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The publishing business has been revolutionized. The times when a magazine had to have a huge printing budget, elaborate distribution system, and piles of glossy paper to launch are long gone. Entry has been massively lowered and creators, businesses and hobbyists can reach the world and instantly. There has never been a better time to start up your own publication in case you have ever dreamed of doing it. The digital magazines provide a cost-effective, interactive and engaging method of sharing content. They enable you to get past publications and reach readers who have common interests. Nevertheless, the process of developing an idea into a completed product may be overwhelming. You may be asking yourself what are the file formats, the design layouts or how to even get the magazine on a tablet of a reader. The good thing is that you can create online digital magazine with modern tools with ease.
Should the Switch be made to Digital?
It is good to know the reason behind the how before leaping into the how. The digital publications have their unique strengths compared to the printed ones.
To begin with, the production expenses are a third of print. You do away with printing, shipping, and handling expenses. This implies that you can use your budget on more significant content, more quality photos, or advertising.
Further, online magazines are interactive. A print page is a fixed one whereas a digital page has the ability to carry videos, audio files, hyperlinks and animations. This dynamism will make readers spend more time and have a more enriching experience compared to the text.
At last, analytics are game changers. Use of print, you hardly get to know what articles were read and what were ignored. Digital platforms give you specific behavioral information about the readers; you can adjust your content plan according to what is really popular among your readers.
The First Step: Concept and Strategy
Bad ideas cannot be made good by great software. You should get a roadmap prior to you lay your hands on any design tools. Who are your magazine to?
|human|>Ask yourself to whom your magazine is addressed. Do you focus on industry professionals, who want to feel a profound analysis, or ordinary hobbyists, who want to be inspired?
This audience should be in accordance with your content strategy. Determine how often you will issue, e.g. monthly, quarterly or a rolling blog type of release that is bundled into issues. Regularity is the ingredient of creating an engaging readership.
Your revenue model should also be figured out in the initial stages. Do you sell subscriptions, do you use advertising or do you use the magazine as a lead magnet to sell other services? The option you select here will determine what features you will consider important in the software to come, like the ability to use the software as a paywall or to insert advertisements.
Step 2: Pick the Best Digital Magazine Software to Create Online Digital Magazine
This is your driving force in publication. There are too many choices, starting with basic PDF-to-flipbook converters to highly sophisticated publishing suites, which generate native applications.
To develop an online digital magazine with help of digital magazine software, it is important to choose the platform which will correspond to your level of technical expertise and to your finances.
Key Features to Look For
The following are the must-have features when considering the possible software:
- Interactivity: Is it possible to directly add videos, GIFs, and audio files on the page?
- Mobile Responsiveness: Does the software automatically adjust to the mobile phones, or does it simply reduce a PDF page to a screen that cannot be read?
- Analytics: Check on inbuilt tracking which indicates unique visitors, page time and clicks of links.
- Distribution: Does the platform assist you to post to the web, iOS and Android?
SEO Strengths: Does your magazine have the capability to be crawled by the search engines or it is locked up in an image file?
You can create a 15-day free trial of PageTurnPro digital magazine software.
Step 3: Design for the Screen
Digital design differs with print design. You are competing on a screen with the notifications, other browser tabs, and the distractions of the internet in general.
Typography and Visual Hierarchy
Your design is required to be snappy & scan able. Huge and bold headlines to draw attention! Separate long text fragments using subheadings, pull quotes, and quality images.
The typography is very important. Increase the readability through the use of fonts that can display on screens. Sans-serif typefaces are readable on lower-resolution displays with less difficulty, but serif typefaces may be used effectively as headings. Make sure that you have a big font that can be readable on a tablet without the need of zooming.
The Role of Multimedia
This is what you have as competitive advantage. Copying a print layout is not all you want. When you are writing a piece about a musician, put your most recent song inside of it. In case you are posting about a travel destination, provide a video tour. These aspects render the magazine alive and warrant the digital format.
Step 4: Assemble and Publish
After you are finished laying out, and you have all your interactive elements ready, you are now ready to compile the issue. In case you work with a PDF-based workflow, you will upload a document to the software you have selected. The software will then transform those dull pages into a browsable format and in most cases it will have incorporated that famous page-flip effect.
When you are with HTML5 based software, you may be creating the magazine article on an article by article basis in a content management system.
Check & recheck your work prior to publishing. Test all the hyperlinks to make sure they are good. Test the magazine with other machines.
Step 5: Promotion & Distribution
You have made it, yet they will not visit it unless you make them know it is there. The last element of the puzzle is distribution.
The majority of digital magazine software has you a direct connection to your magazine or embedding code to your webpage. Post this link in your social media and emails newsletter.
Don’t forget about SEO. Assuming that your software permits you to do so, maximize the title and description of your magazine towards search engines. Use keywords that are applicable in your niche to ensure that individuals who are searching on your topics get to identify your latest issue.
Conclusion
Producing a digital magazine is an empowering venture that lays the groundwork in your profession and a community on your work. The tools in use today are user-friendly as the technology may be daunting at the onset.
With quality content, selection of appropriate software and user-friendly design you can create online digital magazine at the comfort of your home office. The barriers are gone. There is just one thing lacking your voice.