Multiplatform Publishing Strategy posts focus on how publishers successfully distribute and monetize their content across multiple platforms, including memberships, events, clubs and sponsorships.
Well, it’s been a great run from our early days of digital publishing—but now is the time for Mequoda to change.
Yes, we’re still a service provider to our existing clients and partners. And we’re fully committed to all of them. But, we’re no longer prospecting for new clients to build publishing website systems—rather, our business
Food Gardening Network, publisher of Food Gardening Magazine, has released their February 2022 issue, featuring their first issue dedicated to hydroponic gardening, including reviews of popular systems like Aerogarden, Gardyn, Hamama, and more. Plus, they share how to grow new food from scraps using just water.
Featuring three new videos revealing the best hydroponic methods, systems,
My parents often told me that patience was a virtue. I suspect this was tied to the fact that as a child, I was not very patient. As an adult, I’ve come to rely on a subscription marketing program that requires patience.
This two-step subscription marketing program I’m about to dive into rewards any publisher who
In previous weeks, we’ve talked about how using the MBTI can impact the development of your multiplatform publishing team. We’ve also discussed how different personality types can work better together in the workplace.
We’ve established that every effective multiplatform publishing company should have eight executive positions. If you’re a small niche publishing company with revenues
Advertorial, native ad, sponsored content, custom content—tomato, tomahhhto—it’s all a similar scenario: a publisher creates and/or publishes content paid for by a sponsor. Regardless of how we refer to it, we’ve been doing it since publishers started selling ads on paper, and better advertorial design has come into vogue over the past few years now
The best thing you can offer in an ad package is exclusivity, although few publishers can. Back in the days of print-only publishing, there was little opportunity to be an exclusive sponsor of anything, but what brought them in was a separate but aligned strategy: scarcity. The most scarce and desirable sections of a magazine
If you have an idea for a new digital magazine and are considering the many options for publishing it, you’re reading the right words, at exactly the right time, and the time to launch your digital magazine idea might be soon.
Our team has been launching successful digital magazines and their support systems for more than a decade. Some
Are you itching to launch a new digital magazine, but you want to do it right, and you don’t want to waste money on trial and error? That’s completely understandable, why couple a big risk with a big loss?
When we launched Food Gardening Network and its magazine Food Gardening Magazine in January 2021, we did
Some helpful hints on generating revenue through online advertising
What comes to mind when you think about revenue models on the Internet? Is it a relatively new model that was designed specifically for the Internet? Or do you think of traditional business models that have transformed from the physical world to the digital world?
That may have
A multi-platform website enables a publisher to create dynamic content on multiple platforms. Some of these platforms might be online streaming through a membership library of training videos, or it could be a web magazine—formatted for, and read on the web.
But multi-platform website doesn’t just refer to the number of ways you recycle content across
There was a time when investors were shying away from publishing media because “journalism” is “expensive” and user-generated content is “cheap”.
But as the world changes tides and begins to preach the quality over quantity sermon, investors have begun to appreciate journalism again. It reaches specific audiences. Now, who else do we know who creates that
The first rule of choosing a business model that’s ad-driven is being sure that you can make more money from advertisers than from your own products. Clay Hall once said to me that the great thing about having your own products is knowing what your ad space is worth. Because why would you let an
Only five years after the advent of the tablet, strategies for successful digital magazine publishing are starting to sort themselves out and deliver measurable results. Of course at Mequoda, we’re all about documenting these things so digital publishers don’t have to re-invent the wheel.
Here are 10 things you must do if you want to join
How would you like to expand your product line with something that’s based on content you already have, increases your credibility in your niche, offers your customers immediate gratification, and will sell in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands … or even millions?
Ten years ago, apps and responsive website design weren’t even on the radar of a webmaster, and website analytics weren’t nearly as dynamic as they are today. Websites back then were simpler, and for publishers who want to fully leverage their content, databases and brand, websites have evolved into complex and integrated digital publishing and
Back when many current print journalists were beginning their careers, their job descriptions looked very different than they do now.
Yes, the basic idea of being a journalist is still the same—finding, researching, investigating, and writing pieces that share important news and tell a story. However, how that is accomplished and what happens after an article
Aggregating great content is just as valuable as creating great content
Content aggregation is often given a bad name, because it’s often done incorrectly.
The best content aggregators approach the process as the valuable art form that it is. Content aggregators recognize the web is all about content aggregation, and their work allows users to reach
Pricing psychology is fascinating. A couple cents can change someone’s mind about purchasing a product, no matter what the total cost is. For example, some people are more willing to spend $99.97 on a product than $100, even though it’s only three cents more. In Western society, seven is a lucky number, but it also
Magazine covers matter. As Samir Husni (aka Mr. Magazine) states in a recent article on Poynter, “The power of the magazine cover in print has always been significant…High-profile people, it’s clear, know the power of the magazine cover.” Magazine covers on digital magazine websites matter too, perhaps even more. And they come with benefits, like
The web lets publishers create a wide variety of products more affordably than ever. That is good news, but it carries a downside: we aren’t experts in creating every digital product. The term “white paper” means a lot of things to a lot of different people. When you hear white paper, you may think of
When a visitor arrives at your website landing page, you have about five seconds to make a good impression and capture their attention. If you don’t succeed immediately, they’re likely to click away and you’re apt to lose them forever.
Your landing page needs to be a fast, effective messenger, and this is especially true to
If you’ve considered starting an online magazine, or are a legacy print magazine considering going digital, you’ve asked this question: How do online magazines generate revenue? And the answer is that the successful ones use a multiplatform and multi-revenue approach. A single online magazine with no print counterpart, no website model, and no multiplatform ad
The only thing standing between you and more revenue is better landing and order pages.
But how are you supposed to know what to test, beyond copy, images, and the words themselves?
Look, on December 8 at 1pm ET, we are presenting a webinar, 7 Subscription Landing Page Tests You Can Do Now to show you the
Isn’t most content online an advertorial these days? With so much conversion architecture built into websites, aren’t we always trying to convert visitors into subscribers, or get them to click on an ad? A proper advertorial definition might include synonyms like native ads, sponsored content, or even infomercial if you’re in broadcasting circles. An advertorial
The steps to facilitating an effective roundtable discussion with roundtable discussion questions
Have you ever run a roundtable discussion?
Throughout my years in publishing, I’ve taken part in countless roundtables. During some, I was the facilitator and other times I was a participant.
Although there are many ways to direct them, my ideal approach to running roundtables focuses
Multiplatform publishers can generate revenue from users, from sponsors, or both. Consumer-focused portals that are sponsorship-based ask users to pay – not with money, but with time and information. They spend time viewing web pages and signing up for email feeds, thus creating advertising inventory that can be used to sell the publisher’s products (internal
In 1926, a long-form print ad for the U.S. School of Music was written by John Caples, and the headline read, “They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano, But When I Started to Play!” It’s been noted as one of the most perfect headlines ever written.
While the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) began as a tool for self-discovery, it has become a widely used tool for building high performance teams in organizations. It provides users with a valuable self-diagnostic tool for seeing ourselves as others see us. It also gives us a shared context for understanding how others are different
In-person, live events can be a fun and profitable revenue stream for any multiplatform publishing company. When passionate people are committed to a topic, they want to go to the source; the company, the author, the guru, the expert who really knows the content. They want an interactive presentation. They want to be able to
Some people accuse me of being an academic wonk. At Mequoda we’re often forced to make up our own lingo because you can’t pioneer an industry to the digital shores without making up a few words. While our terminology hasn’t changed very much since we invented it, the rest of the world has been progressing
Over the years of attending in-person publishing events, we noticed a trend where a solid portion of the speakers invited to present are vendors and consultants, and a decent number of the attendees are magazine publishing consultants or digital marketing consultants.
But the thing about many of the consultants we meet is that they’re specialists. There’s
Back in 2006 I read an article comparing the fidelity and convenience of watching a movie on an iPod, a home theater, or in a state-of-the-art movie theater. The author cleverly pointed out that the three media platforms offer the viewer an inverted user experience on the dimensions of fidelity and convenience.
In other words, the
Are you a content aggregator? If you source content from other sites, and then turn it into new material to riff off of, then you are. There are dirty rotten scoundrel ways to do it, of course, but most highly respected publishers do content aggregation the right way.
What is content aggregation?
Many successful publishers, especially news
Multiplatform publishing is the cornerstone of what we do at Mequoda. If you can create one content product, you can create many content products. If you’ve been following along with us through this blog, or through our daily newsletter then you have a general foundation for building a multiplatform publishing business.
Are you looking for a proven email marketing template that is proven to grow your subscription business? How about seven?
If that sounds like you, then you’re invited to join us on October 13 at 1pm ET for a FREE webinar, The 7 Email Marketing Templates You Need to Succeed. At Mequoda, we have developed, designed,
Have you ever thought about digital magazine history? Magazines were originally invented in the 15th century, shortly after the invention of the Gutenberg press. Magazines were different from books because they featured different authors arranged around a single topic or some other central theme and were periodic, published at a regular weekly, monthly, or quarterly
Do you want to know the secret to email marketing success? We have developed 7 email templates that will take your campaign from boring and bland, to jaw-droppingly engaging with the highest conversion rates we’ve seen. They’re so simple, but they’ll make a huge difference for your business. These templates can be applied in any
Some of your customers will want one of your products, and others will want more. But how many will buy the first and never return, and how can you generate continuous revenue through subscription products from those target consumers?
We’ve written in the past about how The American Ceramic Society is converting single video buyers into all-access
There are dozens of multi-media platforms we can distribute content on, but audio conferences and webinars have been the key to success for some publishers
If you’re looking for new ways to increase online revenues and profits, consider learning from three publishers who we consider to be doing a great job building their multiplatform media empires, The American Ceramic Society, Countryside, and The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Using these three ancillary media platforms, they are able to
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 from a famous statement back in 2009 from the Wall Street Journal, that email newsletters were officially dead. Boy, that didn’t age well, did it?
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 and higher price points, these digital downloads are a key product strategy.
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. 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,
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 working in this industry as much as we do. Normally, this time of year we’d be meeting in Boston with our publishing partners for a
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 about content repurposing, on many platforms.
Repurposing content is a core tenet of the Mequoda Method, but we can’t take credit for inventing the tactic. Rather,
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 pushing them to do more. So what’s the balance? And what’s the return on this investment?
When it comes to using social media for branding, you
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 want to attend, so register now and get on the list, because it’s filling up quickly.
If you’re not quite sure if this webinar is for
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 challenge, though, considering the waterfall of free content online and waning interest in paper media. More and more, consumers are adopting digital magazine media, which
Publishers who peaked over the last 12 months of a pandemic by selling subscriptions had a few things in common. The first is that they had an all-access product, which is always a mouth-watering offering that is all-inclusive and gives access to a library of back issues.
The second tier of having a profitable all-access product
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 of an existing publishing business. Others focused on launching one or more new digital initiatives that have included audience development portals, one or more digital
