Email Newsletters

Aim to impress and engage your email newsletter subscribers every time you arrive in their inbox
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Your email newsletter should provide benefit-oriented content that engages the reader … Continue Reading »

Ideas for an editorial strategy that re-purposes content for additional revenue streams
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Ten free whitepapers for turning your print publishing company into a successful online publishing company
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Why an Email Newsletter is Essential for Ad-Driven Publishers

Think of your website as single-copy distribution when it comes to online adverting. You can optimize it, publish regularly, search engine optimize it and wait for readers to come, but that’s the depth you are offering your advertisers. … Continue Reading »

When the Mequoda Summit returns to Boston October 7-9, 2009, it will surely be a sellout. Don’t miss this opportunity to reserve your seat at the guaranteed lowest price.
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Mequoda Method online publishing is now a worldwide phenomenon … Continue Reading »

How to control what your readers see when they first open your email newsletter

The first screen of your email newsletter, which includes the preview pane, is another part of your email newsletter’s prime real estate. … Continue Reading »

How email newsletter contact frequency affects the annual value of an email newsletter subscriber

The online metrics of making your email newsletter yield more revenue

If he had been a consultant to our industry, the legendary Peter Drucker probably would have said something pithy like “measure your email revenue right, and measure the right email revenue.” … Continue Reading »

Using email newsletters to lower the cost of creating online brand building. When the history of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election is written, the role of the Internet, and especially email, will be recognized for having revolutionized campaign strategy more than any technology since John F. Kennedy mastered using television in 1960. … Continue Reading »

How to comply with the rules of sending an email newsletter, while providing your customers with friendly ways to keep in touch, and maintaining the rights to your content. … Continue Reading »

This daily entertainment news update has a great footer and from line, but it’s first and preview screens aren’t exactly star studded … Continue Reading »

Listen to your audience when making an eBook by doing keyword research, tracking your user activity, observing your competitors and just flat out asking them what they need. … Continue Reading »

The Mequoda Method is a comprehensive business system for making money on the Internet via the sale of information products, sponsor revenue and lead generation. Each Mequoda System is a unique reflection of the publisher’s audience and online business model. What follows is a sampling of the online publishing and marketing systems we’ve helped design, build and optimize over the past 15 years.

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If an email gets sent to an inbox and lands in the junkbox, does it make a sound? … Continue Reading »

The sessions you’ll attend at the Mequoda Summit aren’t your run-of-the-mill sporadic conference sessions. Each session at the Mequoda Summit focuses on a specific strategy that your company needs to master in order to be successful online.

Take a look at the seven strategies below and ask yourself the following questions:

Editorial Strategy: Do you understand how to effectively repurpose your paid content into other products such as blogs, membership websites and podcasts for new revenue opportunities? Do you know which platforms you should use as opposed to other publishers?

“Learn how the Web’s top publishers are using podcasts, webinars, book, and other new media platforms to build loyal customer relationships.”

Master the new media—websites, email, blogs, RSS feeds, audio programs, video seminars, conferences, workshops and more. Offer customers information and entertainment on multiple platforms, using a variety of business models and marketing channels.

We’ll show you how to offer users many products on many platforms, how to give them a free, robust online content, and a personalized marketing experience.

Plus you’ll discover how to use different platforms for distributing your branded content and how to determine which combination of platforms will work best for you.

Business Strategy: Do you know which business models you are running? What about which business models are complimentary to each other and make the most revenue when run together? Should your business have a social network? What about a membership website?

“Discover how to choose and use the right business model for your online business.”

Every website is not the same. Depending on your goals and the way you generate profits, your design should fall into one of ten different strategic designs.

Get real-world, practical guidance on the 12 media business models and how each generates revenue for publishers.

Website Strategy: Do you know how to make sure every page on your website is optimized so that every visitor to your website wants to sign up for your email newsletter or buy a product?

“Learn the 12 web page templates used by today’s top publishers to capture the most visitors.”

You don’t need to be a professional graphic artist or information architect to understand the secrets of an effective publisher’s website.

Your overall strategy must be to drive traffic to a primary online venue, capture visitors’ email addresses, establish a permission-driven database, market products to the database, and build loyal customers and repeat sales.

Just as in direct mail (postal) marketing, the money is in the list!

We’ll show you how to establish a permission-based database and all the ways to drive traffic to your site. Plus, how to monetize these site visitors and convert them to paying customers.

Keyword Strategy: Do you know what your primary keywords are? Are the topics or categories on your blog optimized for search engines? What about your articles? Do your editors have a keyword list in front of them that guides their editorial strategy?

“Learn the SEO strategies every writer, editor and publisher needs to get found on the web.”

In 2008, no online publishing business should be hiring an outside SEO firm. The job of search engine optimization should be in the job description of every writer and editor. It is a logical extension of the editorial process. Hiring outside only doubles the work and expense and adds to the time putting out articles, blogs, and other website content.

You’ll learn how to choose keyword phrases, determine keyword popularity, optimize article headlines and subheads, measure keyword density, optimize your meta tags, optimize your URL’s and maximize internal and external linking.

And if you are not part of the editorial staff, we’ll provide you with all the information you’ll need to kick them into gear.

Email Strategy: Do your email newsletters and promotions get delivered? If they do, what makes the difference between someone reading them and someone throwing them into their junk folder? Do you know what best practice emails look like?

“Discover how to create email newsletters and promotions that get delivered, opened and read.”

While success or failure of an email newsletter or promotion should be directly tied to bottom line goals (sales, revenue, etc.), there are some things that can help—or hurt—a newsletter’s chances of achieving those goals.

No matter how valuable its content, an email newsletter is ineffective unless it gets delivered, opened and read.

We’ll introduce you to email newsletters that get the highest conversion rates and email revenue per thousand and show you how to design your email newsletter for the same results.

Organizational Strategy: Do you know the best way to staff an online publishing team? Do you know how to write accurate job descriptions in the new publishing environment and staff accordingly?

“Learn how to organize activities around your content and build an effective online publishing staff.”

Most publishers load more responsibilities onto their existing print staff but those in
the know are hiring dedicated staff to run their online business units.

Learn why it’s critical to isolate your online teams before you integrate and how to eventually leverage all your editorial assets, cross promote print, Web and email circulation and create synergies for sponsors.

Reporting Strategy: Do you know which metrics are the most important to your online publishing success? Do you have a key metrics dashboard in front of you every day that tells you exactly where your business needs improvement?

“Learn the key metrics every online business manager should know.”

In order to run an effective online business, you need to know what statistics you should be watching (both yours and your competitors).

We’ll show you the key metrics you should know at the end of every day, week and month in order to keep in control of your online business, make the right changes at the right time, and generate the most profit for your online business.

… Continue Reading »

Email copywriting best practices for effective consumer email marketing … Continue Reading »

How Computerworld drives traffic from their print product and supplies enough content to satisfy both users and sponsors … Continue Reading »

How Mono Topic, Multi Topic and Promo Email Newsletter Templates are used in online publishing … Continue Reading »

Choosing the Right Keyword Phrases to Attract Targeted Website Traffic and Using the Google Visibility Index to Track SEO Success … Continue Reading »

A special-interest user experience includes multiple platforms: online, offline, and in person; using all three guarantees you the most visibility and the best user satisfaction. … Continue Reading »

Mequoda Group provides research, training and educational services exclusively for the publishing industry. Our mission is to help publishers succeed online by providing them with free daily tips, free reports, online seminars, live events, consulting services and software services.

We have brought together publishing industry veterans and information architecture experts to create a unique road map for creating successful websites. We combine the benefit of 30 years of experience in periodical management with a cutting-edge knowledge of Internet marketing and publishing.

Mequoda Educational Services: Discover the best practices for online media management and Internet marketing strategy through private and public training workshops.

Mequoda Consulting Services: Transform your business into a profitable online publishing company in 12 months or less with intensive coaching from Don Nicholas and the Mequoda Research Team.

Mequoda Software Services: Outsource your website system design, development and support to Mequoda’s software team for a fast and economical strategy for building your online marketing program.

Mequoda Clients: Learn more about the publishers who have chosen the Mequoda system to help them make more money on the Internet via the sale of information products, sponsor revenue and lead generation.

Contact Us: Please reach out to learn how we could help you launch your online publishing and marketing initiative. … Continue Reading »

“The Mequoda Summit is not an educational luxury, it’s a survival strategy.“ 2009 may be the year that will make or break many publishing companies. Blogs and “free” information sites are blowing us out of the water in terms of profits and popularity. The online environment is competitive and 2009 is the year that will make or break many publishing companies. Where will you stand? Save $800 when you register today!

Attention Publishers: Learn how to Make Money Online in a Web 2.0 World at the Sixth Annual Mequoda Summit and Internet Marketing Conference, October 7-9, 2009. 12 information-packed sessions covering SEO, link-building, content management, email newsletter marketing, budgeting, staffing and more… Organized and hosted by world-renowned authority on Internet strategy for publishers Don Nicholas… A collaborative and unique environment to network with fellow publishing colleagues… Hosted at a picturesque Boston location set along the banks of the Charles River, overlooking the Boston skyline… Complimentary cocktail party and networking event on the first night… Bonus SEO workshop following the Summit that gives an in-depth walk-through on copywriting, keyword research and optimization across your entire site (optional fee applies)… Don’t take our word for it, see what others are saying…

July 4, 2009

Dear Colleague,

Download the brochure!

Now in our 6th year, the Mequoda Summit is the most highly reviewed event for online publishers in the US. Whether you’ve attended our Summit in the past or not, you’ll surely benefit from this year’s Mequoda Summit 2009 in Boston. As always, our research is up to the minute and we’ve added tons of new sessions.

You’ve read about the layoffs at Time Inc., Conde Nast, and almost every other media/publishing company. Last year LIFE magazine made the transition to online-only and PC Magazine just made the same announcement.

2009 may be the year that will make or break many publishing companies. Blogs and “free” information sites are blowing us out of the water in terms of profits and popularity. How is it that a magazine with 50 or 100 years of content under its belt can build a website that is not even comparable to a 3-year old blog?

Social media? Web 2.0? eBooks? SEO? Free stuff? What are the online publishing kids doing these days?

We have the man-power, the reputation, and the resources to build online teams that defeat the newbies, but so far many publishers have chosen to keep content on lock-down, live by the rules of print and stay the same.

This new year is a whole different ballgame, it’s time to change or be left behind. In order to build your brand and product sales online, you must learn how to make money online in a web 2.0 world. At the Mequoda Summit, you will learn what your company needs to start doing now in order to make it through 2009.

We’ll show you dozens of case studies from successful (and not-so-successful) online publishers. Then we’ll teach you what your online competitors are doing and how to take what we’ve learned from thousands of hours of interviews, conferences and meetings with clients to turn it into a business plan for 2009.

If you want to succeed to 2009, you’re going to need to understand the new tools of the trade.

In the days of old, editors had one primary responsibility: writing great content. Now the rules have changed and in order to be a successful online publishing company, your editors must also be trained in SEO and must learn how to connect with their audience via blog comments and other online interactions.

Marketers also used to have one goal: push the word out through a handful of mediums. These days, if a marketer really wants to be heard, they must engage on social networks, build relationships with bloggers, publish digital press releases, submit events to online directories, and otherwise reach their audience more personally than ever before.

The new business models used by successful online publishers now include building an online audience that chooses them over the millions of websites online today. Five years ago, “online publishing” meant “PDF”; Now it means producing and delivering content that is optimized for search engines and may never even appear on a printed page. And in many cases, it’s free!

We didn’t say it would be easy, or fair—but it’s fight or flight.

Your audience now expects to find you on their mobile phones, in RSS feeds, on social networks and through content syndication. How will you keep up? What should be your first priorities? How can you be sure that all your efforts will ultimately translate into dollar signs?

Join us at the Mequoda Summit, happening October 7-9, 2009 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA to explore these and other emerging trends around online publishing, including:

• Taking 20+ years of back-content and turning it into blog posts, eBooks, podcasts and other new media initiatives
• Starting with a concept, instead of a story, and turning it into a multi-platform product
• Marketing to the social web with personal branding and using consumer-driven communities to help build business
• Creating business models and monetization methods with online media
• Building online publishing teams dedicated to creating a robust website with a profitable product line
• Search engine optimizing not just blog posts, but every element, of every page, of a website network

Adams Business Media… American Medical Association… Aspen Publishers… Blood-Horse Publications… Crain Communications… Dow Jones & Company… Ebsco Industries… FDA News… Harvard Health Publishing… Highlights for Children… Infocom… J.D. Powers & Associates… Kiplinger… Lutheran Magazine… Manisses… Massachusetts Medical Society… Ogden Publications… Pinnacle Publishing… PRIMEDIA… Rodale… Scientific American… The Motley Fool… Time Inc… Unity World… University Health Publishing… Vance Publishing… Wiesner Publishing… Yoga International… and many others.

Spend a few days with the Mequoda Team in Boston…then go back to your office—and shift your online marketing into high gear!

During the Mequoda Summit, you’ll master a new methodology—the Mequoda Methodology—that has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in information product sales online for dozens of publishers, from start-ups to multi-million-dollar media giants.

At the Mequoda Summit Boston 2009, you will learn:

• How to come up with ideas for new ways to package your products and services—and sell them online.
• The most common traits of online publishing companies that have made millions on the Internet.
• Why arrivals, conversion rates, email circulation, RPM and cost per new subscriber are important metrics for product-driven websites.
• Why impressions, revenue per page, email circulation, RPM and cost per new subscriber are important metrics for ad-driven websites.
• The keys to maximizing profit using your existing content and knowledge-base.
• How to recycle, reuse and republish information in different formats.
• How to identify the right archetype for your business, to ensure higher revenue, lower operating costs and happier customers.
• How to optimize an organic landing page to help a user searching with Google, Yahoo! or MSN to find it.
• How to increase conversion rates and improve the user experience with your brand online.
• How to price your information products and test different offers to maximize sales and profits.
• How to use meta pages to maximize website traffic and help users find your content more easily.
• How to get your email newsletter through ISP filters and those that reside on the recipients desktop.



• How to use the power of your brand to launch a TV show, radio show, or syndicated newspaper column.
• How to use personalized content to enhance user satisfaction and increase page views and time spent.
• How to measure the effectiveness of your websites.
• How to get your email promotions opened and read.
• The how, why and what to test for ad-driven and product-driven websites.
• How to use multimedia and interactive technology to increase interest in email newsletters.
• How to make your website’s interface more intuitive and uncomplicated.
• How to generate massive traffic to your site—and capture each visitor’s email address.
• How to use the 12 different types of landing pages effectively.
• How to increase your site’s rankings with the major search engines.
• Which tools are available to help make keyword research easy and effective.
• The external media sources and database marketing channels that constitute a proven Internet marketing system.
• How to up-sell and cross-sell online customers for maximum profits.
• The key drivers that affect your website’s bottom line and how to implement a metrics-driven plan for your integrated online publishing empire.
• How to build large, responsive email lists that generate huge cash flow—month after month.
• How to generate multiple streams of income from a single book or information product.
• How to create relationships and gain the trust of your prospects so that they will order from you over and over again.
• How to get the biggest publishers in your market to actively promote your products to their lists—at no up-front cost to you.
• How to precisely measure unique visits, click-through rates, conversions, orders, dollars per name, and other key metrics.

The bottom line: by the close of the Summit, you will have in your hands dozens of practical, specific, detailed, and realistic ways to build, manage, and get results from your online marketing program. And if you decide to opt for our bonus SEO workshop on October 9, you’ll get some invaluable hands-on training that will prepare you for the next step in the online success of your company.

To enroll in the Mequoda Summit call Julie Ottomano at 508-435-1005. Or click below now:

But I urge you to hurry. First come, first served.

Sincerely,

Don Nicholas
Managing Partner
Mequoda Group LLC

P.S. As of today, you can attend the Mequoda Summit 2009 in Boston this year for just $897. Bring along your staff and you can all attend at the low rate of just $797 per attendee! If you want to attend the bonus SEO workshop, it’s just $497 more.

P.P.S. We guarantee your satisfaction. If you are not convinced that the Mequoda Summit will absolutely revolutionize and transform your Internet marketing… and take your publishing company to a whole new level of sales and success online… just let us know by lunch time of the first day.

You can return your conference materials, leave, and get a prompt and full refund of all your money. That way, you risk nothing.

… Continue Reading »

14 ways to get your email delivered and viewed correctly on any browser … Continue Reading »

It’s hard to find an idea that you can’t do something with online, says John Rockhold, Managing Editor of Mother Earth News. … Continue Reading »

Download ourcomplimentary report today and learn how to compete with today’s toppublishers by using the most profitable seven online publishing secrets. … Continue Reading »

How to build top level conversion architecture that will increase conversion rates and boost sales … Continue Reading »

Use these strategies developed by the folks at HR Daily Advisor to help your writers and editors sell more product. … Continue Reading »

Real Simple started as a magazine in 2000 and has since repurposed that content on its website, in email newsletters, in events, products, radio and television. … Continue Reading »

How Agora, Inc. used the free content model to turn a $25 million dollar newsletter publisher into a more than $200 million dollar company that generates more than half of its total revenue online. … Continue Reading »

How to sell products while maintaining the honesty and tactical transparency required to preserve a trusting audience … Continue Reading »

Some people prefer books, some the web, some magazines. By multiplatform publishing, ATK delivers users the content they want, how they want it. … Continue Reading »

BTB Publisher Succeeds Online by Dominating FDA Niche … Continue Reading »

Tips for helping editors think like marketers when it comes to their products … Continue Reading »

Do you have an Internet Hub? How are you using it to expand your brand?

Mequoda’s Don Nicholas presented a rapid-fire version of our Making Money Online workshop and moderated a panel focused on one of the seven strategies: multiplatform editorial management.

Don was joined on the panel by David McKee of DRG, Phil Penny of Belvoir Media Group and Bryan Welch of Ogden Publications. The panelists talked about their multiplatform strategies, where their content originates from and how they view the Web as central to their strategy. … Continue Reading »

29 Insider Secrets for Creating Effective and Profitable Email Newsletters … Continue Reading »

Expand your brand, audience, and reach with the technology you’ve been pondering since 2007 … Continue Reading »

If your budgets and resources are limited, we advise allocating them to efforts that are easily measured and monetized, like the contest Hearst Digital ran for Good Housekeeping last year. A simply brilliant and timely sweepstakes, offering $250,000 to pay off the winner’s mortgage, resulted in a 35% increase in average monthly unique visitors in the second half of 2007, doubled online subscription revenues in 2007 over the previous year and saw a 34% growth in email addresses. … Continue Reading »

How a publisher made one change that increased their delivery rates from 65% to 98% in days. If your email provider is not giving you a delivery report, and you are not registered with a service like Delivery Monitor, we seriously recommend that you pay attention. … Continue Reading »

Paid media programs balance your Internet marketing system

While patience is a required virtue for earned media programs, paid media programs offer the Mequoda Marketing System operator the opportunity for quick results with a reasonable ROI (return on investment). Each of these programs involves finding and buying traffic by spending money to buy advertising, leads or lists. … Continue Reading »

The Internet Hub is a one of seven Mequoda Website Archetypes discovered by reviewing more then 2000 media websites. Like all Mequoda Website Archetypes, it has a limited set of core functions that make it efficient for completing a limited group of user tasks that are key to the success of an online publishing operation or Mequoda Marketing System. … Continue Reading »

Key components of the Mequoda Internet Marketing System

The launch and operation of a Mequoda Marketing System can be divided into four phases. Most of the steps in each phase are then repeated over and over again to build email circulation and monetize customer relationships. … Continue Reading »

It’s happening to all publishers as open rates continue to drop across all industries. Luckily, the email service providers have stepped in to shed some light on the situation.

Two of the most important delivery rate factors are the “from” address and the subject line. However, if you want your emails to get opened, your subject line has two tests to pass: the spam checker, and the email checker. You want your email to get delivered, but you also want it to get opened. … Continue Reading »

The same high quality copywriting and design elements can be used for online, email and postal mail sales pitches.

Multiplatform publishing in the 21st century means offering users many products on many platforms, and using the Internet to recycle, reuse and republish information in many different formats.

This involves taking the same information and turning it into any format a user could possibly want—from e-books to streaming video to email newsletters. Publishers not only save on material costs, but the same information is being cheaply repackaged and sold in a multitude of formats to maximize customer satisfaction and revenue. … Continue Reading »

Branding, Convergence and Digital Growth, Dubbed “The MagaBrand Revolution,” were the Big Themes at this Year’s American Magazine Conference in Boca Raton

New Media Trends - Ok, so maybe not every editor attending the 2007 American Magazine Conference is now willing to call what they print each month a “MagaBrand,” but as AMC conference chair, Men’s Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko points out, success in today’s media marketplace means reaching beyond the newsstands to TV, radio, the Web, email newsletters, podcasts, webcasts, and live events. … Continue Reading »

t’s September 2007 and 2008 online publishing budgets are being prepared far and wide.How will you budget online expenses and revenues for 2008? To give you a hand, download the most recent version of the free Mequoda Online Publishing Model and use it to help predict the future of your online publishing business. … Continue Reading »

Use this simple process to make your Internet marketing system a continuous improvement machine that produces ever-increasing revenue and profit

About 80 to 100 times a year, I get hired to audit or review the Internet marketing strategy for a publisher who has a website that is making money. The goal of the review is to find five to ten changes to their current Internet marketing system that will make more money. … Continue Reading »

This Mequoda System Operator has found high profitability with a unique Internet marketing strategy

The website and email newsletter feature updates five days a week, with editorials sent on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and promotions sent on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”Mequoda essentially gave us the winning formula, which was to create a newsletter where 60 percent of it was editorial and 40 percent of it was marketing,” said HR Daily Advisor Managing Editor Jay Schleifer.The editorial strategy for HR Daily is what Schleifer calls the “1-2 punch” sequence, where a human resources problem is posed on Monday and Wednesday, and the solutions to those problems are delivered via a product offer on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday’s are left for stand-alone editorials.Last week, for example, an HR Daily article cited several statistics that illustrated the need for managers to provide feedback to employees. The next day’s article discussed how a BLR product helps managers constructively provide employees feedback. The “1-2 punch” strategy is proving to be very successful, Schleifer said. … Continue Reading »

Want to use other people’s content? Are you ready to risk your brand for it?

Many of my clients are creating a book series that supports and monetizes their brand’s knowledge base and information architecture. Some are experienced book publishers and some are experienced periodical publishers. While both skills are required to be a successful Mequoda Internet Marketing System operator, most of my clients do not possess both sets of skills. … Continue Reading »

We’ve discovered a new platform that publishers can use to deliver and monetize content

For those of you that missed it, there was a fantastic New York Times article on Monday about Playboy and Rolling Stone offering decades of their archives on DVD.

In fact, yours truly is quoted in the article discussing how the ease and affordability of storing content on DVDs could cause a popularity surge for these types of digital archives. … Continue Reading »