Become a Google News Source
The Google news feed is perhaps the largest publicly accessed feed in the world. An article by you or about your company in the news feed can bring in considerably traffic, and confers automatic authority to your site. Whether that authority is deserved or not is another question, but let’s deal with what is. For your business, imagine having a top story in Google, even if it lasts just part of a day (as news stories change often). Each time your story rises to the top, it can bring a flood of traffic, not just from Google but from other sites that may copy the story on their blogs or website news feeds.
Now you are probably thinking…”Yeah, but how do I get a news publisher to carry my story?”
There are many ways to do this, but let’s get outside the box and cut out the middleman. You can become a publisher yourself.
If you take a look at the news sources on Google, they’re not all AP and Reuters stories. The vast majority are from websites and news sources most of us have never heard of. You can be one of those, assuming you can meet Google’s requirements. No fame or fortune is guaranteed, but you will have a good chance of being able to advertise your product or services by posting a story that has general interest to Google news feed.
Becoming a Google News Publisher would require that the site meets not just the technical requirements, but webmaster quality guidelines as well.
First, a couple links. Take a look at the technical requirements in the link below. Don’t get too bogged down in this, it’s mainly to give you an idea of what your site needs. You may well already have these requirements covered:
http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=11665
There are three big points yo want to watch:
Be sure that you have more than one writer/contributor to your news site. Sites with single authors are generally rejected.
Be sure that you have original news content on your site, not just rehashed stuff.
Be sure that you site doesn’t come off as existing solely for self promotion (free advertising). This rule generally applies to successful press releases as well. You want to provide news that is of interest even to people who will never buy your product. You want it to appear as news, not as advertising.
Once you feel your site is ready, go ahead and submit at http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/request.py?contact
Click “suggest news content” and you will be walked through a series of simple questions. Approval can come in as little as a week.
Again, remember that you are to be a news source. It might be a good idea to register a separate domain to build a news site that is relevant to your business. For example, if you sell garage doors, a DUI site that focuses on garage use would be good. If you sell insurance, and insurance news and advice site could be very popular.
If you do this right, you will find that it’s fun, and you will attract fans – who may then become customers.
Of all the free advertising online available, this can be the most consistent and useful. And as a news source, you can build your brand’s authority in the public eye.