
"We've used Mequoda's strategies and techniques to sell thousands of books, videos, and subscriptions."
- Charlie Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society
A minimum of two websites where one is a free Mequoda Internet Hub and the other is one of the seven Mequoda Website Satellite Archetypes. Websites in the network may be owned by a single organization, but may include websites owned by many organizations bound together through affiliate-merchant agreements. Separating one complex website into several simple websites increases usability, which drives user satisfaction, brand loyalty and long term profits.
In 2017, all major publishers and most independents have a website portal. What 95% don’t have is a web magazine. But those who do are flourishing.
In today’s Strategy Spotlight, Don Nicholas, Chairman & CEO of Mequoda explains why he thinks the web edition is the best edition.
Premium newsletters and advisory services represent the pinnacle of subscription marketing, often commanding annual membership or subscription fees that are much higher than magazines.
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
If your goal is to generate advertising and sponsorship revenue from a free newsletter or advisory service with a robust subscription and advertising website, the Mequoda Haven CXMS can do it, and has done it for many other publishers like you.
Mequoda Systems empowers multiplatform publishers to grow audience, revenue, and profits by integrating web, email, and fulfillment systems into a seamless Customer Experience Management System (CXMS). Mequoda clients routinely double, even triple, their profits in five years or less by using our proprietary software platform, Haven CXMS™—the only customer experience management system created by publishers
If your goal is generate paid subscriptions and revenue for a premium magazine business with a robust subscription website, keep following along.
In today’s Strategy Spotlight, Don Nicholas, Chairman & CEO of Mequoda explains how other publishers have used Haven CXMS to do just that.
Your email capture rate (ECR) is calculated by dividing the number of new email subscribers your website captures each month, by the number of unique new visitors passing through your website in a 30 day period. Your goal is to capture email contact permission from your website visitors by making generous offers that include free incentives.
Audience development personnel have a very specific, and incredibly important job within an organization.
Finding the right audience development staff can mean the difference between thousands of email subscribers and tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue.
The best audience development job description I’ve ever seen comes from one of our clients.
If your goal is to generate advertising and sponsorship revenue from a free newsletter or advisory service with a robust subscription and advertising website, the Mequoda Haven CXMS can do it, and has done it for many other publishers like you.
If your goal is to generate subscriptions and advertiser and sponsorship revenue from a free or controlled-circulation magazine with a robust subscription and advertising website, the Mequoda Haven CXMS can do it, and has done it for many other publishers like you.
A Mequoda subscription website Portal generates value from both users and sponsors
Mequoda has guided the development of more than a 300 successful niche media websites on a wide variety of niche media topics. Our best practice is to pair a free subscription website Portal with any premium subscription business model like a magazine or newsletter.
When you charge
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
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
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
For the first many years as a publisher, you had one goal and only one goal: increase magazine subscriptions.
Since 2006 we have held these fourteen guidelines as the most fundamental principles of the best website design.
Every website is unique to its own audience, so you can’t include things like the best colors to use, or anything that will tell you exactly how to design a site. What we’ve put together is a report card that can be applied to any website, of any age. Like I said, this report card has existed for almost a decade and when we update it (like we did today), all of the rules still apply.
Here at Mequoda we can never stress enough the value of a free portal to any subscription website, no matter what archetype it is. It’s the key to driving website traffic, it helps you convert random visitors into email subscribers, and it keeps paid customers engaged with your content.
But just because it’s free to your users doesn’t mean it’s easy to create and maintain. The centerpieces of a portal are your regular, frequently-updated, concise posts. And that’s a style of journalism that few magazine publishers understand.
Mequoda Multiplatform Publishers build profitable Mequoda Pyramids with a Mequoda Matrix as their guide and a Mequoda Portal as their foundation…
Over the past several weeks, we’ve rolled out a foundation of what we consider the most essential building blocks of a multiplatform publishing system. We believe that by using these building blocks, any publisher can
With an online editor’s job description changing from print to digital, it’s important to understand the role for digital publishing success
In order to succeed online, publishers need to have staff that understand the digital evolution.
A significant portion of our consulting strategy relies on properly staffing an organization. If you choose the wrong staff members, or don’t properly teach your current staff about digital strategies, you are sure to fail online.
One of Mequoda’s primary reasons for being is to help legacy publishers cross the digital divide.
And when it comes to Farm Progress, we’re talking serious legacy publishing – a company founded in 1819 which publishes, among many others, Prairie Farmer, the oldest known continuously published magazine, launched in 1841.
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.
Publishers using Adobe DPS for their magazine apps should be thrilled that their most recent update includes the ability for users of the app to “pin” their favorite articles. If you’re using the platform and are a craft or food publisher, especially. Additionally, they’ve added GPS abilities which makes for some pretty creative advertising opportunities. In theory, a publisher could set ads to display by certain advertisers in different cities. Or, if you’re a location-specific publisher (like Seattle Weekly or Rhode Island Magazine) you can display certain content based on location.
You can build email circulation over forty different ways, and we’ve got all the case studies to prove it! If you’re subscribed to our email newsletter, then you’re living proof that the tips I’m about to share actually work. One of them even worked on you
We introduced our 49-steps for starting and running an online business this past week at Fool University
Kim and I had the pleasure of spending a full day with the folks at Motley Fool last week to teach at their in-house learning program – Fool University.
This is the second time we’ve been asked to teach at Fool University, and I must say, it’s very interesting because it takes the edge off corporate environment.
A Portal Subscription Website Archetype aggregates content from outside sources. Portals are intended to build and feed an audience; they are specifically designed for SEO, email marketing, list building, and lead generation.
The Mequoda Method, when run as a repeating cycle of management behaviors, creates an audience- driven, continuous-improvement media management system.
Mequoda is a term coined by Internet entrepreneur and website developer Don Nicholas to describe a method for designing and managing websites and website networks. The term is an acronym for “media quote daily,” which is core to Nicholas’s approach to building website networks that includes seven specific website types.
A Mequoda Website Network includes a minimum of two websites, where one is a free Mequoda Internet Hub and the other is one of the seven Mequoda Website Satellite Archetypes. Mequoda is now used to describe a wide variety of Internet publishing and online marketing terms that extend the Mequoda philosophy.
An Internet Hub is very robust, offering tons of useful information for free. It is designed to maximize online advertising inventory. State-of-the-art Internet Hubs offer users email newsletters, blogs, email alerts and RSS feeds that are all designed to directly and indirectly generate more page views and website revenue.
Can you give us any advice on the website strategy for an online advertising agency?
The website we are constructing is intended to convert leads for our digital marketing services. Have you reviewed an ad agency site?
We are planning on having two main calls-to-action:
(1) Free digital performance analysis of their business, which will send users to a sales force CRM capture page. Our response will be to call them and to set up an exploratory meeting.
(2) Free report and free newsletter to build relationships. Again our response will be to call them to set up an exploratory meeting based on their interest in our free report.
Come to Mequoda’s Online Publishing and Content Marketing Summit to discover the possibilities of an effective online publishing system when you model after publishers who are doing it right
If you’ve been thinking about the Mequoda Summit, or looking for the one conference you should attend this year that will ultimately prepare you for 2010, this is the last week to register for the Mequoda Summit at our most discounted rate.
Less than two weeks left to get our lowest price on this Internet marketing event for publishers
An affordable link-building strategy: Use downloadable content to increase inbound links and build online friendships
Search engine optimized Rapid Conversion Landing Pages convert casual visitors into loyal email subscribers.
Unbelievable but true: We’re willing to reveal all of our secrets and provide you with a detailed blueprint for success — no kidding! All the documentation behind our state-of-the-art Mequoda Systems — plus all the Mequoda WordPress plug-ins — are yours for the modest Mequoda Pro membership fee.
Why adding a job board to your website could both increase revenue and help the economy
Just because the economy isn’t doing so hot right now, doesn’t mean that every business is doomed to fail. But what it does mean is that we as publishers could really use a good brainstorm on how to build out our own business model in ways that are more profitable than costly.
One avenue that has been consistently popular with publishers is adding a job board to their website network. In general, websites that sell job listings are self-service and require very little maintenance from the publisher.
A minimum of two websites where one is a free Mequoda Internet Hub and the other is one of the seven Mequoda Website Satellite Archetypes. Websites in the network may be owned by a single organization, but may include websites owned by many organizations bound together through affiliate-merchant agreements. Separating one complex website into several simple websites increases usability, which drives user satisfaction, brand loyalty and long term profits.
Similar in concept to OFIEs, an OFIN is an “Order Form in Navigation”. While they are usually smaller in size than OFIEs, their strategic intent is the same: to quickly capture your visitor’s name and email address in order to grant them access to a free special report or a free copy of your magazine or newsletter. The ultimate goal for you as the website publisher is to quickly and easily add your unknown site visitors to your email database.
A term first used by Internet entrepreneur and website developer Don Nicholas to describe a method for designing and managing websites and website networks. The term is an acronym for “media quote daily” which is core to Nicholas’s approach to building website networks that includes seven specific website types. A Mequoda Website Network always includes a free Mequoda Internet Hub surrounded by one or more Mequoda Website Satellite Archetypes.
A simple, easy-to-use website that offers users free content and community in return for registration and brand loyalty. The website earns money by referring loyal users to one of more Mequoda Website Satellite Archetypes in their Mequoda Website Network. The hub’s primary goal is to build a permission-based email, bookmark or RSS relationship with each visiting user.
Seven Strategies that Successful Publishers are Using to Turn their Traditional Publishing Brands into Internet-Centric Media Companies
Two standard business models that support the long tail and make money online
Download ourcomplimentary report today and learn how to compete with today’s toppublishers by using the most profitable seven online publishing secrets.
Convert more website visitors into buyers or subscribers from any page on your site by using these 6 methods
Paid media programs balance your Internet marketing system
While patience is a required virtue for earned media programs, paid media programs offer the Mequoda Marketing System operator the opportunity for quick results with a reasonable ROI (return on investment). Each of these programs involves finding and buying traffic by spending money to buy advertising, leads or lists.
Key components of the Mequoda Internet Marketing System
The launch and operation of a Mequoda Marketing System can be divided into four phases. Most of the steps in each phase are then repeated over and over again to build email circulation and monetize customer relationships.
All online direct response transactions begin on landing pages
Mequoda research indicates that on most websites, a maximum of 20 percent of the traffic arrives at the home page. In fact, on many sites, as little as four or five percent of website traffic arrives at the site’s home page, with the rest arriving at much “deeper” pages.
Unlike traditional direct mail or retail marketing, where the user experience is more linear, every page on your website is a potential landing page. That’s because a landing page is the first page a user sees when entering your site, and a user can enter your site and “land” almost anywhere.
t’s September 2007 and 2008 online publishing budgets are being prepared far and wide.How will you budget online expenses and revenues for 2008? To give you a hand, download the most recent version of the free Mequoda Online Publishing Model and use it to help predict the future of your online publishing business.
Create interweaving websites with specific strategies
When you think of your online business, are you thinking of a website, or are you thinking of a network of websites?
The distinction is very important.
Ideally, your online publishing business should be a small network of websites, each with specific goals and strategies.
One of those websites should be entirely devoted to drawing website traffic, while others sell products or generate leads for affiliates.
Treat the Internet as a unique medium with multiple platforms
Content delivery has constantly evolved over the centuries—and it is not going to stop now.
There was word of mouth and tall tales, then public forums, written word, moveable type, printing presses—all the way up to television and the Internet.
What has remained constant is that every new medium requires a new set of skills and strategies to be developed.
Celebrity news sites are making gains on the Mequoda Blog 100 with content added several times an hour
The February results are in for the Mequoda Blog 100, our list of the top 100 media blogs in the US. Tech-blog Engadget dropped from the top five, leaving it mostly to entertainment news blogs, and there are ten new additions to the list.
Top Chef, Iron Chef, Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay—seems like America’s new favorite hobby is cooking. Publisher Cook’s Illustrated is also in the mix with a TV Show, a website network and a free email newsletter, which we’ll put to test today in this review.
Hybrid Websites come in many variations as they successfully and often unsuccessfully merge functionality from two or more of the other website archetypes and sub archetypes into a single (often confusing) user interface.