Posts by Kathryn LaBarbera

Consistently creating original and valuable content is tricky. When you’re regularly publishing new articles, it can be challenging to brainstorm fresh and relevant topics. A reliable and consistent supply of content, however, is important to keep readers engaged, loyal, and invested in your site. This is not to say you need to churn out several pieces of content a day to keep your audience interested, but you do need to remain a dependable source of quality information. So what do you do when it’s time for a new post, but you’ve exhausted all of your recent thoughts and ideas? Interviewing experts within your industry is a great way to generate fresh, new content! 🙌

Calling all publishers looking to take their audience-building-efforts to the next level. We have the answer for you: live events! 🎉 If you’re a publisher just starting out, don’t hit the back button quite yet. While you may want to focus on establishing your online presence and nurturing an involved, on-site community first, live events are a useful strategy you can employ down the road, and it’s never too early to start planning!

Instagram is one of the leading social media platforms, with 1 billion active monthly users. The popularity of the platform, especially amongst younger audiences (over ⅔ of users are under 35), makes it an attractive outlet for publishers looking to extend their reach and promote their brand. Instagram is also a highly engaged platform with various opportunities to create content aimed at prompting user responses, which ultimately helps publishers connect with audiences and build loyalty🤩

One of this summer’s hottest films hit theaters last Friday, and this highly anticipated live action rendition of The Lion King took us on a rollercoaster of emotions: we laughed, we cried, we cheered, we boo-ed (*cough, cough* Scar). For those who haven’t seen it, I warn you to stop reading now--cause spoilers!--but if you’re familiar with the original, you know what’s coming. In the months leading up to the film, and over the weekend especially, people flocked to the Internet to discuss Disney’s latest remake. From the highest of praise to flat out disappointment, comments about the new Lion King covered an array of sentiments--let’s see what Disqus commenters thought!

At Disqus, we’re always exploring ways to help publishers foster engagement, increase visibility, and grow. Contests and giveaways present fun opportunities to reach new audiences and boost your brand overall. The goal behind contests is simple: encourage people to do something (whether that’s posting a photo or commenting on a post) and reward that engagement with a prize. Giveaways are similar, but winners are chosen at random. Contests and giveaways can be conducted through your site or through other channels. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are especially conducive to such campaigns because of their popularity, ease of spreading content quickly, and interactive nature. The flexibility to design and cater contests and giveaways to fit your needs or budget makes these campaigns an advantageous initiative for small, medium, and large publishers alike. This, coupled with their fun and engaging disposition, are some of the reasons why contests or giveaways can be a beneficial addition to your content strategy.

Connecting with readers and gaining their trust is key to building loyal audiences. Establishing a solid base of dedicated readers is an investment we highly encourage here at Disqus, as loyal audiences are a more reliable source of traffic and tend to engage with content more frequently. For the average media outlet, only 3.8% of all site visitors are loyal readers. But just because they constitute only a small percentage of audience members, these readers should not be overlooked! In fact, they read 5 times more content, spend 15 seconds longer on sites, and visit 4 times more often than non-loyal readers. 👏

Newsletters are a powerful tool that can turn casual readers into loyal audience members. They are designed to remind readers of your site, give them the 4-1-1 on what you’re up to, and encourage them to come back. When executed correctly, they can create a long lasting link between publishers and their audience 💌. Executed poorly, however, and newsletters are no longer your greatest ally, instead causing annoyance and frustration amongst subscribers. Don’t worry, though-- there are a few things you can do to enhance your newsletter strategy, and I’m here to tell you how!

A few years ago, online news subscriptions were a hot topic of conversation across the digital realm. The “pivot to paid” showed a lot of promise for journalism, presenting the opportunity for publishers to establish a direct financial relationship with readers and supplement volatile digital advertising revenue.

The newest cohort of consumers is upon us. Generation Z, consisting of those born between 1995 to 2012-ish (everyone says something a little different), will make up 40% of all US consumers by next year. Forty percent! 😱 Commonly mistaken for Millenials (born between 1980 and 1994), members of Gen Z are different and come equipped with different practices and behaviors when it comes to technology and the internet. Also known as “Digital Natives,” these Gen Zers have only ever known the convenience of high-speed Internet, unlike Millennials who experienced some of the dark days of landlines, flip phones, hand-written notes, floppy disks, and perhaps the worst of all… movies not on demand.

Maintaining life inside our homes is no easy endeavor. We have pets to take care of, repairs to get done, laundry to clean, meals to cook… the list goes on. As much as we’d like to enjoy these tasks (and maybe we do sometimes), they often feel tedious, tiring, and at times, overwhelming. Cue, The Spruce.

Volume 3 of our What We’re Reading blog series coming at you hot🔥 To refresh your memory, this series highlights our favorite news, posts, and reports relevant to digital publishing to help our publishers, readers, and blog subscribers stay up to date with the latest info. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Volume 1 and Volume 2 for additional reads. And, as always, we love hearing your thoughts, so don’t hesitate to share your opinions about these articles and any others you’ve found of value. Now... let’s dive in!

In an ever-changing digital environment, publishers regularly face variability and uncertainty when it comes to distributing content, driving traffic, and building audiences. Avenues that were once successful are no longer producing the same results. Particularly challenging for many publishers this year has been the loss of traffic associated with Facebook’s News Feed changes. Prior to the changes, Facebook was responsible for over 40% of all external referral traffic, and many publishers relied on them to stay afloat. Now, however, across the board there's around ½ as much referral traffic coming from Facebook. Some publishers are experiencing even greater cuts; LittleThings, for example, lost 75% of influencer and organic traffic after the algorithm changes, causing the site to shut down😨.