Executive Summary: This article provides a comprehensive guide to online publishing platforms and software. It offers valuable insights and recommendations for individuals and businesses looking to establish an online presence. The guide covers various aspects, including platform selection, software features, and best practices for successful online publishing. Its formal tone and concise content make it a valuable resource for those interested in the online publishing industry.
90% of young adults read magazines either in print or online. If you’re looking for a reliable way to reach a wide audience, you need to start utilizing the magazine medium.
Online publishing is a viable solution to reaching a broad audience while reducing production expenses associated with print magazines. The concern of financial investment and potential waste due to low subscriptions and readership can be alleviated through this digital platform.
Online publishing is a versatile, easily discoverable medium that has taken the world by storm as the internet continues to grow. It puts the choice of what is readable on the internet into the hands of creators (instead of publishers and producers). Keep reading to find out about online publishing and how to get started with it yourself!
What is Online Publishing?
Online publishing refers to the practice of utilizing online tools to create, organize, edit, and publish various forms of written content on the Internet. It allows creators to have control over what is accessible and readable online, bypassing traditional publishers and producers. With the internet’s continuous growth, online publishing has become a versatile and easily discoverable medium. By embracing this digital platform, concerns regarding financial investment and potential waste due to low subscriptions and readership can be addressed effectively.
Online publishing includes nonfiction resources, fictional novels and short stories, plays, and multimedia magazines. Not only are these pieces of media made through the internet, but they’re also shared there and optimized for tablets, laptops, and even smartphones.
Even if you’ve already written something, it’s easy to move it to an online platform where it can have an easier time reaching its proper audience. There are online publishing platforms that will do the hard work for you and make your content easy to read online.
Benefits of Publishing Online
You may be wondering why it’s worth publishing online. After all, we’ve had thousands of years of physical reading material. Wasn’t that good enough?
There are benefits of publishing online that aren’t available to print media. Especially as an up-and-coming content creator, there are many cost cuts and solutions available when you publish online.
Discoverability
The most important thing as a new writer is to make sure people can read your work! When you self-publish print media, you have the difficult job of getting it out into people’s hands.
When you use online publishing platforms, the internet will do a fair amount of that work for you. You can optimize your material so for good SEO practices so that people searching for your kind of work can easily find it.
Compatibility
You can make your media easy to read on all different kinds of devices. Not everyone always has the bandwidth to bring a book with them, but today no one leaves home without their phone.
Make your media something readable on a phone, and suddenly, you’ll have people reading your work wherever they go.
Versatility
The internet is an incredible place where multimedia collaboration projects can come together to create amazing new forms. Who says a book is just a book now?
You can add links to other sites for reference, music to any story, and embedded videos to add to the reading experience. You can even turn a simple narrative into a nearly game-like experience.
Usability
Not only will your work be more discoverable when you online publish, it’s also easier for you to share it. Simply share a link and someone can access your work right away. That’s a lot different and a lot more likely to be successful than telling someone the name of your book and waiting for them to go buy it.
Everyone loves instant gratification today. No one wants to have to go on a wild goose chase to get to your print media. Give them the link and make it easy to navigate.
Business Solutions: Take Your Publishing Online
Online publishers aren’t just for creatives. They can also offer great solutions to businesses. Having an online presence is imperative for the success of any business today. So having smart online content will help your business’s mission. Here are three ways that you can use online publishing for your business’s success.
Marketing
As mentioned before, online publishing is a great way to be more discoverable. You can use this to your business’s marketing advantage.
Create content from videos to brochures to articles that are likely to end up in the hands of your target customers. As traffic is driven to your site, more and more people are likely to navigate to other pages, and you’ll be more likely to show up in search results.
Communications
You need to stay in communication with current clients, customers, and business partners. A mass email is one way, but it’s much better to send out one message with multiple links to publications.
Then, people can pick and choose what information is important to them and go read it on a digital platform. Otherwise, they get bogged down in unnecessary information and are unlikely to read the parts that are important or compelling to them.
Sales
Content and sales have never been more conjoined. Sales should utilize the online publications of a company to plug the services and goods offered by the brand. They can include links to purchases, recommendations for goods, or even publish digital catalogs for interested customers.
Online Publishing and Its Role in Education
Digital learning can be greatly improved by the use of online publishing. The amount of information on the internet is staggering and incredible. We can use that content to better educate children if it’s presented in a child-friendly and accessible way.
Digital publishing platforms can handle multiple kinds of files and content. On a teacher or philanthropist website they could include:
- Study guides and lesson plans
- Educational games to solidify concepts and skills
- Homework and activities
- The opportunity to submit and read students’ work
- School newspapers and events
Schools are adapting to the new internet landscape and taking advantage of the way multimedia learning can benefit students. Perhaps in the future, there will even be more multimedia child-friendly online magazines offering education and fun.
Online Publishing for Independent Creators
Of course, perhaps the number one users of online publishing platforms are independent creators. Publishing platforms are useful for reference book writers, independent researchers, novelists, playwrights, poets, and magazine editors.
Never before has it been easier to compile and share work. Previously, you needed someone else to approve your work which has led to a history of censorship and stifling of creative voices.
But today, artists and writers can decide what is important for them to share and immediately test it in the public’s interest. Then, if it fails, they can try something new without much loss.
Online Book Publication
Lots of people have a story to tell and the writing skills necessary to get it told. Unfortunately, the process of querying agents and publishers is tiring, expensive, and time-consuming.
For that reason, many writers have decided to move into the world of self-publishing and then sell their books through platforms like Amazon. While this is a step in the right direction of autonomy for writers, it often isn’t enough and they need help getting discovered by readers.
The online publication makes their books easy to find and read online. They even link them to social media platforms where algorithms make it even easier for their work to be discovered by the target audience.
Online Magazine Publication
As mentioned earlier, online publishing is a dream come true for anyone interested in multimedia creations. A magazine doesn’t just have to be one thing anymore. The options are endless when you have every media on the internet.
Your online magazine can include music, poetry, short stories, op-eds, and essays. You can include virtual get-togethers, open mics, video content, and so much more.
Best of all, you can choose the focus of your publication without inhibitions. Choose a demographic that you think is underrepresented in media. Find a target audience that doesn’t have content made for them. Choose topics that you think are under-reported. Prioritize the mediums and forms that you’re most passionate about.
When you only have yourself and your audience to answer to, your possibilities are endless.
See how MagLoft’s Universal App transforms this print magazine into a stunning online magazine
Choosing an Online Publishing Software
There are many advantages to choosing a third-party platform to publish your written work. You want to make sure that your work is available 24/7 and that the hosting system is always working. That’s a lot of IT work, and you need to be focused on making the content. So, it’s best to outsource that.
But not all platforms are created equal. Here are some of the things you should consider while choosing an online publishing platform.
Storage
You need to consider the amount of content that you’re planning on publishing. Then you need to consider if that amount is likely to grow.
Many platforms have the option to buy data as you need it while others sell set plans with limited or unlimited amounts of data. Consider the cost of storage and how much you’ll be using. Don’t overpay for what you don’t need!
Security
Make sure that whatever platform you use is truly secure. The last thing you want is for your hard work to be stolen or worse for your payment information to be stolen.
Read up on common security measures and familiarize yourself with the terminology so that you can read through platforms’ security measures and make an informed choice.
Customization
This is huge for online publishing. The way your publication looks will help it stand out from the many online publications available today. If a platform only has a few customizable options, your work will end up looking like someone else’s work and will stand out less.
Instead, choose an option that is easy to use but gives you a lot of freedom and options. This way, not only will your site look unique, but you’ll be able to experiment with more multimedia options and create something truly special.
Support
If the site goes down or the customization isn’t working or your bank account won’t connect, who will you have to turn to?
You need to make sure that whatever platform you use has an excellent customer support system with real people ready to answer questions. You don’t have weeks to fix a problem if your online publication goes down, because every moment it’s not online is a moment that you’re losing potential readers.
Make sure that you find a platform that treats you as a valued collaborator and considers themselves part of your team.
If you are curious to review the best online publishing platforms then you can read our overview here.
Planning Your Online Publication
Now that you know what online publication is and why it’s so great, it’s time to start planning what your online publication will look like. This is a basic guide to some things that you should plan as you start your online publishing journey, but there are many things to learn and think about as you go.
Come Up With a Mission
Before you make an online publication, you should know why you’re doing it. Such as:
- Who is your target audience?
- The essence of your publication.
- Main topics and focuses of your online publication
- The overall aesthetic feel of your online publication
- How will you fund it?
Answering some of those questions will lead you to the answers for others, and before you know it you’ll have the outline of a business plan.
Analyze Competitors
Take a look at the other people writing magazines that are similar to yours and have the same audience.
What are they doing well? What could they do better? Follow their lead and improve upon their shortcomings.
Find Your Team
It takes a lot of people to make an online magazine run. People can take on multiple roles, but make sure that each role is clearly defined. You’ll at least need a writer, editor, designer, treasurer, and marketing manager.
Getting Your Dream Publication
Now you can confidently say you know the answer to “what is online publishing”. Even better you know how it can make your writing and publishing dreams more accessible and free.
Are you ready to bring your written vision to life? Check out our online publishing services here and contact us here!
Updated on 17th of August 2024.
