I Like Crochet has improved upon their already best-practice web magazine with collections, clubs, and previews.
It’s genuinely thrilling to be in the publishing industry at this moment and time. Think about how one of the defining factors of millennials is that they have been alive to experience life with and without immediate access to the Internet on demand. Meanwhile, many of us have experienced a similar opposite in the magazine industry – life before and after digital magazines. Less than ten years ago, the majority of magazine subscriptions were in print, and now digital magazines make up 37% of all magazine readership, according to our 2018 Mequoda Magazine Consumer Study, and we predict that number will rise to 40% by 2020.
Back in 2014, we partnered with Prime Publishing to launch America’s first web magazine. Since then, we’ve launched more than a dozen and have learned a lot. Prime’s web magazine, I Like Crochet, is a linear, finite edition of a magazine. Readers progress through the magazine the same as they would an app or print magazine, except the pages are built in HTML and read like a webpage.
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Unlike the magazine app edition, the web edition is accessed on the Internet through a web browser, meaning that it’s accessible on any device and any platform, without restrictions. And unlike print magazines, it also delivers access to a library of all past articles and special curated collections, instantly available with just a click.
Back in March, we reviewed some updates to their best-practice web magazine which included updating payment processing systems, taking advantage of SFG’s “FlexPage” system, and enabling single copy pricing. You can see how and why we made these updates in America’s First Web Magazine Gets a “Face Lift”.
We’ve recently made more updates, and since I Like Crochet is a best-practice web magazine, we wanted to share what these updates included to make their web magazine better than ever.
Launched Collections.
Curating special collections is something that all of our clients are adopting. It involves creating pages within your web magazine where you curate a number of articles from your archive.
Special interest articles are often quite evergreen, and even those that show their age are often of interest as they reflect tastes and styles from an earlier time. You can create a collection around themes, and also take advantage of the depth of your library content to create collections that focus on coverage that is no longer part of the current magazine.
Under a tab called “Collections” on the magazine website, subscribers to I Like Crochet get 13 new collections per year. If you are looking for baby blanket patterns, it might be overwhelming to search through their large library of patterns, so the editors picked 7 of the patterns they deem the “best” to showcase in their collection called The Best Baby Crochet Patterns Collection: 7 Little Designs. Learn more about creating special collections here.
Additionally, visitors can now buy access to a single collection or be up-sold to the collections club.
Launched the Gold Club.
I Like Crochet now offers different levels of membership, marked by Bronze and Gold. Several months ago, we started an onboarding series to import subscribers across their databases, where people could opt into a “Bronze Club Membership” to I Like Crochet, which is their basic membership.
The Gold Club, their most popular offer, includes just about everything I Like Crochet creates. It includes a full year to the Magazine Club, with print, web, and tablet editions of the magazine, and access to their library which contains all past issues with 600+ patterns and 150+ new patterns every year. It also includes a full year’s subscription to the I Like Crochet Collections Club which includes over 100 exclusive designer patterns, and their mini crochet collections.
This approach has been successful so far. Any time someone tries to subscribe to either the Collections Club or Magazine Club, they’re presented with the Gold Club as the best offer. This is causing the majority of orders to upgrade to the Gold Club.
Launched Library Previews.
I Like Crochet has always published some content for free, but now they are releasing informational Library Previews. These are posts, also distributed through email, that preview content from the library in an effort to shed light on what’s available for those who aren’t subscribed, and curate content for those who are. Many of our clients use the preview format to tease collections on their sites, while I Like Crochet is focusing their previews on one crochet pattern from a past issue or collection, highlighting the item and the designer.
These are all significant improvements for I Like Crochet, and the updates are already paying off. If you’d like to explore how we could double or triple your online magazine, newsletter, and membership revenue, please schedule a free consultation with a member of our marketing services team.
