10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire
Many bloggers dream of creating media empires. Few of us come even close.
Having a popular blog is just one minor step in the process. It’s what you do next that’s critical. Many people start selling advertising or try and build revenues through affiliates. Some create e-books, offer white papers, or branch off into consulting services based on their expertise. All good things, but all relatively small steps.
Of course, it’s understandable. Few of us blog full-time. It’s not easy to blog full-time and be able to pay the bills. The amount of time, dedication and expertise required is immense.
But when we see examples of people building out mini-media empires like TechCrunch, GigaOm, ProBlogger, Know More Media, Positive Media Blog Network, and others, we feel like it’s possible for us as well. And it is.
Wendy Piersall has just proven it.
She recently announced that she’s converted her extremely popular blog eMoms at Home into a small media empire. She’s launched 6 additional blogs/channels all related to stay-at-home, working parents. Wendy now has her own blog network, although she’s re-defined it as a “magazine.”
This is a great move for Wendy. It helps her extend her brand but remain focused on her specialty and niche. In a couple years when people think about “working at home parents” they’re going to think “Wendy Piersall” or “eMoms at Home”. And you can’t understate the value of that.
So how did she pull it off?
Really, you should ask her yourself, but from where I’m sitting (and having thought about building mini-media empires myself) here’s my take:
- Build up a popular blog on a specific niche. You need to have a strong voice in your niche. You need to do all the things required to build up a popular blog: write well, focus on content, use headlines effectively, have a great blog design, market heavily, leverage social media, build relationships. There’s more to developing a popular blog than that, but you get the point.
- Develop a strong brand. Without a strong brand it’s harder (although not impossible) to build a popular blog. More importantly, without an effective brand, it becomes difficult to translate blog success into other endeavors. So it’s critical to have a great brand (which should be considered personal brand) and make sure it permeates everything you do.
- Make lots of friends. The blogosphere is built on the concept of connections and friends. It succeeds because it encourages and rewards those who have conversations with others. You need to become part of the blog community. Check that: You need to be at the center of your blog community.
- Master monetization. Your media empire will die on the table if you can’t monetize it. And using Google AdSense isn’t enough. You need to learn about affiliates, sponsorships, text link ads, sponsored reviews, and much, much more.
- Learn more about marketing. There are certain techniques you can use to market your blog. But the world of marketing is oh-so-much bigger, and once you get into media empire territory you’ll need to understand a lot more about marketing, both online and offline. Learn about email marketing and autoresponders.
- Find opportunities offline. As you’re mastering the online world, look to offline opportunities as the next step. Speaking engagements, coaching and consulting gigs are a great way to branch out, learn about business from a different angle, and develop your reputation beyond a “blogger.” You can build a successful, money-making blog as a blogger, but you can’t build a media empire that way. You have to be known as an entrepreneur, media strategist, business person. And there are plenty of examples of people who bridge both the online and offline so well: Penelope Trunk, Gina Trapani and Jeremiah Oywang.
- Get help. You can’t build a media empire alone. You need great people around you. Over time your role will be less about writing and day-to-day minutiae, and more about overseeing the entire operation. You’ll need people to help you in those areas where you’re lacking expertise, and also people to take on tasks that you can’t devote your energy to. People like Dawud Miracle, Derek Semmler, Lorna Doone Brewer and others. As you hand over the reigns of day-to-day affairs to others, make sure you incentivize and motivate those people daily. You’re a boss now, not a single person working alone.
- Be a teacher. You’ve accumulated a certain amount of knowledge to this point, but unless you share it your media empire will suffer. You need to share that knowledge with the outside world (to attract visitors, build reputation, grow karma) but more importantly you need to share that knowledge with your team. Don’t expect each person you bring on board to be as good, experienced and motivated as you. You’re now their boss, but you’re also their teacher; and the more they know, the more they excel, and the more you benefit. Get teaching.
- Realize it’s a business. You’re past being a blogger now, you’re running a business. That means more learning in the areas of operations (accounting, finance, etc.), marketing, startups and more. You won’t be an expert overnight, and there’s a good chance if you come from the blogging world that your business experience is limited, but that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed.
- Expand slowly but promote like crazy. You can’t build a blog network like b5media in a day. Grow slowly, experiment, test your assumptions, tinker and keep growing. You most likely won’t have a lot of money to support your efforts, so don’t expand like a fiend. But promote the hell out of what you’re doing. Don’t hold back when it comes to tooting your own horn, beating the drum and making noise. It’s not about being an egomaniac, it’s about maximizing everything you’ve learned towards generating tons and tons and tons of buzz.
I’m a huge fan of the mini-media empire. And we’ve started to see real value come out of ultra-successful blogs. Just look at the purchase of TreeHugger for $10 million dollars.
So if you’re ready to invest a crazy amount of time, get into startup mode, take a risk and leverage your knowledge, go for it and build your media empire. And follow Wendy Piersall’s example.
photo by willyf.
Thanks for the link and fantastic article! Stumbled and Sphunn
Great stuff
I am thinking the real secret behind Wendy though is she has a time machine, her days are 40 hours long 
ROFLMAO. I do think I put in about 80 hours in the last week, but usually I can get away with a light 75 hours or so…
*KIDDING*
Actually, Ben, I did want to add an 11th Step - PSYCHING yourself up.
It took me a long time to talk myself into believing I could handle having 7 people depend on me for income, that I could manage this huge of a project, and that I could handle the kind of success that I hoped for, or that I could even pull it all off!
I sometimes feel like I’ve fallen off of a cliff, but I know where I’m landing and I’m enjoying ride and looking forward to the landing.
I think that is key Wendy, enjoying the ride. There are so many more stable ways of earning an income, but the business we are in is creative, builds connections and friends, allows an amount of freedom not found in 9-5 and has the potential to really help people. Who wouldn’t love doing this?
Ben, you did a fantastic job summing up the process. And hats off to Wendy for taking that leap of faith and launching this next generation of her brand.
Ben, you’ve hit one out of the park with this list of steps. Wendy has done an outstanding job and has taken a huge step in expanding her brand and making the step to reach to the next level.
I’m so grateful that Wendy has included me as a member of her new team and look forward to the journey before me. And I think Chris was right when he said Wendy must have found the secret to longer days!
[…] 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire […]
Well, good luck to Wendy. I am not much in touch with the mommy blog crowd, and don’t see how they do it.
In some ways it must be a bit like trying to sell Amway or Avon. How many friends and family can sell each other the same stuff or ideas.
A mystery to me. This is not meant to be a critique, just an observation. We all are watching though.
Now that was a great read. If anyone can pull it off, Wendy can.
i’ve always wondered how a person can maintain a blog and earn from it. it’s not easy to blog consistently and promote it to have more people read your blog. Anyway, thanks for the post. It’s a real enlightenment.
Well, digitalnomad, I would venture to say that my site has never really been considered a “mommy blog” (30%+ readers are dads) and we don’t sell anything on the site.
We just provide content to help entrepreneurial parents succeed in business - it has a lot broader appeal than you’re thinking.
From now on, when my family and friends ask exactly what it is I’m doing, I’m just going to send them to this post! I couldn’t have summed it up better, albeit, I can’t really see straight at this point, either.
(I think the number of commas in that sentence is a direct reflection of this long, amazing week.)
Really, I am just so pleased and honored to be a part of the whole thing. While there are many benefits for Wendy, I feel like I’m really reaping so much from her expertise. There are so many aspects of blogging that are really beyond my current abilities, and it’s amazing to have someone else say, “You just write cool stuff, and I’ll do the work for you!”
[…] of considering building an online media empire - even a small one - go read Ben Yoskovtiz’s 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire. He profiles Wendy Piersall and her mini-empire relating to stay at home parents. Plus he gives, as […]
[…] Ben Yoskovitz nos cuenta que la ilusión de todo blogger es crear un mini-imperio de medios, o una red de blogs muy conocida, pero que tener un blog conocido es solo el primer paso de muchos que hay que dar. Muchos somos bloggers a jornada completa, vamos que nos pasamos el día blogueando y apenas pagamos las facturas, pero viendo que otros como Techncrunch, Problogger, o GigaOm consiguen crear esos mini imperios, probablemente pensamos que si que se pueda. […]
Way to go, Ben — this post rocks.
My short-range plans are a bit different than this (world conquest, just along different lines…
), but long-term, this sounds like a plan and a half.
And kudos to Wendy — she’s the best!
Great points… to your point on being active in the blogosphere… a great thumb-rule is to post insightful/useful comments on other people’s blogs. That not only adds value to (future) blogosophere friends, but gets our name out there, and could even drive traffic to our own blogs.
~ Vikram
PersonalBrandMarketing.com
oh, I forgot to mention… I love using Google Alerts that e-mails me whenever anybody (in the news and/or blogs) talks about the subjects that I care to comment about, e.g. Personal branding.
~ Vikram
PersonalBrandMarketing.com
Ben - This is an excellent post. I will digg once I complete my comment.
Thank you for the information. It will help me as I continue to develop my blog and strengthen my brand. I don’t know Wendy, but I have learned from the information you have written about here. It was very well written. Thanks! I will go and check out Wendy’s blog(s).
Nice tips. I hope to soon come out of the woods with my unknown blog. I’m new to blogging. I’ve mostly been into forums until now but I hope I can get good at this in time. I’ll keep these tips in mind. Thanks a lot
[…] ?????? “10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire” by Ben Yoskovitz. Filed under: News […]
Ben:
Thanks for the link. I originally saw it where your post was translated into Spanish. My husband (who had some spanish way back in high school) insisted that it said promote like that crazylady Chris Brown, but I’m pleased that it’s more like promote like crazy! Thanks so much!
Chris
Ben, you have done a stellar job at reviewing and summarizing Wendy’s success. Not only is your assessment very interesting, it is quite a solid analysis.
Although Wendy has made giant leaps, what made it all possible was her intense focus and methodical brand development. Lifting her up as an example is inspiring to all of us!
Ha, that’s great! I’d like to build an empire of any sort, but an online media empire…I’d settle for that
@Chris: Ha! I was hoping you’d see the link, but trackbacks to Blogger don’t work well (or at all). I should have just emailed you. Hopefully you and your husband got a good laugh at the “crazy lady Chris Brown” …
That’s a super post, Ben. Thanks.
[…] used in today’s show can be found at: http://www.worktree.com/newsletter/surviving-a-layoff.html http://www.instigatorblog.com/10-steps-to-building-an-online-media-empire/2007/09/14/ […]
[…] shares 10 steps to build an online media empire - based upon the recent expansion of eMoms at […]
Great post, Ben, as everyone is noting. There’s a lot to think about as I continue working on our nonprofit niche micro-empire.
I especially like Wendy’s call to psych myself up.
Ben:
I appreciate your efforts to help bloggers transform their work into a true business. The mini-media empire will quite possibly be the “Next Big Thing” for entrepreneurs. Taking old things and combining them into successful new things is innovation in action! I cross-posted on your piece to http://blog.innovators-network.org The Innovators Network is a non-profit dedicated to bringing technology to startups, small businesses, non-profits, venture capitalists and intellectual property experts. Please visit us and help grown our community!
Best wishes for continued success,
Anthony Kuhn
Innovators Network
[…] shares 10 steps to build an online media empire - based upon the recent expansion of eMoms at […]
Great article. Another blogger who has built a small empire on the back of a successful blog is Manolo the Shoeblogger. http://shoeblogs.com He’s up to seven blogs right now, some which seem to be getting good traffic.
[…] Frankly the title is not as superlative as it sounds as many people are building online media empires by producing targeted, niche products and making them available to the right market. It’s all about providing people what they seek. It also requires lots of hard work and good strategy. The Instigator, through an interview with Wendy Piersall of eMoms at Home in 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire. […]
Great interview Ben.
The key is a combination of the right, high-demand niche and perseverance. Interaction too plays a crucial part.
Amrit - It wasn’t quite an interview, just my observations and my knowledge of what Wendy has done (from interacting with her on numerous occasions.) But I’m still glad you liked the post!
@Mark: A nonprofit niche micro-empire, you say? Sounds interesting…
Thanks for the mention and great post. Lot of good information.
[…] of course, you’ve probably seen it already, but Ben over at InstigatorBlog wrote up 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire while referencing the new eMomsAtHome.com. I think the media empire shoes might still be a little […]
Your blog was featured in our Secrets to Success section today http://dotcompreneur.com/?p=18
Are you a DotComPreneur? Take the Quiz and see how you measure up! http://www.DotComPreneur.com
[…] 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire […]
Thank you very much. very educational.
[…] get them to come and visit their site (linked from […]
[…] shares 10 steps to physique an online media empire - supported upon the past treatment of eMoms at […]
[…] get them to come and visit their site (linked from […]
[…] 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire : Instigator Blog (tags: Blogging Tips List) […]
[…] 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire : Instigator Blog […]
[…] un señor que se llama Ben Yoskovitz , autodenominado “entrepreneur” (emprendedor), 10 pasos básicos para conseguir un imperio de medios (o un montón de blogs que tiene éxito). La negrita son los pasos, el resto… es cosa […]
An excellent article - one that I have personally bookmarked and stumbled.
Thanks.
Michael - Thanks. I’m glad you enjoyed the post, and hope to see you around Instigator Blog in the future.
I’ve been seriously considering starting a blog, or two, and just this morning my business partners and I had a discussion about it. I’m grateful I came across this post, It is both inspirational and informative.
Thanks!
I’ve been blogging on different topics for a while and building a nice following. These tips will help me take my blogs to the next level.
Thanks for the great information.
@RJ and Ted — Glad you’ve found this post useful. Hope you’ll stick around the blog and check out other content.
I’ve been able to develop a small readership, and have a number of blogs, but monetization appears to be a problem for me.
I’m hoping it is my niche and logically it would make sense. Anyway, great post, consider it bookmarked (and soon linked).
[…] JeffPulver.com shows the online conversation in the offline world. When checking out, I noticed a personal note from their general manager, Barbara Gross, who made reference to a blog post I had written earlier this week . . . it is an example of how many small (and not so small) businesses can benefit from implementing their own social media strategy around their customers. 10 Steps to Building an Online Media Empire […]
There are many opportunities for bloggers to build a strong brand and tens of thousands of monthly visitors. It takes a lot of time, dedication, knowledge, and action, but it’s all possible with consistency and good promotion.
i’ve done the first two.. 8 more to go! =P
Hey this post gave me a lot of encouragement. I’m sure that you have heard of ShoeMoney (if not you should definitely check out his site). I generally feel like his level of success is almost impossible, but when you lay out a plan like this the prospect seem much more realistic.
@Max: ShoeMoney is great. That level of success is definitely hard to achieve. Then again, you don’t need to achieve that level of success to have a very successful media empire.
For me, this is one of the most important pieces of having a successful and sustainable long-term business.
Great tips! Hope we get to see also tips 11 to 15
@Ben, very true! Not to mention that shoemoney.com is not very popular at google.
@Rom: More steps/tips? Oh oh! Don’t put me on the spot like that…*laugh*
Ben, you did a fantastic job summing up the process. And hats off to Wendy for taking that leap of faith and launching this next generation of her brand.
Very usefull tips, but you forgot this tip: give away free stuff/information, that is always a very good promotion.
@zakenlinks: Giving away free stuff/information is a good idea — of course, by virtue of blogging we’re all pretty much doing that. I do think packaging up a free ebook or something of the sort can be a great way to build brand + awareness though.
Great post! Lots of good ideas here to get started with.
Cheers!
The best thing to remember is find a niche you enjoy and have a passion for. The Key thing is High Demand/Low Supply. Find your niche within a niche if you need to. Be patient its not going to happen within 24 hours. I currently have 24 hot new niche products on offer just click on my name to find out.
Very usefull tips, but you forgot this tip: give away free stuff/information, that is always a very good promotion.
[…] personal history, and use of blogging & social media to build a reputation locally and […]
@Webmaster - That is also a very important factor to be considered. The more you know about your niche, the more likely you would be successful in it.
Thanks for the post. I’ve been really interested in Flikr and how Yahoo uses those pictures in a lot of it’s image search results.
i think “#7 Get help.” is the most important one here. No one can build an empire alone
Great article.. thanks!
Very usefull tips, but you forgot this tip: give away free stuff/information, that is always a very good promotion.