Online Magazine

[JohnD.]

For a couple of years now I've been thinking of setting up an online magazine, and it's only recently that I've actually started taking steps to make it happen. The magazine will be free to download and i hope that revenue can be generated through advertising. I'm still trying to find a suitable magazine program or design that i can use. Has anyone experience in web magazines or recommend a suitable template for creating a mag? Obviously it has to be suitable for a smartphone or ipad.
Thanks
John

 

[toastking]

Is there any reason you couldn't just use a responsive-magazine theme in Wordpress?

To me this would be an easy way to do it and simple enough to put your adverts on. Tablets and phones would then be able to access it.

 

[LowPrices.uk]

HTML website instead of magazine software is more user friendly and effective in my opinion.

 

[JohnD.]

Thanks for the responses. Toastking i'll look into your suggestion regarding the responsive magazine theme in wordpress, thanks for that.

 

[PIers Ede]

Toastking is on point. Google 'best magazine themes for Wordpress' and you'll find some amazing ones, already fully responsive.

I would think seriously about marketing right from the start because to generate any money at all from online advertising you need to have healthy traffic.

 

[The Byre]

On-line magazine about what?

Targeted at whom?

Advertised where?

Featuring what?

 

[fisicx]

...and i hope that revenue can be generated through advertising.

Maybe after a year or two you will earn enough to cover your setup costs. Advertisers will only be interested if you can demostrate regular traffic of thousands.

And downloading the magazine is pointless. I want to read it on the device I'm holding not download it and them open it up in app or something.

 

[colour24]

Yes, I would also like some more info about the subject of the magazine. We can all help more if we have more info...

 

[JohnD.]

Thanks all for the input, sorry for the delay in getting back. The magazine will target a niche market and the subject is something I’ve been involved in for the last 15 yrs and my wife 25 yrs. We are very passionate about this topic and both work as professionals in this industry.

There are two other magazines which cover this subject, one is a UK publisher who produces a bi-monthly paperback mag with a world wide distribution and has recently started an e mag version, I don't know their readership numbers but i did work for this magazine as a freelance special features writer for a couple of years. The other is an American version with 20,000 subscribers which is small yet they have a full editorial team and offices Stateside. They have also introduced an e mag to their subscribers.


A Facebook search shows 67,000 Facebook users interested in this subject and that is just using an English keyword. This interest is also very big in South America and growing all the time. We would introduce a Spanish translated version of the magazine.

Over the last 5 yrs we introduced a number of workshops teaching students from all over the world and demonstrated in exhibitions at trade shows, we even demonstrated at Harrods London. We have established a good network of potential advertisers as some of them have also sponsored us when we teach and exhibit.


It's been suggested, and I feel is a reasonable suggestion, is to prepare 3 complete editions (6 months worth) leaving blank spaces for advertising, and presenting it to potential advertisers so they can evaluate the content. Personally I believe that the selling point is that the magazine is free and will be informative. I'm sure that anyone in this industry or just curious would be happy to download a free magazine with good content, if they have an interest in the subject. Another suggestion was to launch the magazine without advertising and build up a readership registry which can be presented to our target advertisers. Both suggestions seem fair to me and I would be interested to hear your opinions on the matter.


It's worthwhile pointing out that we have allowed for this project to run for two years with no profit. It won't be a main source of income and we have no overheads to consider.


I would like, and I don't know if it's possible as myself and my wife are just looking into the world of digital magazines, to have a system whereby readers have to register their email details before receiving/accessing the magazine.

We would also like to have a magazine that can stream as the pages are turning. I saw an online sports magazine some years ago that as you turned the pages there were areas of the page with videos showing highlights from various sports. To have this possibility would give us the ability to do online tutorials, pod-casting etc. Finally the reader has to be able to download onto a smart phone or portable device such as an ipad.

Suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

John

 

[JohnD.]

Maybe after a year or two you will earn enough to cover your setup costs. Advertisers will only be interested if you can demostrate regular traffic of thousands.

And downloading the magazine is pointless. I want to read it on the device I'm holding not download it and them open it up in app or something.

Thanks for responding Fisicx. I would like the option of reading direct on the device or downloading and reading later. i'm considering for example people commuting to work in the morning on the tube or areas with poor WiFi services.

 

[fisicx]

Finally the reader has to be able to download onto a smart phone or portable device such as an ipad.

This just isn't going to happen. You can't download and access the magazine on an iphone or an ipad in the same way you can to a PC or a Mac. This is also why page turners aren't going to work. The only sensible way to access the content on any mobile device is to have a continually scrolling page.

If you want to publish a downloadable magazine you have pretty much excluded anyone with a tablet or phone.

If you want to collect email addresses before people can read the magazine it only needs a simple plugin or extension.

Why not publish the first 3 edition without advertising to test the water, once you have the numbers you will have a much more attractive proposition for advertisers.

 

[toastking]

@fisicx - I think you are right it wouldn't be easy to make it download and store for later, but one way around it could be to get it set up with an RSS reader like Newsify which downloads content from a range of sources. You can then read the posts/feeds from the sources even when out of internet range. So it shows it is possible, just not a straightforward thing to do.

I'd suspect though that those Newsify guys did some real work in the beginning to get content to download in that way... and then restricting it to only your mag would a) make it less appealing and b) make it less valuable (note a and b appear to be the same point...)

 

[The Byre]

Another suggestion was to launch the magazine without advertising and build up a readership registry which can be presented to our target advertisers.

This and only this!

And please do not think that they will be banging your door down after six months - with a bit of arm-twisting, you might get regular advertising after a few years.

I was involved in exactly this sort of project, we had some advertising, but it still folded after a year, as the guy running it needed to eat. Silly, I know, but some people are like that!

If we had the wherewithal to plough on for five years, we may have been able to show a profit. At least I only put effort into it and no money. I try to put my money into things that make a profit and magazines, on- or off-line are getting difficult. The ones that work seem to be both!

Advertisers still prefer to see something on glossy paper, to go with PPC deals.

 

[TattenhamCorner]

Very hard market to break into.

What does confuse me is the concept of an "online magazine". The reason being is that I struggle to see how you would get this vision distinguished from a blog and website. Also where's the money in an online magazine? As far as I'm aware hits don't pay and to make advertising pay you need large investments and those require you to have unique content, brand image and reputation.