I was thrilled to be included in a recent issue of Thom’s virtual magazine In Treehouses. We struck up a correspondence and found his format of a free virtual magazine or “eZine” fascinating and fun and he kindly volunteered to be interviewed. Thom’s issues of In Treehouses are gorgeous, check them out here.
Where did the inspiration for In Treehouses’ format come from?
From a frustration with blogging, really. I’d played around with various blog ideas without ever really getting into my stride, which I know is a frustration for a lot of people out there.
It struck me that it might not be the niche or the subject matter that was the problem, but rather the format itself. I was frustrated by the lack of flexibility in blogging - it didn’t allow for any creative freedom beyond the words themselves.
There’s this great line by David McCandless that you can find in a talk on the TED site, where he says that “we’re all looking for a visual element to our information.” That really resonates with me - there’s so much information online now, even in the blogosphere with all its tips and hints, but we’re not necessarily mentally attuned to reading so much text.
The magazine allows for images and design and space and mood to play a part. One can affect the reader in so many more ways and make a far deeper connection than through a blog post.
How do you measure the distribution - downloads, subscribers?
Poorly. I haven’t fine-tuned my stats side just yet, so the only real metric I go by is the number of visitors and the subscribers I get as a result. Google Analytics and Aweber take care of those two things.
I’m not one for tracking Twitter numbers, as I don’t spend too much time tweeting. I’ve got more subscribers than Twitter followers, comfortably, and I doubt that’s common for most people in this sphere — that’s purely because I focus my efforts on giving value to those who join my list.
And it’s working well. I heard the mighty Erica Douglass the other day (on the equally mighty BlogcastFM) talking about how her sign-up rate for her list is 3% and how that’s apparently really high in the industry. I know it’s hard to do direct comparisons on these things, but I’m currently at about a 16% conversion rate of visitors to subscribers. Which is really gratifying, it shows the efforts are paying off!
What was your goal in creating your eZine and do you feel it helped achieve that goal? How do you measure its success?
The goal was to “make a dent in the universe” as the saying goes. I do it for the love of doing it, but also for the long-term goal of creating a genuinely successful entity out of it. I have big, big ambitions for the magazine and the site as a whole.
What advice would you give people thinking of doing a project like this?
Be patient and persistent. If your tactics are right and the strategy is sound, you’ve just got to keep at it. That’s especially true of doing a magazine that (unlike a daily or weekly blog) only comes out once a month. For 3 weeks of the month you don’t see much traffic or chatter, but it’s worth it for the explosion that comes from the launch week.
What technical skills do you need?
I’m not a designer, but I’ve always played about with design. I think it comes down to having a bit of an eye for it, really, but then again you could easily do a simple magazine that didn’t have pictures and design and was more of a regular PDF text affair. That’s fine.
It’s more a case of kit than skills, I think. I’ve got InDesign and Photoshop, without which the magazine wouldn’t really be possible in its current state. But even with rudimentary kit - or stuff that comes bundled with your computer - it would be possible to do something. You might have to strip it down and make it really simple, but that’s cool - it takes some of the design pressure off.
What has been the biggest benefit from writing In Treehouses?
That’s tough. Everything I have online has come from the magazine, after all. I would say that, above anything, it’s given me inspiration and a creative outlet.
Honestly, if people out there reading this are frustrated by regular blogging then it’s worth considering another format for your creativity and your thoughts and your content. Video blogging, photo blogging, micro blogging - there are so many options and variations.
Everyone frets about the problem being their niche or their voice, or whatever. Maybe it’s just that you’re not a born blogger and you should try a different way of getting your message out. Read this site, for example, and start to rock e-books instead!
Do you plan to launch other eZines in future?
Yep. This actually ties into the next question…
Will you ever monetize your eZine content (or do you)?
I make a bit from affiliate sales, but don’t really try to push that side too hard - I find the active selling of affiliate stuff a bit tiring after a while when others do it.
My current plan to monetize the magazine is to create a second, exclusive, paid magazine that has a limited run and contains more detailed and specialised content. In Treehouses is focused on helping people reach their 1000 true fans - well the new magazine will be focused on helping 1000 people become digital publishers.
I have a big belief that too many people are seeing themselves as bloggers who occasionally publish products, when they should flip that emphasis and see themselves as publishers who blog. Making this mental shift - and changing your setup as a result - is really vital. So that’ll be the focus of the paid magazine.
I’m still developing the idea and the magazine, as I want it to be utterly stunning - so it won’t be available until January, most likely.
