Can I configure the home page differently?
Your demo login access is not high enough to make changes with layout, but yes, everything is extremely configurable and only a 2-minute lesson.
Is there any limit on amount of words in each article (we have some very wordy pieces)?
None at all.
When loading pictures, do they have to be in a specific format and size (I see they can’t be more than 1MB)
Images can be any standard web-based image, eg jpeg, png, tiff, gif etc.
I didn’t see how to add a PDF to a story, can you explain this please?
There are various ways of doing this, but the easiest is to simply upload the PDF to your media library and copy the file link into your story. You can mask the link by typing the word and hyperlinking it.
Can ads be linked to appear with articles?
Ads can be placed in articles.
How do you load ads?
Ads are loaded to an ad-server and your website serves these ads. We recommend Google Ad Manager.
I use Google Analytics with the site, can this continue?
Yes, this is our preferred solution.
Can a table be inserted into an article?
Yes
Can there be a hierarchy so articles appear in both main category and sub-category?
Yes, category, subcategory, sub-subcategory, sub-sub-subcategory
Can Home page be set up so the two lines of the top menu work with this hierarchy, ie. lower menu bar shows the sub-categories of top menu bar?
Yes, but easier is to make the subcategories appear on scroll-over.
Can our archive from the current site be loaded in bulk to form the archive of articles?
Yes, but there are too many variables to give a standard price on doing this. It depends on what sort of documents you have, the structure of your database, how the articles were tagged etc. Everything is always possible, but with a cost.
Can we create a page where we can upload videos?
You can create all manner of unique pages with static and dynamic content, including video.
Where can ads appear on each page?
Ads can appear Above Masthead, In Masthead, Right, Left, Middle, Bottom
Innerpage ads can appear in these places as well as within the articles.
How are ads loaded and how do they serve each space? If we have, say, three banners sold for the top of the site, can they appear randomly?
Yes, or on set rotation, by frequency weighting etc.
Can clicks on each banner be measured?
Yes, views, clicks etc. You can even setup weekly performance reports to go to customers.
Can ads appear by category of story?
Yes
Does the site have the facility to show ‘Related Stories’?
Yes and is quite sophisticated on how you might want to relate stories (by tags, content, titles, RSS etc)
If we want to charge for subscriptions, can this be done through the site?
Yes, standard gateway is PayPal which also allows for secure credit card payment. Please note, this is only included in the premium packages.
I’ve been reading that Drupal is better for newspapers than Joomla or WordPress. What’s the advantage for us to use a WordPress based system?
We would be interested to see any recent articles that uphold Drupal as the best for publishers. Certainly it was once, but that was over a year ago. WordPress has the largest development community behind it and surpassed its closest rival Joomla earlier this year when it replicated that last few advantages Joomla offered. There are also a few things we’re doing with WordPress that there is no way any other platform would accommodate, and that’s the real buzz for us.
Keep in mind, EzyMedia brings a bunch of opensource and proprietary software to the table, not just WordPress.
What are my advantages of going with your company, rather than just installing WordPress, buying a template, adding some plug-ins and hiring a designer to modify it a little for me? (Fast turn-around time is good answer, but is there more?)
EzyMedia knows publishing. Founded in 2004, EzyMedia launched the world’s first tabloid written entirely by its readers (long before ‘citizen journalism’ was coined), 35000 circulation full-colour. Each year EzyMedia is asked to judge on Australia’s Newspaper of the Year awards and we continue to learn from our customers about the industry and which way things are heading. We have programmers on board, but firstly we are publishers.
EzyMedia also has relationships with other companies that allow us to provide revenue targeted solutions.
How do I manage my website ads?
An ad-server is the brains of your ad-management. This is where you setup the advertiser account and upload the advertisers graphic ads. You also create ad ‘zones’, or areas (eg 120x600px) that you (or we) can place into your website. Once the zone ‘invocation code’ is pasted into your site, it stays there and you simply manage from your ad-server the ads that you want to run in that zone. It is called ‘invocation code’ because it tells your website to ‘pull’ any ads that are linked to this zone from your adserver.
So the steps are:
- Create an adserver account
- Create the zones (most common are 120×600, 300×250, 728×90 and 468×60) – you should name these zones in a way that make sense to you, eg “Top Banner” or “Bottom right 300×250 etc)
- Paste those zones into the ads areas of your website (Appearance >> Theme Settings >> Manage Ads)
- Create an advertiser in your adserver
- Upload an ad graphic (must be exactly same size as one of your zones) to that advertiser
- Link the ad to the zone you want the ad to appear
- The ad should then appear in the selected zone on your website.
This is initially a tricky concept, but when the penny drops it is all pretty straight forward. Just keep in mind that the brains of your ad-management exist on the adserver and that your website is simply a receptical for the ads, showing whatever ads you linked to zones via your adserver.
How do I manage my Page-flipper?
Create a free account with www.issuu.com
- Upload your publication to Issuu
- Go to publication
- Click on <> (“Get embed code”) underneath the publication
- Choose 300px wide, white background, auto-flip on
- Copy the code in the field at the top
- Login to the admin area of your EzyMedia website
- Go to Appearance >> Theme Settings >> Manage Ads
- Choose a field for code that is 300×250 px dimension
- Paste your code in there and save
Can you make my site subscription based only, where people have to pay to view articles?
Yes
Please help me with some of the terms in Google Ad-Manager!
Order – the actual customer ad booking. This is the first step, nothing else happens until an order is created. An order for a new customer will require the publisher to create a new account for the advertiser. Other information contained in the order is the sales person, agency, customer details etc.
Line Item – the detail of the ad booking. You have created the order, now what is it that the customer has actually ordered…
Creative – the ad artwork. You upload this following Order >> Line Item >> Upload Creative. You can find artwork files by conversely going to Order >> Line Item >>
Zone – the space on your website where particular ads will appear. When you create a zone (‘ad unit’ or ‘ad placement’) for your website, you can Generate Tags, giving you some code that is pasted into your website just the once. From now on, any ad that is linked to that zone in your ad manager will appear in that space on your website. Ads must match exactly the sizes of the zone or they cannot be linked.
Ad Unit – the actual individual ad zone. This is NOT the actual ad, or ‘creative’, it is the definition of that exact ad space on your website. So, an example of an ad-unit name might be:
Nameofsite_category_subcategory_aboverightmenu_1_300x250
or
Ezymagazines_news_sports_arm_1_300x250
So once an ad unit is created, an actual ad can be uploaded against an advertiser’s account and assigned to that ad-unit bucket.
Placement – the grouping of ad units, a broader zone that includes different variables. Eg a placement name might be “Top Banner Ads” or “EzyMedia Home Page” etc. but an ‘ad unit’ might be “Banner ads sports”
“Release Inventory” = cancelling the ad. You can return it by pressing ‘Resume’ in the line item page
Add targeting – link your creative with the zones you want the ad to appear on your site. Add the ‘ad units’ and/or ‘placements’ that match the creative you uploaded for this line item. Eg, if you uploaded a 798×90 banner and you want this ad to appear wherever possible on your site, then choose all possibilities where a 798×90 ad is included. You might have only an ‘ad unit’ called ‘Leaderboard Ads’ or you might have 2 ‘ad placements’ called ‘Top Banner Ads’ and ‘Sports Ads’. Your ‘sports ads’ placement group might have top banner ads and footer leaderboard size ads, so you want it in there too.
So the steps for setting up a Google Ad-Manager advertiser are:
- Create an order
- Create line item within that order
- Upload creative to that line item
- In Line Item settings, see Add targeting lower screen. Add the ad unit and/or placements that match the creative you uploaded for this line item. Eg, if you uploaded a 798×90 banner and you want this ad to appear wherever possible on your site, then choose all possibilities where a 798×90 ad is included. You might have only an ‘ad unit’ called ‘Leaderboard Ads’ or you might have 2 ‘ad placements’ called ‘Top Banner Ads’ and ‘Sports Ads’. Your ‘sports ads’ placement group might have top banner ads and footer leaderboard size ads, so you want it in there too.
Making Money
So, the Making Money package is quite appealing and desirable. However, I will not be doing any “print advertising” (or should I?) being that I want this to remain strictly electronic; which leans heavily on Google mostly and then Yahoo Adsense stuff. How will the Making Money package help with this? (Does it also come with Logo design / embellishment like I read?)
There is a lot of material out there regarding making money with online publishing and I have also posted a few articles. In essence, you want to:
- Build a member list
- Engage your members with your media, eg allow them to contribute content for approval
- Reach out to local or topic-matched businesses, they will pay you 10-20x the income Google or Yahoo will.
- Look beyond the simple ad. You can also sell subscriptions, directory listings, events listings, classified listings, business websites (http://ezymedia.com/business-website-builder/), ‘advertorial’ articles etc.
- Going to print is a big step, but done properly and with the right momentum behind your online arm of the business, can be profitable.
This site also has some very good insights – http://wordpress-how-to-wp.com/category/how-to-make-money-blogging
You might also pick up some ideas at http://www.bestonlinemarketingideas.com/ and http://www.ezymedia.com/blog/2011/01/26/earn-money-publishing-newspaper-and-magazine-websites/
To get your Google ads running, you need to setup an account with Google – www.google.com/AdSense You will get some code from this process that you can then paste into Appearance / Theme Options / Ad Management, or we can do this for you.
In a nutshell, to make your website really work for your business, and I mean best practice today for publishing, you should consider:
- Online first – all content posted to your website and from there exported for production
- Subscription Only content – mark certain content for subscribers only, so that they only read the first sentence or two and then required to login
- Run classifieds, events and business directory
- Incorporate an online ad-booking form (eg http://www.theword.com.au/advertise/)
- Bundling bundling bundling – package your advertising in an easy to follow sales kit that guides the advertiser into creative packages that add little cost to your business, eg. Buy 6 ads for the price of 5 today and we’ll also give you a free Business Directory Listing, freely list your events in our calendar, 2x 350 word articles online that you provide… and for an extra $500 you can also have your own business website! It’s all upselling, and good websites encourage that.