We publish a small online daily news site in Davidson, N.C. Our pitch to potential advertisers (not working as well as we’d like, yet) is that we have a loyal readership – people who come back to the site daily. Our 15,000 monthly unique visitors are heavily weighted toward returnees as opposed to first-timers (typically 75-80% returnees).

But we have an uphill battle to educate our ad clients. What we’re up against is an army of marketing and internet consultants urging businesses to spend more money on social media and search-engine optimization. Maximizing eyeballs is the word. Google rankings are the king.

But what if you’re a small or medium sized business who doesn’t need far-flung internet viewers. What if you could reach thousands of potential customers right in your back yard, your most likely customers? You could build a website yourself that attracts a loyal returning following (not likely for a business), or you could hitch your star to a local news site that’s already doing that.

That’s the pitch anyway.

And by the way, those reader donations or, as we like to call them “voluntary subscription payments,” are a great tool in selling ads. Advertisers like the show of support and loyalty they represent.

David Boraks, Editor
DavidsonNews.net, Davidson, NC
editor@davidsonnews.net