From Scratch to Success: Starting a News Website

Thinking of creating a news website? Whether you’re planning it as a hobby or a business venture, there are some important things you should know before jumping in.

In this step-by-step guide, we will explore the essential tips on how to create a news site, including the tools you’ll need and steps you can take to get started. 

We’ll also spotlight our very own recommended RSS aggregation tool, WP RSS Aggregator, and explain how it can help you to curate and enhance your news content.

What do you need to decide on before creating your news site?

Before creating any website, it pays to do research. From our experience, here’s what you need to do to give your news website the best possible chance of success from the get-go.

1. Deciding on a niche and target audience for your news website

Choosing the right niche and target audience is pivotal to your news website’s success. It’s the backbone of your venture, answering the fundamental questions – who is your website for, and what will it deliver?

Is it going to be a news website that focuses on economics? An aggregator of some of the best Italian recipes from multiple sources? A place for enthusiasts of a niche hobby to get news on it?

Selecting a specific niche sets your site apart from competitors, curates more relevant content, and boosts your chances of attracting a loyal and engaged audience. Some niches are also easier to build an audience in, since they might be underserved.

Here are some tips to help you select the perfect niche and audience for your news aggregator site:

• Follow your passion: Starting with your own interests or areas of expertise is a great way to ensure long-term dedication to your site.
• Align with your existing business: If you already have a business or audience, consider a niche that aligns with their interests.
• Market research: Investigate news aggregator site examples to identify gaps in the market that you could fill with unique, high-quality content.
• Monetization potential: Consider the revenue potential of your chosen niche. The more popular and profitable your niche, the greater your potential returns.

2. Choosing the right CMS for your news site

Selecting the appropriate Content Management System (CMS) is a vital step in setting up your news website. The right CMS is instrumental in effectively managing and presenting your content. Key attributes to look for include ease of use and the availability of essential features for efficient content management.

WordPress is a highly recommended option for many news websites and most kinds of websites, really. It stands out for its flexibility, user-friendly interface, and extensive range of plugins (like WP RSS Aggregator, which we’ll get to in a minute) and templates. These features render WordPress highly adaptable to various needs of a news website, whether it’s for handling breaking news, in-depth feature stories, or integrating multimedia content.

Whichever CMS you opt for, ensuring it has an intuitive design is crucial not just for your content team but also for your audience. It simplifies the content management process for your team and significantly enhances the user experience for your readers.

3. Choosing a domain name for your news site

This is your unique digital address, so it’s important to ensure that your domain name reflects your chosen niche. Whether your focus is on technology, politics, local news, or any other specific area, the domain name should be a clear indicator of this, making it immediately recognizable to your target audience. Alongside being niche-relevant, the domain should be easy to remember and type, aiding in brand recall and accessibility.

While WordPress is free, registering a domain for a year costs $10-20 for the most common Top-Level Domains (TLDs). Hosting pricing can vary a lot, but you can pay as little as around $5 per month for good, reliable hosting that’s perfect for a news site. Fortunately, plenty of great resources are available online to guide you through the initial WordPress setup.

How to create a news site on WordPress: Step-by-step guide

Once you’ve decided on your niche, target audience, CMS and domain name, it’s time to start building your news site!  For the purpose of this tutorial, we’re focusing on how to create a news site with WordPress.

The steps involved here include:

• Choosing and installing a theme for your site’s blueprint design
• Selecting the right plugins
• Generating and publishing your content
• Promoting your news website
• Monetizing your news site

Let’s look at these steps in a little more detail:

Step 1: Identify a WordPress theme for your news website

Select a theme for your news website that aligns with your brand identity, using appropriate colors, fonts, and layouts. It’s important to ensure the theme is responsive, adapting well to various devices like smartphones and tablets, and accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.

Choosing a customizable theme will make it easy to adjust to your site’s evolving needs. Prioritize themes that are optimized for fast loading and SEO to improve user experience and search engine rankings.

Lastly, opt for a theme with regular updates and reliable support, ensuring your site remains current and functional.

Some themes to help get your news site started include:

1. Bayside: A responsive news theme with drag-and-drop page building, various post formats, and an infinite scroll feature, ideal for creating content-rich news sites.
2. SmartMag: A versatile WordPress news theme with Elementor Page Builder integration, multiple post formats, Google AMP compatibility, and an infinite scroll option, perfect for modern editorial platforms.
3. Magazine Pro: A polished news theme tailored for lifestyle-focused sites, featuring a one-click setup, demo content for various niches, and WooCommerce capability, perfect for branded content and online sales.
4. Magazine: A three-column, magazine-style theme with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, offering 42 prebuilt layouts and features like a news ticker and mobile slide menu, great for intricate, information-rich sites.

Step 2: Select the best WordPress plugins for news sites

Selecting the right plugins to create your news site is essential for enhancing the functionality and user experience of your news website. Key plugins can automate content updates, enrich media integration, and streamline site management.

Here are some news plugins to consider adding to the mix:

1. WP RSS Aggregator: A feature-rich plugin for content curation and display, WP RSS Aggregator stands out for its ease of use and comprehensive functionality, ideal for seamless content integration.
2. WP News and Scrolling Widgets: Offers stylish news sliders and widgets with various news site design options, although the more powerful features are available only in the pro version.
3. Ditty: A versatile news ticker plugin that allows for custom tickers with text, images, and hyperlinks, Ditty is ideal for adding dynamic news content but may be overwhelming for new users without the pro version.
4. Vertical News Scroller: A lightweight plugin for displaying news in a vertical scroll format, it’s easy to use and perfect for compact spaces, though it offers fewer customization options.

Additionally, consider integrating other essential plugins for SEO, social media integration, and site analytics to further enhance the functionality and reach of your news site. 

Step 3: Install WP RSS Aggregator

You can either download WP RSS Aggregator and upload it to your site through the Plugins section in your WordPress dashboard or search for “WP RSS Aggregator” through that same section directly.

Step 4: Pick Your Sources and Add Them

Do your research and find the best sources for the audience that you have or want. Once you’ve done that, find their RSS feeds and create the feed sources within WP RSS Aggregator.

To add a source, go to the dashboard and navigate to Aggregator > Hub. Click on Add a new source and you’ll see the following screen. Click on the field under Source Link and type or paste the URL of the feed you want to add (we’re using a food RSS feed for illustrative purposes, our apologies!).

When you do that, WP RSS Aggregator will automatically set up a feed preview, which you can see on the right side of that screenshot. The preview gives you an idea of what the feed will look like and the latest items available for importing.

Step 5: Set up Your Template

Next, let’s set up a display for your news sources. Displays are the actual elements that WP RSS Aggregator can show on your website. A display in Aggregator can show one or more sources and you can fully customize every aspect of how they look.

To set up a display, go to Aggregator > Hub and click on Create a new display. First, select what sources will appear in the display. Click on the field under Sources and type the name of the source you want to add, then select it when it appears in the menu below:

When you add one or more sources, Aggregator will show a preview of their items to the right. You can set the layout of the display to a list, a grid, or a list of excerpts with thumbnails. The plugin also lets you switch between previews for full-sized devices, tablets, and mobiles:

WP RSS Aggregator offers a lot of ways to customize displays and how they look. To see those options, go to the Customization tab. To the left, you have a menu of all the elements the plugin enables you to update:

Check out this breakdown of the display customization settings. Spend some time tinkering with them until your news display looks exactly the way you want.

When you’re done, click on the Save button at the top of the screen to save the template. Now it’s time to place it on your website.

Step 7: Display the Feeds

When you’re editing a display, you’ll see a big red Embed button in the top right corner of the page. If you click on that button, you’ll see the options to add the display to a new page or post, add the display with a block, or use a shortcode:

To use a block, select the RSS Aggregator Display option when you’re using the editor. The block can go anywhere and, once you place it, you can select from among the available displays to show.

If you want to use shortcodes instead, select the Shortcode block and add the code for the display you want to embed. Both approaches are perfectly valid and once you place your display, it’ll look something like this (depending on which layout you chose, this is using a list):

That’s the process in a nutshell! To build a full news site, you’ll likely want to add a large library of sources and set up multiple custom displays to show different types of updates. With WP RSS Aggregator, all of that is possible, but you might want to sign up for a premium plan to get access to features that will make setting up your news site even easier.

Step 8: Supercharge Your Site with a Premium Plan (Optional)

You can set up a fully working news website with the free version of WP RSS Aggregator. However, premium licenses come with a lot of quality-of-life improving features and integrations that will make running that news website a lot easier.

With a Basic Aggregator license ($79/year), you get access to manual content curation and automatic filtering rules. These are custom automations you can set up to control what content the plugin imports or ignores:

With a Plus license ($149/year), you get all of the above features, as well as the option to import feed content as full WordPress posts. You also get the option to add custom content to imported items (either before or after the content) and schedule publications, all of which makes for a better automation experience.

WP RSS Aggregator offers other, more advanced plans that offer features like full-text importing (so you can import the entire content for each item from a source) and AI integrations. You can see more information about our plans on our pricing page.

How to successfully promote your news website

Promoting your news website is key to amplifying your content and maintaining a robust online presence. This involves a combination of digital marketing techniques and strategic platform usage.

1. Submit to Google News

Being featured on Google News, one of the most popular news aggregator websites by Google, which displays news stories from various online sources, can significantly boost your site’s exposure and traffic.

• Adherence to guidelines: Ensure your site complies with Google News’ content policies and technical guidelines.
• Quality content: Focus on publishing original, authoritative news articles regularly.
• Regular updates: Maintain a steady flow of fresh content to stay relevant on Google News.

2. Use social media

Social media platforms are invaluable for news site promotion, offering direct engagement with your audience.

• Platform selection: Choose platforms that best suit your content and audience, like Twitter for breaking news or Instagram for visual stories.
• Engagement: Regularly interact with your audience through updates, comments, and shares to build a community.
• Shareable content: Create content with compelling headlines and visuals that encourage sharing on social platforms.

3. Implement email marketing strategies

Email marketing is a potent tool to connect with and retain your audience.

• Newsletter subscriptions: Promote newsletter sign-ups on your website to build your email list.
• Regular newsletters: Send out automated newsletters with top stories or exclusive content to keep your audience engaged.
• RSS-to-Email: Implement RSS-to-Email campaigns, automatically sending updates to subscribers whenever new content is posted.
• Personalization and segmentation: Tailor content for different audience segments based on subscriber preferences to increase relevance and engagement.

4. Additional promotional techniques

Beyond social media and email marketing, consider these strategies:

• SEO: Optimize your website for search engines and implement SEO strategies for your RSS feed to improve online visibility.
• Networking and partnerships: Engage in collaborations for cross-promotion.
• Community engagement: Participate in relevant online forums and discussion groups to attract traffic to your site.
• Cross-promoting with other websites: Identifying potential partners and collaborating with others is a great way to cross-promote your content and reach a wider audience. You can also guest post on other websites, allowing you to showcase your expertise and drive traffic back to your website.

5. Engage with more people using Instagram

Curating content is a great way to build an audience. However, the influence of social media is not something to be disregarded either. Combining the two together will help to engage more with your audience wherever they are.

Instagram is the best social media platform for engagement. By sharing posts related to the content you’re curating or even featuring them, you can gain new followers and be active in the comment threads.

Combine your Instagram feed with your website, and you’ve suddenly created a new non-intrusive way of building a bigger audience. For this, we recommend Spotlight Instagram Feeds – a social feeds plugin that is incredibly easy to set up and looks great across all devices.

Spotlight is a free plugin that comes with a PRO version for added features. With the premium options, you can even create Instagram feeds showcasing posts that use a specific hashtag, which is another great way to curate user-generated content with no added effort. The free plan is a great start as well.

Monetizing your news website: Various strategies explained

Finding the right monetization strategy for your WordPress news site is critical to building a successful news website.

Affiliate income

Affiliate income is a way to earn revenue by promoting other companies’ products or services. When a user makes a purchase using your affiliate link, you receive a commission.

To effectively use affiliate content on your site:

• Maintain transparency: Label affiliate links clearly to foster trust with your audience.
• Relevant content: Ensure that affiliate content is pertinent and valuable to your readers, keeping them engaged while also promoting products or services.

WP RSS Aggregator simplifies the process of adding affiliate links to your curated news content, allowing you to generate income seamlessly.

Subscription models

Subscription models offer another lucrative monetization strategy. By charging a recurring fee, you can create a steady revenue stream and cultivate a loyal user base.

To implement subscription models effectively:

• Exclusive content: Reward subscribers with unique content or features, providing them with a value-add for their subscription.
• Tiered subscriptions: Offering different subscription tiers can cater to a wider range of user preferences and budgets.

Using a subscription plugin alongside will help you start your news site with a subscription-based payment model. For example, you can create private sections accessible only to subscribers, using custom RSS feeds and the append/prepend function to deliver unique insights and content to your subscriber base.

Advertising revenue

There are two primary approaches to advertising: leveraging third-party ad networks like Google AdSense, which provides revenue based on ad views and clicks, and selling ad space directly to advertisers, which often yields higher revenue but requires more effort in sales and management.

Merchandise sales

For websites with a strong brand presence, selling branded merchandise, such as t-shirts and mugs, can tap into your audience’s loyalty and provide a significant revenue stream.

Your next step: Launching and growing your successful news website

To wrap up, our journey through creating a successful news website has covered a lot of crucial points:

• The importance of selecting a niche and target audience, aligning your site with personal interests or gaps in the market.
• Key legal and ethical considerations, including content curation practices that respect original content creators.
• Setting up your site using a news plugin like WP RSS Aggregator, a simple yet powerful tool for content aggregation.
• Implementing effective keyword and phrase filters, ensuring a personalized and engaging user experience.
• Building a successful business model, underpinned by thorough competitor research and robust monetization strategies.
• The role of analytics in measuring success, optimizing your website, and driving sustained growth.

WP RSS Aggregator is your best ally on this journey, seamlessly importing and displaying relevant RSS feeds from various sources, including text, audio, and video content. It enables you to easily categorize and filter sources while providing automatic attribution to original sources and authors.

With powerful monetization options, particularly in the realm of affiliate income, it’s an ideal tool for revenue generation. Thanks to WP RSS Aggregator’s highly-rated support and commitment to constant improvements, you’ll be able to rest assured that help is at hand whenever you need it.

Try WP RSS Aggregator today and test its suite of features for yourself. With a no-strings-attached, 30-day money-back guarantee, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Don’t just dream about creating an impact – make your news aggregator site successful with WP RSS Aggregator!