1. Journalist as Entrepreneur
Presented 28 August 2010
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Example: Talking Points Memo - 19 February 2002
• Content: Blog on politics,
government and policy
• Audience: <10,000
• Revenue:
- Syndication
- Donations

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Example: Talking Points Memo – 24 June 2004
• Content: Blog on politics,
government and policy
• Audience: ~500,000
• Revenue:
- Syndication
- Donations
+ Advertising

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Example: Talking Points Memo – 26 April 2006
• Content: Blog on politics,
government and policy
+ TPMuckraker – Leaks, Tips
+ TPCafé – Discussion
• Audience: <1 million
• Revenue:
- Syndication
- Donations
- Advertising
+ Commerce
• TPM Today:
- 1.5 million

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A few fundamentals:
 You can make money as a citizen journalist.
 You will need to develop multiple sources of revenue, not rely on just
one.
+ Donations
+ Advertising
+ Commerce
+ Syndication
+ Offline revenues – training, speaking, …
 Many of the tools needed are already at available to you now while other
programs are developed.

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There are a few simple steps to follow:
 Step 1: Content Focus and Quality. Expertise matters.
 Step 2: You need a place to show your product and build an audience.
- Use your blogs as a way to develop an audience
- Not just for articles, but also for video, photos, …
Bigger the audience, the bigger the revenue potential.
 Step 3: Add revenue tools to your blog.

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Content and Distribution: The CJ Blog
Treat your CJ blog as your online hub to promote your work and
build an audience.
Search Engines: Social Media:
- Google - Twitter
- Yahoo! - Facebook
CJ Blogs
Media Distribution:
- Picasa Media Partners:
Photo
- Flickr - MalaysiaKini.TV
- MalaysiaKini.com
Video - Youtube - KomunitiKini.com
- BlogMalaysia.com
Articles - Sarawak-bloggers.com

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Content and Distribution: Search Engines
Search engines are your friend – they help you build audience and
revenue.
But you have to help them first!
1. Text: Search engines “read” text, not photos, or videos
Do: Use text to label photos and videos – title, caption, tags
2. Focus: Search engines “understand” the content of a blog and posting
when content is focused on a few topics.
Do: Create a short list of topics to guide your coverage
Do: Try to make one out of two posts about your “guiding topics”
3.Frequency: Search engines will visit more frequently, if you post
frequently
Do: Post as regularly as you can. Even short posts or photo posts will do.

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Content and Distribution: Search Engines
Search engines rank your blog based on how engaged your blog is
with other sites.
It’s all about links!
4. Links and Embeds: The more links to your blog and from your blog to
relevant information, the higher your blog’s importance will be.
Do: Develop as many relevant links and embeds to your blog as possible
A. Blogrolls: Create a list of blogs that you follow about your topics
or location.
B. Link Exchanges: Encourage “related bloggers or sites” to
exchange links with you.
Do: Use links in a text post to your blog.
A. Places or Organizations: Add a link to their websites
B. People: Add a link to their blog, resume page, or social media
page (is they have one).

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Content and Distribution: Social Media
Social media expands your audience and improves your search
engine importance.
5. : Short updates from you and your blog, including text,
photos, and VERY SHORT (<10 sec) video.
Do: Set-up a twitter account and feed for your CJ blog (twitterfeed.com)
Include your location when you sign up so people can find you.
Do: Find and “follow” other related Twitter users (your town, your topics)
If you “follow” them, they are likely to “follow” you.
Do: Join relevant Twitter Directories like TwitterMalaysia.com
6. : You can also build distribution for your blog from your
personal Facebook page.
Decide: Do you want to distribute blog articles to your personal page?
Can: Set-up a “feed” to automatically send your twitter/blog info to FB.

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Content and Distribution: Media Distribution
Media distribution sites like Youtube and Flickr can also drive new
audience for your blog.
 Video: Embeds or links to videos build your blogs importance and
increase views.
Do: Use Youtube to embed your videos in your blog;
Do: Find other YouTube videos to show and comment on
(Remember text matters).
 Photos: Photo galleries can also be created with Flickr, Picasa for your
blog.
Decide: If you want to include photos in your coverage, subscribe to a
photo sharing service (like Flickr or Picasa).
Do: Add photo galleries to your blog for comment and discussion.
 Blog Directories: Popular blog directories can also create traffic for
your content.

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Content and Distribution: Chinese (华语)
If you are blogging mostly in Chinese, also consider China-based
Internet services to reach your audience.
 Search: Google =>Baidu.com, Sohu.com
 Video: Youtube =>Youku.com, Tudou.com
 Photo:Flickr =>Bababian.com
 Social Media:
Twitter =>Twitter.com, Sina.comMicroblog
Facebook => Kaixin001.com, RenRen.com, Douban.com

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Revenue Tools
As your blog audience builds, you can add revenue tools to your site.
 Donations: Volunteer contributions from your most loyal audience
 Advertising: Lots of options, most depend on traffic volume and focus
Ad Networks: Simple to install. Another third party company sells the
ads and you display them on your blog.
Sponsorship: Similar to a Donation, but from a business instead of an
individual. Often a message is displayed “Sponsored by___________”
Ads: Requires a regular sales force and technology to sell, collect and
display the ads.
 Commerce: Selling product for yourself or for other companies
 Syndication: Selling new or past work to third party media companies.

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Revenue Tools: Donations
Voluntary donations can build a small revenue base from your most
loyal audience.
 Do: Choose the simplest method for your audience to contribute
“Widgets” exist for your blog, mostly using PayPal
 Do: Suggest an amount for regular donations
 Do: Ask for donations to fund a specific
project like a specific story.
http://vimeo.com/2041615

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Revenue Tools: Advertising
Ad networks provide the simplest and the least “conflicted” type of
advertising for CJ blogs.
 Ad networks do the selling for you.
 Protects your independence from large advertisers.
- Ad networks do not tell advertisers where their
advertisement appears.
 Ad networks depend on click-through on particular
ads to make money.
- To make money focus your content and build
a large audience
 Visually, ad network ads come in a lot of different forms,
so they are not too disruptive to your blog.

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Revenue Tools: Advertising
In Malaysia there are two primary ad networks to work with –
Google AdSense and NuffNang. Microsoft also has a small presence.
 Google Adsense:
- Introduction Page
- Can be added quickly with an addition of an embedded piece of code
- Best results come from experimentation with type of ad and placement
 Nuffnang
- Malaysian based blog ad network
- Offices in KL, Penang, Singapore, Manila and Melbourne
- Blog needs to have at least 20 visitors daily on average to qualify

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Revenue Tools: Commerce and Syndication
Two other revenue options exist though they are still emerging in SE
Asia.
 Commerce: Branded Blog Products Sales
- For example: calendars, mugs, t-shirts, …
- Often linked to a specific project
- Limited revenue opportunity, require some special technology
 Commerce: Commissions
- Sell products through your blogs
- Limited inventory available in SE Asia
- iTunes, Amazon, AliBaba, Rakuten all present obstacles to foreign sales
- eBay Malaysia does have some programs but limited
 Syndication: Content Sales
- Independent content sales mostly through blogs in English
+ Helium.com
+ Blogburst.com
- Some photo and video citizen sales sites
+ AFP’sCitizenside

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Summary
You can supplement your income with blog-based audience and
revenue programs.
 Build your blog audience
- Search Engine Focus
- Evaluate creating a social media presence on Twitter and Facebook
- Distribute your content through media distribution sites
 Revenue depends on audience
- Simple revenue tools exist to help you build a personal revenue stream
- Audience drives everything, focused and large
 These tools for audience and revenue building will take a little trial and
error, but are available now while broader programs are developed.