Monetizing an online magazine

[Lunarion]

Lately I've been working on an idea that is absolutely not fastlane, but still something that I would really like to give a try. It has to do with a specific part of the education system I work in: bilingual education. This has been booming since 10 years with over 100 schools providing this special way of teaching. However, unlike all subjects, there is no magazine for teachers teaching in this type of education.

After getting in contact with people from all over the organisiation (teachers, coordinators, teacher trainers, national commitees) I've rallied a group of people willing to write articles for such a magazine, that I would like to make available online.

This is going to take a lot of time which is okay, I like this and I'm enthousiastic about it. However, I would like to earn some kind of money from this idea. This is where I'd like your adive. I've thought of a couple of different ways to monetize this.

1) Name the websites beloning to the magazine throughout the magazine, creating visitors. Using Adwords on the website I can create revenue.
2) By making the magazine viewable (using f.e. issuu) but only downloadable by payment (let's say 0,50). This might disturb the initial amount of people wanting to read it.
3) By making a subscription based model, where I have to send a minimum amount of magazines in a certain amount of time.
4) By making the magazine digitally available, but ask for a commision for a printed version (still have to find a website offering this)
5) By making the magazine free for two months and then only available after payment.

This are just 5 different options, all with pros and cons. What do you think?

 

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[LAX2HNL]

Create your magazine for the iPad Newstand. This is where the market is going for "e-magazines." Tons of ways to monetize your magazine in Newstand.

 

[Lunarion]

That's a great idea! I didn't think of that one, it is certainly one of the new ways of digital publishing. I however have never made anything for the Ipad before, and was aiming at creating a pdf document. I suspect the iPad Newstand requires a bit of coding?

 

[Future Ed]

You could make it available on iPad Newstand as a PDF. I know of at least one very popular international magazine which does this.

 

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[Lunarion]

Seriously? That would be great! I'll have to do some research, but it seems promissing.

One more 'problem' that I see, is that my target audience are teachers teaching in a certain way. They might not want to invest a lot of money in a magazine they don't know a lot about. I realize I'll have to invest in networking, but I'd really like people to also see the value of the magazine and not be stopped by a cost. Would it be a bad idea to give them the first magazine for free when they sign up for updates when the new one comes out? That way I'll have a mail list and will have a good idea about the amount of people interested in the magazine. The downside is that the first magazine won't generate a lot of revenue that way, I might not be able to see its full (financial) potential after investing in multiple magazines.

 

[Zellain]

You might talk to your teacher contacts to see if there are any district newsletters, message boards or other places that they know their colleagues read that you could promote your magazine in. You could do an interview about the magazine, write articles referencing it or possibly buy ad-space. There might also be teacher conventions or other meet ups that you could use as an opportunity to promote it.

You mentioned you wanted to publish (possibly) the magazine through Issuu. I used them to promote an ebook I was selling last summer. What I did was upload a snippet (chapter or so) of the eBook I was trying to sell so that my potential customers could get a sample of what they would be getting if they purchased. You could embed the sample on your website for them to flip through or send them the link to the sample after they sign up for your mailing list.

The other site that I found to be very useful for eBook / digital publishing promotion was Scribd. It's kind of a digital publishing and reading social media site. You can upload previews of your magazine in PDF format to the site and then track how many times your preview has been read, people can follow your updates, favorite your work, etc. Plus, if I remember correctly, the more you use your account to read other work on the site the more your work is shown to the people you're reading things from.

From my experience, good previews sell downloads. Don't be afraid to give a part of your magazine away for free, but there isn't really a reason that I have seen to give your entire first issue away for free if you expect people to pay later. (Someone with more experience may disagree though.) Have you thought about contacting software or educational book publishers in the future about taking out ad space in your magazine to reach your readers? It could offset the cost and if you choose the right companies it would also be relevant to your readers.

 

[Lunarion]

The teacher convenctions that are coming up will certainly know what I'll be doing. I already have asked some speaking time and might just ask to have a table in the 'market' as well, so people can see the magazine.

Thanks for mentioning Issuu, you describe the exact way that I thought to use it. I didn't know Scribd, I'll have a look at it, thanks!

I'll consider making a few articles public instead of the entire magazine, your arguments absolutely make sense. It's simply that I have no experience in this area whatsoever. I've thought about advertising and there are certainly publishers I could reach out to. However, for that I think I need at least some idea about what the magazine is going to look like when it's filled with articles and how many people are inerested in the magazine.

I just got an e-mail that the national organisation is willing to cooporate and give interviews or write articles. They also mentioned other possible things that could be of value. Lots of people now know about the idea, can't backout anymore .

 

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[Lunarion]

Hi everyone, I thought I'd post an update on the whole magazine idea, as it has been a while since I talked about it on this forum. A short summary:
- I have found at least 7 authors who already wrote articles for me. More people have told me they wanted to write but I want to keep a few as a backup or maybe for another issue
- I contacted a professional designer/printer and decided to print the magazine
- I contacted a couple of possible advertisers and have already collected half of the money needed to publish the magazine. I'm still working on the others
- someone has offered to be my editor, so I get that for free
- We're aiming at publishing in Novembre, assuming we raise the capital before that
- I will offer the magazine for free on the internet and use google ads for revenue. I will also try to get it in the ipad newsstand, still working on that though.

Now I'm waiting for the final edited articles and a few more advertisers to finish up. I'm really looking forward to the result, and although this is not really fastlane or even an alternative to my normal income, it has opened a lot of doors and made me known in this world. I will try to get more of these magazines published and hopefully will be able to create more revenue once the first magazine is launched and it has created a name for itself.

 

[mointer]

Creating flip magazine for iPad is a pretty good idea. With the popularity of the ipad, digital publication for iPad will be more and more useful. Starting digital publishing for iPad business can bring benefits. You can use kvisoft e magazine software to convert PDF to digital flip online magazine for iPad!

 

[Lunarion]

Wow, I didn't quite expect responses to this thread anymore. Thank you for the information, an Ipad version of the magazine is certainly something I'll look into. The first magazine was a succes and the second magazine is almost ready to be printed. The first one created barely any profit, but the second one, with more advertisements, actually creates a profit of 900,-. I think the amount of work for the second magazine is not more than 10 hours, so it's not completely passive but creates a nice profit!

 

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[InMotion]

After getting in contact with people from all over the organisiation (teachers, coordinators, teacher trainers, national commitees) I've rallied a group of people willing to write articles for such a magazine, that I would like to make available online.

Are you paying them per article or are they donating the articles?

 

[Lunarion]

The writers donate articles, some mention a book they wrote themselves. The magazine is not known enough for people to ask money for writing in it. They however create an audience this way and make themselves known in the teachers' world.

 

[Lunarion]

I was wondering if I should post an update in this thread or create a new one, but because the history of the magazine is here, I'll just post it here. I have just finished on the second issue of my magazine and its been a great succes so far. I am however still looking for ways to monetize the magazine without making the readers pay, because it's an education based magazine and there's so much available for free that I cannot compete with that.

Before I point out the money-part of the magazine, I'd like to say that providing value is the most important part and that's going very well. I've had a lot of compliments and a lot of people read the magazine and tell me they think its useful, so that part is okay.

What I did so far to generate money:
- Ask companies to advertise in the magazine
- Create a subscription based system where schools don't have to pay for postage anymore, that's included in the subscription

Also, I have added a newsletter system with Aweber, creating a email list
Ideas for the future:
- Ask companies to advertise on the website
- Ask companies to advertise in the newsletter
- Making old magazines available after a small payment
- Creating an e-book and distribute that through Kindle
- Create an Ipad version and sell it in the App store

The problem is that the magazine itself does not generate any money, it's not like I sell a product.

The question still is, how can I monetize this even more? This is more of a hobby-like thing that I would really like to grow into something more, so any idea is welcome!

 

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[RBefort]

Ever read How to Get Rich (or something close to that) by Felix (?) Dennis? Magazine publisher. Never say never. Good luck!