Four key factors in content portal building

Lately, I’ve been getting a sense of déjà vu. I still vividly recall 10 years ago, when the dotcom boom first hit Malaysian shores, how so many people were keen to build content portals. Many people have tried and many have failed.

Now, it’s coming around again. In recent weeks I’ve spoken to many people interested in reviving the content portal strategy. The idea is simple: Build portals for “verticals” or niches and dominate the local scene. The execution is a lot harder.

It’s often said that most of our Internet traffic goes to overseas sites. That’s because the local sites are not compelling enough. So, what can a local player do if it wants to make a dent in this sector?  

Drawing upon my experience in the media industry as well as the telco industry, I have identified four key steps a player must take in order to make a success out of its content portal initiative.

Step 1: Identify the verticals
You can’t afford to put all your eggs into one basket. You have to diversify and come up with a set of portal ideas. Just having one portal doesn’t allow for economies of scale anyway. When you have several you can share resources. So, you should have a whole slew of portals ready to be built.

The first challenge is to identify the verticals. Which are the ones that are most likely to draw heavy traffic? There are some sectors that are already saturated. Online news is one example. There are so many of them and the popular ones are already so dominant. But there are still some that are relatively untapped. A good woman’s portal is notably missing from the local scene.

So identify the verticals you want to dominate.

Step 2: Conceptualizing the portals
Once you’ve identified the verticals to go into, you need to put some serious thoughts into what will be offered through your portal. Content, for sure, but what sort of content? Functionalities, yes, but which kind?

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or come up with completely new ideas. Do some research on the Internet. Identify websites that you like and take note of the kinds of content and functionalities that attract you. At the same time think about whether these things can be customized and localized to make them more attractive to your target audience.

So, draw inspiration (not copy) from good ideas in cyberspace.

Step 3: Figure out how to generate content
A content site obviously has to have content (the whistles and bells functionalities are peripheral – nice to have but not the main attraction). This is where many players get stuck. They just don’t know how to generate the right type of content for their site.

Original content obviously will cost the most. You will have to engage a writer, a graphic designer and maybe a photographer to create exclusive articles. And if you want to venture into multimedia, you will need and audio and video guy as well. There’s also cheaper content in the form of syndicated articles, podcasts or videos that you can license. Lastly, there is free content in the form of RSS feeds and links to external content.

So, decide on your content mix – original, licensed and free content – that best suits your target market’s needs and expectations.

Step 4: Monetizing it
All the best ideas in the world would come to naught if at the end of the day, you can’t monetize your portal. Unless your portals are funded by a company or organization that views it as a loss leader or cost centre that is necessary for branding purposes, you will have to monetize the website in order to keep it going.

To me there are three strategies that might work in the Malaysian context. The first is, of course, advertising. Many people scoff that online advertising is small. It is compared to print but this is changing and the amount companies spend on online ads is growing every year. The other idea is to offer some kind of e-commerce to your target audience. If you have big traffic, this could work. Lastly, it’s to offer a premium membership that gives the subscriber – not access to content, because that should always be free (few people are willing to pay for content) but privileges like special offers, discount coupons, invitation to offline events and so on.

Are there other ways to monetize your site? Perhaps, but I think by having a mixed revenue stream of advertising, e-commerce and premium membership (for privileges, not content), might just do the trick.

Oon Yeoh is editor for New Media at The Edge. He invites you to follow him at www.twitter.com/oonyeoh.