There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all content management system. The best CMS for a magazine should be built with a publisher in mind. After all, you have a different business model than a software company, e-tailer, or a small business using the same CMS, which is often the case with some of the household name CMSs out there.
These organizational teams are key components for building a highly effective and efficient multiplatform publishing business
Building a multiplatform publishing business is never easy, but it is practically impossible without the right personnel. Having the right people in the right jobs has been an endless source of thinking and discussion for organizations of all types, and
Your systems team must always have one foot in the present and one in the future, understanding how all existing technologies span and intercept to create a content marketing system
Publishers have been making organizational changes to deal with the realities of the modern marketplace. Often these changes are made as a reaction to changing conditions
In the second decade of the 21st century, the online publishing environment is not only changing dramatically, it’s changing at a faster rate than we ever could have anticipated.
In a mere 20+ years, since the dawn of the commercial Internet, we’ve experienced a genuine paradigm shift in content marketing. That’s because magazines, newsletters, books, audio and video content now can be digitized and delivered online, as well as marketed on websites and via email.
Are you acting as the general contractor of your content management system when it’s supposed to be managing itself?
Publishers have one major thing to think about in the next couple of years. What is the future of digital content?
Ten years ago, the question might have simply been “What is the future of content?” But as we predicted back then, the future is digital. So where does that road lead?
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 in a content driven audience development plan. A is for attract; R is for retain, and M is always for monetize.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
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.
White hat SEO techniques are complex and take time to acquire.
Kim and I teach our in-house Audience Development Workshop 10 or more times per year. And yet every time I sign a new audience development consulting client, Kim needs to remind me to schedule the workshop.
I am both a journalist and engineer by training and tend to focus on the mechanics of what needs to be done. I’m all about getting the keyword research started that will form the website taxonomy and guide the editors content generation, headline writing, and tagging on a day-to-day basis. I know I’m in this for long haul with the client, whether we’re tuning up an existing website or starting from scratch, it’s going to take years to make white hat SEO as natural as good spelling and grammar.
One of the most memorable Mequoda Summit sessions I recall attending was in Napa Valley.
The session was 41 Ways to Build Email Circulation, and I, like many of the other attendees, created a detailed checklist while watching Don and Kim present the information.
One interesting note to make is that many of the 41 ways are still relevant, although new strategies may be more effective for them. And some of these methods may be more valuable than others are to certain organizations. The key is to take any checklist of circulation builders and hold them against the content and products you provide.
The Mequoda Summit West 2012 will be a popular destination for online publishers this coming April.
Those in attendance will be Mequoda alumni who have attended past events and are running a digital content marketing system. Their goals of creating content, community and commerce through digital content marketing have set them apart from many other digital publishers around the web.
Our three keynote presentations will be focusing on aspects crucial to generating revenue for digital magazine publishers. These keynotes include:
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Legacy magazine publishers have the opportunity to develop a multi-platform strategy in 2012, which can lead to success.
Publishers with a background in print and a bulk of content are prime candidates for the world of digital, where they can create digital magazine replicas and digital magazine replica plus editions while using the Internet to recycle content and build a larger audience.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
The Digital Content Marketing Bootcamp is set to kick off 2012 with a step-by-step checklist for online publishers launching, relaunching or prioritizing their online business.
This 49 step tried and true marketing and distribution plan helps online publishers stay focused in a constantly evolving digital landscape.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Sponsorships help secure revenue for online publishers
Many publishers believe that digital content needs to be free. Acting on this belief helps publishers experience bigger audiences and higher amounts of website traffic. To generate revenue from this process, online publishers offer advertisements and sponsorships on their website, through social media and through email.
The email aspect of sponsorships may be the most important one offered by publishers because its direct utilization of a popular communication tool can lead to sales immediately for the sponsor. And if nothing else, acknowledgement of the brand is very recognizable.
A one-day intensive program designed specifically for publishers teaches how to successfully start and run an online business
Mequoda Group released details that its Digital Content Marketing Bootcamp will take place on January 24th, 2012 at New York City’s McGraw-Hill Conference Center.
The Digital Content Marketing Bootcamp, limited to 25 attendees, offers online publishers the opportunity to learn how to start and run a digital content marketing system through a detailed, step-by-step process featuring proven digital strategies for driving website traffic.
Your content marketing system requires different types of content at launch than post launch
Prior to launch, all of the following types of content should be loaded so your system can hit the market as a comprehensive, informative online business that is optimized for search engines and is social media friendly.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Establishing a blog-centric URL structure creates a home for your content and establishes your content marketing system in a manner that is subscriber-centric as you’re actively asking visitors to subscribe to your email updates, social networks and RSS feed.
From the beginning, blogs have been platforms for social interaction and content sharing. These same principles exist today, and help further develop your brands reach into the lives of your subscribers.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
What’s a subscriber worth to your organization?
This question takes into account the total amount of revenue you generate and the total number of subscribers in your email file.
Although not all subscribers are equal in the way they engage with your content and brand, it’s important to take into account the totals. In many instances, a small percentage of users will account for the majority of revenue you generate. These are the people who read your daily email newsletters, subscribe to your digital products and attend your live events. They love the information you provide and consider it to be vital their professional success or their personal happiness, depending on the type of content you provide.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
The mobile device trend is gaining speed, for tablets and smartphones alike
What do mobile devices mean for your content? For some online publishers, it’s the chance to produce premium digital content that can be consumed through many platforms, to cater towards any method the consumer prefers. For others, it means more opportunities to reach users on the go – through mobile subscription sites and apps.
If you haven’t adopted mobile strategies yet, it’s time to consider the future of digital magazine publishing.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
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 content relevant to the online publishing environment.
Why our Open Content Standards are so unique
We are currently in the middle of researching for our second Mequoda Open Content Standards adoption study. Unsurprisingly, publishers using an open content business model as their primary audience development strategy are dominant within the top 1,000 websites.
Where it was controversial 10 years ago and still in question five years ago, it is now clear that an open content model is utilized by 80-90% of content-driven websites in top 1,000 with SEO, SMO and link building as their primary ways to drive traffic.
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 multiplatform publishing.
Mequoda editors do it daily…
The Mequoda System is based on four Open Content Standards, and Mequoda Group is the organization that moderates, documents and promotes these standards.
In 2011, the Mequoda System Open Content Standards have been updated through extensive research and testing to provide a solid foundation for starting and running a successful online media business. These standards allow online publishers to build audiences while catering to the subscribers’ needs and desires.
Bryan Welch answers pressing questions facing online publishers in 2011
I recently had the opportunity to speak with my friend, and colleague, Bryan Welch.
Bryan is the publisher and editorial director of Ogden Publications and its flagship media brand Mother Earth News, a popular environmentally-conscience magazine on living “with little money and abundant happiness.”
Join me for our Content Marketing Strategy Workshop in New York City on June 21st
In yesterday’s Mequoda Daily, I shared two great press release examples and five press release guidelines.
Using well crafted press releases and distributing them through online resources is one way of leveraging your content to get audience members back to your website. From there, incorporating conversion architecture through your website will help you build a larger email file.
Order this new, 90-minute webinar, co-sponsored by Mequoda and SIPA, and discover content marketing in the simplest, most time-efficient way possible.
Our new Content Marketing Strategy 2011 white paper discusses Content Marketing in the Digital Age
Download your FREE digital copy of Content Marketing Strategy 2011 now
Since many Internet marketers and online publishers seek a content marketing strategy for 2011, we decided to update our content marketing free white paper and provide our audience with seven principles of a successful content marketing strategy.
These seven principles of online content marketing will help practitioners embrace the power of content in the digital age.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
A Mequoda Content Marketing System depends on building user relationships that begin with email capture.
In 2011, more than ever before in the history of publishing, the database is king.
Building user relationships starts with the proven strategy of acquiring a potential paying customer’s email address and permission to send them valuable free information, as well as your marketing messages.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
A Mequoda Content Marketing System is driven by earned, organic media.
Since the first time we organized these content marketing tenets (in 2003), the third principle has always been about search — making certain your website is visible to Google and the other search engines.
Today, we are more aware than ever of the importance of both search media and social media. Additionally, legacy media is a significant factor in organic leverage.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
How can the Mequoda Content Marketing System transform your legacy special-interest magazine, newsletter or newspaper into a highly profitable, multi-platform media empire?
We’ve studied thousands of successful and not-so-successful online publishers to determine the best business practices to create the Mequoda Content Marketing System. All of the successful online publishers we’ve studied have one thing in common: a content management system for achieving success that includes a number of key behaviors that are repeated over and over to become organizational habits.
The Mequoda Content Marketing System can be used to launch a new website, or to manage, maintain and improve an existing website. Every Mequoda Content Marketing System has four distinguishing characteristics that may require you to master additional skills.
What we mean by a Mequoda System and why you should care
Here at Mequoda Group, we often are asked what we mean by a Mequoda System, especially now that our business has grown to include building out full-blown digital content marketing system websites for other publishers.
Despite the misconceptions of some of our professional colleagues, the word “system,” as used on our website, is not a combination of computer hardware, software, and peripheral devices.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week…
“We have used the Mequoda System to create five successful membership programs that leverage our 227-year-old brand and the many books, calendars and issues we produce."
- Paul Belliveau, Vice President New Media and Production, The Old Farmer’s Almanac
“We partnered with Mequoda to create two successful all-access membership programs that are completely independent of our legacy advertising driven business.”
- Stuart Hochwert, Founder and CEO, Prime Publishing
“Even though we are a digital-only publisher, we’ve been able to adapt the Mequoda strategies to dramatically increase our revenues in less than 12 months.”
- Hampton Stephens, Publisher, World Politics Review
“Our all-access membership program includes our print edition, our amazing New England Travel Library, and our new PBS television series. We may have been founded in 1935, but our current strategy is fully multiplatform and digital.”
- Brook Holmberg, Publisher, Yankee Magazine
"We leveraged the Mequoda System and software to create two new capstone membership programs that have reignited our revenue growth."
- Ed Coburn President Cabot Wealth Network
