Tag: subscription websites

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

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

As long as you’re selling to humans, you can’t go wrong with classic strategies – The more I write about the future of magazines and subscription marketing, the more I realize what a sea change the Internet has created for the magazine industry. When I learned the trade, I was learning what the publishing generation … 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subscription websites have never been more valuable as digital evolves

Digital may be the direction publishers are heading, but a plan is required. It’s pretty clear that digital magazine publishers need a strategy. Making digital replica editions of magazine may be acceptable for a period of time, but it is enough to sustain a digital publication?

The … Continue

Claim your FREE digital copy of Digital Magazine Publishing Strategy Basics: Digital Magazine Publishing Tips and Expectations for the Digital Publishing Revolution now. … Continue

Special Reports Highlight New SIPA Website

The new SIPA website houses a treasure trove of information on the industry. One of the best sections is the Resources where the Specialized Information Publishers Foundation Library sits. That’s where you’ll find the just-released Memorandum From Counsel, the Independent Publishers Legal Handbook, MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark … Continue

In a time when publishers have a lot of opportunity to build their subscriber file, it’s worth knowing what their audience deems valuable.

If Digital Natives are in your target audience, our Digital Native Survey shares a lot of information on the media consumption habits of Digital Natives. … 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

Publishers need to embrace organic marketing methods for audience development purposes. Utilizing only premium models is a mistake that isolates the single biggest channels for adding new subscribers to your database like search engine optimization and social media marketing.

It’s important to understand that in a content-driven world you need at least one of two … Continue

There are a number of proven strategies for success being used by online publishers.

One such strategy involves the use of a subscription website, for publishers with an excess of content who want to generate renewable revenue. With growth in the tablet and smartphone industries, subscription websites and apps are becoming to prove even more profitable … 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

Appease your audience with enhanced usability

Users of subscription websites should be able to easily access the content they subscribe to. This expectation is a key component for maintaining a successful subscription website that retains its audience base.

For our Gold Member clients, we’ve developed the Mequoda Auto Login plug-in.

The Mequoda Auto Login plug-in allows a … Continue

Design and functionality need to work together on your website

If you are bringing digital magazines, and other digital products to your online business, you will need to align your systems capabilities with your business models and goals.

Take the emergence of digital magazines for instance. How will you provide these products to your audience? Will they … Continue

3 software options for building an open content subscription website

It’s not an online editor’s job to tell you how to create a website…but I do consider it my job to provide you with as much relevant information on that topic as I can.

At the Mequoda Summit East 2011, the Mequoda System Strategy Workshop introduced the … 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

The Mequoda Summit East 2011 focuses on an array of content marketing tips for experiencing more online business success

A diverse array of online publishers and content marketers started to gather at the Mequoda Summit East 2011 in Waltham, MA this week.

The three and a half day intensive conference is designed to share the most up-to-date … Continue

A collection of free reports that will help your audience development efforts

How quickly is your audience growing?

Have you been ramping up your audience development efforts at all? … Continue

9 reasons why HTML5 will change the online publishing landscape

Over the past six to 12 months, I’ve heard that HTML5 is going to change the entire online publishing landscape again.

Some of my developer friends have been indicating that one of the large portal-based publishers has a 20-person development team secretly banging away on HTML5 web … Continue

The future for digital magazine circulation, and its associated revenue generation, is predicted to be positive for publishers

The tablet and e-reader marketers continue to prosper, which impacts the growth of digital magazines.

Currently, eMarketer predicts that by the end of 2011, 8.7% of the US adult population, or 20.6 million people will be among the installed … Continue

Strategies online publishers are using or considering in modern times

Sometimes commerce strategies emerge online that are truly remarkable by reaching consumers in right place.

For instance, mobile’s reach is enormous and has aided in sales for retailers. The iPad and subscription websites have also aided in creating better experiences for audiences. Below you will find more … Continue

Our new step-by-step program goes from concept and theory to hands-on, practical guidance

A few weeks ago, Kim and I sat down to update the Content Marketing Strategy presentation for the June NYC workshop, as we do a couple of times per year.

We began to realize that the seven principles we’ve used to teach the program … Continue

Content marketing tips for reaching new audience members

Many things can be said about the social sharing of content.

Beyond inciting more interaction online, it has helped the spread of content. … Continue

The Million Dollar Landing Page Templates free white paper from Mequoda Group includes landing page examples, best practices and free downloadable landing page templates

Properly designed and optimized landing page templates allow companies to perform an array of tasks, from getting a casual visitor to convert to selling a product.

The Million Dollar Landing Page Templates free … Continue

Discover proven methods for rebuilding your brand in the digital age at the Content Marketing Strategy Workshop

In the Mequoda Daily yesterday, I discussed building out a legacy brand.

The Mequoda Content Marketing System has become a very successful product for a small group of publishers exploring how they can rebuild their brand in the age of … Continue

New data shows a 20% increase for top digital newspapers

New data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Fas-Fax show a rise in circulation for the top 25 newspapers with digital editions.

This 20% increase, as of last March, had total digital circulation at 1,630,125. The year prior had a circulation of 1,363,212. … Continue