7 Lessons Learned From 7 Years of Boardwalk Times (What I’ve Learned Building A Disney News Site)
Boardwalk Times Editor-in-Chief Zach Perilstein shares 7 lessons he’s learned from 7 years of building Boardwalk Times, A Disney News Site.
I was inspired to write this for a few reasons.
- I went holy crap it’s been seven years!
- Wow, I’ve learned a lot during these seven years!
- Maybe someone will take something away from my experiences?
Maybe you are interested in joining this wacky world of Disney news and maybe this post will help you out. Even if you aren’t… Maybe you’re just curious about what I’ve learned running and building a Disney news site for the past seven years.
Well, here goes nothing. Let’s begin.
Change constantly occurs
From Disney to social media algorithms to my staff to even the platform we’re hosted on.
Change is the only constant.
Now to some, that sounds scary — it is — but it’s also part of the challenge.
Disney back in 2017 was way different. By the end of the year, they announced they were buying 21st Century Fox. We were still two years away from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The idea of Disney building its own streaming service was still merely an idea.
Social media has changed too. TikTok was on the rise. Elon Musk wasn’t the owner of Twitter. The other platforms were all still there too. Sorta crazy that only TikTok was able to reach that upper tier of social platforms for news/media sites because I expected a lot more social platforms by now. Yet social media algorithms have changed since 2017. Twitter has gone through countless changes, Instagram’s algorithm changes quite often as well, and overall these social media platforms prove time and time again that they can change in an instant and without proper notice.
Staff is something where change is expected. Throughout my seven years of running and building Boardwalk Times, I’ve worked with some incredible people. Some still work with me day-to-day and some have moved on to different opportunities. If you go into building a platform with others, you have to be prepared for people to come and go. It’s difficult, but sometimes people move on. I also realize for most it’s a hobby and people’s interests change or life gets in the way. Yet, having a rotating cast of contributors for Boardwalk Times throughout the years has gotten us more eyeballs and increased our following. Also, having a team has taught me how to manage different personalities and deal with conflicts. If you’re a longtime follower of our site, you’d also notice the change in contributors throughout the years.
I’ve learned various lessons from various contributors throughout the years. If you’re a contributor of Boardwalk Times, either past or present I’d like to say thank you. Whether it was one post or multiple stories, I remember every person’s contribution and they matter a lot to me.
To sum it all up. Change is the only constant. Whether it’s social, your staff, or Disney itself.
Change constantly occurs.
If I went back to 2017 I would’ve launched Boardwalk Times a bit differently
The biggest question I get when someone is asking me questions about Boardwalk is this:
“If you could go back in time to before Boardwalk Times launched, what would you do differently?”
It’s a loaded question with multiple answers.
Short answer: I would’ve launched the site a bit differently.
It’s truly a lesson I learned over time as I watched other outlets launch or how other content creators brought their ideas to market. It was me going “Holy crap, I should’ve done that!” Hindsight is 20/20… Am I right?
I don’t know how many other Editors/Content Creators would actually truthfully answer this question but once again, maybe you’ll take away something from my experiences.
But if I had to launch Boardwalk Times all over again…
- Social media buildup: I would’ve launched all my social channels months before launching the actual website. I would’ve tried to gain as many followers across social media in the lead-up to the launch.
- Newsletter ASAP: I would’ve also had an email list from the very start. Social media trends come and go, but the almighty email inbox is forever.
- Partnerships/Revenue from the start: I would’ve also made sure to focus on creating more revenue streams/partnerships out of the gate. A focus on collaborations as well. Boardwalk Times back in 2017 started as a hobby that had the potential to be a business but if I had to do it all over I would’ve just started it as a multimedia business.
- Content focus: Focus on podcasting and YouTube from the very beginning.
- Find core staff: I would’ve honed in on who I wanted to work with long-term. I recruited a large staff, but did those creators/writers have the same hunger, passion, and desire to be successful that I did? I would’ve reassessed that at the beginning. A staff aligned on achieving the same goals produces the best results.
- Consistency: Most importantly, I would’ve tried to be more consistent with my content. (More on that later).
Another thing with building your own platform. It’s always on. It’s up to you to keep it active.
Find what types of stories strike a chord with your audience and write them
This may seem obvious but it takes time to find the stories that strike a chord with your audience. Some articles will always perform better than others. The same can be said for podcasts as well.
Yet both on social and on the website, I’ve been constantly writing stories that I believe will strike a chord with different segments of our audience. For instance, I know my Disney Quarterly earnings articles are going to pop off with Boardwalk’s business audience, whereas our articles about Imagineering will strike a chord with our Disney Parks audience.
Constantly refine your audience
I’m constantly refining our audience at Boardwalk Times because I’ve noticed we hit some audience segments better than others.
We cover the business side of Disney a lot more. Why? Well for starters I’m intrigued by that side of the company, and secondly, there is an audience for it. It’s something we are becoming known for. Which I’m thankful for because it means hard work is paying off.
So we’re constantly refining our audience. What posts and articles are speaking to our audience? Audience segmentation is something we’re going to continue to do throughout 2024.
Don’t let stats stop you from writing something you’re passionate about
You can only be data-driven so much.
Is it ironic this is a sub-lesson after talking about audience segmentation? 100% but that’s just how it works out.
Maybe this isn’t your typical advice but I zig when others zag. Stats help you determine if certain articles/posts will do well, but they aren’t the end all be all. Sometimes I just write a piece that I think will be interesting because if I find it interesting I’m sure a few others will. Sometimes those posts pop off and sometimes they don’t.
Sometimes things don’t perform well and sometimes some underappreciated articles take a while to get appreciated. The same thing goes for podcasts as well. Yet some of my favorite content from contributors at the site has been stuff that isn’t the “most read” or “most viewed.” It is the stories that I feel are unique to us and our brand.
Also if you frequent Boardwalk Times you’d realize we are not doing clickbait or even SEO-bait. Our titles are way too different to be doing that. Sometimes doing a different title is the difference between someone reading and not reading your piece. One of the bigger internal talking points we have at Boardwalk is, “How do we make ourselves AI-proof?” I truly believe it’s by writing with personality that just simply can’t be replicated by AI.
Everyone covers Disney and theme parks nowadays and the game is evolving where some people don’t even build websites anymore. They just build the Instagram. They build the TikTok. They launch the podcast. They make a store and become the influencers. It’s the fight for eyeballs because everyone covers this stuff but I constantly have to figure out what makes us stand out. What’s missing? What angle can we take with certain stories? What are things that people are missing out on?
We strive for excellence and to be different. It’s creating content and telling stories that strike a chord with you.
It takes hustle and consistency
To quote the wise words of my Professor Tom Lucas:
“Persistence is critical.”
If you build a Disney News site you’ll learn quickly that it takes hustle and consistency. As I mentioned earlier, once you launch a platform that platform is always on. Your consistency matters. Now I’m not saying you gotta post for the heck of it. No, not at all but you do have to continue to create and remind people what you’re capable of.
Thankfully this was one of the easier lessons I’ve learned in my seven years. Well because I’m constantly hungry. I hustle because I like seeing the growth. I like being able to open up new doors and opportunities through building Boardwalk Times. Although my definition of success may be different than yours, I’m constantly chasing more.
With hustle and consistency, it’s easier to build that following and brand. Yet hustle and consistency come with its fair of challenges. When something you love or a hobby becomes a job/career, your lens changes. That’s not entirely a bad thing but it does change how you do things. Being your own boss has its perks but it also has its downsides. You sometimes don’t get to “enjoy” as much because you’re covering it or working.
Always look forward but recognize your wins
In the media landscape, losses can occur constantly. Whether it’s losing a contributor, a strategy underperforming, or even discovering a story and not getting credit from bigger outlets. There are times when things don’t work. Then there are times when you feel like things are clicking but your follower count/pageviews don’t reflect your hard work.
Despite the losses, I keep looking forward.
It helps me stay focused and on track but then I realized if you are constantly looking forward you’re not recognizing your wins!
So, always look forward but recognize your wins.
Wins can be big or small. Launching my own podcast, growing a monthly newsletter, getting to attend media/press events, getting screeners, launching a store, and more are all wins.
I do get excited about what’s next but after seven years I decided I needed to enjoy the now. To enjoy the building of it all. I think we’re always planning for someday, and then quietly without you ever noticing someday becomes today (shoutout to One Tree Hill).
Problem-solving
A mentor said it was good that I managed people at a young age and that building the site would give me skills that others wouldn’t learn until later in life. It didn’t dawn on me until he mentioned that to me but I realized that I was managing people for five years! I also realized that I was gaining more experience doing my own thing.
Problem-solving has been a big lesson for me while building this site. Whether it was running into technical issues, figuring out certain coverage plans, or just helping a contributor learn how to submit an article.
Problem-solving is an everyday occurrence for everyone, but when you have your own site you see it on a different scale. You run into problems — both big and small — that need to be resolved, and you have to find the creative solution to solving problems.
Continue to learn
One of the biggest lessons that encapsulates this entire piece is to continue to learn.
Be open to learning new skills and remain patient in the process. I’ve learned a lot in my seven years while building Boardwalk Times. I look back and realize things I would’ve done differently or what tools I would’ve incorporated earlier.
I’m still learning and there is still much to learn!
I want to become an even better writer, dominate social media more, get sharper video-editing skills, make even stronger podcasts, get better at Shopify and Canva, and maybe one day even develop a larger-scale version of the Boardwalk Times website with more audience participation capabilities.
And that’s just a few things… There’s a lot more I want to accomplish, and there are a lot more lessons to be learned.
Quick hit lessons:
- Building a Shopify store isn’t as easy as you may think (more on that next month in a special article *eyeball emojis* ).
- Podcast editing is tedious if equipment malfunctions.
- There’s always a plus side and downside to a post popping off on social media. You get great replies but often have to deal with a slew of unnecessary and rude comments.
- Avoid culture-war crosshairs.
- Disney fandom is passionate.
- The themed entertainment fandom is also passionate.
- Sometimes a tweet gains more traction than an article.
- Always bring an extra shirt in the car in case you spill coffee on yourself.
- Now that the “Boarding Group” era is over at Hollywood Studios. The best place to get a good internet signal is in Animation Courtyard by Star Wars: Launch Bay.
- You can’t bring glass Starbucks bottles into the Anaheim Convention Center.
- I know how to read SEC filings and earnings reports better than I did back in 2017.
- I’ve learned how to use Slack, Medium, and Canva quite well.
- You have to keep feeding the train coal. (Shoutout Cousin Carson).
- At some point, you have to kick the bird out of the nest and see if it can fly.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
