In a “why so serious” world, we desperately need people who bring laughter to our lives and Stephen Colbert is one of those humorous champions! Along with people like Jon Stewart and John Oliver, Colbert has created an amazing network of satire news that both informs audiences of major news stories while mocking major media establishments.
For those who don’t know, Colbert is the host of The Colbert Report where he discusses everything from current events to nerd rage about various films. His achievements include being a political satirist, a mega, well-informed nerd, and comedy show writer. He even showed up in one of the installments of The Hobbit since he is a major fan of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings.
Come 2015, we will all get to watch Colbert without a major cable package when he takes over for Letterman on the Late Show. Colbert is quite an expert at copywriting and I am sure you can learn a thing or two from the comedian. Let’s take a look at a few awesome things that are sure to inspire you!
1. He’s a Social Media Powerhouse
With 7.19 million Twitter followers, Stephen Colbert constantly proves that he knows how to use social media. He is an absolute powerhouse and many won’t deny that when he tweets, all of his followers re-tweet. He uses social media to inform followers about who will be on his show, which helps remind people when to tune in. He also uses it to connect with his fans and to prove just how funny he can be. Whether it is a joke he unnecessarily breaks up into three posts or a sarcastic remark about the latest news story, he proves that being funny and active on social media is both easy and successful.
What can you learn from Stephen Colbert’s winning social media strategy? Here are a few takeaways you can use:
Work on cultivating a following on Twitter and other social sites. Your postings will only work if you have a following, and you can only grow larger if you encourage your following to share. You can this by encouraging people to follow your social sites via your website, blog, or email campaigns, as well as business cards.
Always stay with the trends. Something that makes Colbert easy to re-tweet is that he is always focusing on things that are currently trendy. This is a great way to build and maintain a following and get more engagement on social media.
Create entertaining content for your followers. I will focus on this a bit more later on in the post, but we all know that Colbert wins at content because he is such an amazing entertainer both on and off screen!
2. He Focuses on Building a Loyal Fan Base
Everyone knows that Colbert has a rather large and loyal fan base, but he had to create and maintain it. How does he do this? He works to create a loyal fan base by constantly engaging with his fans and making fun activities for everyone. In the end, he is able to gain help from this base when it comes to charitable organizations and other fundraisers. He continues to build on this base and work to maintain it each and every day with social media and through his show.
This is a great example of how important it is to build your customer base and make sure it is a loyal one as well. While you won’t have the draw that Colbert does, you can do things like engage with clients on social media and send out emails in other campaigns. You can ask for clients to fill out surveys to help make your business better and offer incentives for helping out.
In fact, offering freebies just for a customer being your customer is a great idea and can make anyone feel appreciated. By doing something like this, you are creating a greater chance of boosting your revenue and also having a great base when you want to raise funds for various charities during the holiday season.
3. He Uses Humor with Copywriting in the Best Way Possible
The most obvious thing that Stephen Colbert does with copywriting is he uses humor in the best way. Humor is something many people enjoy, and when used correctly, it can really help boost content. The majority of Colbert’s content is humor based, but he knows how to use it for various trends and knows when and how to deliver the right punch line.
You don’t have to be Colbert to use humor in your content though and you don’t have to go to his level with it. You can use sarcasm, silly jokes, or whatever type of humor you feel is appropriate for your content, the time, and your clients. A few tips when using humor in content are:
Avoid offending your client base. Sure, some of Colbert’s humor can be offensive to different people when it comes to politics, but he does a good job of staying away from incredibly offensive jokes.
Make sure the humor fits your brand. You don’t want to get too off base with your humor. Make sure it matches your brand and your already-established voice.
Make your jokes very obvious for the audience. The written word can make it very difficult for people to know just what you’re saying and many times people can misunderstand. This can cause a lot of problems that you want to avoid so make sure everyone knows you are joking.
Hire someone who is funny. This will make sure your jokes come across well and that they truly are funny!
In Closing, Make Them Laugh, Make Them Laugh, Make Them Laugh!
Whether you need a laugh or want to learn a few more marketing tricks from the comedic genius, Colbert is a great resource! Tune into his show if you have Comedy Central or follow his various social media sites to keep up-to-date. With each new video and show comes more inspiration for humorous content, things to share on social media, and great ideas that you can use in your content. What are some things you’ve learned from the brilliant mind of Stephen Colbert? Let us know!
It’s tough being a blogger. You spend hours of time on the web as you strategize, plan, and carefully craft your perfect post. You face deadlines, lack of motivation, and writer’s block. Not to mention, you could really use an assistant. Oh, and coffee. Lots of coffee.
Sound accurate? As a blogger, you might think that you are on your own in terms of perfecting your craft. Lucky for you, your life is about to get a little bit easier. Whether you are a seasoned blogger or you are just at the beginning of your career, there are a lot of tools available on the web that can help bloggers stay on track and fight writer’s block. Blogger to blogger, here are 5 tools that are bound to keep your fingers flowing on that keyboard.
1. The Wonders of Blogging With Wordpress
Still using Blogger or another old school blogging platform? If so, it is time to get a little bit of Wordpress love in your life. Wordpress was originally started as a simple blog platform solution. However, it has experienced explosive growth over the last several years, morphing into the ultimate content management system that it is today. Wordpress offers many benefits to bloggers, and you are truthfully crazy if you have yet to convert.
So, what is it about Wordpress that makes it so spectacular for bloggers? For starters, it is super simple to use and customize. While older blog platforms only allow you to change your background and maybe your font face, Wordpress allows you to create an entire functioning website around your blog.
If you are not a web designer and shudder at the thought of HTML, you are in luck. Wordpress contains literally millions of themes that give you a beautifully designed website with the click of a button. It really is that easy.
To take the benefits of Wordpress a step further, Google actually favors Wordpress websites and blogs. Wordpress also contains built-in SEO plug-ins that you can install to help give your blog an extra boost.
These advantages only skim the surface of why Wordpress makes an excellent tool to bloggers. What are you waiting for?
2. Can’t Keep Track Of Your Posts? Enter the Editorial Calendar
So, this blogger tool is mostly developed by you, but it a necessity and really helps bloggers to stay organized. There are several ways to go about creating an editorial calendar; one being a simple Excel spreadsheet.
Image source: contentmarketinginstitute.com
Depending on your posting frequency, you can plan your blogs day-by-day, week-by-week, or even month-by-month. Consider splitting your blog topics into categories, such as posts that are trending, seasonal, news, and how-tos.
Another way to create an editorial calendar is by literally using an online calendar. Google Calendar in particular has a pretty decent set up to help keep you on track.
Image Source: linkedin.com
If you still doubt your ability to make a solid editorial calendar on your own, there are free templates available that you can mold to fit your needs. For example, Hubspot offers a free and convenient editorial calendar to get you started. Staying organized as a blogger and knowing exactly what topic to write about will make your job a breeze.
You know what they say – failing to plan is planning to fail.
3. Never Have Any Good Ideas? Hubspot Helps With That
As one of my favorite tools for bloggers, Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator is perfect for coming up with fresh ideas when you are in a pinch. One of the greatest obstacles that every blogger faces is wondering what to write about next. I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of wasting time while trying to figure out my next blog topic.
The blog topic generator is super simple to use. Type in 3 nouns that relate to your industry, and click the button for instant ideas.
The disclaimer here is that this tool is not fool proof. Sometimes it generates topics that do not make much sense. A little common sense goes a long way with this tool, but I think it is a lot of fun and pretty useful.
4. Tracking Your Visits With Google Analytics
Most bloggers want to know how much traffic is pouring onto their blog on a regular basis. One of the best tracking systems, hands down, is Google Analytics. Google Analytics will give you an overview of specific blog topics that are performing well on a traffic level, and what posts aren’t making the cut. You will see your bounce rate in analytics, which gives you an idea of how engaged your audience is with your website.
Image Source: semilogic.com
Google Analytics also can measure your tracking coming in from social media, so you will know exactly how much traffic your Facebook or twitter account is pushing to your blog.
Analytics has tons of cool and useful bells and whistles. There are a lot of useful features to explore, and they can all help analyze your best content. Every blogger can absolutely benefit from the power of Google Analytics.
5. Wordfence Security Keeps Your Blog More Secure
The reality of owning your own blog is that there is a very real possibility that your site can become hacked. If you are on the Wordpress platform, there is a free plug-in called Wordfence that will alert you of any potential threats that occur on your website. This includes attempted anonymous logins and security updates. Hackers can find loopholes to enter your site through old and outdated code, so always be sure to update your Wordpress website as requested by Wordfence. This tool can save bloggers a lot of headache and heartache. Don’t put yourself in a position where you become the next horror story.
Now that you know 5 essential tools that all bloggers should be using, you can start increasing your productivity while making your blogging career both simple and streamlined.
Wait just a second – isn’t content for SEO purposes? What does my odd title mean? Well, yes, content is great for SEO, and SEO is just one of several reasons why you should be using content. Goodness knows we’ve talked about the importance of content for SEO multiple times. However, it isn’t the only reason. You need to craft content that reaches your audience both on and offline, and it needs to be high quality and engaging.
That said, how do you craft content that doesn’t primarily focus on SEO, while still putting out content that’s excellent enough for Google to #1 it? This blog is going to take a look at this, as well as help you craft excellent, engaging copy for your website and social media sites. Following these suggestions could help turn several of those clicks into excellent leads and long-term customers.
SEO is Just One of Many Reasons for Content
It might seem like the only reason most companies utilize content is for SEO, so why can’t you? It does look like it works, especially at the beginning. However, when you focus your content solely on SEO purposes, you can eventually lose your readership. There is nothing quite as boring as reading a piece written only to trigger the search engines and bring people to the site.
Yes, SEO is a great reason for a content campaign, but it is not the only one on the market. There are several other reasons that combine to create an incredible formula of success. Take a quick look at my blogs; I write them for you specifically without focusing too much on SEO. I do take it into consideration. I like ranking in Google searches (who doesn’t?). However, I also want you to find something of immense value and that is the true goal of content.
What Happens if You Only Focus on Content for SEO?
The main thing that can happen is you can lose your readership. This is something discussed in several blogs about SEO. “Don’t keyword stuff because readers won’t appreciate it,” “don’t write for the bots because of readers.” Your readership is vital to the success of your business. Another important reason is if you only focus on the SEO aspect of your content, you can eventually be penalized by Google. Do you see now why it is vital to your business to only use content for SEO as one reason?
How Else Can You Use Content?
Now that you’ve seen just how important it is to not focus solely on SEO, you might be wondering how else you can use your content. Let me look at two important ways to use content for your business:
To Reach Your Followers Online. One of the reasons for writing web content is that it gives the ability to reach your followers easily through the Internet. The online world gives all companies the unique ability to meet customers where they are. This could be if the customer is on a train commuting to work, at Disney Land, or as they marathon House, M.D. on Netflix. No matter where you customer is, you can use your web content to reach them quickly. When you only focus on SEO, you still might reach them, but you won’t be able to retain them, which can be detrimental.
Use it to Grow Your Business Both On and Offline. When using web content, not only can you reach people online, but you can grow your business offline. How can online web content grow your business off of the World Wide Web? Simple – word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth marketing gets your business to other people who may never have known about it at all.
What will happen is one customer likes a product or service, and they will tell their friends and family members who will then tell their friends or family members. The cycle continues until it grows into a great client base. This can also happen on social media, and, as the Forbes article I linked to says, it is one of the most important elements in your social media marketing campaign.
Tips on Creating Excellent Content That isn’t Just for SEO
Just how can you create killer content your audience will enjoy without solely focusing on SEO? Let’s take a quick refresher course on a few ways to help your company both on and offline.
Know Your Audience. One of the most vital parts of creating content that doesn’t just focus on SEO is knowing who your audience is and what they want to read. This will take some researching, but it can be done. This will help you craft excellent content that will be shared on social media, helping with one aspect of word of mouth marketing. If you truly know your audience, they will feel comfortable with your company and will be willing to tell others about it. A few ways to research your audience are:
Create specific questions to help you truly learn about them.
Sending out customer surveys for your audience to fill out.
Meeting with clients and hosting a sort of online town hall to get a feel for what they want.
Research your audience on social media and what they are saying about you.
Write for Your Readers. When you focus your content solely on SEO purposes, you miss the biggest mark for successful content – writing for your readers. You can write your content with SEO in mind, but readers are going to notice if you are trying to rank. The best way to write for them is to follow point one and research them, but to also write naturally. “Talk” to your audience by using pronouns and create a relationship. Write on topics they find interesting and give them valuable information that they don’t feel they can get elsewhere. A great way to write for your readers is to use their language or “voice” in your content. This will establish a great connection with them, but also make the content easier for them to read.
Write on Interesting Topics. Your content provides you with a chance to write on relevant and interesting topics. It helps keep your website up-to-date and fresh, which is something your readership will greatly appreciate. Creating fresh content might sound a bit difficult to do, especially since you’re incredibly busy with other business tasks. However, it is possible. A few ways to ensure you are writing quality, fresh content for your readers are:
Researching your audience as in point one.
Writing on topics that you are passionate about. Writing from the heart is a great way to connect with your client base.
Take inspiration from other great writers. This can be classic authors like Mary Shelley or modern authors like Neil Gaiman. You can also garner inspiration from films, television shows, and following trendy people online such as George Takei.
Write Content that is Engaging. A great way to write excellent content that doesn’t just focus on SEO is to write engaging pieces. Engaging content is a great way to attract more readers and convert visitors to leads. A few ways to write engaging content are to:
Write strong headlines for your pieces to get clicks.
Create unique pieces to retain the visitors you receive.
Give people answers to their questions.
Always source your material and do proper research before writing your content and hitting publish.
Add other forms of content such as images, videos, and infographics. This can help break up all of your text while giving people something easy to share.
Continually update your website and blog to keep people engaged. If your website stays the same for a long time, it will grow stale. If you don’t update your blog regularly, it too will go stale. You need to make sure to keep your content fresh.
Create Content You Want to Promote. You can easily tell your content is excellent if you want to promote it, according to AuthorityLabs.com. If you are writing content you don’t enjoy, and that you don’t have the desire to show others, then it is obviously not a quality piece. When crafting content, make sure you are creating something you want to share and always make sure it is something you would find interesting if you happened across it on the web. This goes for your web content, as well as social media content. Make something interesting that will grab your followers’ attention!
As you can see, it is vital to create excellent content and not use it just for SEO purposes. You want to convert those clicks that come from your basic SEO practices into leads and the best way to do that is have great content. Take this into mind as you start creating your content campaign and make sure that you focus on your readers along with SEO as you start crafting future pieces. You will be quite pleased with the results! Photo credit: zakokor / iStock
How difficult is it to blog like a pro? The rules are simple, right? You can just write about topics that you’re familiar with, update the blog regularly and interact with your audience if you get any comments. Unfortunately, being successful requires a bit more than adherence to these very general rules. Many bloggers and copywriters have had to learn this the hard way. We’re here to help you not do that.
Blogging pit falls come in all possible shapes and sizes but some could be more detrimental to brand establishment than others. We’ve compiled a list of some truly bizarre and funny blog writing errors. This is your opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others rather than experience the consequences of such shortcomings on your own.
1. Both Bad: Too Short, Too Long
How would you react to a blog post that is 150-word long? Yes, some bloggers do think that the length is sufficient to present an idea and back it up with some evidence.
How about the exact opposite – a blog post that exceeds 4,000 words? Who has time for that, right? Discovering the golden standard when it comes to blog post length involves staying away from the extremely short and the boringly long.
Some of the best ranking pieces online are 2,416-words long. Blog post length that falls below 200 words can seriously jeopardize the search engine ranking of the blog or the website. Just think about it – how much can you say in 200 words? These will add up to just a few paragraphs, which is totally insufficient to present an interesting idea, develop it and support it with evidence.
On the other hand, it’s important to refrain from getting carried away. Say what you need to say and stop. The audience doesn’t have time for all of your ideas and the concepts that you want to share with the world. It’s best to break it up in several different blog posts than to overdo a single one. This approach will also enable you to link the posts to each other, thus helping the audience explore more of your content and visit a bigger number of pages.
2. Not Breaking It Up: The Large Chunk of Text & Other Bad Styling
Imagine searching for a topic of interest and coming across a title that sounds promising. You follow the link and come to a page featuring a large, uninterrupted chunk of text. It goes on and on for the next 1,000 words. Even if the content is great, chances are that you’ll give up on the piece after struggling through the second lengthy sentence.
Poor formatting, large paragraphs and endless sentences interfere with readability and make it impossible for the audience to reach the end of the text. Many people will get bored with this kind of structure even when it comes on a printed page. Trying to go through the endless paragraph on a screen is going to be even more challenging.
Here’s a simple visual example that will shed some light on why formatting is so important for the readability of blog posts:
Formatting does make a difference with the second style being much easier on the eye and encouraging scanning through the text. Think about it the next time you feel the urge to write a lengthy paragraph that is full of convoluted, complex sentences.
Another example of bad styling is consistently bolded text. Bold and capitalized text can be used to put some emphasis on the most important parts of the text. When every second word comes in a bold font and the author uses capital letters to share an exciting idea, however, the reader feels as if the content is “screaming for attention. Need a visual example? Here’s one:
Words in bold and italic look different from the rest of the text, which is why the eye of the reader is immediately drawn to these parts of the content. Abuse in terms of text formatting, however, accomplishes the exact opposite – it confuses the reader and leads to the lack of focus.
Using subtitles and pull quotes is a much better idea in terms of creating structure. The same applies to bulleted and numbered lists. This example expands the idea of how bad a large chunk of text is. In essence, formatting is as important as having quality content. Even the most brilliant article will become virtually unreadable because of poor formatting.
While we are still discussing this point, it’s a good idea to mention the importance of font selection and text color. Fancy fonts may look great on an ad but they will do very little for the audience. Avoid gothic, handwritten and funky fonts because they’ll often make the text unreadable. The same applies to white text on black background. Try reading an entire article this way and you’ll know what we mean:
3. Doing Too Much Self-Promotion & Blogging Selfishly
It may seem bizarre that some people would still attempt to sell through every aspect of their online presence. Excessively promotional and spammy blog posts are still a major problem that newbies deal with. Unfortunately, this problem can lead to the devastating loss of visitors.
When looking for content, people want to read something informative, original or entertaining. Having a call to action at the end of the post or discretely mentioning a product or two is acceptable, as long as the text provides a lot of valuable information. According to Hubspot, excessive focus on promotion, especially if it comes with a misleading title, is a certain way of aggravating the audience and making sure that people are never going to come back to the blog.
Now what do I mean by blogging selfishly? I mean blogging only about the titles you care about without considering your audience. Just like writing a cliché blog posting is a really bad idea, trying to go for something exceptionally niche and industry-specific isn’t going to be good either. Remember that you’re writing for an audience – choose a topic that the audience would like to read about.
A “dear diary” blog is one such example. Most people have a life that’s somewhat similar to yours. This is why a large portion of the audience isn’t going to be interested in what you ate for breakfast and how you spent 45 minutes in a traffic jam on the way to work. If you have a cause or you’re tracing a life-changing journey, you definitely have something to share with the world. Choose something that is focused and that you’re passionate about. Your daily rant isn’t going to get your blog anywhere, unless you’re exceptionally funny and talented.
Focusing on a bizarre conspiracy that probably a dozen people are familiar with is another bad idea. Your collection of matchboxes is probably not the best thing to focus your blog on, either. Chances are that the number of people who will appreciate it and its diversity is somewhat limited.
Think of business topics that relate to your industry and will also appeal to your audience.
4. Not Socializing Your Blog Enough
I just talked about not being self-promoting. However, that means to not promote yourself on your blog. But you should most certainly promote your blog posts on social media. A lot of people don’t get to this point effectively.
Did you know you should be posting at least 14 times a day on Twitter? One way to get out those tweets is to socialize your blog. Your blog can be published on social media soon as you write it, and then again in a few days, and then yet again in a month’s time. This is how to correctly repurpose your written content. Try to write a new creative blurb every time you post your blog again on social media.
5. One of the Biggest Blog Writing Pit Falls: No Images and Multimedia
Text is a good thing but too much text and no visuals can seriously decrease audience engagement.
Images add a bit of spice to blog posts. In addition, you have so many possibilities to choose among – there are photographs, illustrations, diagrams, infographics and even cartoons. An image can be used to convey a bit of additional meaning and diversify the text. It’s also a great opportunity to draw the reader into the topic and make that person pay attention to your content.
Keep in mind that bad images and no images will help you achieve the same effect – discourage the reader from exploring your content. Look for quality and make sure that the pictures you choose are licensed for Creative Commons use.
6. Being The Anonymous Creator
While some people love getting all the credit for the content they produce, others prefer to share opinions and ideas in complete anonymity. Though Internet makes it easy to write and keep the author’s name hidden, this approach does very little for reputation establishment.
Even if the blog is personal, the reputation of the author can contribute to the popularity of the content and add to its credibility. A piece that’s signed by Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous is never going to be taken seriously. The rule is valid even for a truly informative, well-researched and clever piece.
Celebrity bloggers sign all of their posts, even the controversial ones. Anonymity does make authors braver than usual but it strips them of amazing opportunities for turning blogging into a serious endeavor.
7. Ridiculous Titles and Domain Names
Your blog’s URL and the title of each post will both be determining for the success of your blogging endeavors. Titles are the first pieces of text that visitors see and these will often determine whether people are going to explore your content or look for information elsewhere.
An URL similar to www.penisland.com (Pen Island, what were you thinking about) is certainly far from a good idea or it’s probably going to drive the wrong crowd to your blog. Think about it before buying anything and let a friend go through your picks. Sometimes, it’s going to be quite difficult to figure out why your idea is not the best in terms of making a statement that the audience is going to enjoy.
The very same rule applies to title writing for blog posts.
Always following a formula for title creation or making the title intentionally misleading are two major mistakes that you should avoid. Stay away from Cosmopolitan-style titles that list five ways to do something or the amazing secrets of something else. Unless you have an amazing secret to share, keep that phrase out of your title.
8. Excessive Reliance on the Spelling and Grammar Checker
Most text creation software programs have spelling and grammar checkers. Using those to do basic editing is a good idea but becoming excessively reliant on the software to do the job of an editor could lead to some serious blogging disasters.
This rule is valid for bloggers, as well as for other web-based media outlets. Through the years, we’ve witnessed some hilarious mistakes from some leading media. Words have been replaced by others that are mistake-free but either make the sentence illogical or add a completely different meaning.
Wondering about the worst spelling mistakes that even grammar checkers cannot find? Many bloggers seem to be having problems with accept and except, passed and past, then and than, as well as who’s and whose.
9. Disabling All Comments
Everybody gets annoyed by hate comments and spam every now and then. The anonymity that the online realm provides makes so many people brave and willing to write aggressive and overly negative posts. So many bloggers get so tired dealing with these kinds of comments that they disable the option altogether.
And while you definitely need to filter out the spam, you should never close the door on comments.
How can you make a blog better if you don’t get any feedback from the audience? In addition, the discussion can give you the inspiration to write a follow-up posting or to explore the topic from a different angle.
As a blogger, you’ll have to work hard on creating a safe environment that encourages the exchange of ideas and opinions. This aspect of blogging does require a lot of hard work, especially if you discuss controversial topics or issues that all people have an opinion about (politics, society, relationships). Still, people love to interact with authors and blogs provide the perfect opportunity. Disabling comments will quickly decrease engagement and potentially affect the manner in which the audience perceives your content.
In essence, you need to remain true to yourself, work on your language skills and figure out what the audience wants for your blogging efforts to be successful. Here are several additional tips that can help you make the most of the opportunity and avoid major blog writing errors:
Always choose topics that you’re passionate about – the audience will know if you’re faking it.
Format the content in the best possible way and make it easy to scan. Multimedia can help you make an even more convincing statement.
Spend enough time crafting the perfect headline and opening statement – these will draw the audience in.
Pay attention to feedback and use it as a source of inspiration.
Finally, remember to break the rules every now and then. Some of the best ideas are generated by people who are brave enough to experiment and do their own thing occasionally. If you get the audience’s approval, you’re probably going in the right direction.
If there is one thing the Internet is not, it is not devoid of news. Whether you’re Googling a specific story or perusing the latest updates, news is everywhere in cyberspace. You can even set up specific alerts based on news categories and Google searches. A few days ago, Search Engine Land covered the hot topic of the Swedish parliament calling for consideration of a Google “link tax” for newspapers.
Niclas Malmberg, a member of the parliament, is calling for the search engine giant to help fund various Swedish news publications. His call for action closely follows the French link tax of 2013. According to TheNextWeb.com, Google, Fresh book publishers, and authors were in disputes that lasted for years. It was all over the want to create and institute a link tax on Google. The French incident ended with Google setting up a 60 million-euro Digital Publishing Innovation Fund. The goal of the fund was to support the transformation of French digital publishing initiatives.
Alarming Events Fuels Link Tax Discussion
Why did the French, and now the Swedish, push for a link tax on Google? In both cases, alarm was raised by the decline of the newspaper industry. The digital age is pulling so many people online and into a news packed environment that newspaper sales and subscriptions are dying out.
Naturally, the blame goes to Google since the majority of users use a search engine to hunt down news. And who can blame the user? Why pay for a newspaper when you already pay for Internet service, and Google search is free? It just makes sense.
According to Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling, who used both Bing and Google translate to get a look at the Swedish proposal, Malmberg is pointing to Spotify as a potential newspaper industry model. Spotify is a privately held Swedish company founded in 2006 with headquarters in London and Stockholm, Sweden. The company supplies digital music.
According to Spotify’s website, you can use their software free on mobile, tablet, and computer to listen to the music wherever you are. Spotify itself provides musicians a combination of royalties and pay based on user subscriptions. While the analogy between their model and Google News is somewhat flawed, some—like Malmberg—feel a link tax is a needed solution.
Spreading the Wealth: Link Tax on Google
In essence, Malmberg is proposing that a sort of allocation for Google ad revenue sharing take place with Swedish newspapers. The “tax” percentage or amount would vary based on traffic or market share. It all comes down to a simple idea: Spread the wealth.
Sweden and other countries in Europe believe Google is unfairly collecting profit off their content and blatantly harming the publishing and newspaper industry in the process. In fact, ZDNet.com recently covered a story where Axel Springer, a German publishing giant, gave in to the Google news snippets row. Axel Springer was demanding that Google pay to publish news snippets derived from its publications. The publisher was arguing that Germany’s ancillary copyright law made is legal to demand and collect licensing fees from major search engines for republishing portions of their stories.
The story caught some press before culminating in a solution few saw coming. The German publisher announced a free license for Google. Why the sudden change in stance? The company saw record-setting decline (nearly 40 percent) in traffic to their sites after Google stopped producing thumbnails and snippets on October 23rd.
By the first week of November, they were happy to hand Google a free license to reproduce portions of their coverage in snippets. According to Google’s statement to the Wall Street Journal, their snippets “send over 500 million clicks to German publishers each month,” and their “advertising partnerships have generated [over] €1bn [$1.25bn] in revenue for them in the last three years.”
Riches to Rags
Many in the industry believe that Google is abusing its dominate power. Some staunchly believe the monstrous company is plotting to force publishers into licensing their content for free.
As a result, link tax demands and discussion are beginning to pop up. It’s a fair assumption that we haven’t seen the last of such demands. The proposal from Swedish parliament member Niclas Malmberg is the latest attempt to capitalize revenue with an outlook toward upgrading outdated publishers to the technology of today.
The real question is whether the revenue from such a “tax” would be properly allocated and funneled into the industry. Most taxes are eventually passed on to the end user, which makes one wonder whether a link tax would ultimately fall to you and me. And would this dynamically change where we go for our online news coverage?
Intellectual copyrights have always been tricky, and link tax could add a new playing field if it ever comes into practice. Will Sweden institute a link tax on Google? The answer is anyone’s guess, but those who have tried in the past failed.
Is Google to Blame?
It’s the question at the heart of the debate. Is Google truly to blame for the noticeable decline in newspaper and hard print publishing? Is the pacesetter among search engines the reason the publishing industry is feeling the financial pinch?
While there’s no denying that a great exodus to the Internet has taken place, it’s a bit over the top to focus blame on Google. The debate can stretch on for ages with advocates pro and against Google. Regardless of whether Google’s scapegoated role for the change in user behavior is fair or not, one thing is certain: The publishing and newspaper industry needs to get with the digital age sooner rather than later.
As more industries step into the 21st Century, an issue involving us all comes into even more precise focus. What is this issue? It’s the debate of net neutrality. The dispute centers on whether businesses and websites should pay substantial fees to stay in the “fast lane” of traffic or risk vanishing into the “slow lane” of cyberspace. If net neutrality isn’t upheld, it could stifle innovation, expansion, and the creation of jobs for years to come. Learn more via our net neutrality coverage.
