Subscription Website Publishing posts focus on how to build and operate a premium subscription website, including how to best align and repurpose your content, increase subscription orders, and best practices for subscription website architecture.
For every publisher who dreams of creating a subscription website, choosing the right subscription management software can be a daunting task
When we set out to launch the I Like Crochet digital magazine website (the first of its kind) and tablet edition, we knew we wanted to build a state-of-the-art publication management system. We needed subscription
As a publisher, you should make your website’s top goal to maximize your NOPX (New Orders Per Ten Thousand) page views by making sure that every page on your website is ready to convert visitors into buyers and subscribers at any moment and increase publishing revenue.
Your Portal is the main page where you give away
When you set a goal, you probably have an idea in your head of how you’re going to accomplish it.
For example, if you have the goal of running a marathon in a year, and you’re not a runner, you might start trying the Couch-to-5K ® program. Every couple of days, you’re instructed to run a
Page views are a precious thing, and you should try not to waste them.
In today’s Strategy Spotlight, Don Nicholas, Chairman & CEO of Mequoda explains the goals of a “smart website” and why having one built by publishing veterans can help you avoid waste and chaos.
Website redesigns come from Salon and ProPublica; Harvard Business Review utilizes new website tool
Content publishers who make website redesigns and try new tools as part of an evolving digital strategy show their prowess in advancing their brand online.
Today we’re looking at three publishers who have recently gone this route, and the reasons for doing so.
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Forbes contributor Benjy Boxer recently warned, “The combination of free publishing, social distribution, and the commoditization of advertising will eventually wipe out almost all of the advantages of a large media company.”
Further, he advised that “scarcity” is the only advantage left to media companies, and they’ll have to create that with their unique content
The newsletter subscription website model is simple, clean and editorially-focused
Newsletter publishers, particularly those on the B-to-B side but also those with consumer titles in the finance and health fields, were among the first to embrace subscription websites. Perhaps that’s because the newsletter subscription website archetype is the easiest type of subscription website to build. The
There are ways to control how Google reads your website with sitemap tools. While we assume most of our publishing friends are creating kosher content and abiding by the rules, if Google has considered you a black sheep in the past, you can reinvent yourself by cleaning up your sitemap. If you’ve been good, you
What to look for in online directory software, from Haven, to WordPress, Joomla, and third-party products
The directory website business model still has a lot of upside for multiplatform publishers. When executed correctly, directories can be a win-win for any ambitious publisher. The publisher produces a framework and reference content, and the advertiser pays to post
Even though you might associate usability with website design, it’s been an important factor in our everyday life for at least a century. Frederick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911, is the first instance where the world started paying attention to how people use things, and how we can help them be
Like any other business, subscription website publishing relies on getting your website taxonomy exactly right. Information architecture isn’t easy to understand – people earn special college degrees in order to grasp it! But subscription websites are different from ecommerce, event, retail, or a dozen other kinds of websites. And you simply can’t
Over the last five to seven years, a big gripe of many publishers is that they want to get more comments on their digital articles, but they’re getting fewer than ever before. Getting more comments might seem like a vanity metric, but we see comments as important indicators in search engine optimization. The more comments
If we knew of a tool that doubled ad revenue for a client, you’d want to know about it right?
If you read Mequoda Daily often, you may know about our Dr. Aliza Lifshitz and Carl Kravetz who run Vida y Salud, a Spanish-language health site. They’ve been the recipient of several of our Rocket Awards for
A quick conversion optimization hack that will eliminate abandons in your email capture flow
It’s not often we can tell you about a conversion optimization tip that will offer you an immediate improvement in your email capture rates, but there is one we are currently adopting with all of our new clients, and we just can’t
Over the last 3-6 months desktop and mobile conversion best practices have changed in response to Google, who continues to challenge us in an effort to make the web a more pleasant place to search and learn.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then adversity is the father. And Google has given us some adverse
If there’s one annoyance you’ve probably heard from your website operators, it might be managing spam comments. They log in to begin content development, and before they can create a new post, they have a list of new “comments” to filter through in the dashboard, and many of them are spam. Others are, thankfully, real
To build a better subscription website, we’ve created a collection of our best resources on everything you need to know when it comes to how to leverage outside partners
Most publishers seeking to improve the performance of their subscription website and online marketing efforts use a patchwork of systems.
Marketing offers and performance for subscriptions, books, webinars,
A Mequoda Audience Development System is a physical, turn-key content management system that is customized to help publisher’s attract new visitors, convert them into email subscribers, engage them, and finally, monetize by converting those visitors into paying customers and subscribers.
To build every Mequoda Audience Development System (Mequoda System for short), we use the Mequoda Method
We’re not sure why most association magazine websites bury free and magazine content, but we’ll try to help them see the light.
If you’re an association website, do you spin off your magazine on its own, or do you keep your organization and the content you publish under the same roof? In other words, do you
Before hiring subscription website publishing experts, take this advice straight to the bank.
If you’re looking to grow the most beautiful rose garden on the block, would you prefer to go to your local gardening center and rifle through the rose section to see what’s brightest, or would you head straight to specialty rose nursery, with
There’s a never-ending stream of new tools that pop up every day to help us become better web developers. We have a dashboard of tools we look to for ideas, assistance and even implementation, and it’s safe to assume that you probably do too.
Last year we discovered and shared a lot of web design tools
“Do your job.”
Those are the famous words of New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick, and the mantra of the whole team, who I imagine you already know just won their fifth Super Bowl in the greatest game of all time (no New England bias here, nope!)
If you have a magazine, you have a magazine subscription
How to use A/B testing tools for creating subscription landing pages that turn more visitors into subscribers
How many times have you been in a meeting where you and your colleagues “think” or “feel” like a direction on a project is the way to go? Maybe it’s pricing for your subscription website, or maybe it’s the
The one-time cost of building a magazine subscription website could reduce overhead indefinitely
For $3 per month or $36 per year, there is subscription service called The Sink that will automatically deliver you everyday toiletry products every month. (Sorry CVS and Rite Aid, you’re being replaced.)
For $10 per month or $120 per year, you can get
Resolve to investigate the possibility of added revenue with a club-style business model in 2017
Every publisher and subscription marketer should recommit in 2017 to customer relationship building and asset leveraging—after all, these are two things that you already have, customers and content! And one of the hottest new trends for capitalizing on your content and
How to reduce subscriber churn by providing new opportunities to engage with your content on a regular basis
People love subscriptions these days. Beyond magazine subscriptions, there are now box-of-the-month subscriptions. You can subscribe to a monthly box of beauty products like BirchBox, dog toys and treats like BarkBox, nuts and healthy snacks like NatureBox, or
Our most-read subscription website publishing posts of last year show an interest in building profitable subscription websites and improving the usability and site speed of existing websites.
In 2016, toward the end of the year it was made abundantly clear to publishers they would need to focus on more simple site design with faster loading times.
What to look for in a social media management system from Haven Nexus, to Hootsuite, SproutSocial and TweetDeck
As a publisher, you’re publishing multiple pieces of content every day. Most Mequoda publishers are publishing at least three per day. When it comes to managing the social that goes along with each post, we find that most
What to look for in an online shopping cart system, from Haven Nexus, to Shopify to WooCommerce
Ecommerce has become a core part of any multi-platform publishing business. Even publishers who are still selling print-only have developed online shopping experiences because the Internet has become the first place people search for new information products.
That one fact
By all means, launch many content business models and diversify your publishing portfolio. But start with your magazine experience through your magazine subscription website.
We’re in a recession. Maybe you’re feeling pretty good right now personally, but publishers are in a recession. Big time. Last year was a recession especially for newspapers, according to Pew Research Center’s
How to make money with video on your own subscription website and beyond
Many multiplatform publishers have turned to e-learning platforms to make money with video and help subscribers either increase their skills or improve their lives. Publishers, along with many other organizations, such as universities and corporations, have found that text-heavy explanations of complex subject matter can
What to look for in live event management software from Haven Nexus, to Bizzabo, CVent, EventBrite and Event Ready.
As publishers have struggled with print revenues during the last 10 years, many have turned to live events as an additional revenue stream. As a strategic extension of a publishing brand, events make a lot of sense.
Why “free” is a subscription business model of its own and why every magazine should have one
Since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of consumerism, businesses have been giving things away for free. You’ve probably received free samples in the food court, or free issues of the local newspaper when you first
What to look for in lead management software, from Haven Nexus to Eloqua, Marketo, Hubspot and others
Make money by giving content away.
That statement sounds odd to many people in publishing and downright heretical to anyone in the subscription business, but there is no denying that it can work. More than one publisher has developed this
If you’re thinking of launching a subscription website, don’t skimp on preliminary research.
So you’ve decided to start a subscription website. We get requests weekly from entrepreneurs, veterans and newbies, who see subscription websites as the gold they want to begin mining. And while we love the enthusiasm, you need to approach subscription website publishing with
Publishers require a marketing automation system that works in tandem with a highly efficient content management system
In the last decade, marketing automation has become a hot topic for niche publishers. The term really refers to any software platform designed to automate repetitive marketing tasks to increase efficiency and reduce labor. Although this sounds simple enough,
The more you can give a member of your subscription website, the better.
And it appears we’re not the only ones who think so.
Earlier in the week we talked about Condé Nast’s Wired Media Group who is launching a membership program for executives. According to Lucia Moses at Digiday, “for $4,000 a year, members of the Emerging Technology
What to look for in a learning management system, from Haven Classroom, to Edmodo, Moodle, Teachery and Blackboard.
Many multiplatform publishers have turned to e-learning platforms to help subscribers either increase their skills or improve their lives. Publishers, along with many other organizations, such as universities and corporations, have found that text heavy explanations of complex subject
Coming up with the right content business model(s) can be the biggest stumbling block for those looking to grow a publishing business.
Choosing your content focus is a business-critical decision, as the focus you choose pretty much dictates your chances of success with multiplatform publishing. However, more serious than the focus on content, is the business
What to look for in online calendar management software, from Haven Calendar, to All In One Events Calendar, The Events Calendar, My Calendar, and Booking Calendar.
Online calendars are used by all kinds of organizations, from the largest trade associations to the smallest garage bands. Like many other things in digital publishing, the functionality itself isn’t so
What to look for in the best publication management system, from Haven Nexus, to WP Member, MemberGate, aMember, and SubHub
If you are a magazine publisher, it behooves you to remember what makes the medium special. Although many print editions have disappeared, the format’s attributes make it desirable for some part of the reading population. And, whether in paper, tablet
The classified content business model is the modern day equivalent of what used to appear in the back of many newspapers and B2B magazines
Listings for products, services, and jobs are the backbone of the classified content business model. They are, as we are fond of saying, a great way to take lots of small checks
No publisher can hope to have a successful subscription based website without getting the marketing right. So if you have, or plan to launch, one of our three subscription website business models – a portal, magazine website or newsletter website – it’s worth studying the winning strategies used by savvy publishers, including, of course, our
The directory content business model is a three-fer
The directory content business has some pretty unique benefits. If executed correctly, this model can be a win-win-win for any ambitious publisher. Not many content business models can say that.
Not only is a directory a revenue stream, it can also be an engagement device on your website –
Branding comes into play when choosing colors for your website. Most brands stick with their main colors. However, some businesses go through an entire rebranding when they launch or relaunch their websites, causing the “color” question to be taken into serious consideration.
If you’re redesigning your website, or simply enjoy the art of color, consider
This content business model drives interest in live events while also driving revenue from attendees and sponsors
Who would have imagined in the internet age that people would still yearn for live events?
The appeal of hearing, seeing, and speaking with actual people and touching real-life objects has never gone away, and thus the event business is
A recent Digiday story on publishers’ new approach to site redesign reveals that in place of the customary massive overhauls every few years, magazines are now outfitting their portals with infrastructure enabling periodic tweaks and tune-ups rather than part-and-parcel transformations. The realization that redesigns are capable of doing more harm than good has fueled this
Because we quantify everything, Mequoda has identified nine (coincidentally) deadly subscription website mistakes that are commonly made when publishers build their online presence.
When you have a course content business model, you organize a series of courses for paid subscribers that are updated regularly – but not frequently
Every successful publisher we know launched their digital existence with at least two content models. One is a portal content business model, and the other is usually a magazine content business
The book content business model can give you a variety of items to sell that can be sold digitally for a large profit
When developing strategic plans for CAROTME (content, audience, revenue, organization, technology, measurement, and economics), it’s not uncommon for publishers to overlook certain content business model(s) that they could be monetizing.
We have identified 12
