Publishing Content
The following are articles related to Web publishing from the archives of Website Magazine. For daily coverage of all things Web related
including online publishing, please visit the Website Magazine Daily Blog.
Articles from the current issue of Website Magazine on Web Publishing
-
Website Video On A Budget : Website managers today can easily
implement any number of new media strategies to their Web presence without
breaking the bank.
-
Issuu Makes Online Publishing Easy, Attractive : Issuu has a goal to
make online publishing simple, attractive and easy to share. Not only can
you create interactive, great looking publications but you can join a
growing community, explore their online library and share your documents
with your own, established community.
-
Monitoring Social Media Marketing : Chat rooms, blogs, forums,
social networks, social bookmarking sites and virtually any site that allows
conversational interaction is a prime venue for the rapidly growing field of
social media marketing – an essential tool in every SEO's kit and one that
is often misunderstood and misused.
Archived articles on Web Publishing from Website Magazine:
Issuu has a goal to make online publishing simple, attractive and easy
to share. Not only can you create interactive, great looking
publications but you can join a growing community, explore their online
library and share your documents with your own, established community.
Take a PDF, upload it to Issuu and they will convert it into an online
magazine with page-flip capabilities, zoom, full-screen viewing and
more. After you upload your PDF you can publish it immediately to a
host of social networks and blogging sites, as well as get some code to
embed on any site. Your new magazine will also be available on
Issuu.com for public viewing, where there are a host of other documents
to browse in categories ranging from Academia to Tech and Travel. You
can also create a profile, add friends and spread your publication to
others.
But Issuu is just getting warmed up. Already an impressive service,
they look to keep innovating. Martin Ferro-Thomson, Co-Founder and
Communications Manager at Issuu took some time to answer a few questions
we had for him:
When was Issuu founded?
Issuu was started in 2006, with just a few guys with a lot of
ideas. We were funded in January 2007 and started developing, launched
in
public in January 2007 and now Issuu is in beta with many plans for the
future. We have a
handpicked and extremely motivated team, without a doubt the most
talented people I've ever worked with (and yes, we're hiring to keep up
with the booming interest).
What are Issuu's goals?
To make online publishing as simple and easy as possible; both for
companies, advertisers and certainly average people like you and me. We
want everyone with a message to be able to get across to the right
targeted audience, no matter where in the world that audience might be.
And we want to empower anyone to publish in style using the best
technology out there!
Who do you find are the most frequent users of Issuu?
Anyone! Businesses want to use us because we have the best online
viewer technology on the market (vector gfx and full screen mode).
Creatives love the viewer too because it's beautiful and they can
connect via our community. Everyone else just thinks it's exciting to
join this living library where you can find so much interesting stuff
you never though was out there - and in a format that really is
something people have been craving for: easy, intuitive and gratifying.
What are some future plans or upgrades for Issuu?
Watch the blog. And believe me, it's going to be a great year to watch out
for Issuu. We have only just started rolling out the basic features and
we have an extremely exciting road map with lots of new and innovative
features that we've worked on for years now - and of course by
listening to our top-notch members (thanks!).
Editor's
note - Issuu is promising some great features but understandably
prefers to keep things under wraps for now. See a recent press release
from their blog and an example of Issuu's capabilities.
Now, a couple of limitations that we mentioned previously:
- Zoom feature: When zooming in on a document, the default means of
navigation is by simply moving the mouse - there is no clicking
involved. While it's nice to easily move a page around, it's also a
little distracting, even disorienting. My hand usually rests on my
mouse - so even the slightest movement moves the entire page. Clicking
on the hand icon at the top of the page turns the feature off, but not
all users will notice this. Also while in zoom mode, you lose the
page-flip effect when clicking to get to the next page.
- Embedded links: Right now you cannot embed links into the PDF files. It would be a nice feature to have.
I've tested Issuu. At first there was a problem uploading the PDF. But
after emailing for support (and a rapid response) the problem was
solved. It appears I simply needed to install the
latest Flash player.
After that, it was easy. I'm impressed ... and looking forward to
Issuu's continued progress.
Issuu has been nominated as a finalist in the SXSW Interactive awards, from hundreds of applicants. If you like what you see, you can vote for Issuu
here.
An example of an Issuu file and choosing to embed the magazine
By David Glassman
__________________________________________
 |
It’s hard to
imagine that just a few, short years ago advanced website video
capabilities were primarily available to large, Global 2000 companies
with the financial means and technical resources to implement. Services
that formerly cost thousands of dollars can now cost as little as $100 a
month — thanks to plummeting hosting and streaming costs due to new
compression technologies, ubiquitous high-speed Internet access, readily
available bandwidth and lower storage costs, to name a few. |
As a result, website managers today can easily implement any number of new media strategies to their Web presence without breaking the bank, including video on demand, user-generated content, podcasts, auction video, audio and video testimonials, product showcases, flash demos and more. There are now sophisticated, easy-to-use Web-publishing tools providing clients of all sizes and industries with a secure, affordable Web-based system for storing, managing, publishing and delivering live and/or archived digital media over the Internet.
In fact, you no longer need a monster budget or even the technical expertise to easily:
- Upload, manage and deliver audio and video assets
- Organize rich media assets and directories in a familiar milieu
- Edit audio and video asset metadata
- Publish rich media assets to the Web
- Retrieve publishing URLs or XML code for embedding assets into existing Web pages.
In addition, website operators and media managers of small, medium and large businesses can now access premier content delivery networks (CDNs) at a fraction of the cost from previous years without meeting onerous volume requirements.
Leveraging today’s established CDNs provides the instant scale and distribution capabilities needed to overcome the delays and connection problems that often complicated internal and single data center solutions of years past.
Today, store and stream solutions are typically subscription-based, so there are no up-front capital expenditure costs, making it an ideal solution for small and medium-sized businesses as well as .org and .edu clients.
As for storing your rich media assets, there’s no shortage of offerings that scale to multi-terabyte storage levels with full back-up protection. Content link information can be automatically generated for rapid set-up and integration, making website video content easily available to users on demand, anytime and anywhere.
Publishing rich media over the Internet has also never been easier.
Off-the-shelf tools enable website publishers to:1. Browse your hard drive for the file;
2. Upload (a publishing URL will be automatically generated); and
3. Paste the URL into your site page or Shockwave Media File, if using Flash.It’s that simple. Publishing staff require little training because store and stream solutions use a standard, intuitive file management interface. And, most solutions support the delivery of practically any type of rich media file.
For example, store and stream solutions enable:
- Publishing of non-streaming media file types which can be delivered via geo-optimized file delivery methodologies. This is an ideal approach when distributing a file to large numbers or recipients and/or geographically distributed audiences simultaneously.
- File streaming services for on-demand access to rich media content.
This ensures that Flash video will play quickly and smoothly to
audiences across most modern computer operating systems.
- Playback through popular streaming formats such as Windows Media, Real
MP4, QuickTime and Adobe Flash. Now is the time to jump on the new
media bandwagon and explore what you can do with video by adding low
cost, rich media alternatives to your website and marketing mix.
About the Author: David Glassman is Chief Marketing Officer of Onstream Media Corporation (Nasdaq: ONSM), a leading online service provider of website video solutions and digital media services. For more information, visit Onstream Media at www.onstreammedia.com or contact David at dglassman@onstreammedia.com or 954-917-6655.
The landing page is the first impression a prospect gets about a product or service when visiting your website. Therefore, it is important to optimize to get your site visitors to take the action you are requesting. Even the slightest improvement (or deterioration) on these pages can make an immediate and major impact on your bottom line.
It is important to note that a landing page is not the step in the sales cycle where a user completes a form – e.g. enters their credit card information. That step is in the virtual sales funnel, referred to as a transactional page. There is a separate set of optimization tips for transactional page optimization, or TPO. The purpose of landing pages is to provide a location for end-users to build confidence through a variety of on-page components. As an affiliate, the challenge many face is convincing buyers to purchase through their website and not another retailer. By giving the consumer a feeling of security, they are more likely to act on your unique selling proposition – buying a tangible product, signing up for a free newsletter, or to complete a lengthy form.
For this purpose, let’s first look at the overarching principles of what makes landing page optimization successful. Only then can we employ the time-tested techniques that make landing pages convert. The simple answer to the question of why one landing page converts better than another is that those with a higher than average conversion rate have mastered reducing buyer anxiety.
Remove Barriers & DistractionsNothing elicits reverse clicks faster than overwhelming amounts of information – whether it’s visual or textual. Your primary goal as a landing page optimizer is to lessen anxiety, help maintain the momentum of the visitor and make a compelling argument about why following one more link will solve a problem. That may sound like a great deal of effort and contradictory to limiting information but, done right, you can provide everything a user needs to know without overwhelming them. By removing unnecessary barriers and distractions, landing pages will convert at a much higher rate. Here are a few things to consider removing, modifying and adding to improve your current landing page success rates:
Make Company/Website Information Readily AvailableThe presence of contact information is a sure sign for many end-users that you are available and committed to solving any problems that arise from website transactions. Successful online businesses recognize the importance of building trust and fostering relationships and include the information consumers need to feel confident in a prominent location. Increase the priority and prevalence of phone numbers, include live-support solutions such as CraftySyntax or emphasize your availability by email. All of these opportunities convey to prospects that you take their concerns seriously.
Product/Service Recognition Is CriticalConsumers arriving on a landing page have certain expectations. Whether they followed a paid link from search results pages, clicked a link from an email or typed in a URL directly, the consumer expects to see and learn more about what was originally offered. For example, if your advertisement offers product support, an emphasis on product support should be prominent on the landing page. Even a minor tweak such as this will enable consumers to quickly identify and move toward the purchase of the specific item they came to find.
Sizes, Shapes And Colors Are KeyEvery user is unique. By testing how components work together on a page, landing page optimizers are easily able to identify what converts their visitors into buyers. If a landing page background is black, try a light blue. If the font size of section headers is 10, increase it to 14. If thumbnail images don’t provide enough product detail, consider implementing solutions like LightBox - a free and very handy utility that enable LPO’s to present product images in an attractive way without interfering with the site experience.
As Always, Don’t Forget to TestOften, key items that make a difference in landing page conversion rates are not obvious. As such, the best way to uncover what works best is through a series of tests. Straight A/B testing is an easy but still very effective method to uncover which on-page variables such as headlines, copy, images and offer pricing matter most to the bottom line.
If unsure where to start testing first, you may want to dig into those customer complaint archives to identify areas your consumers determine faulty. For example, if customers routinely ask for more information before buying, test one landing page as is (sample A) and another with more detailed information about the product (sample B). Run the tests over similar time frames and from the same sources, then compare the results. If you find that Sample B performed better, it appears that providing more information, not less, is the way to go.
Testing will uncover not only what you are doing right, but also the sometimes seemingly inconsequential variables that can actually move the ROI needle. Test early and test often, then watch your conversion rate grow.