Tag: online publishing

Join Us at Membership Marketing Secrets: 2020 Workshop, the publishing industry’s must-attend event of the year!
So, where do I start to explain our Membership Marketing Secrets: 2020 Workshop?

First, I should tell you up front what isn’t a secret—having a metered paywall at your website. Yes, thanks to many news-oriented publishers, metered paywalls have become commonplace

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At Mequoda, we’ve crunched the numbers and discovered how beautifully email newsletters work to drive revenue. It’s not the traffic that comes to your site, which is the prevailing view among folks in all industries who jumped on the bandwagon early. Back in those days, it was all about impressions! Eyeballs on your page! After all, if they show up on your website, they’re bound to subscribe to your magazine, right?

Wrong.

This week we’re focusing on engagement, in How Can Engagement (E) Be Improved? The ‘E’ in the Mequoda Method’s ACEM, is really about retention, and the idea that if you’re a subscription-based publisher, that the link with relationship with your customer is key.

ACEM doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but if you’ve been following along for awhile, you know this acronym is baked into everything we do here at Mequoda.

In the last three to five years we stumbled upon a process we now call blockbuster management. Our blockbuster management program acknowledges that any given website over time might have thousands of posts, but the remarkable thing is a relatively small number will ultimately be capable of driving 80% of the traffic.

ACEM doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but if you’ve been following along for awhile, you know this acronym is baked into everything we do here at Mequoda.

You hear us talk about the Mequoda Method, and how we’ve developed it by watching the world’s most successful publishers transition from print to the digital world, but there’s so much more to it. Watch our webcast hosted by myself and our team, called What is the Mequoda Method? to find out.

As you know, having an online portal for your information is essential for growth. Using the web to publish and distribute content and not just serve as an extension of your brand is critical. But this is a new beast, and to be prepared, you must plan. This holds true even if your business has survived the last 50 to 100 years.

Do you think a 24/7 online encyclopedia of information is a product people might subscribe to? Would they be willing to pay more for a subscription to your magazine if it included access to all your archived content? The latter is usually the reason why publishers decide to create a digital archive of their back issues,

Coming up with the right subscription website business model(s) is usually the biggest stumbling block for those wanting to get into this business.

Choosing your content focus is a business-critical decision, as the focus you choose pretty much dictates your chances of success with a subscription website. However, more serious than the focus on content for

Losing subscribers without gaining new ones is a universal fear for any subscription-based organization, and rightly so. When a decrease in active subscribers leads to an overall decline in revenue, publishers may find themselves facing uncertainty about the staying power of their product, or worse: the future of their business.

But what if we told you

As it’s always been, Google’s main focus publicly is the ads you buy via Adwords. And, as always, Mequoda knows that the exact same concepts apply to free organic search campaigns.

If you read our white papers and posts, or you’ve attended a Mequoda Intensive, you already know how much value we place on organic search. It’s the core of the Mequoda Method, and while anyone can buy ads, that kind of marketing just isn’t as high on our priority list as organic search is.

You wouldn’t hire a lawn mower repairman to fix your car, so why do so many publishers seek the support and advice of consultants and web developers that have never worked in the publishing field? At Mequoda, we know content, and we know content marketing, because we’re a group of journalism veterans turned consultants and

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 new depths on the subject matter they care about.

We first wrote about content aggregation in 2011. At that time, he had been researching best practices for content aggregation and strategies content aggregators should avoid.

Your membership site developer should be more than just a technological jester, they should be your sherpa.
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 most of our clients have come to us after years

Magazine publishers have been giving away their content for decades in an effort to attract new subscribers. In online publishing, ad-driven subscription websites have an additional incentive: Increasing the eyeballs that see their sponsors’ ads.

Publications like Mother Earth News put all their magazine content on their subscription website. They believe it hasn’t hurt their circulation, and at the same time, says General Manager Bill Uhler, it helps them cast a wider SEO net.

This year, our winner was Countryside Network, who launched their Mequoda System in February 2016. Countryside was founded in 1969 and today includes four farming-related magazines (Backyard Poultry, Countryside, Dairy Goat Journal and Sheep!) and a portal at CountrysideNetwork.com that spans all four niches.

In this week’s strategy spotlight with Don Nicholas, Chairman & CEO of Mequoda, welcomes Pat McKeough from TSI Wealth Network as our newest Mequoda Master in the Hall of Fame.

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

These multiplatform publishing business models can be incorporated into your business at little extra cost, but with huge revenue potential
At the beginning of the year we highlighted three resolutions multiplatform publishers should make in 2017. As we’ve watched the success of our clients grow by adding new platforms, my main recommendations for this year were to

Increase publishing revenue with self-serve listings and more robust ad packages
The directory and listing-style content business has some pretty unique benefits. If executed correctly, this business add-on can be a win-win-win for any ambitious publisher.

Let’s say you’re a regional magazine who is primarily sponsor-driven and your sole publishing revenue stream is those ads. How can

A client used this scorecard on their blockbuster articles to improve search visibility by 34%
A blockbuster article is a piece of content on your site that attracts a significant amount of traffic over a long period of time. For many publishers, this timeline might be years. For those just learning about blockbusters now, many will find that they get thousands of visitors every month from an article published in, say, 2008.

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 employed experts in growing roses?

So then why is it that so often we hear of publishers who hire web development companies that have no experience developing subscription websites for publishers? A magazine or newsletter website requires an expertise in search engine optimization, conversion architecture, subscription management, and content management, in addition to an array of other specialties.

Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Have you ever felt in your personal life, like plans are useless? Many people feel this way, and in fact I’ve heard the best advice you can give a bride before her wedding is to plan that not everything will go as planned. Just knowing that imperfection is part of the plan can be a soothing anecdote.

How to create new products and passive income from old products as a multiplatform publisher

One of the most interesting rodents on the planet is the grasshopper mouse, native to the US and Mexico, which has a bit of a superpower: it’s impervious to venom. Also, it’s a carnivore. So it dines on venomous centipedes, scorpions

Increase email revenue by determining your ideal revenue per subscriber, and then using service journalism to keep them on a path toward monetization

A Mequoda online publishing and marketing system measures revenue produced by email newsletter subscribers differently from the way that print publishers have traditionally measured the lifetime value of a subscriber.

The revenue per email

Do you have a solid business plan for success in multiplatform publishing?

Unless you answered “You better believe it, pal!” to that question, I have another question for you.
How do you expect to succeed without a plan to get you there?
Of course, it’s not easy to navigate this brave new world of multiplatform publishing – at

Multiplatform publishers should explore new ancillary business models in 2017

In stock investing, most long-term investors agree that you need a diversified portfolio to succeed. If one sector takes a hit for a couple years, the other sectors will keep you afloat. Over the last decade, I know more than a few publishers who would have

Our top-read multiplatform publishing posts of last year show an interest in native advertising and publishing expansion

This year has been a huge time of change in publishing, and we’re excited to see that much of that change comes in the form of multiplatform publishing. Even the most hesitant publishers have started to adopt new subscription

In 2016, our clients, who we affectionately call our Gold Members, have followed the Mequoda Method using our Haven Nexus CXMS and have seen tremendous gains in traffic year over year.
Every year at our annual Gold Member Summit, we give out Rocket Awards. The Mequoda Rocket Award honors the fastest growing website among Mequoda’s Gold Member websites.

As the

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

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 own clients.

Online publishing strategies have grown exponentially since digital magazines have transformed the industry. It is, after all multiplatform strategy, and media companies are wise to maximize as many channels as they can, from video to white papers to podcasts to events to the online magazine library.

How to evolve into a rockstar multiplatform publisher by outsourcing these three jobs
 

Two keys to organizational success as a multiplatform publisher are streamlining the on-staff team members to focus on product management and channel management, while knowing what to outsource. Knowing what functionality to push outside to dedicated specialists who won’t be able to find

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 –

Mequoda Method for the win

This is a cautionary tale about online publishing strategies … a parable, if you will. It involves no actual Biblical references, and no real-life publishers were harmed in the writing of this post.

But like religion, there are many varieties of online publishing strategies. And the point of this parable is that

The freebie content business model is one website we build for all of our Mequoda Gold Members

Choosing your content focus is a business-critical decision, as the focus you choose pretty much dictates your chances of success with multiplatform publishing and subscription websites. However, more serious than the focus on content is the business model itself.

It

Decoding the latest digital ad metrics, and checking in on ad tech and a digital renaissance for a legacy title
Digital ad metrics rise, fall, resurface. New ones are invented every so often. But they’re something digital publishing companies must keep track of, because ROI and consumer action are what advertisers are (rightfully) focusing on when

Write an online magazine editor job description like a product description for a Swiss Army knife

Can you remember life before the internet, when a personal computer was another name for a hand-held calculator? When publishing was a process that required a printing press?

If you’re old enough to remember hot type, the pica stick, and manual

Setting up a subscription website could be a costly test if you don’t think about these three things first
The answers are not always obvious, even to a seasoned print or electronic publisher. Setting up a subscription website from scratch is very different from running an existing enterprise. Our understanding of website publishing is rooted in

Our clients publish in many different niches: food, investing, archaeology, environmental infrastructure, natural health and clinical pathology among many others. When they first come to us, they have nothing in common with one another, but after working with us for six months to a year, they all have one thing in common: a Google Visibility Report (GVR).

This certified Mequoda Master will step into Ed Coburn’s shoes
We’ve come a very long way since 2013.

Back in the day, Mequoda was a modest 15-person organization, with one lead consultant – that would be me – and a single team working with that consultant. Today, in 2016, we’ve tripled in size, with 40-plus team members,

The sacred elements of any best-practice online magazine business model
Literary perfectionist Gustav Flaubert once said “our ignorance of history makes us slander our own times.” He was right on the money here and not just in his never-ending quest to find “le mot juste” (“the right word”) in a sentence. Finding the perfect word, he

The definitive checklist for hiring a magazine publishing consultant

When you attend a conference, half of the speakers are consultants. I’m one of them.
But the thing about these consultants is that they’re all specialists. You have your email consultant leading the email marketing session, your SEO consultant leading the search session, and your social media consultant

When we develop magazine business plans for our Gold Members, it include seven levels which you’ve probably heard us refer to as CAROTME: content, audience, revenue, optimization, technology, monetization, and exit.

Monitoring the latest media trends for online-only magazines and other publishers
These are interesting times for online-only magazines: The industry, like a growing child, is changing every day, and just chasing it around can be exhausting.

Ad tech, mobile monetization, audience development, ad blocking and viewability, data and analytics, and other considerations – and, some would say,

All SEO keywords are not equally important—volume and competition matter!

The most effective SEO keyword strategy is to compete vigorously for top placement for the most popular keyword suggestions returned by the Google Keyword Planner for a given root keyword phrase.

Is there anything more mercurial than online publishing trends? Not many industries have a more evolving mindset, technologies, or revenue models.

On some days, this is a great thing, and on others, it can make your head spin. But stay calm! There’s a core strategy that will steer you through the storm.

You can figure it out for yourself, or you can check out our Mequoda System to get a feel for multiplatform publishing strategy to attract, engage, and convert consumers. Because, in the end, the bottom line is the bottom line, and you have to stick with the principles while experimenting with what works for you.

A magazine consultant is a magazine consultant is a magazine consultant, right?