Insider publishing tips from the pros

In PUBLISHING
16 December 2021
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Digital publishing is an excellent tool for communication, marketing, sales, personal projects, and more. (Take our quiz to find out if digital publishing is right for you!) But if you really want your publications to shine, read on for the top insider publishing tips from the pros!

Account settings

Before publishing your document, we suggest that you check to see that your account is set up properly and that all of your personal and professional information is correct. Within your Account Settings, you can:

  • Choose your language
  • Include your name 
  • Link your account to Google Analytics (PLATINUM members)
  • Add a custom URL (PLATINUM members)
  • Add your logo
  • Fill out an account description in the box provided (more on that below)
  • Choose your account name (if you are using Calaméo for professional purposes, this is where you enter your company name)
  • And more!

Once you have filled out all the necessary information, you are ready to move on and start publishing like a pro!

Getting in touch

If your publication is meant to reach a wide audience, or your digital publication includes sales or marketing information, you will want to make sure that readers can contact you easily.

Contact information

If you’d like your contact information to be visible in your publication, or you’d like readers to be able to get in touch with you, be sure that your contact details are in a noticeable spot. You have a few options for displaying your information prominently: 

  • Put your information (website, email, social media) directly in your publication. Use the Links feature in our Editor to send your readers directly to your website or social media page when they click on the link(s) in your publication. Tip: turn your external link into a contact link if you’d like to send your readers directly to your email address. Take a look at the example from our Guided Tour; it includes a clickable contact link that sends readers right to our email:
  • Include your website in the description of your account. This will make it easy for your readers to get in touch with you. You can add this information in the text box labeled “Website”. You will find this in your Account Settings, under Account Info. See the example from Calaméo’s account:
  • Put your contact details in the description of your publication. That way, only the readers who click on this publication will be able to see your information, rather than all the people who visit your Calaméo page. You can add these details in the “Description” field before or after publishing. Check out the example from Trans Tasman Media’s Our New Zealand magazine:

Visibility

Calaméo is the perfect resource for sharing your newsletter, magazine, annual report, or any other content you’d like to publish! Some users may want their publications to be widely available, and others may wish to keep them private. You can choose who sees your publications and how people interact with them.

💡 TIP: Our full Privacy Policy can be found here

Privacy and Sharing

When your publication is set to “Public”, anyone can see your content. If you don’t want this to be the case, make sure that your publication is private. 

On the other hand, if you want your publication to be read far and wide, sharing it is easy! You can use a link to share your publication via social media or email, and it only takes a matter of seconds. Make sure that your publication is set to “Public” and then you are good to go. Don’t forget to include your contact information if you want readers to be able to get in touch with you.

The text in publications with the “Public” setting is indexed by search engines. This is an element to take into account when choosing to make your publications public.

💡 TIP: Learn how to to increase your website traffic with Calaméo!

Printing and Downloading

If you are a PREMIUM or PLATINUM member, you can allow readers to download and/or print your publications. If you do not want readers to be able to print or download your publications, simply update your preferences by unchecking the relevant boxes under the “Sharing” tab when you publish your document:

Embeds

To go even further with your publications, take advantage of our Embeds feature to seamlessly integrate your publications into a blog or website. We’ve embedded the Calaméo Magazine here as an example:

💡 TIP: Learn how to embed your publications into a blog or website

Adult only

If you want your publications to be public but they are not suitable for children, you can use our “Adult only” setting. 

When you upload your document to Calaméo, there is the option to mark your publication as “Adult only (18+ years old)”. If you have content that follows our Terms of Service but is not suitable for children, then the “Adult only” feature may be a good option for you.

💡 TIP: Oftentimes, users employ the “Adult only” setting when they actually mean to make their publications Private. Double check your settings before publishing, especially if your publication contains personal information

Bells and whistles

After your account settings, contact details, and sharing preferences are all taken care of, it’s time to focus on the publication itself.

Optimize

Before publishing your document, you will need to make sure that it is correctly optimized. Your document should be one single document containing all the pages of your publication. Each document uploaded is converted into a separate publication – it is not possible to assemble separate pages of your publication on Calaméo. It is important that your document does not consist of different page spreads; if your document contains a mix of different page spreads (for example a single page for the front and back covers and double page spread for the rest), blank zones will be added during conversion to compensate for the discrepancies.

Another insider publishing pro tip? Think ahead while creating your documents! For example, if you know that your document will be read both online and printed on paper, anticipate the user’s experience. Add a clickable video as well as a QR code to the same video. The reader viewing your publication online can click on the video itself, and the reader viewing the print version of your publication can scan the QR code and see the same video. That way, whether your publication is read online or in print, readers will have the same experience. 

And final optimization tip: leave space in your original document if you know you will be adding videos or other enrichments. If you will be inserting an element such as a GIF in your publication, ensure that you have enough space around where the element will go so that it does not obscure the existing text or visuals in your document.

💡 TIP: Of course, you can always upload a new version of your document without changing the URL or erasing your links!

The Calaméo Editor

Ready to make your publication pop? Take advantage of all the bells and whistles via our Editor tool! Add sound, images, videos, links, and other enhancements to enrich your publication. 

Make it yours

The best publications are the ones that are entirely unique! Read our tips on making your digital publications unique and wow your readers with your finished product. 

Logo

If you have a company or personal logo, PLATINUM and PREMIUM account holders can display it in the publication viewer. This will create useful brand awareness and readers will instantly recognize your publication as belonging to you.

💡 TIP: Learn how to add your logo to the viewer

White label

Our final insider publishing tip: use our White Label feature! PLATINUM members can use this feature and make their publications stand out. The White Label feature removes all Calaméo branding and allows the publisher to insert their own branding, colors, logo, and visuals.

What’s next?

Now it’s up to you! Use these tips from publishing pros and take your digital publications to the next level. We can’t wait to see what you create!

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PUBLISHING

Digital publishing for today’s students

In PUBLISHING
10 August 2023

What do “digital natives” have to learn about digital skills? The generation of children in school today have grown up in a connected world. Smartphones, social networks and internet culture have been part of life for many as long as they can remember. These young digital natives are defined by their comfort with technology and use digital tools intuitively. Unlike their older “digital immigrant” teachers, today’s students do not need to be taught how to log on.

Given this digital intuition, it makes sense that technology has found a central place in the classroom. Teachers increasingly use connected computers, tablets and even smartphones in lessons around the world. Students might be asked to research, work together with classmates on a group project or turn in homework online.

Digital publishing offers practical tools for students to share their work while also learning valuable digital skills. These skills go beyond the simple use of technology to help build students’ awareness of some of the biggest issues in our information society: accessibility, media literacy, digital community and understanding code. Read on to find out how digital publishing sharpens these key skills in the modern classroom.

Paperless pros

Although the future is probably not 100% paperless, plenty of everyday life has moved to the screen. Digital natives are more likely to expect experiences like shopping, banking and entertainment to be accessible online and reading is no exception. That’s why many publishers make a wide variety of titles aimed at younger readers available on Calaméo for parents and kids to sample.

As digital natives head off to school, digitally published textbooks can represent an important source of information. Online course material meets students where they are: on their phones, using Google to research their homework. By publishing textbooks digitally, educational publishers can ensure that digital natives find reliable facts through search and maybe even remind them of the paper copy sitting in their backpack.

Publishers can also offer convenience to students at ease with digital books, which are searchable, downloadable and impossible to forget in their rooms. With college textbook prices in particular at an all-time high, online editions can be an especially attractive option for today’s students. Since these publications live in the cloud, course information is accessible in and out of the classroom. Instead of staying buried deep in the clunky platforms of enterprise education applications, learning material can be consulted anywhere, anytime.

Critical thinkers

The enormous amount of information available on the web may seem particularly amazing to those old enough to remember starting homework assignments with a stack of library books. All of this information poses new risks to digital natives. In the age of fake news, 91% of teachers think that evaluating the quality of information online is an “essential” skill for students to learn.

Digital publishing platforms can be a great tool for teaching media literacy, or the ability to understand how information is communicated. While researching online, students need to know how to consider more than just the search results. Factors such as the format, the publisher and the source of information are essential to judging its quality: newspaper article or wiki? Amateur or expert? Facts or opinion? Digital publications are a rich medium for students to explore and analyze, providing diverse materials published on a huge range of topics.

Learning to think critically about sources matters not only when reading, but also when writing. One study found that a third of high school students admitted to copying from the Internet in their homework. Tools like Calaméo’s Editor let students add external links to their digitally published presentations, reports and projects to cite their sources.

Learning communities

Digital publishing is also an opportunity for today’s students to become part of a type of online community different from those than they may already belong to. Internet users younger than 25 are more concerned than older users about privacy on the web. But unlike social media networks, digital publishing platforms do not restrict interaction to friends only. This openness can teach students valuable lessons about being part of a global community.

Once a digital native becomes a digital publisher, she adds her own voice to the vast resources available online. Students publishing on Calaméo also have the option of creating private publications, which are not indexed for search. Since how to approach online privacy is in the news and on the minds of young people, students should decide carefully when to publish privately and when they want to join a worldwide conversation.

Whether public or private, digital publications are the site of innovation in teaching and learning. From educators publishing lesson plans to student newspapers distributing online editions, digital publishing brings both local and global communities together. Some inspired teachers are even using digital publishing to grade assignments, reviewing the homework that individual students publish and leaving comments with feedback.

Future developers

Although digital publishing is a great tool for teaching in almost any subject, one of the ways it is most useful is for students who are beginning to learn coding skills. Digital natives may feel immediately comfortable with technology, but comfort does not mean an ability to code or even understand what’s happening behind the user interface. By 2020, an estimated 1.4 million software development jobs will go unfilled in the US alone because there are not enough qualified candidates.

Students everywhere can benefit from reviewing the technical basics of digital publishing. Uploading different file types to Calaméo is simple, but today’s students need to know what it means to publish in HTML5 and what that allows you to do. Studying up on the differences between a PDF, digital publishing and file sharing services is a good place to start.

To gain practical skills, beginner students can try their hands at development activities using digital publishing. Embedding a publication in a student-created webpage is a perfect project for learning about Iframes, a key building block of many websites, while creating a fully responsive Library widget display may be appropriate for more advanced students. Students interested in design can take advantage of Calaméo’s uniquely adaptable viewer by coding their own viewer Themes.

Final marks

Digital publishing makes it easy for students to access course materials and offers teachers many possibilities for encouraging them to develop media literacy, participate in an online information community and improve tech know-how. When it comes to helping digital natives strengthen important digital skills, Calaméo is at the top of the class.

PUBLISHING

Top 5 Digital Publishing Strategy Trends for 2020

In PUBLISHING
26 November 2019

Digital publishers have gotten used to seeing huge trends arrive every couple of years. In 2013, traffic from social media networks was the biggest news in digital publishing. By 2015, it was the pivot to video. After that, paywalls came back in style and in 2019, everybody loved podcasts. So what’s next for 2020? Digital publishing strategy trends that get back to basics and put content first.

Read on to learn which strategies will help define digital publishing in 2020. Plus, discover how they can help your business achieve its goals.

CONTENT MARKETING

Our top trend pick for 2020 is not exactly new. In fact, content marketing has been part of the digital publishing conversation for more than a decade. But that’s because content marketing has proved to be a valuable tool for many types of businesses. Over 80% of brands are making use of online content in their marketing strategies and 96% of marketers think it is effective.

One reason that digital content has become such a popular marketing strategy is the growing dislike of ads. Unlike traditional ads, the content that businesses publish online aims to inform their audiences about relevant subjects as well as entertain and inspire. From funny GIFs to white papers, content marketing will continue to be a key digital publishing strategy trend in 2020.

INSIDER INFLUENCE

A major success story in 2019 came from food magazine Bon Appétit’s digital strategy. Emphasizing video, its set of Test Kitchen series have become an internet phenomenon. Fans have favorite Bon Appétit editors, celebrate the “Cinematic Universe” featuring their teamwork and rank every episode. As a result of that engagement, subscriptions have risen 64% this year from digital channels.

While you may not want to commit to a full-on video strategy, there are other ways for digital publishers to adopt the “editors as influencers” trend. For example, try showcasing the people behind your publications on platforms like Instagram or LinkedIn. Because audiences there are drawn to authentic personalities, they’re smart places to build connections between your contributors and your audience.

SUBSCRIBERS FIRST

Speaking of platforms, digital publishers won’t stop using them in 2020. But another top strategy trend focuses on subscribers over followers. Although platforms like Facebook still provide opportunities for clicks and views, it can be difficult to take advantage of this audience. Many publishers say they don’t see significant value from posting their content to social platforms.

On the other hand, readers who visit your site and sign up to follow you there offer digital publishers a lot of advantages. It’s a great way to learn more about their interests and stay in contact. And creating a direct relationship with your subscribers doesn’t have to mean selling your publications. For example, you may want to develop newsletters, target promotions or send exclusive content to subscribers.

ECOMMERCE EVERYWHERE

In 2020, digital publishers will find new ways to connect ecommerce and digital publishing. It’s clear that internet users are tired of ads. But they’re also less likely to sign up for paid subscription services than they used to be, thanks to “subscription fatigue.” Despite this slowdown, online sales keep growing: revenues over $4 trillion are projected next year.

Above all, these trends show that digital publishing strategy can benefit from including sales. There are lots of possibilities to test. Consider producing shoppable content, branded content and free content to attract customers and encourage them to buy while they browse.

PRIVACY RISING

The last digital publishing strategy trend on our list for 2020 is respecting online privacy. Over recent years, protecting the digital data of internet users has been in the spotlight. And new standards are helping to change how businesses communicate with users online, from ads to email.

Although it’s too soon to know exactly how those changes will look, digital publishers can already anticipate a few best practices. The first is to keep privacy in mind when working on strategy in order to be prepared. The second is create great content that readers will find useful, connect with, sign up for and even shop.

The one thing that all of these digital publishing strategy trends have in common is strong content. If you’re getting ready for 2020, give your publications a boost with Calaméo. Publish in a snap, customize and embed your content anywhere. Create your free account and get started today.

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