Tag: subscription website

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

As Don likes to say, your magazine is not a website. And your website is not your magazine.

In fact, your subscription website isn’t even a website. It’s actually three websites: A portal, a magazine and a store. And the Mequoda Method, which is utilized by successful niche publishers both large and small, calls for deploying … Continue

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

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

Coming up with the right topic for a successful subscription website is usually the biggest stumbling block for those wanting to get into this business.

Choosing your site topic is a serious issue, as the topic you choose pretty much dictates your chances of success with a subscription website. However, more serious than the topic of … Continue

Digital apps are driving readership, traffic and profits: In the three years since the introduction of the iPad, it’s become clear that the tablet has rescued the magazine industry from the brink of destruction. Mequoda noted as early as 2011 that digital magazines had already become solidly profitable, led by Hearst Magazines and other forward-thinking … Continue

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

How big is the Martha Stewart brand? The formal name, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, pretty much says it all. And Googling the name for news of the company in the media world delivers stunning results.

Page 1 of Google results delivered nine listings from the website itself, and the usual listing from Wikipedia. One the second … Continue

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

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

The New Yorker shows that it’s not only the wave of the future, but can also remedy the sins of the past. Take a trip with me today to the Big Apple, home of The New Yorker magazine. This venerable publication, like everyone else in the industry, has struggled in the Internet era with declining … Continue

Digital editions are where we’re all headed

Print publications are dying a slow but inevitable death. We notice it almost every day – in fact, it’s so much a part of our current culture, that last December, the Onion satirized the trend: Dunbar Family Forced to Discontinue Print Edition of Christmas Newsletter, ran the headline. “Amid … Continue

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

People concern themselves with the external factors (link-building, social media, etc.) of SEO, but those are nothing without website architecture that’s built to pass link juice through the website’s pipeline. Did you know that there are ways to build a website for great SEO that go beyond inbound links and even the words on your … Continue

Three issues on the functionality and design of digital magazines

There’s been a tremendous amount of speculation on what the perfect digital magazine might be and where the future of digital publishing is headed.

While others pontificate, we have projects brewing. The focus is not to produce a digital magazine itself, but to produce the digital magazine … Continue

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

Misunderstanding Membership Website information architecture

Misunderstanding the characteristics and attributes of a membership website compared to, say, a subscriber-access-only magazine or newsletter retail subscription website is a common misunderstanding when publishers are launching a paid-access-only website.

A Membership Website is an online medium—a destination—in and of itself.

It may be structured as a “pure-play” site, which does not … Continue

While many magazine publishers struggle to find the right subscription marketing strategy, The Economist demonstrates its regard for long-term subscriber relationships.

The simplest subscription website pricing strategy is Universal Access and The Economist uses it well.

I’ve spent hours, and several hundred dollars, buying digital magazines. I’ve bounced around between my iPad, Kindle Fire, and the World … Continue

Claim your FREE digital copy of Building Subscription Websites: The 9 Most Profitable Subscription Website Business Models now. … Continue

Gas stations, supermarkets and bookstores are all retail businesses. They all resell products, yet the specifics of their business models and their physical infrastructures are very different. Optimizing those specifics will support higher revenue, lower operating costs and happier customers. … Continue

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

Membership websites are hot for 2013

All the sudden in 2013 I found myself hip-deep in subscription and membership websites.

Perhaps it’s the tablet market evolving, the publishing market maturing, the continuing problems of advertising models or the renewed interest in the renewable revenue of continuity websites. … Continue

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

Whether you’re outsourcing your Internet marketing services or building an internal Internet marketing services department, these 11 content marketing job functions are key

I’ve been running marketing services departments and companies for the better part of 30 years. Mequoda Group is an independent co-operative Internet marketing services company that currently supports 20+ client organizations. The most … 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

Gutenberg is dead. And you will be, too, if you don’t make the transition now to meet the public’s growing demand for digital information.

Fortunately, there is one resource, one unique program that can change the way you, your staff and your entire organization think of the Internet and help you catch up to the future. … Continue

I want to usher in 2013 by sharing some of my top articles from this past year. Each of these articles received a favorable amount of social interaction, so in case you missed them, here are my top 12 articles of 2012. … Continue

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

Six membership site ideas all digital publishers must follow

How to make a membership website is a topic many publishers struggle with. Membership and subscription websites can be hugely successful in generating revenue for publishers with evergreen and updated content.

However, understanding how to make a membership website is often overlooked during the planning process. Let’s take … 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

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

For every publisher who dreams of creating a subscription website, choosing the right subscription management software can be a daunting task.

When we decided to turn our webinar program into a subscription product, I was faced with the same choice that every subscription website publisher must make: which subscription management software offers the right mix of … 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

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

What are the attributes of a blockbuster subscription website?

Every now and then, I’m asked to facilitate the creation of a new subscription website. While a subscription website is the thing we’ll build, a premium content subscription is the thing we’ll sell, or perhaps even more importantly, what the customer will buy.

Deconstructing the phrase “premium … Continue

Nine characteristics of a digital magazine that are defined by the user experience and dictate the future requirements of what will become the template for digital magazine publishing success

We have seen the future of magazine publishing and it’s paperless.

It’s not only us publishers who think so.
… Continue

3 Subscription Pricing Strategies that Work

While the challenge of choosing the right subscription and single copy pricing strategy is not new to magazine publishers, it’s virgin territory for most subscription website publishers and many publishers exploring the digital newsstand landscape. Even magazine publishers are faced with new economic realities. The marginal cost of delivering a … Continue

These aspects will help your subscription website grow an audience and remain relevant to those consumers

Although there are different types of subscription websites, certain components belong in each of the separate archetypes to assure the correct result from the subscription website.

Now that subscription websites are turning into the core of online publishing companies, it’s important … Continue

First Class Flyer is a great product with a great value proposition, which is a great foundation for creating a sales letter landing page with impressive conversion rates.

A new client recently asked me how many hours it would take to create a first-class sales letter landing page for his subscription website and newsletter. Having done … Continue

Digital subscriptions are helping publishers succeed in times when advertising is high enough

With the economic problems of recent years, digital magazine publishers have had multiple issues to address.

First, they have taken to the digital frontier by creating subscription websites, audience development strategies, and digital one-off products that can be purchased on-site or through retail and … Continue

3 Tips for Choosing the Best Website Name for your Media Company, blog, Portal or Subscription Website

Over the past decade or so, I’ve had the privilege and downright fun of getting to help name a few hundred websites. Most of the names I’ve helped generate have been for portals and blogs like Bible History Daily, … Continue

Digital magazine publishing tips from around the web

If you’ve already worked out the formatting, design and content structure of your digital magazine publishing efforts, then it’s time to consider some aligned essentials. Digital magazine publishing success relies on having great content and finding the most devoted audience members.

The following five digital magazine publishing essentials focus … Continue

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

Three ways to generate free subscribers

The digital subscription is an interesting audience development tool. It can be used to build an email marketing file, and it can help develop free and paid subscribers. There are three subscription website archetypes that particularly target free subscribers,

In many circles, blogging is still misunderstood by many. However, as more … Continue

The subscription website is the ultimate tool for digital publishers

After years of selling subscriptions for print products, digital publishers realized that subscription websites could be the digital counterpart. In today’s world, where tablet publishing is quickly gaining popularity, presenting content in an interactive digital format provides a new opportunity for publishers.

Any media company with frequently … Continue

No matter what you call it, the top of your website is a strategic website design challenge

A funny thing happened on the way to today’s post. While doing keyword research to discover what you, our audience, call the top of your website, I found some disagreement. Various posts at other websites from Wikipedia to a … 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

With so much bad information in the marketplace, many publishing industry CEOs are making bad decisions about their digital magazine publishing strategies

I had the pleasure of spending the evening recently with a group of publishing industry colleagues – most of them company CEOs. Unsurprisingly, the conversation turned to digital publishing, digital newsstands, and the programs … Continue

Five expectations for a modern media company IT department

I suppose most people my age in the IT industry have a favorite character from the original Star Trek. When I was 12, I wanted to be the chief engineering officer for the Starship Enterprise. I love watching Montgomery Scott push his ship to the limit, often … Continue

As digital grows, membership strategies are a focus

Three interesting notions came upon me recently.

The first involves creative software superstar Adobe. The company announced that between March 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012, they experienced “over 16 million downloads of digital publications powered by the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite”. … Continue