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Editorial Leadership 

100,000 Weekly Visitors in 3 Months: My Blueprint for Launching a Wildly Successful Content Channel

SitePoint is a popular website that received millions of visits from developers each month. The editor-in-chief hired me to spearhead a new channel for entrepreneurs and founders from scratch. Here’s how I did it. 

Table of Contents

Context

One of the most popular publications on the Internet had a problem. SitePoint needed  an experienced editor to take ownership of its struggling business and marketing channel. They hoped to find someone who could truly own the channel and run with it. 

“We had worked with several editors in the past, who had each tried a few initiatives — none were as enthusiastic, determined or competent as Lauren.” 

SitePoint gave me a monthly budget to hire writers, which afforded me four posts each week. I also had premium access to Fotolia, an image and vector repository, so each post could include original visuals. 

When I began, SitePoint’s editorial calendar (Trello) was a mess. There were loads of incomplete posts with first drafts that were way overdue. Writers weren’t meeting deadlines. Basically, the channel simply wasn’t being taken seriously. 

Goal

The high-level goal and foundation of the contract between SitePoint and I was to increase weekly unique visits to the business and marketing channel in order to increase ad revenue for the company. 

We agreed upon the following KPI: Generate 100,000 weekly unique visits to the channel within three months. 

“Lauren started in March. Since then, traffic to our Entrepreneurship channel has grown substantially, benefitting both our revenue (through advertising) and our reputation as a publisher.”

Process

To reach this KPl, I developed a roadmap to success, which included:

  1. Recruiting a small group of up-and-coming writers
  2. Creating content quality standards for the channel
  3. Utilizing my network to land interviews with high-profile influencers
  4. Crafting a unique tone and voice style guide for the channel that resonated with entrepreneurs

How I did it

  1. Within two weeks, I hired five (six including myself), phenomenal freelance writers to SitePoint’s editorial calendar. Three of the five onboarded became the top most-viewed writers for the channel. 
  2. While I reached out to writers, I simultaneously crafted clear, concise Style Guidelines for the channel. Writers were happy to have a clearly painted picture of the type of content I was looking to publish.
  3. Next, I asked online influencers in my network if I could interview them for the channel. I was able to secure interviews with Paul Jarvis, Neil Patel and Eric Ries, to name a few. Additionally, I distributed our content everywhere that was relevant online. 
  4. Finding the unique voice for the channel was the easiest part of this project because I knew which types of content entrepreneurs wanted already; therefore, it didn’t require much research. I combined my knowledge with my own voice, and it really resonated with readers. 

Some of our most popular posts

And then I got a raise 😊

After just a few months of launching the new blog (and growing the email subscriber base to more than 2,000), my boss invited me to get involved with all of the branded content as well and gave me a substantial raise. 🙂 

“It’s hard to overstate the value of bringing on board a team member who understands both business objectives and the value of their specific role. This hire has allowed us to expand into new markets and form new partnerships, going well beyond my initial expectations.”