In this video series, we are going to show you step by step, what it takes to publish your magazine using MagLoft. As soon as you have signed up for a free account, you have two smaller projects you need to complete. These are:
- Get your content (issues) ready
- Get your publishing information ready
We have covered getting your content ready in another post, and in this one, we will show you exactly how to get your information submitted in order to publish your magazine and get it live in the app stores.
Publish Your Magazine Following These Easy Steps
Once logged into MagLoft you need to navigate to the Publishing section from the main (top) menu. From here you will be able to access the steps involved from the left sidebar menu. All of the steps are listed below and we will dive into details for every step. The goal with this tutorial is to show you that you can quickly publish your magazine using MagLoft and that it’s much easier than it actually looks.
The steps involved are:
- Submit basic information about the magazine you want to publish
- Selecting what type of subscription you want your magazine to offer
- Adding integrations such as push notifications and Google Analytics
- Uploading your images and icons
- Selecting the issue screenshots you want to use in the app stores
- Connecting your developer account
Now let’s dive right into the video tutorials that will guide you in publishing your magazine!
Step 1 – Basic Magazine Information
There are a few sections you need to fill out in this first step and we will cover each in detail. MagLoft needs this information in order to create, setup and publish your magazine to the App Stores. It’s important you fill out this information and keep it updated. This way you will be able to publish new versions of your magazine in the future without hassle.
Description
The first sentence of your description should be your “one-liner” that describes all the benefits of your magazine. Keep your description easy to read. It’s fine to have a long description if you break it up into sections using headers. You need to make your description compelling and interesting, as this is the second thing readers will see when evaluating to install your app (the first one being the icon).
Keywords
Make sure you use as many of the 100 characters as possible. Keep your keywords short and don’t use phrases. You should ideally have the main keyword in the title of your magazine, which you don’t need to add again in the keyword section. Remember to add your magazine name/title as the first keyword so people will find it if they search for it.
Info tab
This will be displayed when readers click the info button inside your magazine app. You should include information that is relevant to people that have already installed and opened your magazine like contact information and how the app/subscriptions work.
Support URL
Link to your own support/contact URL.
Marketing URL
Optional link to any marketing related page you have for your magazine.
Privacy URL
Link to your own privacy policy page. MagLoft provides a standard privacy policy page for your magazine which you can use.
Categories
Select the categories that best fit your magazine’s content. It can sometimes be hard to choose the perfect categories so just chose the closest that match.
Rating
Apple requires that you rate your content and will score it based on your rating. Offensive ratings won’t be accepted by Apple.
Step 2 – Select Subscription Type(s)
If you plan to offer a free subscription then all you have to do in this step is to select the free subscription option and you’re done! If you plan on offering a paid subscription then select the other option and fill out each section with the type of subscription(s) you want to add. It’s possible to have both a monthly and yearly subscription if you like.
Duration
This is the duration of your subscription. Your subscribers will be billed every cycle of your selected duration.
Price
This is the price your subscribers will be charged for every cycle of your selected duration. Apple uses tiers to determine pricing in currencies.
Trial Period
You can offer your readers a free trial period. They will be able to access paid issues as soon as they accept the free trial and will be billed when the cycle ends if they remain subscribed.
Opt-in Offer
You can also offer your readers a bonus if they decide to opt-in to your marketing messages. You will receive their email address which you can use to follow up and promote your offers later.
Step 3 – Adding Integrations
Google Analytics will allow you to track usage inside your magazine and issue. Parse will allow you to send push notifications to your readers and subscribers. Once you publish your magazine, you will be able to use both Google Analytics and Parse to get more statistics.
Parse Push
Parse offer a free account for managing push notifications and a lot more. We encourage you to signup for your own account in order to retain ownership. We ask for login information so we can setup the technical aspects of getting push notifications to work. Signup for a Free Parse Account Here
Google Analytics
In order to track usage in your magazine you need to create a tracking code for apps in your Google Analytics account. Click here and follow this guide to learn exactly how to do that. Then copy your app tracking code into the field on the left.
Step 4 – Uploading Images & Icons
This might be the hardest part of the entire publishing section, but we have tried our hardest to make it as simple as possible for you. The absolute minimum you need to publish your magazine is your header logo (transparent), an app icon and a feature banner for Google Play. Let’s take a quick look at each.
Header Logo
Dimensions: 1536 pixels in width, 500 pixels in height and a transparent PNG file.
Your header logo will be displayed on the “shelf” of your magazine app. This is the screen where all your issues are listed and from where readers can click to download/purchase issues. It will be displayed at the top of the screen. It’s important to keep it as a transparent PNG file, so that it can blend in with the background of the “shelf” screen.
Shelf Background
This is the background of your shelf screen and you can select between three different variations:
- a solid color in the HEX format like #FFFFFF (white)
- a gradient color in HEX that will blend from color 1 (top) to color 2 (bottom)
- a pattern that will repeat.
If you select the pattern make sure the image file is quite small in size (approx. 150×150 pixels) and that it’s not too obtrusive so that it can subtly blend in with cover images and text on top of it.
App Icon
Dimensions: 512 pixels in width and height and must be non-transparent PNG file.
This is the most important graphic as this is what potential readers will see. Have a look at the app stores top downloaded lists and see how publishers generally design their icons. Try and copy the successful ones, but still make it unique to your magazine app. App icons are not allowed to be transparent and must be in PNG format.
If you need help or inspiration for creating your App Icon have a look at this resource.
Feature Image For Google Play
Dimensions: 1024 pixels in width and 500 pixels in height.
This feature image will be listed at the top of your app listing in the Google Play store. You could consider creating an image that has a “call to action” and encourages potential readers to download and try your app.
Step 5 – Select Your Issue Screenshots
In order to complete this step, you need to have created at least 1 issue with at least 5 pages of content. This is the absolute minimum amount of content in order for App Stores to approve and publish your magazine app.
This step is pretty straight forward, as you just have to select 5 screenshots from all your issue pages. These screenshots are used in the App Stores to promote and display your magazine app. Try to select screenshots that look great and will encourage readers to download your app. You must select 5 screenshots in order to complete this step.
Step 6 – Connect Your Developer Accounts
This is the final step you need to complete before you can publish your magazine. Here at MagLoft, we believe you should remain in control of your magazine app and any earnings, which is why we require you to publish through your own developer account. We have also created a separate blog post that describes exactly how to go about this final step. You can read that blog post and watch the video here.
That’s How You Publish Your Magazine!
It might seem like a lot of information but just remember you only have to do this once! As soon as we have your information and all the sections are green, we can go ahead and do the heavy lifting for you (create and publish your magazine app). As for new issues, they will get published instantly and you won’t have to go through all the above again.
