5 easy steps to start a news website | Quintype

What if we helped you create your news website from scratch? Creating a news website can seem like a daunting task. The analytics, editorial team, building a workflow, managing content marketing, subscriptions etc can really weigh one down. If you’re starting off as a news publisher, there are many things you need to be aware of, however to get you started, here are five easy steps you can take to build your dream website.

Quintype’s suite of products already have a large clientele which has a mixture of small, medium and enterprise publishers. We’ve developed a suite of products that we assure will take your content to the next level. If you want a seamless digital experience and aren’t sure what products to pick, we’ve designed products specifically for the modern digital publisher and we ensure that our product gives a premium experience to each of our publishers.

1. Managing Content

Once you’ve gone ahead and got the domain name and brainstormed a name for your website you’ll soon find that you need a system in place for your content. This is the back-end of your website where the editorial teams contribute content, approve articles and publish them through all the different digital channels you want to target. A content management system is the central place where all teams can manage the website and its elements.

With a smart CMS like Bold, content creation, dissemination and publication is easy - it helps layer the content with multimedia, it breaks down content formats by providing options and it also ensures the workflow is easy to follow through. Further, you can manage your social media shares through Bold. The CMS is the single dashboard where your team views and interacts with the content - make sure it’s got a great interface.

2. Jazzing up the Presentation

Once you’ve got the content creation down, you need to focus on what the website looks like. Look and feel of a website is important for readers to interact with it - this has to be the priority. A close second would be brand voice. You need to find a tool that helps you play around with different design elements so that you can land on the perfect website.

Ahead is a front-end solution that brings in easy customization for publishers. With PageBuilder integration, publishers can now play around with all presentation layer elements without having to lean on designers or developers - it’s made for journalists! There are industry approved templates that publishers can work with without worrying about logistics, the customization can be done through easy gestures and clicks to ensure publishers get to explore all their design options.

3. Creating space for Engagement

Now that you’ve set up your website and you have content steadily coming out, it’s time to look at user experience. You’ve already ensured that the interface is smooth and reader friendly, now it’s time for engagement. This means growing your social media content. You can engage with your readers on social channels and promote your content to new readers. Another way to do this is by adding commenting tools on your website so that there’s room for conversations and feedback.

You guessed it! We have an inhouse tool for this as well. MeType is a commenting platform that lets you manage engagement on your website, regulate toxicity levels and get impressions. Users can express their thoughts on specific topics and writers can interact with their audience.

4. Building revenue

As a news publisher once you’ve finalized on your primary tech stack, it’s time to look at monetization tools. You may begin with advertising revenue only and then slowly branch out into subscription revenue. Many publishers today start with a hard paywall approach and why not, don’t hold back from a paywall for your hard work. A subscription tool will help you in many ways - it keeps track of users, their subscription plans, their billing cycles, receipts, etc.

This is where Accesstype comes in. It is a monetization tool that will do all of the above while giving you reader stats. This is helpful for new publishers as you can evaluate what subscription packages are being received well, if there’s one demographic more loyal than the other and if you need to try a different paywall strategy.

5. Being available as an App

Your mobile-first audience is used to a personalized content monitor. It’s the reason why Google discover is doing as well as it is. If your website shows up on google discover or search, or if you’ve got an active social media presence then the chances of gaining new readers is high. However those used to your content might appreciate an app more.

With react native apps, you can create your own app in a matter of days with zero hassle. You get to remove unnecessary friction of having to open the browser and search for your website by creating an app. This way, a single click gives readers access to all of your content. You can also increase reader retention through notifications.