30th April 2010
Picking out E-Publishing Software
Spoiling even the best electronic magazine is too easy, no matter how much energy has been put into it, with bad online magazine software. When you’ve chosen to produce an online magazine the key next call is to pick out the software supplier. This isn’t about just formatting your creation prettily – indeed this decision is essential because it may mean the difference between success of failure for your entire venture.
Amongst the potential features, being easy to use is the most important. The software package could be the most extraordinary you’ve seen – but if you’re unable to use it, it isn’t worth anything to you… Make the time to try out different packages before you select a provider for your ebrochure.
Further major decisions you need to make are safeguarding security. Next to think about are hackers and spammers. Are there measures in situ to protect the package? Can the content be secured? Is it possible for people to simply copy and paste your magazine content or has the flash software vendor something in place peventing these things? Is the content secure? Have you created a marketing strategy for your digital magazine? Whatever your marketing plan may look like, you should think about such matters: perhaps not for every issue but rather for your company overall. What use will you make of modern media? What thought has been given to dealing with adverts? Contemporary marketing techniques mean thinking about search engine requirements as you edit content. What about mixing paid and free content? You need to consider your subscription possibilities when you’ve made up your magazine. The nature of your content, as well – is it monetized or is this solely a not-for-profit venture? What about using teasers and summaries to sell your ebrochure? How accessible is the magazine? Will it be private: then you should be able to investigate many hosting possibilities or will it be public? In which case you should host directly with the vendor. Have you examined how you will cope with back-issues? In conclusion, in picking out a flash software provider try to choose one offering quick tech support. How will you contact them? Be assured by their response time! Are there good how-tos and FAQs available? Remember to check the level of tech-support.
This last decision of provider could ruin this e-brochure. You may also want to Google the term “Zmags” for more useful hints.
