Have you ever wondered how to create your own digital magazine?
Why would you want to?
Because it’s an opportunity to share what you know in a unique way, standout from all the noise on the internet, and help your audience. Plus, gives your viewers an extension of you in a direct, creative way.
You might feel a bit shy about this idea, but don’t. You have lots to share and content to share as well.
Content? Yes.
Before I go into content, I want you to know how darn EASY it is to create your own digital magazine these days. Self-publishing has never been easier and because it’s so accessible the opportunities and how-to’s are numerous!
What can you do with your own digital magazine?
- Sell it on Amazon as a Kindle ebook
- Sell as a subscription to help monetize your website
- Offer it as an email list op-tin offer
- Send it as a monthly perk to your email list (that’s what I do)
And, you don’t need a “Magazine Publishing platform”. Nope. You can create it all by yourself and reap the benefits without paying a third party to create it.
So let me share with you how I create my own digital magazine – “The Artistic Way to Marketing Online”. Click on the image to receive monthy issues
First, I have a paid monthly subscription to Canva. It’s worth it because of all the options they give you.
Notice in the image below I’ve chosen a “Magazine” template. On the left side you’ll see all the creatively designed templates you can choose for your magazine pages. You can edit them anyway you like – colors, font, etc.
Second, after my pages have been created to my satisfaction, I download it as a PDF – very important. I save it to a file just for my magazines so I know where to find it.
Then I upload it to BOX . This is such a great service to store any digital content, (no, not an Affiliate). Because, this is where I get a “Share Link” which is private so my viewers can have instant access to the magazine. Personally, I’ve been with BOX since 2007 – I think, and I believe better than Dropbox.
There is another program you can use too. This is Sqribble an ebook creation software program.
This also uses PDF file formats. What I like about this program is you can create FLIP books. With a simple link you can embed on your website.
Ok.
So that’s the mechanics.
Let’s discuss style and your favorite – content, right?
Now, I love magazines. I get several delivered to my home monthly: Journaling, Decor, Women’s Health, Gardening, and Success. I love them because they’re a quick read, filled with interesting articles and images. And, I love them because they’re fantastic resources for design layouts, images, fonts, colors, headlines, and topic ideas.
CONTENT
You must know any viewer online, including myself, are SCANNERS. The attention span of viewers these days is by now a nano second, yes? Which means your magazine content has to be short and to the point.
I only use one topic per page – that’s it. I want my digital magazine to be easy to read, a quick read, specific, and attractive to look at, as well as USEFUL to readers.
This is good because I don’t need to create pages devoted to a topic. I use the blog for that, right?
So this makes it easier to find content that is relevant to YOU, your readers, and what you promote on your blog.
For example.
I’m a blogger – yes. But I’m also an artist. So I like to share creative information that bloggers can use, like this article. I share “tidbits” on blogging with a creative touch.
So, think about what your blog is about, and how you can create a digital magazine that’s helpful to viewers, to enhance you and your website.
PROMOTION
Promotion like any thing else online takes time and daily attention. If you have an email list promote it there, on Facebook, social media. Create posts about it and share. Announce it on your blog.
Promotion today is all about helping people – not so much with advertising.
Creating a digital magazine can be fun, informative, useful, and helpful to your audience. And it can GROW with subscriptions or sign-ups because it’s unique – just like you.
So send me a copy!
Hey Lesly,
This is a great way to get a following. Plus, It can be used as a free or low cost product as an opt-in to a sales funnel. What fun! I use Sqribble for the two books I’ve written.
Hey Donna,
I use Sqribble too … really like what it offers and easy to use. Thank you for the visit! 🙂
Hi Lesly,
This is a good article. I’ve been thinking about digital magazines for some time now. I thought it is hard to make one, but after reading this article I realized that is easy.
Thank you for the tips.
Some people I know regularly do curated blogs: ie they put together an article with links to lots of other articles. Paper.li is one programme that people use. But I’ve noticed that it’s better when people move away from that and make their own. It imprints their brand on it (which as Kathyrn tells us is very important too!). I do put interesting articles on my FB page, as a kind of inspiration, but have never aspired to a magazine! You make it look easy, Lesly, but I’m sure it’s not!
Hi Rosemary,
It’s really not difficult when you have the right tools. I just couldn’t see paying for a magazine creation platform. It’s my own creation. And yes, the more you brand yourself the better. People will remember you. You have a gift to bring humor and fun into your writings. We all have a gift to share. Keep at it 🙂 appreciate your visit
Starting an online digital magazine is not as easy as so many think.
For one to create such a platform, so many things are required which includes
1. Sourcing for contents to create that will be attractive and same time keep people coming coming back.
2. Getting the required traffic, because without people reading your contents or visiting your platform, then the platform is dead already because at the end, you have done nothing despite the whole effort spent on creating the platform and lastly
3. Been able to maintain the running of the platform.
Am glad with the steps you have outlined here, such as creating a PDF documents and promoting it via email and this is going a long way to help me and other people wish to trade this part.
Hi Reginald,
It’s very easy to create your own magazine! I do it monthly now :-). I tried platforms and they cost monthly. I think it’s far better to use your blog to promote what YOU create. Traffic will be better because people come to YOUR website instead of those other magazine platforms 🙂 Thank you for visiting and your comment
Hi Lesly, That’s a great idea. I actually use a paid service at the moment that gives me a very good ready made newsletter that I can also use as content for my blog, so it helps me out when I’m stretched for time producing content. I’d never thought of producing my own newsletter (as opposed to mailing my blog out to my list with auto-responder)… interesting idea to add to the never ending to-do-list LOL.
Joy Healey – Blogging After Dark
Ji Joy,
Yea I used 2 magazine services and just didn’t want to pay for it when I saw what they offered. Canva offers printing hardcopy as well. I just think it’s a better way to build your brand on your own terms .. 🙂 thanks for visiting and your comment!