Magazines are more than just a literary medium. They exist as a visual art form and even a town forum of sorts. As opportunities to be a creator in the digital space expand and online content grows in popularity with such a diverse audience, it makes sense to make your mark as a magazine journalist in the digital space.
You can bypass the publishing gatekeepers and elitism by using your platform to allow yourself creative agency. Here’s everything you need to know about starting a digital magazine.
Magazines in the New(ish) Century
In the last two decades, the print magazine industry has witnessed a massive decline, yet still manages to hang on because nerds like to be sentimental. While the profitability of print has gone out of style, its material and even aesthetic value allow it to stay alive. Magazines are special cases because they’re not like e-books or your daily Twitter feed.
Digital magazines just might be the thing to salvage the ashes of the publishing industry. We’ll talk about trends for digital magazines and what makes a magazine awesome. Plus, we’ll share our picks for the best magazines on the market today!
Let’s take a look at what creators and entrepreneurs should consider when creating an online magazine today.
Choosing the Right Platform for Starting a Digital Magazine
Many digital publishing platforms exist to make going public with your work as easy as clicking the Upload button. When considering options for the right platform to build your digital magazine, you want to first look at the most popular platforms. That way, you’ll have a larger audience base to draw from.
Check out what platforms have been around for many years and which of the newest platforms generate the most buzz. If you have a content creator whose work you admire, you might also look at the platform they use for their content, as their audience is likely similar to the audience you want.
Below you will learn how Magloft stands in comparison to other well-known platforms that let content creators publish online.
Magloft
Our platform offers many services for creators who want to dive into online publishing. The Magloft platform offers the best services for managing your content and driving high-quality SEO.
Our platform offers excellent results for converting PDFs to HTML to make online publishing simple and headache-free. You’ll also have a source for great publishing tips to help your content have the most success.
Magloft lets you publish your digital magazines and build subscriptions. We allow several ways to share your content, whether through HTML articles or making print copies available.
Medium Dot Com
The most well-known platform on this list, medium.com lets you set up your homepage where you can upload posts whenever you want while also having the option to monetize them.
In recent years, Medium opened itself up to let people create digital magazines using their site as the main platform. Many of these magazines have their own submission guides for any user to submit work to. And you’d be able to quickly cultivate a community.
Substack
Substack, while being the newest platform in the list, has been generating the most buzz in 2022. Many established content creators have migrated over to the space.
Meanwhile, Substack has become a great hub to launch careers in content creation. It functions as an online newsletter that subscribers receive in their email. It allows you to monetize your content with a subscription model that creators get to curate themselves.
Find Your Target Audience with the Right Niche
The concept of a creator’s niche remains controversial and up for debate. Whereas, the creators who want to have longevity and stay relevant don’t want to lock themselves into a narrow topic that will faze out quickly. The most trusted way to build a loyal audience is through sharing a common interest and holding space for unique topics.
The best approach exists somewhere in the middle of both extremes. Niche channels can become wildly successful with the right marketing and consistency. It also largely depends on the trending topics of the moment.
To find a loyal fanbase that will grow and evolve with you over time and stay with you happens when you, the creator, become the niche. Sometimes, these creators start as niche platforms, but over time become an authority in their field and bring so much of their personality and charisma.
Audiences become loyal not just to the content itself, but build a community around the creator.
How to Maximize the Impact of Your Content
Making sure your content makes the most impact requires business savvy. If this is not your strong suit, you would be wise to outsource those skills.
The digital platforms listed above offer up-to-date analytics and metrics reports for your online magazine. This helps creators track who reads their content along with other demographic information about their audience.
Secondly, pay attention to what content works well and gets the most response and engagement from your audience. This doesn’t have to only be positive engagement. In metrics, all interactions are created equal, and controversy might work in your favor (as long as you aren’t a bigot).
Thus, creators tailor their content toward what works the most. Sometimes, this is how you find your niche if you choose to have one.
Lastly, the most effective way to make your content have an impact is to promote it as much as possible. Social media naturally serves as the easiest and most cost-effective tool for this.
Publish Your Digital Magazine Today
Somewhere out there, an audience out there exists for your digital magazine. You will be exactly what they are waiting for. Starting a digital magazine is too easy to not do.
Check us out on our website today to launch your content!
