Publisher Smiling
Online magazines are a varied bunch. KC Parent caters to Kansas City-based parents, keeping them up-to-date on local family-friendly events and resources. The California Sunday Magazine, now online-only, publishes longform editorial features for a national audience.
But despite the differences, online magazines tend to share some common qualities. They often serve a niche audience, one that is smaller but generally more devoted than the audience of a daily newspaper. Online magazines tend to publish more in-depth features and evergreen content than breaking news stories. They often have a greater emphasis on the design of their content. And they can be a bit more creative in the types of content they offer. (One of Memphis Magazine’s most popular features is Ask Vance, a column where fictional dandy Vance Lauderdale digs into the city’s under-the-radar history.)
Metro Publisher has served the needs of magazine and alternative newspaper websites for over a decade. In this article, we’ll draw from that experience to offer advice on how to create a successful online magazine (and avoid some common pitfalls along the way).
Mission & Goals
Before diving into the details, take some time to articulate the purpose of your online magazine. Why do you want to create it? Access to an expanded audience? Digital revenue opportunities? Quicker content turnaround? What would make your online magazine successful?
Conduct market research to create reasonable expectations for your website. Who will be your competitors? What unique value will your online magazine bring? How will you serve your readers? And how will you not compete with other media websites? Knowing this will help you focus your efforts and avoid stretching yourself too thin.
Who will be the audience of your online magazine? Will this be a similar or different audience than your print magazine? How many readers can your online magazine reach? Calculate that audience to make sure you have realistic expectations. (For example, if you are the publisher of KC Parent, look up the total number of Kansas City households with children.)
structure
Content
After you’ve articulated your high-level goals and mission, it’s time to think about your content strategy. What will you publish on your site? If you already have a print issue, you know the main topics your readers care about. (If not, ask them!) Could any of that content work online? Besides digging into your own content, do some research into what your competitors are posting. You can also use free tools like Google Trends, CrowdTangle, or even Google’s search bar predictions to see what types of topics are trending for your audience.
Once you have decided the topics you will cover, check your budget and staff capabilities to determine how often you will be able to publish content on your website. As part of this, think about the relationship of your print issue to your online content. Will you publish all your print content online? Will your print content be available to print subscribers at the same time as online visitors or will you stagger the publication dates? Knowing how much content you will be able to publish online will give you a sense of how many content verticals are reasonable for your website. (For example, if you can only publish five stories a week, you should not have ten content verticals.)
Beyond writing and publishing content, make a plan for promoting that content. Will you promote every story on all your social media channels? What stories will you promote via email? What stories will you design for search traffic? Joy Mayer of Trusting News has created a hub with resources to help guide your social media decisions.
Who will be producing the content for your website? Will your in-house staff do this? Or will you hire freelancers? If freelancers, how much will that cost per month? Will they also be responsible for publishing and promoting the content? To make the most of your budget, tagging can be especially useful. Tagging articles allows pages on your website to automatically rotate with fresh content. See this article for tagging tips and other ways automation can save your staff time.
Layouts
Design
What will your website look like? To start the brainstorming process, browse Webby or Awwward winners in the magazine website category. Look at Metro Publisher’s client gallery or the magazine themes offered by Wordpress. Check out websites run by others in your field.
Consider the value you’re offering readers and how that might influence your website’s look and feel. The website of a Cincinnati-based arts and culture magazine, for example, might prioritize striking images and an events calendar. But a national trade magazine serving accountants might privilege typography and infographics.
Take into account your staffing capabilities when considering your website’s design. Will your writers be able to publish enough content to fill (and regularly rotate) a homepage that features 30 stories? If not, choose a simpler homepage. Do you have a staff photographer or someone who can source appropriate images for your site? If not, stick with a less image-heavy website.
Take notes and screenshots of the elements you like. Before getting lost in design templates of your CMS, sketch out a wireframe of all the content you want included on your site. Try to reduce the clicks a user has to take to get to each element. And make sure your navigation is intuitive to readers.
software
Software
There is no shortage of third-party software designed for media websites. But to start, the main things you will need to get your website up and running are a domain name, a content management system (CMS), analytics software, email marketing software, and ad management software.
The domain name is the URL that visitors enter to reach your website. Choose a domain that’s easy to remember and intuitive for readers. To see what domain names are currently available, visit GoDaddy.com
A CMS such as Metro Publisher or WordPress is the software your staff will use to upload, edit, and publish content on your site. Choosing a CMS is a big decision, so check out this guide we’ve made that goes over the main things you should consider when choosing your CMS. (Note: If the CMS you choose does not come with hosting, you will need to also sign up for a hosting service like BlueHost or Amazon Web Services.)
Analytics software allows you to see how many people are visiting your site, what they are looking at, where they are coming from, how long they are reading your articles, and more. Google Analytics is a free analytics software; you just need a domain name to set it up. Parse.ly and Chartbeat are other popular analytics programs, but they cost thousands per year.
Email marketing software like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Hubspot is used to send mass emails to your readers. Growing and maintaining an active email list is important for maintaining membership programs, growing site traffic, promoting events and contests, and more.
If you will be using display ads on your site, sign up for an ad management service. Google Ad Manager is a robust and free tool, but requires some know-how and offers little direct customer support. Alternatively, BroadStreet is an ad manager that starts at $99 per month and is designed for niche media websites.
revenew
Revenue
Launching an online magazine opens up a variety of new revenue streams to publishers—display ads, membership programs, sponsored content, and more. The best revenue strategy for you depends on your mission, audience size, editorial content, and staff capabilities.
Here are some of the most popular options for online magazines:
- Membership Programs: Reader membership programs are a great way to support your publication while also being accountable to your audience (instead of advertisers). We’ve recently written about successful programs launched by The American Prospect and INDY Week.
- Sponsored Content: Publishing sponsored articles or guides for advertisers can not only support your publication, it can also bring traffic to your site. Creating sponsored content requires more staff time than display ads, but it also has higher profit margins.
- Sponsored Contests: Contests are a big traffic and revenue driver for small online publications. For example, Harrisburg Magazine ran a readers’ choice poll that brought in $152,000 in revenue the first year it ran. You can run contests with promotions software like Second Street or through a clever use of online form builders like WuFoo.
- Display Ads: Running display ads on your site requires little management compared to some of the other options listed, but also has lower margins. And, if overused, too many display ads can degrade your reader’s experience. For smaller publishers with smaller audiences, it’s often more profitable to sell and manage display ads manually rather than relying on programmatic ads. And ideally, you sell display ads as part of a larger package (like an event or contest sponsorship).
- Event Promotion: An online presence can make it easier for advertisers to promote their own events. D Magazine, for example, hosts an annual Best New Restaurants event that coincides with their editorial feature. They use their website to sell tickets and promote their event sponsors.
- Circulation Sales: Your website can also be used to promote and sell your print issues. Many successful membership programs include print issues in their offerings available to readers.
- Email: Emails can contain display ads, sponsored content, promote sponsored contests and events, and drive membership programs. And with a strong email list, publishers can target specific audiences (readers with an interest in food, for example), which helps maintain low unsubscribe rates.
Interested in setting up your online magazine on Metro Publisher? Create an account to start exploring our content management system today.
Or, If you would like to talk to us about how we can help you get started on your path to success, contact us.
