Peter Ericson, Founder of ZEEN101, talks to your host Vahe Arabian of State of Digital Publishing about the state of subscription management and how to make the most of your leaky paywall. ZEEN101 is WordPress-powered publishing, subscription and management solution. Peter offers tips on how publishers can monetize new and archived content, which new growth strategies are crucial, and ways that print and digital subscriptions are adapting to technological advances.
Episode Highlights:
- Peter Ericson explains what ZEEN101 is all about.
- Is there a reason ZEEN101 just focuses on WordPress?
- Does focusing on one platform limit helping more publishers?
- How does Peter see the current state of subscription management solutions?
- What are the tech trends that Peter sees?
- Is how people consume content affecting subscription management?
- Has ZEEN101 built products that can be used as WordPress plugins?
- When publishers want to go online and take subscriptions they are generally surprised by how many new subscribers come onboard.
- How does legacy content effect digital subscriptions?
- What are some growth strategies that publishers use?
- Why are paywalls the way to go?
- You do need to give your readership some free content.
- Local publishers have the opportunity to be the go-to solution for local content.
- Peter discusses the benefits of creating special issue content.
- What are the potential opportunities for local publishers?
- What are some creative ways to monetize content?
- What new products and services are ZEEN101 working on and offering?
3 Key Points:
- 50% or more of readership is happening on mobile devices.
- About 60% of all websites are built on WordPress.
- Publishers must aggressively build an email list to get consumers in their sales funnel.
Tweetable Quotes:
- “I’m biased of course, but I’d say WordPress gives you the most flexible subscription paywall setup possible.” – Peter Ericson
- “One of the things we are doing a lot now is working with magazines and integrations with their fulfillment services, and I would say some newspapers too.” – Peter Ericson
- “Apps are really part of the secret to success because it will provide the best reading experience and subscription experience.” – Peter Ericson
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