Nearly ⅓ of the American population listens to podcasts at least once a month. But one key feature has been missing from podcasts - an interactive community. Pre-recorded podcasts miss the opportunity to engage with an audience in real-time.  

Over the last 6 weeks Facebook has both banned and reversed course on news content in Australia. This is scary! It demonstrated that publishers are at the whims of Facebook for traffic and, in turn, revenue and audience.  

Although Facebook has since reversed its decision, the message is clear: Facebook isn't always a dependable platform for publishers to reach their audience. 

Disqus, like many of our publishers, partners with Google to monetize ad inventory. The recent announcements and blog posts from Google (and others) can often be hard to interpret.  

Advertising funds the continued operations of most of the modern web. One of the most important things you can do is ensure you are working with vendors that are partnering to provide you continued access to a competitive marketplace of suppliers. We wanted to share our early thoughts and some helpful advice.  

It’s no surprise that video marketing continues to be a major marketing trend. People love to watch videos, and they love to use YouTube to find the best video content. YouTube is the second most popular website in the world, so it's basically a guarantee that your audience is on there.  

Here are some of our tips to help you build your brand on YouTube: 

LinkedIn is known as a professional networking site. You may think of it as a place to post resumes and find jobs, but there’s more potential than just that for businesses.

There is a common misconception that Pinterest is a platform only used by brides-to-be and wedding planners, but don’t let that myth fool you. There are plenty of food, lifestyle, and shopping sites using Pinterest such as, Man Repeller, Gridfiti and Bluffworks. Pinterest’s active user base grew 26% to 335 million last year! In fact, Pinterest is now the third largest social network in the US.

Did you know that 63% of social media marketers believe that social listening will only get more critical in the coming months? Well, they’re right.

The rise of content marketing has propelled blogging to new heights. And while blogging is an effective way to deliver content to your audience, there’s another method that doesn’t quite get the attention it deserves.

Enter the humble podcast.

Data released by Edison Research and Triton Digital states that 22% of Americans listen to podcasts on a weekly basis. That’s more than 72 million people! 

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Content marketing changes at a rapid pace, but don’t let all the glittery headlines fool you! It has always been about the people and that’s just as true in 2020 as it’s ever been.

There’s nothing wrong with changing your strategy for the better, and the best way to jumpstart your content marketing for 2020 is to make sure you’re grounded in the fundamentals that have worked for so many others.

In this post, you’ll learn how to prepare your content strategy not just for 2020, but for many years to come.

Welcome back to Volume 5 of our What We’re Reading blog post series! This series aims to share our favorite articles, posts, and reports, relevant to the growing world of digital publishing, with our publishers, readers, and commenters. If you haven’t done so already, you can check out our last post in the series here. As always, we love to hear your opinions about these articles and others that you are reading. So, be sure to share your thoughts with us below in the comments!