Subscriber Behavior: What insights do you need?

It’s time to identify the articles that convert your new free and paid subscribers. By digging into this single metric, you can quickly learn more about what readers actually value and will pay for.

What are subscription retention best practices?

We received a question from Flyer Magazine on how best to handle subscriber retention emails. After reviewing the website, the video below turned into a retention and new subscriber generation session.

Subscription predictions for 2023

Tyler Channel and I talk about trends that we have seen put into action as well as what publishers said they were planning on in 2023. This episode turned into a ‘recommended major themes’ discussion… actions that you should consider adopting this year.

Which articles are converting paid subscribers?

With our new Insights from Leaky Paywall, you can now easily track which articles are generating the most paying subscribers and free registrations. This powerful tool gives you visibility into reader habits, allowing you to identify which types of content are resonating with audiences and driving conversions.

Why you need a flexible subscription platform

Leaky Paywall is built specifically for the needs of news and magazine publishers that use WordPress. In fact, you can generate more revenue streams than you thought possible by taking advantage of its core flexibility. Flexibility = More revenue streams We thought it would be a good idea to showcase how different publishers are using […]

How to grow your paid subscription and advertising revenue – a MagHub interview

In this video Nick Pataro from MagHub and I go over the strategy to building a strong email list that, in turn, attracts paying subscribers and advertisers. Follow along step-by-step to understand how to develop a free registration capture for your publication to rapidly build your email list, then convert paying subscribers, and also become […]

Introducing the Paywall Podcast

Looking to generate more subscribers with your paywall? We discuss paywall strategies and tactics for news and magazine publishers. With over 900 publishers running our subscription platform we have learned quite a bit about what works (and doesn’t) in digital publishing. Join Pete, Jeremy, and Tyler for a deep dive that will help you grow […]

How to design a magazine website using a blueprint

Grab a pencil and a couple of sheets of paper… this (true) story starts with a person I call the frenzied publisher. A big content mess Some time ago I walked into the office of this publisher who was scanning a conference room table (with about 30 pieces of paper on it) in order to […]

Building a subscriber funnel with Leaky Paywall

How would you like to add 1000 new email addresses to your list in a week? Or 7000 new in just a few months? This is exactly what happened when The Business Journal launched their free registration wall, and new subscribers continue to sign up. After limiting access to free subscribers they turned on Leaky […]

Why the Metered Paywall is the Heart of your Marketing Strategy

Two Truths Digital paid subscriptions have been a bit of a trial-and-error gig since the invention of the internet. But two seemingly unrelated things have become indisputably clear: The reader needs to be in control of their browsing experience Email marketing is still the number one acquisition and retention channel for digital publishers So what paywall […]

Join our webinar – Make The Most Of Your Metered Paywall

A metered paywall is a powerful tool for increasing your paid subscriptions and ZEEN101’s Leaky Paywall is as user-friendly as it gets. But even the friendliest and most powerful tool can be made more effective with a few tips and tricks. Join us for our FREE webinar and learn how to make the most of […]

Traffic Surges and Web Growth: A Year With ZEEN101

A Year of Effort, A Year of Reward 2017 was The Year of Modern Drummer’s Digital Magazine. Originally a print magazine with a decent news blog and articles hidden in PDFs, Modern Drummer expanded to include a true, issue-based online publication. ZEEN101’s Anvil suite of products played a significant role in the process. Over the […]

How a legal magazine used their paywall to explode their email list (and subscriptions)

The Challenge: Strong Content, Low Readership and Subscriptions The Practice is an online magazine published by Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession. It’s a valuable resource for legal professionals, full of news, analysis, and continued learning on the global practice of law. Published first in 2014, and running seven issues per volume in […]

Subscriptions, Not Ads: Lessons Learned At ‘WordCamp for Publishers’

A Learning Experience This August, WordPress held the first ever WordCamp for Publishers in Denver, Colorado. Hosted at the Denver Post building and attended by publishers of every size and shape – including such giants as Condé Nast, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Chicago Sun-Times – it was hardly an event that ZEEN101 […]

Read the Bibblio interview on how a veteran magazine publisher got digital publishing right

The Beat Goes On The web-based issues and subscription success of Modern Drummer magazine is getting some attention. Fully customized web issue publishing and archiving, an easy-to-manage metered paywall, and an automated iOS and Android experience, helped drive their results. Revealing insights from Bibblio a Medium Source The content-recommendation–specialists Bibblio interviewed Modern Drummer and recently published an […]

How a drumming magazine leapt into digital subscriptions with resounding success

The Project – A Proud Print History Modern Drummer is a comprehensive drumming magazine with a long history of compelling issues. Interviews with titans and rising stars, product reviews, tools and tricks of trade, reflections on the history of music – Modern Drummer has been providing the drumming brotherhood with a wealth of treasure for […]

Meet us at Denver’s WordCamp for Publishers!

Twenty years ago, I was a publishing student in Emerson College’s Writing, Literature, and Publishing program. I loved books and print, but—truth be told—I attended the program’s print publishing classes begrudgingly—solely for employ-ability reasons. (Because who wouldn’t want a $25,000/year job with no benefits in New York City…?) The print world didn’t thrill me. After […]

We help Einstein Magazine win Best Design – Folio Award

Einstein Magazine was chosen by Folio as 2016 and now 2017 Winner of it’s category for digital publications. It uses our IssueM toolkit for WordPress to manage live web issues. We are very proud that our issue publishing platform runs the core of this publication. Source: 2017 Folio: Ozzie Digital Award Winners Source: 2016 Folio: Ozzies Digital […]

What happens when you lock down your paywall?

Visitor traffic plummets but subscription conversions increase four fold. What should you do? Watch this video [4:06] to find what the Wall Street Journal discovered and what options you have.    

What’s the difference between a metered paywall and membership software?

​There are some big differences between membership software and a metered paywall… the biggest is that the meter will let Google index and rank all your articles in search. ​ ​The meter (which gives a reader X number of articles of their choosing before requiring a subscription) also promotes social sharing since any article can […]

How to add a display/banner ad into your WordPress sidebar

Learn how to quickly create a linked banner ad and publish it into your sidebar. This method breaks down into a few simple steps: In your Dashboard create a draft ad Page for this and future ad work Upload the display ad image and insert it into your ad page Link the image to your […]

46% of 25+ year-olds pay for digital news subscriptions

The trend is turning… the world of low value free information is so underwhelming that we would rather pay for access to great reporting on our special topic of interest. Your readers prefer to pay for better information than they can get for free. So if you run a news site that produces original content for your niche […]