When you’re ready to start digital publishing, it can be challenging to choose a platform. Because there are quite a few options out there, we’ve put together a five-point guide to help you choose the digital publishing platform that’s right for you.
First, answer a few simple questions about your basic publishing needs. Next, consider the features that are important to achieving your goals. Then review the audience access that your publications will require and other key platform elements like languages. Finally, look at plans and prices to see which digital publishing platform is the best fit for you.
Let’s dig in!
1. Basic needs
Begin with some simple facts about the content you will be publishing online.
Will your online publications be for internal or external use?
What kind of display do you need (flipbook, slide or scroll)?
Since you’ll want to try out any digital publishing platform you choose for free, here is what Calaméo has to offer on our BASIC plan:
2. Features
In addition to transforming files into HTML5 publications, you may also want to take advantage of some of the great features online platforms can provide. But remember, the specific features that will matter most depend on your objectives. For example:
Do you want readers to be able to download your publications?
What kinds of viewership statistics do you need?
In many cases, digital publishing platforms will ask you to sign up for a paid plan to access advanced features. Here’s what you can expect from Calaméo:
3. Audience access
Another major factor to evaluate when you choose a digital publishing platform is content access.
How many times can you share your publication?
Can you configure protected subscriber access for your publications?
Are multiple user profiles available for your account to make teamwork easy?
Often, subscription set-up in particular can be complex. We recommend you research privacy and subscriber options thoroughly to find the right fit for your needs.
4. Other aspects
Although publishing basics and features are essential, it’s worth keeping a few other aspects of working with the platform in mind. For instance:
Is the site available in your language?
Can you get fast, helpful support when you need it?
What kind of flexibility does the platform offer via API access?
Calaméo proposes the following:
5. Price
Last but not least, look at the pricing of different plans as you choose a digital publishing platform. In some cases, the free Basic plan may have everything you need to get started. However, the cost of paid plans can vary quite a bit—from as low as $14 per month with a PREMIUM account on Calaméo up to $269 per month on other platforms.
Below, you’ll find a chart comparing the monthly cost before taxes of Calaméo’s annual plans. (In other words, you’ll pay the total yearly amount at checkout to benefit from these prices.) Please note that all prices are listed in USD.
If Calaméo seems to match your needs, why not try out the advanced features of our professional PLATINUM plan? During your PLATINUM Demo, you’ll enjoy direct downloads, full viewership statistics and much more. Request your free trial today and experience exceptional digital publishing on Calaméo.
Although you may think that digital publishing is only reserved for the world of books or magazines, this is not the case. On the contrary: the possibilities for digital publishing are endless! There is something for every field or area of interest. And the use of Calaméo is not limited to professionals; individuals can also take advantage of digital publishing for personal projects.
From homework to marketing brochures to your company’s internal newsletter, there are so many options for content that you can publish with Calaméo:
Until recently, education has mostly taken place in person and has not been very digital-oriented. The education industry as a whole has had to adapt to the current situation by sharing and distributing of all kinds of learning materials via the Internet.
🔎 EXAMPLE FROM L’ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE: this university brochure with information about a course shows one of the possible uses of digital publishing.
Lesson plans
If you’re a teacher, you can post your lessons directly on Calaméo so your students can access them from anywhere, anytime. Studying made simple!
If you’re a student, you can upload all the notes you’ve taken during your classes (online or in person) to share with your classmates or so you can consult them quickly and easily.
Activities
For clear assignment instructions that don’t get lost in backpacks, put them online so your students can find them easily. You could even create an online workbook with instructions and due dates that you update regularly throughout the school year.
You can post old homework assignments and answer keys online for your students to use for studying. If your students send you their assignments in a virtual format, you can also make the papers available as private publications so that everyone can see their own corrected papers.
💡TIP: so only your students can access your content, we suggest that you use our “Subscribers” feature.
Marketing
Marketing is particularly well suited for the Internet and its wide reach. So it’s not surprising to see that many brands have already taken advantage of digital publishing for their marketing needs.
🔎 EXAMPLE FROM LANCEL: a catalog with shopping links that send the reader directly to the product page.
Infographics
Post your infographics and visuals on Calaméo, then share them via social media, embed them on your website, or even on your blog. Digital publishing makes sharing easy! You can also add clickable links to send your readers to resources and articles that supplement the information in your infographic.
Brochures
Calaméo simplifies the purchasing process. Thanks to shopping links, your readers can see your product and then buy it in just a few clicks. Internet users see the article on the online catalog and click directly on it to land on the product page on your site where they can order it.
💡TIP: don’t hesitate to use shopping links in your brochures and catalogs.
Slideshows
Publish your slideshow presentations online and easily embed them in your site . No need to make your prospects download several PDFs; they can read all your documents in the viewer directly on your website.
💡TIP: thanks to detailed statistics on your Calaméo account, you can track your publications’ performance and refine your marketing strategies.
White papers
Show your expertise by publishing white papers on your line of business. Enrich these documents with enhanced media: videos, GIFs, and more. Make it a unique experience that will win over your prospects!
Publishing houses (and the “traditional” publishing world in general) are avid users of digital publishing. Here are some examples of how publishing houses use Calaméo:
Certainly, the most classic use of digital publishing is posting magazines online. You can find several examples of magazines on Calaméo for inspiration, starting with the Calaméo Magazine.
Publishing excerpts is a fantastic way to entice readers to continue reading and buy the whole book! This also allows the publisher to gauge the future popularity of a book (if the excerpt is published in advance) and makes sharing easy.
Complete works
Make entire works accessible to everybody (or only your subscribers) by publishing them on Calaméo and offering unique experiences like read alongs or a book club, for example.
Goodies
Enrich the world around a book or publication by offering exclusive experiences to fans of your literary series: a publication with explanatory maps, a behind-the-scenes publication with videos with the author and publisher, etc.
💡TIP: use our Editor to turn your publications into unique multimedia experiences!
Business
Using digital publishing for your business enables you to do so much, whether it be for internal communication, your sales division, or marketing.
🔎 EXAMPLE: You can find our guided tours, which are examples of useful sales tools, in several languages on our Calaméo profile.
Reports
What’s better than an annual report? An online annual report! With added interactivity (external links, internal links, videos, etc.), easy sharing, and compatibility with your medium of choice (tablet, smartphone, computer), your reports will be entirely unique!
Presentations
Put your presentations online so that your employees can access them at any time and from anywhere. Your documents will always be ready to go for your meetings.
Internal communication
You can improve your company’s internal newsletter by adding interactive elements like videos and external links. It will definitely liven up your internal communications!
Sales materials
As shown in the above example, publishing sales materials on Calaméo is an undeniable asset. First, because it enables you to send and share your sales materials with your prospects; and second, because it allows you to always be ready to present your sales pitch, wherever you may be! In fact, a smartphone is all you need to access your publications!
💡TIP: don’t hesitate to create Folders so that you can easily organize your publications.
Freelance
Whether you’re looking for a job or looking for clients, digital publishing has major advantages to offer.
🔎 EXAMPLE: a portfolio that presents a freelancer’s work.
Resumes or CVs
Give your CV a boost by making it interactive: add a clickable link so that recruiters can reach you directly, include a video presentation or external links to your previous employers’ websites, etc. The result: recruiters will take notice and remember you!
Portfolios
Gather all your work in one interactive publication that you can access from anywhere. It’s a simple way to show potential clients the scope of your talent.
Publish your tests and proposals privately and share them with your clients to receive feedback easily and simply; they will be able to see your publication from all their digital devices (smartphones, PC, tablets), from anywhere, at any time.
Administration
To always know where your documents are, consolidate them in a folder on your Calaméo account; whether it’s an Excel file that groups your job search data or another document that has to do with your activity.
💡TIP: Take care to make these documents private when you upload them to your account in case you don’t want to share them with the world!
Creativity
You don’t need to be a professional to use Calaméo. There are numerous uses for our platform and the possibilities are infinite! Here are a few examples for inspiration:
🔎 EXAMPLE: fan fiction written for a competition.
Photo albums
Gather all your photos in a document and transform it into a beautiful flipbook publication! Share the link to your publication with you whole family so everyone can enjoy it.
Personal documents
Upload your favorite recipes, your assignments, or any other personal document to find it and access it whenever you want. You no longer need to dig through your drawers: your documents are waiting for you on your Calaméo account!
💡TIP: if you want to use Calaméo for personal documents, make sure that you are only using private publications so that your documents are not accessible to anyone else.
Fan fiction
How about letting your creativity flow? Compose short stories, start writing a book – even better if you finish it – and share your writing with the whole world!
In conclusion…
Here is a publication that compiles all the ways that you can use Calaméo. Feel free to download it and keep it for reference and inspiration if you need more ideas.
So we have outlined some great ideas about what content you can publish with a Calaméo account. But it doesn’t end there! We are sure there are more uses that can be dreamed up, and you can make our digital publishing tools your own. In the meantime, if you don’t know where to start, feel free to browse our article ‘The ultimate guide to digital publishing‘.
Digital publishing is a tool that can be adapted to every industry. And education is no exception! From elementary schools to universities to employee training courses, digital publishing is useful for all facets of education. But how can educators and the education industry best use digital publishing? Here we have compiled a guide for educators on how to use digital publishing in the education industry.
Teachers & professors
In 2020, teachers and professors around the world were forced to quickly adapt to online teaching. This big change was hard for many education professionals, especially those who did not have the right tools. While many schools have decided to go back to in-person learning this year, there are some digital tools that proved so useful that teachers will continue using them, including digital publishing!
Online assignments
Easily post homework and other assignments on a digital publishing platform. This is a great solution for a student out sick who needs to catch up, or a teacher deciding to go green and reduce paper waste.“The dog ate my homework” will no longer be a valid excuse! Teachers can post workbooks, readings, worksheets, discussion questions, and everything in between for students to access online.
Lesson plans
If schools are using a hybrid in-person/online model, students who are at home can follow along with the classroom students thanks to digital publishing. The teacher can add external links to the publication if there is a quiz or video component to the lesson, for example.
Answer keys, corrections
Using digital publishing, teachers can post a plethora of additional materials for students to help with studying. Archive old assignments so students have a useful study guide at their disposal before big exams. Answer keys, corrected assignments, additional exercises, external resources, and more! The possibilities are endless.
Virtual library
Want to display students’ work? It’s easy with our Library widget! End-of-semester projects, presentations, creative writing assignments…these can all be beautifully displayed and embedded in a website or classroom blog for everyone to see.
Teachers have options when it comes to uploading material that is for students’ eyes only. First, by making a publication private, the teacher controls who can access the publication. Then, they can choose to share the publication via a private URL, or using the Subscribers feature with a PREMIUM or PLATINUM account.
💡TIP: Our Editor tool is the key to an enriched publication!
Administrators
Digital publishing is not just reserved for the classroom. Administrators can also take advantage! From school districts to school boards to Parent-Teacher Associations, digital publishing can help administrators achieve their communication goals.
💡TIP: Using Calaméo for professional purposes? Take a look at our PLATINUM plan!
School or university brochures
Show off your school or university in a beautiful digital brochure. Add links, videos, music, and other interactive features to wow potential students and their families. Embed it in your website or share it via your social media pages. Display your school colors and logo by using our white label feature!
Newsletters
Much like brochures, digital publishing is an excellent medium for newsletters. Whether it’s an internal newsletter for teachers and staff, or an external newsletter for students and families or alumni, your publications can shine on a digital publishing platform. Add links to sign-up forms for field trips or volunteering, and, if you have a PLATINUM account, include videos of student performances or other highlights. Online newsletters are the perfect solution for communicating important information to many people at once. Use our Statistics feature to see how many views your newsletter receives!
Professional documents
Policies, procedures, school rules, student handbooks, school directories, annual reports (and more!) can be posted online for all to see. These crucial documents can be shared easily to ensure that both faculty and students receive all the important information throughout the school year.
Yearbooks
Traditional yearbooks have gotten a 21st-century upgrade! Why not include videos of congratulations or well wishes from faculty, for example? Students can share their yearbooks with relatives to show off their accomplishments from the previous school year.
💡TIP: Need to know what types of files you can convert on Calaméo? Click here!
Flyers
Bake sales, charity auctions, open houses, school plays, talent shows…broadcast all your school events and important announcements with digital flyers! Embed them in your school’s website and share them easily. If there’s a date or venue change, no need to panic. Upload a new version of your publication and the URL remains the same.
Training
Another sector of the education industry that could benefit from digital publishing is professional training. Many companies provide continuing education or training courses for their employees, both online and in person.
Training materials
Professional trainers can upload their training materials to a digital publishing platform such as Calaméo and enrich it with interactive touches like links and videos. In fact, PREMIUM and PLATINUM members can use Folders to organize by theme or company department, managing access via private URLs or our Subscribers feature.
Intranet or employee training portal
Training managers can embed their training materials on the company’s internal website, Intranet, or training portal, for employees to consult from anywhere. Easy to upload and easy to access, employee training will be a breeze!
And more!
Private tutors, professional aides, volunteers…absolutely everyone in education can use digital publishing! Not only is Calaméo a great option for a digital publishing platform, it’s easy and will save educators’ most precious resource: time.
