Final Proof Archives

Are you facing off with a B2B magazine in a fight for your industry’s advertising sales dollars? Here is some ammunition to help you close the deal.

Well begun is half done, as they say. Here are some solid tips to help association team members get started with their blog posts.

In one association’s website redesign, the goal was to do it right so the organization isn’t back redesigning again any time soon.

Recognize that the content you create and curate is your hottest tool to keep current members and attract new ones.

Aside from the usual press releases and reports, your website offers evergreen content that your social media audience craves.

Whether marketing a special event, annual conference, new publication launch, or political initiative, here are several good strategies to set you up for success.

Here’s an easy way to gauge if your PR  and marketing campaigns are attracting a qualified audience.

Check out this list of legal issues to consider when using social networking sites to create, manage, and sponsor content.

Be proactive in understanding how a team member’s absence could affect your publishing operations.

Images are the new currency for brands online, but often, the challenge is finding someone to create them. Here are five options for brands on a budget.

The one thing that separates average content from content that stands out is quality.

The new No. 2 network is a must for entrepreneurs, says social media coach.

Check out these best-practice tips on how to improve video shooting, editing, and sharing.

Before undertaking a rebranding effort, identify the specific needs that your brand must satisfy.

Here’s some help on making your case for the power of print in a digital world.

As more content moves from print to digital, association publishers wrestle with how to package access to digital content for members and nonmembers, as well as what stats to report back to advertisers.

Making money in the association world is not equivalent to selling your soul. Here’s how some of your colleagues are boosting sales and revenue in harmony with their organization’s missions and goals.

Here's your first step in getting familiar with the latest tools to help your association promote its blog.

How can you use content PR strategies to shape opinion about your association and move people to act on membership and sponsorship decisions?

Overwhelmed trying to keep up with the latest social media advice? Simplify your 2013 strategy by considering just these three questions.

Numerous U.S. Postal Service changes took effect last month. What do association publishers need to know?

To position your publishing team for success, learn what it takes to sell your ideas to senior management.

Here’s how to turn your association’s webinars into articles or even a book.

Here are five items your next magazine redesign RFP should include to yield the most qualified candidates.

Try these six creative ways to use photos to increase engagement on your association’s Facebook page.

A Content Strategy Task Force may be just what you need to take your content to the next level in 2013.

Learn when — and how — to enforce your association’s rights.

Here’s our list of Association Media & Publishing e-newsletter articles worth revisiting before you open the door to a new year.

What makes a good Hollywood movie? Exactly the same principles that make a great keynote speech, executive presentation, and sales conversation.

Use these ideas to make your association’s next video a content delivery super-tool.

..plus three more ways to avoid web-writing woes.

In the second of this two-part series on taking your book publishing to the next level, ASCE’s Betsy Kulamer explains the terms and technologies you’ll need to know to go digital.

Here are three ways to make sure your article or blog’s main points resonate with members.

Here are several good tips on how to set up your freelance writer for success—and help reduce the headaches on your end.

Everyone is looking for ways to form stronger relationships with current and potential members and customers. Improving your blog-responding techniques will help get you there.

In part one of this two-part series, NEA’s Mary Ellen Flannery outlines her recent experiences in going digital and shares the questions she wishes she had asked ahead of time.

Here are some practical tips for anyone thinking about developing a tablet version of a magazine.

Creating social media ROI is made simpler with the right technology tools.

Some domain names are just too generic to be protected under trademark law. Here's how to help determine if yours will stand the test.

Does awareness equal engagement? Can greater engagement translate into increased membership, more sales, registrations, or other revenue generation for the association?

Does your organization need a more dynamic approach to content curation?

With planning season in full swing, here’s a little expert help on ad pricing and competition.

Here’s how one association uses custom publishing sponsorships to boost revenue without negatively affecting its brand.

Announcing an unpopular service change via social media can set your association up for some ferocious feedback, but a little tough love from your members just might talk your higher-ups out of a huge misstep.

Is social media making your sales team obsolete?

Here are one provider’s insights as well as some prenuptial tips.

Here are several takeaways from a recent Lunch & Learn on how to match up valuable content with the most effective media channels.

A candidate’s ability to apply their skills to your particular job is what counts.

Good web writing calls for plain, action-oriented language.

Here’s what a good printer-publisher relationship looks like with the communication lines wide open.

How can you strengthen relationships among your team members to ensure greater project success?

Before diving into a new design, make sure your whole staff is on board, and team collaboration is at an all-time high.

Through a new readership study, one association discovered that significantly more people learned about its magazine through online app stores than through the association itself.

A website purpose statement maintains focus, aligns with the organization’s mission statement, and helps defend against poor content choices.

Passion for the written word and exploring the "human side” of associations were key takeaways for one attending the Association Media & Publishing Annual Meeting for the first time.

What are the hallmarks of EXCEL Award-winning websites that keep their members engaged?

Association communications professionals need to be ready to help the younger generation transition from social media for fun to social media for business.

You can cut down on a lot of photography-related headaches with clear instructions to your members and contributors—but what details should be included?

Is yours one of those associations that thinks it isn’t glamorous enough for video? Think again.

You’ve just finished writing a great new blog post. You’re excited that you’ve shared your ideas and expertise with the world. But what should you do next?

Here are several good ideas on how to get Facebook’s Timeline working for your association.

10 (mostly) universally true tips for getting great photos from your smartphone.

Dropping your price to make a sale is almost never the right way to go.

Start taking advantage of LinkedIn's full capabilities and change your business card into a multimedia website.

With today’s latest demand printing technologies, any association can become a book publisher.

What if your Twitter conversations could expand to include more people from your online community? Now you can thanks to embedded tweets, a new feature from Twitter.

If creating a digital edition is in your sights, here is some advice on how to begin the process.

Here are some things to consider when beginning the digitization process of lengthy scientific and technical books, standards, proceedings, and journals.

Working off of a single spreadsheet, ASCD learned how to develop customized member content using dynamic fields.

Associations often produce content for educating members. Here are expert tips on making a great learning video.

Here's how to make your association's email messages stand out.

What are average click-throughs and open rates in association emails, and how can you move your own metrics closer to the industry standard?

Middle-of-the-road content doesn’t travel very far.

With these simple suggestions, you can soup up your publication’s style while saving your design budget.

Here’s how to make the case that your association’s knowledge should be managed as a members-only benefit.

When selling advertising in association media products, price is only an issue when it is presented as the primary benefit.

If you’re looking for some ideas on how to celebrate an association anniversary, the story behind the 75th anniversary of AAOS is a rich resource.

This matrix is a good tool to help you justify a new media product—before you waste time, money, and credibility.

Here are eight ways to retrain your brain to notice the little things.

Everyone’s a publisher these days, which means more people are reading content that is not carefully crafted and edited. Don’t let the slackness seep into your own publications.

As association's look into the wisdom of hiring their own social media expert, it’s important to know what skillsets you really need.

Before putting your association’s stories out on social media sites, boost your content quality by thinking through this short list of questions.

It's important to know your strategy for navigating the sometimes murky waters of copyright agreements and publishing contracts.

A simple way to tackle your association’s social media policy needs is to consider your stakeholders’ needs by category.

There’s no easy answer, but one thing’s for sure: You are the first line of defense for your association.

Are any of the advertising or sponsorship opportunities in your pipeline stale? Do you have deals that you thought would close months ago, yet somehow they haven’t?

LinkedIn has updated its company pages to help organizations become more engaged. Here are five steps to help your association harness the new capabilities.

If your website isn't delivering value, don’t blame the technology.

Don’t let your focus on bringing in new advertisers lead to neglect of your current ones.

Important lessons and observations regarding trends in social media for the association CEO.

Here’s a new twist on association career development in a digital world.

Think through how to respond to a "negative” post before one shows up on your website or social media community.

What is most critical to your association’s success in social media?

Here are three fresh strategies for associations focused on driving more members to their websites.

Digital publishing is easy, the e-book market is crowded, and your association’s e-books need to stand out. So what’s your plan?

In the second installment of this two-part series, here are some additional strategies to encourage member authorship in your publications.

Take this list of ideas to your next directors’ meeting and knock their socks off.

Thankful association media professionals expose their top media strategies.

Here are six strategies for achieving more member-bylined articles in your publications.

When it comes to digital editions and mobile apps, sometimes your members might not know what they will use until you give it to them.

Yes, most associations are looking to cut costs—but eliminating print is not always your wisest course of action.

Here’s why and how to ‘de-average’ your survey satisfaction ratings.

Associations can’t just keep spewing forth content. Without a content strategy, impact is lost and the tie between association and member are weakened.

Are you thinking of using social media contests? Do you understand how the law could impact your activities?

Learning to monetize your relationship with members will actually help you better serve their needs.

Here are seven fundamentals to address before you make another advertising sales call.

While conventional marketing wisdom says it’s not a good idea to use social media to promote yourself, an effective balance can be struck between content about and from your association and content that you want to share from other sources.

Follow these friendly reminders to keep your message heard above the Facebook and Twitter clutter.

..and the manager you were meant to be.

Here’s how one association solved the problem of member communications that just kept growing and growing and growing.

Amuse yourself this month by participating in National Punctuation Day activities—and learn (or re-learn) a little something along the way.

Here are some good tips on how to get more out of your Adobe software.

To boost your association website's readership, try applying these simple rules.

Here’s how to avoid burnout when the flow of copy needing your immediate attention appears endless.

Here’s a fresh approach: Monitor the piracy of your content with an eye toward possibilities for new markets, formats, or content offerings.

Are you looking for creative ways to discover what your members’ interests are?

Get familiar with the opportunities of e-books by taking advantage of this association publisher’s lessons learned.

Consider a relaunch carefully – there’s a lot more to it than a redesign.

Lower the cost of publishing on the web by effectively using open-source software tools.

A great new potential tool for associations—or just another darn thing to check?

Arizona Attorney Magazine’s unconventional approach to member engagement resulted in a wildly popular member arts competition.

Dwell editor in chief chronicles journey from magazine to media brand.

While revenue will continue to siphon into new media, print is still a substantial portion of most advertisers’ media mix.

When editors become complacent, errors are left to fester on the page. Your reader deserves more than a hasty once-over by a deadline-laden copyeditor.

The Missouri State Teachers Association shares insights in learning to harness the communication tools of segmentation, social media, and sex.

What does web-based computing mean for associations?

The magazine redesign process can feel a bit like a balancing act. Here’s some advice from the Masons of California on how to strike just the right cord with current members and future generations.

With next year’s editorial calendar due just around the corner, here are three tips for getting into the right mindset for planning and brainstorming.

Striking the right balance between what your members really want, what you can actually deliver, and your association leadership’s expectations is the key to a successful media mix.

Offering content in both print and electronic formats is a cost-effective way to stretch your budget. Here are some design tips for making a successful conversion.

Want your members to spend more time reading your digital publications? Consider a mobile app for your magazine or newsletter.

The growth of the World Wide Web and other Internet technologies raises numerous copyright issues that require publishers to be vigilant about understanding what is free for use and what is not.

Hint: U.S. Supreme Court says yes

Managing volunteers requires political savvy and a grasp of group dynamics, human motivation, and leadership. Here are six strategies to improve your interactions with volunteers.

A media kit is more than rates, dates, and specs. Here's how to develop a kit that tells your association's story.

What’s the role of strategic planning in diversifying your association’s media offerings? Looking back on their own recent experience, the members of one association publishing team share valuable lessons learned.

Stepping into the social media realm? Don’t go in cold.

What questions must be answered to determine the best place for your association to focus its social media efforts?

The business of association publishing is changing, but it still boils down to providing relevant content to all member demographics in the format they prefer.

The practice of co-mailing is "growing like wildfire,” says one major printer. Here’s how you, too, can reduce postage costs with co-mailing.

In this Association Media & Publishing interview with Mari Anne Snow, CEO of Sophia Think Consulting, we take a look at special considerations when associations are developing their social media governance process and strategy.

With the digital age boom, it’s important for association publishers to control their brand—here’s how and why.

In the second installment of this two-part series, we consider the advertising challenges related to reducing a publication’s frequency.

Here’s how to shave two weeks off your production cycle with InCopy.

People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology and Sustainability form the core of a good approach to social media for associations.

Don’t wait another day to consider these cost-cutting measures with your printer partner.

Now is the time when many association publishers are engaging in reader and advertiser surveys to determine how to tweak their association’s media products for the coming year. Here’s how to choose survey questions that will provide the most valuable data.

Exceptional, original content is still your ace in the hole, but here’s how to make sure members get more value from it.

Here’s how to complete a self-critique of your association’s flagship publication and an explanation of why this task should be first on your to-do list.

How do you deliver a high-quality print product when your bottom line is slipping closer to the red?

Social media communications and marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or scary – now, you just have to convince everyone else.

Can This Relationship Be Saved? In this mock "therapy session” at the recent Association Media & Publishing Annual Meeting, Print and Digital see if they can find a way to coexist peacefully—and effectively.

Digital reading devices limit a publication's design, atomize its content, and separate readers from publishers. You want them anyway, Time Inc.'s Peter Meirs told Association Media & Publishing members at a recent Lunch & Learn—here's why.

Association professionals discuss best practices for measuring editorial engagement.

When your members type your organization's specialty into Google, what does the search results page return? Is your association at the top? Near the top? Nowhere near the top? Here are several steps that will maximize your chances of landing at the head of a potential member's next Google search.

More than a dozen individuals gathered at an Association Media & Publishing Annual Meeting roundtable to discuss challenges they've encountered in transitioning publications fro print to online, as well as strategies to alleviate the pain. Here's what has been keeping them—and many others in the association publishing industry—up at night.

Are you getting results from your association's blog? Is it getting harder for you to spend time on your blog because you're just not seeing how it is going to pay off? Hundreds of blogs are started each day, and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going. Here is a quick checklist of the most common mistakes professionals make in their blogs.

How do you drastically rebalance a diminishing publications budget without compromising the information needs of your membership? Here's a roadmap to how one association worked through its own near-death experience and actually came out with stronger publications and a new e-bulletin as well.

When is it a good idea to expand your association publication's audience, and what are the best strategies to get you there?

What can you learn from a communications audit, and how can it lead to actionable results?

Here are answers—and additional resources--to address your questions about podcast technology, interview format, editing, and more.

Your colleagues discuss if it is necessary for association bylaws to list the association's magazine as a member benefit or assign it a dollar value.

When creating content for members, more is not better, and the most successful association media products are those that address the needs of multiple demographics. Here are several good insights on how to grow and engage your membership through great content planning.

Putting your magazine out for bid isn't always fun and games. While, there is no right or wrong number when it comes to how many bids you request, here's how to get the most out of your print bid process.

When is it a good idea to expand your association publication's audience, and what are the best strategies to get you there?

A roundtable group of association publishers and sales reps share their trials, tribulations, and strategies for selling advertising in the current climate.

The most important way to protect your publication's advertising sales during an economic downturn is to make sure it is positioned and viewed as the leading authority in your industry.

Selling advertising is tough in this market, but your association can survive the down cycle through a deeper knowledge of the trends and some expert advice on to end up on top.