This week, we talk about how radio stations can prepare for AI's disruption with Henry Hayes, co-founder of Disrupt Ready. This interview was recorded on the floor of a recent Mississippi Association of Broadcasters annual convention.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/preparing-for-ais-disruption-in-radio-with-henry-hays.

Henry explains his journey into AI, starting with his fascination with disruptive innovation, such as the closing of Blockbuster and the rise of Netflix. He delves into the transformative impact of AI on industries, likening its influence to major technological shifts of the past, and highlights how legacy businesses need to adapt to avoid being left behind.

Takeaways

AI is rapidly evolving, and businesses must be proactive in adapting to avoid being left behind.
Practical steps to begin with AI include experimenting with ChatGPT and exploring AI tools that improve efficiency.
Henry shares insights on how radio stations can leverage AI to optimize customer interactions, manage data, and improve business operations.
A free AI prompt guide and resources are available for listeners who mention the "Better Radio Websites" podcast who reach out to him.

Resources

Disrupt Ready
ChatGPT
Free ChatGPT Ultimate Guide on LinkedIn: Henry Hayes

Are you ready for what's next? We're here to help with your radio station website. Reach out to us for help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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You’re likely sitting on a goldmine of online content—everything that happens on-air. Whether it’s an engaging interview, a lively morning show, or a thought-provoking discussion or interview, the content your station produces daily has immense potential beyond its initial broadcast.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/repurposing-on-air-content-for-podcasts.

By repurposing that on-air content into various online forms, such as podcasts, blog posts, or social media clips, you can extend the lifespan of your best material and reach new audiences who may have missed the live show.

One of the simplest ways to begin repurposing is through podcasting. Taking your most compelling on-air segments and packaging them as podcasts allows your listeners to engage with your content on their terms, whether they're commuting, working out, or relaxing at home. This approach not only broadens your station's reach but also strengthens your online presence, which is increasingly important as more listeners turn to digital platforms.

Another advantage of repurposing on-air content is that it requires minimal additional effort. You’ve already done the hard work of creating valuable, engaging content. Now, with a few edits, you can share that content across multiple channels to drive more traffic to your website and build deeper connections with your audience.

Our guest this week is Breck Riley. Breck is the morning show guy and news director for Boswell Media in central Mississippi. You’ll hear Breck speak to all of the things they are doing to repurpose what they do on-air into engaging online content that lives far beyond the initial broadcast.

You can reach out to Breck on all socials @breckriley or check out their content for yourself at https://www.breezynews.com and https://www.kicks96news.com.

Repurposing your on-air content into digital formats like podcasts not only extends the reach of your radio station but also enhances your overall brand presence. With today’s tools, it's easier than ever to transform live segments into lasting, shareable content that can engage your audience across multiple platforms.

Need help with your radio station website? We’re here to help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Hopefully, you want to make money from your website; content is the key. Fresh content is one of the most crucial steps to a successful website.

Get more in-depth show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/importing-free-state-national-news-with-jerry-lyles.

Content drives traffic to increase your SEO, which ensures more visitors see your content. More visitors equals more revenue once you sell website banner ads and sponsorships.

Many people-strapped radio stations find it challenging to add fresh content, so they turn to RSS feeds. We will always discourage displaying RSS feeds, as they do nothing more than send visitors away from your website. When visitors leave quickly, your SEO scores drastically decrease.

The alternative to displaying RSS feeds is importing them so the visitor stays on your website. You cannot just pick any RSS feed and import the content on your website. Doing that has several copyright issues, the most prevalent being image copyright.

Jerry Lyles is Franklin News's VP of syndication and distribution. We're looking at “The Center Square, " news service. Several of our affiliates are already importing their news content.

The Center Square can be a great news resource for your radio station. We do not recommend importing RSS news only - or filling your website with news from every state. Importing too much news that is not relevant to your audience can hurt your website’s SEO. For the best results, only import additional content to supplement the local news and other content you create. Check your Analytics to see if visitors are consuming that content. If most do not visit those news stories, stop importing them and put a more significant focus on what they are consuming.

Need help with your website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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There are several things you can do each month to ensure your website is fast and engaging. We've compiled a list of essential monthly maintenance tasks to keep your website running efficiently and provide the best possible user experience. Regardless of your content management system, every website requires daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance to remain fast and efficient. While this is a monthly checklist, some tasks (like security monitoring) benefit from being done more frequently.For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-ultimate-radio-station-website-maintenance-checklist.1. Perform a Website Speed Audit2. Monitor Website Security3. Review Google Analytics4. Clear Trash 5. Clean Up Your Media Library6. Optimize Your Images7. Review Navigation Menus and User Flow8. Check for Broken Links and Redirects9. Test Your Forms10. Refresh the "Advertise with Us" Page 11. Manage Spam and Comments12. Engage with User Comments13. Update Passwords and Enable 2FA14. Remove Inactive Users and Admins15. Test Website on Multiple Devices16. Regularly Update Plugins and CMS System Files17. Check and Optimize Streaming Integration18. Verify Podcast Feeds and Embeds19. Conduct a Regular Content Audit20. Audit Banner Ads and Display Advertising21. Test and Optimize Social Media Integrations22. Review SEO for Local Listings23. Optimize for Voice Search24. Test Geo-Targeted Content and Ads25. Review Show Schedules and Hosts26. Ensure Accessibility Standards (ADA Compliance)27. Review Syndicated Content Feeds28. Update Events Calendar29. Website Backups30. Analyze Listener Data from Streaming AnalyticsConclusion:By consistently performing these maintenance tasks, you’ll ensure your radio station’s website stays fast, secure, and optimized for listeners and advertisers. Keeping your site running smoothly not only improves user experience but also maximizes engagement and revenue opportunities. A little time invested each month can prevent more significant problems down the road and keep your digital presence as strong as your on-air signal.Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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As I look through the radio trades, I see more radio companies expanding their offerings into digital services—like website design, SEO, and more. Many of these stations are opting to expand these services with the help of third-party vendors – and there seems to be a growing number of them as well. Before diving headfirst into providing these services to your clients, there's a crucial step that I hope you won’t overlook - become your first customer.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-essential-first-step-to-offering-digital-services.

Understanding Your Own Digital Presence: Is Your Website Ready?

User Experience (UX) as a Priority
Providing Value to Your Audience
SEO-Friendly Content
Traffic Generation: Bringing Visitors to Your Site

Building a Strong Foundation Before Offering Digital Services

Establishing a Reliable Content Creation Process
Learning from Your Experience

Becoming Your Own Best Case Study

Before offering clients digital services, your radio station must become its best case study. Mastering your digital presence—through a well-optimized website, consistent content creation, and strategic experimentation—will give you the firsthand experience needed to deliver real value to your clients.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Flipping through YouTube this past weekend, I stumbled over “The Minimalists” documentary from a few years ago. This documentary was about the movement of many people to give up the endless “pursuit of stuff” and enjoy their lives more with less. Watching this reminded me of how so many radio stations often fall into the trap of their websites trying to be everything to everyone – fitting as much content inside as possible. However, a "more is better" approach can harm your online presence and dilute your brand. Today, I want to explore why embracing website minimalism is crucial for radio station websites and how it can benefit your audience and bottom line.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/embracing-minimalism-and-local-content.

The Benefits of Minimalism and Local Content for Radio Stations

Adopting a minimalist approach focused on local content can yield several benefits:

Improved user experience
Faster load times
Enhanced brand identity
Higher engagement
Better SEO performance
Strengthened community ties
Support for local businesses and events

Best Practices for Implementing Website Minimalism and Local Focus

Focus on local content
Highlight your on-air talent
Showcase your programming
Streamline navigation
Invest in local reporting
Partner with news organizations for local and state news
Engage with the community
Promote your website often

Adapting to Audience Needs by Monitoring Website Analytics

To ensure your minimalist, locally focused approach is effective:

Identify popular content
Measure engagement
Gather feedback
Adapt content strategy
Stay agile

Conclusion

Your website doesn't need to be everything to everyone. Instead, it should be a digital extension of your on-air identity, providing value to your local listeners and reinforcing your role as a trusted community voice. By continually adapting based on analytics and feedback, you can ensure that your station remains an indispensable resource for your community.

Need help with your radio station website? Visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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How important is your radio station website to what you do? For so many, it’s still not a major concern. Today, we’ll talk with Melissa Boswell Townsend, the owner and General Manager of Boswell Media in Kosciusko, MS. Born into radio, Melissa is a fourth-generation broadcaster, following her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. A graduate of Mississippi State University, Melissa and her husband Drew have four children and a son-in-law.

Melissa shares the importance of a radio station website to a station's daily operations and discusses how Boswell Media's websites, BreezyNews.com and Kicks96News.com, have become essential elements of their business. She dives into the journey of starting their digital presence back in 2000, the significance of local content for driving traffic, and the creative ways they monetize their websites.

Additionally, Melissa provides actionable insights for radio professionals looking to successfully launch and maintain their station websites even with limited resources. The episode emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between radio content and a robust digital presence, affirming the necessity of adapting to digital trends for wider audience reach and increased revenue.

00:00 Introduction to the Importance of Radio Station Websites

00:08 Meet Melissa Boswell Townsend

03:48 Melissa's Background and Early Challenges

04:20 The Evolution of Boswell Media's Website

05:24 Content is King: Generating and Monetizing Website Traffic

07:06 Managing and Updating the Website

08:34 Building Trust and Gathering News

13:56 Advertising and Sponsorship Strategies

21:43 The Role of AI and Copyright Issues

22:51 The Critical Role of Websites in Modern Radio

24:14 Encouragement for Newcomers

30:24 Conclusion and Contact Information

As Melissa says during the episode, the best way to start is to provide great content for your local audience. Once you build the audience, the revenue will follow.

Need help getting off the ground with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com

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Pete Pachal is a seasoned journalist and media executive with over two decades of experience in technology and artificial intelligence. He has led AI initiatives at CoinDesk and held senior editorial roles at Red Ventures, Mashable, and NBCUniversal. Pete’s insights have been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, TIME, PC Magazine and many other outlets.

I’ve been listening to “The Media Copilot” podcast for some time. We’re thrilled to have him share his expertise on AI and its impact on media, specifically radio stations.

Pete's Tech Journey:

Pete talks about his history with technology, starting from his undergrad in engineering to his shift to journalism.
Pete shares his experience with AI and how he has followed its development over the years.
Mention of Google's early AI implementations and the rapid advancements since the introduction of ChatGPT.

Preferred AI Tools:

Pete talks about his favorite AI tools, ChatGPT and Claude.- He explains the strengths of each tool, particularly for writing and convenience features.
Discussion on the growing expectation for AI tools to support multimodal functionalities, such as interpreting images and browsing the web.

AI in Newsrooms

Pete and Jim discuss the skepticism towards AI among journalists and the potential reasons for this opposition.
Pete suggests that fear of job replacement, concern over content quality, and doomsday scenarios are common reasons for resistance.
Pete explains how newsrooms are transitioning from experimenting with AI to implementing it systematically.
Use cases include research assistance, content creation, and social media distribution.

AI's Impact on Journalistic Productivity:

Discussion on how AI can enhance productivity and help journalists focus more on creating content rather than marketing it.
The quote, "AI won't replace people. People with AI will replace people without it."

Disclosing AI Use:

Debate on whether AI usage should be disclosed in content creation.
Mention of studies on reader perception of AI-generated content.

Future of AI in Newsrooms:

Predictions on the scaling of AI tools for research and content distribution.
Pete highlights the importance of human connection in audio content and the challenges AI faces in replicating that.

Media Copilot and Services:

Pete introduces Media Copilot at https://mediacopilot.ai, a platform for educating and consulting on AI applications in media.
Overview of available classes and consulting services for journalists, PR professionals, and marketers.
Follow "The Media Copilot" podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-media-copilot/id1712909951.
Pete encourages listeners to reach out for AI-related consultations.

Need help with your radio station website? We're here to help. Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Last week, programming great Gary Berkowitz posted a great article in Radio Ink titled “Did Your Radio Station Pass Saturday’s Test?”

https://radioink.com/2024/07/18/gary-berkowitz-did-your-radio-station-pass-saturdays-test/

The article focused on how many stations failed to mention the biggest news story of the previous Saturday when former President Trump was nearly assassinated. Regardless of your format, every station should be prepared to jump on the air to inform our listeners of such a big new event.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/youre-still-sending-listeners-to-social-media.

In the article, Steve Granato at Renda Media shared a great list of things every station should do…

Establish a relationship with a local TV station.
The PD or Operations Manager should subscribe to all news sources with notification enabled. This includes the traditional networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), local TV, Cable news (CNN, Fox etc.) and your local newspaper. This way, when something happens, you will know quickly.
Download a recording program on your phone in case you are not at the station when this happens. Minutes matter here.
Have access to the station’s computers pre-set up and ready to go on your phone. A simple, quick message about what happened is all you need to be effective. The goal here is to inform your listenership, not get in-depth with the story.
Be prepared to direct listeners to social media for more updates. Then keep it updated with developments.

Number 5 really stood out to me. Why send people listening to the radio station to your social media? Once they get there, it’s a simple thumb swipe for them to leave your circle and go somewhere else.

It is essential to maintain a social media presence and be everywhere your listeners are, but social media should aim to attract followers to your station website. Increased visitors will help your SEO, making it more visible in search results. They will also build your numbers to show potential advertisers who want to advertise there.

Updating your social media might be easy. However, managers should know that just because your station has 75,000 followers, it doesn’t mean all 75,000 will see everything you post. Only a very small fraction of those followers will see anything you post unless you pay for more exposure.

Number 5 in this list should have been “Be prepared to direct listeners to your station website and social media with links to your station website. Then keep them both updated, always directing visitors to the website.”
I would also add a Facebook live element since it alerts more of your followers immediately that you are live. Otherwise, Facebook’s algorithm will determine how many (if any) of your followers see that post you’re making.

Is your station lacking a website that encourages visitors to stay engaged with you longer? We’d love to help you with that? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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If your radio station is just getting started at selling ads on the station website, this guide is for you.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/5-essential-preparations-for-radio-station-website-advertising-success

It outlines five essential preparations that will position your station for digital advertising success. By implementing these steps prior to engaging potential advertisers, you'll be equipped to offer genuine value and drive meaningful results in the digital space. I’ve listed these in the order of that they should be accomplished.

Develop High-Quality Website Content
Grow Your Website Audience/Promote the Website
Know and Track the Analytics
Digital Inventory List
Train Your Sales Team

With these elements in place, your station will be well-positioned to begin selling digital advertising. Remember that building a digital advertising program is an ongoing process. Continual refinement and adaptation to market changes and advertiser needs will be key to long-term success.

Need help with your radio station website? We’re here to help! Visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com

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Whether you're a small local station or part of a larger group, understanding your direct and indirect online competition can make all the difference in strategizing and growing your digital presence.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/knowing-your-radio-stations-direct-and-indirect-online-competition.

What is Direct and Indirect Online Competition?

Direct Online Competition refers to websites offering the same or similar content and services as you do. For a radio station, this could be other local radio station websites or media outlets that target the same audience with similar news, music, and event information.
Indirect Online Competition, on the other hand, refers to websites that don't directly compete with your core offering but still attract the same audience. This could include local newspapers, event listing websites, the chamber of commerce, and even local blogs.

Why Knowing Your Online Competition Matters

Identify Opportunities
Benchmarking
Audience Insights

Ways Radio Stations Can Spy on Their Online Competitors

Visit Their Websites Regularly
Use SEO Tools
Analyze Their Social Media
Subscribe to Their Newsletters
Use Web Analytics Tools
Monitor Online Reviews
Set Up Google Alerts
Attend Webinars and Industry Events

By understanding your direct and indirect online competition, you can make more informed decisions that help your station's website stand out. It's all about staying ahead of the curve and ensuring that you're meeting the needs of your audience in the best way possible.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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When you have a robust radio station website, you may not realize it can be used for much more than informing and entertaining your listening audience. Adding additional functionality can transform your website into a powerful tool for streamlining operations, enhancing communication, and boosting efficiency across all departments.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/innovative-untapped-uses-for-your-radio-station-website.

Some of these options require a simple form to pull off. Some might require custom plugins. And some might require custom coding from a professional developer. So, they could go from cheap to expensive. Some of these may be impossible, depending on your hosting plan or website partner. We’re not advocating that you do all or any of these. We only want to let you know of the available possibilities. Let’s go through each department and give three examples.

Sales

Sales Order Forms
Client Portals
CRM Integration

Business/Administration

Document Management
Expense Reporting
HR Portal

Production

Production Requests
Asset Library
Scheduling Tools

Programming

Content Management
Internal Communication
Listener Feedback

News

Newsroom Management
Press Release Submission
Content Archiving

Engineering

Maintenance Logs
Inventory Management
Trouble Ticket System

Marketing/Promotions

Campaign Tracking
Event Management
Analytics Dashboards

General Station Use

Intranet
Training Resources
Polls and Surveys

Potential Downsides

I can’t mention these additional exciting uses for your station website without giving some downsides to consider.

Improper hosting can lead to unexpected downtime, disrupting your operations and affecting productivity.
Security: Sensitive information could be at risk without proper measures.
Relying too heavily on a single system means multiple aspects of your station’s operations could be impacted if it fails.

What special ways are you using your radio station website? Please let us know in the comments.

If we can help with your radio station website, reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Are you relying on RSS feeds to populate your radio station website? There’s a good chance they are doing more harm than good. Today, we’ll give you NINE reasons to kick RSS feeds to the curb.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/9-reasons-why-rss-feeds-are-bad-for-your-radio-station-website.

It’s very common for stations to want to put as much content on their websites as possible. More content equals more visitors, right? Not necessarily. While RSS feeds might seem like a convenient way to keep your website updated, they can actually do more harm than good.

Why RSS Feeds Are Not the Best Strategy

RSS Feeds Dilute Your Brand Identity
They Can Affect Your SEO
Lack of Control Over Content
Reduced Engagement
Potential Technical Issues
Missed Opportunities for Local Content
Advertising and Revenue Impact
Slower Page Loading Times
Legal Ramifications

What to Do Instead

Rather than relying on RSS feeds, radio stations should focus on creating original, engaging content tailored to their audience and community. This includes producing local news stories, event updates, interviews with artists, behind-the-scenes content, and interactive features like polls and contests. One of the most popular content segments among smaller markets is obituaries and mugshots. By providing unique and relevant content, stations can build a loyal online community, improve SEO, and offer a more valuable experience to both listeners and advertisers.

While RSS feeds might seem like a shortcut to keeping your website updated, they come with significant downsides. For a thriving radio station website, focus on creating and curating local content that reflects your station's unique voice and engages your audience. Your listeners will appreciate the effort, and your website will become a go-to destination for fresh, relevant content.

Have questions or need help creating engaging content for your radio station website? We are here to help. Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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I'm sure it comes as no surprise that we've been excited about the potential of AI.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-risks-of-ai-generated-website-content.

Historically, radio has "done a lot with little," and AI can seem like the game-changer we've always dreamed of. However, with all these benefits, there are also risks to consider.

Lack of Authenticity
Inaccuracies and Misinformation
Lack of Context
Limited Creativity
Ethical Concerns
Dependence on Technology

While AI can be a helpful tool for generating ideas and handling repetitive tasks, it's vital to strike a balance.

Use AI for Assistance, Not Replacement: Let AI handle mundane tasks like generating initial drafts, but ensure the person using it always reviews and personalizes the content.

Incorporate Local Flavor: Ensure your content includes local insights and anecdotes only someone familiar with your area can provide.

Stay Informed and Updated: Regularly update your AI tools with the latest information and verify the accuracy of the content they produce.

Maintain Transparency: Be honest with your audience about how you use AI. Transparency builds trust and shows that you value your listeners’ engagement and loyalty.

When I started this podcast, researching each episode took nearly a week. Just finding the right image on stock image sites took another couple alone. Using AI as a content helper, I'm researching and writing episodes within hours, including images. It's important to treat AI as a helper, never a "doer."

Need help with your radio station website? We're here to help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Are you allowing someone total control or even ownership of your station’s most valuable digital assets? Today, we’ll reveal the dangers of giving up ownership and how to protect your station.

For more detailed show notes, visit: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/why-your-radio-stations-digital-assets-could-be-at-risk.

Having full control over your online presence is more important than ever. Yet, many managers unfamiliar with digital assets often trust someone else to “take care of everything.” I’ve been asked to do this several times over the years, and I always decline. Giving control to someone you trust might seem like a good solution, but it can lead to big problems.

Imagine finding out you no longer have control over your domain or that switching app providers means losing access to your entire user database. It happens more often than you’d think.

The Risks for Domains

Difficulty in Transferring Domains
Potential for Service Interruptions
Increased Costs and Fees
Loss of Brand Identity and Trust
Legal and Ownership Disputes

As you can see, owning your domain is essential for maintaining control over your online presence and ensuring the stability and integrity of your radio station’s brand. Registering your domain yourself under a station-owned account can avoid these risks.

The Pitfalls of App Providers Controlling Your App Accounts

Loss of Access to User Databases
Complications in Switching Providers
Potential for Data Loss or Misuse
Increased Costs and Fees

Other Digital Assets You Should Control

Email Hosting and Newsletter Lists
Social Media Accounts
Analytics and Ad Accounts

Best Practices for Retaining Control Over Your Digital Assets

Register Everything in Your Station/Company Name
Avoid Third-Party Providers Who “Handle Everything”
Regular Backups
Maintain Secure and Organized Account Records

Maintaining control over your digital assets is crucial for protecting your radio station’s online presence and ensuring long-term success. By following these best practices, you can ensure that your radio station retains control over its digital assets, safeguarding your online presence and ensuring smooth operations.

Need help with your radio station or group websites? We’re here to help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-benefits-of-remote-website-updates.

Every second counts when a major event happens—whether it’s a big traffic incident, severe weather, or breaking local news. Your listeners want immediate updates, and being able to provide that information quickly can make a huge difference.

Posting updates directly to your website, rather than solely relying on social media, comes with several significant advantages.

Ownership and Control
SEO and Website Traffic
Comprehensive Information Hub

Updating your website remotely with breaking news is essential for maintaining relevance and authority. Here are some effective methods to ensure you can post updates quickly and efficiently from anywhere:

Frontend Forms
Mobile Apps
Email-to-Post Solutions
Third-Party Tools

Best Practices for Remote Updates

Security
Content Quality and Consistency
Testing and Preparation

Updating your website remotely is one of those functionalities you’ll likely not realize you need until you need it badly. So, make it a priority right now.

Let us help with your radio station website journey at https://www.skyrocketradio.com!

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We're too excited not to inform everyone about the recent ChatGPT-4o updates to our AI Content Helper Pro.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/how-ai-content-helper-pro-can-help-your-radio-station-newsroom

If you didn't see the ChatGPT-4o update launch last week, read and watch about it at https://openai.com/index/spring-update/.

AI Content Helper Pro is our all-in-one solution for revolutionizing content creation on radio station websites. This powerful tool offers comprehensive workflow features to streamline and elevate your online presence.

First and foremost, it empowers you to effortlessly generate fresh, engaging content for your news or blog sections using ChatGPT prompts. Say goodbye to writer’s block and tedious brainstorming sessions. With just a few prompts, you can generate compelling articles that resonate with your audience.

But that’s not all – it also allows you to modify selected text within the editor based on your prompts, providing unparalleled flexibility and customization options for your content.

It takes your website to the next level for images. It can generate image prompts from your content and create multiple AI-generated images perfectly sized for featured images. Whether you want to enhance your articles with eye-catching visuals or create stunning imagery for your homepage, AI Content Helper Pro has you covered. Plus, all generated images come with automatically saved tags for proper SEO, ensuring maximum visibility and reach.

This tool offers seamless integration with RSS feeds to curate external content. Display RSS feeds from other websites with just a single click and uniquely rewrite selected articles directly within the editor section. Say goodbye to duplicate content worries and hello to a steady stream of fresh, unique content for your audience to enjoy.

From generating compelling articles to creating captivating visuals and curating content from external sources, this tool is your go-to solution for creating standout content that drives results. Elevate your radio station’s online presence and unlock new opportunities for engagement and revenue.

Learn about our AI Content Helper Pro at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/premium-extensions/ai-content-helper-pro.

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Explore the power of AI in transforming your radio station's website into a dynamic and lucrative platform! In this video, we explain how to effectively use AI tools like ChatGPT to create engaging, regular content that drives listener engagement and increases advertising revenue. We discuss the best practices for integrating AI content without losing your station's personal touch and how to keep your website continually fresh and relevant. We also provide tips on generating compelling AI-driven images and crafting advertiser-focused content. For a comprehensive guide with prompts, check out https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/create-a-years-worth-of-website-content-quickly-with-a-i.

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I have a do-it-yourself spirit. Radio has always embraced that because, often, everyone is called on to wear manyhats to be a practical part of the team. So, it's safe to say that many radio stations assume that a can-do attitude should extend into every aspect of the business, including their website design.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/why-radio-people-shouldnt-design-station-websites.

When you add the potential cost savings, then there is an additional incentive. But here's the thing—just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. Designing a website for your radio station isn't just about slapping up some cool graphics and stream player; it's about creating a digital space that serves clear, strategic purposes.

Don’t get me wrong—I deeply respect the creativity and enthusiasm I’ve seen some radio people bring to their websites. Yet, building a website that attracts and retains listeners and converts local businesses into advertisers is a different ball game. It's a game of precision, strategy, and a bit of psychology.

Crafting a website that resonates with listeners and maximizes revenue isn't just a technical task—it's an art form that requires creativity and precision. The DIY spirit is commendable, and you can hire people who know all it takes to build great-looking websites. A great-looking website only goes so far. The specialized skills of professional web designers are indispensable for creating a digital presence that truly amplifies your station's voice and business goals.

Want to make your website a destination where listeners feel at home and your advertisers see the value? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com, and let's turn your radio station's website into a powerhouse of engagement and profitability.

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While your website may pursue multiple objectives, a key goal should always be encouraging listeners to join your email database.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/strategies-to-drive-more-e-mail-sign-ups.

Why build an e-mail database? Well, in one of our previous podcasts, we gave you seven reasons why you should start an e-mail newsletter. Go check that out at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/7-reasons-to-start-an-e-mail-newsletter-right-now.

Here is a list of opportunities to capture e-mail addresses.

Intelligent Pop-Ups
Streaming Gateway
Sidebar
Within Your Content
Contest Integration
Events Pages
Comments Section
404 Page
Live Chat Engagements
Live Events

Employing these strategies can transform your radio station's website into a dynamic tool that effectively grows your listener base through strategic email capture. As I mentioned at the beginning, you won’t want to do all of these at once. Use A/B testing to see which performs better and occasionally switch it up.

It’s also crucial to have exceptional calls to action. Highlight the value and frequency so visitors know what they get before signing up. Once you have these e-mail addresses, follow up with engaging newsletters that repeatedly drive them back to your website.

Need help wth your station website? Visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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When was the last time you read your radio station’s privacy policy? Do you have one listed on your station website? Information privacy is a major concern today as more and more people fall victim to indent theft. So, it’s important that your radio station inform your listeners and website visitors about how you handle their personal information when they give it to you.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/privacy-policy-guidelines-for-safeguarding-listener-data.

Before continuing, we must ensure that you know this article should not be considered legal advice. Our findings are based on our research on privacy and are intended to inform and assist you in understanding general privacy principles.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an essential regulation for any business or organization operating within the European Union (EU) or dealing with the data of EU residents. The regulation strictly handles personal data and gives citizens significant control over their personal information.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), inspired by the GDPR, aims to provide similar protections within California. It gives residents the right to know about, delete, and opt out of the sale of their personal data. It represents a significant step towards consumer privacy rights in the U.S., where privacy regulation is otherwise fragmented.

How Does This Affect Most US-based Radio Stations?

Since most radio stations that listen to this podcast do not target an EU audience, you typically wouldn't need to include GDPR or CCPA consent banners for cookies and data processing. However, it's important to consider other factors regarding privacy notice pages, especially when using third-party services like Google, which collect and process user data.

Privacy Policy Best Practices

Here are several key considerations and general best practices regarding privacy notices:

General Data Privacy
Disclose Third-Party Services (like Google
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA
State-Specific Law Compliance
Display User Rights
Include Contact Information

Again, this article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Privacy laws vary widely, so we strongly recommend consulting a qualified legal professional to ensure your specific privacy practices comply with applicable laws.

Although specific privacy laws may not apply to your station or group, transparency about privacy practices through a comprehensive privacy notice page can help build trust with your audience. It ensures compliance with applicable U.S. laws and fosters a positive user experience by keeping visitors informed about their data rights and privacy.

Need help with your radio station website? We’re here to help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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There’s a reason you pick up your phone and head back to Facebook, LinkedIn, or TikTok. Those platforms offer you something new to discover every day or every minute. A destination website consistently attracts visitors, encourages engagement, and keeps listeners returning. While we don’t expect your radio station website to be a social media platform, it can still be a vibrant community hub that complements your on-air content, enhances listener experience, and ultimately increases revenue through advertising.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/turning-your-radio-station-website-into-a-destination.

Why Making Your Website a Destination is Important

Increased Listener Engagement: A destination website fosters a deeper connection with listeners. Engaged users are more likely to tune in regularly and participate in station-hosted events or contests.
Enhanced Brand Loyalty: When listeners feel connected to a station's digital presence, they're likelier to become loyal fans. This loyalty can be leveraged to enhance ratings and advertising sales.
Diversified Revenue Streams: A well-trafficked website can attract more advertisers, offer subscription services, or sell branded merchandise.
Data Collection and Listener Insights: Regular visitors provide data — from basic demographics to behavior patterns — that can help tailor both on-air and online content to meet audience needs better.

How Radio Stations Can Make Their Website a Destination

Content That Complements On-Air Programming
Interactive and Regularly Updated Features
Community Engagement
Seamless User Experience
Regular Promotion

By transforming your radio station's website into a destination, you create a powerful tool that supports and enhances your on-air content, engages your audience in meaningful ways, and opens new revenue channels. Remember, the goal is to make your website not just a part of your listener's day but a highlight of it. That’s a destination. In return, we can benefit from a more engaged audience and increase revenue from advertisers.

Need help with your radio station website? We’re here to help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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At the heart of every radio station is its content—the music, the interviews, and the stories shared across the airwaves and digital platforms. As content creators, we have a unique opportunity to make every listener feel seen, heard, and valued. Even those listeners with disabilities. Making your content accessible to everyone doesn't require technical web development skills but rather a thoughtful approach to creating and sharing content.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/making-images-accessible-with-alt-and-title-tags.

Including title and alt tags for images is a simple yet effective strategy for making your online content more accessible and inclusive, especially for those who rely on screen reading software to navigate the internet. Image tags serve as textual alternatives to visual information, providing context and descriptions for images used on your website or social media platforms. Let’s break down their importance and how content creators can effectively use them:

Alt Tags (Alternative Text)

What They Are: Alt tags are short, descriptive texts that provide a textual alternative to images.

Why They’re Important: Alt tags are crucial for users who are blind or have visual impairments, as they convey the content and function of an image through screen readers. They also improve your website's SEO rankings by giving search engines more context about the images and each page.

Title Tags for Images

What They Are: Title tags for images are attributes that can be added to the image tag in HTML. They often appear as tooltips when a user hovers over an image with a mouse.

Why They’re Important: Though not as crucial for accessibility as alt tags, title tags can enhance the user experience by providing additional context or information about an image. However, because their visibility relies on mouse interaction, they should not be used to convey important information.

Best Practices for Content Creators

Always Include Alt Text
Use Title Tags Wisely
Be Mindful of Context
Testing and Feedback

Making your content accessible is an ongoing process. It's about being mindful of your audience's diverse needs and taking proactive steps to meet those needs. By thoughtfully incorporating title and alt tags into your images, you not only make your content more accessible to a broader audience, including those with visual impairments, but you also enhance your content's reach and engagement through improved SEO.

Need help with your radio station website? Visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com

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When a disaster happens, we hear how local radio comes to the rescue, providing life-saving information in real-time. Being in the digital space like I am, my mindset is, “Did that essential information make it to their website or mobile app?”

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/building-emergency-information-pages.

You’ll never know when these pages will be needed, so it’s important to plan so there’s no scramble to make them happen quickly in disaster mode. The mindset is to have this one page be the hub for any essential information your listener might need. This page might also be the site open in the studio as your announcers watch for information updates.

Elements for an Emergency Information Page

Social Media and Live Feeds
Enhanced Weather Updates and Maps
Partnerships for Live Video Content
Expanded Shelter and Aid Information
Comprehensive Preparedness Checklists
Critical Contact Information

Monetizing Your Emergency Information Page
The potential for monetizing your emergency information page lies in partnering with businesses that offer emergency-related services and products. Identifying sponsors that align with your listeners' needs before, during, and after a disaster can create a win-win situation. Consider annual sponsorships for heightened visibility and extended engagement, ensuring your partners receive value throughout the year. Transparently label these partnerships to maintain trust with your audience.

Strategies for Increasing Visitor Engagement and Revenue

Promote On-Air/Newsletters/Social
SEO Optimization
Interactive Tools
Email and SMS Alerts
Community-Generated Content

Conclusion
Radio stations should prioritize emergency information pages on their websites and mobile apps, emphasizing the relevance and potential for the community. By adopting a proactive approach ahead of any disaster and leveraging the latest digital tools, your station can significantly enhance its value to listeners and sponsors alike. The goal is to create a resource that informs, prepares, and strengthens the community's bonds, fostering a safer and more connected environment.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Today, we’ll offer three options for online stores. One is for items you have maintained stock of, and the other two are for drop shippers. If you maintain stock, it means that you mean to store and ship the items yourself.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/monetizing-your-radio-brand-with-an-online-store.We do not advise hosting a store directly on your radio station website. While selling merchandise or products related to the station's brand on your website might seem convenient, managing an online store can be resource-intensive and distract from the station's primary focus: delivering compelling content to listeners. Additionally, security concerns, logistics, and the need for continuous maintenance can outweigh the potential benefits. Instead, we recommend stations consider partnering with established e-commerce platforms or local businesses for merchandise sales. https://www.ecwid.comhttps://www.radioswagshop.comhttps://www.shreadshop.com

IMPORTANT UPDATE: RadioSwagShop will shut down on April 30th, 2024!
Existing customers are being directed to set up new stores at https://printify.com.

Offering an online store for station merchandise is an excellent opportunity for additional income and a great way to service your station fans. However, it should not deter you from your goal of providing great content to your audience. Many online store options are available to you, but hopefully, these three will help set you on your journey. Need help with your station website? We’re here to help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Is your station and online spaces evolving to meet your audience's ever-changing expectations? Today, we’ll discuss why digital evolution is necessary to remain relevant and revenue-generating.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/digital-evolution-staying-relevant-and-revenue-generating.

Digital evolution happens every day. Look at any major brand, and you’ll see it. Year after year, they’re pushing boundaries to outdo themselves. Google and Apple unveil smartphones and other devices that set new benchmarks, upstaging the previous year’s marvels. Car makers roll out models that are techier and sleeker with each iteration. And in the web universe, a swarm of AI-infused tools are breaking ground. It’s clear—there’s always something newer, something smarter, something born from digital evolution at every turn.

The reason I wanted to talk about this is - I look on social media and industry post comments and see a stagnant mindset. Many broadcasters have become too comfortable with what they’ve been doing and refuse to innovate. Talk to them about a new AI tool, and you will see a wall and moat appear around them. I’m not talking about replacing their on-air talent, just new tools to help them do their jobs better or differently. Why do some people refuse to evolve?

Embracing Digital Evolution

Here’s why embracing the digital evolution is non-negotiable:

Audience Expectations
Technological Marathon
Navigating Market Dynamics
Stagnation, the Silent Threat
Revenue Through Innovation

Harnessing the Power of Digital Evolution

And how do you harness this digital evolution? Here are the ways:

Interactive Engagement
Podcasting’s Evolution
Visual Radio’s Allure
Community Content Creation
Leveraging Mobile Apps
Expanding into Smart Speaker Integration

Digital Evolution or Digital Extinction?

In digital presence, evolution isn’t an option; it’s a requirement. You ensure your station's relevance and competitive edge by embracing digital evolution through innovative technologies, such as mobile apps and smart speaker integrations. In a world where content, community, and convenience reign supreme, failing to evolve is not an option. After each digital evolution, ask, "What's next?" The digital landscape is always shifting; your station needs to shift with it.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Since we started ten years ago, our goal has been to make local news the main highlight of radio station websites. Many of our clients have grown their revenue by offering a local news website in addition to the station websites or by including their stations within a news portal.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/engaging-your-community-through-a-hyperlocal-news-website.

Hyperlocal News Websites

https://www.wrul.com
https://www.breezynews.com
https://www.kicks96news.com

Benefits of Creating a Hyperlocal News Website

Increased Engagement
Broader Audience Reach
Enhanced Content Distribution
Additional Revenue Streams
Community Involvement

Recommended Content Strategies

Identify Your Audience's Interests
Leverage Local Expertise & Contributions
Emphasize Timely and Evergreen Content
Utilize Multimedia Elements
Create Interactive Content
Develop a Content Calendar
Encourage User-Generated Content
Optimize for SEO
Promote Content Across Channels
Monitor Performance and Adapt

Pitfalls to Avoid

Overextension
Neglecting SEO
Underestimating Multimedia Content
Ignoring Analytics

Conclusion

Adding a hyperlocal news website can amplify your radio station’s impact and foster deeper community connections. Stations can overcome the challenges of small staff sizes by focusing on strategic content creation, community involvement, and efficient use of digital tools. With careful planning and execution, your hyperlocal news website can become a vital resource for the community, offering diverse content that engages, informs, and entertains. Not to mention, it can be a substantial revenue generator.

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Creating content targeted explicitly at radio and online advertisers is a B2B marketing strategy that can significantly benefit your radio station(s). This strategy is essential for several reasons. Incorporating it into your content plan can enhance your relationship with advertisers, attract more advertising revenue, and, ultimately, support the growth of your radio station or group. This goes beyond the static information on a typical “Advertise with Us” page. This is fresh content that consistently gets added to your website over time.

Get more in-depth show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-strategic-advantage-of-custom-content-for-advertisers.

Why Targeted Content for Advertisers is Important

Enhanced Advertiser Relationships
Increased Value Proposition
Audience Engagement Insights
Differentiation

Get 20 Starting Blog Post Ideas at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-strategic-advantage-of-custom-content-for-advertisers.

Leveraging AI for Efficient Content Creation

As a radio station manager or content creator, I know you’re juggling multiple responsibilities, leaving limited time for content development. AI tools can significantly alleviate this pressure by assisting in various aspects of content creation, from ideas to production:

Content Ideation
Writing Assistance
SEO Optimization

Creating content specifically for radio and online advertisers is a strategic B2B marketing approach that can strengthen relationships, enhance your station's value proposition, and attract more advertising revenue.

You may think, “I’ll just create 20 blog articles and be done”. The key to this strategy's success is consistency with new content over time. If your site isn’t creating new content, search engines will push it down in the rankings.

By starting with focused blog post ideas, being consistent at posting, and monitoring analytics to understand what works, you can better serve your advertisers and grow your station.

Need help anywhere in that process? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Introducing "AI Content Helper Pro," the ultimate WordPress extension explicitly designed for radio stations looking to revolutionize their online presence. Keeping your website fresh, engaging, and informative is crucial for attracting and retaining a vibrant listener base. AI Content Helper Pro is here to empower content creators, making it easier than ever to generate captivating news or blog articles and stunning images with just a few simple prompts.

Imagine transforming a brief idea into a comprehensive article that resonates with your audience, all with minimal effort. Whether it's the latest news, updates on local events, or insightful evergreen posts, our new AI Content Helper turns your thoughts into fully realized content, ready to captivate your audience. With its advanced AI-driven technology, this extension can understand the unique needs of your area and radio station, ensuring that every piece of content is tailored to engage your specific listener demographic.

AI Content Helper is not just limited to text; the "pro" version also brings your stories to life with eye-catching images. From creating visuals that complement your articles to designing graphics that stand out on social media, this tool is your all-in-one solution for website and digital marketing content—no more struggling with stock photos or generic visuals. With AI Content Helper Pro, you have the power to generate unique images that perfectly match your articles, enhancing the visual appeal of your site and making your content truly unforgettable.

But AI Content Helper isn't just about saving time and streamlining content creation. It's about giving radio stations the edge in a competitive digital landscape. This enables you to produce more content of a higher quality and relevance, helps you attract more visitors, keeps them engaged longer, and, ultimately, drives more revenue through advertising. This is not just an extension; it's your partner in building a more dynamic, engaging, and successful online presence.

Whether you're a seasoned content creator or just getting started, AI Content Helper is designed to integrate seamlessly into your workflow, making it as easy as possible to bring your creative visions to life. With its intuitive interface and powerful capabilities, you'll find creating high-quality, engaging content for your radio station website more enjoyable than ever.

Unlock the full potential of your radio station's online presence with AI Content Helper Pro. Start creating compelling articles and images that consistently bring back visitors, and watch your website become a thriving hub for your listening audience. This is more than just an extension; it's your step towards transforming how you engage with your listeners and maximize your revenue through advertising.

Get more details at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/premium-extensions/ai-content-helper

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A well-crafted website serves as the cornerstone of your station’sonline presence. It's not just a platform for streaming your content but an invaluable asset for generating revenue through strategic sponsorships. Today, we’ll discuss the minimum sponsorship opportunities on your radio station website.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/5-essential-radio-station-website-sponsorships.

Homepage
Weather Page Sponsorship
Streaming Sponsor
Contests
Podcasts

You will find it easier to find sponsors for any of these pages if you make them a priority on air. Promote these pages heavily with mentions and promos throughout the day to drive traffic. Increased traffic will mean more that you can charge. A good practice is to build the pages and promote them heavily for a duration so you can show growth numbers to potential clients.

By diversifying your sponsorship opportunities, you enhancethe user experience on your website and open new avenues for revenue. Remember, the goal is to create a win-win situation where your sponsors get valuable exposure and your audience enjoys an enriched online experience. The key is ensuring the content is always fresh and adequately promoted. Embrace these sponsorship opportunities to transform your radio station website into a thriving digital hub.

Need help taking the first steps? Let's work together to make your radio station website a beacon of innovation and a powerhouse of revenue generation. Reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com.

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Have you ever been to Google News and been frustrated that your competition’s news stories were there, but yours were missing? Today, we’ll give you the steps to ensure your content also appears on Google News.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/elevate-your-audience-reach-how-to-include-your-station-in-google-news.

Adding your website's RSS feed to Google News is a strategic move to increase your site's visibility and attract more readers. Google News aggregates content from various sources to provide users with timely news articles and blog posts. Only verifiedsources appear within Google News, and there’s a vetting process to ensure they only display actual news articles.

Step 1: Ensure Your Site Meets Google News Content Policies

Step 2: Verify Your Website Ownership

Google Publisher Center requires you to verify ownership of your website through Google Search Console.

Step 3: Gather Some Needed Items

1000x1000 Website Logo (PNG or JPG).
1000x100 Transparent (PNG) website logo for light backgrounds.
1000x100 Transparent (PNG) website logo for dark backgrounds.

Step 4: Create a Google Publisher Center Account

Visit the Google Publisher Center at https://publishercenter.google.com. Click on "Add Publication" and enter the name of your news site.

Step 5: Provide Publication Details

Step 6: Configure the Publication

Step 7: Configure Sections

Step 8: Submit Your Publication for Review

Step 9: Monitor Your Performance

After your site is approved, it should start appearing in Google News. Use the Publisher Center and Google Analytics to monitor your performance better and understand your audience.

Tips for Success

Keep Your Content Fresh:Regularly update your site with new, engaging content.

Optimize for SEO: Use relevant keywords and follow SEO best practices to improve visibility. Use a WordPress plugin like Yoast SEO to help you understand and do better at SEO.

Engage with Your Readers:Encourage comments and interaction on your articles to build a community.

Following these steps will help you add your website's RSS feed to Google News, increase your site's exposure, and potentially drive more traffic. Remember, the key to success on Google News is to maintain high-quality, engaging content that adheres to Google's content policies.

Need help with your radio/group website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Do you know of a radio station that's been popped with an image copyright claim on its website? Today, we'll give you some tips involving AI to keep your website out of trouble.

https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/ai-generated-images-are-the-answer-to-copyright-claims.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a handy tool for copyright-free images. You may hear of a radio station getting hit with an image copyright lawsuit and think images are too much trouble to worry about. Any engaging website must contain images. Numerous studies over the years have proved that images get more clicks than words do. Images are crucial in attracting and retaining listeners. Until now, the only alternatives were paying for stock image services or royalty-free websites like pexels.com. With the rise of AI technology, there's a promising solution without the hefty price tag or reading the fine print on traditional image services.

AI tools, such as OpenAI's DALL-E, Midjourney, Leonardo, Artbreeder, and others, can create unique, copyright-free images based on textual descriptions. This technology offers a way out of image copyright infringement issues, providing a limitless source of original visuals for radio station websites.

Here are several ways AI can assist:

Cost-Effectiveness
Customization
Legal Safety

To ensure the effective use of AI-generated images, consider the following guidelines:

Review and Edit
Blend Sources
Stay Informed
Attribute Every Image Anyway

Use AI-Generated Images Responsibly

When utilizing AI image generators, it's crucial to exercise caution to avoid creating likenesses that could infringe on copyright laws. AI technology has the impressive ability to produce highly detailed and creative images. Yet, it operates within a complex legal landscape, especially concerning copyrighted characters, celebrities, and other protected intellectual properties. Generating images closely resembling such copyrighted entities without explicit permission can lead to legal challenges and copyright claims. Therefore, using these tools responsibly is essential, focusing on creating original content that doesn't replicate or closely mimic copyrighted or trademarked material. By doing so, creators can harness the power of AI while respecting copyright laws and fostering a culture of innovation and respect for intellectual property.

Alternatives and Complements to AI Tools

While AI tools offer a novel solution, try not to depend on them entirely. Traditional image acquisition methods remain valuable. The best images to use on your website are the ones you've taken yourself. Create a database of everything in your community from school buses, police cars, fire trucks, town buildings, schools, and other landmarks. Back that up with Creative Commons images and stock photos with clear licensing for commercial use. All of these can provide a rich visual experience on your website.

Conclusion

AI-generated images present a groundbreaking opportunity for radio stations to enhance their websites visually without fearing copyright infringement. This new world of AI is evolving very quickly. Staying at the forefront will be the key to captivating audiences and ensuring the success of your radio station's online presence. And, as a final reminder. If you are importing content from anywhere online, please ensure you have the proper copyrights to display the images found in those feeds. The copyright hounds often use saved versions of your website going back years ago to find copyrighted material.

Need help with your station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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When did you last look at your website as a listener or a potential advertiser? Today, we will discuss the importance of regular content audits and how they can maximize your website’s potential.

Get more in depth show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/maximizing-your-online-potential-with-annual-content-audits

The websites we construct for radio stations are more than just digital billboards; they are dynamic platforms that engage listeners and drive advertising revenue. Regular content audits ensure your site resonates with your audience and reflects your station or group's brand and offerings.

Why Focus on Content in Your Annual Website Audit?

Fresh and Relevant Information
Engaging and Dynamic Content
SEO Optimization for Better Reach
Consistent Brand Messaging
Multimedia Integration

Actionable Steps for a Website Content Audit

Review and Update Station Information
Evaluate and Refresh Content
Assess User Engagement
Check SEO Performance
Integrate New Media

Your website is a powerful tool for connecting with listeners for radio stations. By focusing your annual audit on content, you ensure your site remains a dynamic and engaging part of your listeners' daily lives. This approach strengthens your brand and opens up new avenues for audience growth and advertising revenue.

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The amount of time people spend on their mobile continues to climb, so radio stations must be able to connect with listeners on those devices. Today, we’ll give you the information to pick the right mobile app provider.Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/choosing-the-perfect-mobile-app-provider.The average radio station sees a 30% increase is listener engagement when they launch a mobile app. A mobile app for your radio station isn’t just a shiny gadget; it’s an expectation from your audience and advertisers.

With many mobile app providers promising the moon, how do you choose the right one for your radio station? Many will decide they need a mobile app and immediately start looking at prices – only. Others may look for an app with the most bells and whistles. The key lies in focusing on practical features that your station will actively need and use rather than being swayed by a low price or an overwhelming list of functionalities that might look appealing but you’ll never use. High Level Needs to Consider1. Number of Stations/Apps2. Decide Your App Goals 3. Website IntegrationMost Used Features in Radio Station Mobile Apps1. Live Streaming 2. Website Content3. Push Notifications. 4. Content Sharing5. Interactive Features 6. Podcasts and On-Demand Content7. Advertising and Sponsorship Integration8. Listener Analytics9. Customizable Experience10. Technical Support and Maintenance Choosing the Right ProviderOnce you have a clear understanding of the features you need, evaluate mobile app providers based on these criteria:- Expertise in the Radio Industry - Customization Capabilities - Cost vs. Value- Client Testimonials and Case Studies- Perform Usability Tests According to eMarketer, people's timeYou need a mobile app if your radio station wants to reach its listeners through their phones on their mobile devices continues to climb. If your radio station wants to reach its listeners through their phones, you need a mobile app.Several reputable companies specifically produce radio station mobile apps. Selecting the right provider for your radio station is not about who has the most features. It’s about the one who has the features that best align with your goals and that your audience will use and love. Your app needs a strategy just like your station and your website does. Remember, a well-chosen mobile app can significantly enhance your listeners' experience and, in turn, boost your station's success.Need help with your radio station website? Visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com

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It surprised me over the holidays that some of my family members had never experienced anything AI. A few kids used ChatGPT to help with (or do) their homework, but the adults had only heard of it with no real experience. AI will soon touch our everyday lives, and like the internet, we'll all wonder one day how we got along without it.

For more extensive show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/how-chatgpt-can-impact-your-radio-station-and-digital-strategy.

ChatGPT is my daily "go-to" for content ideas, coding help, etc. If you haven't jumped on board with it, it's worth spending time with it. Some still think you need unique prompts to get AI to do what you desire. While that's still the case in some instances, ChatGPT is probably the most forgiving and "life-like." You talk to it likeany regular person, and it responds in a way a person (or expert) would.

Today, I want to focus on how ChatGPT can be utilized across different departments of a radio station. Then, we'll focus on how ChatGPT can help your station website.

Programming and On-Air
Script Writing and Show Prep
Interview Preparation
News and Editorial
News Summarization
Fact-Checking
Sales
Lead Generation Ideas
Drafting Sales Pitches and Emails
Script Writing

If you're impressed with what ChatGPT can do with a script andElevenLabs for voice, check out RadioWorkflow. They integrate AI into every aspect of their system, allowing you to hear an AI-written and voiced commercial from a simple prompt or even animage.

Marketing and Promotions
Social Media Content Generation
Market Research and Trends Analysis
Survey and Poll Creation
Administration and HR
Drafting Administrative Documents
Employee Engagement Ideas

Now that we've covered how ChatGPT can help your radio station, let's focus specifically on your website. ChatGPT's versatility makes it an invaluable asset for radio station websites to create a more engaging, informative, and interactive experience for listeners. Here's how ChatGPT can helpyour website.

Blog Post Creation
Idea Generation
SEO-Friendly Content
Keyword Suggestions
Image Creation

While AI tools like ChatGPT are powerful, their output should beverified for accuracy, especially in news and factual content. Never copy and paste anything from AI. Use it as it's meant to be a tool to help you do better work. It is not something that does the work for you.

Search engines are being programmed to penalize AI-generated content (mainly text). That means the scores will go down when they find it, and your site will be more difficult to find in search. So, it's essential to customize the output they provide.

By integrating AI tools like ChatGPT into your workflow, radio stations can improve efficiency, stimulate creative processes, and enhance audience engagement. Just be mindful of the limitations and ethical considerations.

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One of the most challenging aspects of maintaining a radio station website is creating the right content that keeps visitors returning daily.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/how-user-generated-content-could-reinvent-the-radio-station-website.

With so many options pulling at attention strings, it can be easy for people (even us) to forget about our station websites. So, we must find innovative and compelling reasons for them to return often so we can monetize the traffic.

One extremely powerful tool in this transformation is user-generated content (UGC). UGC diversifies your content and fosters a sense of community among your listeners, encouraging them to return to the website regularly. This approach is vital for decision-makers and content creators seeking to enhance engagement and drive revenue.

Fresh UGC Ideas for Radio Stations
Listener-Generated Playlists
Audio Stories and Experiences
Radio Station Blog/News Contributions
Interactive Polls and Surveys
Photo Posts
Photo and Video Contests
Listener-Hosted Podcast Segments
Accept comments
Local Artist Spotlight
Submit Your ….
Listener's Voice Segments
Youth Reporter Program
'In Your Neighborhood' Segment
Community Hero Spotlight
School and University Events
“Best Of” Campaigns
Photo-Based Scavenger Hunts
Song Battles
Real-Time Traffic and Weather Reports
Listener Polls and Quizzes
Prayer Wall

With so many options for news and information out there, incorporating user-generated content is more than a trend; it's a vital strategy for our radio station websites. It has the opportunity to reinvent the radio station website because it turns the website to be consumed into a website to be experienced. By embracing user-generated content, you invite your audience to be active in your station's narrative, leading to increased engagement, a vibrant online community, and a more prosperous digital presence. And all of that should lead to more digital revenue.

Need help with your website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Looking back on 2023, did you have any big wins with your radio station website? A breaking news story that produced a lot of traffic? A particular banner ad campaign that did well for a client? Perhaps your station website won a prestigious award. Either way, it’s that time of year for radio stations to reassess and enhance their online presence.

For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/2024-resolutions-for-radio-station-website.

Reflecting on the past and planning for the future, here are some updated website resolutions to consider for 2024.

Elevate Your Station Website's Role
Innovate with Content
Refresh the Design
Analyze and Adapt
Enhance Social Media Integration
Develop a Local Photo Repository
Engage Advertisers with Targeted Content
Organize Online Assets
Embrace SEO and Content Marketing
Prioritize User Experience (UX)
Leverage Podcasting

Your station's website is a dynamic, powerful tool that can significantly impact your community presence and revenue generation. Stay ahead of the curve by continually evolving and adapting your online strategy. Let’s add one more to the list of resolutions - “Have Goals.” Look at the numbers of how many people visit your website and create action to beat those numbers next month or next quarter. It’s just like ratings. The more numbers you can show, the more you can charge advertisers to be there.

Did you have any big “wins” with your station website in 2023? Let’s do what we can to ensure more of those in 2024. I wish you a prosperous year online! If you want to upgrade your station's website, don't hesitate to contact us.

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We’re approaching the end of the year, and many stations will start looking to 2024 as the year they finally jump into this internet thing and focus more on their website. This meansthey will start looking for content ideas to bring people back day after day. That’s great! However, remember that the internet issaturated with content that caters to a global audience.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/embracing-hyperlocal-why-your-radio-stations-website-should-focus-locally.

Why is this local focus crucial, and how can your radio station effectively implement it? Let's dive in.

Why Hyperlocal?

Community Connection
Relevance and Relatability
Less Competition, More Impact
Increased Advertising Value

How to be Hyperlocal?

Local News Coverage
Community Event Spotlights
Local Music and Talent
Local Guest Bloggers
Local Weather and Traffic Updates
User-Generated Content
Local Business Directories
Obituaries
Swap shop/classified listings

Going hyperlocal with your radio station's website isn't just aboutstanding out in a crowded digital space; it's about building a community and becoming an integral part of your listeners' daily lives. By focusing on your local audience's specific needs and interests, your station can create a more engaging, relevant, and valuable online presence.

In addition, when you choose only to display the content your station creates, you also select the best path to search engine optimization (SEO). Importing RSS content from national providers is an easy way to populate content on your website, but it’s been shown to decrease overall SEO scores. So, the websitesthat choose that path are less likely to be found by local search.

Remember, a hyperlocal approach can make your website stand out in a world that is trying to appeal to everyone. It's time for your radio station to harness this power.

Need help with your station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Today, we're diving deep into a common concern that radio station owners and managers have - why their station website needs to catch up in traffic and sales. We’ve always believed that a station’s website should connect with listeners and be a source of revenue.

Get more in-depth show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/why-does-my-stat…raffic-and-sales.

Reason #1: Lack of Emphasis on the Website

Everyone from your staff to your listeners can tell how much the station website is valued by the emphasis put on it. Is it a line item in every programming, promotions, and sales meeting agenda? Is it mentioned on-air frequently? Are listeners given specific reasons to visit the website rather than just the primary domain name? The most crucial step to getting traffic and sales on your station website is prioritizing it.

Reason #2: Not Promoting the Website

Your on-air presence is a potent tool for driving traffic to your website. If you're not promoting your website on air, potential advertisers may perceive it as a low-priority and not worth visiting (if they even know you have a website).

Reason #3: Lacking Fresh and Engaging Content

Your radio station website should be a dynamic hub of activity that reflects everything your radio station is involved with. If it’s important enough to be on-air, it’s also important to be online. Visitors and advertisers can be deterred if your website content is old or unappealing. Search engines, especially Google, prioritize websites with fresh, high-quality content. If your website isn't up to par, it's likely to rank well below your competitors in search results.

Reason #4: Sales Team Needs Motivation/Education

Your sales team can make or break your website's revenue potential. If they are well-versed in the digital side of your station, it can help growth. Emphasize that your website is just as crucial as your on-air signal. Ensure they see the value of your station’s online presence, which can benefit advertisers.

Reason #5: No Measure of Effectiveness

Producing and promoting good content is essential, but tracking its effectiveness is equally crucial. Analyze what resonates with your audience and adapt your content strategy accordingly. On the sales side, metrics provide concrete evidence of your website's value to advertisers. Be ready to pivot and offer new opportunities to your advertisers based on data.

Conclusion

Your station website should be considered an integral part of your station's success. We’ve always said that it should be considered another radio station in your group that simulcasts your station online. Treat it the same. Promote it at every level, from sales to marketing, and set goals for it. You'll see website traffic and revenue improvements by addressing these issues and adapting to the evolving digital landscape.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Competitive SEO is for authors who want to see their content thrive. Let’s use a specific news post example that you and a competing radio, TV station, or newspaper break simultaneously. The story is about an overnight house fire where the dog wakes the residents, and they escape without losing their lives.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/competitive-seo-outranking-your-rivals

Let’s take audience size, signal strength, and other population factors off the table. Neither entity is promoting the story on air or over social media. You must follow search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to ensure your post gets more traction. SEO covers a wide range of strategies and activities based on what we know about how search engines determine their rankings.

SEO is not a science requiring special agencies to handle. We’ve had clients ask us if we handle SEO as well. SEO means following steps to ensure your content is created properly. If you have a WordPress website, you’ve already taken a big step in SEO since the platform is well-optimized for search engines.

Here are five ways your post can outperform theirs. These tips are not just for this use case. They should be used daily to ensure maximum exposure for any content you create.

1) Be Keyword Minded

2) Ensure SEO-Friendly Permalinks

3) Incorporate Useful Internal and External Links

4) Optimize Well-Chosen Images:

5) Write Long-Form Content When Possible

Bonus Tip: Install an SEO plugin (Yoast SEO or Rankmath) to help identify areas to improve in your pages/posts.

It’s all Competitive SEO

Every piece of content you create is competing for eyes on the internet. While these tips involve extra steps in your creation process, they ensure your content gets the most exposure. Consider how these tips could help advertisers find your station’s advertising opportunities.

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No matter what business you’re in, keeping your website fresh and engaging is crucial to ensure returning visitors. We talk to radio stations of all sizes, including those as small as the owner and maybe one other person. Regardless of size, keeping your radio station website fresh can be simplified with the right strategies and tools.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/strategies-for-keeping-your-no-staff-radio-website-engaging.

Whether it's automating routine tasks, harnessing the power of your audience, or cleverly repurposing content, there are numerous ways to maintain an active and appealing website with limited time and resources. Here are some ways you can keep your site updated with limited staff…

Understand the Power of Automation
Use a Content Calendar
Embrace User-Generated Content
Repurpose Existing Content
Build a Community of Contributors
Keep Quick Update Ideas for Busy Days

A website being updated consistently becomes a destination for your listeners, enriching their experience with your radio station. If it’s not a destination, then it’s likely a disappointment. When you have minimal staff, updating a website can be very challenging, but it can also be rewarding. By employing the strategies we’ve mentioned, you can keep your website vibrant and engaging, ensuring that your audience always has something new and exciting to return to. Hopefully, the increase in traffic will equate to more revenue for your station. Creativity and planning can go a long way to making this happen.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-future-of-radio-station-websites-innovations-and-how-to-prepare.

As we look ahead, it's crucial for radio stations to not only envision future trends but also start preparing for them now. I asked ChatGPT to look into the future of radio station websites. Here are some things that AI says will dominate our online spaces and practical steps for us to stay ahead of the curve.

Immersive Experience with AR and VR
AI-Driven Personalization
Integration with Smart Home Devices/Voice-ActivatedServices
Enhanced Social Interaction Features
Interactive Content and Gamification
Data-Driven Insights for Advertisers
Geo-Targeting and Localized Content
Internet of Things (IoT) Integration
Deeper Podcast Integration
Multi-Platform Content Strategy
Interactive Advertising
Visual and Interactive News
Accessibility and Inclusivity

In conclusion, the future of radio station websites holds exciting possibilities. By embracing innovations and preparing strategically, radio stations can enhance listener experiences and stay ahead in the digital landscape. Remember, the key to success is adaptability and a willingness to embrace new technologies and trends.

Need help with your website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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The idea of more content equating to better SEO is no longer valid. Storing years of old news stories and blog posts could be hurting your website. Today, we’ll explain how pruning your site can boost your SEO scores.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/out-with-the-old-how-content-pruning-boosts-your-seo.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever-evolving field with one constant: search engines love relevant, fresh content. We’ve all been taught that more content equates to better SEO, as it turns out, only if that older content is still relevant. So, whetheryou’re getting ready to migrate your website to a new provider, or if you want to do a better job at ensuring you keep the best SEO scores, let's explore how a spring cleaning of your site's content can positively impact your SEO.

Understanding the Impact of Outdated Content

“Outdated content” is no longer accurate, relevant, or valuable to your audience. This could range from old news articles, event announcements, old service descriptions, or any other page that you can see does not work toward your online goals. The presence of such content can:

1. Dilute your website's relevancy

2. Impair user experience

3. Hinder crawl budget

How to Safely Remove Old Posts and Content

1. Conduct a content audit

2. Assess the quality of content

3. Check for backlinks:

Ahrefs - https://ahrefs.com

Moz's Link Explorer - https://moz.com/link-explorer

4. Redirect if necessary

5. Update rather than delete

6. Remove with care

7. Inform Google

Regularly auditing and pruning outdated content is often overlooked, but it’s a critical component of a robust SEO strategy. By removing or updating old news posts and irrelevant content, you ensure that your website remains fresh, relevant, and user-friendly, ultimately helping to boost your search engine rankings and improve your site’s overall performance.

Remember that content is not just about having more; it’s about what you have to offer to be fresh and relevant to your audience so they visit often and share it. In the world of SEO, quality usually trumps quantity. A leaner, more relevant website could be your ticket to higher visibility and increased traffic. And more traffic equals more revenue opportunities.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Your radio station website can produce a goldmine of revenue if you think outside the typical banner ad box. Today, we’ll uncover practical ways to generate revenue with your website beyond traditional banner ads.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/turning-your-radio-station-website-into-a-revenue-generating-machine.

Create a "Digital Inventory List" to document potential sponsorship spots, many of which you might not have considered yet.

The Usual Suspects

Run of Site (ROS)
Specific Page Sponsorships
Page Takeovers
Post Category Sponsor
Streaming Sponsor

The Unconventional Avenues

Sponsored Posts
Interactive Polls
Comments Sponsor
Sponsored Videos and Testimonials
Online Contests
Newsletter Sponsorships
Pop-up Banner Modals
Classifieds or Directory Listings
Virtual Events/Webinars
Seasonal or Event Calendars
Podcast Sponsorships
Merchandise Store
Sports Scores/News

Banner ads are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to advertising opportunities on your station's website. An effective ad strategy combines creative design, compelling calls to action, and regular performance reviews.

With a robust approach, your website can become a major contributor to your revenue streams. So, what innovative advertising strategies will you explore next? If you’ve created innovative ways to see your station website, please let us know so we can expand this list in the future.

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Ever since the first radio station website, there have been arguments on what should be included on the homepage. Some believe that everything the station is doing should be included since the homepage address (your domain) is promoted on the radio, the side of your station vehicles, business cards, etc.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/why-radio-stations-fail-at-homepages-a-guide-to-doing-them-right.

Others believe the homepage should be minimal, including only what is necessary. This might include only a single call toaction for the most important thing the station is doing that day and a “listen live” button.

The correct answer is between those two mindsets: providing enough content to entice visitors to dive deeper into the website without overwhelming them with too many options. It’s been proven that too little and too much information on your homepage can drive visitors away. Let’s remedy that.

What Should be Included on the Homepage:

A Hero Section
A Prominent "Listen Live" Button
Newsletter Signup
Sponsors
Advertise with Us Link

What Should NOT be Included on the Homepage:

Hero Slider
Auto-Playing Audio
Banner Ad Overload
Content Overload
Social Media Widgets
Welcome Message

Best Practices for the Homepage:

Focus on User Experience
Goal-Oriented Design
Internal Collaboration
Above the Fold
Load Time
Clear CTAs
Keep it Fresh

Pitfalls to Avoid on the Homepage:

Confusing Layout
Mixed Messages
Ignoring Analytics
Overdesign
Unfocused Goals

Wrapping Up

If you’re using social media properly, most visitors enter your website through the side door of the post, contest, event, or page you’ve shared. This doesn’t mean to neglect the front door –your homepage. Many visitors may bookmark it or visit your site for the first time after hearing the address on-air or seeing it on the side of your station vehicle.

Ensure that it’s a destination and that visitors are drawn further into your website when they arrive, not leaving with a feeling overwhelmed or wondering why they came.

Need help with your station website? We're here to help!

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Are you looking to do something different with your radio stationwebsite? Or are you just starting out and finally realizing the importance of an active online presence?

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/radio-station-website-solutions.

Today, we'll explore five avenues you have for creating and updating your radio station website so you can make the best-informed decision.

Option 1: DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Code/Hosting

Pros

Cost-Effective
Full Control
Customization
Skill Building

Cons

Time Commitment
Technical Hurdles
Quality
Ongoing Maintenance

Option 2: Off-the-Shelf Templates/Plugins

Pros

Quick Setup
Lower Costs
Ease of Use

Cons

Limited Uniqueness
Feature Limitations
Compatibility
Ongoing Maintenance

Option 3: Online Website Builder (Wix, Squarespace)

Pros

Quick Setup
User-Friendly
Moderately Priced
Less Maintenance

Cons

Limited Flexibility
Design Eye Needed
Ongoing Costs
Generic Feel

Option 4: Hiring a Professional Web Designer or Agency

Pros

Quality
Advanced Features
Initial Timesaving
Staff Training

Cons

Higher Costs
Dependency
Ongoing Maintenance

Option 5: Partnering with a Radio Station Website Provider (likeSkyrocket Radio)

Pros

Industry Expertise
Affordable
Focus on Content
Support

Cons

Limited Customization
Subscription Fees

Conclusion

Your decision will depend on your team's skills, time availability, and budget. Don’t just let budget dictate your path. If you’re comfortable doing more of the technical aspects of running a website, then DIY or the template path might be your avenue. The developer/agency route may be the way if money is no object.

Our recommendation is clear, but we’re happy to advise no matter your route. Feel free to contact us with any questions or help starting your website journey!

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/your-radio-station-website-report-card-does-your-site-make-the-grade.

As mentioned, a compelling online presence is not just a nicety. It’s crucial for any business, not just radio, to captivate its audience and attract revenue opportunities. Your website serves as your digital storefront. Today’s test covers vital criteria to elevate your station website's effectiveness, ensuring it resonates with your listeners and advertisers.

Feel free to keep up with the pass, fail, and extra credit scores as we cover the following eleven sections:

On-Brand Experience
Social Media Integration
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Accessibility
SEO and Analytics
Content Management
Audio Streaming
Listener Engagement
Advertising and Monetization
Podcast and On-Demand Content
Event and Concert Listings

Did your website have extra credit, pass, or need additional homework or study time?

Think of your website as your digital answer sheet, where every design choice and content strategy either fills in the right bubble or leads you to a failing grade. Hopefully, by evaluating your radio station's website against these 11 areas, you can identify improvements and continue tuning your website for optimal performance.

Need help with your station website, reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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This past week, I attended the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters annual conference in Natchez, Mississippi, and had the opportunity to meet and talk to Jim Bob Allgood with Midsouth Broadcasting. He’s also the co-host of a world-wide syndicated TV show called “Redneck Adventures.” I think you’ll be amazed by what Jim Bob has been able to do by adding their station stream and local sports to their smart TV channels. As you listen, consider the additional revenue opportunities.

https://midsouthbroadcasting.com

https://theriver.fm

https://go.thegator.fm

https://redneckadventures.com

If you need help with your website, please reach out to us atskyrocketradio.com.

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With so many digital options available to broadcasters, focusing on what’s essential may be difficult. Obviously, your website is super important. Today, we discuss the two must-have objectivesfor your radio station’s website.

Objective 1: Generating Revenue

Banner Ads, Sponsorships, and More: Visit https://www.breezynews.com
Direct Partnerships
eCommerce

Objective 2: Content and Community

Engaging Content
Focus on Your Local Community
User Interaction: Visit https://www.peakofohio.com

Your radio station's website should never be an afterthought. It's an essential platform that serves dual purposes—revenue generation and community building—that are critical for your station's long-term sustainability and growth. By recognizing the importance of each and devoting the necessary time and resources, you set yourself up for a win-win situation: a profitable business and a loyal listener base.

So, if you haven't already, now is the time to focus on making your website work for you, not just as an accessory to your airwaves but as an integral part of your radio station's success.

If you need help with and guidance for your radio station website, we’re here to help. Reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com.

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One of the most valuable pages on your radio station website is the “Advertise with Us” page. Is your page doing its job bringing in more customers? Today, we’ll talk about some best practices and uncover if it’s time to add a new advertiser-focused website.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/which-is-better-advertise-with-us-page-or-entire-website

The Single "Advertise with Us" Page

A single "Advertise with Us" page has the benefit of simplicity. Everything an advertiser needs to know is in one place, making it easier for them to decide. This approach is also easier to manage from a webdevelopment standpoint. Updates are straightforward, and the page will likely load quickly, enhancing user experience. Additionally, focusing your SEO efforts on a single page can be more straightforward.

Link: https://jacobsmedia.com/how-to-write-an-effective-advertise-with-us-webpage-for-your-radio-station/

Link: https://www.kevel.com/blog/advertise-with-us-examples.

The Separate Advertising Website

While a single "Advertise with Us" page may suffice for smaller stations or those with limited advertising options, a separate advertising website can be a game-changer for stations looking to scale their advertising revenue.

Check out our corporate/group website at https://www.markettheme.net.

By leveraging the advantages of a separate advertising website, radio stations can offer a more tailored, informative, and professional experience for potential advertisers. This can be decisive in attractingmore clients and securing more lucrative advertising contracts.

We believe that the “Advertise with Us” page or website is the salesperson that works 24-7, so put time into making it the best it can be. A single "Advertise with Us" page and a separate advertising website have their merits and drawbacks. The best choice depends on your specific needs, the complexity of your advertising offerings, and your available resources. By carefully considering these factors and implementing best practices, you can create an effective platform that serves your radio station and potential advertisers well.

Need help with your radio station or corporate/advertiser website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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You’ve likely heard of or even know a broadcaster burned by the image copyright police. Someone on their team copied an image from a Google search and used it in a news post a few years ago, and that image ended up costing the radio station thousands of dollars in royalty fees. Some broadcasters have heard these stories and decided to remove images from their website altogether. Or, perhaps their team doesn’t have the time or resources to include them. Not including images on your radio station website could be a disastrous mistake.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/images-are-the-key-to-unlocking-higher-website-engagement.

Here are some reasons why images are crucial to everything you create online.

Images Instantly Capture Attention
Images Reinforce Your Message
Images Improve Retention and Understanding
Images Enhance User Engagement
Emotional Impact

Where to Source Images for Your Website

Stock Photo Websites: Shutterstock, Unsplash, Envato Elements, and Pexels offer high-quality images. While some come with a licensing fee, plenty of free options exist. Just make sure to follow the usage guidelines.

In-House Creation: Recommendations include police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, town buildings, schools, and other local landmarks. If a story breaks, you’ll have the image in your database to pull from.

AI-Generated Content: Tools like Midjourney, Dall-E, and Adobe Firefly are some options to get you started.

Creative Commons Search: Websites like Wikimedia Commons and Flickr offer many images under various Creative Commons licenses. Again, make sure you adhere to the licensing requirements.

Hire a Photographer: The next time the station has an event, look for photographers covering the event and ask if they’d be interested in a trade deal.

Start exploring some of these avenues for sourcing images and take your content to the next level. And remember to always give credit to where you procured the images. This is vitally important.

The next time you’re about to publish an article, event, or whatever, please remember that a well-chosen image can make a world of difference.

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Every radio station is looking to cut costs and with so much emphasis on other online platforms, you might ask yourself, “Do we really need a website?” The answer is a resounding “yes” and we’ll tell you why they are still relevant.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/why-investing-in-a-radio-station-website-is-still-relevant

Today’s modern radio station can be anywhere from a streaming service, social media platform, voice-enabled device, and mobile app. Some might question the relevance of the radio station website. However, dismissing the need for a comprehensive and interactive website is a mistake radio stations can't afford to make.

The station website serves as the online hub, offering a central location where your audience can interact with your content, learn about contests and upcoming events, and even discover new content they may have missed on-air.

Here's why radio station websites are relevant more than ever.

The Website is Your 24/7 Broadcasting Platform
Centralized Content Hub
Enhanced Interactivity
Additional Revenue Streams
SEO Benefits

Actions to Take for Long-term Relevance

Regularly Update Your Content
Promote Often On-Air
Utilize Social Media
Ensure Mobile Optimization
Engage with Analytics
Utilize Podcasts and Blogs

In summary, a radio station website is far from obsolete; it’s a crucial tool for modern radio. It’s your platform to facilitate more robust listener engagement, broaden your reach, and diversify your revenue streams. By taking the right actions, you can ensure your station website remains relevant and thrives.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com

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“Evergreen content”, or content stays relevant for extended periods, is excellent for any radio station website. Today, we’ll discuss how AI tools can help you generate this evergreen content and we’ll give you 15 examples to get you started.

For more detailed show notes visit: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/leveraging-ai-to-craft-engaging-evergreen-content.

Before we delve into the nuts and bolts of using AI for content creation, let's clarify what we mean by 'evergreen content.' Evergreen content is any relevant material that doesn't become outdated quickly. It's content that people will find helpful and interesting over an extended period. “How to” articles are the most popular evergreen content, but you can also compile content from topics like "Top 10 Must-See Attractions in [Your City]" or "Best Restaurants Near [Your Location]."

How AI Can Help

Writing one article while researching information withoutcopyright issues could take hours. AI can scrape data from multiple sources to compile a detailed blog post that is written uniquely. You can customize the tone, style, and length to suit your targetaudience.

Don’t know what to write about? Ask AI! I gave ChatGPT this prompt, “I want to provide my website visitors with evergreen content about my local area. Give me several examples I could use including information on tourist spots, reviews, etc.” Here’swhat it gave me.

Real-World Examples

"Best Local Restaurants You Must Try"
"Hidden Gems: Unexplored Spots in [Your City]"
"A Guide to [Your City]'s Historic Landmarks"
"Top 10 Family-Friendly Activities in [Your City]"
"Your Weekend Getaway Planner: Best Day Trips from [Your City]"
"Staycation Ideas: How to Make the Most of [Your City]"
"Outdoor Activities in [Your City]: Where to Go and What to Do"
"Best Coffee Shops to Work From in [Your City]"
"Art and Culture in [Your City]: Must-Visit Galleries and Theatres"
"Flea Markets and Antique Shops: Where to Find Treasures in [Your City]"
"Where to Listen to Live Music in [Your City]"
"Local Farmers' Markets: A Guide to Fresh Produce in [Your City]"
"Public Transport 101: Navigating [Your City] Like a Pro"
"Safe and Scenic Bike Routes in [Your City]"
"Celebrating [Local Festival]: History and Traditions"

By creating localized, evergreen content like this, yourradio station can become a valuable resource for the community and visitors, enhancing engagement and driving consistent traffic to your website.

AI offers an unprecedented opportunity for radio stationsto create high-quality, evergreen content that can drive consistent traffic to their websites. For our station websites to succeed, staying relevant iscrucial. Leveraging AI for content creation can give your station the competitive edge it needs. Evergreen doesn't mean set it and forget it. Attractions close, new restaurants open, and trends change, so periodically check your content to ensure it remains current and relevant.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us!

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Today, it’s vitally important to offer all kinds of content to keep visitors returning, like local news, events, sports information, etc. With this focus on adding more content, one element has seen a decline in importance: the radio personality page. When we ask stations to give us content for their new websites, personality page information is often left out, each showing “information coming soon.” Others disable show personality pages entirely.

Today, we’ll explore why personality pages still matter and offer content ideas to make these pages more appealing and engaging.

For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-importance-of-the-radio-personality-pages.

Why the Radio Personality Pages Matter

Building a Personal Connection
Enhancing Your Station’s Brand
Increasing Listener Engagement and Retention
Monetization Opportunities
Promoting Events and Appearances
Social Media Integration
Content Marketing Opportunities
Analytics and Insights
Competitive Differentiation

Content Ideas for the Air Personality Page

Bio and Backstory
Behind-the-Scenes Content
Personal Blog
Personal Photos
Listener Interaction
Event Calendar
Video
Podcasts
Exclusive Content

Conclusion

The air personality page should be more than just a bio and a photo. It should be viewed as a vital part of a radio station’s digital strategy. It’s a space where personalities can express themselves and connect with listeners on a deeper level.

Even if your entire radio station is voice-tracked and/or runs syndicated programming, you can still create compelling content on these pages to keep visitors returning for more.

Imagine that you’re the listener who connects with one of your personalities and cannot find information about them on your website. How does that make you feel about the radio station?

Our listeners now have more options than ever to get the same music and information we broadcast, so we must do everything possible to keep them invested in our stations. By devoting time and creativity to these pages, you can enhance listener engagement, loyalty, and overall enjoyment of your brand.

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For many of us, we’re in the “radio business” - providing extraordinary experiences whenever someone tunes in to our radio station. Unfortunately, this focused mentality can lead us to not put as much emphasis on the digital face of radio – its website.

Here’s why pushing boundaries and embracing change can help redefine your listener's experience and present lucrative opportunities for your advertisers.

1. Enhances User Experiences

Modern/Responsive Design
Seamless Streaming
Interactive Widgets
Listener Feedback Mechanisms
Social Media Integration
Multi-lingual Support
Real-time Notifications
Contests and Giveaways

The goal of enhancing user experience is to make the listener's journey as frictionless and enjoyable as possible.

2. Diversifies Your Content Offerings

Here are ways to diversify content offerings on a radio station's website:

Exclusive Web Content
Video Content
Blogs & Articles
Photo Galleries
Polls & Quizzes
“Best Of” Content:
Video Interviews
Podcasts
Local Sports
Election Coverage

3. Unlocks New Revenue Opportunities

Here are some ways to unlock additional revenue opportunities through the website:

Subscription Models
Affiliate Marketing
E-commerce Integration
New Ad Placements
Offer Sponsored Content
Virtual Concerts & Events
Crowdsourced Content
Digital Advertorials
Sponsored Content
Featured Listings

Remember, while unlocking new revenue streams, it's crucial to prioritize the user experience and trust. Transparency about sponsored content and ensuring the website's user-friendly will foster a loyal listener base while maximizing profitability.

Conclusion

For radio station websites, innovation is not merely a choice—it’s a business imperative because “comfort” is an enemy.

As you enhance the listener's experience and diversify your content, your website will open doors to unprecedented advertising potential, proving that change can be immensely profitable.

Need help with your radio station website? We're here to help you.

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As radio stations expand their presence online, they become multi-platform brands that offer a vast array of advertising opportunities.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/the-digital-inventory-list-a-must-for-every-radio-station.

Selling these opportunities to advertisers can become complex without an organized approach. That’s why a Digital Inventory List is important.

This list will cover every possible online sales opportunity on the station website, live streaming, podcasts, mobile apps, social media platforms, newsletters, and so much more.

The Benefits by Department

Salespeople will not know the online selling opportunities without this list.
A Digital Inventory List provides the content production and programming team with an understanding of advertising commitments, timings, and formats, helping them plan their content schedules accordingly.
For the finance and revenue management team, a Digital Inventory List can be a robust tool for forecasting revenue, tracking sales, and adjusting pricing strategies.
The digital team can leverage the Digital Inventory List to understand the demand for various advertising spaces better.

What a "Digital Inventory List" Should Include

Here are some potential items that can be included in such a list:

Digital Platform Details
Advertising Space Details
Advertising Format
Inventory Availability
Audience Reach
Pricing Information
Past Performance Metrics (if available)
Additional Opportunities

We have a simplified starting place spreadsheet available at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Digital-Inventory.xlsx. Your Digital Inventory List should be maintained as a live document, regularly updated to reflect changes in inventory availability, new advertising opportunities, and evolving rates. Your station website is a great place to start.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/sure-signs-that-you-need-a-website-redesign

Nothing can be more terrifying (or exciting) than redesigning your website. There’s work involved in determining why you might want a redesign, but it’s an opportunity to refresh your brand’s look and provide visitors with something more visually appealing.

Some companies remodel their websites several times a year because they have the notion that they haven’t found the right look yet – or that the design should match their latest product in some way. There’s no need for those extreme measures.

Some radio stations go way too long without updating their websites – sometimes for decades. So, how often should you redesign your website, and why should you?

Why redesign your website?

Nowadays, every business must have a nice-looking, easy-to-use responsive website. It’s also critical to keep your website up-to-date and the content fresh. If you fail at this, your visitors will assume you do not value your web presence. If you want to make money with your station website (and your radio station), looking current with your online presence is the most significant factor. It will be a tough sell if you expect to generate revenue with an old-looking single-page informational website about your radio station.

It may be time for a redesign if any of the following statements are true.

Your site has no/little traffic.
Your traffic is good, but your visitors only stay for a short time.
Your design appears outdated.
Your site isn’t mobile-friendly.
You are embarrassed by your website.
You want more control over updating your website.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but the convention states that your website should be remodeled every two to three years. An alternative is using a template that allows you to make small changes over time rather than doing complete remodels. If you use a template or a service that allows this, this is the way to go because huge website changes can leave your frequent visitors having to re-learn your website.

Hopefully, we’ve shown the importance of changing your website’s look so that you’re always giving an upbeat, modern impression of your radio station and company to visitors and potential clients. Remember that websites are your company’s online face, so they need to reflect the values you bring.

Ready for a website redesign that will get more visitors? Reach out to us to start the process at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Blogging is writing and publishing content on a website covering various topics, from personal experiences and how-to guides to expert industry insights and opinion pieces.

Get detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/blogging-for-radio.

The Importance of Blogging

Drives New & Recurring Traffic
Improves SEO
Establishing Authority
Enhancing Listener/Customer Relationships

How Blogging Specifically Helps Radio Stations

Promotes On-Air Content
Provides Extended Content
An Archive for Valuable Content
Encourages Listener Engagement
Attract Advertisers

Blogging is a powerful tool that radio stations can leverage to drive traffic, improve SEO, establish authority, enhance listener relationships, promote and extend on-air content, archive valuable content, encourage listener engagement, and attract advertisers. When you and your team can look at blogging through that lens, the time involved is a valuable investment.

This kind of content marketing is cheap or free to do and can bring substantial rewards. If your radio station hasn't started blogging, now is the perfect time to start.

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From social media widgets to embedding videos, reviews, and sports cores, external content and widgets can truly transform a website. However, despite their numerous benefits, integrating external content/widgets can also present several downsides.

For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/weighing-the-downsides-of-external-content-widgets.

"External content" in the context of web development refers to any content or feature on a website that is not hosted or directly controlled by the website itself but is hosted and controlled by a third-party source. Here are a few examples:

Embeds
Widgets
Scripts or APIs
Advertisements

Downsides of External Content

Impact Website Performance
Steal Your Audience
Dependency on Third-party Providers
Security Risks
Inconsistent Branding
Privacy Concerns
Increased Complexity

While integrating external content/widgets can certainly enrich a website's functionality, it's crucial to understand their potential downsides. Prioritizing your website's performance, security, branding, user privacy, and simplicity should always be at the heart of your decision-making process. Instead of indiscriminately adding externally hosted features, consider each addition carefully and opt for trusted, reliable providers when necessary.

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Whether it's a celebrity interview, a special show, or a major news event, we all have a good idea when everyone wants to tune in to your station at once. But is your website ready to handle a similar rush? Today, we’ll discuss ways to prepare your website for a high-traffic event to ensure visitors have a seamless online experience.

For more detailed show notes visit: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/preparing-your-radio-stations-website-for-high-traffic-events.

A high-traffic event is a situation where your website gets many visitors simultaneously. Here are some things you can do to prepare your website for a high-traffic event.

Analyze Your Website Speed: Here are some tools to analyze your site speed: Pingdom, Google PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest, GTMetrix.
Optimize Your Website Content
Activate a Statically Cached Page/Website

A high-traffic event that could be a game-changer for your radio station and website. But if you're not ready, instead of a “win,” you might face a crash, losing potential listeners and advertisers. Plan for your big day now to ensure your visitors have a smooth experience.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Finding great website content is a hurdle for some radio stations. What if your visitors could create the content for you? User-generated content (UGC) is any form of content created by your listeners and website visitors. UGC can be a powerful tool for radio stations.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/harnessing-user-generated-content.

User-generated content can take many forms including comments, reviews, photos, videos, blog posts, social media posts, and more. Here are a few ways radio stations can use UGC on their websites:

Leveraging User-Generated Content on Your Website

Comments
Event Calendars
Listener Testimonials
Photo and Video Submissions
Listener Polls and Surveys

The Power of User-Generated Content

Here are some ways radio stations can benefit from User-Generated Content on their website:

Increased Website Traffic
Cost-Effective Content
Authenticity
Encourages Participation
Boosts SEO
Increases Listener Loyalty
Provides Valuable Insights
Promotes Viral Marketing
Enhances Community Building

User-generated content is a powerful tool for radio stations. Incorporating UGC into your website can create a more engaging, interactive, and authentic online experience for your listeners.

Need help with your station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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In our competitive world, establishing a unique and compelling brand identity is not just a luxury—it's a necessity. It's the difference between being just another frequency on the dial and being a beloved source of entertainment, news, and community connection.

For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/amplifying-your-radio-stations-brand-identity-online.

A strong brand identity can provide numerous benefits for a radio station:

Audience Recognition
Audience Loyalty
Competitive Advantage

In the online world, your brand identity is often the first interaction potential listeners have with your station. If your radio station has an established brand identity, you can always amplify its impact to reach and engage your online audience more effectively. Here's how:

Optimize Your Website
Leverage Social Media
Utilize Email Marketing
Create a Mobile App
SEO and Online Advertising

By strategically amplifying your brand identity online, you can make a bigger impact on your audience, attract more listeners, and foster stronger connections with your community. Remember, consistency is key – ensure your brand identity is consistently reflected across all your online platforms and touchpoints.

If your website is lacking in this department and not the professional face of your radio station, we can help with that. We consider all these key points to help you develop an online plan. Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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We’ve always advocated that radio stations repurpose everything they do on-air for online consumption. Today we’ll talk about various ways you can optimize your on-air content for online platforms, including your radio station website.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/repurposing-on-air-content-for-digital-engagement.

If you visit the websites and social media channels of major market radio stations and the bigger talent working there, you’ll notice a pattern of re-purposing what they do on-air. The most successful radio stations and talent do not limit their content to on-air only. Repurposing your on-air content for digital platforms is the best strategy to reach new audiences, engage with listeners on a deeper level, and extend the life of something that might only be heard once. So, how can you optimize your on-air content for online platforms, including your radio station website?

Understanding Your Online Platforms

The first step in repurposing your online on-air content is understanding each digital platform's unique features. Social media channels, podcast platforms, and station websites offer different benefits. Knowing where your target audience spends most of their time and how they prefer to consume content is crucial for social media. One or more social channels may work better for your station. If you have multiple stations, one social media channel may work better for one and not another. Regardless, we advocate that your station website be the hub that binds everything because your website is the only place you can monetize the traffic you receive through banner advertising and sponsorships.

Social Media
Video Content
Podcasts and On-Demand Audio
Blogs and Show Notes
Local News and Information
Listener Engagement

Whether you're turning segments into podcasts, creating social media snippets, or sparking discussions online, you're not just repurposing content - you're extending its value and reach, ultimately boosting the overall listener experience and engagement. Even if you focus more on getting more listeners than website visitors, creating online content that points back to the radio station is always a great promotional tool.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com

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Have you noticed that some websites just look better and are easier to navigate? Have you ever compared your station website to one of these? Today we’ll talk about enhancing your website user experience and provide strategies to foster increased visitor loyalty.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/improve-your-website-user-experience-to-increase-visitors.

Today, we’ll dive into the importance of website user experience for radio stations and provide actionable steps to ensure visitors become loyal visitors as well as listeners.

Why User Experience Matters

First Impressions Count
Retaining Attention
Building Brand Loyalty

Steps to Enhance Website User Experience

Streamline Navigation
Optimize Loading Speed
Engaging Content Presentation
Image Standardization
Seamless Audio Streaming
Social Integration
Regular Content Updates
Focus on Value
Gather and Act on Feedback

Radio stations must prioritize website user experience to attract and retain visitors. Compare your station’s website to major market radio and television stations and even national news networks that have a team of user experience experts on hand. Notice how their websites check all the boxes we’ve mentioned here.

By adopting user-friendly design principles, and optimizing website performance, radio stations can foster a loyal audience. Remember, a well-crafted website not only engages visitors but also strengthens your overall brand image and cements the station's position in the highly competitive digital space.

Have an awesome week online making your radio website better. If we can help with your station website, please reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Today, we’ll give four ways that you can harness AI to assist you in creating amazing content for your radio station website.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/4-ways-to-harness-ai-for-amazing-website-content.

AI-driven tools offer a plethora of functionalities that can streamline daily tasks, enhance creativity, and revolutionize how radio station websites connect with their visitors. Today, we will explore how radio station website content creators can leverage AI tools to create compelling text, captivating images, and exceptional audio content.

Today’s episode is FULLY AI-driven. I’ve used AI tools to help produce today’s episode – from the text to the images and most importantly, the audio. I have not spoken one word of what you’re hearing today. This voice you hear IS my own, but it was generated by pasting in the text from this blog post.

1 Automated Text Generation and Editing

2 Image Enhancement and Generation

3 Voice Recognition and Transcription

4 Audio Enhancement and Text-to-Voice

Integrating AI tools into your daily workflow can revolutionize how your content is created, optimized, and delivered. These tools can empower content creators from automated text generation and editing to image enhancement to audio transcription and text-to-voice. By leveraging AI-powered tools, radio station website content creators can stay ahead of the curve and provide an exceptional user experience that keeps visitors coming back for more.

We hope that you’re loving this podcast. If you are, please share it with a fellow radio colleague. And if you need help with your radio station’s website, reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com.

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E-mail newsletters remain a valuable tool for radio stations to connect with their audience, promote shows and listening, and drive engagement with your station website. However, getting people to sign up for your newsletter can be challenging.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/7-ways-to-optimize-your-newsletter-signup-for-maximum-subscribers.

Today, we will explore seven proven strategies to help you perfect your radio station's website newsletter signup process and increase your subscribers.

1) Craft a Compelling Value Proposition

2) Simplify the Signup Form

3) Optimize Form Placement and Visibility

4) Enhance the Call-to-Action (CTA)

5) Leverage Social Proof and Testimonials

6) Incorporate Incentives and Contests

7) Implement A/B Testing and Analytics

With an irresistible value proposition, simplified signup forms, strategic placement, enhanced CTAs, social proof, incentives, and ongoing optimization, your radio station's newsletter can become a powerful tool for audience engagement and growth.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Banner ads are still a great way for your clients to promote their business or product. Today we’ll talk about how to create a compelling and impactful banner ad that captures attention, communicates your client’s message, and generates the results that will keep your clients coming back for more.

For more in-depth show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/banner-ad-design-best-practices-pitfalls-to-avoid.

When you have a popular website that brings in visitors consistently, banner ads can be a great marketing tool for your clients and a revenue generator for your station. The key is overcoming banner fatigue and creating something for your client that stands out and gets people to take action.

On the radio, a decent commercial can still maintain top-of-mind awareness for a business. However, if a banner ad is just a business logo it fails to serve the same purpose because there’s no message or call to action associated with it. Those banner ads are too quickly looked over.

Here are some key steps to take to ensure your banner ads are effective.

1) Define Your Goal

2) Keep The Ad Simple and Focused

3) Design for Visibility and Branding

4) Use Eye-Catching Imagery

5) Utilize Compelling Copy

6) Create a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1) Overcrowding information

2) Using Low-Quality Images

3) Ignoring the Call to Action

4) Using Too Many Colors

5) Not Paying Attention to File Size

6) Not Tracking and Analyzing Performance

Crafting an effective banner ad requires a thoughtful approach that combines creativity, strategy, and optimization. We hope these steps will help you create compelling and impactful banner ads that attract attention, communicate the client’s message effectively, and drive desired results. Remember to continuously test and monitor the performance of your ads to achieve the best possible results.

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For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/website-health-check.

I have an annual physical coming up in the next week or so, and that got me thinking about how often we should be performing website health checks. A website health check is a routine checkup to ensure it functions optimally. This should be done regularly because it helps identify any issues affecting your website’s performance.

Just as a physician has his clipboard of items to check in a physical, here are some things to check regularly to ensure your website is healthy.

Page Speed
On-Site SEO: https://website.grader.com, https://www.semrush.com, https://www.ahrefs.com
Analytics Tracking
Mobile Responsiveness
Website Security

A “healthy website” is fast loading, easily found online, and provides insight into what visitors are doing. It’s also mobile-responsive and secure. Regular website health checks can help you flag concerns and improve issues before they become severe problems. We recommend monitoring your website health at least once a quarter using free or cheap online tools, following best practices, and having some common sense.

Need help with your radio station website? We're here to help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/should-you-import-rss-content.

Several radio station affiliates have asked if importing RSS content would benefit their websites. I always answer, “What content are you providing now?” Because it’s essential to know how much you will be relying on the RSS content you’ll be importing.

RSS feeds were created to generate more traffic for the website providing them. You’ve likely seen these feeds on other websites that display the latest posts from CMT.com, MTV.com, Rolling Stone, Fox News, CNN, local tv stations, etc. There are very few upsides to displaying RSS feeds like this. We view these as reasons to leave your website and the advertisers paying you to be there.

Importing RSS content is the best option because it keeps visitors on your website longer. These RSS feeds are more than simple excerpts and links to the originating website. They contain full articles along with images and other content.

If you’re going to import RSS content, the best route to take is to use a service provider. Here are some options that are available for barter.

1) ABC News Digital Content

National News, World News, Politics, Health, National Sports, Entertainment, and news from all major music formats.

Contact Mary McCarthy at 212-456-5200 or email mary.e.mccarthy at abc.com

2) United Stations Pulse Digital Content

Entertainment news as well as news from all major music formats.

Contact Ralph Riley at 972-562-3381 or e-mail ralphriley at unitedstations.com

The best content is relevant content. This is going to be different for every market and radio station. Music news might be interesting, but the most relevant content will likely impact what your listener does today or this weekend. Local news and events will have a bigger impact on your visitors because they’re more relevant. Besides, you’re less likely to find that content anywhere else. The radio station websites generating substantial online revenue do it with lots of local content.

We recommend putting a bigger emphasis on finding more local/relevant content that your listeners will find appealing and trying to do more of that consistently, promoting posts heavily on-air, in newsletters, and on social media.

If you’re looking at imported RSS content, use it sparingly to increase the value of the local content you are creating. RSS content should not be the only content on your radio station website because that information can be found anywhere. Since the content has been generated from other websites, it can hurt your search engine optimization.

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If you own or manage several radio stations, you may wonder whether combining all stations into one website or keeping them separate isbetter. Today, we’ll cover the advantages and disadvantages of both.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/single-website-or-multiple-websites.

Here are the big items to consider when making this decision.

Cost Factor
Time Commitment
Brand Awareness
SEO Challenges
Sellable Real Estate

There is no definitive answer to whether you should combine or separate your radio station websites. The best option for you is going to dependon various factors such as:

Your goals
Your audience
Your branding (SEO)
Your budget
Your sellers

Here are some examples of stations that share one website.

https://www.adastraradio.com
https://www.enidlive.com
https://www.everettpost.com
https://www.deltaplexnews.com
https://www.myhometowntoday.com
https://www.sierradailynews.com

We’re here to support and help you through any decision you make. You can take your first steps at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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The two most-often asked questions we get are "how do we start selling our radio station website" and "how much should we sell website ads for". The answer is always the same - "It depends. Every market is different." Today, we'll hear from someone who's been selling ads on their small market website for decades.

Melissa Boswell Townsend is the General Manager and co-owner of Boswell Media in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and a third-generation broadcaster in the same location. We had her father, Johnny Boswell, on the podcast a few times. They have a station there in Kosciusko and two in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their websites are https://www.breezynews.com and https://www.kicks96news.com.For more extensive show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/selling-your-radio-station-website.The first step to generating revenue with your station website is to adjust your mindset into prioritizing it more than you have. Then, create great content that keeps your visitors coming back every day. Have a digital inventory list in place, so your entire team knows what sellable opportunities exist on your station website and other online platforms. Ensure your team knows the website's goals and contributes to its success.Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Content author bios are seldom discussed but they can get important and the content game goes on. With the rise of automated-generated content, it’s becoming more difficult to determine whether the information you’re consuming was written by an algorithm or an actual person who cares what the topic is about and how it affects the reader.

For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/how-author-bios-can-help-engagement-seo.

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I’ve been eager to introduce you to today’s special guest. Elizabeth Pampalone is a Marketing Minimalist, Award Winning International Speaker, and Podcaster. She’s developed proven formulas that help her clients create one year of marketing content in just five days. She is called the “Gordon Ramsay of Website Audits.”

Check out her website at https://getabsolutemarketing.com.

I met Elizabeth at a recent WordPress Conference or WordCamp in Birmingham, Alabama. In her “Website Usability” session, she ripped apart skyrocketradio.com in front of an audience of about 60 people. The valuable insight we received from that audit, has led us to make valuable changes to our website and how we perceive the new customer journey.

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For detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/why-all-radio-stations-need-a-privacy-policy-page.

Do you take online contest information or regular contact form entries on your station or company website? The information you accept is likely protected under certain digital privacy laws.

Website privacy rights protect the personal information you collect from visitors when they visit your website. This can include names, email addresses, and location data. A typical intake form might be the information you collect from listeners when they sign up for contests. Sometimes you may ask about things other than their name and e-mail address, like their date of birth and address. The data they are giving you should be considered protected information.

Sharing someone’s information without their knowledge could be a privacy rights nightmare. Privacy laws can impose very high penalties for violations as penalties are calculated per violation (meaning per website visitor whose privacy rights were infringed upon). That means sharing 300 names and e-mail addresses with your contest sponsor could be 300 violations.

Know Your Privacy Laws

The United States and Europe have the most comprehensive data security and privacy laws; the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in 2018, while the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) took effect in 2020. At the time of writing, no federal laws require a business to have a Privacy Policy. But there are several laws, including federal and state laws, that have provisions on data privacy. Some are new this year, and you can expect more states to have new laws as well.

Have a Website Privacy Policy

You’ll likely have general contest rules and even rules per contest. It’s also good to include privacy disclosures and have an overall privacy policy for your site that covers other form submissions.

There are three main reasons why you need a Privacy Policy page:

Privacy Policy agreements are required by law worldwide if you're collecting data that can be used to identify an individual.
Many third-party services designed to enhance your website or app, such as Google Analytics, actively require you to have a Privacy Policy that contains certain information about your use of their services.
Show you care. People care a lot about their privacy, especially when using their private information, such as their home address. Your Privacy Policy is a great way to show them that you can be trusted to care for that information.

It is important to note that your Privacy Policy will depend on the privacy laws that apply to you, so you must first determine those. With increasing online activity, website privacy rights have become more important than ever. It's important for radio stations to be aware of these rights and to take steps to protect their listener’s personal information online.

A Privacy Policy is one of the most important legal agreements for your radio station website, regardless of where you operate. Today’s post provides a good starting point for compliance with the new and coming privacy laws. However, do not take it as a substitute for the advice of your station attorney. Many other ancillary requirements need to be considered, like having an appeals system and other required duties that may be required. These are much deeper than we can speak to.

We can help you with your radio station website though. Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com,

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For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/7-reasons-to-start-an-e-mail-newsletter-right-now.

An e-mail newsletter is a simple and effective way for radio stations to stay connected with their audience, build community, and promote their events and promotions. If you’re not collecting e-mail addresses and reaching out to these subscribers regularly, lean in. Today we’ll cover seven reasons why you should.

81% of small businesses rely on e-mail as their primary customer acquisition channel, and 80% rely on e-mail for retaining customers. Why? According to the Content Marketing Institute, every dollar spent on e-mail marketing typically returns an average of forty-two dollars. So, don’t think e-mail is dead or all spammy. Here are seven reasons why your radio station should start an e-mail newsletter:

Newsletters are direct communication.
Newsletters build relationships.
Newsletters increase listeners and brand loyalty.
Newsletter services are cost-effective.
Newsletters provide measurable results.
Newsletters can be targeted.
Newsletters can increase your revenue.

Starting a newsletter is a cost-effective and efficient way for radio stations to reach their listeners, build relationships, increase listenership, and stand out in a crowded market. It's also a way to create new revenue opportunities.

We love helping our radio station clients move the needle with their online presence. Let us help you. Reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com, and be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can get updates each time we add new content to our website. We have a giant year planned.

Have an awesome week online making your radio website better. See you next time!

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For more detailed show notes, visit: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/protecting-your-station-website-from-image-copyright-claims

This week we received a phone call from a client saying they received an image copyright claim notice claiming they owed thousands of dollars for an image that appeared on their station website. That got me to thinking about what kinds of people are still posting copyrighted imagesonline. There can be a few reasons why someone may want to try getting away with using a copyrighted image on their website without obtaining proper permission. Some of the reasons may include:

Lack of knowledge
Cost and convenience
Lack of alternatives

How Do Copyright Holders Find Their Images

Reverse image search
Watermark search
Social media monitoring
Copyright infringement search services

It's important to note that even with these tools, it can be difficult for copyright owners to find every instance of their photos online, as some websites and individuals may use methods to conceal the origin of a photo. However, by combining these methods, copyright owners can increase their chances of finding and acting against unauthorized work use.

Beware of Copyright Claim Imposters

Copyright imposters are individuals or companies that falsely claim to own the copyright to an image and demand payment or removal of the image from your website or social media account. These imposters may use automated tools to scan the internet for images or target content creators randomly.

If you suspect you have received a false copyright claim, report the imposter to the proper authorities. In the United States, you can report the imposter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) or the Federal Trade Commission(FTC).

What to Do If You Receive a Copyright Claim

If you receive a copyright claim on your website regarding an image, you should first determine whether the claim is valid. If the image in question is indeed copyrighted, you should remove it from your website as soon as possible to avoid more potential legal issues.

Website Image Best Practices

Use your images
Obtain permission
Use Creative Commons licensed images
Use stock images
Always give credit
Be careful with screenshots
Altering does not save you

Knowing why some people use copyrighted images, understanding how the images are found by copyright holders, and following the best practices for using images should help you make better decisions for your station website. By taking these steps, you can protect yourself and your radio station from copyright issues.

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Today, we’ll cover the top five web-related skills your team members need to know for your station website to be successful. If you have someone on your team who will be accessing the website, they should have a basic understanding of each of these.

1. Basic Image Editing

This doesn’t mean everyone should learn powerful tools like Photoshop or Illustrator. Those are overkill if you need to crop and downsize an image. There are more simple tools – even online image editors like https://pixlr.com/editorthat can be used. Editors like this can be helpful without being overwhelming.

2. Basic Graphic Design

The key here is to have everything on your station website look professional because your website's first impression could be your radio station's first impression.

3. Editing and Proofreading

Good content ensures maximum impact, while poor content with errors can give a wrong impression of your radio station. Consider investing in the Grammarly service. It’s a plugin that reads your copy as you write and makes suggestions in spelling and grammar.

4. SEO and Accessibility Best Practices

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for your radio station website, but I bet you rarely think about it. Proper SEO techniques can be a deep-dive subject, but you can do some small things to ensure everything you post can be found easily in search engines.

Accessibility means ensuring everyone can effectively access your content. Remember that people with disabilities need to access the website through special software. When image tags are missing or if they contain cryptic filenames, these visitors will not know what images contain. This can result in getting fewer clicks than you would like.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website has some excellent guidance to review at https://www.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance.

5. Simple Security Measures

Everyone with access to your station website should only use a strong password dedicated to that website. I recommend using a password manager which allows you to set complicated/unique passwords for every account. The password manager securely houses them, so you only need to remember a single master password.

Also, ensure that each of your website admins has only the proper amount of access they need to perform their tasks. If someone only writes the occasional blog post, they do not need access to edit banner ads, view contest submissions, or add new users. Limiting their access will limit the effects of an intrusion if their account is ever compromised.

Wrapping Up

Having your team know these fundamental skills starts with management. Look at your station website often and call out images that do not make sense or do not stand up as looking professional. Call out spelling and grammar mistakes – before your listeners do.

There are many free resources in blog posts and online training videos across Youtube to increase one’s skillset.

Need help with your radio station website? Please reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/contact.

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Happy new year! Do you have any goals to kick off the new year? Today we want to cover some recommended new year’s resolutions that you should have for your radio station website.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/nine-resolutions-to-boost-your-radio-station-website-in-2023.

1) Devote More Resources to Your Station Website

2) Add New/Different Content

3) Try a Different Color/Layout

4) Examine Your Analytics and Adjust Accordingly

5) Start a Podcast

6) Be More Social

7) Build a Local Photo Library

8) Write a Blog That Targets Advertisers

9) Take Inventory of Your Online Assets

Be open and actively searching for everything your station can do online to grow your online audience, discover things that can separate your station from any competition you have, make a more significant difference in your community, and generate more income. Unlike your radio signal, with only 24 hours of possible content per day, your station website has unlimited content and sponsorship potential that can last many years.

We hope you have a wonderful and prosperous new year online. If you’re looking for a new website experience for your station in the new year or know of someone who is, we would love to help.

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For more in-depth show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/adjusting-the-mindset-about-your-station-website.

Today we want to talk about your mindset regarding your radio station website. Why do you have a website for your radio station? Is it simply to have a place to direct people to listen online? Is it because you know every business should have one, and so you do as well? Or is it to make more money? Hopefully, your priority is “making more money.”

- Have a Digital-First Mindset
We advocate thinking of your station website as another radio station that simulcasts, in text and images, everything you do on-air.

- Program Your Website Like a Radio Station
We recommend programming your website just as you would your radio station. What can we do to keep visitors returning tomorrow and the next day?

- Choose Content that Works for Your Audience
Start with something that resonates with your station audience, measure engagement by seeing if it generates clicks, shares, and repeat visitors, and then add more content that might resonate with them. You’ll find that adding new features will bring more visitors over time.

- RSS Feeds are not a Content Strategy
Outside news should only spice the main reason people visit your website – your content. Never fill a page with RSS links offsite. We view these as reasons to leave your website; only paying advertisers should have that ability.

We want to help with your station website. Please reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Seth Resler is a 25-year broadcasting and podcasting veteran who has worked on the mic and programmed radio stations in major markets like New York City, Boston & Seattle before crossing into online marketing. As the digital strategist at Jacobs Media, Seth works with radio stations across the U.S., helping them design and implement action plans that combine websites, social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, content marketing, lead generation, and other online tools. Follow Seth's blog at https://jacobsmedia.com/category/connecting-the-dots.

For more detailed show notes, please visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/cluttered-homepages-e-mails-and-goals-with-seth-resler.

Need help with your station website? We'd love to help you.

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/five-reasons-your-station-should-be-podcasting

The podcasting audience continues to grow, and its reinvigorating audio listening and advertising. An Edison Research study shows that over half of all Americans have listened to a podcast, and one-third have listened in the last week. 41% of Americans say they listen to more podcasts than a year ago. The average podcast listener tunes into seven shows a week, consuming up to 6 hours of total listening time. Whether you like it or not, podcasting is officially mainstream media.

Check out more exciting podcasting stats at https://www.demandsage.com/podcast-statistics.

This week we want to offer five reasons your radio station should be podcasting, and we’ve enlisted the help of Mike Wilkerson, owner of the 2GuysTalking Podcast Network in St. Louis. Mike has been hosting, producing, concepting, and enhancing podcasts since 2005. He produces content for his growing client across the nation, remotely, from his Podcast Capture Studios and via “The Podcast Bug” - a 1974 custom Super Beetle with a recording studio built inside. Mike’s bottom line is, “Podcasting is Captured Perspective.”

1. Consider Podcasts as On-Demand Radio

2. Podcasting Builds Intimate Relationships

3. Podcasts Are an Extra Marketing Channel

4. Podcasts are Easy for Radio Stations to Promote

5. Podcasting Generates Revenue

To stay ahead, radio needs to focus on what it does best and apply it to podcasting. Create podcasts based on the content you’re already creating or that ties in with your communities. Also, look into creating for underserved audiences. Is there a particular audience in your market that nobody is serving with a radio station? That’s a podcast opportunity. You'll miss this additional revenue if you consider podcasts a competitor.

See what your team is passionate about and try to build an audio community around those in-house experts. Studies show that more listeners would listen more often if a well-known personality hosted a show, but podcasters do not have to be morning show hosts. That passionate salesperson who’s always wanted to be on the radio might have a winning podcast show.

Just about everyone is starting a podcast, but do not let that fact be a stumbling block. Radio groups have seen the potential podcasts offer to extend their reach.

Need help with your station website? We're here to help at https://ww.skyrocketradio.com.

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Having good information about your market can help you make decisions now, tomorrow, and into the future. Today, we’ll talk with one of the leading experts in small to medium size business data and get his insight into how it can transform how you do business in the future. Today, we have Corey Elliott from Borrell Associates.

If you haven’t seen or heard Corey online, then you’ve likely seen his work in the various charts they publish. He leads Borrell Associates’ ongoing surveys of local marketers — the largest survey of small to medium businesses in the U.S. — and the company’s expansive database of local advertising and marketing expenditures. He’s the co-host of the Local Marketing Trends podcast and hosts a biweekly video program, Corey’s Local Market Minute, on YouTube.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/how-data-helps-your-radio-station-and-website-with-corey-elliott.

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Today, we're introducing a new periodic feature of "Quick Tips". These five tips might not demand a full blog post or podcast episode but are very good to know.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/quick-tips-pro-images-security-and-knowing-your-website.

Instill a professional design mindset in your team.
Have a professional logo designed for each brand your company represents.
Ensure your team is using strong passwords.
Check your security logs periodically.
Test the limits of your website.

Wrap up

Those are our five quick tips for today. I hope they help you. Be sure to check out the podcast next for our first video podcast. It will be available on Anchor and Spotify as well as Youtube. I’m unsure about the other platforms, but the audio version will also be available. Our guest next week will be Corey Elliott with Borrell Associates, and we’ll try to get some insight from him into what’s to come for radio stations and what they are doing online.

Need help with your station website. Check us out at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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“Cache” is a term coined back in 1967 by IBM System Journal’s editor Lyle R. Johnson. It works on a simple principle: providing temporary storage for computed content to be accessed later. It acts as a memory bank, making it easy to access saved data rather than re-downloading and processing it every time you visit a website.

If I ask you what 5x4 is, you’ll know the answer is 20. You didn’t need to work out the math - you’ve done this multiplication so often that you no longer need to. You just remember the answer. That is how caching works.

Websites are viewed thousands or sometimes millions of times per month. Each time a browser requests a web page, the server must do a bunch of calculations – pulling posts and images, calculating who’s on air now, deciding if the events are current, displaying the correct banner ads, weather information, and so on. Cache stores these calculations and presents them with a much faster web experience.

Today, we will cover different levels of cache and why they benefit your radio station website.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/website-cache-explained-how-it-makes-your-site-faster.

Browser Caching: Browser caching allows your browser to store these files for specific amounts of time, so it doesn’t need to retrieve them every time you visit the website.

Server Cache: Server cache speeds up websites for everyone, not just for returning visitors. When a browser requests a webpage, the server takes time to process the information. After that first request, the server “remembers” the processed content and delivers it faster to subsequent visitors.

Downsides to Cache

However great the caching system is, no one is entirely safe from cache-related issues. Cache issues can specifically be related to a user’s device, the content management system, or the hosting service.

Wrapping Up

Caching is a technology that increases the speed of your website. When used correctly, it will result in significantly faster load times and decrease the load on your server. Depending on your hosting provider, an increased load on your server could result in higher hosting fees.

If you aren’t already caching your web pages, please look into it immediately.

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Banner ads are everywhere because they’re an affordable, measurable, and effective way to increase brand awareness. For radio stations wanting to make any revenue online, they are essential. We drive traffic to our websites from on-air and social media to increase the likelihood that a visitor will click on a banner ad so we can get more money from those advertisers. Generating website traffic is a key step, but another is creating banner ads that generate clicks. We must create the most clickable banner ads possible.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/create-banner-ads-the-get-results.

Before we jump into tips on designing effective banner ads. Now is a good time to mention that your sales team must have a Digital Inventory List. We’ve covered this in previous posts and podcasts. A Digital Inventory List lists every ad space, sponsorship, or advertiser opportunity on your station website. It should also cover things off the website, like podcasts, social media posts, Youtube video mentions, live videos, etc. Everything “digital” should be included. Once you have this, it’s much easier for your sales team to know what you have available to sell. If one position on your website is full, perhaps another location or opportunity would be better for their client.

Use the most effective, standard banner sizes.
Keep it simple
Maintain design hierarchy
Make text instantly readable
Instill a sense of urgency
Be consistent with the client’s brand
Use relevant images when needed
Choose appropriate colors

Creatopy.com has a great read on how color can affect a viewer’s emotion and perception of the brand: https://www.creatopy.com/blog/color-banner-design-inspiration/

Use animation
Use the correct file formats and keep them small

There you have it! Our 10 tips to create high-performing banner ads. If graphic design is not your thing, or you’re too busy running your radio station, reach out to designers on services like fiverr.com to design the perfect, clickable ads for you.

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Small Business Saturday, observed on the last Saturday of November, was created by American Express during the 2010 recession to encourage people to Shop Small and bring more holiday shopping to small businesses.

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/owning-small-business-saturday.

Shopping small during the holiday season is more important than ever. According to the American Express Shop Small Impact survey, 78% of small business owners have stated that holiday sales indicate whether they stay open the following year or not. This means that most small businesses are poised to accept ways to increase their traffic in every way possible.

Throughout November, you’ll find that media outlets will mention “Small Business Saturday” here and there. If your station or group can grab hold of the reigns and own it more than the others, it could mean more profitable relationships that last much longer than the month. Here are some ways you can do that.

Create a Public Interest Campaign
Tell Small Business Stories
Go Big with Digital Properties
Create a Small Business Saturday Page/Directory
Create customized SBS signage

Why is Small Business Saturday important?

Small businesses have long been considered the heart of the American economy. Successful small businesses bring a community together, increase real estate value and help keep local money local – which directly benefits their towns’ economies.

Make your November all about Small Business Saturday. If you can own it more than your competition, those businesses should rely on you more to help with their advertising beyond November.

Need help with your station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com

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Our podcast and blog aim to help you and your station generate more visitors and revenue. So, it's only fitting that we list out several website mistakes that could cost you both.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/15-website-mistakes-that-cost-visitors-and-revenue.

Outdated/No Website Strategy
Not Focusing on the User Experience
Slow Load Times
Not built for Mobile
Too Much Content
Weak/Too Little Content
No Calls to Action
Poor Navigation
Not Following SEO Best Practices
Overusing Stock Photography
No Image Alt Tags
Lack of Video
Too Many/Too Little Ads
Not tracking your Analytics
No Ongoing Optimization Plan

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it’s a great place to start examining your website. Are you guilty of any mistakes that could cost you visitors and revenue? If so, make a plan to resolve them right away.

Need help with your radio station or corporate website? We're here to help.

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Since 2004, October has been celebrated as Cybersecurity Awareness Month, previously called National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Now in its 19th year, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise cybersecurity awareness nationwide and help ensure that all Americans have the resources they need to be safe and secure online.

This year’s campaign theme is “See Yourself in Cyber” and represents that cybersecurity is ultimately about people, which means seeing yourself in cyber no matter your role.

This year, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) have identified four key areas where we can all take action to protect our presence online and work to keep others safe. These same concepts can be used to help secure your radio station websites and any other system that touches the internet.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/october-is-cybersecurity-awareness-month.

1) Think Before You Click

2) Keep Your Software Updated

3) Use Strong Passwords and a Password Manager

4) Enable Multi-Factor Authentication

National Cyber Security Awareness Month is a great time to review our personal and professional security hygiene. Remember, cyber security is a team effort. Encourage everyone on your team to change their passwords. One employee’s mistake could lead to a virus installed on a work device, infecting your website or even your on-air system. Establishing cyber security as a fundamental part of your station to help secure it from online threats is essential.

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/using-contests-to-boost-your-website-traffic.

Online contests are a great way to keep visitors returning to your website to engage with your station brand experience. Frequently touching your station builds loyalty and can turn the average visitor into a fan. Tracking those visitor numbers provides valuable data to show existing and potential online advertisers. So, contests can be a powerful tool for meeting your online marketing goals and increasing your online revenue.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind for your website contests.

Always Have at Least One Active Contest
Build Contests Around Sponsors When Possible
Include Reasons for Entrants to Return/Register Often
Limit your Contest Questions
Provide a Way for Entrants to Sign Up for your Newsletter
Properly Define the Rules
Properly Promote Your Contests
Properly Track Visitors

A contest may not be the most obvious way to generate traffic to your website, but the results may surprise you. Just be sure to invest time and effort into making your contests more engaging. The more engaging your contests are, the more traffic they will bring.

Need a platform that will effectively allow you to provide engaging contests. Reach out to us.

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This week, hurricane Ian ripped through Florida and up the east coast. Before the storm, a few stations asked us to help quickly create an emergency information page so they could refer to them on-air and over social to help get essential news out to their local listeners.

Do you have an emergency information page for a natural event that may affect your listeners? It’s unlikely that a hurricane will hit a station in Kansas, but they have their share of tornados. Tornados may not frequent places like upstate New York, but locations in the northern United States have blizzards. Other places may not have any of these but experience long periods of drought or be susceptible to wildfires.

If you have any natural events affecting your listeners, it’s a great idea to have an emergency information page on your radio station website to provide essential information when needed. It’s great for your listeners, and it provides you with an in-house location to refer to on-air instead of directing listeners somewhere else online.

Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/emergency-information-pages.

So, let’s look at some elements of an emergency information page that you may want to include.

1) Twitter/Facebook Feeds

2) Current weather, radar, and alerts

3) Live video reports

4) Local Shelter Information

5) Checklists

Ready.gov and the National Weather Service have amazing guides to get you started.

6) Important numbers

The right time to create emergency information pages is not just before the event. Take the time to create these pages now, before the storm.

The more useful information you can provide on this page, the more valuable it will be to your visitor. And you’re more likely to get sponsors to jump on board.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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You’ve undoubtedly noticed a dramatic increase in digital sales over the last several years. Large radio groups were the first to see the writing on the wall that told them they needed to expand their sales offerings to include more digital products. And there are many options out there that your station can offer your clients from targeted banner ads, social media marketing, pay-per-click, SEO services, websites, CRM tools, and the list goes on and on.

For detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/steps-to-take-before-offering-digital-services.

In this episode:

Digital is About Content

Promote Your Content

Digital Inventory List

Training the Sales Team

Set Goals and Beat Them

Know The Competition and Beat Them

When you’re eventually approached by a client to help them with their digital footprint, you’ll explain that they need content. They’ll need a vehicle to promote it like on the radio and over social. They’ll need to make goals and review their analytics often to see how they are doing. And they’ll need to know what their competition is doing if they want to beat them. Your client’s journey will be different from your station’s, but the roots will be the same.

If you start your digital journey with your website, the insight you’ll gain will give you better information to help your clients with a more expanded array of digital services. You can’t do this from the bench, however. You must be fully invested in completing the digital transformation if you want to grow your revenue well into the next decade.

We’d love to assist you on that journey. If you need help making the next step with your station website, please reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Sponsored content started in print publications and has been around for decades. Today, we’re exposed to sponsored content daily, and most of the time, we’re entirely unaware of it. So, why offer it on your radio station website?

For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/generating-revenue-sponsored-content.

Sponsored Content Works

In a 2016 research study, over 4,000 Forbes magazine readers were asked to view webpage content featuring brands like SONY, Maserati, and Boeing, followed by a post-exposure survey. The results demonstrated that:

Brand recall, brand favorability, and purchase consideration points rose.
Consumers were likelier to say they intend to seek more information about the brand.
Mentioning the brand name more often within the content caused the brands to be perceived as more educational (or providing service). So, they became more trusted.
18-34-year-olds responded better to long informative articles, driving higher engagement consideration rates and aiding recall.
Consumers perceive sponsored content as more consumer-centric because it is less about selling products and more about providing value.

PDF to the full report here: https://ipglab.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IPG-Lab-Forbes-Storytelling-The-Current-State-of-Branded-Content-Deck.pdf.

What kinds of sponsored content can your radio station take advantage of?

Informational articles
Air talent social media posts
On-air mentions
Podcasts: Model Health Show

Preparing Sponsored Content

As you would imagine, writing sponsored content takes additional time to get right. The traditional, in-your-face advertising tactics that we’ve become used to will not work as sponsored content.

No matter who writes the content piece, here are some tips to keep in mind.

1) Provide substantial value to your audience

2) Ensure the content is natural and fits your audience

3) Stay away from text within images and logos.

4) Take time to create/tweak this content.

5) Never accept commercial content

According to a study by Neilsen and Mode Media, consumers can spend 2.5 minutes reading a sponsored article that interests them. When implemented correctly, sponsored content can be a lucrative part of your digital strategy.

I hope this information is helpful. Please leave a review for this podcast wherever you get it and be sure to share this with a colleague.

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With every station website we create, we’re asked about what tools and services we use. So, in this post, we’ll cover what we use and offer some alternatives.

Image Editing Tools

Adobe Photoshop

Creative Cloud

Free Alternatives to Photoshop include Gimp and Pixlr

Adobe Illustrator

Free Illustrator alternatives include Vectornator and Inkscape.

Screen Recording

ScreenRec

Loom

Stock Images

Pexels

Envato Elements

Writing Content

Grammarly

Communication

Slack

RSS Readers

Newsflow

Viewing Your Website

We regularly use Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera.

Conclusion

So, these are our “go-to” list of programs and services. I hope they can help you create content for your radio station website.

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For more detailed show notes visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/copyright-and-your-radio-station-website.

Copyright.gov defines copyright as "a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression. Copyright law covers many works, including paintings, photographs, illustrations, musical compositions, sound recordings, computer programs, books, poems, blog posts, movies, architectural works, plays, and so much more!"

Investopedia defines it like this, "Copyright infringement is the use or production of copyright-protected material without the permission of the copyright holder. Copyright infringement means that the rights afforded to the copyright holder, such as the exclusive use of a work for a set period of time, are being breached by a third party. Music and movies are two of the most well-known forms of entertainment that suffer from significant amounts of copyright infringement."

Copyrighted.com says, "To understand copyright infringement, you must first know the rights and limitations of a copyright holder. It's possible to engage in copying and distributing someone's work without actually violating or infringing anything, so you're not legally accountable. It's also possible to be subjected to a legal process even if you had no intention or knowledge that you stole from the owner."

Copyright.gov says, "Works created on or after January 1, 1978, have a copyright term of life of the author plus seventy years after the author's death. If the work is a joint work, the term lasts for seventy years after the last surviving author's death. For works made for hire and anonymous or pseudonymous works, copyright protection is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter."

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As of this writing, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) is being considered in congress and it has bipartisan support. Essentially, it would regulate how organizations keep and use consumer data. Much of today’s podcast research was taken directly from Wikipediaand the bill itself.

I invite everyone to read up on it for themselves in case there’s something specific that we do not cover today. As always, details of the final bill could be more or less involved once the bill is finalized, but we want you to be aware of how it might affect you in the future.

The ADPPA has several main principles: data minimization, individual ownership, and private right of action. It says that anyone who collects data from the public would have to minimize the data they collect down to that which is "necessary, proportionate, and limited to" their purpose. If you’re giving away lunch for two at a local restaurant, there’s no need to ask for how many kids they have, their sex, income, etc. Just get the minimum amount of information required.

Then, the entrant must know what you plan to do with the information they give you. Think contest entries, newsletter subscriber information, text to win entries, listener club membership information, etc. You can’t take those contest entries and automatically sign everyone up for your newsletter with those e-mail addresses or share that information with a sponsor. You can do those things, but you must first clearly specify your intentions before the listener signs up.

In what situation would you not have to worry about any of this? If you never take anyone’s personal information including contest submissions, newsletter signups, listener club membership, text to win entries, information gathered when downloading a mobile app, selling station swag online and receiving e-mail addresses, etc. Basically, if you are collecting any listener information, you should be aware of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act as well as the other state privacy and protection acts. And if you are doing any kind of business overseas, then be aware of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union.

With new privacy laws being put in place, you can expect some people out there to test the system so they can have a legal case against you. Please reach out to your legal counsel for specific things to include on your station website so that you’re covered ahead of what’s to come.

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For greater detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/why-image-alt-tags-are-essential-to-success.

A lot of us in radio view the process of adding images to a website as a step that needs no additional work. Find a legal image and upload it to the website - done. However, it’s very important that the images are edited to sizes that match the rest of the site and are optimized to load fast on mobile devices. That’s before you upload the image to the website. There are small additional steps involved once you upload the image and those are applying the proper caption (image copyright), the image title, and the alt tag.

If you aren’t using alt text in website images, then you are hurting your website and alienating a portion of your visitors. Here are reasons why you should be using alt tags on every image to create more impact and a better user experience.

1. Alt Text Helps Accessibility

For users that can’t see images on a website and use special screen reading software to navigate online, alt tags provide a way for the visitor to understand the context of that information.

2. Alt Tags Help Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You want your station website to be easy to find online and show up when people are searching for the content you have created. Search engines specifically look for image alt tags and index them when they are found. This alone should convince you to use alt tags in every image on your website.

3. Alt Tags Are Readable by Humans and Computers

Alt tags aren’t just something that screen readers and search engine robots understand. Your website visitors can see and read it when they hover over an image or inspect the page code.

4. Alt Tags Help People Find Content More Quickly

Because of its impact on search engines, alt tags can help you find what you are looking for on the internet more quickly. As I mentioned earlier, every image alt text is indexable and this additional information is valuable in searches.

5. Alt Tags Give Context for Missing Images

Everyone has encountered a website where the images did not display. It might have been because of a slow internet connection or a technical error. Alt tags on missing images can ensure that visitors know what is missing. Think of alt tags or description tags as a type of Plan B for when things don’t go as intended.

Conclusion

As you can see, the image alt tag is quite possibly the more important attribute to add to your photos. Ensuring your images are sized correctly, optimized for speed, and including the proper tags are not extra steps. They are the essential steps that should be taken every time.

We love helping radio stations with their online presence. Please reach out to us.

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I recently received an e-mail from a station owner asking what the title of their digital point person should be. And it’s great they are asking this question because it means they are putting a bigger priority on their digital assets.

Much like a Program Director is the point person when it comes to everything on-air at a radio station, a Digital Content Manager will be the point person when it comes to everything online. We recommend that every radio station or group have one “go-to” person with this title or this responsibility.

What Does a Digital Content Manager Do?

Workello.com has a terrific job description template for you: https://workello.com/digital-content-director-job-description/.

Essentially, a Digital Content Manager is responsible for monitoring and improving brand awareness within content across all digital platforms.

Here are some responsibilities of a typical Digital Content Manager.

Maintain functionality of websites, social media accounts, mobile apps, and other web-based products and programs
Build custom local and sales web portal pages/sites
Administer and maintains media assets
Monitor web applications for performance and capacity
Work closely with Digital Sales Manager, Graphic Designers, and Program Directors to execute creative online promotions/contests
Develop and oversee digital advertising campaigns to increase brand awareness, drive qualified traffic, and boost sales within a marketing budget
Provide leadership and direction by establishing online content goals and developing brand guidelines, core messaging, strategies, policies, and processes.
Perform thorough market research and competitive analysis to identify industry trends and best practices and apply them to a content marketing strategy.
Analyze the performance of our digital marketing initiatives, generate detailed reports, and identify areas for improvement

Qualifications of a Digital Content Manager

A genuine love and excitement about the internet and trending topics
Experience in coding languages like HTML, PHP, CSS, and Javascript
Working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, and Illustrator
Proficient in office applications
Proficient in current and emerging social networking platforms
Functional knowledge of interactive technologies and trends
Ability to learn new technology quickly
Ability to plan, organize and perform in a team-oriented environment, sharing projects, knowledge, and experience
Excellent oral and written communication skills; excellent grammar; strong writing and editing skills
Ability to function under stress & be flexible when working on multiple projects with deadlines
A high degree of attention to detail and optimal work standards
Desire to grow and develop additional skills
Photography and videography skills are a plus.

Time to Assign/Hire a Digital Content Manager?

Staying on top of all of your digital content and managing your online assets can be overwhelming and time-consuming. Digital Content Managers take charge of all content on your station(s) website, social media, and other digital platforms.

The first step is to have a great website and we’d love to partner with you on that. Reach out to us.

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/should-you-enable-comments-on-your-website.

We get the question often about enabling comments on the radio station websites we create. Are they worth the time? Do they work? What options are there?

Personally, I never thought about comments that much because they took a lot of time to moderate, approve good comments and remove the spam comments. However, Lou Vito at his group of stations at peakofohio.com is very passionate about including website comments.

Blogging experts out there are divided in their conclusion on the importance of comments. Some say that comments are essential for online success, while others will make a point that they are not so important. So, who to believe?

Consider Your Visitors

Comments Add to Your Content

Comments Enhance Your Content

Be Careful of Weak/Spam Comments

Dealing With Negative Comments

Dealing With Spam Comments

Here are a few ways to combat spam comments:

Enable comment moderation
Turn off trackbacks
Automatically close comments after 30 days on all your posts.
Use a comment blacklist.
Use comment moderation plugins to monitor your site: These options include Akismet, CleanTalk Anti-Spam, AntiSpam Bee, Titan Anti-Spam, and WPBruiser.

Third-Party Comment Systems

If you have a WordPress website, comments are built into the website ecosystem. However, there are other options like Facebook comments, Jetpack, Disqus, Intense Debate, and Thrive Comments.

Wrapping Up

So, are comments good? For most radio station websites, absolutely. If your readers love the news and blog posts you’re creating, they will keep coming back. Comments are just one aspect of building trust and keeping that connection.

We hope this episode helps you. Please help us by sharing this with a colleague and signing up for our newsletter. Need help with your radio station website? We’d love to help.

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Today we talk about available options you have when it comes to streaming audio files on your website.

Being in radio we’re bound to have audio bits that we want to share with our audience that are on-demand. The streaming audio we are referring to today is not listening to the station live or podcasting. We are referring to shorter one-off audio files that interviews, news segments, weather reports, on-air bits, or even commercials where you might be showcasing your creative work.

You have multiple options when it comes to streaming audio files on your station website. However, you must be mindful of some pitfalls to avoid. Some of these options and you could break your website.

Please visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podacast/streaming-audio-file-optionsfor demos of each one of these options.

1. Hosting Your Audio Online

2. Cloud Storage for Audio: You’ll need an Amazon AWS account and provision an S3 instance to host your audio files. They have a 5-gigabyte free tier to get you started: https://aws.amazon.com/free/.

3. Streaming Audio Files Using Dropbox or Google Drive

4. SoundCloud: SoundCloud is an online audio streaming and music sharing platform founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2007. Visit https://www.soundcloud.com.

5. Subscription Audio Hosting Services: Our pick of these services is https://clyp.it.

6. Youtube: Many podcasters have been creating videos from their audio podcasts for some time. You have the ability to export videos using the free tools inside the image editing tool Canva: https://www.canva.com/create/photo-videos.

Conclusion

So, there are six ways to get streaming audio files onto your station website. Each one has its pros and cons, so weigh which might be the best for you. Perhaps you use a variety of methods depending on the kind of audio you’re uploading.

We love to help radio stations with their website. If you know someone who needs help with their radio station website, please share this podcast with them. Please leave a review and sign up for our newsletter on skyrocketradio.com.

Have an awesome week online making your radio website better. See you next time!

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/how-the-psychology-of-web-design-affects-your-visitors.

There are hundreds of websites with great content and perfect promotion on-air and on social but never really take off. Most visitors come once and then never return. Have you had a website like this and wondered why? This is where the psychology of web design comes in.

The choices that go into your website design can make or break your site’s success. Research shows that 94 percent of users don’t trust websites that are poorly designed. And we’re talking about more than just aesthetics. Experts in quality web design know that a great website goes beyond simply being attractive. Any proper website should impress your visitors, hold their attention, and lead them to action.

The psychology of web design includes how colors, spacing, loading times, and even the fonts you use can affect a visitor’s mood and perception of your radio station or company. Canva did a great article on how major brands that you know have used colors in their logos to drive feelings about their products.

Layout

A great website layout guides the user towards the action the designer wants them to go. Studies have shown that 38 percent of users claim to leave a site if the content or the layout is unattractive.

Fonts

The font choice chosen for your website can say a lot about your station as well. They set the tone of the writing overall.

Space

It’s important to find the right mix of pleasing design and content saturation to generate positive feelings from visitors so they will remain on the page longer.

Content

People respond better when they feel things are directed to them specifically. Personalized content that speaks directly to users - using the word “you” or “your” for instance - and discusses their specific areas of interest gives many consumers a positive, friendly feeling that builds trust in your brand.

Ensure your Website Loads Fast

We’ve all experienced websites that take forever to load. According to Google’s research, users are 32% more likely to leave your website if the page takes 3 seconds to load.

Use a free service like Google Page Insights to examine your pages and look for ways that you can make your websites load faster.

The biggest culprit among slow radio station websites is the use of large images. So, ensure every image your team uploads to the website is sized properly and optimized for the fastest load times.

Do Not Underestimate the Psychology of Web Design

You only have a few seconds to gain a visitor’s trust and that trust can translate into more or less time spent listening to your station. When your website is well-designed and carefully populated and has clear navigation, it should be enough to put any visitor at ease and instill an eagerness to return.

There are dozens of more little factors that make up the psychology of web design and a perfectly designed website, but I hope the tips mentioned today help you in making your radio station website better. If you don’t have a partner for your website, we’d love to help. Reach out to us.

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For more detailed show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/benefits-of-adding-a-corporate-website-for-advertisers.

Having a website has become so “normal” that advertisers and the public simply expect all companies to have a website no matter what business they are in. An active presence for your radio station on social media is great, but it’s very hard to close an advertising sale there. You need to have a website that advertisers can find when they are looking to advertise.

If you don’t have a corporate/group/market website, here are some reasons why you should consider it.

1. Visibility/Competitive Edge

2. Makes it Easier for Advertisers to Find You on their Time

3. Instill Confidence in Your Advertisers

4. Enhance Your Company Image

5. Better Customer Service

Can you put these corporate-type pages on your existing radio station website? Sure! But if you have multiple stations and brands, then your message might get muddied by the content you’re using to attract listeners. It might also be difficult to get certain advertisers to come on board with your radio station if their competitor’s banner ad is on the “Advertise with Us” page.

Visit our example at https://www.markettheme.netand then reach out to us for help with yours. Even if you don’t choose us, please consider doing something more online to reach more advertisers.

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Get more detailed show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/what-your-small-market-website-can-do-better-than-a-big-market-website

Most of the websites we serve are in smaller markets. And being in a smaller market, it's natural to compare your radio station website against those in large to major markets. But keep in mind that the dynamic is completely different in those bigger cities than in your market.

Their website may be a good place to look for more modern designs, but certainly not for "what should I do" in the content department. The content you choose for your radio station website should be easily relatable to your local audience.

I recently visited 20 random "big broadcaster" radio station websites across several random markets and noted some things that smaller market radio station websites can do much better than they can.

Local News
Local Sports
Events
Contests
Local Banner Advertisers

Don't ever think that "big broadcaster" stations have more staff, so they are able to do more. By in large, that's simply not the case. They likely have one, possibly two or three, unlikely four or more, people with website access. In many cases, they are more likely to have less than you do.

Finding the right local content for your particular audience should bring surprisingly large amounts of traffic. These traffic numbers are what you'll use to sell clients on those pages.

We'd love to help with your radio station website. Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/contact.

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For more/deeper show notes visit: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/preventing-cyber-attacks-on-your-radio-station-website.

If you’ve ever been hacked or had your identity stolen online, you likely have some PTSD from it and view security differently now. So many of us haven’t been hacked or had our identity stolen, so we continue to do things that open ourselves up to intrusions.

It seems like every day or week there’s a new headline about another app or website being hacked. Cyber-attacks happen much more often.

A successful intrusion can result in a huge loss in traffic and revenue if your site has crashed or been suspended on your hosting provider. It could even result in identity theft of your content creators, administrators, and possibly your members if you run a membership site.

No matter how big or small your website is, or how awesome your hosting provider or website service is, you can still become a target. So, it is very important to secure your websites, which means putting protection in place and doing what we can to fend off attackers.

The stats are amazing…

Cyber-attacks happen once every 39 seconds.
95% of cyberattacks are due to human error.
Cybercrime costs the United States economy a reported $3.5 billion each year.
Globally, an estimated 30,000 websites are hacked each day.
43% of cyber-attacks target small businesses. Only 14% of small businesses are prepared to defend themselves.
It takes 196 days on average to identify a data breach.

Have a Comprehensive Security Plan

Ensure Proper Contacts Are Prominent/Accessible
Continuously Monitor Your Site
Make Frequent Backups
Use Secure/Strong Passwords
Implement Access Control Measures
Check/Clean Spam Comments
Scan Your Local Computers

Do not let your website staff fall victim to security fatigue. It’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure the station website is safe and secure.

Web-based malware and spyware attacks are on the rise, so do all that you can to ensure your team is security-minded so that your website is protected and not an easy target.

Want to upgrade your radio station website? We'd love to help. Reach out to us.

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For more extensive show notes, visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/our-15-seo-tips-for-showing-first-in-search.

A month or so ago, I received a call from a station owner who Googled for help with his radio station websites. He couldn’t remember exactly what he Googled but he was quick to say that never clicks on the paid search results that appear at the top of those results (neither do we).

He clicked on us because we were the first search result after those paid ads. I explained that we simply do the right things, that don’t cost anything, consistently and the results speak for themselves.

Here are my top 15 SEO things to do consistently to keep your station or your market website at or near the top of search results.

**1. Research Your Competitors

Create High-Quality Relevant Content
Update Your Blog Posts and Write New Ones
Make Your Headlines Irresistible
Write for Your Visitors
Do Not Copy/Paste Content
Ensure Your Content is Readable
Use Keywords/Key Phrases Effectively
Learn and Follow On-Page SEO
Use Internal and External Linking
Make Your Content Sharable
Improve Your Page Speed:** https://pagespeed.web.dev

**13. Work on Your Design

Examine Your Technical SEO:** https://www.semrush.com

15. Cull Dead Content

Conclusion

Keep in mind that SEO is not an overnight game, it’s a long game. It could take months to see the rewards of applying all of these tactics, but it’s a worthwhile effort in the long run.

We’d love to help with your radio station or market website. Be sure to reach out to us.

Have an awesome week online making your radio website better. See you next time!

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I've known a few radio stations and several website clients who have lost access to their digital assets after an employee, friend, or family member passed away. So, it's very important that you make an inventory list of all your radio station's digital assets and include access information so that the people you leave behind can access those assets and continue your legacy.

If someone other than you or your station holds the keys to any of your digital assets, get control over those right away. You don't want to wait until something happens to them that may put your brand assets in jeopardy.

For deeper show notes, please visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/protecting-your-radio-stations-digital-assets-after-you-die.

Need help with your radio station website? We're passionate about seeing stations succeed. Reach out to us.

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Promoting local discount deals, coupons and special rewards on your radio station website is a great way to bring back visitors on a daily (or even hourly) basis.

Today we talk with Matt Crowell, the CEO or GetintheLoop. GetintheLoop is the fastest growing Franchise in Canada and has the largest network of local merchant offers in the Country. Now, they're expanding into the United States.

We had a chance to meet and talk with Matt at a local broadcasters convention and he shares his story and how they help radio stations generate revenue and expand their local offerings online.

Learn more about GetintheLoop at https://getintheloop.com and reach out to Matt at matt@getintheloop.ca.

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Adding video to your local sports broadcasts can take your game to the next level. Today we interview Gabe Edney with Paragon Sports TV. They can help your station get started or help to improve the level you're at now.

Best of all, you're able to bring this video into your radio station website to keep bringing traffic back game after game.

Reach out to Gabe and his team at https://www.paragonsportstv.com.

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Being a small company, we love partnering with other small companies. Skyrocket Radio recently presented at a broadcasters convention in Alabama and got a chance to talk with Tom Dobrez, the owner and CEO of Cool Radio Streaming.

Cool Radio Streaming is a small company dedicated to bringing you a quality streaming service at a reasonable price. They are also radio station owners, so they know what matters. Every tech support call is actually answered by Tom.

It's tough to beat their pricing too. Check out https://www.coolradiostreaming.com.

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The speed that your radio station website loads matters – maybe more than you realize. Overall, we have grown increasingly impatient with the amount of time we’re willing to wait for things to load. In fact, many studies show that about forty percent of people will click off a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. This can have real, tangible impacts on any business whose website is underperforming in the speed department.

There are many different factors that can affect your site speed like your hosting plan and the code that makes up your website. Optimizing these factors is often too technical and daunting for the average person. However, image size can play a major role in website speed, and just about anyone can quickly learn how to optimize images for their website.

What Image Size and Dimensions Are Best?

The first step in optimization is bringing the image down to the proper dimensions. Some cropping may be required to get the image to the proper size that your website requires.

It’s likely that your content manager knows the proper sizes that all images should be. This should be passed down and followed by everyone who creates content for the website.

Which Image Format is Best?

Choosing the best image file format depends on the type of image and your end goal.

Here is the best application for each image format:

JPG: Best overall use and widely accepted but optimize them to their smallest file size without sacrificing quality. Does NOT support transparency.

PNG: Typically, file sizes are 2-3 times larger than JPG files. A major plus is that they support transparency, so they should be reserved for that use.

GIF: Small file size due to limited color palate. GIF file support animation. However, animation of GIF files has been disabled in some modern browsers and shown with a play button.

SVG: SVG is a vector format that works better for logos. SVG files can be sized to any dimension, and you’ll never see pixelation occur. SVG files do not work well for photos.

WebP/AVIF: These newer/modern image formats are better at image compression and have been designed to have small file sizes. Both allow for transparency. However, some browsers, content management systems, and applications are slow to adopt them. (This should change though.)

Which Image Resolution is Best?

When exporting or converting your scaled-down images to any of the previously mentioned formats, there are some extra settings that will need to be tweaked to ensure your image is the smallest file size while looking clear.

Since every image is different, there’s no one set value here that will work best for every application, so plan to adjust this with each image you edit.

Saving Your Optimized Images

It’s important that every image you upload to your radio station website be saved without spaces. Spaces within filenames can cause problems with some content management systems and applications.

Adding image meta tags will be vital in years to come and more legislation gets passed to better allow people with visual disabilities to better “see” the internet.

Wrapping Up

Optimizing photos for your site isn’t always easy and will likely take some experimentation and testing. But once you get your image optimization process down, your website’s speed will improve as well as your overall user experience.

If your content creators are slow to get on board with this, it’s time to motivate them to act.

Need help with your radio station website? We’d love to help. Please reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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You and your team work hard to generate great content for your radio station website. You have listeners coming back day after day and you have the stats to show it. You may think to yourself, “Why don’t we lock down some or all of this content and charge a subscription for access to it?”

When a website blocks access to its content and asks you to get a paid subscription, that’s called a paywall. Many online news publishers use paywalls including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur.com.

Website Content Subscriptions

While it is possible to make money by charging visitors to access the content on your website, the bad news is that it’s very difficult.

Ask yourself these questions:

Is anyone else providing the same, or similar, content? Are they charging for it? No one is going to pay you for something they can get free elsewhere.
Are you already giving your content away? Charging for content you once provided for free is a great way to drive away fans.
How many current and potential visitors would pay for your content? Whatever number you think it is, it’s probably less.
How much will these visitors pay for your content? Whatever you think the number is, it’s probably less.
Is it likely that a current or future competitor could provide the same content for free?

Subscriptions for Streaming

To combat streaming providers like Pandora, Spotify, and others, some radio stations are looking to charge their listeners for audio streams that contain little or no commercials. There are some though that aim to charge listeners to hear their stream even with commercials.

Ask yourself the same questions as before.

Online Content that Could Subscription Based

Here are a few ideas of content that might be subscription-based for your radio station.

Podcasts- Sports- Pay-Per-View/Listen- Seasonal Events

There are possibilities out there for your station to generate additional revenue from subscription-based content. But do some serious homework first. Ask serious questions to determine if the possible income will outweigh the necessary resources involved.

We do not offer the option for subscriptions on our Skyrocket Radio websites, but the subscription-based podcasts and other premium content are especially interesting to us. There are several services out there that you can use to embed all kinds of subscription-based premium content that doesn’t reside on your website at all.

If you need help with your radio station website, we’re here to help. Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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For more details show notes visit: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/content-ideas-for-no-staff-radio-stations.

We’ve always said that the best radio station websites out there killing it with revenue are the ones killing it with content. We’re talking about fresh new content added daily which is shared with newsletter subscribers and social media channels so that listeners are coming back to the website on a consistent basis. However, what if you simply have nobody to create this content?

No matter what size radio station you have, it’s important that your website not be a brochure. Think of any brochure you’ve seen in the past. Once you’ve read it, there’s no reason to pick it up again. Brochure websites are the same way.

If you simply do not have the staff to update local news and events daily, focus on things directly involving the radio station. Here are some content ideas for you to focus on.

Contests
On-Location Schedule
Local Sports Schedules and Broadcasts
Swap Shop
Song Additions/Music Voting
Polls
Best of (Your Town): https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/creating-a-best-of-campaign.
Business of the Day
Day in History
Evergreen Content
Audio interviews
Client Created Content

If you can’t be hyper-local providing everything that’s happening in your community, then be super-station. Continue to have an online component to everything the radio station is doing.

Can you think of any other content that a station with minimal staff could use on their websites? Please let us know, so we can update this list on our show notes page.

Need help moving the needle on your station website, reach out to us.

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Google Analytics was initially built during a time when people had hit counters on their websites. Since then, the way we use the internet and the data businesses need to track has dramatically changed. People are using multiple devices and using various apps, all of which are completely different ways to access information on the internet.

As a result of this ever-changing environment, Universal Analytics has finally come to a point where it can’t keep up with everything. There are some things Universal Analytics simply cannot track and some things it was tracking but it wasn’t very accurate. All of these changes in the way we do things is why Google created GA4. It has AI machine learning and privacy built right into it.

If you jump into Google Analytics, you may see a notice at the top announcing a sunset date for Universal Analytics of July 1, 2023. At that time, Universal Analytics will stop collecting data. You will still be able to log in and view historical data for six months. At the end of 2023, Universal Analytics will be completely shut down and the historical data stored there will be gone.

While you still have plenty of time to set up your GA4 account, I urge you to not wait until the last minute.

Please visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/migrating-from-universal-analytics-to-google-analytics-4 for more details on this episode as well as links we point out in the podcast.

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Sadly, I find that more and more stations are not properly promoting their websites as they should. If you treat your website(s) as a separate radio station(s) that you can generate traffic and revenue from, then it only makes sense to consistently drive your listeners and followers there as often as possible. It’s not like you’re asking them to do something rather than listening to the radio station. In fact, you’re asking them to become more involved with the station.

The stations that I hear promoting their website, most often tag the website address to the end of a sweeper or the announcer may randomly slip in “for more visit our website” without giving a specific reason why listeners should take that action. I seemingly hear announcers promote what’s on the station’s Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok pages more often than anything.

So, today, we’ll talk about how to best promote your website.

1. Promote the website within and educate.

This is the biggest issue. If the radio station owner or GM doesn’t see the website as a priority, then it will not be a priority for everyone under them. If you want to see your traffic and revenue growth, then the website should be a part of every meeting. Whether this is promotions, sales, or programming meetings. If you’re talking about the radio station or about your group of stations, the website(s) need to be an equal part of that conversation.

2. Adjust how you promote the website on-air.

Back when I was on-air, I was told by our consultants that talent, “should continuously sell listener benefits several times per hour. Help listeners ‘use’ the station with words that sell a benefit so that they connect the station with the listener’s lifestyle or activities.”

See examples at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/stop-promoting-social-media-channels-on-your-website.

Personalities should tease and sell the benefits of visiting the website as well, rather than simply noting that the website has content.

See examples at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/stop-promoting-social-media-channels-on-your-website.

3. Tease your content links on social media.

Don’t simply share links. A social media best practice is to add a comment or question in front of everything shared on social media. Simply sharing something without comment is the lazy way and, admittedly, I’m guilty of it too.

The page or post headline should grab attention and entice you to jump into a news story. However, how many LOCAL news titles have you clicked on this week because they enticed you by the headline? Even experienced writers will confess that it can be tough to write a compelling title for any piece of written work. So, it’s up to your social media team to jump in and help by adding an additional sentence or question to the post.

You should find that you’ll get more engagement and more shares (which should equate to more page views on your website) by engaging with the content you post and share on social media. Simple page shares without any interaction do not facilitate many reactions from your followers.

Need help with your website? Reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com.

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You read that headline correctly but please don’t get me wrong. I am a big advocate that every radio station should be on whatever social media platforms their listeners are on so they can engage with them there and share out content that ultimately leads back to the station website so that traffic can be monetized. Once you have visitors on your website, where you want them, why send them back to social media?

We advocate using the properties you rent (social media) to drive the properties you own, like your website, newsletter, stream, etc.

For more detailed show notes on today's episode, including a list of what to take away from your website right now, please visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com/blog/stop-promoting-social-media-channels-on-your-website.

Need help with your website? Reach out to us here: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/contact.

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This week we got a call from a station asking if their news posts could be set to automatically expire after a certain day and time. For example, you post a local news story about a new farmer's market being held in your town square this Saturday. On Sunday, the news story will be old news and you'll run the risk of someone reading and thinking that it's the following Saturday instead of the one that just passed. So, their question is a valid one.

However, there are certain implications to consider when you remove any content from your website. When Google indexes website content so that it can be found in search results, they expect it to be valid. When someone clicks on a search result and they find a "page missing" error, the search engine gets a pingback saying errors were found. Therefore, they penalize your entire site for the content no longer being there.

I've always been told to never remove anything from the internet because it will hurt the search engine optimization of your website. I can understand that for major things like switching domains or major pages with information that lots of people see and use on a regular basis, or even a news story with significant historical value. But for a news story about a date-specific farmer's market event?

As a radio station, I believe it's safe to assume that your listeners and website readers are most concerned with what happened recently, what's happening right now, and what could be affecting them in the coming days. It would be much different if you were a business blogging about how to properly change a tire, repair a window, or paint a fireplace. That type of content is more evergreen than the daily news content we are likely populating our websites with. If you are producing new content daily as you should, then any hit you may receive from Google from a missing post from a year ago should be inconsequential, because you're delivering more relevant content each day to replace it.

A year or so ago, Hubspot CRM recently deleted 3000 posts from their blog and their SEO improved dramatically: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/remove-outdated-content.

"PublishPress Future", formerly "Post Expirator" is a free plugin that can help you with that: https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-expirator.

The Search Engine Journal did a fantastic article a few years ago titled, "How & Why You Must Improve or Remove Your Old Content": https://www.searchenginejournal.com/improve-remove-old-content/300961.

Should you remove old content? Our stand is "yes", especially if the content is news-related, not historical or evergreen in nature, and older than a year. There's really no reason to keep it on your site. Removing old content can help your website from a server perspective as your backups will be smaller and much easier to re-instate if your website ever goes down.

Do you need help with your radio station website, reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com.

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Google Analytics is a free tool to help you tell how well your website is performing and it can give you all sorts of valuable insight, such as where your website visitors are coming from, which pages are most popular, and how long visitors stay on your site. Once a week, radio programmers and the appropriate staff members should take some time to review their website statistics.

We spoke with Johnny Boswell, the owner of Boswell Media in central Mississippi, about how he utilized Google Analytics in his online strategy. Johnny has three radio stations and two unbelievably performing news websites: https://www.breezynews.com and https://www.kicks96news.com.

Here are the setup steps that you will need to perform inside of Google Analytics for each of the websites you wish to track: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9304153.

Once you have that code in place and you’re collecting data, here’s what you should be looking for:

1. Total Unique Visitors

2. Traffic Sources

· Direct Traffic

· Organic Search

· Paid Search

· Social Media

· Referral

3. Top Pages and Top Landing Pages

4. Bounce Rate

5. Goal Conversions

Instructions for setting up goals: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1032415.

Conclusion:

There are alternatives to Google Analytics, but they all come with hefty price tags. It’s just hard to beat this free tool that can help you build your radio station’s online audience.

A great way to stay on top of Analytics is to have your reports emailed to you each week. If you are running a WordPress website, be sure to install Google’s official “Site Kit” plugin to track stats directly within the WordPress dashboard.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us.

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Seth Resler is a 25-year broadcasting and podcasting veteran who worked on-air and in programming at several major markets before crossing into online marketing. He’s now the digital strategist at Jacobs Media working with radio stations across the country, helping them design and implement action plans that combine websites, social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, content marketing, lead generation, and other online tools. I've followed Seth on his personal blog years before he became the "Digital Dot Connector" for Jacob's Media.

Here are posts that reference the topics we talked about...

Jacobs Media: Your Radio Station’s Secret Marketing Weapon In 2021? (Wait for it….) E-mail

Jacobs Media: Moving Listeners From Your Rented Digital Assets to Your Owned Digital Assets

Jacobs Media: How To Conduct A Usability Test For Your Radio Station’s Website

Skyrocket Radio: Breaking Up with Your Home Page Slider

Jacobs Media: 4 Things You Can Remove From Your Radio Station’s Homepage

Jacobs Media: Here’s What You Should Put in the Main Menu of Your Radio Station’s Website

Jacobs Media: How to Write an Effective “Advertise With Us” Webpage for Your Radio Station

Jacobs Media: How to Rewrite Your Radio Station’s “Advertise With Us” Webpage for the Pandemic

Jacobs Media: For Radio DJs, Digital Content Should Be An Extension of — Not An Addition To — The Show

Jacobs Media: How Any Radio Station Can Repurpose Its Content

If you want great information that will help your website and your digital team, be sure to follow Seth's "Connecting the Dots" blog at https://jacobsmedia.com/category/connecting-the-dots. You'll be sure to get valuable insight to move your digital efforts forward.

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It seems like every day or week there’s a new headline about another app or website being hacked. And these are typically the higher profile websites. In fact, a hacker attack occurs every 39 seconds in the US, affecting one in three Americans every year.

A successful intrusion can result in a huge loss in traffic and revenue if your site has crashed or been suspended on your hosting provider. It could even result in identity theft of your admins and members if you run a membership site. Personal data like passwords could be at risk.

No matter how big or small your website is, you can still become a target. So, it is very important to secure your website, which means putting protection in place to keep out hackers, bugs, and other nefarious entities.

So, how do cyber-attacks work?

Cyber-attacks work by infecting your computer with malware or spyware. These types of attacks are often delivered through email attachments, malicious downloads, or websites that you may visit.

Cyber-attacks usually take the form of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or the latest trend, ransomware. In these attacks, the hackers demand payment to remove the infection.

While it’s impossible to create an absolute impenetrable fortress with your website, it is possible to put measures in place to make it very difficult. Many times, a little difficulty is all it takes to send hackers on to their next target.

Here are steps you should take today to protect your website against cyber-attacks.

1. Have a Comprehensive Security Plan

2. Use Secure/Strong Passwords Everywhere

3. Check/Clean Spam Comments on your Website

4. Scan Your Local Computer for Malware and Spyware

Conclusion

Good website security starts with you. As a website admin, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have a safe and secure website.

You wouldn’t leave your front door open, so why would you do the same with your website? Web-based malware and spyware attacks are on the rise, so do all that you can to ensure your team is security-minded so that your website is protected and not an easy target.

Need help with your station website? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Our WordPress maintenance checklist covers a list of essential things you should do religiously each month to ensure that your website runs smoothly across multiple devices. While this is a monthly list, you'll see better results if they can be performed weekly or even daily.

1. Perform a website speed audit to ensure it’s loading quickly: Page speed can affect SEO and user experience. GTMetrix, WP Checkup, and Google’s Page Insights are great tools that pinpoint where your slowness could be coming from. This could be large images, a heavy homepage with lots of elements, or even a slow hosting provider.

2. Monitor your website security daily: Security is such a major concern. Run a daily test to spotlight intrusions, file changes, and malware.

3. Review Google Analytics: The best way to know how well your site is doing and what’s working is by reviewing your Analytics data.

4. Clear your trash: Old pages, posts, expired events and contests, obituaries, banner ads campaigns that have ended… all of this is simply taking up space and can cause your site to get slower over time.

5. Clean your media files: One of the main reasons you may run out of space on your hosting provider is because you have excess media that is no longer being used. These files add up over time.

6. Ensure images are optimized: Optimized images load faster and that helps with SEO and user experience. Ensure your authors know the value of the optimization process.

7. Check your navigation menus: Poor navigation is one of the frustrating spots for users. Check everything to ensure things are easy to find and hassle-free. Is anything missing? Be sure to check on desktop and mobile.

8. Check for broken links and missing pages: These can dramatically reduce your SEO. Do a search for “broken link checker” and enter your site for analysis.

9. Review your forms: Are contests easy to enter? Do the “contact us” and “advertise with us” forms work properly? Are those forms still going to the appropriate people?

10. Review the “Advertise with Us” page: Keeping this current and relevant is crucial because you don’t want to miss an advertising opportunity. How can it be better?

11. Check and delete spam comments: Ensure that spammers have not gotten through to comment on your website. Deleting all spam comments helps to keep your database clean and fast.

12. Reply to comments: If you have comments enabled, reply to them when necessary to improve user engagement.

13. Change your passwords: One of the most effective ways to prevent a malicious attack is to update your passwords often. And ensure they are strong passwords.

14. Remove inactive website admins: Ensure ex-employees are removed from the website admin. In the deletion process, it will ask if you want their posts to be attributed to a different author.

15. Review your site on multiple devices: Ensure things are still working the way someone would expect them to. If your site is experiencing an issue on a device you don’t use very often, it may take a long time to resolve and that could result in lost visitors.

While this list of for WordPress websites, the same can be true regardless of your content management system. Every website needs continuous maintenance to work properly.

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I spend a lot of time navigating radio station websites all over the world and consider their efficacy from both a marketing and user perspective. I’m often surprised by odd navigational choices, inconsistent calls-to-action, and content that provides little informational value, much less a reason or me to return again tomorrow.

Your website should have fresh and relevant content, but it should be attractive so that it invites visitors back. Visitors flock to attractive destinations. A website with a great design and relevant content provides a better user experience that can help in building your station brand, gaining more visitors and boosting your digital sales.

Is your website a destination or a disappointment?

You might look at your station website every day, so it may be difficult to look at it with fresh eyes. Regardless, try pretending that you’re someone new to town and have never been to the site. Ask yourself these questions…

Why would I want to visit this website today and what would make me come back tomorrow? Can you immediately see something that would immediately draw you in, if you simply stumbled onto the website without any prior knowledge of the radio station?
What do the website owners want me to do once I get here? Is their main focus me entering a certain contest, visiting a local event, learning about news in my area, or just playing the stream?
Is the website well-organized with easy navigation and clear calls to action? Multiple slides of every daypart are not effective in moving people around the website. They are most often a distraction.
Can I easily find the information I’m looking for? I should be able to easily find specifics about a news story, event, contest, or even something about the on-air personality.
Is your navigation menu clean and in words that regular people would understand rather than industry jargon that is only familiar to us radio people?
Can I complete tasks easily? Examine the process of signing up for a contest or contacting the radio station. What obstacles could be removed to make these processes easier and faster?
Does the website support the station and company brand? When you have multiple people editing the website, brand updates and site updates can become disjointed.

Prioritizing the User Experience

If you’ve never completed a website usability test, Seth Resler with Jacobs Media has some great tips for that in his “Connecting the Dots” blog: https://jacobsmedia.com/conduct-usability-test-radio-stations-website.

How do you tweak your website into becoming a destination?

Prioritize usability & user experience
Set goals
Have fresh content daily
Make your website stand out
Ensure your site is SEO friendly
Ensure your images are sized correctly and optimized to load fast

Conclusion

Visitors flock to attractive destinations that have fresh and relevant content. They return because they had a great experience. Finding content, entering a contest, or contacting the radio station was easy to do. People return to destinations like Disney World because of the great experiences they have. Take a look at your station website with fresh eyes and put some of these practices in place to make it the best destination it can be.

Need help with that? Reach out to us.

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There are a few different methods to display a video on your website and the advantages of using a third-party service like Youtube and Vimeo versus uploading and displaying video from your hosting provider.

Downsides of hosting video yourself

Uploading large video files to your website can not only take forever but they could be denied by the hosting provider due to upload size and timeout limits. If you have multiple people watching your video at once, it can slow or even crash your website due to exhausting those resources.

One video format, codec, size, and resolution does NOT fit all applications and devices. Streaming services re-encode your uploaded video to several different formats and resolutions and serve the right video to the user based on their viewing device and internet speed.

Video hosting services exist and thrive because they solve these problems. They also give you access to additional features such as analytics detailing how long your viewers watch your videos.

YouTube deserves special attention because it's the largest video hosting service in the world and the second-largest online search engine in the world. It’s also extremely easy to use and FREE!

There are some downsides to using providers like YouTube but most people are ok with them. Like…

Ads – YouTube generates revenue by advertising, whether they be pre-roll or banner ads at the bottom of videos.

Related Videos – Many embedded videos will show a thumbnail grid of related videos after your video has been completed. An algorithm chooses these videos based on context and relevancy, so a video might show up that you don’t want to.

Regardless of these downsides, with both free and paid options available, there isn't really a need to host your video on your web host.

How to embed a third-party service video

Within WordPress, adding a video has become as simple as pasting the video’s URL into a post or page. WordPress has built-in embed functions that take a known provider’s URL and convert it to an embedded video player, without you having to do anything else. For a full list of supported sites, visit the WordPress Embed Codex at https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/oembed_providers.

For a little more control, use a shortcode or editor block with additional settings that allow you to stylize the video and placement to your liking.

If you don’t use WordPress, then you can always choose the embed options found inside any of these third-party services. Be careful with this embed method because iframe codes will have explicit width and height values set in the parameters and these will not automatically adjust depending on the device a user could be watching from. To make the videos responsive to all devices, you must do a little more code work wrapping the iframe within a responsive DIV element and that might not be easy for those not familiar with HTML and CSS.

Conclusion:

We’ve talked about the downsides of uploading video to your website server in how those videos can take up lots of space and exhaust your server resources to slow or even crash your website. This is what makes a third-party video service the clear winner on how to display video for your website visitors.

I should also mention that the same can be said for large audio files as well. They also take up lots of resources to play. This is why we advocate that you use a streaming service for those as well like SoundCloud or a podcast provider.

In the end, keep in mind that the right solution exists to keep your website ripe with great content while never slowing your visitors down. We would love to help you with that. Reach out to us.

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There’s a new way to enable people to play your radio station directly on Alexa without having to write a single line of code. Thanks to the Alexa Radio Skills Kit, radio stations no longer have to build out a new skill from scratch. Instead, they can simply provide the streaming URLs and metadata for their radio stations via a simple intake process.

Once the station is tested and launched, customers will be able to say, “Alexa, play [Station Name]” to play the radio station directly on Alexa. They can also ask Alexa to play a station by invoking the station’s alternate name, call sign, or frequency.

The Alexa Radio Skills Kit supports location-based search to further improve the accuracy in playing the correct station to match a customer’s request.

Previously, a radio station would be required to hire a developer with the process taking as long as three to six months. With this new service, radio stations can fill in the intake form quickly without any developer resources.

This new way of accessing the Alexa Radio Skills Kit offers the same features and customer experience as radio stations that build their own RSK skills.

This no-code radio onboarding is generally available in the United States, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, Germany/Austria, Great Britain, Canada, Mexico, and Australia/New Zealand.

To get started, reach out to rsk-onboarding@amazon.com. The original article this information was taken from is here: https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/blogs/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/2021/12/a-new-code-free-way-to-onboard-your-radio-station-on-to-alexa.

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Most of these podcast episodes come about because sometime in the week prior, something has come up for me to spawn discussing it for everyone. This week I discovered a few client websites were still adding large images to the article posts even though they were taught to optimize them in a way that would be faster to their visitors.

What is page load time and why is it important?

Load time is the length of time it takes a web page to be downloaded from the hosting server and displayed onto the requesting web browser. It’s the duration between clicking the link and displaying the entire content in your browser.

That number matters because we expect websites to be fast. When pages take longer than expected to load, it negatively impacts our user experience. Google and other search engines factor in loading time into how they rank your website in their search results. Faster sites appear in their search results before slower loading ones.

So, let’s look at some ways to keep our websites loading faster.

1. Optimizing Your Images

The biggest culprit for slow sites is a large volume of unoptimized images. Full-sized images can consume a lot of bandwidth while loading. So, take time to resize your images before you upload them to any website.

The image format that you save in can significantly determine the file size. PNG files are typically 2-4 times larger in file size than JPG files of the same dimensions.

So, it’s always best to fully optimize your images before uploading them anywhere online.

2. Decrease Displaying Offsite RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are popular because they contain content that you may not have on your website. We highly discourage the display of off-site RSS feeds because they take visitors away from your content and sponsor advertising.

Displaying an external RSS feed means that the web page has to load that content from where it’s getting the information from. If the server sending the information is slow, for any reason, it could slow the completion of your page load.

3. Limit/Stop the Use of Sliders/Carousels

Sliders and carousels can bring along with it lots of extra code in the background that is needed for them to work properly. Expect horrible load times if you are using a slider with a visual type of admin that allows you to have slides animate in from all directions and each slide has multiple animated elements.

Sliders do not convert well, so consider replacing them with one or multiple static calls to action.

4. Minimize the number of ads on your pages.

We know that large amounts of images that are not optimized are the biggest culprit to slow websites, so it’s only fitting that we try to reduce the number of total images including ads. Examine other ways to add value to your clients like offering pages or feature sponsorships.

Conclusion:

The biggest takeaway from today is to optimize your images. If you have someone on your team that isn’t jumping on board with this, then emphasize the importance. There are several free converter websites and even image editing sites like the https://www.pixlr.com editor that can be used to properly size and optimize every image that gets uploaded.

Visitors return to faster websites and those websites get more shares and clicks. That’s a better value to the advertisers that give you money to be included there. So, a faster website will have an impact on your bottom line.

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Having a website dedicated to your radio station is essential. It can do so much more than simply being a spot to put your "listen live" button. It can provide you with unlimited opportunities to generate additional revenue by clients sponsoring the content you create and promote there.

Not so long ago, there would have been no question of hiring a pro to get the results you want, but thanks to the rise of website builders, it has become much easier for people with very little web experience to build a decent website. Just because you can, though, doesn’t always mean you should.

It All Starts with Content!It’s obvious that there are major cost differences between DIY, developer, and services. Don’t let cost be the first thing you think of though. The first step in your decision process should be to decide what your website content will be. If you want a brochure website with a "listen live" button, then start with a DIY builder. Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress.com, and Wix are some popular choices. If you want to display news, events, and sellable banner ads, then you’ll need something more robust.

**DIY/Page Builders:

Pros:** Lowest initial cost, Easy to Publish, Beginner-friendly

Cons: Limited Customization, Pop-ups and Advertisements, Limited Customer Service, Difficult/impossible to transfer your content

**Hiring A Developer:

Pros:** Site designed the way you want, Experience, Communication

Cons: Costs More, It Takes Time, Communication Long Term

Avoid hiring developers overseas who will likely build your website the way you want for the agreed fee and then leave once the project is complete. This leaves you to deal with issues yourself or you’ll have to hire another developer to fix things.

Partnering with a Web Service:Over the last 15-20 years, several companies have sprouted up that specifically offer radio station websites. Some companies to consider are Skyrocket Radio, SoCast, Intertech, Aiir, and LinkedUpRadio.

Pros: Payment Plans, Designed for you, Experience, Great Training, Ongoing Support/Communication

Cons: Can take time, Customer Service, Unwilling to Customize

Conclusion: Your station website is a visible brand for your radio station, so it should be given a high priority. It’s a revenue tool. If it looks like a kid designed your site, it will leave a bad impression on listeners and advertisers. If price is the considering factor, and time isn’t, then choose a website builder you can learn and be comfortable with. If you have a great relationship with a developer, that may be the way to go. The dedicated web service is the best option for stations wanting a great-looking and performing website leaving them to focus on content and revenue. The price is more than DIY, but you get a more professional product.

Need help with your website? We’re here to help!

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RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS typically uses XML files that can be read by a user’s feed reader, which converts the files into an easy-to-read format. This content is distributed in real-time so that the top results on the RSS feed are always the latest published content for a website.

RSS Feeds FROM your Station Website

If you own a WordPress website, you can easily find your RSS feed by typing the domain and putting a “/feed” at the end (ie https://www.skyrocketradio.com/feed). This will display all of your latest post updates. To get specific category feeds, follow your domain with “/category/(slug-of-category)/feed” (ie. https://www.skyrocketradio.com/category/blog/feed).

RSS feeds will allow you to insert your radio station website posts in e-mail newsletters, auto post to social media, display posts on sister radio station websites, and more.

The Pros of Using RSS Feeds FROM your Station Website

Automation
Set it and forget it
Cross Promotion
Can Increase Backlinks

The Cons of Using RSS Feeds FROM your Station Website

Automation
Duplication
Decreased visitors

RSS Feeds ON your Station Website

I’ve seen many stations display the latest posts from CMT.com, MTV.com, Rolling Stone, Fox News, CNN, local tv stations, etc. There are few or no pros for displaying RSS feeds like this on your website.

The Cons of Using RSS Feeds ON your Station Website

Reasons for your Visitors to Leave
Google does not count displaying RSS feeds as content

What about Importing RSS Content?

Most RSS feeds out there only contain short excerpts with links back to the website to get the “meat” of the story. These are not good for importing. However, some RSS feeds contain full articles. While this is the best option, there are pros and cons that you must weigh.

The Pros of Importing RSS Content

Fresh Content on a Regular Basis

The Cons of Importing RSS Content

Copyright
Image Copyright

The corporate law firm of Womble Bond Dickinson posted a great article on this back in 2017 that covers every little thing you should consider with regards to staying safe with third-party content: https://www.womblebonddickinson.com/us/insights/articles-and-briefings/best-practices-using-third-party-content-your-companys-website.

Google/SEO Hit
Not local content

The best way to implement imported RSS content is to use it sparingly to increase the value of the local content you are already creating. RSS content should not be the only content you have on your radio station website.

Safe Content Providers

Pulse Web Content (United Stations): https://www.pulsewebcontent.com. They also provide the feed in RSS that includes copyright information, etc.
ABC News: Offers importable web content for most music formats as well as national news, entertainment, health, sports, and world news. Contact Mary McCarthy at 201-214-4190 for details.

Conclusion

RSS feeds can be a valuable tool to bring visitors to your website but use them correctly and responsibly. Do your homework before implementing any strategy that puts a third-party feed on your site and weigh if it adds value to your website.

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Periodically, we’ll talk to station owners and digital content directors about the great things happening in their market and with their websites. It’s fitting that we kick off the first one of these segments with Johnny Boswell, owner of Boswell Media in Kosciusko, Mississippi because Boswell Media was our first Skyrocket Radio client. We had a chance to catch up with Johnny at the recent Mississippi Association of Broadcasters annual convention.

Be sure to check out Johnny’s websites breezynews.com, kicks96news.com, and boswellmedia.net.

Need help making your radio station website happen? Reach out to us!

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We believe more radio people should adjust their mindset and think of your station website as a sister radio station. You want visitors to come back day after day. So, just like your radio station, this requires “programming” the content that pulls people back on a consistent basis.

Think how easy of a sell it would be to walk into a business and show them that their banner ad will be in front of 20K visitors tomorrow.

Over the years, we’ve noticed that there are some specific things that set the 20K visitors/day radio station website apart from the 100 visitors/day radio station website.

#1 Owner/GM committed to an Active Online Presence

They will ultimately enforce that everything the station does has a website component from contests, promotions, morning shows, local news, format news, events, etc.

#2 Ensure ALL Personnel in the Station Are on the Same Page

Sales should have a “Digital Inventory List” that includes every possible thing your stations can sell online, the number of avails, spots taken/available, pricing, and location. Download a starter template at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcasts/digital-inventory-list

#3 Assign an Online Point Person or “Digital Content Director”

This person needs to be passionate about seeing the website(s) look professional and grow overall. Have them work with the programming team to create and implement new/evolving online features, create artwork, present weekly analytics information to managers, and provide printouts for salespeople to take on sales calls.

#4 Offer Performance Incentives/Bonuses

As your website traffic grows, so should your revenue. Reward the people that are making that happen. If the morning show blog is a success and you have clients wanting to sponsor their page, bonus that team for reaching or exceeding page view or unique visitor goals. Incentives will invest and encourage your team into creating new/exciting content.

#5 Think Beyond Typical Banner Ads

Banner ads are still an effective means of advertising but as a website owner, be aware of the other possibilities that exist on your website like sponsored contests, events, team schedule pages, coupon pages, creating client videos, etc.

Key Takeaways

· Insight passion among all staff members to see the website(s) succeed.

· If you haven’t started a digital strategy plan to increase your audience and sales, do it now. Assign a team member as a point person.

· Use on-air, social media, e-mail, etc together to drive website traffic. Track website statistics to ensure growth.

· Create a “Digital Inventory List” for your sales team so they know what’s available to sell.

· Invest your personnel in generating content and cultivating new content ideas. Generate compelling local content so that your station website becomes a community “hub” of information.

· Think beyond banner ads. There are all kinds of unique ways to generate revenue from your station websites.

· Look for new ways to turn content into revenue. Can a popular web feature become a separate brand of its own?

Need help building an active online presence? Reach out to us at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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We’ve always preached here to do all you can to drive traffic back to the website where you can monetize it. Newsletters are an awesome way to do that and inform your listeners. Have your doubts? Rest assured that newsletters remain an effective communication channel for radio stations to keep in touch with their listeners.

So, why send regular newsletters?

Drives brand awareness for your radio station (keeps it top of mind).
Keeps subscribers up to date with what is happening at the station and in your community.
Creates trust and authority.
Keeps subscribers engaged with your website (meaning more traffic).

What should I include on sign-up forms?

An e-mail address is the only required field, but most forms add a name field. Try not to make your signup form a lengthy questionnaire. You should also include somewhere around the signup form information so that subscribers know what to expect when they sign up.

What content should my newsletter contain?

Calls to action
Local news
Contests and promotions
Events
Links to Polls

Ensure nearly all links point back to your station website.

Should I include client banner ads?

Keep it to a bare minimum. One banner ad should be sufficient per e-mail but make the call to action within that ad be worth getting.

How frequently should station newsletters be sent?

The frequency entirely depends on the content you’re providing. Some will say no more than twice a week, or once a month is best practice. However, if you are providing news with daily updates, then there’s no reason why you can’t send those once per day.

Consider having two or more e-mail lists that listeners can sign up for. One list can be periodic news updates that are more promotional content-driven like contests, events, etc. And then another list that is daily that contains news headlines/daily information.

What newsletter services are best for sending/deliverability?

There are many different email newsletter services to choose from, but some of the best affordable options include ConstantContact, MailChimp, MadMimi, MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, and Campaign Monitor.

These services make it easy to get started. Nearly every platform has pre-made professional templates that you can drag and drop your content into.

Wrapping up

Ensure your newsletters contain compelling content that links back to the website as much as possible. Be brief.

Meet the expectations that you've set for your newsletter and be consistent. Deliver your newsletter on a regular schedule.

Promote your newsletter on your website and on-air often. Give specific reasons for signing up and follow through on those.

If you’re importing contacts that you’ve gained over time, ensure you have the approval of those contacts to receive your newsletter.

Always ensure you have an easy, straightforward unsubscribe option in every e-mail you send.

With the right email newsletter service and a little bit of brainstorming, you'll get up and going and be sending engaging newsletters in no time! Hopefully, these tips help equip you in creating your radio station newsletter.

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Just because you’ve built a website for your radio station does not mean visitors will start flowing in. Thankfully, there are some tactics that you can employ right now to boost your visitors. These are not tips you can do once or twice and expect to gain numbers. These are tips that need to become of your daily routine.

Before we get to the tips, you must think of visitor page views and unique visitor numbers as ratings that need to improve upon month after month and year after year. Unfortunately, many stations do get this concept and they ultimately wonder why the website is worth the time and expense. So, please get on board with tracking your page views and unique visitor counts. Apply Google Analytics to your website and get reports on a consistent basis to see what is and what’s not working for you.

1) Produce Fresh Content: Compelling content will always draw in new and old visitors and it helps to solidify your station’s online footprint. The best content you can provide is something relevant to your market that nobody else has. If your station website exists to import news that visitors can find anywhere else, it might do well for a short period but it’s not going to sustain traffic for very long.

Great content gets noticed and it gets people talking. That means more visitors to your site and more visitors means more money in ad sales. So, great content = more visitors = more money.

2) Promote your website on-air often: This should really go without saying, right? However, I listen to local radio stations and rarely hear a reason to visit the website other than to listen online. If your goal is making money with your station website, then your content must be promoted. Everyone knows that if you stream your station online, there’s a link to that on your website. Why else should I go there? Give specific reasons to visit, not generalities like, “More online at wxyz.com”.

3) Optimize your site so that it’s SEO friendly: We’ve all heard of SEO (search engine optimization), but not every site capitalizes on it. Incorporating basic SEO elements, such as commonly searched keywords that tie into your community will help Google rank your site and help your audience find you.

Just remember to minimize unnecessary jargon and do not try to fool Google by packing keywords and locations into content in a nonsensical manner.

Google loves fresh content and will reward you in rankings when you keep your site updated and post regularly.

4) Build an audience with social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others are not where you should be posting your content for final consumption. Think of social as a marketing tool. You will not generate revenue with social media, so use it to direct followers to where you do generate revenue – your website.

Ready to get started and build your website traffic? We’re glad to offer more one-on-one advice. Reach out to us at https://skyrocketradio.com/contact.

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Every year at this time it’s customary to look back on the previous year and examine things you could be doing better, and this should include your station website. Here are eight website resolutions that we think are worth considering.

1) Devote More Resources to Your Station Website: The importance of your station website across all departments should be equal to the importance of programming your radio station. Your website should entertain and generate its own revenue. It won’t do that if it’s not being consistently maintained.

2) Add New/Different Content: While it’s great to have a familiar website that your audience knows what they can expect, it’s also good to expand your offerings each year. Take a look at your market and find areas that are not being addressed online. This could be high school sports news, garage sales, restaurant reviews, local rodeos, racing schedule, and so on. Every market is different. Your station website has unlimited potential for new feature content and that means new opportunities for sponsorships.

3) Try a Different Color/Layout: As with content, the same thing year after year can become mundane and complacent. Try adding a subtle design change to your website. This can be a font or layout change that complements your existing brand. Smaller tweaks to your website design made gradually over time can be better than a complete makeover for some visitors because they don’t have to re-learn your website from scratch.

4) Examine Your Stats and Adjust Accordingly: Take a look back at your website analytics from last year and use that as a base for improvement moving forward. See what content worked best. Try beating your monthly numbers from last year by adding more of what worked during that month, or overall.

5) Be More Social: We advocate that all station members should actively participate in the station’s social media channels. Link back to the website as much as possible and engage listeners when appropriate. Research and invest in a plugin or service that allows you to auto-post to your social media channels on a consistent basis so that new content has a higher chance of being seen in follower feeds. Identify meaningful, measurable goals for your social media campaign, and plan for how to achieve your goals.

6) Build a Local Photo Library: Never grab something from an online search. We suggest that every station capture important images around your town and state like a local police car, police lights, fire truck/station, state flag, courthouse, intersections, street names, etc.

Inventory these so that they can be found and posted easily when news stories break. Don’t wait until you need them. Once they are in your website media library, use them again and again without uploading the same image more than once.

7) Write a Blog That Targets Advertisers: We’ve had several clients reach out to us to handle their station website simply because they found the free information we’ve posted in our blog. We want stations to feel comfortable in our knowledge. When you offer free insight to your clients, no matter where they choose to buy, you instill trust in them. You have now become the expert they need.

8) Take Inventory of Your Online Assets: Inventory all of your domains, websites, review site entries, social media pages, and anything else with a URL or a login. Include usernames and passwords so that you know what’s out there and how to get to it.

We hope you have a wonderful and prosperous new year online. If you’re looking into a new website experience for your station, please reach out to us.

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We’re visual by nature and visually driven. We perceive pictures faster than words, so images are scanned first, before the text. It’s important to include images on your station website. Unfortunately, one of the most proven ways to slow down your website (especially on mobile) is to use images that are not sized and compressed properly for online use. This can vary depending on the file format.

Images on the web come in many file formats, such as JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs, and many others. Understanding the basics will give you confidence in being able to decide what format is best in every situation.

Why Do Image File Formats Matter?

Every graphic you see online is an image file. Depending on the file type, they render in different ways and have different file sizes. Each type is intended for a specific use and matters when it comes to appearance, performance, and scalability.

The key is to incorporate all three of these and include files on your station website that are small in file size for fast-loading and without a loss of quality. Your goal should always be to have a superlight website that loads quickly on any device and looks amazing at the same time.

What are the different image file formats?

Image formats are divided into two main categories: raster files and vector files.

Vector graphics use lines, points, and polygons to represent an image. They are best suited for logos and icons. Think of that special logo file that you would send a sign company for a t-shirt, the side of your van, or on a billboard.

Some vector file formats include SVG, PDF, EPS, and AI.

Raster graphics use pixel values within a rectangular grid to represent an image. Unlike vectors, these file types are resolution-dependent and based on their size, meaning they can’t be scaled up without losing quality and becoming pixelated.

Nearly all online images are in raster format, but browsers are starting to be more friendly to some vector formats. Raster file formats include JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP.

JPEG is still one of the most used image file types that you’ll see on the internet because of its compression and virtually universal browser/OS support.

PNG files offer much better text readability than JPEG but we’ve found PNG files to be 2-3 times the file size of JPEG files of the same dimensions. This can vary depending on the image editor, compression settings, number of colors used, etc.

GIF files are another image file type falling within the raster format. It constrains the image to a limited palette of only 256 colors. The GIF format is most famous (and mostly used) for animated images because its 8-bit limitation keeps file sizes of animations small and internet-friendly.

Finally, the WebP format was recently developed by Google specifically to provide better compression of images. Switching from JPEG and PNG files to WebP can help save server disk space and significant bandwidth, with up to 35% smaller image files for identical quality.

So, which format do you choose for daily use?

Choosing the best image file format depends on the type of image and your end goal.

You have a lot of options when it comes to what types of images you can use on your website. Pick whichever format enables you to display high-quality images without slowing down your site significantly. Before you upload every image to your station website, ensure the image is sized for the specific application and optimized to its smallest file size without degrading quality.

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One of the neatest and surprisingly easiest ways we’ve seen to engage with your local community is to offer a “Best of” campaign on your radio station website. These are created for your listeners to submit and/or vote on their favorite local businesses like restaurants, auto service shops, coffee shops, best pizza, etc. It’s sure to generate a buzz on-air and through social channels… not to mention revenue.

We're joined by Michael Brannon, Executive Video President for Radio Alabama. They have several radio stations across Alabama as well as news and sports websites. Each year they run a popular "Best of the Coosa Valley" campaign. Check it out here. The service they are using is SecondSteet (now known as "Upland"): https://uplandsoftware.com/secondstreet. However, you can use your own tools to achieve the same results.

Need a list of categories to start with? Download this PDF.

Steps for creating your online "Best of" campaign:

1 Create a form for business submissions.

2 Create the “Best Of” page for the information, sponsors, and the call for submissions form.

3 Tabulate the submissions.

4 Create a voting form or polls.

5 Replace the submissions form with the voting form/polls on your “Best of” page.

6 Display the results & promote the winners.

We go more in-depth with our steps at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast/creating-a-best-of-campaign.

This kind of promotion will surely generate a large influx of visitors, so ensure you have a proper hosting provider to handle the load. Need help with the first steps? Reach out to us.

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Any successful website, whether it’s for a radio station or not, needs to do all it can to keep visitors coming back regularly… multiple times per day is ideal, but at least once per day. Great content is the number one reason for visitors to return often. Let’s say you have great content covered whether it be local news, events, etc. There could be some mistakes you’re making that can leave a bad taste in your visitor’s mouth that forces them to leave and not return – ever.

1. Disregarding page load times. It’s important that all your content (most importantly your images) is optimized for mobile visitors first. Loading time is extremely important for any user experience.

2. A website that is not responsive to all devices. Most traffic is mobile traffic now – whether that be on an iPad, cell phone, or other mobile devices. So, your website should adapt to any device it can be viewed on. If it’s not, the visitor will simply go elsewhere.

3. Overlooking outdated text/content. If your site has “Copyright 2005” at the bottom of your last news post was a few months ago or more, then it’s past time to ensure the dates are correct and to add new content.

4. Overlooking spelling and grammar mistakes. Spelling and grammar mistakes will cause visitors to lose trust in your information. Install the free “Grammarly” plugin inside your browser to check your copy for mistakes or write your copy inside Word or other smart word processors first.

5. Not ensuring links open properly. For example, opening an internal link (on the same site) in a new tab is a no-no. This means the visitor can’t use the back button. Ensure that external links (links off your website) open in new tabs. This ensures the visitors can come back to your site without having to hit “back” several times.

6. Overusing stock photos. If the images you’re using in your pages and news posts look staged or from a free stock photo website, they will appear inauthentic and leave visitors with a sense of distrust. The best photos you can add to your radio station website are the ones you take yourself.

7. Showing “Under Construction” pages. Delete these right now. We highly advise against websites having pages posted that are simply not ready for prime time. Visitors simply do not return to under construction pages. It’s better to not have the pages active now and then create a buzz about them later once they are published.

8. Overusing banner ads. Generating revenue from your station website is crucial, but visitors don’t come looking for ads. They come for the content. If your content isn’t immediately consumable by the visitor, then expect your bounce rates to skyrocket. It’s better to keep visitors coming back and grow page numbers than have lots of ads on the page that fewer and fewer visitors will see over time.

9. Overusing popup boxes or modal windows. Everyone wants more subscribers or to ensure visitors know about the big contest happening right now. But try not to be so over the top with these. Ensure these appear every so often rather than every visit.

10. Auto-playing audio/video. Unexpected audio can annoy your visitors and potentially cause problems. The visitor might be visiting your site in a public setting or workplace and the unexpected sound could send them scampering to close the page very quickly.

Examine your website often to see if you are guilty of any of these. There are more we could have covered, but those are for another time.

Have an awesome week online making your radio website better. See you next time!

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The speed of any website helps form the first impression for a visitor of that website and the business it represents. Developers and content creators strive hard to make a website aesthetically pleasing as well as functional by adding numerous features, content, and functionalities. However, if these features or the content are not adequately optimized it may adversely affect website speed.

How fast a website loads is instrumental to anyone visiting the site. According to research, 47% of people don’t wait for more than two seconds for a web page to load.

It is a human tendency to consider a faster website more reliable and professional. Inversely, a slow website can be annoying for users. Most users bounce immediately and prefer visiting other, faster websites to meet their requirements. Turning around that negative impression can be very challenging.

Periodically, you should test your radio station website to see how well it’s performing. There are a number of amazing speed testing tools out there but we will have a look at four free tools here.

Here are the tools that you should bookmark and test your website on occasion to see how well it’s performing. (Links to these in the show notes.)

1. Google PageSpeed Insights (https://pagespeed.web.dev)

2. GTmetrix (https://gtmetrix.com)

3. Pingdom (https://tools.pingdom.com)

4. Fast or Slow (https://www.fastorslow.com)

Keep in mind that the scoring on each of these tools varies for a number of reasons, so you may get a great score in one tool and not so good on another. That doesn’t mean one test service is better than another. The key is to apply the advice they provide to give a better experience to your visitors.

In most tests we’ve seen on active radio station homepages, large images played the biggest part in negative scoring. Simply optimizing your images to the smallest file size has shown significant increases in scoring.

If your images are optimized the best they can be and you’re still receiving low scores, then look at your overall page size. Can the homepage be less cluttered? Could you replace a multiple image slider with a single call to action?

When de-cluttering, weigh your options on what is really needed. Remember that a slow-loading website could be the reason visitors are not returning as often as you need them to. And that can affect your digital revenue.

If your homepage is optimized and de-cluttered and you are still receiving low scores, then it’s likely your code or the host server that’s the issue. That means it’s time to speak with your website developer or hosting provider to see what can be improved. We’ve seen optimized websites run slowly on a poor website host or a low-cost shared hosting plan.

And I should mention that you can perform the same tests on your competition as well.

Hopefully, you will bookmark these tools and test your radio station website often to see how it’s performing. Best wishes for high scores every time.

Need help with your radio station website? Reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com.

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You can spend a lot of time creating content so that your listeners and website visitor stay informed. This great content helps with search engine optimization as well. But what if there were evidence that many of your visitors are not finishing the articles you publish? Would you still take the time to create extensive news articles and blog content and if so, would you feel bad about dedicating large amounts of resources to that content that you knew wasn’t being read?

A few years ago, Chartbeat and Slate.com published a research piece that analyzed how much people actually read through entire articles as well as some of the other actions they take before leaving your site. Here’s what their research showed…

10 Percent of Readers Won’t Scroll at all: While data shows that most readers scroll through about 60 percent of articles, as much as 10 percent are not scrolling at all. This data does not include people who bounce (get to the page and immediately leave). These people spend a very small amount of time reading the first few sentences to get the gist without scrolling.

Only 60 Percent of Articles are read by most people: There is a good chance that only 60 percent of your articles are getting read to the median scroll depth. This indicates that readers are not staying interested in articles long enough to get the meat and potatoes or the conclusion.

Even people who don’t finish articles are sharing them socially: The Chartbeat data examined the percentage of people who scrolled through the article against the overall amount of tweets to those articles and found that people are sharing articles even before they finish reading them. Chartbeat’s data cannot tell the relationship between when the articles were shared (retweeted) compared to where exactly on the page visitors were but was able to show evidence that many people were sharing before they got close to the end of articles.

65.7 percent of readers spend time below-the-fold: The “fold” is the bottom of the page once it’s loaded. Think of the place where you have to scroll any to see it. Chartbeat says that higher-quality content causes people to scroll further, indicating that all is not lost for quality content producers.

The takeaways: The data in this research shows some very sad and yet some very promising information on how users engage with our content. We lose 10 percent of visitors before they have any time to interact with our content and the majority of readers, 60 percent, only have the capacity to make it to the median length of our content. It was revealed that a lot of readers see the majority of content on photos and videos indicating that these visual elements are very helpful content pieces and should be used aggressively. In other words, have a good photo to go with every article.

Do a little research of your own with Facebook and Google Analytics to see what content works better for your audience and try to do more of that.

Have a great week making your radio station website better! Reach out to us if you need help at https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Before you sit down to make your list of website goals, you need to know why your site exists. Please don’t say, “because everyone including my competitor does” or “for better branding”. Neither of those is the proper response. What action do you want your website visitors to take? What do you want them to do or know once they’ve left your website?

Do you want them to…?- Give you their contact information?

Be converted in some way?
Be informed?
Click on client advertising?
Stream the station.

Specific visitors may have completed all of these by giving you their information, signing up for your newsletter, listening to the station, etc. So, now what is the purpose of your website? Retaining them by getting them to return on a regular basis.

What ongoing website goals should you set?1) Increasing traffic. Work to increase your monthly visitors on a consistent basis.

2) Generating more content. Fresh content simply improves traffic.

3) Decreasing your bounce rate. “Bounce rate” is the percentage of people who leave your site after just going to one page. What do you have in place to ensure they do something else once they’ve consumed what got them there?

4) Raising your conversion rate. If you want visitors to signup for your newsletter, stream the station or fill out a form, then track those conversions and work to increase them month over month as well.

5) Increasing your e-mail subscribers. Email subscribers provide a great opportunity to keep your listeners informed and it’s a great opportunity for your advertisers as well as they can know what kind of customers you can offer them.

6) Increasing online advertisers. Every radio station website should be a money-maker in some way. A Digital Inventory List can help so that everyone knows what is available.

7) Increasing social shares and mentions. The more you can appear in social circles will ultimately mean more traffic to your website and increase the possibility of getting a visitor to do what you want them to.

8) Making your website more accessible. Accessibility is incredibly important for your website as it allows those with hearing impairments, vision impairments, and those who have difficulty using a mouse to easily use your website. Ensure descriptive and relevant ALT tags are added to all your images to help screen readers read them. Use descriptive links that tell people what they’re clicking on, rather than generic text like “read more.”

There are lots of other measurable stats that we could mention working on as goals but try to limit your primary goals to the things that directly impact the station's bottom line. It’s all about increasing the awareness of your radio station, making more revenue from digital sales, and attaining better visitor data.

Having everyone on board and on the same page is CRUCIAL: Everybody… from the digital content person to the air talent to the programming and sales team… all the way to the General Manager/Owner. Everyone should know the purpose and the importance of the goals set for your radio station website.

Have you noticed that everyone has lost interest in the station website? If your on-air team isn’t promoting it and your sales department isn’t selling it is because there’s no definitive direction. If you haven’t taken the time to explicitly define the goals of your station website, then get the appropriate personnel together and do this right away. Follow up on this strategy each week with a meeting specifically focused on the website where you can review analytics to see what’s working and what isn’t.

Please reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com if we can help you.

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Each week we explain ways to make your radio station website more appealing to listeners, but what are you doing online to attract more advertisers? How are they finding out about all the opportunities that your radio station has that could benefit them? This week we’ll talk about why your station or group of stations should have an additional dedicated corporate/group website.

Having a website has become so “normal” that advertisers and the public simply expects all companies to have a website no matter what business they are in. Being active on social media is great, but it’s very hard to close a sale there. You need to have a website where you can send people to that are looking to advertise.

Sure, you could have a page on your website that does this, but how much detail can you fit on one or two pages? Can you really fit in all the advertising opportunities, how it’s involved with the community, events that it’s a part of regularly, and possibly a showcase of your best creative work?

Think about it, when you need information about something probably the first thing you will do is search for it on Google. (Everyone does this.) Will your station appear within those results if a new business owner searches for “advertising in (your city)”?

1. Competitive Edge: With more and more stations increasing their web presence, your station/group will be more likely to lose business to your competitor because you’ve failed to properly represent yourself.

2. Increased Awareness: A website makes it easy for advertisers to learn more about your station(s) at their own pace.

3. Instill Confidence: Providing free/useful information is a great way to instill confidence in your clients because it positions you and your team as community thought leaders and forward thinkers. A great way to give away this information is with a blog.

4. Increased Hours of Operation: Your corporate/group website is available to the world 24/7/365. This makes it possible for your advertisers to contact you outside of your normal business hours – when they are thinking about new advertising possibilities.

5. Reduced Costs: Have you ever tried designing and printing flyers for an upcoming sales event? Almost any printed item can be converted to a web page and distributed by e-mail at far less cost and time than any other medium.

6. Enhances Company Image: A corporate/group website can help you to establish a credible, professional image, instilling a level of trust with your advertisers and their purchasing confidence will follow.

7. Better Customer Service: Does your staff spend a lot of time on the phone answering questions from advertisers? Do they keep answering the same questions and sending out the same material? Reduce the time and costs associated with these repetitive tasks by having frequently asked information on your website.

Your radio station website is created to connect with and inform your listeners. A corporate/group website is created to connect with current advertisers and convert new ones.

Could you include all of this information on a page within your radio station website? Absolutely, but we believe that a website fully focused on generating more sales is the better play.

So, if you don’t have a corporate/group website, then it’s something to consider.

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The homepage slider. They’re sometimes called “carousels” or “slide shows“. They once ruled the web because people were captivated by something moving on the page. Over time though, and especially in recent years, they’ve become a disappointing user experience.

Here are 5 reasons why you end the relationship with your huge homepage slider.

1. Sliders Contribute to Lost Traffic: Sliders slow download times because they often use multiple large images, which quickly eat up bandwidth.

Websites lose traffic when it takes a significant amount of time to load content. That few milliseconds of slowness in loading several large images have been proven to contribute to a higher bounce rate. “Bounce rate” is the percentage of visitors that leave a webpage without taking any action, such as clicking on a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase.

2. Sliders can become invisible to your visitors. Banner blindness is when people subconsciously ignore content that resembles an advertisement.

When users visit a website, they have a particular objective in mind (like reading more about a news story they heard on the radio or registering for a contest) and anything resembling an advertisement gets passed over – both visually and perceptually.

3. Sliders have horrible click rates: Visitors simply do not get clicked. This means they are not effective in moving visitors around your website and getting visitors to do what you want them to. A study by

The University of Notre Dame

showed a click-through rate of barely 1% on sliders. 84% of those clicks were on the first item in the rotation.

4. Sliders can harm your SEO efforts: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing website traffic and exposure to your brand through proper search engine results. Contributing factors include:

Slow site speeds because of multiple large image downloads. Slow-loading websites get pushed down in search results while faster loading sites get preference.
Sometimes the headings in the slides are H1 (heading) tags. This creates problems for search engine rankings because the content isn’t following the correct hierarchy for HTML.
Some older sliders could possibly be flash-based and therefore impossible for search engines and some modern browsers (mainly mobile) to read.

5. Sliders can overwhelm visitors and turn away certain audiences: Some sliders move so quickly that people can’t read the full message and take any action on the information. Sliders are not accessible to all audiences. Not only do people with vision impairments miss slider navigation but some sliders can malfunction within specific browsers that disabled persons use to navigate the web.

So, what are some slider alternatives?

Instead of showcasing multiple messages in a slider, narrow down the single most important one, or display several smaller static messages stacked in columns or rows. Small images load faster, and you still get the multiple messages across that you’re wanting to. Just don’t fill the page with every option you can think of (overwhelming).

We’ve seen some radio stations use video. Just be sure they are short and focused with one clear message.

We continue to see sliders filled with large static images of every daypart show. Folks, studies have clearly shown that sliders are doing the opposite of what you intend them for. You think they are promoting your shows. They’re not. They are simply distracting users from valuable content they come to the website for.

There are so many reasons to get rid of sliders. I hope this podcast helps you start a journey to a slider-less website.

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Evergreen content is a powerful tool for building traffic, earning links, and improving rankings. If you want to create a successful website, it should be part of your content strategy.

What Is Evergreen Content? The term “evergreen” comes from the world of plants. It describes those plants that don’t lose their leaves with the seasons and instead stay green all year round.

That is also what evergreen content is: content pieces that continue to be relevant long past their publication date, regardless of what’s happening in the world. While all content stays around, the evergreen variety stays on top of search results for months, years, even decades.

How do they do that? By revolving around topics that people are always interested in, such as: vacation hotspots, how to train your dog, recipes, etc.

Non-evergreen topics would be like local or celebrity news, seasonal/holiday content, the latest iPhone release, etc.

Basically, evergreen topics are perpetually important while non-evergreen topics only have temporary significance and will go away.

A well-running radio station website will have lots of relevant content to keep bringing in visitors. An article that gets lots of attention one day can be completely out of date a week later. This makes it much harder to build sustainable traffic. If you don’t continually publish new stuff, your stream of visitors tapers off.

Write an evergreen piece of content once and it will continue to bring in traffic without you having to do much of anything. Sure, you might have to update it here and there if new information comes out, but the bulk of the article will always be relevant and helpful to readers – who continue to look for, share, and link to it.

Here are some tips for creating evergreen content

Choose your topics and make sure they qualify. Brainstorm topics and enter them into keyword research tools like Google Trends to get variations.
Create content that’s in line with your station brand. If you’re a top 40 station, with a younger audience, you’re not going to post articles on your website about the places to get the best senior citizen deals. Write for your station audience.
Avoid non-evergreen angles and dating your content.
Update your content occasionally, if necessary.

Here are some types of evergreen content

Tutorials and “How to” Guides.
Problem-solving.
Lists. Whether you like list posts or not, there is a lot of data that proves that they simply perform better. There was a study of headline preferences. Numbered headlines came out on top — way on top.

These have been ideas for your radio station listeners on your website. You could also fill a group or market-type website with evergreen content that targets advertisers. Visit https://www.markettheme.net for a reference.

5 things to ask your radio advertising rep about.
How to craft the best radio ad.
Top 3 things to mention in order to get more Tiktok video likes.
How to create evergreen content for your website.

I hope you can see that evergreen content has the ability to consistently bring in traffic over long periods of time. It takes some more thinking and preparation to figure out, however, in the long run, the work that you need to put in results in better performance and less maintenance over time.

Now you know what goes into creating evergreen content. Now it’s just a matter of putting it into practice and making it a part of your content strategy.

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I recently had a conversation with a local sales manager who works for a national group in a medium-sized market and asked him how they were doing at selling their station websites. I was blown away by his response, “We don’t unless someone asks about it – which is never.” When I asked why he said that there, "wasn’t much local content and really no reason to focus on the website". And then most that was done at the corporate level. I was just in awe. But, he was correct. The website wasn't much to look at, which was surprising for a larger group.

Here are some reasons why your site may not be growing visitors or getting enough sales.

Your content is not fresh: Would you buy a newspaper or magazine ad if the cover only changed every couple of months? Or never? Gosh, I hope not. Good/fresh content is so important for both visitors and advertisers. Besides search engines, let’s not forget about the indirect influence of social media on rankings and traffic. Great content is more likely to be shared on social media channels and that means more clicks to your website. That’s why sharing your website content on social media is more important than simply posting it there.

You’re not promoting your site and/or its content: If you’re not hammering the benefits of your website on-air, the smart advertiser will know that you’re not very interested in promoting it (or their purchased ad on it). Radio is the most proven form of advertising, so why not promote the website content as often as possible on-air?

Your salespeople are not trained to sell the website: Show them how important and relevant the station website is to you. If it is not just as important as the on-air signal, then this is where you can start. Emphasizing digital assets is a must-have mentality for any radio station that wants to survive moving forward. Do the people who are tasked with selling your website know every opportunity that exists and what each location costs? Therefore, a Digital Inventory List is so important.

You’re not tracking the effectiveness of your website: If you’re producing good content and promoting it well, over time you will learn what works well and what doesn’t. If you’re not tracking the effectiveness of your content, then you miss out on this opportunity. Once you can see a trend, your content producers will have a guideline to go by and produce more of what the audience wants. For some it’s local news, for others event calendar and so on.

You have too many links away from your website: Radio stations that display RSS feeds that lead to other websites is one of our biggest pet peeves. We understand every station wants format news on their website. However, it’s important to ask yourself if the links away from your site, and the advertisers you sell to be on it, are worth it. What’s most likely to happen, the visitor will bookmark their content site and go straight there next time bypassing your site altogether.

Your website doesn’t perform well: Online visitors are a demanding bunch and have high expectations of the websites they visit. Here is a list of the things they will expect:

Your site loads quickly.
Visitors can find what they want easily.
Visitors can read the site easily, no matter what device they are using.
Your website is fresh and attractive.

Conclusion: Having more visitors and advertisers for your station website ultimately comes down to how involved the management team is with it. Hopefully, these steps bring more visitors and revenue your way.

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It’s probably safe to say that when most people upload images to their station website, they neglect adding additional meta information they should. We’re talking about the ALT TAG, DESCRIPTION TAG and the CAPTION. Most of the time these three meta fields will NOT appear on the frontend of your website, but if you DO add them, it can help your website grow and help a special segment of your visitors.

Title: In this episode, I failed to mention the title tag. The title is the only attachment detail required by WordPress. This defaults to the name of the file but should always be changed to a descriptive title of the image. It's important to always change this because you can also use the title to search for images within your media archive.

ALT Tag: If I had just one search engine optimization tip to give, it would be to add alt tags to every images. As everything has been becoming more visual, search engines are putting more value on these tags than other copy in your post or page.

Alt tags also help search engines categorize images in their image search, which can help your pages and posts to show up in more results.

Description: An image description tag gives more details than alt text and allows someone to learn more about what is in an image. ALT text gives the user the most important information while image descriptions provide further detail. The description field can hold as much information as you want. It doesn’t have to be short. It can be like the ALT text, but longer and can contain keywords, or even metadata from your camera on how you took the photo, copyright etc. You can even add links in the description field.

Caption: The caption field is easy to understand. Unlike the ALT text or description, the caption does not have to closely mirror what the image shows.

Some people use image captions for describing the image. Think a condensed one-sentence version of the image description. You’ve probably seen this in print newspapers and magazines that lists the names of the people in an image left to right.

Other people use the caption field to display the image copyright information and that’s what I suggest you do on your radio station website. No matter where you get your images from, they should have the name of the image copyright holder. If someone on your team took the image, place their name or the station’s name here. If you purchased the image from an online service, paste in the service name. (i.e., iStock photo, Getty Images, etc.) This can protect you down the road. If there ever is any claim to the image, you’ll know who the image belongs to.

Benefiting your Visitors: So, in explaining these three image meta fields, I’ve shown how adding ALT tags, descriptions and captions can benefit your website. How does it help your visitors? People with vision impairments such as low vision and blindness may use screen readers to access the internet, or just have trouble distinguishing images. Screen readers will read the alt text out loud, as well as image descriptions, depending on what settings the user has enabled. Alt text and image descriptions can provide essential information such as text, links, and image details.

Read up on the “Americans with Disabilities Act” (ADA) or “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines” (WCAG)

Having image meta for the visually impaired is especially important if you are selling something on your website. If you don’t offer these tags, you can be tagged for alienating a segment of the population and that can become a legal issue.

Hopefully, this episode will motivate you to populate these fields moving forward.

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Today we’re talking about Display Ad Networks that can help you generate passive income you’re your radio station website. Ideally, you have a team of sellers that are excited to sell your website on the street, but if you have great content to offer and having trouble in that department, these Ad Networks can help your website generate revenue while your team gets up to speed.

Don’t expect making a lot of money from Ad Networks. You’ll likely never get the money you would receive selling the ad spaces yourself. These can serve to supplement the revenue you’re already generating.

What Are Ad Networks? For all intents and purposes, ad networks work as a mediator to introduce the right impression to the right buyer. Inside an ad network, you’re either an advertiser looking to advertise on a wide network of websites or you’re a publisher wanting those ads on your site to generate revenue.

Ad networks generally payout in one of two ways... CPM or CPC.

CPM - Cost Per Thousand Impressions

CPC - Cost Per Click

Nothing needs to be sold on the website they're going to. You don't make a commission or anything like that. Very simply, you get paid with a click or a view. Different ad networks have different parameters and most payout when either event happens.

Content is Crucial! Most of the best ad networks only cater to big traffic websites. Think 500K visitors per day big. Don’t let that discourage you though. There are plenty of ad networks you can plug into some with no minimum visitors BUT getting these networks to pay off depends on content – frequently updated content that attracts visitors on a daily basis. If your website has little or no visitors and the plan is to keep things that way, then an ad network isn’t going to help. These networks pay for traffic. And that won’t happen without fresh content.

Whenever we talk about monetizing websites, the first name that pops up in mind is Google AdSense. It is, after all, the world’s largest ad network. There’s lots of training on Youtube to get the most out of Adsense. We’ve seen a few sites generate hundreds of dollars per month from Google Adsense. There might be some initial drawbacks though.

Your website must be well established. Adsense will deny new websites.
Your website must be updated regularly with fresh content, meaning that you could be dropped from the platform for importing content.

In this episode, we’ll run down five alternative banner ad networks to Google Adsense. This isn’t a top-five list, but it’s five networks that we’ve found with no minimum traffic requirements, and they should let you get started generating revenue as soon as possible.

#1 Media.net #2 Adcash #3 PropellerAds #4 HillTopAds #5 AdMaven

These five alternatives to Adsense are just the tip of the iceberg. Do a search for “Best Ad Networks for Publishers” and you’ll find hundreds more. That’s great because it means that every publisher can find their ideal solution. Just pay close attention to their requirements. Some do not allow imported content. Some specify requiring a minimum of unique visitors per day, etc.

The right ad network can help your radio station monetize your content and fill in the holes left open by your sales team. Again, it all starts with content and visitors.

I hope these tips help you. If they do, we’d love to hear about it. Reach out to us at skyrocketradio.com.

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The best way to ensure your station website pages and posts are found by people using search engines is by utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. SEO covers a wide range of strategies and activities based on what we know about how search engines determine their rankings.

Here are some 10 beginner-friendly ways to give your site a push-up in the search rankings.

Build Your Content Around Keywords
Use Clean SEO-Friendly Permalinks
Incorporate Useful Internal and External Links
Optimize Your Images
Write Long-Form Content When Possible
Add New Posts Frequently
Avoid Duplicate Content
Share Your Articles with Everybody You Can
Conduct Regular SEO Audits
Delete Old Content

SeoSiteCheckup is a free tool that has over 50 checks to let you basically know how you’re doing.

Hubspot CRM recently deleted 3000 posts from their blog and their SEO improved dramatically. Here's what they did to improve their SEO.

Get more in-depth show notes at https://www.skyrocketradio.com/podcast.

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Banner ads are one of the best forms of marketing used in today’s online world. All companies use them in one form or another because they’re an affordable, measurable, and effective way to increase brand awareness.

Need a free Photoshop alternative? Try https://pixlr.com/editor/.

Every day we are tasked with taking client information and turning that into effective radio campaigns. We should put just as much effort into their banner ad creative.

Here are some tips and general guidelines for designing effective banner ads.

Stick to Standard Banner Ad Sizes: Research has shown that wider ad sizes tend to outperform their taller counterparts. Much of this may have to do with placement above the scroll and because it is more comfortable to read from left to right, rather than stacked text. Here are the sizes you should consider first:

728 pixels by 90 pixels leaderboard

300 by 250 medium rectangle

300 by 600 half-page

320 by 50 mobile banner

Maintain the Essentials: Every banner ad needs three elements: Branding, message, and encouragement to click. The challenge is that you don’t have much room for this but all three of these elements are essential.

Use Only One Message Per Ad: Banner ads should never be a lengthy rotation of messages. Animated gifs can be used to grab focus but should NOT be used for displaying endless ad copy. Nobody but you and the client will read it all. If a single static ad doesn’t fully get across the essentials mentioned above, try offering the client multiple ads that rotate separately.

Include a Great Call to Action: The goal of a banner ad is to get clicked. A good call to action does this. What are users supposed to do next and what’s the payoff?

Make sure the ad design is consistent with the client’s branding: Make sure it looks consistent with the client’s branding and the landing page it links to so that their potential customers don’t get confused.

Include a Button: Easy-to-follow instructions are vital to most consumers. It does not have to be fancy. But a simple “Shop Now” or “Click to Win” button can go a long way to getting users to make the switch from viewer to conversion.

Choose Fonts Wisely: The smaller the space, the more important fonts become. Make the most of the space provided with strong typefaces that are easy to read.

Use imagery well, and only when you need it: Choose relevant images, graphics or photos that enhance your message and that are directly related to your client’s product.

NEVER EVER GRAB AN IMAGE FROM A GOOGLE SEARCH!! If you or the client didn’t take the photo, consider it just as off-limits as including a licensed song in a radio ad. The same copyright laws apply.

Save Banner Ads Properly: Optimize your images for the smallest file size possible. The target file size should be around 30kb or LESS, depending on the size of the ad. Keep in mind that animated GIFs can get very large depending on the animation involved.

Make sure to save your banners in a format that works across the web. Common file types for banner ads include PNG and JPG for static displays and GIF for animation. Newer file types like SVG and WebP are becoming more widely accepted as well with much smaller file sizes.

Link Appropriately: If your client has a well-thought-out call to action on their banner ad, ensure that it links directly to that action item and not just their homepage. The user should not have to find the action item themselves from the client homepage.

Using these banner ad tips in an effective way will help your clients get the results they came to you for. Good luck!

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An old/outdated website sends a message that you aren’t up on the latest trends. There comes a time when every radio station needs to revamp and re-launch for better impact. For example, older websites might not be optimized for speed. You can’t afford to keep a bulky, outdated website that doesn’t look great or load fast on mobile devices.

The general recommendation is that you redesign any website every 2–3 years. Much like fashion, web design has trends, and things can just start to look … old or retro.

Relaunching your site might seem overwhelming. Fortunately, there are some simple rules of thumb you can follow that will make your re-launch not only easy but successful.

1. Benchmarks: Before you launch your website redesign, be sure to know your site’s traffic, bounce rate, average time on site, and other stats so you have an accurate picture of how successful — or unsuccessful — your re-launch will be.

2. Goals: Take a look at your competitors. Do some research through sites like SEORush.com to know what keywords other stations near you are ranking for (like local sports, weather, news, online listening, etc) as well as their most visited pages.

3. Research/Revamp Your Content: You can’t just set it and forget it on any website. You’ll need to update, modify and add new content regularly to stay relevant.

What do we want visitors to do when they visit? Lose the slider in favor of call-to-action?
Fresh look at what on-air content can be re-purposed for online?
Importing new external content?
Add audio/video components? Podcasting?

4. Make a plan for SEO: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps people find your website using keywords through Google, Bing and Yahoo! searches. If you provide local news of any kind, you want that to be visible when search for things in your area (events, news, etc).

5. Give Your Current Visitors and Advertisers a Heads-Up: If you have lots of traffic, let your visitors know that you are revamping your website. Send a short note to your mailing list and social media followers. Let them know you are in the process of redesigning and when they can expect to see the new look. Also, inform your website advertisers in case banner ads need to be resized or updated. This is a great time to sell new upcoming features that might be added or offer special incentives to be included on the site during the major re-launch promotion.

6. Create a Digital Inventory List: Make a plan for selling the new website and where banner ads and special sponsorships will be located and how much those placements will be so that sellers have everything need on day one.

7. Test Different Browsers: Ideally, just before you launch your new site, you should test how the site performs across different browsers and screen sizes. There are many services online that allow you to do this for free or a small fee, such as BrowserStack and Browserling.

8. Plan for launch promotion: If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. So, plan how you and your talent will promote the re-launch on-air, on social, e-mail blasts, etc. This will be a great time to renew your imaging and sweepers as well.

9. Check/Update Your Branding: How does the look of your new website stack up to your branding on other platforms? The colors and designs should repeat no matter where they are.

10. Listen to Your Site Visitors: Once you re-launch your site, take the time to gather feedback from your visitors and advertisers.

Relaunching your station website is an important marketing tactic when you’re looking to keep your content fresh, exciting, and new.

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Being a radio personality is much different than it was just 10 years ago. In the past, the hardest part of your day was the hour or two of show prep. But today you need to do much more before, during, and AFTER to have a successful show. These tips apply no matter what market size you're in.

1. Use Digital Tools for Show Prep

Use an RSS Reader that pulls content from a combination of both local and national websites. You can also research and find a good social media aggregator as well so that you would see every post your artists made rather than a picked few. (Newsflow for Windows, Feedly.com)

2. Blogging

When I was doing a daily on-air show, blogging was in its infancy. We were forced to blog. Nobody saw the reasoning or importance, so it was hated by all. That’s changed for me significantly because I’ve seen how blogging can increase ratings for your show. It shows that you're a “personality” that is actively engaged in your audience and community and not a voice-tracked robot.

So, make your blog about things that interest YOU. Give your opinion on local and national topics (without crossing lines). Become the go-to person for something like local restaurants, pet adoption, movies, or local music.

Blogs receiving lots of online engagement will bring the station more online revenue so be sure to ask if incentives are offered for over-performing blog pages and page sponsorships.

We've written several articles on getting started in blogging and the importance of radio personality blogging.

3. Post to Social Media Channels Daily

Social media posting has become a part of the on-air personality job description and deservedly so. Social media is marketing, and you should want to market your show. I was told by a colleague early in my career to say my name in every break because nobody else at the radio station would promote me as well.

Post on the station’s social media channels as well as your own for your followers. Look into a service like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule posts in advance or on different channels at different times. Be sure to mix up the content that you are posting. Copy/pasting today's celebrity birthday list is NOT good content.

Never post something directly to social without a link back to your website/show page.

4. Reply to Social Media Posts

One of the biggest things that set social media moguls apart from the rest is engagement. Don't just think of social media as a place to broadcast your station or show messages. The key is engaging your followers. That means saying "thanks for the follow or retweet", agreeing or disagreeing with topics, etc.

5. Video Content

If you want to be an elite radio personality that really takes their show to the next level, become a regular video blogger. Basically, you are taking content from your show, blog or some other topic and talking about it in front of a camera. You'll do this on Youtube or Facebook LIVE or/and other video sharing platform (Twitch, Instagram, etc).

We've given you five ways to take your radio show to the next level online. Use these in conjunction with each other. Research your topic with RSS feeds, write a blog about it and include a video, send notices to social media with links back to the blog. Then, ask for feedback and respond to them. The more times you can do this in your show the better.

Test out content to see what works best for your audience and do more of that!

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Knowing there are so many options, your agency and smart local clients will ask, “What do you have available?” Unfortunately, many sellers will not have a clear answer. A radio station website alone can provide many of the same opportunities as your radio station, but as you grow your website and other digital assets, there are oh so many more opportunities to sell.

“Inventory” is the total amount of space that you have available for advertisements at any given time. If you operate a radio station, surely your sales manager maintains an inventory list like this showing all available commercials in each hour/daypart as well as sponsorships and other on-air features that might be open for clients to purchase.

Start with an Excel spreadsheet. Here’s what your list should include…

Regular Banner Ad PositionsThis list will include all banner ad positions on the homepage as well as all subpages where the ad-block may be different. Make notes of each location and the size. You may also want to add the cost of ads that will be in each location so that your sellers will have a baseline to negotiate with. Be sure to note every position on your website and set a maximum number of available ad spots that can be sold for each one.

Post/Page Feature SponsorshipsFor example, a storm shelter client may wish to only sponsor the top position on the weather page. Ideally, a sponsorship rate should be more than the regular “run of site” rate.

Other examples of what to include here would be...

School/Weather Closings
Local Sports Team Page
Obituaries
Event Calendar
Local Sports Category
Daily Poll Sponsor
Contest sponsor
Pet of the Day, ____ of the Day.

Premium SponsorshipsThese can be “out of the box” ways to give your clients exposure outside the typical banner ad space/sponsorship. A “page takeover” would be a good example of a premium sponsorship. In a page takeover, one client rules every position on the page. You can choose or even upsell changing the background image for them on this page to match their message.

Streaming/Social Media/Podcasts/E-MailIf your station provides Facebook mentions for a fee, then your digital inventory list should also include the pricing and availability of these as well. There are so many opportunities using social that won’t violate the platform's terms of service.

Then you have your “Listen Live” or Podcasts sponsor. This might be a simple text link but include a custom “Listen Live” image and/or banner ad within the stream player. Include what the client gets in the form of simple links or pre/post-roll commercials.

Here are some other opportunities to have a client’s name attached to...

E-Mail Blasts
SMS Blasts
Alexa, Google and Siri voice skills? Those can come with pre-rolls as well.
Youtube client tours by your talent

Don’t try to do everything we’ve mentioned here. Start with the basics and expand as your team is comfortable.

To get you started, we’ve created a sample Excel Spreadsheet that shows the avails a typical website might have on any given day. We’ve included what each ad inside the location might cost, so the salesperson knows how much to ask for ads in each location.

Get the Excel Spreadsheet

Have something to show clients when they ask what opportunities are available on your radio station website. And ensure that your salespeople are communicating digital’s true value to advertisers. Never give your digital assets away or diminish their value.

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Copyright laws are getting stricter and the means photographers and agencies have to find their images is getting much better. Don’t think you’ll ever get caught. Stay on top of it.

The best photos you can post are the ones you take locally. Take a day or two and devote time to building a local repository of local images. Schools, police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, post offices, city buildings, police/fire stations, courthouses, stadiums, parks, major intersections, etc. Don’t wait until you need them.

Never ever use images from a search result - regardless if it says "labeled for re-use."

What are “royalty-free images”?Royalty-free images aren’t necessarily free. In most cases, you’ll have to pay a one-time fee to obtain the rights to use the image. Then you can use it as many times as you like. The “free” in “royalty-free” only means that you do not have to pay royalties to the owner of the image every time you use it.

If you would rather pay for every photo you use, there are a few dozen sites to choose from including Shutterstock (https://www.shutterstock.com), Adobe Stock, iStock, Depositphotos, and Getty Images.

You may only want to use one of these services for artist or concert photos. If an artist is coming to town, typically labels will provide specific images for promotional use, but restrict that image for any other use. ~40 artist images may work years for you refreshing them only as needed.

Our Top Four FREE Image Sources.At the publish time of this podcast, you can download and use any/all images from these websites for free without giving any mention of the website or photographer, BUT you are not able to resell the images or sell something that includes the image.

Pixabay, Unsplash, PikWizard, Pexels

IMPORTANT: Give credit on every image you don’t take, regardless! If you are using WordPress, use the “Caption” meta field of the image to paste this information into. You never know when you will be asked for proof.

Are you importing RSS feeds from outside sources?If images are contained inside those feeds, make sure that that you have specific rights to display them. If you are unsure that you have those rights, then do not import the feeds. (Stop now and delete every post you have imported.)

Beware of e-mail scams claiming image copyright infringement

Read this for details: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/business/phishing-scam-image-copyright.

Learn about PicRights.com: https://copyright-demand-letter.com/picrights-ltd-copyright-letters-making-noise-in-the-us.

The main takeaway from this episode is to use photographs that you or your team have taken. When you do use any stock photography, credit the source no matter if they require it or not. And, have a sharp eye when it comes to online scams.

Have a great week making your radio website better.

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Local sports programming can be a huge revenue generator. Airing play-by-plays on Friday nights is nothing new, but a growing number of stations are using apps and websites to expand their coverage.

Adding a digital component isn’t something new. Some early-adopting radio stations have built year-round online revenue generators just providing local sports content on their station websites. Some have even created new brands outside the station because the demand is so great. It just depends on your market.

Earlier this year Townsquare Media Cheyenne/Laramie, Wyoming acquired the local sports website 7220Sports.com. This website, formed by a fan, dedicated its news coverage to the University of Wyoming Athletics. 7220Sports.com added to the cluster’s high school sports website WyoPreps.com and their news website LaramieLive.com. The majority of the content on these sites comes from their sports and news radio stations.

In Springfield, IL, Neuhoff Media invested in digital back in 2015 to deliver on local high school sports using highlight packages and original features on athletes and teams. The company’s Channel1450.com—named for its sister radio station, “Sports Radio 1450” WFMB—is a standalone website dedicated to area prep sports. By nature of its digital format, the staff isn’t constrained by linear broadcast schedules, and producers can post content at any time. On Friday nights during football season, for instance, the staff often works until 2 a.m. producing highlight packages.

Social media is a key component for Chanel1450.com. The staff posts relentlessly to its Facebook page and Twitter feed, and Kerker says about 94% of traffic comes directly from this activity.

KEY STEP: Don’t post content that can be fully consumed on social. Use social to drive traffic back to the website where advertisers are.

For local advertisers, these sports websites offer a new avenue to reach potential customers, and the site’s demographics might reveal some surprises. For Channel1450, along with the male demos typically associated with sports, adult women—the so-called “soccer moms”—are also frequent visitors.

These kinds of websites are popping up all around the country and generating revenue from the content.

OUR GUEST: Michael Brannon: Executive Vice President, RadioAlabama

https://www.radioalabamasports.nethttps://www.radioalabama.net

You don’t need to have a dedicated sports website to start with. Start by adding any local sports to your radio station website, promote it well and see if your audience buys in. If the data suggests that most visitors are hitting your sports content, then it may be time to create another brand that you use separately.

Don’t wait too late and have someone else beat you to it!!!

Need help taking the next step with your radio station website? Visit https://www.skyrocketradio.com.

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Countless research papers and benchmarks prove that optimizing your website speed is one of the most affordable and highest ROI providing investments you can make in your radio station website.

Why Speed is Important?

Lightning-fast page load speed amplifies visitor engagement and retention. Every second delay in page load decreases customer satisfaction by 16 percent, page views by 11 percent, and conversion rates by 7 percent according to a recent Aberdeen Group research study. It’s also important to note that Google now uses website speed as a ranking factor.

What is Page Speed?

Page speed is the length of time it takes a web page to be downloaded from the hosting server and displayed onto the requesting web browser. Page load time is the duration between clicking the link and displaying the entire content from the web page.

How Slow is Too Slow?

Most studies show that 1 in 4 visitors would abandon the website if it takes more than 4 seconds to load. 46 percent of users don’t revisit poorly performing websites. Website owners have a mere 5 seconds to engage visitors before they consider leaving. 74 percent of users accessing the mobile site would leave if it takes longer than 5 seconds to load. Strangely, visitors would rather spend excessive time browsing for information on a fast-loading website full of irrelevant information than waiting a few seconds for the right website to load.

1. Resize Your Images

This is a must-have. Resize your images to exactly what is required on your website before uploading it to your page or post.

Free Online Editor: https://www.pixlr.com/editor

2. Optimize Your Images

The next step in speeding up your image-heavy website is to choose the right format and quality for every image on your website (think audio compression). JPG, PNG and GIF are the most common image formats being used and are each suited for different use cases. There is another relatively new image format called WebP that combines the best of these image formats, is 30% smaller in size, and is supported on all modern browsers. Given the huge performance benefits, you should deliver your images in WebP format wherever possible.

Image Optimizing Test: https://www.skyrocketradio.com/business/5-ways-to-speed-up-your-radio-station-website.

3. Avoid Image Hotlinking

Image hotlinking, also known as “inline linking” is the act of linking to an image on another person’s website, instead of loading the image on your own server. On the surface, this seems like an act that will save you server space and a lot of bandwidth, especially if you have a high-traffic site, but it can actually make your website really slow if the website that hosts the image you hotlinked is experiencing a downtime or is slow.

4. Minimize Your Ads

Tempting as it may seem, selling too much real estate on your radio station website drastically degrades its performance. Too many ads or slow loading ads will drive bounce rates and many of those visitors will never return. External ad services like Google Adsense mean that you’re calling an external source to supply the ad. The more calls you have, the more you wait and the higher the load is on your own server.

5. Use Caching when possible.

When you visit a website there are certain elements that are stored in the cache, which acts as temporary storage. This means that the next time the user visits the site there will be less time spent rendering all of the on-page elements. This helps to shave time off your website’s loading speed.

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RSS Feeds

Limit the number of external links that take your visitors away from your visitors (and advertisers). LOCAL content wins! Give your visitors content they can't find anywhere else. Not the stuff that can be found everywhere else.

What content can you provide that isn’t provided anywhere else in your coverage area? Here are some examples:High school sports scores, local agriculture news, events, local personality’s take on national news, “Minute with the Mayor”, City Hall Sessions, local mugshots/police report, local shopping directory, local restaurant menus, hunting/fishing guides, gardening tips/tricks, local music scene news and events, all local attractions with info and times, “Swap Shop” classifieds, obituaries, job openings (huge right now), local business/school closings.

What need is your community missing? Fill that need online in order to build traffic day after day.

INSIDE RADIO: Interview with Townsquare’s Bill Wilson this week about “Getting Big Results From Small Markets”.

“As many of the smaller markets where Townsquare operates have fallen prey to massive cutbacks by newspapers, creating so called “news deserts. Townsquare stepped in and filled the void with local content creation. The size of our audience, the lack of news and information serving these audiences” and what Wilson called a lack of sophisticated advertising solutions, especially on the digital side, created a major opportunity for the company.”

Thanks to our guest, Breck Riley at https://www.breezynews.com.

Make a plan to start adding fresh content to your website on a consistent basis!

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In this episode, we want you to adjust your mindset on how you view your station website. Plus, we’re going to talk about the two very tip-top things you need to start making your website better.

This podcast is sponsored by Skyrocket Radio but the information we provide each week will be universal. No matter if you use another service or if you create and maintain your website in-house, we hope this content will be beneficial to you.

Adjust typical mindset.Adjust your mindset into thinking of the station website as another radio station that is simulcasting. The end goal is to make money with your website, just as you do your radio station.

So, what makes listeners return to your radio station each day? Great music? Artist information? Local news? Contests? Events? Weather? Local sports scores?

#1 Content

Everything you do on-air should be online as well. This can be local event information, local news, format news, local sports information, etc. Program your website just as you would your radio station. Your program director’s job is to adjust things on-air to keep the station fresh and make it so that listeners want to return. Think the same for your website. What can we do to keep visitors coming back tomorrow and the next day.

Only import RSS Feeds to add flavor to your local content. Chances are that visitors can find the content you're importing in dozens of other places. And NEVER include RSS feeds that simply link back to the originator's website. These 4-10 links back to a national or regional provider are simply reasons for your visitors to leave. Only your advertisers can pay for that ability.

#2 Promote the CONTENT (not your website).

Because it’s all about increasing those page views (ratings).
Tease your content like you would an upcoming on-air feature.
Mention the website and a reason to visit often on-air – not only when you have to.
All links on social should tie back to the website. “Use the pages you rent to promote the pages you own.“ Tease it there and link back to the website.
Use your newsletter and mobile apps to remind visitors of new content.
Do everything you can to increase those page views because those are your ratings.

CONTENT + PROMOTION = VISITORS = REVENUE!

Better Radio Websites: Recent Episodes

Jim Sherwood

1 Automated Text Generation and Editing

2 Image Enhancement and Generation

3 Voice Recognition and Transcription

4 Audio Enhancement and Text-to-Voice

1. Consider Podcasts as On-Demand Radio

2. Podcasting Builds Intimate Relationships

3. Podcasts Are an Extra Marketing Channel

4. Podcasts are Easy for Radio Stations to Promote

5. Podcasting Generates Revenue

Reasons for your Visitors to Leave

1 Create a form for business submissions.

2 Create the “Best Of” page for the information, sponsors, and the call for submissions form.

3 Tabulate the submissions.

4 Create a voting form or polls.

5 Replace the submissions form with the voting form/polls on your “Best of” page.

6 Display the results & promote the winners.