Don’t design your new website… blueprint it
Grab a pencil and a couple of sheets of paper… this (true) story starts with a person I call the frenzied publisher. A big mess Some time ago I walked …
Success Stories
September 2020 Monthly Update: Big Changes For The Changing Season
There’s Something About MailChimp… Your email marketing isn’t just a sales funnel, it’s a sales vortex. It doesn’t just direct your readers to a paid subscription, it sucks them in. …
What does a decade in digital publishing teach us?
Reasons to Celebrate 2020 is certainly a year that will live in infamy. But even the shadow of pandemic and unrest, there are reasons to celebrate. This year, ZEEN101 observes …
A visually stunning digital subscription magazine raises the bar
A Little Bit More While there are a lot of really good ‘out-of-the-box’ options for digital magazines these days, sometimes your content deserves something extra. Customizing existing tools can give …
How to set up a free registration wall with Leaky Paywall
How would you like to add 1000 new email addresses to your list in a week? This is exactly what happened when The Business Journal launched their free registration wall, …
How a local paper found new life with a metered paywall
A Fading Institution For a local paper, staying afloat can be difficult in this era of constant technological change. The Welch News, a small paper serving McDowell County, West Virginia …
How to generate new revenues through tiered subscription levels
A Treasure Trove of Content Total Football Analysis publishes a wealth of content, both on their daily site and in their monthly magazine. All told, they publish more than 120 …
How we redesigned a website in 60 days to boost engagement and subscriptions
An Overloaded Site Total Football Analysis provides exactly what’s in the name: in-depth analysis of the current world of soccer: its leagues, its players, its tactics and strategies. It’s an …
How to deliver custom content to your subscribers
Let your subscribers select their topics of interest with a low profile custom news feed.
Build your email list using related articles
From Casual To Committed The key to winning the subscription game is capturing the attention of your casual readers. Most of those readers will find you by searching for a …
Grow subscriptions by blocking incognito browser use
Strong Content, Strong Protection The Heisenberg Report is a digital publication of real-time political and financial news. They pride themselves on content that is current, accurate, rich with information, and …
The 10+ plugins you need to polish your subscription management
A Full Toolbox Your content is the engine that drives your publication. But your platform is the chassis that gives your content structure and stability. ZEEN101 has chosen WordPress as …
Increasing digital subscriptions with an All-Access pass
Stepping Up The Tempo Of Subscription Success Modern Drummer Magazine is at the top of their game for growing subscriptions. As a veteran print publisher who successfully made the leap …
How to effectively announce your new issues via email
If you publish regular or special issue content you are likely sending out email announcements to promote each edition. So how do you put together a compelling issue teaser?
How to double your email list by getting rid of your email popup
An Essential Process Time and experience (and even a formal study or two) have proven that growing your email list is an indispensable part of growing your subscriptions. Readers who …
How to make flipbooks part of your digital subscription strategy
A Long History True West Magazine is a veteran publication, publishing a highly visual magazine on the history of the American West since 1953. They started adding their content on …
Using free subscriptions to build paid memberships
A Different Goal For more than 30 years, Land Line has been the publication for independent truck drivers. As a veteran publisher with close ties to the industry it serves, …
What if someone tries to get around your paywall?
There’s Always Someone… The success of a leaky/metered paywall is tied to the ability to offer a few free articles per browsing session so that your content is fully indexed …
Integrating Leaky Paywall with Publisher’s Creative Systems (PCS) & Data Joe for a smooth subscription flow
Value & Simplicity Publishers focus their efforts on crafting valuable content for their target audiences. That’s their main purpose. But the revenue comes from making sure that people are seeing …
How to sell a Super-Premium subscription level
Special Handling For Special Content All of your content is valuable, but for most publishers there are some pieces that are simply more valuable than others. Take iPolitics, for example. …
What should you set your Leaky Paywall meter to? – a Profitable Publishing Webinar
New Research and New Regulations On September 12th, ZEEN101’s Pete Ericson and Jeremy Green hosted our third Profitable Publishing Webinar. This edition of the webinar kicks off with Pete’s tutorial …
How To Use Ad Techniques To Promote Your Subscriptions
Creative Use For Existing Tools The Texan is a young publication that focuses on political news from the Lone Star state. The publication prides itself on being advertisement free, as …
Do Flipbook E-Editions Really Work?
Flipbooks: Yea or Nay? Flipbooks (or e-editions) were an early development in field of digital publications. It was a logical step: they were a perfect replica of the print magazine, …
How To Protect And Profit From Your Unique Content
A Different Kind of Content All content is valuable. Fortunately, just about any kind of content can be metered. Take a look at Automobl. Automobl is a new Canadian car …
The State of Subscription Management – A Podcast Interview
Chatting With the Experts Digital subscriptions are an issue critical to the world of publishing. So it’s not surprising that it would be a popular topic for discussion. That’s why …
How To Build Your Email List and Track GA Goals – A Profitable Publishing Webinar
Strategies and Walkthroughs On May 14th, ZEEN101’s Pete Ericson and Jeremy Green hosted our second Profitable Publishing Webinar. This week’s session included the importance and ease of building your email …
Why You Should Shift Your Focus To Inbound Marketing
A New Perspective All successful publications have found ways of marketing that work for them: print mailings and cold calls, tracking subscriber (and ex-subscriber) behavior. These outbound methods are valid …
How To Make Digital Advertising Work For You
Digital Advertising That Works In Autumn 2018, at the National Newspaper Association’s annual trade show, ZEEN101’s Pete Ericson led a roundtable discussion on digital advertising. The consensus was that digital …
How To Create A Better User Account Experience
The Finishing Touch Most of our efforts are focused on convincing readers to become subscribers. It’s easy to forget that there is still one last step: actually purchasing the subscription. …
How To Integrate Your Paywall And Your Third Party Systems
Don’t Panic! The idea of transferring your entire print subscription database to a digital edition can be terrifying for an established publication. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Just ask Louisiana …
How To Create Special Issues and Track Reader Behavior – A Profitable Publishing Webinar
A New Way To Learn On May 9, ZEEN101 was pleased to host our first Profitable Publishing webinar. Our own Pete Ericson and Jeremy Green showed the audience how to …
How To Turn Your Digital Issue Into Your Sales Funnel
A New Sales Engine The transition into digital publication has been rough on newspapers. (This year’s New York Press Association Spring Conference has made that clear.) Your digital front end …
Being A Newspaper In The Digital Era: Lessons From the 2019 NYPA Conference
A Rough Season Newspapers are caught between a rock and a hard place. That’s the takeaway from this year’s New York Press Association Spring Conference. We had the honor of …
The Problem With Password-Sharing
The Black Market of Content You spend a lot of time and effort on crafting amazing content. You want your subscribers to be excited about it. You want them to …
How To Convert Subscribers With A Coupon
Everybody Loves A Bargain There’s a quick, easy way to encourage people to subscribe: add a coupon. Coupons are compelling to readers – everyone loves a good deal. They reduce …
How Generosity Can Generate Paid Subscriptions
Personal Generosity What goes around, comes around. It’s not a new philosophy and it comes in many forms and phrases, but the general idea is this: do the right thing …
How To Create A Thriving Classified Section
Theoretically Valuable Classifieds are an effective resource for a digital publication when bundled with a subscription. They are particularly salient for the readers of Small Boats Monthly – a publication …
How To Protect Your Content With Category Restrictions
Leaky Paywall Makes Your Life Just A Little Easier A metered paywall is a necessity for a digital publication. It protects your content without locking away its value from the …
How To Build A Smashing ‘About Us’ Page
From Perfunctory to Perfect Everyone has an ‘About Us’ page. Their creation is often an afterthought – a few lines about the publication, maybe a set of profile pictures of …
How Automated Email Marketing Can Triple Your Audience
A Powerful Tool Email might just be the biggest direct marketing tool in your arsenal. It can also be the easiest. Studies show that readers who join your email list …
10 Amazing Subscription Prompts To Inspire Paid Conversions
An overlooked Weapon You have subscription cards. It’s a necessary part of the process – bring them in with your awesome content and then you have a page that tells …
How to increase ad revenue with sponsored galleries
History and Progress Spotlight News has been covering local news from the Capital District of New York for more than 60 years. Those years of experience have given them a …
How to turn your Thank-You page into more subscriptions
An Unused Tool In Your Toolbox Every publisher has a secret weapon that they just don’t know about yet. It’s a tiny tool in their arsenal but it is perfectly …
How to double your email list in 6 months with a metered paywall
An Easy Win We’ve talked a lot about the importance of building your email list. It’s a gateway to paid subscriptions: readers on your email list are ten times more …
How To Use Leaky Paywall As A Hybrid
Leaks Aren’t For Everyone Your content is your currency, so it’s not surprising that an entire industry has arisen around keeping it safe. Leaky Paywall is hardly the only metered …
How Your Ad-Blocker Strategy Can Win Paid Subscribers
Everyone needs an Ad-blocker Strategy Advertising is a time-honored part of the publishing world. The digital space, however, has changed the game. ‘Banner blindness’ keeps readers from registering the content …
Make your ads more effective with sponsored content
feed the feed It’s no secret that the world of digital advertising is a bit of mess. Traditional advertising methods just don’t work the same way online. Web readers have …
How to grow your print subscriptions with digital issues
The Digital Dilemma In an increasingly digital world, it’s difficult to fathom staying afloat as a print publication. But the transition into digital hasn’t been easy either. First, there’s the …
A successful strategy for migrating print readers to a digital format
A Universal Truth Your readers are, in many ways, the most important part of your publication. They’re the source of your revenue and the driving force of your content. And …
How To Sell Ads In A Digital World
A Hard Truth The digital advertising space is a bit of a mess. Traditional print methods don’t cut it with a digital audience. Banner ads, display ads: they just don’t …
Increase Your Subscriptions By At Least 10% With An App
Apps Are Not Optional This is probably something you’ve heard before, but it bears quite a lot of repetition: You must have an app. It’s not just how ubiquitous they …
How To Build Your Audience With Email and Social Media Engagement
Foundations Are Just Beginnings You can’t attract an audience to your digital publication without first creating amazing content – and fortunately, that’s your wheelhouse. Once you’ve got the content, you …
Things You Didn’t Know About Leaky Paywall, Past and Future
Every Hero Has An Origin Story We’re always happy to talk about how Leaky Paywall works for you – how it helps you reach your readers, grow your audience, and …
How to Price Your Digital Publication to Retain and Increase Your Subscriptions
And now for something completely different… We talk a lot about how to woo your subscribers. But before you can start growing your digital subscriber base, you must answer a …
Create New Sources of Revenue from Existing Content
Untapped Goldmines We’ve talked about this before, but there is an undeniable truth that deserves some time in the spotlight: Your digital publication has a ton of content that is …
How To Make Your Email Marketing Smarter (And Easier) With Automation
A Tool That Goes The Distance It shouldn’t come as news that email can be a powerful tool for publishers. Building an email list is vital because people who join …
Why You Should Be Publishing Special Digital Issues
Everybody’s Got Issues Publishers already work incredibly hard. Your attention is on creating brilliant content: finding the right audience, the right sources, the right angle, the right words. On top …
Issue-Based Rockstars: A Folio Award For An IssueM Publication
Take a Bow! Many congratulations to our old friend Modern Drummer magazine! Their rockstar of a digital publication nabbed them a place among the prestigious Folio: Ozzie Awards Finalists for 2018. …
Combine Pop-Ups and Popular Pages To Earn Subscriptions
Good Tactics for a Revered Source Track & Field News is the bible of track and field. The web-based publication reports on major events and rising stars in track and …
How A Local Newspaper’s Metered Paywall Doubled Its Subscribers In 18 Months
The Challenge: Valuable News Hidden Away The Austin Monitor is an online news publisher dedicated to the local political and business happenings of Austin, Texas. Though their content was prolific …
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 …
20 Best Features of Leaky Paywall You Don’t Know About
Easy Doesn’t Have To Mean Basic Leaky Paywall is an easy tool to set up. It can be installed easily, you can input your baseline settings easily, and then it …
How Soccer Coach Weekly personalizes Leaky Paywall to motivate and manage subscriptions
A Powerful Tool That Molds To Your Hand All on its own, Leaky Paywall is a powerful tool for increasing paid subscriptions. Just using the standard set of options and …
What if you simply let paid subscribers post classifieds?
The Challenge: Classified Ads De-Classified Advertising is often the lifeblood of a magazine, financially speaking. Whether it’s a full-page photo ad with an attached perfume sample or a veritable catalog …
How To Boost Paid Subscriptions with a Free e-Book
The Challenge: A Reason To Subscribe For more than 10 years, Soccer Coach Weekly has been the go-to digital publication for the mentors of The Beautiful Game. Replete with drills, …
Tip: Premium Content Encourages Subscriptions
Leaky Paywalls Boost Subscriptions The biggest goal for any publication is to increase paid subscriptions. For web-based publications, a tool like Leaky Paywall is a crucial part of achieving that …
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 …
How To Increase Paid Subscriptions Organically With A Weekly Newsletter
The Challenge: An Easy Path To More Subscriptions Military Living is a digital and print publication that de-mystifies travel for military families. In addition to its three travel guides, the …
How To Revive Old Content to Attract New Readers
Forgotten Treasures All successful publishers eventually run into the same problem: they amass a lot of amazing content that their growing body of readers never think to read. Different types …
How Apps Helped A Publisher Gain 50% More Readers Without Increasing Workflow
Tea Journey Magazine began in 2016 with the knowledge that its readers were out there. A successful Kickstarter campaign (they raised almost $100,000) gave it everything it needed to launch its digital publication as an offering to tea connoisseurs.
How An Online News Source Did Better Than Banner Ads
The Challenge: Successful Advertising For A Difficult Medium The Genesee Sun is a news source for Livingston County, New York. Conceived and launched in 2011 as a solely online and …
Don’t Get Stuck In The Banner Ad Suck
A Tricky Battle The verdict is in: digital advertising is a bit of a disaster. Most online ads are irritating to the reader and only mildly profitable for everyone else. …
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 …
How To Take Your Organic Subscriptions From Zero To A Thousand In Six Months
The Challenge: Staying Afloat in the Digital Waterways Small Boats Monthly – child to the broader Wooden Boat Magazine – is an all-digital, issue-based publication of three years. It features …
Einstein Magazine and IssueM: An Award-Winning Combination
Time to Celebrate ZEEN101 would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to Einstein Magazine for their recent recognition in the prestigious Folio: Eddie & Ozzie Awards. The Folio Awards are …
How to use Facebook to promote an issue-based publication
Social Media is Made for Issue Publishers Using social media for marketing is hardly a new concept at this point, but innovative businesses are always finding new ways to make …
Sell gift subscriptions for the holidays
Join the festivities The holidays are coming and with them comes a slew of decorating, wassailing, and gift-giving. For every business also comes the dilemma of how best to become …
Focus On The Users: Technology Lessons From ‘WordCamp For Publishers’
What’s Good For the Tech… WordCamp for Publishers was a treasure trove of information for the publishing space, both on the marketing and technical side. In terms of marketing, ZEEN101 …
How a legal magazine managed their paywall to explode their email list (and subscriptions)
The Project & The Challenge: Strong Content, Low Readership The Practice is an online magazine published by Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession. It’s a valuable resource for …
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 …
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 …
How a college magazine overcame the challenge of publishing effective digital issues in our mobile and sharing world
The Challenge: A Beautiful Magazine in the Digital Age Lynchburg College, a private college in Virginia, publishes a truly beautiful magazine for their alumni and community. Rich content, high-quality, high-resolution …
Hardening your metered paywall can triple paid subscriptions
The Challenge: Established Publication, New Era For 30 years, Military Living has been providing an invaluable tool to the military community: a set of guidebooks for military travel. Military personnel …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
How a college magazine uses web issues to win readers (hint: it’s not PDFs or flipbooks)
Publishing PDFs and flipbooks to the web blocks Google search from finding your articles and prevents them from being shared in social media. As an added insult PDFs and Flipbooks …
Leaky Paywall is featured on the wpinnovator podcast
Lee talks about [1:37 secs] our metered paywall plugin for WordPress – Leaky Paywall Find out more: Learn more about monetizing WordPress websites at the wpinnovator podcast Leaky Paywall Thanks Lee!
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 …
How a metered paywall doubled subscriptions for a Texas news publisher
In 18 months the Austin Monitor doubled their paid subscriptions by switching to a metered paywall. Watch this video to find out how they did it. For more information about …
How a new publisher used native apps to successfully launch their digital magazine
Tea Journey magazine quickly built up over 1500 web and app subscriptions during their first few months after launch. Watch this video to find out how they did it. For more …
How an innovative publisher built digital subscriptions from their travel guidebooks
MilitaryLiving.com produces 3 printed guidebooks packed with deals for Military and ex-Military travelers. They needed a way to move all their guidebook information onto the web in order to get …
A conversation about the digital publishing mess we are in, and the solution we call Anvil
Bob Self (from Front and Finish Magazine), Jesse McDougall, and I discuss the problems with today’s digital publishing solutions and take a look at the new Anvil publishing platform that …
Add a few tweaks to your sign up page to boost subscriptions
This fantastic video from GoodUI will enlighten you as to what easy changes you can make to your subscription page to increase sales conversions. They review Harvest’s sign up page. …
How to curate outside articles fast with WordPress
Watch this video (1:19) to learn how to quickly curate and publish articles using the Press This tool in WordPress. You will be amazed how fast you can deliver additional …
Digital issues: Publish more issues with fewer articles
The Freedom Press Survey: Readers spend 10 – 30 minutes on average with a digital magazine What this tells us is that readers have about 20 minutes to spend with …
Introducing Anvil…
We’ve got exciting news. For the past few years, the ZEEN101 team has been hard at work in our super-secret underground laboratory planning, sketching, building, and refining the first all-in-one …
UK publishers are mixed on performance of Facebook Instant Articles
If you are considering trying Facebook Instant Articles to drive more traffic to your site, expect mixed results. Some publishers are reporting positive results and some are bowing out. Bottom …
Google to Penalize Pages with Intrusive Popup Ads Starting January 2017
It’s time to rethink your ad strategy if you are making readers close popup ad boxes before they can get to your article. Google announced today that it will begin …
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 …
Your paywall works better without counting down how many free articles are left
No big surprise, but metered paywalls work and have been working for a number of years now. It makes sense, give away a few free articles (that also happen to …
Leaky Paywall Version 4 is out
3 major features have been added to Leaky Paywall (along with UI improvements and bug-fixes): API integration for 3rd party payment gateways. You can now integrate with any payment system …
How the Einstein College of Medicine publishes it’s digital issues for search, social, and mobile
If you are publishing issues to the web take a look at Albert Einstein College of Medicine‘s digital magazine. They do a lot of things right. What and how they …
How did Tea Journey Magazine raise almost $100k on Kickstarter?
Tea Journey helps consumers make informed tea selections, properly prepare fine tea and better appreciate the artisans who craft it. Just days ago enough tea enthusiasts contributed to successfully fund …
The Surprising Effectiveness of Digital Issues
In an effort to grab and keep the attention of an audience, many publishers—when they “went digital”—accelerated the pace of publishing to breakneck speed. Unburdened by the physical distribution limitations of print publishing—sourcing, printing, shipping, etc.—digital publishing meant rapid-fire publishing was now possible. Blogs, vlogs, ‘grams, streams, and all the other exhausting forms of stream-of-consciousness publishing proliferated—much to the frenetic joy of the audience and the frenetic stress of the publisher. Hello!
To Build An Audience: Improve the Worst…Don’t Beat the Best (Podcast)
The Digiday podcast this week talks with NowThis president Athan Stephanopoulos about his approach to capturing and keeping a digital audience. NowThis (formerly NowThis News) creates news videos for distribution …
Austin Songwriter – How to use simple yet visually powerful subscription cues
Prompting your readers to subscribe is important… but you don’t need to resort to brute force popups and flashing neon to encourage your visitors to join up. A metered paywall …
A Lesson Publishers Can Learn from the Evolution of TV
I like to keep my eye on all the content industries (television, radio, movies, etc.) for clues about how the (formerly-print) publishing industry might go. Often, different industries move at …
Untapped Potential for your Magazine in … Podcasts?
Ancillary content is one of my favorite topics. By “ancillary,” I mean “side content” that you produce every day in the creation of your main content. This “side content” might …
How to get to 5000 paying subscribers in 1 year
This question came in last week from a publisher looking to start up. Let’s jump in… in order to get to 5000 subscribers you need to do 2 things very well: …
How a veteran publisher monetizes it’s digital magazine archives
Metered paywall + 60 web issues = 10x more visitors from Google search and social sharing Atlantis Rising Magazine (ARM) is a digital publisher who takes full advantage of offering its …
Quickly bundle your existing digital content into e-books or special issues
As a digital publisher you create new content (articles, news, blog posts, etc.) all year long. Take advantage of the content you’ve created (and published on your WordPress site) to put …
Revitalization News finds digital publishing success with ZEEN101’s plugins
Q: How does a digital magazine keep their site’s issues, articles, and other content easy to navigate and offer up well-crafted subscription offers? A: Using great WordPress plugins that all work …
Apps sync with WordPress for true 1 click issue publishing (yes issue publishing!)
The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today (LPT) needed to get in front of it’s audience of attorneys by providing convenient apps for a better reading experience… and doing so without …
Quartz is launching its first major mobile App – Why?
QZ.COM’s reasons for adding an App: Notifications: Quartz want to reach readers with push notifications Advertising, 42% of readers are on mobile web Native apps are preferred by 89% of …
How the U.K.’s Sunday Times uses a Leaky Paywall to focus on increasing its subscriber base
The Sunday Times uses a few different methods to entice readers to subscribe – all centering around it’s leaky paywall. Hop on over the this article: “How The Sunday Times …
The NYTimes 4 point checklist for digital success
Here’s a quickie: The New York Times is integrating this four point approach to it’s digital publishing success: Presenting a greater cross-section of what the Times publishes spanning culture, opinion, …
Consider Kickstarter to crowdfund your new publication
Your main challenge as a publisher is to reach readers and build a strong relationship with them. If you are just starting out, Kickstarter can help you with both of …
Revitalization News finds digital publishing success with a metered paywall and (!) web issues
Publishing a digital magazine, newsletter, newspaper, webzine (or whatever you wan to call it) with a metered paywall in combination with live web issues is a profitable combo. Employing a metered …
How The Sunday Times ramped up its focus on subscription monetization
The Sunday Times (from the U.K.) is a great example of a publication which has launched a new look for their website using many new bells and whistles for enticing subscriptions. …
Beautiful Mobile Ads – Padsquad – a mobile engagement platform
Sometimes it’s not so apparent how to monetize the site with advertising without sacrificing the look and feel of your design. If your team is picky with design and looking …
How Crunchyroll.com gets 750,000 people to pay for digital content
Like many digital offerings and publications, Crunchyroll is in a niche industry: a global video service for streaming Japanese Anime and Asian media (animated videos). Whether you publish articles, how-tos, or …
Great news for digital publishing – selling digital content just got a whole lot ‘freer’
New for 2016 is the availability of the Zeen101 WordPress plugin, Leaky Paywall, for free. “The #1 Metered Paywall for WordPress is Now Free. In a welcome and unexpected move …
Selling Digital Content Just Got a Whole Lot…Freer
For immediate release The #1 Metered Paywall for WordPress is Now Free In a welcome and unexpected move made early this year, ZEEN101 published their landmark—and formerly un-free—Leaky Paywall plugin …
Digital magazine readers stress readability over interactivity
As a publisher, how do you choose what look and feel your publication has online? There are so many options available: Replica editions (the publication looks like it was ‘printed’ but …
The New Yorker finds success with its metered paywall
If you are considering or implementing a metered paywall you need to read this article. The New Yorker magazine has some very compelling data about the success of it’s metered …
Facebook instant articles… should you jump in or is it AOL all over again?
This is a short and good article to get you thinking about Facebook’s Instant Articles offering. I think testing is a valid path but losing control of your relationship with …
The Austin Monitor monetizes digital news archives with Leaky Paywall
Knowing the value of your publication’s content is essential to long-term success – especially when your publication’s articles and stories are not readily available anywhere else. Archiving past news content …
Apple pushes apps, Google pushes web… what do you do?
The digital world has revolutionized how we get our content to readers. According to the New York Times “the Internet was supposed to be a place where billions of potential …
New Corporate Subscriptions Plugin
Let anyone with @uniquedomain.url access your content. This plugin is perfect for selling subscriptions to companies and organizations. Once an organization is setup EG: @abccompany.anything or *.edu all their employees with a …
Sell access to your archives with our new Auto-Archiver plugin
The new Auto-Archiver plugin for Leaky Paywall will automatically archive your articles/posts after X number of days. Only a premium level of subscribers will have access to your archived content. This is …
People’s Pundit Daily merges Web & App Platforms with the help of Leaky Paywall and UniPress
For People’s Pundit Daily (a digital magazine), the App expense and complexity is now history. PPD uses WordPress as their publishing platform, Leaky Paywall to allow readers to read a few free …
Launching soon? Set up a lead generating landing page now
Are you in the process of building your digital publication? Start building your lead list now. Now it’s easier than ever to start promoting your site – with minimal work …
The New Yorker finds success with its metered paywall
If you are considering or implementing a metered paywall you need to read this article. The New Yorker magazine has some very compelling data about the success of it’s metered …
App publishing is now 1 click away for People’s Pundit Daily
WordPress makes it’s easier than ever to create and charge for a digital publication on the web. But, given that apps are the preferred way to read digital content – …
New MailChimp plugin available for Leaky Paywall
This extension integrates Leaky Paywall with MailChimp by letting you automatically add new subscribers to specific MailChimp lists based on what subscription level they purchase. This integration works with both …
Documentation updates
We have been working hard on catching up on documentation. Here are some highlights: Leaky Paywall: How To Change the Subscription Details on a Subscribe Card Adding Fields To The …
Selling digital news archives: The Austin Monitor gets it right
Within the last year the Monitor has doubled its subscriber base (source) Knowing the value of your publication’s content is essential to long-term success – especially when your publication’s articles …
How your digital publication can manage (and pay for) contract bloggers to create more content
Blogging has been around since the introduction of the internet. There are countless articles that discuss blogging, freelance writers, how to blog, how to write a great blog post, how …
Stripe vs PayPal, what’s best for a digital publisher?
In 2014, blogger, Shannon George, wrote a detailed article comparing two online payment processors, PayPal and Stripe . The article, Paypal vs. Stripe, is a great read to understand the differences, pros, and …
Free IssueM support moves to WordPress forums
Just a big FYI if you are looking for free support for IssueM head over to https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/issuem Reason 1: After starting our support in BBPress and then moving to HelpScout we …
You need to teach your advertisers how to create engaging ad content
The online advertising world is evolving quickly. There are now more and more choices for online publishers to pick from as to how efficiently generate revenue for their site. Josh Macht, a …
Lynchburg College Magazine focuses on its core content using WordPress and web based issues
Magazine: Lynchburg College Magazine WordPress Site: http://magazine.lynchburg.edu/ Lynchburg College, a small private college based in Lynchburg, Virginia is another great example of an college that publishes a magazine that’s taken …
Lynchburg college magazine focuses on issues with WordPress and the IssueM plugin
Magazine: Lynchburg College Magazine WordPress Site: http://magazine.lynchburg.edu/ Lynchburg College, a small private college based in Lynchburg, Virginia is another great example of an college that publishes a magazine that’s taken …
Grab your reader’s attention with a great subscription footer nag
ScienceNews.org has a lot of things going right online. Not only is the subject matter totally awesome, and the photos spectacular, but they also manage to nail the metered paywall …
How we built the news site Chronicles of Social Change: with paywall metering and blogger revenue sharing
Q: How do you take an existing online magazine (using WordPress and lots of custom functionality) and upgrade it with the most up to date subscription services for users and …
Coupon Codes plugin for Leaky Paywall is here
Create unlimited coupon codes. Assign them to individual subscription levels and more. Create as many coupons as you need Coupon Options Tip: use the Reporting Tool to filter coupon usage …
Harper’s launches metered paywall using our Leaky Paywall for WordPress
Harper’s is the second oldest print magazine in the United States and is making their way in the digital world. They recently decided to employ our Leaky Paywall to give …
3 simple subscription nags that work
Your reader has reached the end of their free article meter and your nag to subscribe pops into the article. What can you do to motivate readers to subscribe? Here …
3 simple subscription nags that work
Your reader has reached the end of their free article meter and your nag to subscribe pops into the article. What can you do to motivate readers to subscribe? Here …
Live Chat with BoSacks and Linda Ruth – Thursday July 16
Join publishing’s top two thought leaders BoSacks and Linda Ruth in a Live Chat on Twitter Thursday July 16th at 3 pm. Tweet your questions and comments using #MagBiz. For direct …
Leaky Paywall version 3.0 is here
This major update covers a lot of ground as was fueled by your feedback and requests. Thank you! Here is what’s new: Multisite compatibility My Account page Custom welcome email …
Apps For Publishers
“You must have an app.” No doubt all publishers have been told this at some stage probably as a singular statement of fact, rather than part of a cogent argument. …
Apps For Publishers
“You must have an app.” No doubt all publishers have been told this at some stage probably as a singular statement of fact, rather than part of a cogent argument. …
Creating Your Content Hub
The mantra of modern online publishing is create your content and leave it to your readers to decide where they want to consume it. It’s a noble sentiment but the …
Creating Your Content Hub
The mantra of modern online publishing is create your content and leave it to your readers to decide where they want to consume it. It’s a noble sentiment but the …
Ad Blogging: Monitization strategy #4
#4 Ad Blogging – letting advertisers promote 24/7 on your site One of the best kept secrets in advertising is simply giving your advertisers the ability to blog their promotions …
The Paywall: Monitization strategy #3
#3 Your Paywall – readers try before they buy If you think your content solves a pain point for your audience that motivates them enough to pay then you absolutely …
The Native Ad: Monitization strategy #2
#2 Native Ads – preserving the trust What is a native ad? Remember the advertorial in magazines? Well, native advertising is the same thing. You publish an article that is …
The Banner Ad: Monitization strategy #1:
Your audience is always willing to “pay” to read your publication. How much they are willing to pay is the unknown you must uncover. Let’s explore the possibilities and put …
4 Secrets to Making More Profit from your Content
Your audience is always willing to “pay” to read your publication. How much they are willing to pay is the unknown you must uncover. Let’s explore the possibilities and put …
Make them read the blurred text – get readers to subscribe
You run a metered paywall. Your articles are getting found in Google search and they are getting shared in Facebook. Your readers arrive at your site and comb through more …
Make them read the blurred text – How to motivate readers to subscribe
You run a metered paywall. Your articles are getting found in Google search and they are getting shared in Facebook. Your readers arrive at your site and comb through more …
Publisher profile: Running a metered paywall and apps… together
Profile DKonPittsburghSports is a Pittsburgh sports news site run by the award winning journalist Dejan Kovacevic (DK). DK offers readers 2 free articles using a metered paywall. The paywall is …
Publisher profile: Running a metered paywall and apps… together
Profile DKonPittsburghSports is a Pittsburgh sports news site run by the award winning journalist Dejan Kovacevic (DK). DK offers readers 2 free articles using a metered paywall. The paywall is …
ZEEN101 gets featured in People’s Pundit Daily
How Zeen101’s WordPress Leaky Paywall, IssueM Are Revolutionizing Internet Publishing – People’s Pundit Daily Since it’s release on May 27, 2003, the WordPress content management system (CMS) has evolved from …
It’s a trend: monetize your back issues
Why are readers drawn to content decades or even centuries old? The answer is a simple one: Articles that were once popular as cutting-edge news are now highly valued for …
It’s time to monetize your back issues
Why are readers drawn to content decades or even centuries old? The answer is a simple one: Articles that were once popular as cutting-edge news are now highly valued for …
What Does ‘Going Digital’ Actually Mean For Publishers?
“Going digital” has been the publisher’s catch-cry ever since the web started to take hold but for many small publishers it’s always been a costly undertaking. In the last few …
What Does ‘Going Digital’ Actually Mean For Publishers?
Online publishing is as nuanced and diverse as print. So what are the options for publishers going digital?
How to choose the right platform for digital publishing success
Your choice of platform today can make or break your publication. With 1000’s of publishing solutions available, it can be an overwhelming decision. There is some good news in that …
How to choose the right platform for digital publishing success
Your choice of platform today can make or break your publication. With 1000’s of publishing solutions available, it can be an overwhelming decision. There is some good news in that today we …
Shopify integration for Leaky Paywall
Run a Shopify store and need to to let buyers buy a subscription to your publication through Shopify? or… need to sell a product that comes with a subscription? Now …
Using Issues To Help Readers Achieve Finishability
Being economical with links and using issue-based publishing are key components in The Economist’s digital strategy. Should they be part of yours too? ‘Finishability’ allows readers to feel that they …
Using Issues To Help Readers Achieve Finishability
Being economical with links and using issue-based publishing are key components in The Economist’s digital strategy. Should they be part of yours too?
Use WordPress issues to throw better parties
HOBNOB magazine wants to help you throw better parties Really… and it’s pretty cool. Their secret is packaging how-to articles (based on a party theme) into “issues” that you can …
Use WordPress issues to throw better parties
HOBNOB magazine wants to help you throw better parties Really… and it’s pretty cool. Their secret is packaging how-to articles (based on a party theme) into “issues” that you can …
Ad Dropper – Manage ads faster
Ad Dropper makes it a snap to add, manage, and track ads anywhere on your WordPress site Some fast features: Create multiple ad zones: header, footer, sidebar, and in-content Create any …
Does your reader need to read your publication in an app?
The short answer is yes… because your apps make it easier to read your content and brings your reader closer to you, the publisher. According to Nielson: 89% of media …
Does your reader need to read your publication in an app?
The short answer is yes… because your apps make it easier to read your content and brings your reader closer to you, the publisher. According to Nielson: 89% of media consumption …
How to Create the Most Compelling Pitch to Subscribe You Have Ever Seen
So you’ve built your digital publication. You have protected your content behind a metered paywall. A reader hits the end of his free articles and it’s time to tell him he needs to …
Gift Subscriptions for Leaky Paywall now available
Generate more subscriptions to your publication by letting friends and family buy gift subscriptions! Grab the gift subscription plugin now. Features: Gifter can send a personal email note to the …
Reporting Tool for Leaky Paywall now available (free)
The Reporting Tool for Leaky Paywall is a free add-on that will let you filter and download (CSV file) the subscriber info you need. Open up your downloaded CSV file in …
How to Create the Most Compelling Pitch to Subscribe You Have Ever Seen
So you’ve built your digital publication. You have protected your content behind a metered paywall. A reader hits the end of his free articles and it’s time to tell him …
The best clean magazine and news themes for WordPress
I get asked pretty regularly: What is a good magazine or news theme to start a design with? The great news is there are many themes to chose from these …
Top Magazine and News themes for WordPress
I get asked pretty regularly: What is a good magazine or news theme to start a design with? The great news is there are many themes to chose from these days… …
“Things” to Sell: Sparking New Ideas for Publishers
My last post “Rediscovering the Sense and Economics of Publishing ‘Things’” was, I’m happy to say, well-received. We heard from publishers via email, Twitter, and phone calls that the post …
“Things” to Sell: Sparking New Ideas for Publishers
My last post “Rediscovering the Sense and Economics of Publishing ‘Things’” was, I’m happy to say, well-received. We heard from publishers via email, Twitter, and phone calls that the post …
Rediscovering the Sense and Economics of Publishing “Things”
From what I’ve seen through my work here at zeen101, the publishing world right now is taking one large step backward—and, in my opinion—that’s the right direction. The lavish promises …
Rediscovering the Sense and Economics of Publishing “Things”
From what I’ve seen through my work here at zeen101, the publishing world right now is taking one large step backward—and, in my opinion—that’s the right direction. The lavish promises …
Apps vs Mobile Sites: 3 Ways Apps Build Stronger Relationships with Readers
Publishers of every stripe have wrestled, at some point, with some variation of this question: Are we better off developing a slick app or a killer mobile website? Strong cases …
Apps vs Mobile Sites: 3 Ways Apps Build Stronger Relationships with Readers
Publishers of every stripe have wrestled, at some point, with some variation of this question: Are we better off developing a slick app or a killer mobile website? Strong cases …
IssueM 2.0 Released
The IssueM 2.0 release is now available on WordPress.org or by updating in your WordPress admin panel. Many new improvements, bug fixes, and features were added to help make your …
Berkeley Science Review: Impressive Issue-Based Digital Publishing
For over 10 years, the student-run and non-profit Berkeley Science Review (BSR) magazine has been publishing articles from UC Berkeley graduate students. The magazine serves to highlight the groundbreaking research …
Berkeley Science Review: Impressive Issue-Based Digital Publishing
For over 10 years, the student-run and non-profit Berkeley Science Review (BSR) magazine has been publishing articles from UC Berkeley graduate students. The magazine serves to highlight the groundbreaking research occurring …
Huffington Post publishes our how-to article on native advertising
Good advice from our very own Jesse McDougall. If you are running or considering adding sponsored content to your publication, do yourself a favor and follow Jesse’s 2 simple rules …
The Baffler: Successfully Making the Leap from Print to the Web
The Baffler online magazine (first printed issue was published in 1988) is a highly-visible and beautifully-illustrated magazine with a large readership. The magazine offers subscriptions in print, online, or both. …
IssueM 1.2.12 Released
We’ve uploaded the latest version of IssueM (1.2.12) to the WordPress.org plugin repository. The most recent release includes some new features and functionality to improve your experience with IssueM. Front …
Make better decisions about your site with Google Analytics
If you publish a magazine or news site online you will often be faced with decisions on how to improve the experience for your readers. The answer is quite simple: …
How to QUICKLY find great free stock photos for your articles
Get your hands on the right free photo fast. The problem with most free stock photo sites is they suck all your time just trying to find a good photo …
How to QUICKLY find great free stock photos for your articles
Get your hands on the right free photo fast. The problem with most free stock photo sites is they suck all your time just trying to find a good photo for an article. …
Play the Long Game: Serve Your Audience First
This post was inspired by an article over on Copyblogger by Sonia Simone titled, “The Right Way to Think About Google.” Simone offers five wonderful rules to help us blogger/publishers …
Play the Long Game: Serve Your Audience First
This post was inspired by an article over on Copyblogger by Sonia Simone titled, “The Right Way to Think About Google.” Simone offers five wonderful rules to help us blogger/publishers …
Simmons College publishes an issue based magazine with WordPress
Here is a great example of a WordPress publication that features regular issues and also publishes a blog for in between news: The Field Educator What’s it about? It is …
How to craft great titles for your audience
There are many popular schools of thought when it comes to titling an article. Unfortunately, the trend we’re seeing lately relies too heavily on fishing: Pack ’em full of keywords …
How to Target Your Titles for Your Audience
There are many popular schools of thought when it comes to titling an article. Unfortunately, the trend we’re seeing lately relies too heavily on fishing: Pack ’em full of keywords …
Is native advertising doomed?
This video made me laugh. It’s funny, really funny and makes me glad I have an HBO subscription so I can watch more John Oliver. John, in a completely satirical …
Is native advertising doomed?
This video made me laugh. It’s funny, really funny and makes me glad I have an HBO subscription so I can watch more John Oliver. John, in a completely satirical …
Swimming Through Mud: The State of Publishing Online
Publishing online today is like swimming through mud—difficult, unclear, tiring. Any print publisher of any stripe—book, news, magazine, school, corporate, etc.—looking to put content online is quickly overwhelmed by a …
Swimming Through Mud: The State of Publishing Online
Publishing online today is like swimming through mud—difficult, unclear, tiring. Any print publisher of any stripe—book, news, magazine, school, corporate, etc.—looking to put content online is quickly overwhelmed by a …
Shrink your publication’s header for better branding throughout your site
The New Yorker is doing it, the New York Times is doing it, you can do it… and it’s pretty easy. Here’s how: Step 1: Reduce your header logo size …
Adjust your publication’s header for better branding throughout your site
The New Yorker is doing it, the New York Times is doing it, you can do it… and it’s pretty easy. Here’s how: Step 1: Reduce your header logo size …
Some Required Resources for Effective Content Marketing
Publishers and authors do not need an army of geeks in order to create and execute effective content marketing campaigns. That said, content marketing does require a few things in …
How to publish a native ad in WordPress
With all the discussion and growth of native advertising, we thought it was time for us to provide a simple yet effective plugin to flag an article as “Sponsored” or “Promoted” …
How to share a great article you found with your readers (curation)
A fishing publication asked me today how should I go about sharing an article with my readership? It’s a great question and yes you do want to share (or curate) …
How to share a great article you found with your readers
A fishing publication asked me today how should I go about sharing an article with my readership?
It’s a great question and yes you do want to share (or curate) articles from other sources… and it’s simple.
How to create links in your articles to attract more readers
Easy and powerful. If you are writing copy you need to always link to sources. Linking properly is key to humans clicking and Google ranking your stories in search
How to create links in your articles to attract more readers
Easy and powerful. If you are writing copy you need to always link to sources. Linking properly is key to humans clicking and Google ranking your stories in search
73% of Publishers offer Native Advertising
Native advertising is like the old advertorial… it’s publishing an article that is really an advertisement. The ad is native to your stream of articles or blog posts. Why is this so popular now? Read on to find out!
How to build and automate your email list building
Building your magazine’s subscriber base via email is job #1. The tools today also let you completely automate the task of sending your stories to your subscribers. Watch this video …
76% of readers will abandon your publication on their phone
You need to run and make sure your publication is mobile optimized… now. Another shocker as of December: Mobile browsers now make up 20% of all internet traffic. And to top it off: 60% of smartphone use is at home.
76% of readers will abandon your publication on their phone
These people won’t even bother trying to use a non-optimized site, or will turn to a competitor instead (article from Venture Beat) You need to run and make sure your …
Should you publish issues or blog style?
There is no right or wrong way to publish. Consider whether your audience demands information as it happens (blogging) or whether curating and packaging articles into issues serves them better. …