How To Start An Online News Portal

This is my Third post in the series of online news portal website design and development. In the first post I discussed on some distinctive features of news portal design . Second article was on some major reasons for why an online portal development is essential  in today’s world. Here, I discuss some simple steps for how to start one.

Most of the news and magazine industries are going online by developing and designing online news portal services and introducing e-papers. In the future, while the technology is growing in a super speed, without a strong online presence newspapers and magazines will definitely struggle to exist. The best way is to change, change with time.

By developing a news portal website you can create a strong online presence without spending too much. News website development and design is not a complex process as you can do it easily through some simple steps mentioned below.

7 Simple Steps to Start An Online News Portal

The seven simple steps that will guide you to start an online news portal easily are as follow;

Get your domain name

News portal development process starts with buying a domain name for your online news service. Buy one as per your choice and try to make it easy to remember and type. Make sure that the domain name fits your brand name. You can choose Godaddy, Bigrock or any other domain provider to get your name.

Choose web hosting service

This is the second step in news web development process. Choosing a web host provider is very important. Your chosen web host acts as a storage space to save all your files, posts, pages and databases online. Go for some strong and reliable hosting services like HostGator and Bluehost. I suggest you to not go for free, cheap and poor hosting services. They will cause you to suffer in many ways and will slow down your website.

Install excellent templates

Installing templates for website design is the next step. WordPress is the recommended platform for this purpose. WordPress is considered as the best and most popular platform to build a website. There many WordPress newspaper wordpress theme available so that you can use one that suits your choice.

Install the newspaper design

News portal development excels with outstanding designs and impressive looks. After installing a good template now you need a theme for your web portal. I wouldn’t recommend you to go for cheap or free themes if you are really serious about building your own brand and strengthening your online presence. There are many great WordPress themes available for your use.

Customize you design

After installing the theme customize the design you installed as per your choice. Customization is an important step in news portal development. Include categories of people’s interest from politics, culture, entertainment, life style, health, sports, travel, education, etc.

Publish articles

Now, it is time to publish your content. If you are using WordPress design, to publish just click on Posts > New Post from your WordPress dashboard. Make sure that you come up with quality articles with captivating headlines. Never bore readers with your content and try to study and research on topics of people’s interest before you start publishing.

Promote your news portal

News portals exist with promotion. Without vigorous promotional strategies your new built news website may fail to reach target audience and attract them. Social media is the best promotional tool you can use. If you use the networks like Facebook, twitter, Google+, etc., rightly they can send traffic to your sites almost instantly whenever you publish a new content.

How To Start An Online News Portal In India?

Starting an online news portal in India is a simple process. Currently there is no requirement to register online news portals with any ministry or department, like there is for newspapers, TV channels and radio channels. You can start off an online news portal like any other website.

There are various guidelines from the Press Information Bureau like number of subscribers, frequency of updates, percentage of current affairs content, etc., if you are looking for accreditation for the journalists of the online news portal!

In short, if you are seriously thinking of an online presence for your newspaper or magazine by developing a news portal, this is the right time to call your web consultant and make an appointment. You are a bit late actually. Go for it dude if you want your business to exist.