I previously shared some steps on how to launch your own radio channel in Nigeria, but the article was mainly for brands with a good budget. If you don't have enough capital and to start up a normal radio channel, we've got some good news, the internet has created a platform where you can broadcast your messages online to your followers.
7 Steps to Launching a Successful Radio Station
• Decide on your concept
The first things you need to consider while creating the online radio is the kind of station you want to float. When I mean the kind of station, you should be talking about things like size, contents and collaborations to ensure consistent branding across all of your programs.If you'd be working with a team, endeavour to plan with them from the beginning to ensure they're on the same page with you.
Some questions you should ask yourself include:
- What's the purpose of my station?
- What kind of topics will I cover?
- Will I host interviews on the station? If yes, what kind?
- Will my station only play music? If yes, what kind of music?
- What about the radio presenters and radio DJs? How often will they be available?
You can research more on how to choose topics, don't just choose a topic because it sounds interesting, try finding out if there's a ready audience already for that niche. You'd also need to plan out means of promoting your new channel.
• Branding
Two major factors you should put into consideration while branding your station are the purpose of the channel and your audience. Try researching on what's around and what you'd offer to people to make them want to stick to your channel.You should also be sure your chosen name does not infringe on existing trademarks. You can use a tool like namemesh for the selection process if you're stuck out of ideas for the branding.
• Avoid copyright infringement
Since you will be running an online radio, you might at one point or the other want to entertain your audience with some music. There are different copyright laws guiding the public streaming on music in various countries so you will have to research well before using a song.If you'd be running a non-musical station like panel discussions or talk shows, you might not be needing a license. But on the occasion whereby you'd be broadcasting music by other artistes, you'd definitely have to consider buying a license.
The cost for music licenses depends on the countr(ies) you’re operating in, as well as the countr(ies) you wish to broadcast to. There are also royalty-free music, but you might really get songs targeting a particular region from there.
• Get some necessary equipment
Since you'd be starting small, you won't be going for expensive equipment at the early stage. You can kick-off with a pair of headphones, a microphone and a service provider. There are so many service providers including cloudrad.io, airtime.pro and Altacast.With time, you can consider including additional equipment like a mixing desk to your set up. It will allow you to physically manage multiple input channels, rather than relying on software mixers. An audio interface like the Focusrite Scarlett range will also be useful in converting audio signals from regular XLR studio microphones into a high-quality digital output.
• Find contents to share
You'd also need to figure out a permanent and reliable source of information for your station. If your channel will be news-oriented, you'll have great work updating your listeners as quickly as possible before the news gets spread. I'd suggest you sign-up to the RSS feeds of popular blogs and news sites to help you get contents first.You can also use a free tool like Google Alerts to help you get updated on the latest happenings in a particular topic. For example, you're running a sports blog, you can turn on alerts for news around the topic of football in Nigeria.
• Website
You'd be needing a website for your online radio. There are so many content management systems but my best is Wordpress. With Wordpress, you just need to pay for a domain and you're website hosting to get your website live.You can hire even hire us to create it for you at a very affordable rate. We won't just create the website, but also offer you further tutorials on how to monetize it even as a beginner.
If you'd be creating the site yourself, I recommend you buy your host from Namecheap. Their plans are very affordable, and yet reliable. We've been using them for more than 3 years and have never had a reason to complain. Their customer care service is also second to none.
• Monetization
The goal of every business owner is to make money from the platform and your station won't be an exception. There are numerous ways of monetizing your station including affiliate marketing, sales of products, direct advertising and use of ad networks like Adsense and TheMoneytizer.If you're having issues getting Google Adsense approval, I'd suggest you try TheMoneytizer. Their pay is very nice, and approval far much easier than Adsense. I've written an honest review of the platform here, and I advise you to check it out.
You can also check out our eBook, 'Blogging 101: The Millionaire Next Door' for further guides on how to start making 6 figures from your blog per month in Nigeria.
We give you the best daily information on news, technology, lifestyle, career, health tips, agriculture, business and entertainment. If you can write very well and want to make a living writing online, click HERE!