The folks over at Niche Media recently posted a great list of ways niche publishers can generate additional revenue online. Here's a few examples, but you can view the complete list here: http://www.nichedigitalconference.com/content/25-online-revenue-ideas-niche-publishers

1. Place each email you collect on multiple e-mail lists.  This allows you to send topically based messages. If a user unsubscribes you will not lose them completely.  Instead you’ll just lose them from one list.  Be sure to tell/ask users about this practice.

2. Engage your audience and create community by forming self-serve classified portals on the web.  You can start free and offer paid up-sells.

3. Encourage advertisers to use custom URLs to track success. If you look closely at Google Analytics, you will see a traffic statistic called "direct traffic". This can account for as much as 20% of total traffic and most advertisers do not track their direct traffic. Make sure you get credit for traffic that you drive to an advertiser's website.

4. Offer to do video interviews/demos for sponsors & advertisers as part of a digital bundle. As an up sell, make it available on your site, on their site, and on DVD (for offline mailing). Also, ask advertisers if they have promo videos for their product or service.  Then, create a channel to house and offer these videos to your audience.  Most advertisers have spent a ton of money on these videos and want to use them.

5. Create an e-newsletter from your sales team to your current advertisers with content that that positions you as a leader in the marketplace. Fill it with industry news, local news, upcoming issues, current hot topics, and your social media offerings. (Not just ad deadlines!)

View Complete List of Ways Niche Publisher's Can Generate Additional Revenue Online

There is a Niche Digital conference coming up in September in Chicago that may be of interest to you niche publishers on MediaBids. We attended a conference put on by this group last year and it was fantastic. Learn more here: http://www.nichedigitalconference.com/

Interesting points relating to the IPad by Steve Smith of MIN Online in his column, Eye on Digital Media:

IPad Reality Check

Whether the tablet platform is in fact the game changer many publishers
want it to be, it is easy to let the glare of the iPad blind us
to some realities of the platform that are apparent to those of us who
have used the device extensively since day one.

1. The iPad will change your Web strategy. At a recent min Webinar
on magazines developing for e-books and tablets, I was surprised to see
that excitement for the iPad exposed the ongoing frustrations publishers
have with the Web. Low user engagement, brand dilution, poor monetization, and poor
design sense all seemed to characterize the experience of many magazines on the Web.
Condé Nast vp/editorial operations Rick Levine showed a chart comparing the monthly
time spent with Gentlemen's Quarterly in print, online, and in the iPhone app. For the
first three issues that GQ appeared on the iPhone, its users spent about 70 minutes per
issue, on par with the print GQ and about five times longer than time spent per unique
user at gq.com. If these new mobile screens take off, publishers will be rethinking and
perhaps scaling back the Web strategies they have been developing for years.

2. Not so fast. Apps now compete with the Web. One of the unanticipated consequences
of the tablet platform's larger screen is that full Web browsing is now much more viable
than it was on smart phones. The tablet format diminishes that rationale for an app and
so a publisher's branded magazine app will compete with its own Web site.
Entertainment Weekly has tried to recognize the divide by integrating a Web site
viewer with its good Must List app. USA Today engages the problem by re-engineering
its Web content so thoroughly into a better touch-driven experience in the app that
you don't bother hitting the brand on the Web.

3. The ads on the iPad suck. I am not sure why these haven't been raised yet. Most
of the early ad units in magazine apps rely almost entirely on the impact of the original
print ad or pull in a tv spot. There are very few consumer brand apps except for
a forgettable trifle from The Gap and a more ambitious athlete trainer from Nike. The
real opportunity for publishers with in-app advertising is to develop mini-apps for
clients that run within the media’s app and truly leverage the touch and multimedia
capabilities of the format.

4. Cost and standardization will be the choke points to adoption of tablet magazines.
Publishers appear to be digging in their heels over price and seem ready to
defy the loud consumer sentiment against high single-issue pricing. If "Tablet-ized"
magazines are going to keep "enhanced" pricing for "enhanced" iPad magazines, they
need to make a much better case for where they are adding the value.

Being on the iPad with some cool navigation and added videos or little spinning
twirly things does not earn a publisher multiples more than what a reader pays for a
subscription. Publishers need to start thinking about including tangible assets like
special subscriber-only utility apps or in-app games and puzzles. And speaking of
spinning twirly things...stop reinventing the wheel. It is irritating and ultimately
counterproductive to have readers learn a new interface for every digital magazine.
The bottom-line lesson that overarches all of the above is that publishers should not
mistake the Tablet app environment as a full break with the past. Users are bringing
certain expectations for pricing and usability that are informed by a decade of Web
experience. Magazine apps have to share a platform with the Web, and what your brand
does on the tablet platform will have to work in concert with print and Web strategies.
If you think that the iPad promises a simple "reset" of the digital relationship
between publishers and readers, then think harder.

Newspaper & magazine associations are a great resources for publications and advertisers alike. They can provide publications with new sales tools, training, research, group ad sales and more. Additionally, associations like NAA & MPA compile valuable statistics that can be used by both sales teams and advertisers to analyze the effectiveness of print advertising in certain categories. To check out the regional and national associations, click on any of the links below - to view a complete list of national & international, DMOZ has compiled a great directory.

National Associations
AAN - Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
AFCP - Association of Free Community Newspapers
MPA  - Magazine Publishers of America
NAA - Newspaper Association of America
NNA - National Newspaper Association
NNPA - National Newspaper Publishers Association
SNA - Suburban Newspapers of America

State/Regional Associations
Alabama Press Association (APA)
Arizona Newspapers Association (ANA)
California Newspaper Publishers Association
Community Papers of Florida (CPF)
Iowa Newspaper Association
IPA - Inland Press Association
MFCP - Midwest Free Community Papers
Minnesota Free Paper Association (MFPA) 
Missouri Press Association
NENA - New England Newspaper Association
New Jersey Press Association (NJPA)
NYPA - New York Press Association
Ohio Newspaper Association (ONA)
PNNA - Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association
SNPA - Southern Newspaper Publishers Association
WNPA - Washington Newspaper Publishers Association

Not all news in the print industry is bad - this article from MediaPost outlines some of the successes small newspapers are still experiencing. Among the reasons for their continued success is the ability to maximize on the local scope of their publication - to provide excellent content to their local readers and deliver the highly targeted local readership to their advertisers.

Working with advertisers who target locally everyday, we can testify to the existent demand for local print advertising. Local merchants whose target customers work or live within a relatively close distance to their business depend on saturating their local market with their advertisements to promote their business to prospective and existing customers. Many of these advertisers tell us that their local newspaper is the first place that comes to mind as the best place for promotion - in front of radio, television and online.

To find out about the full-range of reasons some small weekly newspapers' circulation are actually growing, Click Here to view the full MediaPost article.

As a regular feature of the Print Observer, we will be posting MediaBytes - brief Q&A's with some of the publications and advertisers that work with MediaBids. For this first post, Brian Gay, Executive Director of the MFCP (Midwest Free Community Papers), answers a few brief questions about his publications, the print industry and the web.

Q: (MB) How did your association get started? Who are the member publication's typical readers?
A: (MFCP) Midwest Free Community Papers and Midwest AdNet (MFCP and MAN) is an association of free local papers serving areas in 10 states in the Midwest. MFCP was formed 53 years ago when publisher came together to discuss common concerns and to share advice and experiences about this new industry. In the early days, theses papers were owned and operated as small family businesses. Often the only vacation the family got was attending the association meetings. Being from the Midwest our member publications reach many C & D markets. In some communities, our papers are the only widely distributed source of local news. As an industry we view advertising as news that people want to read. Almost all of our member papers have circulation audits. The numbers are extremely good for MFCP.

Q: (MB) How has the web impacted your sales and circulation?
A: (MFCP) Our papers have not seen a drop in circulation like the paid papers have because as the population grows we add new circulation area. The goal is to cover 100% of the market served. The web has had an impact on the papers. The publishers see some erosion of ads going to the web. Many of them have web sites and promote that to their readers.

Q: (MB) Without using a specific advertisers name, give us an advertiser’s success story that they had as a result of advertising in your group of publications.
A: (MFCP) We have many success stories. However the one that stands out in my mind is a small company that buys furs from trappers. For the last 9 years we have been running ads in 20 to 25 papers letting the trappers know when the buyer will be in their town. This small business has experience substancial growth because of these ads.

Q: (MB) What is the greatest challenge faced by your publications?
A: (MFCP) Like many companies, finding quality employees is a constant challenge. This is especially true when hiring sales people.

Q: (MB) Are your publications making any notable changes in 2008?
A: (MFCP) We continue to be extremely flexible and are constantly searching for new opportunities. In 2008, MFCP will be developing several new programs to help our members utilize the web more.  

To view print advertising opportunities with the MFCP, please Click Here.