Making Mobile MoneyOptions (& Reality
Check) for Community News Publishers

Amy GahranContentious.comamy@gahran.com @agahran

Resources:CommunityMobile.tumblr.com

Looking WAY ahead...

Dude, where’s my audience?

Meet your near-future audience

If you want to keephaving
a digital audience, you MUST get mobile-friendly! (small screen)

Go check your site on
a smartphone now.

Expecting biglocal mobile ad $
today =

Mobile ads: the $20B Mirage
"$20B is a big number, and it got me thinking. How can it be thatthe industrys richest and most sophisticated players are unable to grab such a big pile of money? They have brains and computers, they’re aware of the situation. Is there a deeper problem? "We get closer to the heart of the matter when we look at acommon thought pattern, an age-old and dangerously misleading algorithm:The [new thing] is like the [old thing] only [smaller | bigger] - Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Notes, June 2012

Local search is going mobile

Apps: Not best for community
news• Extra cost, extra project to manage.• Users must discover, download, remember to run your app.• Almost certainly only serves network ads: not compelling to users, low payout.• If you still want an app anyway: Verve Publisher apps look good & work.

Mobile web strengths• Mobile search
visibility: HUGE for local! As of May 2011: 20% of Google searches are local, 40% on mobile!• Good local mobile ads + good mobile site = happy local mobile users = happy advertisers.• Complements text alerts w/ story links (better than ad links.)

Local mobile ads: almost, but
not quite...

Onlyhomepagemobile ad:bottom ofpage, hard to
read.

Near-term biz opp:Sell mobile landing
pages,not just mobile display ads

Conversion points frommobile landing page
or ad• Click to call • Direct purchase• List signup (e-mail, • Site registration text alerts) • App download• Event RSVP • Coupon/deal• Appointment or • Other? reservation• Quiz/survey (for prequalification, other)

Once a client’s mobile site
is up, you can make money on it (hosting, traffic, updates) evenwhen they advertise elsewhere. *Because they will. Roll with it.

Sell service & guidancefor a
mobile presence! ...not just ad space

1. Make your news site
mobile-friendly• What’s your CMS? Wordpress makes going mobile easy & cheap w/ themes, plugins.• Use device detection on server to route mobile traffic.• Best approach: Responsive design (when you’re redesigning your site).

2. Include mobile banner slots
• 2 on every page: Top (banner) & bottom (banner or tile) • Standard MMA sizes: 300x50, 320 x 50, 300 x 200. • Ad server? You don’t necessarily need one. Depends on whether you’re running network ads, metrics you’re tracking.

3. Become a white label
reseller of mobile landing pages• MobiFriendly.com has a LOT of templates & tools for various business types, plus form builder. Min monthly spend/site: $30 (Setup cost: ?)• Landr.co: Easy to use, cheaper: $10/month/site. (Setup cost: ?)• OR charge a setup fee to help clients build their own mobile site (it they want to own it)• If you’re nonprofit: Flavors.me mobile $20/ year, no templates, so guide clients to set up their own site. Google GoMo free 1st year only (about

4. Offer to build mobile
banner ads• Big obstacle for most local small businesses: effective mobile banner ad creative.• Google display ad builder: Drag-and-drop banner creative tool, for Adwords users.• Or just create ads in InDesign or Photoshop.• Free? Maybe do 1-2 for free, charge more for extra?• Premium service? Advertisers change ad copy in an hour or day?

5. Fill unused ad slots
with network ads• Ad server probably needed for this.• Xad & YP.com offer best local mobile banner geotargeting. NOT Doubleclick! (geotargeting only at country level!)• Pay? From sites comparable to community news publishers, $50-$250/month

6. Offer opt-in text news
alerts• Consumers love these, but HATE ads in them.• SMS provider to check out: RedOxygen.com. (DON’T let ad networks power your SMS!)• Drive traffic to your mobile-friendly story pages.• Where visitors will see compelling, relevant local mobile display ads (yours, not network’s).• And then click through, or call advertisers.

Opt-in text alerts• Consumers HATE
ads in news text alerts.• SMS provider to check out: RedOxygen.com.• Drive traffic to your mobile-friendly story pages.• Where visitors will see compelling, relevant local mobile display ads (yours, not network’s).• And then click through, or call advertisers.

You can do WAY better
than this!

How to price/sell this?

Bottom line• You need to
go mobile anyway, fast!• So do your advertisers, with their own sites• You can provide value by selling services to help them navigate this transition• You can make some $ off mobile display ads• You’ll be well positioned for the mobile ad market when it booms• ...If it booms.

Resources:CommunityMobile.tumblr.com