The experienced publishers, running their business for years, have well-structured and great working sales funnels. So they diversify content adjusted to defined target groups accordingly to the different purchase stages. As a result, their sale is growing. What if they want to develop their digital publishing company even more? There’s a way; something that goes beyond content sales. After all, no one has said that this is the only product publishers can sell.
Let’s play with the words for a while – a digital publishing business is a company reaching not readers but customers by offering them not content but products. Everything seems to be correct, but there is a subtle difference, isn’t it?
Talking about the publisher as an entrepreneur broadens the perspective and gives more earning possibilities.
For most publishers, the main sources of revenue are advertising and subscribing. Both methods are strictly related to content. What about monetization as an entrepreneur, a business owner? Well, it is more about the sales of goods.
Content is a core publishers’ product but it doesn’t have to be the only one they offer.
As an entrepreneur, you can sell different things, even more so you have a bunch of loyal fans, a ton of data, and business experience. Why can’t you offer backpacks and mugs if you publish a travel magazine?
Maybe it’s time to take a step further in your digital publishing venture and think seriously about eCommerce as a way to diversify income.
How to Add a WordPress Comments Section to Your Website?
Generating digital publishing revenue has moved from an ad concentrated model to monetization strategies based on paid subscriptions and paywalls. For publishers, this shift means a necessity to concentrate on building an online community gathered around their content. The goal is to transform engaging readers into paying subscribers. Enabling the WordPress comments section, available on desktop as well as on mobile app, can help achieve this goal.
Everyone who has once tempted to read a discussion on the Internet below any article can understand why some publishers decide to disable comments. The reasons seem quite obvious: fear of hate speech, unreasonable criticism or just impolite statements. Constant moderation process requires extra work and, quite often, hiring new employees. It’s easier to close the comments section or… move a discussion to social media channels. The second option means voluntary resignation from keeping readers on publishers’ sites and giving them in the technology giants’ hands.
The possibility of writing (and reading!) comments doesn’t just mean participating in the discussion with the author or other people. It’s an extension of the article, improvement of the journalism value and finally, transformation of passive readers into active ones, which has a huge impact on building a sense of belonging to the group. From here it’s a very short journey to trusting the brand and staying longer with the content, which will result in subscribing and paying. Consequently, you as publishers, journalists and authors face a challenge to be community organizers today.
Where should you start? From making it possible for people to express their thoughts under articles, using different devices they read on. You can do it thanks to tools like Disqus and Facebook Comments.
Get to know how to install the WordPress comments section to start building a circle of your supporters.