Features and practical traffic-generating techniques of 7 major mainstream platforms including Toutiao and Baijiahao!

My understanding of operations actually starts with channel drainage, or to be more precise, platform drainage. In the era when QQ was the main gathering place for users, my most basic job was to find ways to divert users from high-traffic platforms to QQ groups. What I didn’t expect was that I have been doing similar work for many years and am still doing it now. I can say that I have a deep affection for it.

Later, mobile Internet represented by WeChat came, and PC Internet and QQ began to decline, but the work of attracting traffic continued. So, I started looking for traffic diversion platforms other than WeChat, and WeChat served as a replacement for QQ.

I found my own media and tried Toutiao, Sohu, Penguin, Baijia, Yidian, NetEase, Dayu, Shijian, Phoenix, etc., and continued to replicate and operate past experiences on these platforms. As for the effect, I can’t say it’s very good, but at least it’s pretty good. This article shares my views on content platform operations based on my past experience and my own thinking.

Why do we need to do self-media?

Before choosing a content platform, you must think about a question: Why do you want to do self-media? This answer determines your purpose and future results.

I have two answers to this question: attracting new customers and monetizing . It’s that simple and direct.

You must know that when generating traffic on the platform, you must follow one of the basic ideas of the Internet - traffic thinking, that is, attracting traffic and conversion through large-scale exposure. It can be expressed in one formula: exposure = traffic + conversion.

Through large-scale exposure, such as high-frequency or large-scale distribution of articles, videos and audios, users of one or more platforms will follow you or enter the traffic entrance you leave. At this point, you only need to provide products to achieve basic monetization.

This is a very simple and highly replicable action, and it shows the obvious value of being a content platform, especially when operating multiple platforms. The best examples to prove this point are "Luoji Siwei" and "Wu Xiaobo Channel".

As far as I remember, the early videos and audios of "Luoji Siwei" were distributed on multiple platforms, and then the traffic was gathered to the WeChat public account. For example, videos are updated on Youku and audios are updated on Himalaya FM. This laid the initial traffic foundation for their later launch of the Dedao App.

At present, "Luoji Siwei" no longer distributes content on platforms other than Dedao and WeChat public accounts. The "Wu Xiaobo Channel", which started at the same time as him, is still operating on multiple platforms, such as articles synchronized on Toutiao, videos updated on iQiyi, and audio operated on Himalaya FM. The content on these platforms is still being directed to its WeChat public account.

In fact, the scale of "Wu Xiaobo Channel" is already very large. What is the real purpose of operating it on so many platforms? My answer is to maintain continuous exposure and on this basis further amplify traffic and influence.

After all, one speaker is no match for multiple speakers.

How to operate multiple self-media?

Since attracting new users and monetizing are the purposes of operating a content platform, how should we operate multiple platforms?

On content platforms, content output is the most basic means of attracting traffic and realizing monetization, and there are two main strategies for content output: unified distribution and vertical operation .

1. Unified distribution

Unified distribution, as the name suggests, means synchronizing the content of one platform to other content platforms. This is the most commonly used traffic-generating strategy for many self-media accounts, especially self-media in vertical fields.

Many of the self-media that I follow, both large and small, such as "Bird Brother's Notes", "Operation Research Society", "Three Classes" and other Internet operation self-media, distribute articles on multiple platforms such as Toutiao, Zhihu, 36Kr, etc. The family education self-media that I once operated also used this strategy.

Why adopt a unified distribution strategy? Because it has a very big advantage, which is simple, direct and efficient, which is reflected in two points:

(1) One person can handle the multi-platform distribution of content. If there are only a few platforms, manual editing can be done to publish them. If there are many platforms, you can choose to use special tools to achieve one-click synchronization. In addition, many platforms support directly capturing the content of WeChat public accounts. As long as the settings are successful, posts on WeChat can be automatically synchronized on multiple platforms.

(2) You can focus on the output of the original platform's content without having to consider too much about the content characteristics and reading effects of other platforms. After long-term output, we will find that content of different themes and types will become popular on different platforms, and there will be considerable growth overall.

However, unified distribution cannot maximize traffic attraction and monetization. Because in addition to attracting traffic from content platforms and converting them into products, there are other more direct ways to monetize.

Many platforms will provide high subsidies for high-quality original content, such as Toutiao’s Qingyun Plan and Thousand People Ten Thousand Yuan Plan, and Bilibili’s VLOG Star Plan. Some content platforms provide functions that can be directly monetized, such as advertising, knowledge payment, product stores, etc., such as the headlines and columns of Toutiao, and the product showcases of Douyin short videos.

If you want to make money by the above means by creating a content platform, you obviously need to use another content output strategy, namely vertical operation.

2. Vertical Operation

The so-called vertical operation is to form a special team, where each team member chooses one or two platforms to delve into the content and outputs content based on the characteristics of the platforms until they explore replicable experience and achieve large-scale operations. The self-media teams that create a public account matrix on WeChat, as well as the teams that create accounts in the gray and black industries, all use this strategy to monetize.

The former mostly output regular, original and valuable content, and many of them become high-quality creators on content platforms. The latter is the target of crackdown by almost all content platforms, and makes profits through pseudo-original means such as plagiarism, pasting, and splicing.

In addition to studying the content characteristics of the platform to conduct in-depth operations, utilizing other traffic rules in the platform is also a concrete manifestation of this strategy.

For example, platforms such as Toutiao, Tencent News, and Zhihu all have functions such as question and answer, video, and updates. Content creators can output content that conforms to these formats and maximize the traffic of these platforms through deeper and more systematic operations.

In short, the operational purpose determines the content strategy, which is the basic principle of self-media traffic. Another principle is to ensure the supply of high-quality content. Only good content can bring accurate and high-quality traffic. It can be seen that operation is so simple and classic.

A brief analysis of the seven major content platforms

In addition to knowing the strategy, you also need to understand the platform. I briefly analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of 7 mainstream content platforms:

1. Toutiao

Advantages : The recommendation algorithm is the smartest among mainstream content platforms, following the content recommendation logic of "old news duplication check -> first-level recommendation feedback -> second-level recommendation feedback -> large-scale exposure", as well as a multi-dimensional content evaluation data system; it attaches importance to original authors and platform first releases, and as long as you write carefully, you can earn money. There are mainly Thousands of People and Tens of Thousands of Yuan Plans, Courtesy Plans, Qingyun Plans, etc., which are suitable for deep cultivation.

Disadvantages : There is no novice period, which makes it more difficult for new accounts to produce explosive content; traffic support decreases and tilts towards short videos such as Tik Tok.

2. Big Fish

Advantages : There are many subsidies and considerable profits. High-quality accounts can obtain larger Big Fish bonuses and can also connect to Alibaba's internal merchant resources. Content can be distributed on multiple platforms, especially videos, which can be synchronized on UC, Youku, Tudou and other platforms to increase exposure.

Disadvantages : Originality is not easy to obtain, there are many rules and tasks, which requires in-depth content cultivation and tests patience; the algorithm is slightly lacking in intelligence, and it is easy to have less than a hundred readings.

3. Baijiahao

Advantages : large traffic, high revenue, high weight, enjoys priority support from Baidu traffic, easy to produce explosive articles, and is recommended to be a distribution platform.

Disadvantages : The income is slow to open up, and it takes about a month of renewal to become positive; the index is easy to decline, requiring long-term persistence and quality assurance; it is easy to be moved; the duplicate checking mechanism is strict.

4. Penguin

Advantages : Large traffic, articles can be synchronized on multiple platforms such as Tencent News and Tiantian Express, suitable for content distribution.

Disadvantages : Strict review, credit point system, easy to be deducted points or even banned, and less benefits.

5. Yidianzixun

Advantages : The problem feedback service is good, and the author can get timely response when encountering problems.

Disadvantages : Need to be invited or endorsed to activate; difficult to activate income, need to persist in updating for two months; less traffic, suitable for distribution.

6. Sohu Account

Features : easy to settle in, large traffic and easy exposure, high search weight, few restrictions on traffic, considerable income, suitable for content distribution and monetization.

7. NetEase

Advantages : Mainly based on posting, it is easy to produce popular articles.

Disadvantages : less income, strict content review, and articles synchronized with WeChat are easily rejected, so it is suitable for distribution and not suitable for heavy investment.

How to choose a platform based on the advantages and disadvantages of each platform? The author briefly describes their traffic characteristics.

First of all, let’s talk about the scale of traffic . As far as mobile is concerned, Penguin account > Toutiao account > NetEase account > Yidian account > Sohu account .

According to QuestMobile's 2019 semi-annual China Mobile Internet Strength Value List, Tencent News has 280 million monthly active users, Toutiao has 250 million monthly active users, NetEase News has 69 million monthly active users, Yidian Zixun has 48 million monthly active users, Sohu News has 35 million monthly active users, and Tiantian Kuaibao has 30 million monthly active users.

However, any content platform cannot only look at itself, but also the platform it depends on. For example, Baijiahao relies on Baidu Mobile, and Dayuhao relies on UC Browser. Therefore, the comprehensive traffic ranking should be Penguinhao>Baijiahao>Dayuhao>Toutiaohao>Sohuhao>NetEasehao>Yidianhao .

The second is content preference . Anyone who has operated too many platforms will know that the traffic obtained by content in different fields on different content platforms is actually different, which basically does not conform to the above platform traffic rules. Because each platform has a corresponding content focus, which is related to the geographical distribution of platform traffic and user attributes.

This impressed me deeply in my actual operation.

I remember that when operating educational self-media, content with celebrity stories often has very high recommendations and reading volumes on Toutiao accounts. Subversive and inflammatory content will have higher exposure on Sohu. As for chicken soup-like content, Penguin seems to prefer it more.

Of course, the above is just my personal experience and cannot be generalized. No matter which content platform, as long as it can create a certain degree of anxiety and fear in terms of wealth, health, education, etc., and spread entertainment and funny content, it will be favored by traffic.

The above is a summary of the characteristics of each platform. I hope you can use the content strategies mentioned above in combination with each platform to find an operating method that suits you.

Practical interpretation of Toutiao account traffic diversion

In order to let readers clearly understand how to actually drive traffic and conversion on content platforms, the author takes Toutiao as an example to briefly talk about the methods of attracting new users through self-media.

As mentioned earlier, one of the two basic principles for content platform traffic generation is to produce high-quality content. For content platforms, it is articles. There are two key parts to writing high-quality articles: one is how to come up with a title, and the other is how to write the content.

Let’s talk about the title first. I personally admire the method of writing titles in “The Light of Operation”, which is to subvert cognition and associate with celebrities .

The so-called subversion of cognition means that your article title expresses counterintuitive and counterintuitive views. Because once people’s cognition is overturned, they will become curious and click on and browse your articles, such as "It is not the college entrance examination that determines a child’s life, but the fourth and fifth grades and the second year of junior high school! ”, this article has been read hundreds of thousands of times on Toutiao.

So what is a connected celebrity ? In fact, it is to make the title related to famous people, events, companies, etc. This title is generally used to follow hot topics and is often used together with subverting cognition. For example, "Ma Yili's daughter won the national championship: the education of children by parents is essentially price discrimination" generated more than 100,000 views by using the combined use of the two title methods.

For an article, almost half of the time is spent on coming up with a title, and the remaining half is spent on polishing the content of the article. In terms of content, many people tend to overlook this point - the article framework .

There are actually many frameworks for articles. The more famous one is SCQA, which stands for "Scenario-Conflict-Question-Answer" . This is a very formulaic writing framework that can be applied directly.

What I like most are actually two other writing routines. One is the chicken soup-style story writing, and the other is the Golden Circle Rule, also called the WWH Rule, which stands for "What-Why-How".

Let’s talk about story-telling style writing first. This type of article is very easy to spread. In "Contagious", story is one of the six elements of communication. This is also true for content platforms that mainly rely on algorithmic recommendations.

In fact, it is very easy to create a story-telling article. First, you need to collect a lot of story materials and adapt them when writing. The second step is to clarify the theme and connect the stories that fit the theme.

As for writing based on the WWH rule, the framework is relatively easy to understand. The difficulty lies in the fact that it requires a long period of training, because it is formed through careful analysis and argumentation of a problem, and requires strong logical reasoning ability. If you can stick to this writing style for a long time, it will be of great benefit to the training of logical thinking.

Of course, in addition to the title and structure, writing style is also very important. This is related to daily accumulation and training, so I will not go into details here.

With high-quality content, you only need to leave a traffic entrance to attract traffic. Of course, it is necessary to provide guidance in the article and provide users with interest points, which is to "leave a tail".

However, it should be specially pointed out that most content platforms prohibit direct traffic diversion. As long as you leave a QR code, QQ number, WeChat number, external link, as well as words such as WeChat, QQ, Weibo and their deformations (public accounts have little impact), they will be judged as advertisements. Therefore, when conducting self-media traffic diversion, other methods should be used to circumvent these restrictions. There are two main ways:

The first is to provide guidance in the comment section . For example, if you have prepared a wealth of PPT templates and tutorials, you only need to reply to XX keywords on the XX public account, or search and add the WeChat account to receive them. This is currently a relatively safe and easy way to drain traffic.

The second is to guide people to follow your Toutiao account and send private messages . Send fans external jump links, or benefit collection methods and WeChat and QQ numbers in private messages. However, this method tests the attractiveness of the content and the stickiness of the account, but it is safer.

The above is a general interpretation of the practical operation of self-media traffic diversion.

Summarize

This article analyzes the causes and strategies of content platform operations, the characteristics of mainstream platforms, and the interpretation of practical traffic diversion. The summary is as follows:

1. The purpose of content platform operation is to attract new users and realize monetization, and it follows the traffic thinking, that is, exposure = traffic + conversion.

2. The two major strategies for content platform operations are unified distribution and vertical operation. The former is suitable for a single person, while the latter requires a team.

3. After analyzing 7 content platforms, Toutiao is the most worthy of in-depth operation, followed by Dayu and Baijia, and the others are suitable for distribution.

4. Taking Toutiao as an example, the practical operation of self-media traffic diversion is explained, that is, giving priority to ensuring high-quality content and choosing safe traffic diversion methods.

That’s all, I hope it’s useful to you.