Magazine Aficionado | Beginner's Guide to Creating Digital Magazines

Digital magazines are quickly becoming the mainstay as more people use the Internet, computers and mobile devices to access the things that they want to read. With the popularity of e-readers, like Amazon’s best-selling Kindle Fire HD, dropping in price, more consumers are getting onboard the digital bandwagon to enjoy reading in high definition without worrying about paper getting crumpled, spilled on or aged and ruined. If you have ever wanted to try your hand in creating your very own digital magazines, these tips can help you get started.

Focus, according to an article that was published on the popular HongKiat blog, is your first most important step. What topics do you plan on the digital magazines you create covering? Perhaps you want to cover investigative journalism. Or maybe you’d like to set your eyes on tackling something about the fashion industry. Take the time to brainstorm what topics are most relevant to you. From that creative session, you can better decide what your magazine should be focused on.

The next most important step that you will need to take is found in branding. People and readers need to be able to identify with your brand. This involves you building a website (Wix, GoDaddy and Weebly offer free website builders) and then creating a memorable logo (which you can do for free at Logo Garden) so that you can brand your magazine. Don’t forget to set up important social media channels to better expand your reach and connect with prospective readers.

Unless you plan on writing every single page of the digital magazines that you are creating, you are going to require a writing staff. While it is possible to find freelance writers who will work just for a byline, chances are you are going to have to offer something in the form of compensation. The best writer has a good editor, so bear that in mind, too, when piecing together your staff.

Another consideration that you will want to account for is content and images. Thankfully, images are now free from Getty Images - at least most of them - provided you use their imbed link, according to a recent PC Mag article. It is always beneficial to have a professional photographer and content manager (which can be you) on staff to help better organize and deliver your issues. Once you have all of these pieces of the puzzle fit together it will be time to tackle creation, which is the next step listed in this article.

Technology has come very far over the past decade. It’s made so much progress, in fact, that now people have the ability to use online services to create digital magazines. With a number of services that you can choose from, three things matter the most when choosing one: features and amenities, cost of the service and medium delivery options. A good services provider will offer all three of these and more, with web, digital, mobile and social delivery enabled. One provider to consider in this arena of options is ceros.com. This service allows anyone to create digital magazines by utilizing a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that’s feature-loaded. Now that you’ve got your checklist of things to do, it’s time to learn how to use your magazine creation system, so you can get your message out to the masses. Good luck and happy writing!