E-Commerce & Affiliate Revenue from The Sun Has Grown into a 7-Figure Business
https://digiday.comA year ago, U.K. tabloid The Sun made the decision to split out its product recommendations and buying guides into its own section, called Sun Selects. The goal: To grow and retain revenue sources generated from e-commerce.
So far, it’s working as e-commerce and affiliate revenue have grown into a seven-figure business for the publisher, said Jo Carrigan, head of commercial content at parent company News UK. Sales conversion rates have increased as people become more familiar with the brand. Dwell time on Sun Selects articles are above the average compared with The Sun’s other articles.
Sun Selects has a team of five people working on commerce content with another 10 to 15 freelancers used for more specialist product recommendation articles. 85% of Sun Selects traffic comes from Google Search.
Sitting as a subfolder on a newspaper’s domain should help them rank well for some of those queries they want to target. Remember when The New York Times moved wirecutter to their subdomain, you will see more of these from other newspapers as well, that along with leased subdomains for coupons and such. With advertising revenue drying up these are the new ways to make money for publishers.