Thoughts and strategies on the future of online publishing

As the Mequoda Summit approaches, I wanted to get insight on the future of the online publishing industry from a Mequoda Gold Member who will be joining us in Napa Valley.

Clay Hall is the experienced entrepreneur, publisher and magazine enthusiast behind Aspire Media. He has led Aspire’s Interweave Press to great success in the past several years. One of his key strategies has been his launch of six email-centric Mequoda hubs in the fields of art, knitting, beading and crafting spaces.

We asked Clay the following questions to get a sense of the strategy a successful publisher plans on using for this year and the near future.

Mequoda: What is your digital publishing strategy for 2010?
Clay Hall: More of the same; audience development; more instructional videos; more HUBS; develop and acquire in new markets that we can leverage Mequoda strategy against; iPhone/iPad apps; more television shows; and development of more online content products (vZines, video enhanced books, eBooks, and video enhanced projects and patterns).

Mequoda: What kind of increase in revenue do you think this will generate for your company in 2010?
Clay Hall: A significant one.

Mequoda: What digital initiatives do you believe are critical for your future success?
Clay Hall: We need to be prepared to deliver all of our content digitally within 5 years without being trigger-happy. While we need to be prepared (and we are almost there) to deliver all of our content digitally, if that’s what consumers expect, we don’t believe they will expect this. We continue to believe that we’ll be a multi-platform company for some time (print, digital, live) but we recognize that much of our growth will come from digital initiatives.

Mequoda: What changes do you think will occur in the online publishing industry within the next 5 years?
Clay Hall: More consumers consuming our content online and on mobile devices, and more content companies recognizing that they need to develop platforms that leverage the unique attributes of online and mobile instead of trying to cram a product with print attributes through the online and mobile channels.

Books and magazines are very good form factors for the things we do. Online and mobile offers us a completely different and expanded set of capabilities and I think our industry will adapt and thrive. In a world of millions of undifferentiated content providers for almost any search string, I believe that branded, authoritative, differentiated content (some of which will come from media companies) will win the day.

From Clay’s answers you can see that further developing digital initiatives is incredibly important. With a number of different platforms evolving there is the need to explore the possibilities of those platforms working successfully for your content.

The future is uncertain, but steps you take now will have an impact. Take proper care while working on aligning your digital strategy and your future may be brighter than expected.

We have heard from Clay Hall on his predictions for the online publishing industry within the next five years. He will be sharing more of his visions and thoughts with us at the upcoming Summit in Napa. How about you? What changes do you see coming? Please add your comments to our blog below.

A reliable trick gets me through a mental dry spell

I don’t believe in writer’s block.

If you call yourself a journalist or a copywriter — as I proudly do — you write everyday no matter how sick, tired, hung-over, uninspired, depressed, jet-lagged, anxious or migraine-ridden.

Period. End of sentence.

Writer’s block is an excuse to goof off, be lazy, and procrastinate. Professionals don’t tolerate so-called writer’s block.

If you are well enough to sit up and take nourishment, you can write. If you can’t do this, find an easier craft — such as chess grandmaster, rocket scientist, or neurosurgeon.

But sometimes — perhaps more often than not — you need a little help or inspiration. Such as when the deadline is approaching and you haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re writing about. And you need to beef up the density of keyword phrases in a search-engine-optimized letter or blog post, and you’re stumped for ideas.

That’s when I resort to a few old reliable tricks to get me through a mental dry spell. I fall back on four basic questions: 1. Who would know? 2. Who would care? 3. Who would care enough to write it down? 4. Where?

What does this mean in practical terms?

Supposing I’m writing a rapid conversion landing page and the keyword phrase I need to use frequently, but naturally, is “online stock option trading.” I’m no expert on “online stock option trading” but I need to use the phrase with authority, accuracy and frequency.

I’ve already figured out that I could make the rapid conversion landing page work if I can write a number of sentences or bullets that begin with the words “Experienced online stock option trading investors know that…”  But what do they know?

If I Google “Experienced online stock option trading investors,” the search engine doesn’t return any results.

And what happens if I simply Google “experienced investors know”? The search engine returns more than 750,000 pages — far too many that are not useful or inspiring.

But then I remember that many corporate stockholder reports are written to explain to investors the reasons for a stock’s poor performance. The company’s chief executive officer needs to reassure shareholders that the current poor stock performance is but a blip or aberration. His is a plea for understanding.

These corporate annual reports are usually online somewhere, almost always in .pdf or Adobe Portable Document Format files. So I Google “experienced investors understand” and specify filetype:pdf.

Jackpot! Google returns a list of all the annual reports in which some corporate PR flack has written the letter to stockholders using “experienced investors understand.” So I copy each of these sentences into an MS Word document.

Now I have a list of sentences or bullet points that enumerate what “experienced investors understand.” Next I simply modify these pithy sentences to add the words “online stock option trading.”

Presto, change-o. Here’s my new list of bullet points, overflowing with our targeted keyword phrase:

• Experienced online stock option trading investors understand that reward and risk are inextricably intertwined.

• Experienced online stock option trading investors understand the pitfalls and have the patience and control to wait.

• Experienced online stock option trading investors understand that the specifics of the plan are less important than the discipline to execute it.

• Experienced online stock option trading investors understand how to measure and manage risk.

• Experienced online stock option trading investors understand the power of leverage.

• Experienced online stock option trading investors understand that a fall in the stock market is a time to buy –- not to sell.

• Experienced online stock option trading investors understand that there are times for avoiding risk and times when a calculated degree of risk is in order.

I honestly don’t know what some of that rhetoric means. So, in the final analysis, I didn’t really write any of these bullet points. I simply researched, copied, and modified.

But I got a good result — a rapid conversion landing page that will be very attractive to search engines for the phrase “online stock option trading.”

These terse, penetrating bullet points sound wise — as though they were written by an experienced online stock option trading investor.

They were not.

But they weren’t written by a guy with writer’s block, either.

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Peter A. Schaible is Mequoda’s Chief Copywriter. For more of his unique perspective on copywriting, you can subscribe to his complimentary series on Targeting Your Prospective Customer by Type: How to Position Your Brand to Trigger an Emotional Response, available at www.SunDanceNewMedia.com. No obligation. No upsell.

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Why use Twitter if you can’t track your results?

The more data you’re able to collect during your campaigns, the better you’re able to see what strategies are beneficial to your success.

As many publishers are now using Twitter to connect with fans, I wanted to supply you with a method of tracking your traffic by utilizing bit.ly.

bit.ly is a website that allows you to shorten, easily share and track the URL links you create. This service is especially helpful for Twitter users since only 140 characters are allowed in tweets. With bit.ly, even extremely long website addresses can be transformed into more usable sizes, and then tweeted to followers.

Tracking traffic with bit.ly

If you’re spending the time to participate in social media marketing with Twitter, then you should know where all your traffic is coming from. Guessing, assuming, or hoping the links you’re tweeting are being clicked on is not a proper strategy. You need something more concrete, and bit.ly provides that foundation.

The process behind tracking your traffic with bit.ly is really pretty simple. The following steps walk you through it and bring you closer to real-time Twitter statistics.

1. Become a registered bit.ly user by signing up for a free account.

2. After signing into your account, shorten a long link with bit.ly.

3. Add a plus sign “+” to the end of your bit.ly link. (Note that you can also skip adding the “+” manually by simply clicking on the “info+” link on bit.ly.

As an example I converted the link to our Digital Media Strategy 2010 free report into a bit.ly link so that the stats from this link will be tracked. If you click on the link, it will bring you to the page where the statistical results are stored. This is the link – http://bit.ly/9xrh2L+

The “+” will allow for the traffic to be tracked. As you can see, this is a pretty manageable link to use in Twitter or any other content-sharing location.

The original link was 85 characters long. If I did not use bit.ly for this link and went to post it on Twitter, I would have had 64 fewer characters to work with in my tweet.

Other Features

bit.ly offers a number of other tools that will help your social media efficiency. Some of these include:

Sidebar Bookmarklet: This feature is placed on your browser and slides out to help you shorten links while also allowing you to see traffic, conversions and history. You can also use this to share your link on Twitter, Gmail, Email and Facebook easily.

Standard bit.ly Bookmarklet: This feature is similar to the Sidebar Bookmarklet, with the exception of allowing you to directly monitor traffic from it.

Browser Extensions: This feature allows you to expand bit.ly links on any web page to see the full original link and page titles before deciding to click or not.

Access Link Data Generated Outside of bit.ly: This feature allows users to see click totals and other tracking data about their links from outside sources like TweetDeck, Twitterfeed or Seesmic.

Mobile bit.ly: This feature includes a simple mobile version of bit.ly for those on the go. A special version for Blackberry users is also available.

With the help of resources like bit.ly, you will never have to guess on the links you send out in tweets anymore. Save some space by transforming long web addresses into more manageable ones and monitor your social media statistics easier. For better reporting and efficiency, give bit.ly a try today.

Tips that will help editors and publishers create better email subject lines so their emails get read

Gain immediate access to our Email Copywriting Basics free report now

All publishers and editors should know the importance behind email correspondence. Beyond this, they should know what is required in successful email campaigns.

Our Email Copywriting Basics free report explains best practices, helpful tips, power words to use and spam trigger words to avoid.

Additionally, we have created a list of 13 best practices for connecting with your email recipients. These tips will help you remain relaxed and bring a casual feel to the message. Email Copywriting Basics discusses these 13 best practices in depth.

Consider email subject lines as the equivalent to headlines throughout print media. They are equally as important. The job of an email subject line is to persuade the recipient to open the email and read the content.

Download our Email Copywriting Basics and discover five quick tips for writing better email subject lines.

Anyone in the marketing industry can tell you how important the words you choose for your promotions are. This free report discusses almost five-dozen power words that will be attractive to your readers. Email marketers and copywriters have used these power words for years, and now you can too.

Our free Email Copywriting Basics also includes four tips from copywriting superstar Mark Everett Johnson that he’s been using for the duration of his career.

Finally, our free report discusses words to avoid so your email promotions don’t get caught up in spam filters. There is no sense in creating a great promotion that won’t ever be seen by your audience. Use the helpful tips within Email Copywriting Basics and avoid spam traps.

Email copywriting is more important than ever in the evolving digital age. Learn the basics of email copywriting with our free report Email Copywriting Basics now and assure your email gets to your audience, and opened.

Bob Bly shares 30 years of copywriting and internet marketing strategy experience

Bob Bly, Copywriter and Internet Marketing Strategist

“My entire career has been as a marketing writer, and since blogging is writing, I feel like I have the basic skill to do it well.” – Bob Bly

Bob is definitely not a newbie as his writing career began back in 1979 and he began blogging in November 2004. Bob’s blog Bly.com focuses on copywriting and marketing as his expertise comes from writing books on marketing and creating marketing campaigns for dozens of companies for over three decades.

Mequoda – How many blogs are you currently writing for?
BB – Just my own.

Mequoda – Which CMS (ie: WordPress, Typo) are you using? What do you like about it?
BB – WordPress, which is easy to use. My web master set the whole blog up for me in about an hour.

Mequoda – Are you blogging for your company as part of you job (ie: corporate) or is this a personal passion?
BB – I blog for my business, to promote myself as a copywriter.

Mequoda – Has your blog enhanced your professional reputation? How?
BB – People read the blog and tell me they are impressed with the content. They particularly enjoy the way my blog deliberately engages them in an online conversation. I view the blog as an opportunity to talk about issues and exchange ideas rather than just to express my opinion or disseminate information.

Mequoda – How often do you post a new blog?
BB – On average, once a week — but there is no schedule. I blog whenever I have something I want to discuss. If there is nothing to talk about, I let it alone.

Mequoda – Who is your target audience?
BB – Marketing professionals and entrepreneurs who must market — potential copywriting clients, fellow marketers, and buyers of my books and information products.

Mequoda – What are you doing to grow your audience and to create customer loyalty?
BB – I devote promotional efforts to growing my e-zine subscriber list, not my blog.

Mequoda – How are you using social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) to promote your blog?
BB – I use them to direct people to my blog posts.

Mequoda – What is your main source of revenue: ads, sponsorships, products sales, donations?
BB – The blog does not generate direct revenue; my e-zine does. I have had clients hire me to do copywriting who say they got to know and like me through my blog, so in that sense it does make me money.

Mequoda – Approximately what percentage of your overall revenue comes from product sales vs. advertising/sponsorships or other sources?
BB – For my e-zine, 100% from product sales.

Bly.com December 2009 Statistics from Compete, Yahoo Site Explorer and KeywordSpy

Mequoda – What key metrics do you monitor to analyze the health of your business?
BB – For my Internet business, weekly online sales. For copywriting, monthly assignments and fees.

Mequoda – How many sites have you linked to in the last 30 days?
BB – One or two. I don’t do it as a strategy; I link to blogs and sites that seem of interest to my readers.

Mequoda – What changes have you seen in your market since you began blogging?
BB – The rise of social networking sites and the paradigm shift of the consumer being influenced by marketers vs. being influenced by fellow consumers via social networks.

Mequoda – Any interesting experience you’d like to share?
BB – I got a deal with Thomas Nelson Publishing to write a book called Blog, Schmog — it was actually refuting the idea that blogs are a marketing revolution and will replace all traditional marketing, and in fact, that did not happen. The book led to a few speaking engagements and enhanced my reputation as a marketing expert, as do all my many marketing books.

Mequoda – What advice would you give a new blogger?
BB – Find a way to monetize the Internet and devote  your efforts to making it work. For me, it’s my e-zine, not my blog. I think blogs are a supporting player in online marketing, not the star.

Mequoda – What ways are you planning to expand over the next year?
BB – Grow my e-zine subscriber list and create more products and offers. Publish more useful content online, including on the blog.

Contact Information

Bob Bly
Blog:  Bly.com
Twitter: @RobertBly
Facebook: Robert Bly