If you’re planning to start an online magazine, this checklist of features will help you make sure it’s built on a solid foundation. Simple feature omissions at the beginning can lead to costly and time-consuming upgrades later on.
Characteristic n. # 1: excellent content management
As the editor of an online magazine, you should have full control over how to add, edit, and delete your content, preferably without having to know HTML or other technical skills.
Characteristic n. # 2: enable multiple sources of income
Like offline magazines, you need to make sure that implementing multiple revenue streams is simple, including placing ads, adding affiliate links, charging for subscriptions, and selling products through your own. online store.
Feature # 3 – Member Database
All online magazines, whether subscription-free or paid, should have a way to collect visitor names and other personal data. The database must be searchable, exportable, and easy to customize.
Feature # 4 – Integrated Payment Processing
Payment processing is often added as an afterthought. It should not be like that. Having the ability to process credit cards tightly integrated into your website is essential so that you can use this feature to charge for subscriptions and product sales and to generate revenue from other services.
Feature # 5 – Flexible functionality
When you start an online magazine, you can never be sure how it will develop. So you need to start with a website that can be easily updated and has new features added to it.
Feature # 6 – Search Engine Optimization
Much is said about search engine optimization, but the truth is very simple. You must have a website that is very easy for search engines to index. If it’s easy to find and you keep adding high-quality content, search engines will include it on their results pages. Make sure search engines can index all pages, including pages in password-protected member areas.
Feature # 7 – Multimedia content
Today’s specialized information websites should have content in multiple formats, including text, images, audio, and video. Even if you don’t plan to use these formats today, make sure your website is enabled to use them in the future.
Trait # 8 – Relationship Building Apps
Once visitors land on your online magazine, you need to start building a relationship with them to encourage them to return. Relationship building apps include email newsletters, forums, and comment fields below articles.
Feature # 9 – Integrated login and password access
Most publishers who launch a magazine online create the website first and then try to add login and password protection later. This is a recipe for disaster. Password protection, which gives members access to premium content, must be seamlessly integrated with the member database and content management service from the outset.
Feature # 10 – Management Information
You should be able to easily access all your website performance information in a single web statistics management report. This should include the number of visitors and page views; the time spent on the website and the most popular pages; where your traffic comes from and much more. Only when you have this information at your fingertips will you be able to understand the needs of your customers.
Feature # 11 – Monitoring, security and backup
Publishers often overlook the importance of having flexible and secure hosting with automatic backups. Most websites, including leaders like eBay and Amazon, have downtime. You need to minimize the risk of failure by backing up all your content regularly.
Feature # 12 – Simple Control Panel
As you will see from the list of features above, a good online magazine is made up of many different applications. If possible, the service you choose should have all (or most) of the applications run from a single, easy-to-use control panel.