With the advent of digital technology, online magazines are becoming increasingly popular. Digital publishing tools can make these magazines more interactive and attractive to readers. In this article, we will explore some ideas to enrich your online magazine with digital publishing platforms like Calameo.
Add internal links
Adding internal links is a great way to allow your readers to easily navigate through your online magazine. Internal links can be used to redirect readers to related articles, product pages or even specific sections of the magazine. This allows readers to spend more time exploring your online magazine while easily accessing everything that interests them.
Add external links
External links are another great way to enrich your online magazine. By adding links to relevant articles from other sources, you can help your readers better understand the topic you are covering. In addition, it can also help your online magazine gain credibility and build reader loyalty.
Insert media
Adding media is a great way to increase the visual impact of your online magazine. By adding images, videos and other types of media, you can make your online magazine more appealing to readers. In addition, using media can help reinforce the ideas you present in your online magazine.
Add an audio track
Adding an audio track is another way to enrich your online magazine. This can be especially useful if you cover topics related to music or audio. By adding an audio track, you can give your readers a more immersive and interactive experience.
Insert shopping links
Shopping links are a great way to monetize your online magazine. By adding links to relevant products, you can help your readers find products they might want to buy. Plus, it can also help generate revenue for your online magazine.
Personalize the viewer
Personalizing the viewer allows you to put it in the image of your brand, to put forward your graphic charter and to ensure a visual continuity with your site and your other contents. A perfect feature to offer a recognizable content that only looks like you.
Create a table of contents
Adding a table of contents is a great way to help your readers easily navigate through your online magazine. By organizing your content into clearly defined sections and adding a table of contents, you can help your readers quickly find the information they are looking for.
Conclusion
By using digital publishing tools to enrich your online magazine, you can provide a more interactive and immersive reading experience for your readers. By adding internal and external links, media, audio tracks, shopping links, viewer customization, and a table of contents, you can help your readers explore your content more easily and better understand the topics you cover. Ultimately, this can help your online magazine gain credibility and build reader loyalty.
The first thing you need to know about digital publishing is that it’s simple. So simple, in fact, that you might already be doing it! Professionals, teachers, entrepreneurs, aspiring creatives, students, freelancers and people everywhere with something to share online turn to digital publishing every day.
That’s why the second thing to know about digital publishing is why it’s such a popular choice—and how to do it better. In this article, we’ll explain all the most important basics, tips to help you find the right solution and a few special extras to make the most out of your publications online. Read on to learn more about:
Digital publishing means using online tools to make media of all kinds available via the Internet. Instead of traditionally printed books, magazines and newsletters, digital publishing makes ebooks, blogs and online publications. Readers access this content on computers, smartphones or other digital devices. In short, anyone who has documents to distribute online can benefit from digital publishing technology.
Because digital publishing covers many genres and formats, there are plenty of different options to consider. From specialized content management systems to bespoke applications, there’s something for everyone. However, digital publishing platforms stand out above the rest: They offer a convenient, fast and easy way to convert your files to online publications.
Benefits of HTML5 publications
Although a few platforms still use Flash technology, the gold standard is now HTML5 for online publications. But what exactly does it mean to make an HTML5 publication?
Let’s imagine you have a Powerpoint that you need to get online and send out to colleagues. Using a modern digital publishing platform, your PPT file is converted into a browsable publication built with HTML5 and hosted at a unique address on the web. Then to send to your coworkers, simply copy the link and share.
Effortless sharing is just one advantage of HTML5 publications. More key benefits include:
Visibility. Unlike a basic file upload, your HTML5 publications are easy to optimize for search. Help searchers find your content thanks to smart keywords, structured data and automatically indexed text.
Compatibility. Never worry about problems opening your documents again. Your HTML5 publications work with all devices, all operating systems and all browsers. Better yet, there’s no extra software, downloads or plug-ins required.
Versatility. HTML5 publications are ready for anything. You can enrich them with audio and video content, add links and images, and embed them in your own website or blog. Plus, customize the presentation with your own logo, branding and design.
Usability. Above all, your HTML5 publications are always available online. View, share and update from anywhere, anytime.
Want to go beyond email attachments and plain PDFs? No matter what type of content you have to distribute online, digital publishing can help you get more out of it.
Why businesses use digital publishing
The name might make you think it’s all about novels, but digital publishing is actually a powerful tool for a wide range of businesses. Since an online presence is essential for companies in every sector, having smart digital content matters. Depending on your goals, the best reasons to take advantage of digital publications may differ. Here are three of the most common businesses uses.
Marketing
To create irresistible online materials. Traditional marketing formats like brochures and modern channels like video work together perfectly in digital publications. Marketers can mix and match to produce content that works for their target audience. A light footprint and detailed analytics make it practical for A/B testing, too.
Communications
To connect content with people. Newsletters, magazines, how-to guides and employee handbooks need to be online. Digital publishing platforms make it easy not just to upload content, but also to manage it. Advanced privacy controls and distribution features help communications pros get their message out there, the right way.
Sales
To modernize the sales funnel. Today, content and sales are closer together than ever. Both sales teams and ecommerce operations can make good use of digital publications. For example, email a personalized prospectus for leads to browse on the go. Or transform a PDF catalogue into an interactive, shoppable experience for customers online.
Education and digital publishing
One of the biggest challenges currently facing education is adapting to virtual learning. However, online publishing offers a user-friendly solution for digitizing teaching material. All that students and teachers need is access to an Internet connection to exchange documents securely. Because the best digital publishing platforms can handle multiple file types, converting assignments, tests and more to HTML5 publications is simple.
As a result, digital publishing can be used for many virtual learning materials like:
Study guides and lesson plans
Activities and homework
Presentations and projects
School newspapers and yearbooks
In addition, educational publishers often make sections of textbooks available online as digital publications. Expect this trend to grow while virtual classrooms continue to evolve.
Independent digital publishing
Before the Internet age, a creative career usually started with finding a talent agent. But now, online tools like digital publishing have opened the ability to produce and distribute to everyone. Authors and artists in every genre can choose to publish their work independently in digital formats. For instance, portfolios and media kits help show off your projects and skills, while previews and collections let audiences sample your creations. Even a whole book can easily become a multimedia digital publication to share or sell—no agent necessary.
Advantages of an online platform
Digital publishing is an important part of the online ecosystem. So it’s no surprise that there are many options to help you make and publish content digitally, including traditional software. However, there are several serious advantages to an online platform.
First, your digital publications are accessible 24/7 on the web. Second, you don’t need to take care of hosting your publications. In other words, there are no finicky details for hosting set-up and maintenance to handle. And finally, you don’t have to deal with separate software to download, install and keep updated.
A true online platform should offer you all the features of digital publishing right on your favorite browser. To sum it up, these three advantages add up to major convenience for your content.
Choosing a digital publishing platform
Once you’ve decided to begin using digital publishing for your online content, it’s time to decide which tools are right for you. If you’re searching for a platform to produce and host HTML5 publications, start by considering your main needs. For instance:
Storage. How many digital publications are you planning to create? How large are the files that you work with?
Reliability. How fast do you want your publications to load?
Security. What privacy options would you like to have for your publications? How do you want your audience to be able to access them?
Support. What guidance would you like to receive? What kind of assistance is available if you need help with your publications?
Of course, there are many other potential questions you might ask according to your specific objectives. Say that you have high-quality video content to include in your digital publications. In that case, you may want to make seamless integrations with YouTube a priority. When you have a good idea of what you’re looking for in a digital publishing platform, you’ll be well prepared to find the best fit.
Digital publishing UX
A good digital publishing platform will provide you with smart options to optimize the UX of your online documents. An important part of web design, UX or user experience covers everything that shapes how people interact with digital products.
In this case, there are key UX elements to consider in the publication viewer. Most of all, you want to ensure that your audience can read your publications comfortably. Choices like Right to left reading, scroll and slide views, sharp zoom and full screen availability allow you to always define the right UX for your publications.
But another big factor to keep in mind is how flexible these and other UX options are. Since everyone’s needs are different, watch out for platforms that limit you to a “one size fits all” solution. In fact, with just a little basic tech know-how you should be able to customize the UX of your publications. From the viewer to embed options, online publishing gives you an incredible opportunity to enhance the reading experience for your audience.
Publishing in multiple languages
Thanks to the Internet, the world is growing more connected every day. Even small businesses can serve global customers with ecommerce tools and online communication. However, it can take some extra effort to make sure you’re speaking your audience’s language.
For successful multilanguage publications, prioritize platforms whose features help you organize and manage your online documents. Double check that the languages you publish in are supported for display and search so that your readers aren’t frustrated by text mistakes and missing results. And don’t forget to match the viewer language to your publications—or create your own.
Ready to start?
We think you’ll love digital publishing on Calaméo. But don’t just take our word for it! You can start publishing today. It’s free, fast and easy to join.
To see great digital publishing features in action, browse our Guided Tour.
Have you ever wanted to start your own magazine? We here at Calaméo did—way back at the beginning of last year, when we had the idea to create our CALAMEO Magazine. Since that first issue was released in February 2019 we’ve learned a lot about how to start a magazine from scratch. For example, what you’ll need to get organized, get creating and get out there.
Keep reading to find our complete guide to start your own magazine, plus three great reasons to opt for digital distribution.
Big-Picture Planning
The first and most important step when you start a magazine is to decide on your subject matter. Maybe there’s an idea you’re passionate about and want to share with others. Or maybe you’re part of a group interested in exploring new ways to communicate. No matter where you’re coming from, take a few minutes to write down the main topic for your magazine. Some possible topics are:
A
hobby or activity, like birding
A
place or institution, like a town or local museum
An
industry, like higher education
An
organization or association, like a sports club or charity
A
business or institution, like your company
For example, we decided right away that CALAMEO Magazine would be about the digital publishing sector as well as about our company. We wanted to give readers a deeper look at Calaméo’s history, people and news. But we also knew that we wanted to provide insight into the digital publishing world and analyze key trends.
Once you’ve defined your subject, it’s time to consider the goals you have for your magazine. These can be business goals, such as selling advertisements or making new contacts. They might also include personal goals like challenging yourself creatively and growing a collaborative community. In other words, write down the reasons why you want to start a magazine. This will help you focus on what’s most valuable and, a little farther down the road, help you evaluate your success.
Finally, think about the scope of your project. Some magazines come out once a week and have hundreds of employees; some magazines only put out one issue every six months. Here at Calaméo, we chose to make four issues of CALAMEO Magazine during our first year of publication. How many times would you ideally like to publish this year to work toward your goals? Pick a number before you move on to planning the actual content of your magazine.
Building Your Team
Now the fun part of how to start a magazine begins! That’s right—it’s the “getting the team together” stage of the project. The size of your team can vary depending on the resources that are available for your magazine. But even limited resources don’t mean you’ll have to sacrifice on quality. At a minimum, you should count on filling three primary roles: Editor, Lead writer and Designer.
Each of these three roles comes with a different responsibility that is essential to creating your magazine.
The Editor is in charge of decision-making. He or she has final say on the topics to cover, assigning stories and approving design.
The Lead writer is generally asked to produce the text content of the magazine, including features, interviews and opinion pieces.
And last but not least, the Designer creates the finished publication. This can involve making page templates, developing a graphic identity for your magazine and illustrating its content.
Finding collaborators to help you start a magazine can mean getting creative. For instance, you may want to put out a call for volunteers, either within your organization or your community. If you have a budget, you can get in touch with freelance writers and designers on platforms like Behance and Fiverr. On the other hand, if you plan to be your own designer, the templates available in sites like Canva allow you to handle basic graphics and layout.
Inside this Issue
After you’ve
assembled your core team, it’s time to work on the first issue of your magazine! Above all, you’ll want to think carefully about the way your content is structured. That’s because you can use this same structure in every issue of your magazine. As a result, you’ll save yourself time and the stress of making such fundamental decisions for each new release.
Begin with your ideas for the main rubrics, or categories, of content that you would like to feature in your magazine. Be careful not to confuse content categories with actual, specific stories that you might already have in mind! For example, our CALAMEO Magazine has nine rubrics: our Editors’ Note, a table of contents, Stats, News, Highlights, Interview, Tips and Editors’ Picks. While the subjects change from issue to issue, the structure stays the same.
With your magazine’s rubrics figured out, the Editor can begin to assign topics to your contributors. Your Lead writer should take on the most important stories, but you can consider asking additional writers and creators to contribute content or even ask for submissions. (Just make sure to explain the topic well enough to receive relevant responses!) Meanwhile, discuss the upcoming issue and its subjects with your Designer so that he or she can prepare layouts and other graphic elements.
Now all that’s left is to set some deadlines! The Editor of your magazine should let everyone else involved in its creation know when their content is due. Plus, the Lead writer and Designer will need a schedule for completing the layout, making edits, finalizing the publication and the planned release date. Stick to your schedule as closely as possible and voilà—the first issue of your magazine is done!
Getting to Readers
There are still a few more choices to make before you get your publication in front of readers. Perhaps the most crucial question when you decide to start a magazine is whether to publish in print, online or both. In the past, print was the only option for new projects and came with lots of built-in costs, from paper to postage. However, it’s now both easy and common for magazines to be available in a digital format.
Besides the lower costs associated with online publication, digital magazines can benefit from incorporating interactive content. You can add links to other websites to cite sources, promote products and events or support advertisers. Spice up your stories with videos from YouTube, audio tracks or even GIFs. Thanks to digital publishing platforms like Calaméo, it only takes a few minutes to make your magazine fully interactive online.
Plus, a digital magazine offers you key information about your readership that print distribution can’t match. Instead of relying on the number of printed copies you’ve ordered, you can effortlessly access analytics showing how many views your magazine is receiving online. (And if you need further details about how readers interact with your content, advanced statistics can provide insights.) This data will help you evaluate the progress you’re making toward your goals as you create the next issues of your new magazine!
We hope that this practical guide to how to start a magazine has given you the right tools for taking on such an exciting project. We loved creating CALAMEO Magazine and are happy to announce that a brand-new issue will be coming your way this spring. Ready to try out publishing your own digital magazine? Join Calaméo today and publish for free.
