Part 2: Marketing on a Lowbrow budget and syndication

How do you promote LL, and which methods have worked best? I'm thinking of SEO, banner exchanges, press releases and the like...
I have to laugh. Promote the Lowbrow Lowdown? Uh...well...the last time I looked in my marketing budget war chest, all I found was a rubber band and some stale gum. My marketing strategy has consisted of the following: search engine submission, some generic meta tag keywords that I'm too lazy to update for every story, some really cool promo postcards that I distribute on very rare occasions even though I should be tossing them around at trade shows on a regular basis, one press release that I released for free through some enewsrelease.com special...shall I go on?

Let's put it this way: I know there are lots of things I'd like to do that don't cost much, if anything. I just don't have the time, or more truthfully, the knowledge to implement them. I've been wanting to put a "send this story to a friend" feature and a forum on the site for a long time now.

Still, my unique visitor numbers, page view numbers, etc. have risen steadily in the last year; the unique visitor number has actually doubled within the past six months which is pretty cool.

LL is syndicated to BrandEra times. How did that partnership come about? Any other similar deals in the works?
Yep. The syndication thing is something I wanted to do since the column started. It actually ran on ClickZ for about six months, too. The BrandEra thing came about because I had connections to the publisher while still at ChannelSeven, and when I went freelance I did a lot of writing for them.

Now I pretty much just distribute the syndicated version of the column to them. It's gone from every week to bi-weekly to monthly in a matter of months. Needless to say, money's involved, or lack thereof. The ClickZ thing ended because of that, too. I've actually got another deal with an online UK publication that's been official for quite a while now, but the site has yet to launch. It's up and down, like everything else.

Revenue streams: have you considered a paid subscription option? And do you accept outside advertisers?
I love the zen-like quality of business-speak, like "revenue streams." Anyway, I've considered a paid subscription thing, but I don't expect people to want to pay to read my drivel. My ego ain't quite that big!

As for ads, before I started the site, I vowed never to run ads on it. I'm not against online ads, but I think that considering the nature of the subject matter, it's not kosher. I'd rather not have my opinions or story choices be influenced by advertisers. I have (believe it or not) had a few inquiries from advertisers, though.

The site attracts a highly coveted target market, you know. I'm not sure what that is, but it's sure to be a roguish bunch.

LL must have raised your industry profile. Has LL lead to offers to work on other projects?
Most of the work I do as a freelance writer comes through contacts I've made outside of the Lowbrow, but I suppose it's possible. However, if anybody out there needs any freelance writing or editing assistance, please think of me. I'm serious. It's rough out there these days.

If you were starting LL from scratch today, what would you do differently?
I might change the name. I dig it; don't get me wrong. It's just that "Lowbrow Lowdown" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. I invariably have to spell it out at least twice for people. I think I did consider that beforehand and just decided to stay stubborn and go with it despite the potential problems, which are minor. Other than that, I'm happy with the way things have been going thus far.

What has publishing LL taught you that you wouldn't have learned any other way?
I'm not sure about the "any other way" part, but the self-imposed deadlines involved with publishing the site and column have proved to me that I can maintain a consistently good product (or at least I hope that's what people think of it).

Can you tell us about your plans for the future?
Well, Lowbrow Lowdown syndication is actually part of my grand scheme, which is to make some side money while at home raising my yet-to-be-conceived offspring.

We'll be watching for future syndication.