Chapter 12
The Collaborative Publishing Model
Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.
I went out to my friends that I had built relationships with… . And I decided to ask [them] if they would consider writing one article a month until they were bored.
So the five of us essentially each wrote one article a month. Then I got a volunteer … and she worked for free as my editor, behind the scenes, putting everything into WordPress.
… I’ll tell you in the first couple of weeks the thing exploded. We had 10,000 e-mail subscribers literally in like 2½ months. (Michael Stelzner on founding the social media marketing education site Social Media Examiner, which now boasts over 350,000 subscribers.)
What do these companies have in common: Forbes, Content Marketing Institute, Social Media Examiner, Copyblogger Media, Moz, HubSpot, MarketingProfs, Huffington Post, and Mashable?
They all use a collaborative publishing model. Instead of having only a core set of writers and journalists employed by the brand (like traditional publishing has done), these brands reach out to their community to recruit and request relevant content to publish on their platform.
And they all are extremely successful businesses!
WHY CONSIDER COLLABORATIVE PUBLISHING?
Collaborative publishing, as a business model, is the idea that the entrepreneur or business actively recruits outside contributors to build a platform and an audience. Once the platform is built and sees some success, the opportunity exists to bring in thought leaders and community experts to fill content holes in your workflow.
Outside the benefit of covering content areas that may be difficult for you to do yourself or by paying freelancers, the biggest benefit to a collaborative model is the opportunity to attract a new audience to your content. Contributors have their own followers and subscribers, who, if things are done right, can be converted to become a part of your audience.
Many traditional media companies showcase “employed” talent only. They do not encourage members of the community to contribute to stories. This presents a clear opportunity for you.
The Huffington Post was founded in 2005 by a number of investors including Arianna Huffington, a spokesperson for the political left in the United States. In 2011 the Huffington Post sold for over $300 million to AOL and is one of the top 100 most popular sites in the world, according to Alexa.com.
The Huffington Post has hundreds of niche, targeted sites, where thousands of contributors around the world publish content for free, in exchange for the opportunity to be published. The Huffington Post employs a collaborative publishing model. Sure, it hires some amazing journalists, writers, and content producers, but much of what you see on the site is produced by thought leaders and active members of the community.
THE PROCESS
There are a number of ways to identify contributors to develop the collaborative model (we cover each of these in Chapter 16 on stealing audience), but the key to making the model work is as much about the process as it is the talent.
The first imperative is to set strict guidelines and expectations with your contributors. If you are lax about the content you allow on your site, you’ll never be the leading informational expert in your niche.
Below is a sample e-mail that we send out to all our inquiring contributors:
For an inside look at the entire CMI publishing process and how we execute the collaborative publishing model, please see Appendix B.
A REMINDER SYSTEM FOR CONTRIBUTORS
Once you have a set number of contributors, the process can get extremely complex. It’s important to keep open communication with all your contributors. When you receive an inquiry to contribute to your site, follow these steps:
E-mail #1. Send out confirmation of the submission receipt and what the contributor should expect around the general timing of the process.
E-mail #2. Notify regarding approval or rejection of the post. If confirmed, there is typically a request for revisions.
E-mail #3. Send a preview of the post. Once the article has been finalized and set up for production, your blog editor sends a preview of the post, as well as the likely publication date and any ideas on ways the writers can share the article with their own audience.
E-mail #4. Notify the contributor of any blog comments. Once someone’s first comment comes in, the blog editor or social media manager will forward that to the author and request that he or she engage and respond.
E-mail #5. Send notification of top post. If the article is performing well, you’ll want to let the contributor know and keep in contact with him or her. This means that the contributor is someone of value. You may want that person to develop another article at some point or to become a regular contributor.
CONTENT INC. INSIGHTS
As you build out your channel, you’ll need help to create content. While outsourcing for pay is always an option, building a collaborative publishing model should be considered.
For collaboration to work, communication is key. Build a process before you reach out to contributors.
Sometimes less is more. Start your collaborative publishing process with less of the right people first … then build out the program.
Resources
“The Huffington Post,” Wikipedia, accessed April 28, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Huffington_Post.
Top 500 Global Websites by Traffic, Alexa.com, accessed April 28, 2015, http://www.alexa.com/topsites/global;3.