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How to sell a digital PDF magazine-style subscription?

by corleone72
7 replies
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I am looking to create a magazine-model (annual) subscription based product whereby customers pay a low-hanging fruit level monthly fee (say $3.99), and receive 3-4 unique eBooks per month for said fee.

This is proving harder than first thought.

The boulders are:

- Protecting the PDFs and indeed the whole library of historic PDFs
- Amazon's seeming reluctance to let any old Johnny sell "magazines" of this type via Kindle
- Our customers' desire to load them on to Kindles etc.

I've got a large, engaged mailing list, the first two months free already lined up, stacks of Facebook and Adwords data...it should be the easiest product I've released.

Can anyone advise on the best way of putting such a thing together?

Any insight very much appreciated.
#digital #magazinestyle #pdf #sell #subscription
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  • Profile picture of the author corleone72
    Looked in to Issuu, but found because they're app based you won't be sent your subscribers' data. There's also concerns from some users surrounding transparency of user numbers and payments.

    I can't believe no one else on WF is looking to do this or has done this.

    - Stripe annual subscription commitment on monthly payments basis
    - PDFs delivered weekly
    - Way to lock said PDFs to prevent piracy
    - Way to get magazine on to app store maybe AFTER customers have handed over payment details (ie. app itself is free, so appears in all searches, but is p'word protected or something?)

    I'm basically in a position to launch my mag, so have done the hard part in some ways...just need to figure out the delivery system now.

    Can anyone help?
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  • Profile picture of the author kate50
    First of all figure out the target audience. Then compile an email list of potential buyers. Then Reach out to them through promotional emails or social media marketing. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
    Originally Posted by corleone72 View Post

    I am looking to create a magazine-model (annual) subscription based product whereby customers pay a low-hanging fruit level monthly fee (say $3.99), and receive 3-4 unique eBooks per month for said fee.

    This is proving harder than first thought.

    The boulders are:

    - Protecting the PDFs and indeed the whole library of historic PDFs
    - Amazon's seeming reluctance to let any old Johnny sell "magazines" of this type via Kindle
    - Our customers' desire to load them on to Kindles etc.

    I've got a large, engaged mailing list, the first two months free already lined up, stacks of Facebook and Adwords data...it should be the easiest product I've released.

    Can anyone advise on the best way of putting such a thing together?

    Any insight very much appreciated.
    Ed Dale put together a platform and coined the phrase "magcasting" a few years back.

    You might like to look at what he has done. https://magcast.co

    The other thing to consider is you might just be overthinking and making the process more complicated than it needs to be.

    You can easily set up a sales page and the subscription with stripe and then publish your content into a members area where people can download, read or watch your content.

    I don't think piracy of your content is going to be a big issue particularly at the price point you have set.

    The big issue is attracting purchasers and reducing churn rates.

    Best regards,

    Ozi
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    • Profile picture of the author corleone72
      Good points thanks Ozi. What I'd really like to do is find software that auto-watermarks each PDF with the individual customer's name/details.

      So essentially you'd be uploading the PDF...then the software grabs it, watermarks each PDF with each customer's details, and then pings it out to them.

      I've found a platform that almost does this called Selz...https://selz.com...but they don't allow you to sell subscriptions and particularly minimum term subscriptions of the type I want to sell. Selz does at least watermark each PDF automatically with customer's details.

      But as you say, perhaps I'm overthinking it. Had a great experience so far with Mighty Networks so maybe I should just put one of those together, publish it to the community each time, and hope for the best on the whole piracy/mass sharing front...
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      • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
        So you are publishing original new content each and every month, right?

        Content gets old quickly so aren't your subscribers paying you for *NEW* original content each month?

        After that it doesn't matter whether the content is watermarked or not because what are you going to do if you find pirated content?

        Do you have the capacity, resources and desire to sue?

        What are your customers going to do?

        It takes effort to monetise content so if you find your material out there and you have the capacity and fortitude to pursue the breach then you better understand IP law rather than go down the route of trying to protect everything to the n'th degree because there is not much point in the exercise because there will always be pirates and there will always be reworked content or derivatives.

        Concentrate on sales and do yourself a favour.

        Best regards,

        Ozi
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        • Profile picture of the author corleone72
          They are paying for new and original content every month but one of the big draws for new subscribers will be access to the historical vault (all the content's of the evergreen variety).

          I'm not endlessly hung up on it, but if there was a way (and feels like there almost is) of automated-watermarking with name then it's worth doing, right?
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          • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
            Originally Posted by corleone72 View Post

            They are paying for new and original content every month but one of the big draws for new subscribers will be access to the historical vault (all the content's of the evergreen variety).

            I'm not endlessly hung up on it, but if there was a way (and feels like there almost is) of automated-watermarking with name then it's worth doing, right?
            I have several membership subscription websites and the archive in the oldest one stretches back nearly seven years.

            Although there is some written content and downloadable material within the sites there is so much content that any subscriber couldn't consume it all at least not in the short term.

            The members stick around because they not only get the new material but they know one day one piece of the content will solve a specific problem they are having and they know they can go and access the archive.

            One of the other stick strategies I use is as part of each "live" monthly broadcast I ask members for content they want to see made for them in the coming months.

            Each of the members has a vested interest in having that specific request met and we gradually add content to match those requests.

            This also builds a good relationship within the group of subscribers because they each benefit from other members suggestions and discussions that go on amongst the groups.

            Sure I watermark each piece of video content and if someone wanted to pirate my material they would be doing me a favour because they would be spreading my message wider and this would encourage traffic back to my sites.

            You maybe better off including good links to your lead magnets and offers within each piece of content and actually encourage a bit of sharing from time to time as it may help you grow exponentially.

            You will always get freebie seekers and people who don't want to pay for content but the key is to focus on the ones who are paying and make their experience the best you can.

            Best regards,

            Ozi
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