

When you start a news website, please know that you need to publish undiluted, original, non-partisan news and stories.

Copying information from other websites should not be practiced by you at all. If you are aiming for a long-term goal of running a successful news website, then why stain and kill your journey by plagiarism from the beginning?

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.

I explained the issue of permission, laws, and legal developments when opening this type of niche business below.

How can I start a news website in Nigeria, India or in my country?

Whether you are in India, Nigeria, the UK (United Kingdom), the USA, or other countries, the guidelines above and below are all you need to get started.

In addition, it is a good and professional idea if you launch your news website on your country specific domain name and not the general .com domain. This is what I mean.

• If you are in South Africa, your domain name should be: nameofyournewswebsite.co.za
• If you are in Nigeria, your domain name should be nameofyournewswebsite.ng
• if you are in UK (London), name of your domain should be nameofyournewswebsite.co.uk

Is there any legal requirement to start a news website?

No, there is no legal requirements to open a news website, whether you are in India, USA, UK, Asia or Africa.

However due to the widespread fake news and misinformation spreading on the internet, it is increasingly important you get your news website registered.

For example, the Australian government outlined eligibility requirements to starting a news website.

Since a news website makes money, it is required by law in most countries that you pay taxes on your earnings.

In summary, when you make or start a news website, get it registered so that you can be able to pay taxes and be free from your local government future troubles.

Kindly check this government guideline , it will help you to get this sorted.

How do I get new stories sources?

When you are about to start a news website and make money, getting news story is one primary source of headache.

From experience, follow the steps to get news ideas stories from the listed sources below;

• 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. 
• 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.

How do you write a good catchy news stories/headline?

To write a good news website for your stories and headlines, follow the nine masterpiece guidelines below:

• Start with a catchy, captivating headlines that tells the complete story at a glance
• Give a summary of the important facts, factual points by points
• Do not exaggerate, do not use jargons
• Use and engage active tense
• Do thorough research before writing
• Mention sources or names
• write in the present or future tense
• use engaging pictures i.e., virtual media. Images and videos are powerful.
• And lastly, it is a good idea if someone can help you proofread your work before publishing

How do I publish my news stories?

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.’

How to do SEO for my news website?

To start a news website and be successful depends 50% on SEO. SEO, search engine optimization is very important for the success of your news website. Though SEO is wide, I recommend you implement the following:

• Install rank math plugin or yoast SEO plugin ( follow the step by step instructions to set up your site, it is easy as a, b ,c.).
• Submit your news website on Google search console ( again, the two plugins, I prefer rank math plugin).

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 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)

If you need help, kindly reach out to me.

How do I get listed on Google News?

Google news is quite different from SEO, though it will assist you in terms of traffic and backlinks. To get natural traffic via Google search, you implement the above i.e. using rank math to do SEO for your website and also submitting your site to Google search console.

Google news is a global news aggregator and having your site there will be a huge boost for you in terms of traffic.

A reader of this post asked me a question, she asked ‘ Is Google News good for SEO? I told her, yes, it is good and excellent for SEO because direct and indirect traffic that will be sent to you may result in you getting natural backlinks. By this act, your news website gets a huge authority boost.

Now, how can you be listed on Google news?

• Submit your news website to Google News ( there are strict conditions required); I suggest you check out their requirements and check if you qualify.
• Use the Google publisher Center tool to share your content with Google News by submitting RSS feeds, website URLs, or videos. Even if you don’t set up a publication in Publisher Center, Google might find your site through the normal web crawl.

I recommend you watch this video:

How do I promote and get traffic to my news website?

To start a news website business is easy, as demonstrated above. Still, the real test of running it successfully depends heavily on the promotion and getting traffic.

Set up a Facebook Page Account

When you open a news website, please understand that Facebook is the powerhouse and the bloodline you need to be successful. Trust me, If Facebook should die today, 90% of websites will die along with it.

With your news website, you can leverage the use of Facebook and be getting paid directly from Facebook. I explained how to achieve this using Facebook creator studio program.

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

After you start a news website and have set up a Facebook page as advised above, the truth is that this 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.

Please, to run a news website and be successful with your newspaper online portal, you need to invest in Facebook and get to engage with your followers, etc.

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. Trust me, this trick will quickly grow your traffic as you start a news website.
• 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.

Set up a Twitter Account

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.

Immediately after you create a news website, 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.

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.

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!!

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 on how to start a news website?

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.

Using Press releases

The use of Press releases is very important. After you open a news website, please 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

Can you make money with a news website?

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 online newspaper website portal. 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)

To start a news website and make money, I highly recommend the use of 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.

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 ( how to start a news website)

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 make 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).