Tag: information products

Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week … Continue

Organize email marketing campaigns by creating an editorial and promotional calendar that keeps editors on track and in line with email revenue goals … Continue

How recycling, repurposing, and repackaging content can create alignment in your marketing efforts

The number of steps required to create an effective audience development plan often confuses people new to organic content marketing. One of my favorite tricks is to use the acronym ARM to help people remember that there are three distinct elements or parts … Continue

Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week … Continue

No matter how well you’re doing, you can always do better. So is your retention rate too low? Yes! If it’s not 100% (it never is) then your email retention rate could improve.

To determine your email retention rate, use this formula: … Continue

Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week … Continue

Digital content marketing drives surge in digital product sales for publishers

While many organizations have discovered the power of digital content marketing to sell products and services, perhaps no organizations are being impacted like the publishers of books, magazines, newsletters and videos. … Continue

What your ecommerce website design should look like from the first page to the thank-you page

Publishers sometimes forget that they are retailers; publishers do sell subscriptions, memberships, books, ancillary products, events, etc.

It’s smart for a publisher to think like a retailer: Get people into your store, where they can become your customers. And when they … Continue

Three critical questions every website publisher must answer.

Who runs audience development for your organization? When a website publisher asks me to help them increase website traffic and build a loyal online audience, the first question I ask is, “Who runs audience development for your organization?” I get a wide variety of answers. At smaller independent … Continue

It’s with great excitement that I announce that my friend and colleague, Ed Coburn, will be joining Mequoda Group as Executive Director of our reconstituted Mequoda Advisory Board. As many of you know, Ed is publishing director for Harvard Medical School, past president of the Specialized Information Publishers Association, and an active director of numerous … Continue

Developing new channels and partnerships gives strength to online publishers.

Offering content for little or no money puts direct emphasis on the need to have volume. To succeed as digital publishers, it’s necessary to develop a digital retail network and affiliate networks so you have more sources for selling and promoting your content. … Continue

The recent Facebook IPO and surrounding uproar has created a robust discussion about the future of online advertising business models.

Advertising works for a couple of fundamental reasons. Advertising works when it helps someone find something that they want or need. Advertising works when it makes someone realize they have a want or need. And advertising … Continue

These methods will help you add more registered members to your email lists
… Continue

The Digital Publishing Bootcamp takes a comprehensive look at digital publishing strategy. Our instructors don’t only discuss the aspects of content creation, distribution, and measurement; they also cover the foundations for running and optimizing an online publishing business, including the website.

In order to grow, a multiplatform publisher needs website that can drives traffic, build relationships, … Continue

The art of audience development blogging requires great service journalism wrapped around a best-selling product

While audience development blogging can take many formats, I teach my clients three basic templates to begin a new blogging program. A typical blog calendar might go for as little as four weeks to as many as 26 weeks. It might … Continue

For consumer marketers, there is perhaps no better audience development program than one anchored by a well-run audience development blog

I almost never meet a publisher who tells me their audience could not be larger. And for the most part, they are absolutely correct. Most niche media publishers never reach more than three to five percent … Continue

Order this new, 90-minute webinar and discover digital publishing components that are needed for making fundamental decisions as the digital transformation continues. … Continue

Tim Baskerville, Principal, Media Service Group, West Hills, Cailf.

SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
TIM: As a senior in high school, I decided I wanted a career in broadcast journalism. Every week I’d call up the woman at CBS in Hollywood who managed editorial assistants, … Continue

In 2012, the publishing industry will continue to shift manufacturing and distribution costs to the consumer, causing unit pricing to fall and publishers to introduce more premium editions

In a free market, economics is a predictable science. Over the next few years, consumers will snap up more than 300 million tablet computers. These network devices will … Continue

Unless your website portal, subscription websites, online stores, customer lists, digital books, periodicals and videos are state-of-the-art, you probably shouldn’t be doing the following three things in 2012.

Most publishers I know, including me, suffer from a mental illness called BSOS or Bright Shiny Object Syndrome. Someone who suffers from this malady exhibits behavior that resembles … Continue

Legacy publishers have the opportunity to expand their brand by developing a magazine-centric URL structure.

In doing so, your magazine content can remain the center of your online activity, while your brand grows through the additional of digital channels. … Continue

Roger B. Wilson, Jr., newMeetia, The Conference Department, Inc., Winchester, Mass.

SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?

ROGER: I pounded nails when I graduated from college, continuing a construction business I had started before college and operated through college. I employed as many as 5 guys. … Continue

Why product, price, and offer have never been more important

The rush to create and sell digital information products is leaving a lot of money on the table. While I believe every publisher should be partnering with Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Zinio to sell digital magazines, newsletters, and books, the opportunity is much larger.

The … Continue

Some niche media publishers are charging up to $150 per M for Tweets

While I know many writers, editors and publishers who use their Tweets to promote their own blogs, books, magazines, events and other information products, I was surprised to hear that some publishers are now selling them like banner ads and email blasts.

The going … Continue

4 reasons why you should have a well optimized free report marketplace

If you aren’t offering free download products yet, here’s what you are missing:

An opportunity to start key relationships with the people searching for content on the topics you cover.

The chance to get brand ambassadors to spread … Continue

Communicate to the right audience segment with the best possible message

Internet marketers are becoming more experienced at segmenting their customer database.

By targeting buyers and prospects separately with unique messaging, sales and revenues will increase. It only makes sense that someone who has already purchased from you should be communicated to in a different manner than … Continue

5 magazine assets online publishers need to utilize for growing your online business

Magazine publishers have an advantage when they turn to the Internet.

Unlike most online self-starters, print magazine publishers who realize that the Internet is a key to surviving and thriving in the digital landscape can leverage magazine assets. … Continue

Mequoda System Strategy Workshop discusses why Google AdWords should be in your traffic mix

We don’t always talk about this directly, but it’s important to bring people to your website who are ready to buy.

For any publisher with a store, AdWords will almost always be a positive part of the mix for selling aligned products like … Continue

Best selling author John Locke uses the characteristics of a Mequoda System to make money online

Can you imagine selling over one million eBooks in under five months?

John Locke, the self-published author, does not have to imagine such a feat as he’s sold over one million eBooks through Kindle in five months. … Continue

All online businesses need to track metrics, and pay attention to the numbers that equal successful revenue generation

At the recent SIPA 2011 event in Washington, DC, I had the opportunity to sit in on David Meerman Scott’s keynote entitled “Real-Time Marketing and PR – Why Journalists and Marketers Should Care.”

This session focused on the concept … Continue

Why it’s important to let go and allow your users define your website

If there’s anything we’ve learned from the great success of Anne Holland’s new venture, Which Test Won, it’s that we must test our websites to find out what works. Also, that whatever we think will convert better, is probably not the one that … Continue

4 ways the online editor position has changed in the digital realm

If you told journalists ten years ago that in 2011 they would be writing, editing, engaging on social media, learning SEO, tracking metrics and handling audience development requirements, they probably wouldn’t believe you.

If you told them there would be better tools for discovering the … Continue

The most effective landing pages follow these four checklist items

Have you ever seen a sales letter that included a bulleted list of items… and the last item in the list said, “and much, much more?” Well, here’s a news flash…nobody with an IQ higher than room temperature believes that there is “much, much more.”

If you … Continue

Successfully syndicating content will leave you with new, healthy revenue streams

The concept seems easy to understand: content syndication is profitable when utilized.

Have you ever thought of the reasons why syndicating content is a good practice for online publishers to master?

Most online publishers probably have not thought about it because although it can be a great … Continue

Digital content marketing systems are replacing other marketing strategies at a pace never before seen.

In the second decade of the 21st century, the online publishing environment is not only changing dramatically, it’s changing at a faster rate than we ever could have anticipated.

In a mere 15+ years, since the dawn of the commercial Internet, we’ve … Continue

Three quick tips for online editors who manage email marketing campaigns

As an online editor, your primary responsibility is to create reusable editorial content, recycling it in numerous media. Your core job is to reuse, recycle and repurpose premium information product content as free email newsletters and website posts. If you’re a Mequoda System editor, your … Continue

How to manage multiplatform brand development

Successful publishing companies have reinvented themselves over the last decade into multiplatform publishers. The most successful of these online publishing companies deliver any information the customer wants, in any form the customer wants, whenever the customer wants it. As a result, the publisher’s potential audience has exploded.

A multiplatform publishing strategy … Continue

Do you want to maximize your customer lifetime value?

Successful publishers generate online revenue by selling either advertising/sponsorships or physical information products— books, magazines, newsletters, live events, DVDs, CDs, etc. Many sell both.

For many successful online publishers, the majority of their page views occur with their email. Email newsletters drive page views for both product-driven websites … Continue

A Mequoda Content Marketing System is driven by earned, organic media.

Since the first time we organized these content marketing tenets (in 2003), the third principle has always been about search — making certain your website is visible to Google and the other search engines.

Today, we are more aware than ever of the importance of both … Continue

Better guidelines for setting up and running an affiliate sales program

The key to a successful affiliate program is to give your affiliates as much incentive as possible to sell your product. The more free marketing materials you hand out, the less effort your affiliates will need to put in and the more likely they’ll be … Continue

How to use paid and earned media to build your membership website

Most publishers continue to rely on paid media to generate traffic for their membership website. For good reason – paid media works. And it’s often easier to buy website traffic than to rely on earned media.

Basic paid media sources for building your membership website: … Continue

How can the Mequoda Content Marketing System transform your legacy special-interest magazine, newsletter or newspaper into a highly profitable, multi-platform media empire?

We’ve studied thousands of successful and not-so-successful online publishers to determine the best business practices to create the Mequoda Content Marketing System. All of the successful online publishers we’ve studied have one thing in … Continue

What is a membership website and what makes it a subscription website archetype?

A Membership Website is an online destination—in and of itself. It may be structured as a “pure-play” site or as a “companion” website. Either way, members or subscribers register and pay to access information, organized library-style by topic of interest, or research information … Continue

Landing page guidelines for writing and testing long copy salesletters

In almost every A/B split test we’ve ever done, or convinced a publisher to do, long copy prevails when trying to make a sale. A well-done long copy landing page will beat short copy four out of five times.

Why? Here’s our theory. Long copy tells them … Continue

A shocking subject line and email led to a simple, yet effective video landing page

Yesterday I got an email from Early to Rise, a blog and email newsletter for people who are looking to be more wealthy and successful. On most days, I tend to browse over their emails, even though they are a great … Continue

THE ROAD TAKEN – An inside look at a SIPA member, the choices he or she has made on the road to success, and the challenges ahead
… Continue

On the Growing SIPA Listserves

Here’s your quiz for today: Where did we find the following four very interesting discussion fragments?

on pop-ups
I’m particularly fond of the delayed pop-ups lately. They allow people to have a look-see and make sure they’re in the right place and interested in the content before we promote to them. I think … Continue

Find the perspective of your potential customer … Continue

Claim your FREE digital copy of Blogging for Profit: A Collection of Interviews with People Who Have Found Success While Blogging for Profit now. … Continue

A checklist for copywriting with credibility and maximum persuasion
… Continue