A friend of mine asked me recently, ‘how can I use Facebook targeting to advertise jobs or get hired?’

I started by writing out the lengthy Facebook reply, but for some reason, FB wouldn’t send the mail…. So here I will share it with everyone! YAY! :)

I’ll break this up into two posts “Advertising a Job” and “Getting Hired” using Facebook ads.

Why Use Facebook Advertising?

Only because it’s the most powerful advertising platform when it comes to targeting! Seriously, you can get in front of nearly anyone at company…. because… well, they probably are using Facebook too.

If you want to get hired, there’s no shame in advertising your skills and background. How else are people going to recruit you if they don’t know you exist.

So let’s start.

What you are about to read will get you further along than 90% of Facebook advertisers out there :)

Before You Advertise

1. Get yourself a:
   1. Blog (self-hosted, not on wordpress.com or blogspot or typepad). Use WORDPRESS software
   2. Twitter
   3. Facebook profile and fan page
   4. Linkedin if you’re really feeling up for it
2. Create some content that is worthy of YOU! That means put up some of your best content to share with the world. If you have awesome stories or photos, post at least links to these on your profiles and blogs. Get people noticing them.
3. Pick a SINGLE photo you want to use and use it across all of your profiles and on your blog. Consistency will help you have a more professional look.
4. Decide what you want to be hired for. Do you want to be a reporter? Editor? Photog? Designer? What do you want!?!!
5. Decide what you will advertise: Will you send people to your own website? Your Facebook fan page? Your Twitter page? My best advice is to create a page on your own website that acts as a “living resume.” When you reference things you’ve done, link to them from within that page. This will help people navigate through your work history and give them a strong picture of you. Don’t be afraid to link to things, like side projects, that reveal more about your personality.
   1. My best idea here is to create an email capture form and tell people who submit their email you will put them on your newsletter (this does require creating a newsletter). Anyway, potential employers may want to keep up with you, but they probably won’t come back to your resume page over and over. Creating a newsletter is an AWESOME way to pump out new content and keep potential employers in the loop with what you are doing. Believe me, they will remember you longer than someone else who isn’t creating a newsletter. The cheapest and easiest place to do this is at http://www.aweber.com.
   2. YES! I know this is work, but do you want a job or not?
6. Set a budget. How much is a new job worth to you. I’d invest at least $100 in this. If you get nowhere after that, then at least you will have learned about how to advertise on Facebook and you could always try affiliate marketing like me :)

How to Advertise

Start by reading through the “How to Advertise a Jouralism Job” to get ideas for how to create a BUSINESS account and how to do basic targeting. NOTE: Do NOT run ads on your personal account. ALWAYS create a business account.

PLEASE do read the other post because it will offer you tips applicable here that I didn’t want to write again.

But anyway, let’s start.

After you’ve created your business account, click the “create an ad” button or go to http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/.

1. Pick what you want to advertise – what URL will you send clickers to?
2. Map out your target demo:
   1. If you know which company you want to work for – use workplace targeting to target people in that company. You could even go a step further by figuring out who at the company is doing the hiring, find out their age, location and what they like to do and then put all of those targeting features in your ad setup.
   2. If you know the location you want to work in, make sure you target that specific city and not the entire US.
   3. If you know the industry only, try to think of up to 5 tightly-related keywords that people who are in that industry might have in their profile. DO NOT use things like “the new york times” and “boston globe” in your keyword targeting. Why? Well because anyone might have those keywords in their profile. But people who actually work for those companies will have that in their workplace targeting. And that’s how you want to attack that.
   4. You can get in front of anyone you want, just be sure to get in front of the RIGHT people. The smaller the demo size the better. Think of trying to get a couple hundred to a couple thousand-size demo. I can’t imagine you’d want to go broader on this type of advertising.
3. Pick a photo of you in action related to the position that you want. You want a really eye-catching image here. If you put a border around it, all the better. Make sure you use all of the alotted space – 110 x 80 pixels.
4. Write a BLUNT headline. Do not get cute. Something like “Hire this REPORTER” or “REPORTER for Hire” or “I’ll Write For You”.
5. Your description should have some more information about you, but make it interesting and include a call to action. Here’s an example of an ad I created for me….(it is embellished :)
6. DO ANOTHER AD! Always Always Always split test your ads. That means create another ad that is pretty close to the same but something is changed. That way you’ll know what type of ad receives more response from your target audience. It could be as simple as writing “REPORTER for hire” as the headline in your first ad and “Hire this REPORTER” in your second ad. But just do it! Then keep an eye on it to see what’s working best.

How to Bid

Run your ads on a CPC (cost per click) model. That means, you’ll only pay Facebook when someone clicks your ad. For this type of ad, my guess is you’ll pay somewhere around $0.35-$0.55 per click. That’s not too bad.

CPM is cheaper, but that will also help you lose your ASS fast if you haven’t done this before.

Bid at the middle of the “suggested bid.” Facebook will tell you what most other people are bidding for similar traffic, and you should stick to the middle of that. If you go higher, you will get more impressions (more views of your ads), but you will also pay more when someone clicks.

Keep in mind Facebook will give an ad around 10,000 impressions (views) to get a click. If it doesn’t get a click in that time, then your ad will probably stop getting shown. Why? Well because Facebook is doing you a favor by showing your ad if you are only paying for it when it gets clicked. If no one clicks the ad, that means it’s taking up their ad inventory and NO ONE is making money on it.

What’s Next?

Run Those Ads!

Read the other post on how to advertise a job on Facebook. You’ll get more information on how to run a successful ad on Facebook. Then launch your ad and get hired!

Would love to hear stories of your experience running FB ads for jobs.

Why Advertise on Facebook?

If you have a job you want to fill, facebook is an awesome platform for targeting ideal candidates. Why? Because the Facebook has a huge, sometimes-educated, DAILY audience – much bigger than the daily audience on say JournalismJobs.com.

Now I can’t speak on cost, because JournalismJobs.com runs ads for $75 for 5 weeks, and the audience is fairly targeted. The cost really could back out. Facebook runs on a CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model. Depending on your budget, Facebook be more cost-effective but also more costly.

What you are about to read will get you further along than 90% of Facebook advertisers out there :)

If you want to use Facebook to get a job, make sure you read this post, but also “using facebook ads to get hired.”

Start Advertising:

1. Create a business account with Facebook. NEVER use your personal account for advertising… Trust me! Here’s quick step-by-step instructions for doing that:

1. Click on Advertising at the bottom of the page on Facebook.com (While completely logged out)
2. Click “Create an Ad” (green button)
3. Create a “test” ad by going through steps 1-3 (Title: “test” Body: “test” URL: “www.facebook.com”)
4. When prompted to log in at “Facebook Login”, make sure to “Create a new account”
5. Input an e-mail address that does not match any email address that Facebook has on record already.
6. Verify e-mail address through your inbox
7. Input credit card information
8. Business Account created
9. Do not click “Create Your Profile” within this account

2. Now that you have an account, click the green button that says “CREATE AN AD”… you can also go to http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
3. Decide where you will send people who click your ads. If it’s just a job advertisement, send them to a page with the job description. If you really want to capture these leads, which I suggest you do, put an email box on there and tell people to submit their email and you’ll email them extra info about the job. Even if you don’t have much extra info, email them the job description they just viewed. This way, you’ll start building an email list of people who are interested in jobs like this. That way, when you have new jobs opening, you can just email them (ie. FREE! notices) and ask them if they or someone they know is interested. Boom! Headshot! OR…. You could send them to a Facebook fan page, which has good tracking so you can see how your ad is performing….. or you could just send them to a simple job description…. which you should host on your own site… don’t send them to your journalism jobs posting because if they convert from there you won’t know if your advertising on journalism jobs or facebook is working best. My Suggestion: send them to your own page with an email capture form.
4. Target Your Demo: Figure out exactly who you’re targeting. Set the ideal candidate’s age. Choose keywords that describe the candidate *note: stick to five very-related keywords per ad*. Target schools if you’re looking for graduates from specific programs. Set the area you want to target if you only want local candidates. Heck, choose workplace and target other news orgs to cherry pick from.
5. CREATE!
   1. The #1 most important thing (after demo targeting ;)) for your ad is to pick an eye-catching image. Make sure you have something good, hopefully related to the keywords you’re using in your targeting.
   2. Write a good headline. Your space is limited, so be succinct and bold. If you want to hire a reporter, then simply write: “REPORTERS: We’re Hiring” or “Reporting Job Open” or “REPORT for Us Now”
   3. Your description is where you can play with some info and length. Write something interesting and provide a call to action. You don’t have to cram ever speck of info in there, but have something! And at the end of your ad, write “Click to apply!” or “Apply now here” or “Send us your resume here!” or “Positions limited – send your resume now!”
   4. Do it again! ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS create more than one ad per demo. You want to split-test your ads to see which one will get a higher CTR (click-through rate). The higher the CTR, the lower your CPCs (cost per click).
   5. Look at step 4 again and do it! At least make the ad twice, once for women and once for men. That will tell you a lot about who is clicking your ads.
   6. Set a budget and create a campaign and submit your ad!
   7. Facebook will ask you to confirm. make sure you give each ad a unique name so you can track them better.

How to Bid

If you’re new to Facebook advertising, you most likely want to go with the CPC model. This means you only pay when you get a click. Facebook will give each ad roughly 10,000 impressions (that means it will be shown to your target demo roughly 10,000 times) to get a click. If your ad doesn’t get a click in those 10,000 impressions, you probably won’t get any more impressions from Facebook.

Why not? Well, facebook is showing your ad for FREE. You only pay when you get a click. So actually, Facebook is doing you a favor. And because they are doing that favor, CPC bids actually cost MORE than CPM (cost per thousands) bids.

Again, if you are new to advertising online, do NOT start with CPM bidding. You will get a nasty taste in your mouth and a hole in your pocket.

On a campaign like this, I would suggest just sticking to CPC.

Start by bidding in the middle of the “suggested bid” that Facebook gives you. If you go higher, you will probably get more impressions. If you go lower, you will get fewer impressions. Impressions are basically an “instance” of your ad being shown to a user when they are on Facebook.

Sometimes you won’t get many impressions, that could be because someone is bidding higher than the suggested bid and taking a lot of the impressions. Make sure you aren’t targeting “single” people —- just leave that whole relationship targeting stuff blank. That will only make you pay a lot because you’ll be competing with people who run dating ads.

What’s Next?

Run Your Ad

Turn that puppy on! It’s not hard… just know that you have a good chance to spend the budget that you are giving yourself.

Since bailouts became all the rage, a lot of journo’s have asked “where’s our bailout?” Where’s the bailout for the newspaper industry?

Looks like the buzz is getting a second wind as The Hill reports President Obama may be open to the idea of a bailout for the newspaper industry. The Hill cites an interview during which Obama told some newspaper editors he would be happy to view proposals.

Reports the Toledo Blade:

Several bills have been introduced in Congress to aid the newspaper industry, including a Senate measure that would allow newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks. The President was noncommittal about the legislation but said: “I haven’t seen detailed proposals yet, but I’ll be happy to look at them.”

Sorry folks. This is ridiculous. It’s true, news organizations are necessary for a healthy government. However, newspapers are NOT.

Newspapers that go under fail for a reason, as is true with all businesses. Throwing money at a failing entity is like using a life boat with a hole in it. It might work for a little while, but you’ll still sink eventually.

Thankfully, the President is at least giving this some critical thought to the problem:

“What I hope is that people start understanding if you’re getting your newspaper over the Internet, that’s not free and there’s got to be a way to find a business model that supports that.”

I support the journalists and news industry in the United States. If a bailout is in the works for them, GREAT! But it better not be for newspapers. It should be for journalists (business classes?) and business models that work in the modern landscape.

This is part two of my series about diversifying your income streams. See part 1 if you missed it.

If you read my last post in this series, you’ve likely put together a list of your skills and a few other lists as well. If you didn’t, go back to post 1 and write your lists. Then come back.

Now that you have your lists, finding ways to monetize your journalism background should get a lot easier.

In this post, I’ll give you an 8-step plan for getting started with skills monetization outside of newspapers and a few excellent examples for putting your skills to work. Let’s get started (which is often the hardest part).

Get Off Your Ass!

If you’re looking to supplement or even replace your journalist’s salary, you’re in for a ride. This isn’t easy, but it can be very rewarding.

Here’s my overly-simplistic plan for getting yourself a secondary income:

Cycle time: 6 months

1. Get an idea for what you want to do; how do you want to spend your time?
2. Find like-minded individuals who can help (call them Team A … size varies)
3. Meet regularly with Team A (at least once weekly for 3 months)
4. Find a common goal or project for Team A. If you can’t find one, find Team B
5. Determine how project can make $, when and for whom.
6. Assign tasks and deadlines to team members to achieve team goal (meanwhile, get an LLC and operating agreement)
7. At 6 months, evaluate the situation.
8. Decide to go forward or move on. If you continue project, repeat steps 6-7

This process can be done without a team members, but you’ll likely see benefits from working with others. If not for ideas, others can contribute through labor or even administrative work.

This is the most basic plan I can offer. You can fill it up with all the extras and details that you want. Just keep to the 6 month schedule, consistently evaluate your position, and stay on the lookout for opportunities.

Now for the projects.

Getting Beyond News Orgs with J Skills

Obviously there’s a ton of ways to make money with your journalism skills outside of newspapers and traditional news orgs. Depending on your skills you could do anything from *cough* PR and marketing *couch* to website layout design to writing greetings cards.

Hate those options?

Here’s a few ideas that should inspire you:

Idea 1: Same Skills, More Intimate Audience

This idea I’m about to share really blew me away. I’m impressed. And surprised.

So what’s the idea? You.

That’s right, it’s all about you.

Each of us has a story to tell. But few actually have the chance to share those stories, even with loved ones.

Sounds like a good market for a storyteller, doesn’t it? That could be what newspaper writer Claire Cummings thought when she created Remember The Journey.

Cummings writes “professionally penned life stories” and packages them in framed displays with photos of the subject.

“Traditional publications can’t write about everyone because some stories do not interest the broader community. I’m trying to offer a service that allows everyone’s story to be told,” she writes in a Facebook message to me.

What I like about this idea is how unique it is – and it’s using her J-skills. Cummings has “a real passion for telling the stories of regular folks.” And in this venture, she’s able to use all her skills of interviewing, writing and storytelling she she has honed during her years at major newspapers.

“Navigating the whole business landscape has not been too difficult because I have years of practice in researching new things as a reporter. At the end of the day, most of the skills I need to make my company successful are those of a journalist — accuracy, empathy and good eyes and ears for detail,” she writes.

Options for writers are endless. Get creative.

Idea 2: Give People Something to Look At

Here’s an idea you may have heard of before. It has the same principles as Cummings’ business, but with a different medium: photography.

I’ll be honest. I hate staged photos, unless they are so awkwardly presented that it’s a farce. I hate wedding photos where everyone stands together, stiff and unnatural. Sorry, I really do.

I can bet I’m not the only one who feels this way, since some news-trained photographers have found some room in the crowded wedding and special event space.

Check out Wasabi Photography for an example of “documentary wedding photography.”

Wasabi is made up of several newspaper photojournalists, and they travel worldwide to perform image storytelling.

You can bet I’ll have someone like them at my wedding … wonder if they travel to Thailand? :/

….. Some other ideas for photogs? Try selling your extra pics on sites like iStock. It might not be a ton of money at the beginning, but if you have some good images and can promote them, making a few extra K annually shouldn’t be too far-fetched.

Idea 3: Do it Better!

If you think you can do business better than whatever news org your working for, then do it. Seriously. Do it.

You really might have a better shot at delivering what people want.

The Huffington Post launched on May 9, 2005. It is the No. 1 blog listed on the Technorati top 100. TechCrunch, No. 2 on the Technorati top 100, launched June 11, 2005. No. 3 Mashable launched July 2005. Pete Cashmore, who launched Mashable, was born in 1985. 1985!

These are all huge, high-traffic sites. In their respective circles, TechCrunch and Mashable are the authority on their subjects. and guess what, those sites are only 4 years old.

The point is this, the web makes it almost – *almost* – FREE to start your own news company. If you want to run your own news service, you have no excuse not to.

You have a head start because you’re already a journalist. If you think you can do it better, or at least as good, then do it.

Don’t worry about taking on a huge project. Start with a small niche subject you’re interested in, and TAKE IT OVER!

Idea 4: Teach

A number of people I worked with at my college newspaper have entered teaching (including me haha).

Why is this the case? Well, some say the journalist background gives them an upper hand on dealing with stressful situations and getting kids aware of current events.

Plus there’s a ton of opportunities: Teach for America, community colleges, the college you graduated from, community adult enrichment courses, TEFL :), your local library, your local university … or even start your own local group to form a networking space and get consulting gigs.

Teaching is actually a lot of fun, and trust me, the J-Skills come in handy.

NOW GET STARTED!

There’s tons of ways to make money with your J-skills. The trick is to start brainstorming about what YOU can do and take some action.

If the unthinkable (layoff, pay cut, furlough) occurs, you’ll be a lot better off if you have something to supplement your income or give you a stepping stone into something different.

NEXT UP: PROMOTION!

Here’s something I’ve heard from a few journalists:

“I’ve found the most intimidating thing about being in business is trying to market myself and my company. As a journalist, I’ve been taught to stay neutral and avoid promoting anything,” Cummings (Remember the Journey) told me.

In part 3 of this series, you’ll hear a few ideas for promoting your stuff.

awesome images courtesy zzzack and Claire Cummings and peiqianlong.

This is part 1 of my series about diversifying your income streams. Make sure to see Part 2.

It’s time to stop asking “are we at the end of newspaper times” and start preparing yourself for other options.

The writing on the wall is as clear as it can be – diversify yourself.

If your job at a newspaper is your only meal ticket, this series is for you

Your Basket Has a Hole in it

If you’ve ever taking an investing course or a business class, you’ve probably heard you should never put all your eggs in one basket.

You know what? That’s true in journalism too.

If there’s anything the mid-2000s should have taught news people, it’s that you can’t depend on your employer to support you your whole life. News is a business. And business has a bottom line. And when that bottom line isn’t met, cuts start.

So what can you do?

Get To Know Yourself

One of the easiest ways to get started with diversifying your income streams is getting to know what you can do for others. You’d be surprised at how versatile news people actually are.

Take some time to analyze your skills and your situation.

Here’s an exercise for you – Load up text editor, and then enter the following questions:

• What Do I Love Doing?
• If I have Free Time, What Do I Do With It?
• What Kind of Help Do My Friends and Family Ask of Me Because of My Unique Skills? (any skill)
• Which Skills of Mine Do Others Request? How? When? Why?
• What Do I Want To Do? What Do I Want?
• What Don’t I Want?

Now write. Skip between questions if you like. You may find, like I have, that the answer in one question will help answer another. Write until you’ve exhausted yourself, even if you think something is unrelated.

Warning: You’re not going to find the secret answer to wealth and happiness here. But you will have some things sorted out for yourself that you might not have seen as real before you wrote them down. That’s the first starting point.

The point of this exercise is to make your answers tangible. Now you can start working with them.

Now What? Start Analyzing

Take a look through your list. Do any of your answers match across the different questions?

Draw connections. Find holes. Look for unexpected answers.

If you find some connections, you’ve got something to work with. The next step is to start exploring those connections and figuring out how to put them together – from point A to point B.

If you haven’t found some connections, even better. Take your desires and do some more brainstorming – you can create a whole new list about “actions I need to take to get what I want.” Then think about how can your current skills help you get where you want.

NOTE: This exercise will be a waste if you only draw up this list and then close the document never to open it again.

Next Up: Monetization On the Brain

Check out Part 2 of this series – Monetizing Your J-Skills.

BTW, This series of posts was inspired by many of my former colleagues who have faced layoffs, furloughs and paycuts, as well as those who have started their own ventures to supplement or even replace their incomes.

img by rbphalen

Watch this video, and while you’re doing it, substitute Best Buy’s products for news and it’s brand/stores with a news organization.

Everything Best Buy CMO Barry Judge talks about Best Buy doing this or that, think about how a news organization can do or think similarly.

What did you think?

Well, not exactly unemployed. Starting today, I’m self-employed :-P

Today is my last day serving as senior producer for MLive.com.

My video explainer (turn your volume all the way up – sorry about that)

WHERE I’M GOING

Since 2007 I’ve been working on my own internet marketing group with three others. We started by building websites for small and medium-sized businesses, and that grew into other things, like search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click marketing (PPC) and social media marketing.

This year, we’ve far exceeded our goals, and we have the confidence to start making this a real gig.

My full-time “job” will be internet marketing for my own crew – Optimal Webworks!

AM I BAILING ON JOURNALISM?

No. I’m not.

I’m going after a dream of mine that I think I have a real shot at achieving.

In the meantime, I’ll still be talking at universities about the new landscape for journalism and I’ll hopefully have more time to share ideas here for using new media to improve journalism.

AM I OPEN FOR BUSINESS?

YES … if the project is right. Contact me through this blog or @shawnsmith or through OptimalWebworks.com.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

It’s been awesome to get to know many of you through this blog and conferences and working relationships. You really helped push me forward and think in new directions.

To my friends at MLive: You all are awesome. It’s incredible to look at what we accomplished in the four years I spent with you despite numerous limitations. Thank you Eric Braun for hiring me and encouraging me. Thank you Mark Hauptschein for keeping me on a upward track and your advice. Thank You Bill Emkow for listening to me, believing in me, and pushing me to do what was necessary – for MLive and myself. Thank you Justin Rogers for filling all the holes I ignored and balancing my madness. Thank you Mike Schiller for being a good friend. Thank you Christine Lasek and Tim Agne for putting up with me and helping me learn how to lead. Thank you Mike Itchue and Jonathan Oosting for hearing me, challenging me and finally taking the reigns. Thank you Kevin Nichols for making me feel welcome. Thank you James Schmehl and Phil Zaroo for some of the best shares in the office. Thanks to everyone who helped me succeed.

To my friends at Advance Internet: I can’t thank you enough for all the opportunities you’ve given me. From sending me to New Orleans during the Katrina aftermath to shooting the shit at ONA conferences to encouraging me to push the envelop at MLive – you guys really gave me a chance to explore and grow. As my time winded down at MLive I realized what an incredible family Advance is. For all the cursing I did in the beginning :), I don’t think there would have been a better place for me to be employed. Getting hired and embraced into the Advance Internet family was one of the best things I could have ever asked for. Thank you Scott Brodeur for engaging with me and encouraging me from the start – even before you were at Advance. Thank you John Hassell for inspiring my Twitter effort and your support. Thank you Joe Territo for giving me an ear. Thank you Steven Ibanez for shooting the shit with me and asking my input.

And thank you newspaper friends I made. You all helped me become a better teacher and a better listener. There’s big success on the horizon. And I know it may not seem like it sometimes, but your efforts really are moving things in a positive direction for journalism and the company.

PARTING ADVICE

To people looking for jobs: If you want a job in the internet world, you have to be passionate about the web and show examples of your passion. In the new new journalism, it goes 1) online 2) mobile 3-tie) dead-tree print & tv. If this isn’t how you think, then don’t apply to work for a website.

If you want some real opportunities to try things online, look no further than Advance Internet.

And another thing, if you don’t have a blog, facebook, twitter, youtube, delicious, digg, stumbleupon and reddit account, get it now or you don’t even meet the status quo. No one is going to teach you. You have to learn it yourself …. that is until I publish an e-book this summer :)

SEE YOU ON THE INTERNETS

Forbes reports that while news agencies across the U.S. are slashing budgets and payrolls, journalism schools are actually filling up.

Who knew?

Says Forbes about J-School applications:

Columbia, Stanford and NYU applications increased 38%, 20% and 6%, respectively, from the previous year. Same thing at state schools. The University of Colorado (up 11%), University of North Carolina (up 14%) and University of Maryland (up 25%) all saw gains.

Hot diggity dee.

MY QUESTIONS

So this begs a few questions from me to students:

1) Do you believe successful careers in journalism are still possible?

2) Do you have plans for supporting yourself on the salary of a journalist?

3) Are you ignoring the lack of money in the journalism industry? Do you care?

4) Why are you going into journalism?

NOW MY ADVICE

As if you asked for it.

If you’re a j-schooler, that’s excellent. The world needs more journalists who can do good work.

That said, while you’re in school I’m going to give you some words of wisdom I wish somebody pounded into my head: take a few business classes. Take an HTML class. Take a photo and video class. Write a blog and try to monetize it. Don’t let yourself graduate with just a standard j-school degree. Soak up everything you can while you’re in school.

——-

I’m definitely interested in your thoughts though – why choose journalism over other more lucrative majors?

Ever notice how the most interesting articles online seem to command too much of your time? Have you ever stopped reading a long article online because you saw that it was paginated into 8 clicks? ‘Ugh, 8? That’s just too much,’ you might have thought.

If you’re anything like me, this  happens to you all the time.

THE PROBLEM WITH LONG FORM ARTICLES ONLINE

Most of us read longer articles when we don’t have time to do so. For example, a friend might send you an email with a link to a really excellent piece, and you visit the link.

‘Huh, that IS interesting,” you might think. Then you may bookmark it to your delicious.com account or your browser or just file your email into a “To Read” folder.

Let me ask you this, how often do you go back and read those articles in their entirety? My guess is not often – again, that is if you are like me.

Despite my level of interest in a piece, I rarely, if ever, re-visit a long article online. I just don’t have the time. Long, in-depth articles are too overwhelming for me to read. Really.

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH LONG ARTICLES ONLINE

Long articles are usually the most researched and most interesting pieces you’ll find. The New York Times and magazines like Vanity Fair do a great job producing them. If you can make it through the whole read, you’re likely to come away satisfied. But most of us don’t.

And that’s not the biggest problem. The big problem is people like me will visit the long article, skim a little bit, look for pictures, captions, subheads and an easy summary to get the jist of the article, then we’ll leave. We likely won’t click any of the 8 paginaged pages of the article.

And that means you won’t get all the page views you could get if you approached long form articles differently.

This excellent long form article may pull in a lot of unique visitors, but it’s page views that pay the bills (that get advertisers happy).

The answer is more simple than you expect, and it’s not “add more social bookmarking buttons.”

CAN PRINT LEARN FROM TV?

Before I give you the answer, think for a moment what are the most popular types of TV shows right now. If you guessed series, you’d be right.

Think of how many people huddle around their TV each week to see the next installment of ‘24′ or ‘American Idol’. What about all the money producers have recouped by selling DVD box sets of TV show seasons?

Why does this work? Because longer content is broken up into episodes.

Sure, some people will sit on their couch for a full weekend and watch all of season 1 of ‘Heroes’. But more are likely to catch the show each week.

Now, let’s translate this to print, physical or online.

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR LONG IN-DEPTH ARTICLES ONLINE

Long articles usually aren’t time-sensitive. In fact, they’re often stories that could be released at just about any time, especially when it comes to some magazines.

Ever noticed that? A truly interesting article can come about at any time. And what print often doesn’t have that TV does is the ability to promo good content for days, weeks or even months in advance. If you’re printing a big story, and you haven’t told anyone about it, how do you expect people to notice it? Are you relying on social networks to share your stories and give you viral traffic?

Forget it. You want to keep readers interests?

Don’t cut down the stories, break them up.

Print a little bit each day. Give readers one page to read and a cliff hanger, then tell them to come back tomorrow for the rest of the story. And if you have an 8-click in-depth article, let readers know you will have an installment coming each day for the next 8 days.

It’s more likely that over the course of those 8 days, you will get more page views, and even page views of previous days’ articles, than you would if you just tossed the whole darn mess up in a single swoop. And that’s what you want. More page views = more selling power = more ads = more money = staying open.

Want to know what spurred this post? Check out this excellent piece from Vanity Fair about the slipping of the NY Times from the top down. If you can read through more than a couple of the paginated pages, you are a more dedicated reader than me – and most others.

I REALIZE MY FOLLY

This post is already bordering on too long. So I’ll cut it here. What do you think?

btw, excellent bunny image by tm_lv