What to look for in Digital Publishers

The move from print to digital can be overwhelming due to the massive amount of choice available and the most complicated task seems to be finding the right provider that meets all of your requirements.

To help you in your quest, here are a few key points (in no particular order) to consider when deciding between all of the products currently available:

1) Platform (Web, Flash, Custom)

There are essentially three ways to go here:

Web-based content (based upon existing technologies the generally deliver static images)
Pros: Universal availability, economical
Cons: Limited user interface, no security

Enhanced Web Content via Flash/Silverlight
Pros: Highly Customisable Interface and enhanced functionality
Cons: High Bandwidth, only available on supported platforms (NOT iPhone), not natively available to search engine spiders

Custom Solutions(requires the installation of the supplied interface)
Pros: Highly Customisable Interface and enhanced functionality and security
Cons: Limited to supported computer systems

Flash is by far the most common platform, but even amongst this category there is a lot of variation between offerings.

Advice: Try before you buy!!

2) Integrated Commerce

If you want to sell your publication online, your providers should be able to provide integrated secure, multi-currency commerce options that can handle small monetary amounts. Being part of a larger stable of publications is a big advantage here and so an evaluation of market presence is worthwhile. In my experience digital sales are hard work unless you are very aggressive in your marketing. People will always prefer paper unless there are some BIG advantages in digital and so consider this when looking at selling your content online.

Advice: If you REALLY need commerce, find a provider that specializes in this area.

3) Customisation

Most of the free digital publisher offerings are built around the promotion of their brand names and may include advertising or other distractions. Most pay for use products allow a high level of integration and customisation so can provide a truly corporate solution.

Advice: For complete control, find solutions that allow you to customise the experience for your users.

4) Hosted or Local (or both)

Many newbies to digital publishing like the idea of hosting their digital offerings on their own websites. While there are some advantages to this approach, without considerable resources you may lose functionality and reliability when compared to the hosted offerings available. Some providers provide both Hosted and standalone offerings.

Advice: So long as your customer cannot tell if your solution is locally available or hosted elsewhere, they will not care.

5) Security/DRM

If the protection of your intellectual property is a prime concern, then all of the providers have various levels of security available with the more secure options being more expensive. Digital Right Management can though be an impediment to customer satisfaction, and there are few systems that are willing to totally guarantee the security.

Advice: DRM is expensive, and may be an impediment to sales.

6) Enhanced functionality (click capture, multi-media, forms, re-purposing)

Every digital offering is different and so it is important to get to know how each works to see that it your chosen offering fulfils your personal requirements.

Advice: If additional functionality such as multimedia, users interaction or content re-purposing is important, select a solution that fulfils these needs.

7) Reporting/Statistics/Search Engine Optimization

The depth of the reporting available is an important consideration for publishers and is especially useful to drive advertising revenue. Also choose providers that allow the content to be indexed by search engine robots to make sure that your publications feature on their pages.

Advice: Web statistics are an important tool to provide you with a level of detail and direct information about your customer base. Opening up the content to search engines is important for the visibility of your offerings.

8) Price

Free offerings generally offset their costs in providing the service with advertising and limited functionality. Paid options generally have more flexibility and reliability. Be careful though on the basis that you are charged. Some platforms, like Flash, can use huge amounts of bandwidth, and because you cannot necessarily control how many people see your offerings, be wary of arrangement that charge by Gigabyte or page view.

Advice: You pay for what you get

9) Support

Despite all of the advances, getting the best results out of digital publishing requires considerable time and expertise.

Advice: Get a partner that can work with you.