Do not let the news throw you. Newspaper circulation is declining, but millions of people still read newspapers everyday in the United States.
Newspapers and magazines can be effective at attracting visitors to your website, but only if they reach an audience similar to yours.
But once you find a publication that reaches your target audience, what should you do?
First, evaluate how much press you want versus how much you are willing to pay.
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There are many different ways to get a newspaper or a magazine to write about your website and the prices range from free to astronomical.
- Get your website reviewed – This is a one time article written about your website. It will cost you nothing but time. Try drafting press releases and sending them to the target publication, or pick up the phone can call the writer that covers your market.
- Get your products reviewed – If you are regularly creating products, get a publication to review them. This will keep you in the press on a regular basis, and it’s free. Be careful, though. Your product needs to be good enough to generate positive reviews.
- Contribute content – Find someone who writes well enough to make it onto the editorial page. The content cannot be blatantly promotional, but it can discuss the same problems that your website addresses. This will cost you the price of a writer’s fee, unless you are well versed.
- Become a regular contributor – If you truly are an expert in your industry you might be able to land a job as a columnist. These jobs are not easy to get unless you have a history of editorial writing or know someone at the publication.
- Buy ads – The most obvious answer to getting your website into a publication is to buy an advertisement, which can be expensive. This will require less work than some of the other options but will hit the bottom line harder than others.
- Buy the publication – This may seem ludicrous, but that depends on your bankroll. You might consider buying Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for around $5 billion if you can afford it. If you do, you will have full control over the publication’s content and you can take out full-page ads, write editorials and make the front page everyday.
Using print publications is just one of many ways to attract visitors to your website. To learn other methods read How to Start and Run an Effective Online Marketing System. Every publisher looking to develop a marketing system that produces regular, predictable and quantifiable results should read it.
