If you have got a passion, let the world know it. Ever thought of owning a magazine wherein you can showcase your passion? Well, publishing your own magazine will help you expose your passion and talent to the world. Moreover, you can ever earn from your passion. All you have to do it show your work to the world. According to the latest data from market research, 44% of consumers (11 out of 25 people) read at least one printed magazine each month. This number is in sharp contrast when compared to 27% – the percentage of people who usually read 1-2 digital magazines each month. This not only means there is still a major demand for printed media, but also that the gap between print and digital is still quite big. A magazine is a fantastic way to showcase your passion with the world and the right audience. A company magazine is the best way to impress your clients and sell more products. To help get you started, this article will provide you with an overview of ten actionable steps that you will need to take for publishing a magazine to follow your passion. Let’s dig right in!
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Start with market research
Before you take any step in the direction of self-publishing your own magazine, you should try and perform enough research on your various factors like:
- Doing competitor research
Find your main competitors in the niche you are planning to target. Be it online or in stores, you will find them. In case, you can’t find competitors, chances are there’s no market for the kind of content you want to publish.
- Finding your audience
It’s important to know who will be reading your magazine. Find your audience and create plan your magazine accordingly. The content needs to not just appeal but to mimic their interests closely. For doing this, you will need to know much more than just their age and gender – their likes, dislikes, hobbies, and basically what really makes them tick.
- Identifying your USP (unique selling point)
What demands from the audience do you think other magazines are unable to fulfil? How your magazine will achieve what they have been unable to do?
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Decide on your budget
You will need to put together a tight budget in place in order to ensure sustained growth. Once you have a clear idea of how much money you are willing to spend on your magazine, you can then plan about magazine printing and distribution, plus any additional investment that the business operations may require initially. As this must the first time you are opting for magazine printing, it should be cost effective.
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Run promotional marketing campaigns
A lot depends on how you promote and sell your magazine, especially in the early stages of its readership growth. You can complement the magazine with a website, where people can go and buy a subscription online. Next, leverage social media and search engines to promote the magazine (and the website). You can target people who are in your target demographics and follow magazines (or publications) similar to yours and take it from there if you like.
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Create high-quality content
Needless to say, the lifeblood of any publication is its content. Get in touch with good writers who can regularly contribute to your magazine and get a bunch of them to create some awesome content for you every single month, consistently. Remember that your content represents your company. So, no compromise should be done with content quality.
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Do the ‘required’ editing
If you have executed the previous steps nicely, you will by now have a bunch of good quality articles ready to go. Start editing them but make sure you don’t completely change what the writer might have tried to present in the content. Writers are generally happy to work with a publication that doesn’t try to completely alter their articles.
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Get creative with the layout
If you are new to this step, take inspiration from other magazines and notice the basic common structures they generally use in order to make the content appealing to the readers. You may need desktop publishing software and stock photos, to begin with. Or simply hire a designer and let them take care of all this for you, if your budget allows.
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Get proofreading done
When it comes to printed magazines, there is no room for errors. Once you have ordered custom magazine printing and the print has gone to the press, there’s no coming back. This is why it’s recommended you do the proofreading yourself to start with, but you can always have someone (or multiple people) proofread for you.
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Zero in on the right printing partner
So once everything is set, you are ready to print your copies. Look for cost-effective printing services. Make sure to check the previous work of your printing company. They should be an expert and know how to do their work at its best.
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Do thorough quality checks
Keep in mind that what you see on a computer screen doesn’t always reflect the final product exactly. Of course, it will have the same layout, but the output may be different when it comes to the colours and the quality of images. So it’s recommended to use images with a 300 DPI resolution and also make sure none of the images is running off or close to the edge of a page.
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Share the final draft with the printing company slightly ahead of time
Opt for printing companies who will help you get the magazine printed exactly the way you want it to look. But it’s essential to have a schedule in mind, so you are not late for sending it to print and then running around the day before the magazine is supposed to go out for distribution. Save yourself those headaches!