I recently had the opportunity to supply questions to Carl Kravetz, the publisher behind Vida y Salud. The successful website is still in its infancy, but experiencing a tremendous amount of popularity as the largest source of health information and wellness tools in Spanish on the internet.

Mequoda - Please tell us a little background about Vida y Salud’s history.

Carl Kravetz - My wife and business partner, Dr. Aliza Lifshitz (known as la Doctora Aliza), has been the health expert for the Univision Television network for 22 years. She also has a national radio program and writes for the Spanish-language editions of People and Parents magazines. I was in Hispanic advertising for over 20 years, starting two agencies and, ultimately, serving as Chairman of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA).

During the first tech boom, we were approached by an investor group that wanted to give us money to start a Spanish-language health information website, using Dra. Aliza’s reputation as the draw. We did some homework and estimated that it would cost us between $6 and 8 million to build what we envisioned.  Everything would have to be designed and coded from scratch. We also felt that it was premature – that there weren’t enough Spanish-speakers online yet. And, finally, we weren’t thrilled about the idea of giving up control to a group of money men. So we passed. It may be the best decision we ever made, considering the tech bust that followed. Today we would be known as the people who started a Spanish-language health site and failed!

Fast forward to 2008. I was getting burned out on the ad business and wanted to do something that would take advantage of my knowledge, talents and connections. I thought it was time to look at the idea of the website again. The number of Hispanics online had grown dramatically and, with open source software availability, the cost of launching was down to something that we could do ourselves without outside money. I heard about Mequoda from a friend and colleague at Editorial Televisa and enrolled in the 2008 Napa Valley Summit. That made my decision.

We began planning the site and writing content in the fall of 2008. Soft launched on May 11^th, 2009 and went live on June 1^st, 2009 with about 240 posts in a dozen health categories. Today we have nearly 900 posts in 21 health categories. We also publish 12 biweekly email newsletters and one weekly free email newsletter on subjects like diabetes, diet and nutrition, women’s health, sexual health, etc.

Mequoda – Is it true you went from 0 to 300,000 website visitors in under a year? How were you able to achieve this?

Carl Kravetz - Almost. According to Google Analytics, in the last 30 days we have had 285,000 visits and 692,000 pageviews from 254,000 unique users. And we’re only 9 ½ months old. We served our 1,000,000^th unique user last Saturday…

How did we do this? Well, first, let’s not discount luck. We were extremely lucky that no one (like WebMD) entered our chosen space in the 10 years between our first look and our eventual entry. We found an open niche.

Second, we had a brand name. Dra. Aliza is demonstrably the best-known name in Hispanic health.

Third, we focused on developing quality content and adding it daily. And we were very aggressive with keywords and phrases to make sure we could be found. We track in the neighborhood of 3,500 keywords/phrases.

Fourth, we followed the Mequoda system. It never would have occurred to us to do newsletters or free reports on our own.

Fifth, we advertised. We have pay-per-click campaigns on Google search and content networks and on Facebook. We also have links to AOL, People en Español, Meredith Publishing and Univision Radio.

Sixth, we reacted to our metrics. When we realized that much of our traffic was from Latin America and Spain, we embraced it and changed our advertising strategy to encourage even more.

Mequoda - Who is your target audience?

Carl Kravetz - When we started, the target was the U.S. Hispanic market. It is now Spanish-speaking consumers throughout the world. Our users are about 75% female, between the ages of 18-49.

Mequoda - Which CMS (ie: WordPress, Typo, etc.) are you using?

Carl Kravetz - Wordpress with all the Mequoda goodies.

Mequoda - What are you doing to grow your audience and to create customer loyalty?

Carl Kravetz – I’ve already mentioned the newsletters and free reports. We also do community service events. We gave away over 2,400 flu shots at clinics and retailers in partnership with the Clorox Company. We donated a library of Spanish-language books to a Hispanic charter school in East Los Angeles in partnership with Transitions Optical. We have started a foundation that will give medical and nursing school scholarships to Latino students. We are partnering with the Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic to broaden our content. In response to user comments, we are opening a healthy recipe and meal plan section of our Diet and Nutrition channel in partnership with General Mills.

Mequoda - How are you using social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin) to promote for the site?

Carl Kravetz – We have “Follow us on Twitter” and “Become a fan on Facebook” buttons on all our pages.  We tweet links to every new story on Twitter and post them on Facebook. We let followers know where they can meet Dra. Aliza in person, and about our flu shot and other health clinics. We also have a modest Spanish-language ad campaign on Facebook which has netted 11 million impressions and 3,800 clicks.

Mequoda – What is your main source of revenue: ads, sponsor, products sales, donations?

Carl Kravetz – Our main source of revenue is sponsorship. We sell full- or half- channel sponsorships. Sponsors to date have included Procter & Gamble, Clorox, Crest, Transitions Optical, General Electric and Rodan & Fields cosmetics.  General Mills, Ford and Tylenol are scheduled.

Mequoda – What is your main source of referrals?

Carl Kravetz - Hands down, Google – both search and pay-per-click.

Mequoda - What key metrics do you monitor to analyze the health of your business?

Carl Kravetz - Total pageviews, U.S. pageviews, unique users, newsletter subscriptions, # of outside links, Google visibility and sponsorship dollars.

Mequoda – Do you link to other sites? If so, how many have you linked to in the last 30 days?

Carl Kravetz - We currently have about 1,600 live links. We regularly link to AOL, Ser Padres (Parents, in Spanish). We are about to take over the diseases and conditions section of AOL Latino’s health page (Powered by VidaySalud.com). We have a new content/link partnership with Que Rica Vida, General Mills’ web initiative. We are beginning to take off with Spanish-speaking bloggers.

Mequoda - What changes have you seen in your market since Vida y Salud started?
Carl Kravetz - A number of the large Spanish-language portals are beefing up their health content.  Fortunately, most of them are talking to us about partnering. Hispanic web access and broadband penetration continue to increase.

Mequoda – What advice would you give a new publisher?

Carl Kravetz - Put 90% of your energy on developing unique, high-quality content that makes a difference in peoples’ lives.

Be very clear on your business model. If your target is willing to pay for content, don’t be afraid to charge for it. If it isn’t, find a unique way to build bridges between them and potential sponsors. Ad sales alone are not enough.

If you’re targeting consumers, consider an aggressive AdWord presence, but watch your cost-per-click like a hawk!

Mequoda – What is your digital publishing strategy for 2010?

Carl Kravetz - We will continue to grow quality content  — both originally developed and through partnerships with Harvard, Mayo Clinic, etc. We will look to add similar content partners. We will develop new content channels in partnership with sponsors (would love to build Asthma & Allergies, Healthy World/Environmental Health, Digestive Health). We will add diet plans for Diabetes, Heart Health and Weight Loss. We will launch a monthly “Ask Dra. Aliza” online event (beginning with live chat, maybe going audio or video later). We will grow our capability to provide health content/links to others. In partnership with several medical boards/associations, we will launch a physician outreach program with info products that they can use with their Spanish-speaking patients.

Mequoda - What digital initiatives do you believe are critical for your future success?

Carl Kravetz – Our users want to be able to ask questions and get answers. We need to find a way to deliver on this need without practicing medicine on line. We also need to become a resource for physicians to communicate better with their Latino patients. We will need to create online and mobile tools to improve the doctor/patient dialogue.

Mequoda - What changes do you think will occur in the online publishing industry within the next 5 years?

Carl Kravetz - Continuing growth at the expense of print. More integration of text and video. New profit models. More pay-for-content. Some kind of quality rating methodology (from Google?) to distinguish between high- and low-value content. More demanding advertisers. Better metrics. A better mobile experience.

Mequoda – Any interesting business experience you’d like to share?

Carl Kravetz – The last year and a half has been the most interesting business experience of my life!

For more information, visit Vida y Salud, Vida y Salud on Facebook, and Vida y Salud on Twitter.

I am not cut out for traditional sales. I gave it a try once, and somehow it just didn’t feel right to me. Maybe it was the products that were involved or the environment I was in, but my first experience in it chased me away, and I could never imagine returning.

In fact, I have concluded that I won’t return to traditional sales because I have found something better.

Content Marketing

Content marketing was an interest of mine before I knew its name.

This is the case because content marketing is based off the creation and sharing of content. In the case of the Mequoda Group, the content is educational. We strive to help publishers better understand the constantly evolving internet landscape.

Content marketing seems so fundamental to me. As a child I recall being taught by parents and teachers to “play nice and share”. What could be nicer than sharing and freely distributing valued and usable information?

Yet, why isn’t content marketing practiced by more marketing professionals?

I have a few theories…

First, the concept is still fairly new. Many content marketers will use multiple mediums to share their content and some of those mediums are still evolving. Articles, white papers, podcasts and video pieces are just a few of the methods used. With the evolution in digital media going on, many ways of sharing these types of media is still just catching on.

Secondly, I feel people fear change. The old (and tired) ways of marketing have been around for years. Minor changes may have occurred throughout this time, but the overall structure of these marketing campaigns has remained. It can be hard for companies to invest money in an emerging method of promotion if they don’t have any idea of the outcome.

Lastly, not all companies know how to create, compile, repurpose and share content, or have the time and manpower to do so.

Can content marketing better the reputation of marketers?

Let’s be honest, consumers don’t always love marketing professionals. Although, I feel the mistrust behind those feelings have been created by the old rules of marketing.

Maybe content marketing will change the opinion of consumers as they consistently open their email and receive completely free information that interests them.

I unfortunately can’t see the future, so I don’t know how content marketing will affect society. I do however know how popular free products are, so maybe as an industry we are heading in the right direction.

What are your thoughts on content marketing, or the current way marketing is viewed in general? Where do we stand as professionals and how can we better our reputations and give consumers more value?

I recommend halting on the in-your-face approach of screaming at consumers to “buy my product”. How about you?

For more on content marketing be sure to attend our Content Marketing 2010 webinar on April 13th at 12:30 ET.

I have supervised the engineering design for 36 Mequoda Content Marketing Systems, 11 releases of the Blue Dolphin Smart Sub Content Marketing System, plus a variety of other online marketing systems dating back to 1995.

I am not a programmer or developer. I am a system architect and system driver. Like most drivers, I want speed, flexibility, handling and instruments that give me key metrics in real time.  And I want it all for the least possible investment.

The Need for Speed

In the early 70s, I rode for Team Yamaha. In the late 70s, I drove a S5G Nuclear Reactor for the US Navy. Today, my car is an Audi S6 and my boat is a Hunter 38. My CMS is Mequoda WordPress 2.8X and I drive it very, very hard.

My Audi S6 is a stock limited edition. My Hunter has a blown out electronics package for solo navigation. My Mequoda WordPress System has 27 custom software extensions built to my specifications or carefully chosen by our research team from thousands of available WordPress plug-ins.

Mequoda WordPress CMS Capabilities

The Mequoda WordPress 2.8X System that I use allowed me to create, edit and traffic this post, send it as an email newsletter, zone it by topic, add all the tags that drive the site’s attraction and conversion architecture, merchandise it with paid Mequoda event offers… and if you (or any Member) clicks and buys, the system will process and record your order and payment, send you an acknowledgement, and make all your data available to our customer service and reporting team. It will add the transaction to your ‘My Account’ page and send you an email reminder 24 hours before the event. It can also sell you a Mequoda Pro Membership, grant you access to all premium content you deserve and renew your membership every 12 months for as long as you live. If your credit card fails to process in some future year, it will remind you to update and if you don’t, it will prompt our Member Services Manager to give you a call before your access lapses.

So what else does my Mequoda WordPress System do that makes me (and my fellow Mequoda System drivers) so happy to slip in behind the wheel? Here are 21 more functions my WordPress does over and above the stock edition:

• Unlimited Custom Registration Offers

• Conditional Conversion Architecture

• Zoned Text Include & Banner Delivery

• Visual Conversion Path Reporting

• Registration Import Batching

• Integrated WhatCounts Email Management

• Integrated Beacon Event Management

• Digital Member Access Management

• Unlimited Sales Letter Order Flows

• Integrated Payment Processing

• Real-time Action Source Tracking

• Advanced Category Management

• Keyword Auto Tagging

• Automated Related Post Referrals

• Persistent Global Navigation

• Google Custom Search Results

• Site Sidebar Management

• Original Source Lifetime Tracking

• Google Analytics Reporting

• Integrated Landing Page Optimization

• Integrated Customer Service Management

Don’t Buy a CMS – Download one for free

I know Christmas is over, but seriously… If you are looking to upgrade your online content marketing system in 2010, don’t spend money to buy a CMS. Download WordPress and the Mequoda System plug-ins from the Mequoda Pro Download Library and get to work. Need some help with the specs? Just post a reply and I will give you a call.

Happy driving!

To many, content marketers are different than the rest of the marketing world. Content marketing is all about the creation and sharing of content, designed with the intent of engaging your target market. Bringing valuable information to an audience helps retain the consumer base while constantly working to interest others. It’s a way to strengthen a brand image and create a relationship. One that, if nurtured properly, may last for a long time.

Content marketing also gives much more to consumers before money is ever exchanged. What a novel idea! Older, unattractive marketing models did the opposite. They would work at cleverly getting a consumer to pay for a product, that in reality, may not have been truly worth it. Hopefully content marketing can pave a new path and change any negative perceptions consumers have about marketing.

Along those lines, content marketing has taken off as a profitable form of publishing online. Companies with content that  presents an educational value have found the benefit in running online content marketing systems. Ones that truly grab their audience typically show them value through an array of attractive mediums.

These content marketers have been successful in making money online by combining certain components into their strategy. In total, there are seven of these components which include:

7 Content Marketing Strategy Components:

#1: Editorial Strategy: Leveraging Content and Reputation

#2: Revenue Strategy: Choosing the Right Business Models

#3: Audience Strategy: Attracting Targeted Website Traffic

#4: Website Strategy: Converting Visitors into Subscribers

#5: Email Strategy: Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value

#6: People Strategy: Organizing Around the System

#7: Reporting Strategy: Managing by Exception

These seven components have helped create successful content marketing campaigns that have worked for an array of companies and can work for many more. As long as content is distributed through any number of online publishing platforms, be it online magazines, online newspapers, eBooks, audio or video pieces, email or interactive online events, content marketing may work for you.

As you may be able to tell, there is a lot more to discuss involving those seven components, especially if you are new to content marketing. Knowing these components alone is a good place to start. If any of them resonate with you, learning more may help you create and manage a successful content marketing campaign of your own.

As briefly mentioned, content marketing is still fairly new to most people. However, the benefits behind it will surely be of interest to those who are exposed to it. For more on content marketing, including how to create, execute and analyze a full campaign while maintaining profitable relationships with your customers, be sure to attend our Mequoda Summit Napa Valley 2010, April 6th-9th.

We have found that many in the publishing industry today don’t want to be labeled as a “publisher”.  Having spent over 30 years in the publishing industry, Don Nicholas, our editor-in-chief, wants us to clear up any misgivings or misconceptions about this label.

Wiktionary defines a publisher as “one who publishes, especially books. Generally refers to a publishing company, though also applied to people.”  Ok, that’s a little vague.

Mequoda defines a publisher as “one who publishes, print or online, books, magazines, newspapers, handbooks, manuals, newsletters, periodicals, software, special reports, and blogs. Generally referring to a product or download, it also applies to one who researches, writes, or manages content of events such as seminars, webcasts,webinars, conferences, radio & TV”.

You might be a publisher if…

Still don’t think you’re a publisher? Take our little quiz and find out for sure.  If you answer yes to one or more of the following statements, you, my friend, are a publisher.

• you create magazines, newsletters, books, webpages, webinars, audio conferences, loose-leaf services, or any other information product
• you are responsible for research and content development for any publication
• you are affiliated with SIPA, MPA, FIPP, ABM, OPA and the like
• you write a blog or contribute regularly to someone else’s blog
• you create and send out email newsletters for your company
• you post pictures or videos with captions or commentary
• you manage content development for special reports or online seminars
• you are responsible for editorial and marketing content be it online, print or actual products
• you initiate and manage SEO, PR and link-building campaigns for all network content pages
• you build and maintain relationships with print editors and industry association staff
• you manage LinkedIn and Twitter content distribution and dialogue
• you produce and promote company-related information products

In other words, you are a publisher if you publicly post information.  Now that we have established the fact that you are indeed a publisher, how can Mequoda help you?

I’m glad you asked.  We teach publishers the best practices in online publishing and marketing.  How? Through the Mequoda Publishing & Marketing System.

The Mequoda System is a comprehensive set of best practices for digital publishing that has been implemented by hundreds of publishers using wide variety of software platforms and tools. The Mequoda System is an open source blue print for digital publishing success.

Any publisher can choose to be a Mequoda System Publisher simply by choosing to follow the Mequoda System Best Practice Guidelines as developed by the 100 Mequoda System Publishers we study, and documented by the Mequoda Group Research & Development Team.

A great place to get started is with Mequoda Pro.  You’ll have on-demand access to our video seminars, as well as a Q&A archive based on questions from other Mequoda Pro members.

A successful PR campaign can do a lot for your business, from increasing sales and building credibility, to developing relationships and tapping into new markets. The possibilities are even larger now with the extensive nature of the internet.

Our PR & Link Building webinar on-demand will show you how to reach audiences all over the world interested in your niche market. Join Mequoda Pro now for immediate access to this webinar and 15 additional webinars on demand.

If you are engaging in a PR campaign then you most likely want the public to discuss your publication or product. And why shouldn’t they? You have something unique that deserves to be shared.

To begin, you’ll need a starting point before embarking on your campaign. By joining Mequoda Pro you can use our PR & Link Building webinar as that starting point. The task of putting together a campaign can seem overwhelming, but we are here to help you.

As a brief introduction, we have included a fraction of the information found in our PR & Link Building webinar below. There are typically seven parts we teach that lead to successful campaigns. Four of these are as follows:

1. Free Report - Your free report can range in variation, from a short, individual download to a large eBook. Determine what you feel will be of value to your targeted audience. Materials that have been, or could be sold are often good options for a free report.

2. Rapid Conversion Landing Page - Your RCLP will serve as a place to point to during your promotions. It should entice the audience to enter into a low-risk relationship with you. After users opt into the agreement, they will become eligible to receive your free report.

3. Website Post - Once you go through all the effort of launching a campaign, don’t forget to write about it extensively on your own site! You should have several website posts that describe the free report you’re giving away so that first-time visitors (and the search engines) can become more invested in what you have to offer.

4. Email Newsletter - Create an email newsletter that lets your existing subscribers know about the free report. Give descriptions that inform the reader just enough, so they feel compelled to receive the full report and pass it along to their friends and colleagues.

Satisfied readers are typically inclined to spread the word about your free report. This word-of-mouth exposure could be huge for you.

As you now know some the necessary parts to a successful campaign, join Mequoda Pro to view our PR and Link Building webinar on-demand and learn the last steps immediately. You will not regret it.

Furthermore, by joining Mequoda Pro you will have access to 15 additional webinars on demand and a live seat for all of the upcoming 2010 webinars. How about that for an early holiday gift?

Developing free reports with content that you already have is a way to help grow your site and utilize both PR and link building campaigns. This will help in a few different ways.

First, you will have a greater chance of growing your circulation. If your free reports interest individuals who have extremely popular websites, your visibility would increase drastically. This of course yields the possibility for more subscribers and paying customers.

Second, you will be building a reputation. If you consistently deliver relevant content, people will take note of this. Establishing credibility and starting relationships within your market may eventually turn you into a thought-leader within your industry. Or at the very least, your main audience will trust the content you give to them.

Lastly, the more links you’re able to build, the better ranking Google will give you. Think of each link as a recommendation. These recommendations inform Google that your site has strong content. Since Google always wants to retain users, it strives to put its best foot forward by giving ranking priorities to highly-regarded websites. For more information on link building, get our free report Launch a Link-Building Campaign.

One additional piece of information worth considering is that referring links should be among the top three sources of inbound traffic to your website.

Free Report Methods

The methods for creating free reports include:

Aggregate - This method includes taking content that has already been published in either the free or paid areas of your website, or both, and aggregating them into a free report. The addition of content only paid members have seen may intrigue the free subscribers enough to begin a paying account. If not, you are still combining a significant amount of content to help build circulation.

Extract - In this method, pull out popular content from your magazine or newsletter and make it available as an individual free report. You will have a better chance of reaching new subscribers with your best material. Use this method if you are seeing a lot of interest in a specific topic as you won’t be blindly testing its interest. The evidence is already there for you.

Summarize - This method works the best when you already have a book created. Take content from each chapter in the book and summarize it.

The benefits of these methods

Take into account that none of these methods call for creating new or unique content.

Why, you may ask? You want to make sure content in the free reports align with products that are available as paid products. Using content pulled from the aggregate, extract, or summarize methods will ensure alignment and make it easier to up-sell or make additional database marketing attempts.

Finally, using these methods is quite efficient. You will not have to spend extra money to have content created, nor will you have to spend your own time, or the time of your staff members, on creating new content.

Simply follow these methods of putting together free reports and begin spreading your content to more places. For further information on the process of PR and link building, join Mequoda Pro today and view our PR & Link Building on-demand webinar.

Recently at the Mequoda Summit, we introduced two publishers into our “Hall of Fame” with Mequoda Publisher of the Year Awards. The intent was to honor individuals and their organizations for outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of Mequoda System Publishing.

Talking with Charlie Spahr of Ceramic Arts Daily, our 2007 Publisher of the Year, Don explained that becoming a Mequoda System publisher “is chaotic, it takes time, it takes re-training, and most publishers we talk to just aren’t ready to go there.”

Don also explained that our 2008 Publisher of the Year, Bill Dugan of fuelNet had the disadvantage of launching during a recession, but because they had their parent company Pohly behind them in building a digital publishing company from scratch, they were able to make it happen.”

Bob Brady (BLR) & Don Nicholas (Mequoda)

Our B2B Publisher of the Year went to Bob Brady of Business & Legal Resources. Brady told publishers in the room that it’s extremely important for your staff to understand the purpose of your company as a whole. “We have a .NET programmer who understands how marketing copy is a part of our efforts at BLR. Just the same, if you have an editor with no sense of marketing, you’re losing an opportunity.”

“I think one of the big reasons I’ve been successful at this, is that I was free to make mistakes, and there was no one around, because I own the company, to fire me,” Brady joked. “In the culture that we’re all in, we need to allow mistakes as long as we learn from them. You need to make mistakes and immediately know what you can improve next time.”

Brady reminisced about the first time he used a CD, which was basically an encyclopedia on disc. He said, “I went in thinking, what can I do with a CD? I make books! But then I thought, I have 600 page books, that cost me $25 to mail. A light went off that this was a real opportunity.”

Brady went on to explain that the Internet happened in the same fashion for him. “Being outside the company, talking to the “propeller heads”, and people who are experimenting with new things can help you in your own business”.

On the topic of creating new products, Brady told the audience that “the customer doesn’t know what they want, it’s our job to take on the challenge and figure that out.”

Clay Hall (Interweave) & Don Nicholas (Mequoda)

Our B2C Mequoda Publisher of the Year was Clay Hall, CEO of Interweave. “I have to say, this is a well-deserved award,” Hall joked, giving credit to his team and the Mequoda team for their success.

“At Interweave we had our best year ever in 2008, and we’re having an even better year in 2009. If it weren’t for our ability to learn and adopt to the Mequoda principles, we wouldn’t be saying that,” Hall told publishers.

“We’re fortunate that 82% of our revenue comes from the consumer, whether directly or indirectly, so we’re not as sensitive to advertising”, Hall explained. “We’re also very fortunate to have built a multi-platform media business that is email-centric.”

“Our implementation of the Mequoda Hub systems didn’t come easy to us, it required us to hire a whole new set of people we hadn’t worked with before. But I have to say that my biggest mistake was not hiring them sooner.”

Hall referred back to Brady’s speech about not being timid. “We wanted to see results along the way, before we made bigger investments. We should have been less timid and made those investments sooner rather than later.”

“One of our biggest challenges has been focus. Focusing on getting something out the door, launched and operating before making improvements.” Hall explained that they have a brilliant and creative team at Interweave, but instead of getting what they call “shiny object syndrome”, they needed to slow down and do one thing at a time.

Hall also explained that it’s important to pay attention to the way your audience interacts. At Interweave, they serve many different niches. For example, people at a knitting conference would be pleasant and friendly to a person they saw making the same sweater. At a beading event however, two people making a similar piece of jewelry would head for opposite ends of the venue, “elbows would be flying, trying to get to that very special bead they want”, Hall joked.

So to serve these two types of audiences, Interweave offers different types of engagement. KnittingDaily.com focuses on community because the readers are very actively engaged and proactive, while BeadingDaily.com offers competitions and ways for them to show off their work in galleries. “Your consumers engage online very similar to the way they do offline,” Hall said.

One last nugget of wisdom from Hall was that “Google is our ‘frienemy’ – part friends, part enemy. While they take our content and monetize it in ways that we can’t, they also give us a tremendous way to not only supplement but also replace the loss of the direct mail universe. We think of Google as our list universe today and we mine the heck out of it.”

“There is no finish line, it’s about constant and consistent improvement,” Hall finished.

Have you also pondered whether everyone else is adapting more easily than you are?

Online publishing has grown rapidly. Ten years ago, we only had to worry about our traditional publishing competitors. Five years ago, we had to start worrying about bloggers. Now even retailers are starting to publish content.

How does a publisher survive in the digital ecosystem?

Yesterday we talked about the 3 Ways to Expand Your Online Business in 2010. We talked about hybrid business models as well as sponsor (ad) driven models and user (product) driven models.

What it all comes down to is “who is paying you to be in business?” Magazine publishers are used to the sponsor-driven model, where their publications are funded solely on advertising revenue.

Sadly, as advertisers choose to spend less money in print advertising and more in online advertising, publishers are faced with a dilemma: how can we make more money online?

User-driven publishers face a similar problem. While the economy is still down, B2B publishers are seeing less product sales than years before. B2C publishers are seeing the same. Their dilemma is identical: how can we make more money online?

The solution to either of these predicaments is entirely up to the publisher. Many user-driven publishers have chosen to build out new product lines, which include books, merchandise, webinars and other unique products. Most of the time, these products don’t depend on any original content but are simply created from repurposing existing content. We’ve watched dozens of successful publishers master this technique.

On the other hand, many up and coming online publishers have integrated the user and sponsor driven models to create a unique hybrid. With these business models, they accept targeted advertising on their websites. In some cases, advertisers will sponsor a topic on their website. In other cases, they might sponsor online events used to build email circulation and build an online relationship. In addition to advertising, they have their own arsenals of products that they create for their users.

Either way, we’ve been talking to dozens of online publishers who are taking the next steps to “digital enlightenment”.

What the heck is “digital enlightenment” supposed to mean?

Well, one publisher we’re especially fond of took a series of fairly successful print newsletters, and turned them into a multi-million dollar company once he converted to a successful online business model. He actually ditched the print newsletters and turned them into digital subscriptions and a membership website.

He now hosts sponsored webinars that drive traffic, leads and brand recognition. He has a plethora of reports, created from repurposed newsletters. He gives his readers funny videos to build his online audience, and hosts several podcasts a month.

That’s what we’d call “digital enlightenment”. This publisher went from producing several print newsletters, to creating an online media empire.

The big secret – everyone is struggling, and we all need to be enlightened.

Whether you are sponsor-driven, ad-driven, a hybrid business model, or are still trying to pave your way, we have a collection of online video seminars available that you can get instant access to in our online training library, Mequoda Pro.

We have hundreds of Mequoda Pro subscribers who are looking for the same answers you are, and are continuing their education through our growing collection of training seminars. Our job with Mequoda Pro is to answer your questions with real-life case studies of publishers who are “doing it right”.

If you haven’t met these publishers at conferences, conducted in-depth interviews with them or bought them a beer at a networking event, you probably don’t know their unique strategies. We’re not ashamed to tell you that we’ve met and in some cases worked with these publishers, interviewed them, and have even bought a few beers to get the case studies we share with you in Mequoda Pro.

If you’re still deciding which revenue model works for you, our 60-minute Business Strategy seminar would be a great starting point in Mequoda Pro. In this seminar we show you several different business models and the publishers who are successfully deploying them.

If you’re a sponsor-driven publisher, our Internet Advertising Basics seminar might be appropriate for you. Don’t let the name fool you though… we brought in online advertising expert Dan Ambrose to host this 90-minute intensive seminar that will help you develop your skills in advertising sales, marketing and strategy to achieve the excellence that will be an ongoing competitive advantage in the sponsor-driven online environment.

If you’re a user-driven publisher, and are looking to maximize your email revenue per subscriber with a bigger and better assortment of product offerings, our Digital Product Development seminar will inspire new product ideas and guide you in the right direction.

There are also plenty of seminars that are useful for all online publishers, such as Twitter for Publishers, Email Newsletter Marketing, PR & Link Building, Online Market Analysis, Website Conversion Architecture and great sessions for editors, like Online Content Management and Search Engine Optimization (yes, that’s the job of the Editor!).

In total, right now we have thirteen 30-90 minute online seminars in Mequoda Pro. These seminars include online tools and downloadable spreadsheets that you can use to start applying your new skills right away.

We also host webinars each month, which are deposited into the Mequoda Pro library about a week after the live event has occurred.

If you’re a frequent webinar attendee, you can save yourself $247 every month by subscribing to Mequoda Pro for only $297 for an entire year of access. If you’d like to provide yourself or your staff with ongoing training that doesn’t require trips out of the office, Mequoda Pro is the economical approach to on-site training.

In addition to all of the online sessions, members of Mequoda Pro have access to our Q&A forums, which means that you can ask any question about one of our sessions, or about your business, and our research team will give you a detailed, educated response in under 72 hours.

Are you ready to become part of the “digitally enlightened”? Join Mequoda Pro today.

Here is a recap of the entire conference:

Introduction & Digital Product Strategy
Take-away #1: Build your online audience and your subscription sales will follow

Online Market Analysis
“It’s about learning who you can partner with in your space, before your other competitors beat you to it,” Don Nicholas notes in this session about conducting an Online Market Analysis

Creating & Marketing B2B and B2C Events
David Pyle of Interweave explains their approach to taking their most passionate beaders and artists and turning them into “passionistas” for his brands

Keyword Research & Targeting
Kim Mateus of Mequoda Group shows attendees how to write a rapid conversion landing page for free reports

Website Conversion Architecture
One take-away from this in-depth session on landing pages and website conversion architecture, were all the different types of ads and placements that publishers can place on their site

Titling, Targeting and Tagging Online Content
Tips for online editors on tagging, targeting and titling online content

Twitter for Publishers
Amanda MacArthur, our resident Online Editor & Publisher, led the session on social media strategy today, addressing how publishing are (and should) be using Twitter in their own businesses.

SEO Campaign Management
Danielle Werbick tells publishers how she creates and deploys SEO campaigns for KnittingDaily.com

Landing Page Optimization
“Testing is a no-brainer”, says Bob Brady of Business & Legal Resources

Email Newsletter Marketing
Don Nicholas tells publishers that email newsletters are the new newspapers

Digital Brand Strategy
“The only things more important than your brand are your customers, your ‘passionistas’”, noted Don Nicholas in this session on Digital Brand Strategy.

Google Analytics for Publishers
12 things every copywriter, editor and audience development manager can learn using Google Analytics

Organizing Print and Online Teams
How three publishers are integrating their print and online teams

Had to miss the Summit? Catch up when you become a member of our video seminar library, Mequoda Pro. Learn more about Mequoda Pro!