Liveblog – The Best Way to Increase Website Traffic and Revenue in 2021

In a world where there is a constant flow of information with social media, newspapers need to change the way they cover news and update readers in real-time. For this reason, live blogs are becoming the best way for journalists to tell a story. It is a new and excellent way to generate content in real-time, interact with readers, and generate greater engagement.

In other words, live blogs are a modern way of offering real-time updates on breaking news, sports, and Covid -19 updates, using text, images, video, and audio.

Due to the large number of benefits live blogs offer, famous traditional media outlets such as The Guardian, Washington Post, Sky News, or Le Monde, are using live blogs as a way to support their newsrooms and empower creativity and storytelling. Here are few reasons why you should start live blogging. 

Increase your web traffic and Improve your SEO 

According to a study conducted by the University of London, live blogs can get up to 300% more visits than conventional online articles. This is because live blog format is the best way to meet the minute-by-minute information that readers are looking for.

An example worth mentioning is The Verge covering Apple’s 2021 WWDC keynote event with Live Center. By posting short updates from the event the reporters are allowing readers to follow the event as if they were physically present.. Also, with 1,8 billion apple enthusiasts following the event, The Verge increased their website traffic significantly and also attracted a much younger audience traditionally hard to reach. 

Engage with your reader

Readers aren’t just clicking randomly from page to page,they want to  read the content that publishers put out, comment on the content, and interact with each other and with journalists. For this reason newspapers need to innovate and have a platform that enables the best reader engagement. 

So far, Liveblogging is one of the best tools for reader engagement, enabling readers to add reactions, comments on each post, and chat rooms throughout the blog. This way newspapers not only capture reader’s attention but also create valuable connections with them and allow them to participate remotely in the event. A perfect example is with Ironman’s Tarawera Ultramarathon live blog where readers could engage with the content and ask questions to experts. 

Ways to monetize your live blog

Once you know the incredible characteristics of live blogs, it should be noted that there are different ways to generate high income with live blogs. One of them is by including ads on your blog. There are different live blog platforms that support various types of advertising, giving you a high degree of control over the ads that appear on your blog, even allowing you to create your own native ads and place them on your blog in the location you want. These native ads are easy to archive, schedule, and complete across the user’s various timelines. With Live center, you can choose to set up ads yourself or we can do it for you. Live Center’s live blogs can be set up with Google DFP, or other ad management tools, 3rd party or home-built. Ad content can include images, links, videos, etc. We have several customers utilizing the flexibility of Live Center to generate advertising revenue, and would be happy to share customer references. See below the example of Nettavisen (Amedia)  ads structure with Live Center allowing them to generate extra revenue streams.

Additionally, you can create a paid membership live blog feed, which consists of having readers paying partially or fully to access the information that you publish regarding a certain topic. A  paid membership site grants the opportunity to create recognition, scale the business and achieve customer loyalty. 

Live Center supports the option of providing a “premium” post type that can only be viewed by subscribers or registrants and displays a paywall for non-subscribers which can help you drive subscriptions through your live blogs. 

See screenshot  below for an example: 

Additionally, the whole live blog can be placed behind a paywall that requires readers to sign-up in order to view the content. Amedia is doing live updates on traffic roads only available for subscribers as an example see below

Another way to generate income is through a sponsor live blog, this means that a post is created with the purpose of advertising a brand which in return makes a payment.  When done right, sponsored live blogs can lead to other benefits such as further building your partner’s loyalty, increasing your partner brand’s visibility. 

Sponsorships of live blogs can be a great way to generate revenue for your live coverages. With Live Center you can offer commercial partners the opportunity to have their name and brand visible in conjunction with highly engaging events. 

• These sponsorship packages can for example include: 
• Sponsor name & link visible at the top of the live blog 
• Logo Placement & custom sponsor design theme
• Banner and pop-up ad space 
• Video advertising embed or native
• Odds/ betting embeds for sport blogs

ATTHERACES live blog coverage of Cheltenham Festival 2021 was Sponsored by BetVictor, see the example below:

Summary

In short, live blogs are a powerful tool that is currently setting a trend thanks to the fact that it allows readers to be part of the action as it happens, coupled with this, they offer a large number of benefits such as increased engagement, they allow you to connect with new audiences and promote interaction due to the great and intuitive feature. Now, because every effort deserves a reward, one of the best ways that different media and brands have to take advantage of it is by monetizing the content of their live blogs. By implementing strategies such as the inclusion of paid advertisements, the creation of a “subscriber-only “ live blog or through a sponsor live blog post, the possibility of generating a source of recurring income with a low-risk factor, some with a degree of effort, opens up for online newspapers. 

Live Center has helped thousands of newspapers and organizations build a deeper relationship with their audience and generate new revenue streams. You can start live blogging today to test it for yourself!