Don Nicholas

Founder & Executive Publisher

Don Nicholas serves as Executive Publisher for Food Gardening Network and GreenPrints. He is responsible for all creative, technical, and financial aspects of these multiplatform brands. As senior member of the editorial team, he provides structural guidance, sets standards, and coordinates activities with the technology and business teams. Don is an active gardener whose favorite crops include tomatoes, basil, blueberries, and corn. He and his wife Gail live and work in southern Massachusetts surrounded by forests, family farms, cranberry bogs, and nearby beaches. Don is also the Founder of Mequoda Systems, LLC, which operates and supports numerous online communities including I Like Crochet, I Like Knitting, and We Like Sewing.

Articles by Don Nicholas

The Best Email Newsletters Stack Content

Audience Development Strategy

The Best Email Newsletters Stack Content

When you go responsive, it makes you focus on your top one to three primary goals. I can't tell you what your goals are, but I can tell you how

How to Lift Your Freemium Conversion Rate With Freebies People Actually Want

Audience Development Strategy

How to Lift Your Freemium Conversion Rate With Freebies People Actually Want

Do you know what your freemium conversion rate is? Email is by far, the most profitable marketing channel most publishers use. So it’s no surprise that building an email list

Why Every Magazine Publisher Should Publish Email Newsletters

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Why Every Magazine Publisher Should Publish Email Newsletters

A few weeks ago, I read an article from Peter Houston at What's New in Publishing that said email is the ‘Comeback King’ of digital publishing. That's a far cry

The 14 Best Words That Get People to Open Email

Audience Development Strategy

The 14 Best Words That Get People to Open Email

Do you know how to get people to open email? In a presentation called The Science of Email Marketing that we attended a while back, analytics nerd Dan Zarella said

What is a White Paper?

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

What is a White Paper?

Online Publishing 101: Creating and selling blockbuster digital white papers, special reports and handbooks is a core skill for many successful online publishing companies. With low production costs, no inventory

Understanding the Five Website Archetypes

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Understanding the Five Website Archetypes

Choosing the right business model and supporting infrastructure for any business is a key strategy for business success, especially in website publishing. Gas stations, supermarkets and bookstores are all retail businesses.

Three Membership Website Copywriting Tricks to Improve Sales Dramatically

Three Membership Website Copywriting Tricks to Improve Sales Dramatically

If you want to convert more website visitors into new members for your membership website, or any type of subscription website, write compelling copy. Use emotional copywriting to twist their

12 Best Resources For Creating an Online Magazine

Digital Magazine Publishing

12 Best Resources For Creating an Online Magazine

It's a good time to be a publisher. Brands have launched their own brand magazines, and many publishers have gone digital-only. In our minds, there's not a competition between print

5 Reasons to Recycle Content on Twitter

Audience Development Strategy

5 Reasons to Recycle Content on Twitter

Twitter isn't just about the here and now. In social media, you could post the same article ten times a day, but your traffic would only be driving traffic to

15 Tips for Fixing Slow Loading Web Pages

15 Tips for Fixing Slow Loading Web Pages

Slow loading web pages can mean turning customers away from your landing pages and ultimately from buying yor products.

10 Features of Great Magazine Subscription Websites

10 Features of Great Magazine Subscription Websites

One of the most profitable subscription website business models is a magazine subscription website. It's not because it's cheaper to build, or brings in substantially more revenue than other business models,

A Simple Digital Magazine Framework for Planning and Modeling

Digital Magazine Publishing

A Simple Digital Magazine Framework for Planning and Modeling

Publishers are embracing digital magazines because users are. And it’s true for B2C and B2B, as well as pure paid subscription, controlled circulation, or both. These publishers are taking advantage

10 Reasons to Add Video in Magazines Now That You Can

Digital Magazine Publishing

10 Reasons to Add Video in Magazines Now That You Can

When a magazine goes digital and becomes an app, or a web magazine, it becomes alive. And that’s scary for some publishers. Suddenly, ads become more valuable to advertisers because

How to Check Email Reputation and Sender Score

Audience Development Strategy

How to Check Email Reputation and Sender Score

Recently a publisher came to us interested in our email marketing services, in which we develop, test, manage, monitor, and react to a series of email marketing campaigns developed using

5 Quick Tips for Writing the Best Email Subject Lines

Audience Development Strategy

5 Quick Tips for Writing the Best Email Subject Lines

The best email subject lines provoke open rates and persuade subscribers to read your email newsletters There are dozens of methods, tricks and tips for writing great headlines. Unfortunately, this isn't

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Meet Us on Zoom and Let’s Talk Social Strategy

Do you feel like working at home over the last year has made you want to gather more than ever? We miss attending events and meeting new people who love

How to Create Multi-Platform Content Quickly and Cheaply

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

How to Create Multi-Platform Content Quickly and Cheaply

When we talk about multiplatform publishing, some publishers think we're talking about the difference between laptops, desktops and tablets. But those are simply the devices we deliver content through. We're talking

3 Ways to Master Landing Page Storytelling like Hemingway

3 Ways to Master Landing Page Storytelling like Hemingway

Landing pages are fickle. You can change the color of a button and it can increase conversion rates by 30% or more. You can change the headline on your landing

Techniques to Reduce Time on Social and Maximize Benefits Revealed

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Techniques to Reduce Time on Social and Maximize Benefits Revealed

There isn't a publishing executive we've spoken to that doesn't ask the benefit of all the time their team puts into social media. Meanwhile, their team, savvy in social-speak is

Free Webinar Reveals How to Automate Social Media for Your Magazine

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Free Webinar Reveals How to Automate Social Media for Your Magazine

You’re invited to join us on August 11 at 1pm ET for a FREE webinar, Mastering Social Media in 10 Hours or Less Per Week. If you run a subscription website, you'll definitely

17 Ways to Sell An All-Access Magazine Subscription

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

17 Ways to Sell An All-Access Magazine Subscription

According to our own surveys, 42.4 percent of adults with access to the Internet subscribe to at least one digital magazine. Maintaining consumer interest over an extended period is a

Gaining SEO Mastery: Beg, Borrow, or Buy

Audience Development Strategy

Gaining SEO Mastery: Beg, Borrow, or Buy

By far the most lucrative source of website traffic you can acquire as a website publisher is the traffic that comes from search engine optimization. But to get to the

Meet Us on Zoom and Let’s Talk Subscription Offers

Audience Development Strategy

Meet Us on Zoom and Let’s Talk Subscription Offers

Do you feel like working at home more than usual has made you want to gather more than ever? We miss attending events and meeting new people who love working

4 Digital Publishing Analytics That Make the Biggest Difference

Digital Magazine Publishing

4 Digital Publishing Analytics That Make the Biggest Difference

For digital publishing analytics to be useful, they must set the stage and provide the publisher with information on what to do with the data. On the surface, most analytics

Free Webinar Reveals 17 Better Ways to Sell Subscriptions

Audience Development Strategy

Free Webinar Reveals 17 Better Ways to Sell Subscriptions

You’re invited to join us on June 9 at 1:00 PM ET for a FREE webinar, 17 Ways to Sell More All-Access Magazine Subscriptions. If you run a subscription website,

Naming a Website for Maximum Marketing Impact

Naming a Website for Maximum Marketing Impact

If you're launching a new website, or re-launching an existing website, you have the opportunity to choose a website domain name that can help you drive new and repeat traffic.

3 Most Deadly SEO Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Audience Development Strategy

3 Most Deadly SEO Mistakes and How to Fix Them

An easy fix for the top five SEO mistakes These innocent mistakes may be costing you the highest price of all - better search engine ranking. If you want to

How to Hire a Membership Site Developer That’s a Good Fit For Your Business

How to Hire a Membership Site Developer That’s a Good Fit For Your Business

If you're a publisher, or are selling a subscription-based information product, it's likely that at some point you'll be looking for a new membership site developer. We know this because

3 Core Digital Publishing Best Practices That Work Almost Too Well

Membership Marketing Strategy

3 Core Digital Publishing Best Practices That Work Almost Too Well

What seems like an eternity ago, I was sitting in a conference room on a Caribbean island with 25 publishing colleagues, mostly CEOs of independent publishing companies with revenues of

Are You Missing These 8 Digital Magazine Publishing Fundamentals?

Digital Magazine Publishing

Are You Missing These 8 Digital Magazine Publishing Fundamentals?

Suppose you are in the digital magazine publishing business. In that case, you may be using a myriad of media platforms for acquiring, engaging, and retaining free and premium subscribers.

Understanding the Role of Metadata in Google Visibility: 5 Best Practices

Understanding the Role of Metadata in Google Visibility: 5 Best Practices

Your metadata doesn't matter anymore ... Just kidding. It does, sort of. Recently one of our clients noticed that the metadata they were putting into their articles wasn't necessarily the data

Five Keys to a Profitable Sales Letter Landing Page

Five Keys to a Profitable Sales Letter Landing Page

Make sure your landing pages answer this question for your users: "what's in it for me?"

The Best Email Management System for Publishers

The Best Email Management System for Publishers

Managing email marketing has become an increasingly critical issue for every type of business. Publishers, like everyone else, use email to communicate with customers and prospective customers, on a regular

The Secret of the Four-Legged Stool for Selling Digital Magazine Subscriptions

The Secret of the Four-Legged Stool for Selling Digital Magazine Subscriptions

The four-legged stool technique for marketing your business was developed originally by Bill Bonner of Agora Publishing, specifically for selling financial newsletters. However, these four elements also work when selling

Your Digital Magazine Technology

Your Digital Magazine Technology

As we continue to explore the evolving art and science of digital magazine publishing, I thought I'd take a few minutes today to do a deep dive into the technology

Two Kinds of Digital Subscription Winners

Digital Magazine Publishing

Two Kinds of Digital Subscription Winners

I read with interest the latest report on digital subscription growth across the media industries. The New York Times continues to be the legacy winner that is clearly replacing local

The Paywall Model vs SEO: How to Win at Both

Audience Development Strategy

The Paywall Model vs SEO: How to Win at Both

The paywall model isn't an SEO-killer, even though it's been billed as one. Technology has advanced a long way since the days when content was either locked, or unlocked. Firstly,

Subscription Marketing: How One Publisher Doubled Revenues in 12 Months

Digital Magazine Publishing

Subscription Marketing: How One Publisher Doubled Revenues in 12 Months

We are big proponents of both web magazines and web libraries, plus various collections and special issues that can be derived from them to create robust membership products. We recently had

Three Types of Content You Can Publish Daily

Audience Development Strategy

Three Types of Content You Can Publish Daily

Typically we find that content falls into three buckets: news, evergreen, and blockbuster. Most Mequoda partners publish these three content types daily because each type serves a different purpose. News content

3 Ways to Say “Free” in Subscription Marketing

3 Ways to Say “Free” in Subscription Marketing

Unlike most other marketers, those in subscription marketing can sell the same product at different prices each time it’s purchased. Our customers buy a new subscription from us at one

How to Write a Blockbuster Post That Sends Consistently High-Quality Traffic for Years

Audience Development Strategy

How to Write a Blockbuster Post That Sends Consistently High-Quality Traffic for Years

I've always adored SEO when it comes to content creation. After all, don't you want to write about the things people are searching for? Why would you write about anything

A Custom Marketing Program We Can Build For You

Audience Development Strategy

A Custom Marketing Program We Can Build For You

Our digital marketing teams at Mequoda have tons of fun managing comprehensive email and web marketing programs for our publishing partners. Our services range from being strategic advisors to being

Business Plan Development in 7 Steps

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Business Plan Development in 7 Steps

Over the past five years, our executive team has collaborated with publishers, both large and small, to create 35 comprehensive business plans. Some of these plans covered the complete overhaul

How to Update a Blockbuster Post and Save it from Google Damnation

Audience Development Strategy

How to Update a Blockbuster Post and Save it from Google Damnation

Every month, if you're great at SEO, the majority of your website traffic comes from search through blockbuster posts. That's great because it means you can spend less on paid

9 Digital Publishing and Marketing System Case Studies

9 Digital Publishing and Marketing System Case Studies

One of the best ways to discover how you can create a successful digital publishing and marketing system for your publication is to look at how other similar publishers plan,

Six Ways We Can Help You Succeed Now

Six Ways We Can Help You Succeed Now

Since you're reading this message, you may have some idea of how our organization helps publishers plan, develop, operate, and optimize successful website systems. We thought we'd take a few

8 Great Web Magazine Libraries We Love

Digital Magazine Publishing

8 Great Web Magazine Libraries We Love

A web magazine library is an archive of your content going back many years, likely since the beginning. When done right, you can upsell a substantial number of would-be magazine

7 Steps for Increasing your Google Visibility and Website Traffic

7 Steps for Increasing your Google Visibility and Website Traffic

Increasing your website's Google visibility and doubling or even tripling your website traffic in 12 months is a scientific process. More than 15 years ago, we created a step-by-step program

Increase Subscription Revenue with a Credit Card Recovery Program

Membership Marketing Strategy

Increase Subscription Revenue with a Credit Card Recovery Program

Sometimes the subscription revenue you’re missing doesn’t come from new customers at all, it comes from your existing ones through the reprocessing of failed credit card renewal transactions so that

How to Increase Subscription Sales from a Single Product

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

How to Increase Subscription Sales from a Single Product

As a publisher, you're no stranger to tiered pricing. The question is, is your highest priced tier the most purchased item, or the least? For most publishers, when they price

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