Yandex.Zen is a platform that allows authors of articles to earn money from the advertising displayed in them. It offers excellent prospects for earning additional or main income.
Channel promotion is a process that requires diligence, attention to content, and the right selection of headlines for articles and narratives. You can get bumps on your own experience or use our instruction on how to promote a channel on the platform.
From this article, you’ll learn how to promote a channel on Yandex.Zen and start earning money; how to choose a topic, which articles and narratives to prepare and what not to do. The last point should be given as much attention as the others – the platform has certain rules and restrictions, due to which the channel can be blocked.
How you can make money from your channel in Zen
Before you move on to the active phase – promotion of the channel in order to make money, you need to understand how much the actions can pay off in the future. Monetization comes in three varieties:
- simple earnings;
- native advertising;
- Advertising networks + direct selling (available for channels connected to Nirvana).
Simple advertising
Connection of channel monetization and the subsequent receipt of money from the placed blocks of advertising in publications.
Monetization is activated when the reading and viewing time in the blogger’s channel reaches 10 000 minutes in 7 consecutive days.
Important: from the moment the application is submitted, ad units in articles and videos are automatically turned on, monetary funds begin to be credited to the balance with an interval of two days. So, having connected an advertisement on July 1, the money for that date will be added to your balance on July 3. This time is required to track fraudulent actions in relation to the platform (e.g., ad clicks).
Native advertising
Means creating materials with advertising within content – links in articles. At the same time, posts should be marked accordingly when posting.
The ability to integrate this type of advertising becomes available immediately, but the reach of the audience before monetization will be cut by the platform.
Advertising networks + direct sales – “Nirvana”
The way of earning through ad networks and direct sales is available only to PP Nirvana members, which opens up a completely different perspective of monetization of the channel on the platform.
In the materials, you can set up the display of RNS ad units. In long articles – at the beginning and at the end, in short articles – only at the end, in narratives – on the last screen.
Important: In long-form articles, advertising from RSS can be placed either at the beginning or in the middle of the article – Yandex is constantly experimenting with the format of placement to get the highest clickability of ads. To place ads in the narrative should be used at least 5 screens.
To connect direct sales, you need to sign up for the ADFOX platform, which allows you to manage your ads. Direct sales work on the principle of real-time auction; the most advantageous offer among advertisers is automatically selected for the article. That is, when the reader loads the page, the system bids and selects the most profitable offer.
“Nirvana: conditions for joining the program
“Nirvana” is a support program aimed at authors who create interesting, high-quality content for platform users.
Benefits:
- Priority display in the feed.
- Increased traffic to the channel, the number of subscribers and the number of followers.
- Personal support manager.
Requirements:
- Quality content. By definition Yandex.Zen – originality, in-depth study of the topic, expert presentation of materials, minimum abuse of negativity, thoughtful design, no intrusive advertising.
- Compliance of the channel with the general rules of the platform.
- Absence of vulgar language, profanity.
- 500+ subscribers on the channel.
- Regular content updates (3 or more narratives/articles within the last month). Edited or duplicate content does not count.
- Connections monetization and passed moderation.
Earnings as a promotion goal can bring good money every day, but you should understand that the competition within the platform is growing and you can’t do without investments in high-quality content.
How to promote a channel in Yandex.Zen
Promotion of the channel can be divided into several stages:
- Choosing a topic.
- Creation of the channel.
- Design.
- Publication of the first three posts.
- Further work with the channel.
Channel theme
Choosing the channel topic is the most important stage. Below is a list of channel categories available on the platform:
It is better to choose the one with which you are familiar and can write competitive, catchy articles. The second option is to choose a topic with which the copywriter is on “you”. The greatest amount of traffic is collected by entertainment channels:
- Cars.
- Movies.
- Celebrities.
- Humor and entertainment.
The audience of Yandex.zen platform is people over 50 years old. They are more than 50%. Therefore it is advisable to refine topics for them. In all the above categories there are enough topics for writing articles, preparing narratives and even videos.
Chose “Auto” – tell people how to change the steering rack on your own VAZ 2107; show how you are engaged in tuning their “swallow” – people love Lifestyle. As an example, the channel “Za rulem”, which calls itself a car magazine #1 in Russia and the CIS. They talk about accidents, test-drives of new cars, the introduction of electronic motor licenses and so on.
For movies, reviews without spoilers are suitable, personal opinions on new releases – you always have to be on trend and periodically peek at your competitors, what’s interesting now and what movie you should go to, and then – share your opinion with readers and subscribers.
Other topics – travel, finance, games, sports – have a much lower number of reads, views and impressions in the feed. Since Yandex.Zen is primarily an entertainment platform for most people, people who use it as a source of inspiration or for learning are the exception to the rule.
Important: a catchy headline + properly chosen and processed image + interesting text inside = a perfect article with great potential.
Step-by-step algorithm for choosing a channel topic
Nothing comes to mind – use the step-by-step algorithm for selecting a topic:
- Research all the existing categories within the platform.
- Choose a few topics that are closest to you.
- Analyze the selected topics for relevance to the mass reader.
- Determining the target audience.
- Research competitors – the format of articles, narratives, videos, headlines, material presentation.
- Make an approximate structure on the basis of the data.
Creating and designing the channel
To create a channel, go to the zen.yandex.ru/media page and click the “Become an author” button. Sign in by entering your Yandex email and password or register.
Read more about registration in our article “Creating a channel in Yandex.zen”.
In terms of promotion, you need to pay attention to three main elements in the design:
Name. The more attractive the name is chosen, the more likely the reader will go to the profile and subscribe.
Avatar. Try to create a unique, bright, eye-catching avatar for the channel.
Description. You should briefly describe the features of the channel, add a call to subscribe.
First 3 publications
The first publications allow the algorithm to determine the topic of the channel and start showing these and subsequent articles, narratives, videos to the most loyal audience. It is important to pay attention when writing them:
- On the headlines. Make them attractive but not clickbait (you may get a filter for this).
- Previews. Ideally – create unique, or process downloaded from the Internet. A good example are promoted channels on YouTube with hundreds of thousands, millions of subscribers.
- Content. Work out a plan for writing an article, a narrative so that the person is interested in reading to the end. The higher the rate of screen scrolls (tracked by Metrics), the more likely you are to receive an increased number of impressions.
- Tags. The platform prompts on the basis of the context of the article, which tags are appropriate, but it is better to add your own. You can check out your competitors by subject to increase your coverage.
Connecting Yandex.Metrika
To connect Metric and collect data for analysis of channel statistics in Zen, click “Customize Channel” under the logo in the menu on the right.
How articles are ranked in Zen
When creating content, there are a number of nuances to consider:
- A balance between a clickbait headline and an attractive one.
- Matching the content of the article to the headline.
- Use of images from open photostocks or with a link to the source (to avoid blocking the channel on a complaint from the copyright holder).
- Aesthetic design. Use underlines, use images, dilute the article with interesting headlines to keep the reader’s attention.
There are currently three formats of content:
- Articles. Lots of text and images, the ability to use headlines and underlines.
- Narratives. Used by many as a supplement to an article with a clickable link on the last screen, but are actually a separate format for presenting content.
- Video. A test format unavailable to most authors.
An article, if it is more than 2,500 characters, will have two ad units inserted (at the beginning or in the middle and at the end), if it is smaller – only 1 unit, located at the end. In terms of monetization, writing large articles is more profitable, but not everyone reads them.
In the narrative ad unit is contained in the last screen, provided that the number of screens 5 or more. Clickability of such ads is much higher.
Before reaching monetization, it is advisable to publish articles at least twice a day, then the volume can be increased if the content does not lose quality. The minimum interval between articles is 3 hours, so they don’t overlap the number of each other’s impressions.
Where to get content for the channel
There are three ways to acquire content of desired quality:
- Writing on your own. Requires time, literacy and certain skills.
- Rewriting (by yourself or ordering on the exchange). Inexpensive and profitable if you have a good source.
- Copywriting. Find an interested author knowledgeable in the subject of the channel to write content. Most often require payment for each article + a percentage of the number of readings.
How to monetize
You can monetize your portal only if you reach 7 thousand pageviews in the last 7 days. Narrative (to the last screen) and article (at least 40 seconds in an article window) readings are taken into account.
This result is possible when writing quality content on the selected channel topic. Taking into account all these recommendations, you can monetize your content within 10-30 calendar days.
Also take into account the time of publication. The recommended time for a short article or narrative – 9, 10 and 15 MSK, for long (2.5 thousand characters) – not earlier than 18 hours MSK.
What not to do
The following actions within the platform may result in a filter or ban your account:
- Clickbait. Title does not correspond to the content of the article.
- Copying someone else’s content. Each article must be unique.
- Copying of copyrighted images. Blocking at the request of the copyright holder.
- Advertising banned goods or services.
- Submission of knowingly false information.
- Detailed descriptions of tragedies.
- Shocking content.
- Illegal information and other.
Conclusion
It will take a lot of effort and patience to monetize the channel. With the right choice of topic, constant writing of unique content, the result will not make you wait – some channels pass the threshold of 7,000 reads from the first 5-8 articles written in an interesting way.