Sample of How to Create and Sell a Digital Magazine by Danny Stygion.
In the mid 2000’s I would submit my fetish photography work to various publications. My work was published in several publications, but one publisher in particular would consistently reject my work. 10+ years later, the same publisher contacted me asking for help on how to sell his back catalog of print issues in digital format. He had no idea how to do that. I gave him the following instructions on how I do it.
Portable File Document –
In follow up posts I will discuss magazine design and editing in more detail. PDF’s are the best way for your readers to view your content on computers and tablet devices. There are many ways to create a PDF, but I use Adobe InDesign. It is a program that is used by professional designers for laying out print and digital designs. You can even make a PDF interactive. Once you have created and exported a PDF, or scanned print issues for a PDF, you can move on to the next step.
Setting up your web site/sales page –
Screenshot from www.sinicalmagazine.com – subscription box.
Domain name –
You need to choose a domain name. A lot of domains are taken, so sometimes you have to get creative. Sinical is a play on the words sin and cynical which fits in with the alt/fetish modeling and photography community.
Hosting –
There are many hosting options available. I use bluehost.com (this is my affliliate link for bluehost.com) for www.stygion.com.
WordPress –
Once you’ve registered a domain and set up hosting, you can install WordPress from your control panel. WordPress is a free and open-source content management system, that is the most popular system on the web, supporting more than 60 million web sites as of 2017. It makes it easy to set up a website or blog with a customizable theme. Premium themes are available for a price with more complex designs and features. I’ve worked with Joomla in the past (for www.sinicalamagazine.com), but now prefer WordPress.
The landing page and the sales page –
Screenshot of sales page.
The two most important pages on your website are your landing page and your sales page. Your landing page is designed to help capture e-mail subscribers and build up your e-mail list. Your sales page is where you will be selling your product(s).
To capture e-mails you typically have to give away something like a free issue. I would suggest giving away one of your best issues. My favorite e-mail list management service is AWeber.
The E-junkie shopping cart –
Screenshot from www.e-junkie.com
There are many online shopping cart options available, but www.e-junkie.com is my favorite. It is easy to use, the fee is reasonable at $18.00 a month to host my back catalog of digital issues of Sinical Magazine, and it works with payment options like PayPal, among others.
Once you’ve set up an account with www.e-junkie.com, you upload your digital product. Once you’ve filled out the details, it will give you a code that you can put on your website.
It also gives you the option of setting up a affliliate program so others can help promote and sell your product and earn a commission percentage that you decide.
Magazine Launch
Screenshot of e-mail campaign creator tool on www.mailchimp.com‘s website.
I like to launch e-mails at 9:00am Central Time on Tuesdays. Besides the U.S., Sinical Magazine has a lot of readers in the Europe I feel this is the best time to reach the most people around the world. Once I’ve set up the sales page, I create the e-mail campaign newsletter on a site like AWeber’s, then send it out.
It is common to lose subscribers (for whatever reason) after a newsletter, which is why you have to consistently push to gain new subscribers.
Social Media
Your e-mail list is your best tool for getting news of your product out there to your followers. Social media can also be effective for getting people to visit your site. There they can sign up for your mailing list and search your website for information.
I noticed a huge difference when it came to my e-mail sign ups when I started promoting more heavily on three social media channels: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Instead of posting an image or article link once a day or every couple of days, I started promoting 5-8 times a day. Within each post there would be a call to action (CTA) to sign up for an e-mail list to receive free content.
Conclusion
The Sinical Magazine Digital Archive is the best way to show readers the history of the magazine, and continues to generate passive income for the magazine.
~ Danny Stygion
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Order the Sinical Magazine Digital Archive here.
Bluehost.com affiliate link is here.
AWeber’s affiliate link is here.