5 Most Successfull Free Online Magazine PDF Platforms in 2018
In my line of work, I spend a lot of time reading. Unfortunately, it’s not anything glamorous like Stephen King or Dan Brown. Mostly it’s numbers. You see, as much as I try to stay away from it, most businesses are made or broken on their digital marketing success. When my boss told me to put down the spreadsheets, to bin my PPC strategy and quit my weekly blog to make free online magazine pdf, I thought he’d gone mad.
I thought he’d gone even madder when he told me what he wanted me to do instead.
‘Go and make me a free online magazine PDF’
He said he wanted me to start making a free online magazine PDF to share with the world.
I didn’t even know what a free online magazine PDF was, what it should look like or how I could make it.
It sounded expensive, so I asked him what his budget was.
His reply?
Nothing.
He said a friend of his was making free online magazine PDF publications free of charge, and that they had tripled the traffic to their website as a result.
He said he was fed up of throwing money at PPC and online advertising and wanted to try something different.
I asked how he expected me to make a free online magazine PDF without any investment, but he simply said it was my problem.
So, I did some research, and you’re not going to believe what I discovered.
Not only can you definitely make free online magazine PDF publications without any special skills, you can also do it completely free!
I was amazed.
Here’s what I found out about making a free online magazine PDF.
What is a digital magazine?
Before I tell you more about how you can make free online magazine PDF publications, we should make sure we all know what’s going on here.
If you haven’t come across free PDF magazines yourself, perhaps you’re already wondering what on earth I’m talking about!
Well, there are two types of free online magazine PDF publications.
These are:
- Free online magazine PDF publications which are basically scanned copies of regular magazines
- Real e magazine PDF publications which have been created using magazine publishing software
There are pros and cons of both, but don’t be tempted to think that these two free online magazine PDF publications are the same thing.
They aren’t.
A free online magazine PDF which has been scanned from an original is, for a start, infringing the copyright of that company.
It’s illegal to share a free online magazine PDF in this way, so you could get into a lot of trouble.
Aside of that, these types of free online magazine PDF are non-responsive.
That means they don’t resize to fit your screen, so if you want to read them on a tablet or smartphone, it’s just not going to work.
On the other hand, a free online magazine PDF which has been made using magazine creator software has been designed from the ground up to be a digital free online magazine PDF.
That means it’s designed to resize, designed to behave more like a web page and will be a far superior free online magazine PDF to read and interact with.
As you might have guessed, the type of free online magazine PDF we’re dealing with in this case is the second.
By using a genuine PDF magazine creator, you can create magazine publications which are a step ahead of the competition.
Let’s get started on how you can do that.
How to make a magazine?
When you want to start making a free online magazine PDF, you’ll need to do some homework before you start.
It’s no good launching into digital magazine software publishing without a robust plan behind you.
I suggest you consider:
- Who you will market your free online magazine PDF to
- What it will your pdf magazines online free be about
- When you will publish it; how often, which day(s)
- Where it will be hosted, promoted, embedded etc.
- How you will evaluate the success of your free online magazine PDF
- Why you want to make a free online magazine PDF in the first place
By working through these simple questions, you can start to build a picture of the reasoning behind your need for a free online magazine PDF creator.
Having clear goals, targets and outcomes for your free online magazine PDF will help you to target your content to achieve those goals, rather than just writing a free online magazine PDF for the sake of it.
How to create an online magazine?
Now you know why you want to make a free online magazine PDF, it’s time to think about the actual content itself, as well as the digital magazine creator software you’re going to need to get the job done.
When I first started making a free online magazine PDF, I realize I would need several different ingredients in order to put my free online magazine PDF together.
I figured I would need content, images, some design skills and a way to convert my PDF to magazine free of charge preferably.
I had very little money to invest in creating my free online magazine PDF, so I had to look for a free online magazine creator solution, as well as making my own content and images too.
When you’re just starting out in free online magazine PDF publications, the more you can make your own magazine content, the cheaper your project will be.
Here’s how I managed it:
Content
I worked on my written content myself. I’m no Shakespeare, but I can string a sentence together.
I found that by looking at other online magazines free I was able to learn the style and tone generally used in some of the top free online magazines.
I took inspiration for my content from industry news, topics on chat forums and things I’d seen on social media.
By writing just a few hundred words a day, within a week all the content for my first free online magazine PDF was complete.
Images
Some of my articles were about products I sold, so I had some pretty decent images of those already.
Others were more creative, and I didn’t have any of my own images to use in my free online magazine PDF.
However, I found a whole bunch of websites that offer professional quality images of all sorts of things free of charge.
One of my favorites is Pexels, but there is also Unsplash, Gratisography and Pixabay which have large catalogs of pictures.
Layout
This was the part I was most worried about.
I have no design background, and I was painfully aware that no matter how well-crafted and informative my free online magazine PDF content was, if it looked like a student had made it, I wouldn’t get any readers.
You can imagine my delight and surprise when I discovered that many of the best digital magazine software comes pre-loaded with lots of free online magazine PDF templates, ready to drop your content into a go!
Hosting
I wanted to embed my free online magazine PDF on my website, but I also wanted it to be in the public domain too.
After all, my main goal of my free online magazine PDF was to get more traffic to my website, so I needed people to be able to find my flip PDF without already being on my site.
This is where I had to start doing some serious research.
You see, there are so many free online magazine PDF hosting sites out there, it’s near on impossible to know which is the best one to use.
This is the research I want to present to you today, so that you don’t have to endure the hard work it takes to sort the good from the bad.
Becoming an e magazine creator is not hard at all.
With modern technology on your side, you can make a free online magazine PDF without a particularly steep learning curve and without any special skills.
The hardest part without a doubt is finding the right free online magazine PDF platform to host your content on.
The five best free online magazine PDF platforms 2018
Now we get to the juicy bit! I’m going to help you out with five of my favorite free online magazine PDF publishing platforms and give you some of the pros and cons of each.
I hope this will save you some time when you’re creating your free online magazine PDF.
1. Joomag
Joomag is one of the very best free online magazine PDF platforms you’ll find.
It lets you work through every stage of the publishing lifecycle, from converting your PDF to online magazine format through to hosting your free online magazine PDF in a lively environment, it’s one of the best PDF magazine makers and hosting combined solutions I’ve found.
On the upside, this software contains a PDF magazine maker function, so you can design your free online magazine PDF right there on the system.
On the downside, that means you can’t work on your publication offline, and if you want to export your publication away from Joomag, you’ll need to pay.
2. FlipHTML5
This is a top free online magazine PDF publishing platform specializing in flipbook software to give your free online magazine PDF the feel of a glossy publication.
It works across all platforms, including iOS, Android and more, and as much as you can work on your free online magazine PDF online, you can also take your free magazine download PDF and read it offline too.
There are loads of professional templates built into this free online magazine PDF publishing platform, and it’s easy to share your work on social channels as well as email.
However, storage is limited in the free version, and if you want your own logo on the free online magazine PDF, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
3. Issuu
If you ask any free online magazine PDF creator about the best free online magazine maker and hosting service, the name Issuu is bound to come up.
As a free online magazine PDF platform, it’s one of the biggest and most refined out there to create your own magazine.
They have around 100 million users and are part of the LinkedIn group, so the audience for your free online magazine PDF is massive.
The software freely converts your e magazine PDF into a digital publishing flipbook in just a minute or two.
You can share your free online magazine PDF across social networks easily and can host it for free on Issuu’s bookshelf.
On the downside, the sheer volume of publications already on Issuu means your mag will be struggling to compete, at least to begin with.
4. Mag+
As the name might suggest, Mag+ goes one step further than just being a free online magazine maker.
As much as you can make a free online magazine PDF using the software, Mag+ essentially lets you convert your publication to an app which can then be shared on smartphones and tablets.
The software uses a number of built in apps to help you create your free online magazine PDF. For example, Designd from Adobe, Semble for iOS and more.
The big downside with this is that, although you can create an app for your free online magazine PDF, you can’t actually create the free online magazine PDF itself within Mag+.
However, it’s one to bear in mind and perhaps use in conjunction with one of the other free online magazine PDF creators.
5. Zmags
So, Zmags is like the big daddy of the free online magazine PDF publishing world.
The creators wanted to make something faster, smarter and slicker than anything else available, and they’ve pretty much done that with this free online magazine PDF platform.
Zmags claims to publish rich content up to 20 times faster than any other free online magazine PDF publishing platform and say they can increase customer engagement by 400 per cent.
It’s certainly a usable free online magazine PDF platform. The drag and drop functionality make it ideal for a novice, and there are plenty of interactive elements which can be added by publishers.
However, you need to upload a PDF to start creating a free online magazine PDF on the platform, so you’ll need to use another program in combination with this one.
While some free online magazine PDF publishers like to do everything in one place, there are also advantages to not having all your eggs in one basket.
Say you’d fallen in love with a particular free online magazine PDF platform and suddenly they go bust.
Or perhaps triple their prices. If you are unfamiliar with anything else, you’re going to be stuck.
I quite like being flexible with my choice of free online magazine PDF platform, using the best one for my needs at any one time and making best use of all the free trials out there.
Have a look at some of my suggestions and let me know what you think.
Where am I now?
So, at the start I told you how free online magazine PDF publication kind of crept up on me and hadn’t really been something I wanted to do.
Well, a year into my journey and I have to say I absolutely love it.
I get around 10 hours a week to dedicate to free online magazine PDF publication, and they are my favorite ten hours of work.
I have other writers contributing to my free online magazine PDF content now too, as well as a bank off my own images to complement the stock photos I use.
I’m not sure what our readership is at right now, but I know it’s in excess of 1,000 unique visitors a month to each of the three magazines we make.
Pretty good huh?
And yes, of course, we’re getting the traffic we needed to make our website work too.
Try it for yourself and let me know how you get on being a free online magazine PDF publisher too!
