Publisher profile

Q+A with Merritt Design’s Jennifer Koskinen

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No sooner did Jennifer Koskinen begin using MagCloud to showcase her architectural photography work than she found herself designing MagCloud magazines for her clients, too – quickly parlaying her architectural firm into a photography and graphic design boutique. In fact, MagCloud was a source of inspiration for transforming her architectural skills into graphic design skills.

“I love the creativity of designing photographs and then thinking of how to best present them,” Koskinen says. “MagCloud makes it easy and affordable to experiment with design ideas and try new things.”

  How did your architecture work lead to your new career in photography?

Jennifer Koskinen I fell in love with photography when I got my first camera in the eighth grade. But I’d never considered working as a photographer. I pursued a career in architecture, instead.

After a few years of design work, my firm hired me to shoot scouting photos of one of our projects in pursuit of publication. So I submitted my photographs to a magazine, thinking they’d send their own photographer to reshoot them.

The magazine loved what I sent and wanted to publish them. It was just the validation I needed to start shooting more, and soon I realized that I felt more creative photographing architecture than designing it. I absolutely love photography! It’s hard to believe that I get to do this for a living!

  How did MagCloud inspire you in your graphic design business?

JK I started creating my own magazines with MagCloud to give to existing and potential clients. Everyone loved them, right from the start, and wanted me to design magazines for them, too. I’ve created eight MagCloud magazines so far for other architects, builders, chefs, jewelry designers and so forth, with two more in the works. My clients in turn use the magazines to market their work, which makes for fabulous co-marketing for all of us!

  How did you get started publishing through MagCloud?

JK I’d been interested in self-publishing in general, but could find solutions only for books. When I came across MagCloud, I was immediately excited. The first thing I designed was a magazine for my architectural photography. The magazine format was intriguing, so I even wrote stories and included advertisements for some of my clients.

  How has MagCloud made a difference?

JK Next to my website, distributing my MagCloud magazines to potential clients is the most important thing I can do to attract business. I love the reaction that I get from people when I hand them out. People visibly respond to something they can hold in their hands and flip through at their own pace. I see them feel the paper and the weight of it. The pages hold the color so well. It’s one thing to see my images on a computer monitor – it’s nice to see them in print, too.

There’s nothing else out there that beats the quality and the price point better than these magazines. They’re invaluable, and they give my business credibility. There’s no doubt that my sales have dramatically increased because of MagCloud.

  What tips would you give to someone new to self-publishing?

JK Dive in. When I set out to design something, I look at things I love, study graphical trends, fonts, proportions – even white space and how it’s used. It’s really fun to play with, and MagCloud’s templates make everything so easy. I recommend studying what you like and then creating something that’s your own, including things you’ve noticed and like in other people’s designs. Have fun and try things you’ve never done.

  If your publication were a superhero, who would it be?

JK Pixelgirl! She’s a stylish superhero who can fly – cameras in tow – from location to location, harnessing her amazing powers of composition and her ability to capture the most dynamic subjects in the most beautiful light. And she gets home in time to cook dinner for her son!

Q+A with Alyssa Yuhas of WLWL Magazine

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Toronto-based graphic designer Alyssa Yuhas specializes in branding and online design for a variety of clients across North America. But she’s never forgotten her longtime love for print magazines and the thought of working for one.

When she discovered MagCloud, she realized right away that she could publish a magazine of her own. So in 2008, after “months of planning, days of designing, hours of procrastinating (sometimes you just have to) and minutes of pacing,” Yuhas excitedly launched We Like We Love.

  Tell us about We Like We Love.

Alyssa Yuhas WLWL is exactly what the title says – we share the things we like and love. We showcase people who are passionate about their contributions to the worlds of lifestyle, fashion, arts and culture. If you’re passionate and excited about what you’re doing, we want to tell your story.

  Why print and not just online?

AY I’ve always been really interested in magazines – I’ve loved them since I was little. I love the physicality of holding a magazine and flipping through the pages. Online is awesome, but I really wanted the physical object. When it’s in print, people are excited to get involved in it.

  How has your MagCloud publication improved your business?

AY It has given me some great exposure, and we’ve been able to participate in several communitywide events because of the magazine. Plus, it adds credibility to my graphic design business. Potential clients see my name on the masthead, and that’s brought a lot of new work and contacts.

  How has publishing a magazine changed for you in the past five years?

AY We watch our Google Analytics and our MagCloud statistics – and we’re excited to see that the magazine keeps growing and growing. In fact, the MagCloud views of our magazine have increased by 158 percent since our first issue.

We hear from people every day, and we’re getting more and more contributors from all over the world. I think our quality is improving, and people see that we publish on a consistent basis. Establishing that longevity has been fantastic – it helps us earn our readers’ trust.

  How did you get started with publishing through MagCloud?

AY I can’t remember how I found MagCloud but I definitely remember thinking, “This is the best thing ever!”

WLWL is really well printed and gorgeously bound. And now we have new size and binding options. It’s so cool that print on demand is now possible for anyone at a very low cost. Anyone can start a magazine now.

  What tips would you give to someone new to self-publishing?

AY Focus on both design and content. It’s important that your magazine be visually appealing and exciting, and also that people will delve into the stories. You need to strike that balance.

  If you were stranded on a desert island, which books would you want with you?

AY The Chronicles of Narnia series. That was my favorite as a kid. The language and visuals are beautiful. I could reread them over and over again.

Q+A with Paul Lips of Toobydoo Childrenswear

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You don’t often find an expert in economics spending the day sketching designs for children’s rompers, tiny T-shirts and extra-small sweaters, but for Paul Lips, it’s a dream come true. This Holland-to-New York transplant had worked in the business side of fashion long before taking the leap to the design side – something he’d wanted to do since childhood.

Since launching his New York City-based Toobydoo children’s wear line in 2008, sales have more than doubled each year. Key to that, Lips says, is MagCloud’s ability to quickly print his high-quality catalogs and ship them to garment showrooms around the world. ”For buyers who’ve never seen our clothing up close and in person, MagCloud helps us present our products well,” he says.

  Tell us more about Toobydoo.

Paul Lips We’re a lifestyle design label for children, ages 0 to 8. Our philosophy is “go happy, go lucky” with “to be, do!” attitude. I think you see that in our garments. Children’s clothing should be fun – but it’s also about function. It has to be washable, easy to put on and easy to wear. There are all kinds of criteria to take into account, and I like having to keep that balance in mind.

  As a small business, how has custom publishing fit into your marketing plans?

PL We present our fashion collections through a line sheet that lists our products and specs – for example, age, price and style numbers. And then we produce a lookbook that features models wearing our garments in various lifestyle poses.

In fashion, it’s important to get from an initial idea to a product very quickly. We can do a photo shoot and, two days later, we can upload our line sheets and lookbook to MagCloud and have them instantly available in showrooms. Every day counts. If you don’t have your catalogs in the showroom when buyers are ready to buy, you’ll lose the order. They’ll buy someone else’s line.

  What got you started with publishing through MagCloud?

PL We were pretty early adopters. Our photographer mentioned it to us as an interesting way to produce our catalogs and ship them internationally. From that point on, we have always used it.

Our customers require that we have line sheets and lookbooks. They like the way our pieces are bound – it’s exactly what they want. They look at them, they circle items they like, they write notes on them. They can take the books with them. It makes it easy for them to order our products, and that’s what we want.

The quality is a perfect fit for us. And with MagCloud, we don’t have to order large quantities. If something changes in our line sheet – for example, we discontinue a certain garment – we can easily update the sheet and send it out again.

  What are your tips for someone new to self-publishing?

PL MagCloud is easy. The costs are so low that you can afford to experiment with different approaches. And you don’t have to buy a lot of software. You probably already have what you need on your computer. We use PowerPoint to lay out our pieces. You’ll be amazed with what you can do with the tools you already have.

  What author, artist, photographer or musician would you most like to have over for dinner?

PL Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. I like how he strikes a balance between playful and practical. That’s what I strive for in all of our designs.

Q+A with LIVESTRONG Magazine’s (SPOT ON Media) Margot Sandenbergh

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When Tour de France superstar Lance Armstrong’s foundation needed someone to create and publish his LIVESTRONG Quarterly magazine, it turned to magazine publishing expert Margot Sandenbergh. When Sandenbergh needed a way to offer the magazine as an on-demand product, she turned to MagCloud.

“With custom publishing, you control everything – how it looks, what’s in it, who gets it and how often to publish it,” says Sandenbergh, CEO and cofounder of New York City-based SPOT ON media. “Custom media is one of today’s fastest-growing marketing tools, and one of the best ways to strengthen the bond between a company and its customers – or in this case, a cancer advocacy organization and its supporters.”

  Tell us more about SPOT ON media.

Margot Sandenbergh We develop custom marketing tools for business and nonprofits. We create original content, which might take the form of magazines, video and online or mobile applications. As part of our media service we help our clients define and refine their strategies for customer relationship marketing.

Today’s audience is very media savvy. People are now immune to the same old marketing messages – they almost have an inner voice that acts as a gatekeeper. Our job is to tell them something they don’t know, and make it useful, interesting and entertaining while we do it.

  Why magazines?

MS Because they work. We know that 92 percent of readers spend an average of 30 minutes reading a magazine – 45 to 50 percent read it cover to cover. More than half have purchased a product or a service as a direct result of reading a customer magazine. And 39 to 42 percent keep their magazines or pass them on to friends and colleagues.

  What got you started with publishing through MagCloud?

MS MagCloud is an idea whose time has come. We were looking for a print-on-demand solution and saw an article about MagCloud. We started testing it in 2008, and we’ve kept up with all the improvements since then. We love the perfect-bound binding and the iPad solution.

One of the great benefits of print-on-demand is that it removes the high upfront printing costs, which is great news for small publishers or nonprofits. Nonprofits often have a loyal membership base that is willing to buy the publication from the MagCloud “newsstand.”

  How has MagCloud made a difference?

MS We’ve been able to reach a larger audience. We have an international audience of more than 90 million yellow wristband supporters. We couldn’t possibly print that many magazines. The iPad version on MagCloud is perfect for many people in our audience, but those who prefer a print version can also buy it from the MagCloud site and have it shipped to them anywhere in the world.

We’re creating a 15th-anniversary issue for October 2012. This special keepsake issue celebrating the milestones of LIVESTRONG, will have an indefinite shelf-life – thanks to MagCloud.

  What are your tips for someone new to self-publishing?

MS Know your audience and think about what makes your content unique. It’s always advisable to survey your readers about their interests. We try to use writers and editors who represent our audience – health writers, cyclists, cancer survivors and advocates. That allows for a rich editorial base and content.

  If your publication were a superhero, who would it be?

MS Every cancer survivor is our hero.

Q+A with Professional Photographer James Worrell

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Simplicity, color and humor. These are the keys to the powerfully graphic images that James Worrell’s clients depend on to tell their stories and sell their products.

When it comes to promoting his work to new clients and keeping connected with previous ones, the New York City-based editorial and advertising photographer uses those same concepts to stand apart from his competitors.

“To have an affordably and beautifully printed version of my portfolio in this day and age when everything is online – it’s extraordinary, and it makes a lasting impression,” Worrell says. “There’s something still wonderful about the printed piece.”

  Tell us more about your work and your “Photography for Thinking” philosophy.

James Worrell I’ve been a still-life photographer for the past 17 years, shooting everything from cosmetics to food. What I love to do the most is conceptualized still life. Clients will call with rough ideas – maybe they’re telling the same story over and over and they need a new way to present it visually.

That’s where “Photography for Thinking” comes in. My wife and I bounce ideas off each other, produce sketches and send them to the client. The back-and-forth process starts from there.

  How does publishing your portfolio fit into your marketing strategy?

JW My clients are inundated with marketing pieces from photographers and other creative types. So if I can do something slightly different and slightly more special, I’ll increase my chances that someone will pick it up, look at it and even save it.

MagCloud is a wonderful tool that allows me to do a substantial piece, in short print runs, and get it out there at a decent price. And, from a visual perspective, it looks really good. A lot of print-on-demand services are expensive and the quality is poor. My brand is my brand – everything I produce is of the highest quality.

I always turn to MagCloud for part of my marketing process. You have to keep working and exploring ideas, and you have to remain excited about your work. MagCloud is one of those platforms that keeps you fresh.

  You did a very special promotional piece this summer.

JW Yes, in July we ordered 70 custom-printed boxes with my logo on them, each with a light bulb jar filled with yellow M&Ms candy – some had a star printed on them; others featured “Think Worrell.” And we included a 40-page printed catalog of my work called “Worrell: Photography for Thinking.” We created the catalog using MagCloud. We hand-delivered about 45 boxes and mailed the rest. Plus, we shot a fun video of how we pulled the whole package together.

That promotion resulted in three strong gigs right away and several nice thank-you emails from clients and potential clients.

  What got you started publishing through MagCloud?

JW I’ve always been an early adopter of technology. I read about MagCloud on a photo blog, right when the service was introduced. I’ve stuck with the service because it works.

  What tips would you give to someone new to self-publishing?

JW My best piece of advice is: Don’t overdo it. MagCloud offers a simple, elegant platform. Just get started. Don’t overthink it. Use it for what it is: a way to show your work.

  If your portfolio was an ice cream flavor, what would it be and why?

JW I see my business as the perfect vanilla ice cream cone – not some crazy Ben and Jerry’s flavor – just a simple, elegant vanilla. Usually, less is more and the simplest idea can be the most effective, if you produce it properly.

How to Personalize Your MagCloud Page

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If you’re using MagCloud to create collateral for your business, portfolios for photography, catalogs for your retail store, a unique magazine, or other content to promote your brand, then shouldn’t your MagCloud page reinforce your brand too?

It’s easy to make your MagCloud profile and publication pages work for you by taking a few minutes to flesh out your publisher profile and create header images that reinforce your brand throughout your pages.

Your Publisher Page

No matter what sort of business you’re into, when customers discover your content on MagCloud, you want them to be able to connect with you directly. Your profile page includes an option to link directly to a website of your choosing, and with some simple html you can also include hyperlinks, images and emphasize text within your profile description.

To get started, you’ll need to log into your account and go to your publisher profile editor.


Link to a website: <a href=”URL”>link</a>

In our Jane Doe example, we used some of MagCloud’s allowed HTML tags to include more links in Jane’s profile. To add a link to your website without having to include the whole website URL, you can simply insert a block of text like below:

Curious about more recent work, or what I’m up to?
Check out my <a href=”http://yourwebaddress.com”>blog</a&gt;.

It will show up in your profile like this:

Bold Text: <b>text</b>

To create bold text, you just need to add <b> before your selection and </b> after. We did this with our Jane example like this:

Hi! I’m Jane, and here on MagCloud you can find all of my portfolios, pricing guides, photography workbooks and collateral for my photography business <b>NotYourAverageJane</b>.

Which then looks like this:

Emphasize/italicize Text: <em>emphasis</em>

To add the title of Jane’s autobiography in italics we used the code for emphasis. Simply put <em> before the text you want italicized and </em> after the text to close the emphasis:

Want to find out more about me, and my life behind the lens? Be sure to check out my 200-page autobiography <em>Don’t Call Me Jane</em> available for purchase here on MagCloud.

Which will appear like this:

Image Link: <img src=”URL”>

You can also insert images or logos into your profile by linking to the image within the text using <img src=”URL”>. This requires that the image is the size you want it to appear in the profile, and that it already has an associated URL. It’s best if this image is pulled from your own website (like your logo) or if you have loaded a special sized image onto your own flickr or other photo host that allows linking directly to the image. If you link to a resource that you don’t control, you might run into broken links if the image is ever moved. For Jane’s example we linked the social media icons that she already had on her blog. This example actually includes two pieces of html, one for the icon image, and then the following text which links to the associated LinkedIn URL:

You can also find me on
<img src=”http://notyouraveragejane/images/LinkedIn_IN_Icon_25px.jpg&#8221; />
<a href=”http://linkedin.com”>LinkedIn</a&gt;

Which will appear like this:

Your Collection Page

For every group of documents you create, you get to have a “collection page” which can have it’s own branded banner and unique URL. This is great if you have a selection of related documents that you want to be able to promote as a group. A great example of this is MagCloud publisher, Golfweek, which has created collections of Souvenir Golf Programs and Golfweek Special Editions. Each collection reinforces the Golfweek brand and furthers their messaging but keeps relevant content together. Check out their banners below:

Customizing with Banners

Want to create your own branded banners? To setup the custom banner for a collection, you must first create the graphic that you plan to use. The banner specs require an image with a maximum size of 790 x 90px, in either JPG, GIF, or PNG formats. You can create this image in any software application of your choosing that can output to one of these formats. You can also upload a smaller image–it’s up to you.

Uploading Your Banner

Once you have your image ready to go, you’ll want to navigate to your collection page. You can get here by visiting your profile page (yourusername.magcloud.com) or by going to one of your publications via magcloud.com/publish. On the right-hand side of the page, you will see an “Add a Custom Banner Image” button.

Once you have clicked the button, you will be prompted to find the image file on your harddrive, and upload it to MagCloud.

The image you upload will be visible on the associated collection page,

and on each of the individual publication pages within that collection.

Have you used custom banners or any of these HTML tricks in your publisher/publication descriptions?
If so, please share them below in the comments section to inspire others.

Publisher Spotlight: Fotoblur Magazine

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After struggling to get his work published in print, software developer and photography enthusiast Lance Ramoth set up a little spot on the Internet where he and a few photographer friends could easily post their fine art images. Through the site, Ramoth reckoned, they could encourage one another, vote for their “community favorites” to be featured on the home page and enjoy some great talent that might otherwise go unnoticed.

He dubbed the site fotoblur.com, and before long, with word of mouth and the magic of the Internet, itself, his small group in early 2007 blossomed into an international community of 2,500 members today and counting.

“I was surprised by how well it worked,” Ramoth says. “The images that the community selected as their favorites were among some of the best photographs I had seen. Launching our own magazine just seemed like the next step given that we had a pool of great photographers who would provide the content.”

And photographers who appreciate the reproduction quality of print. “It’s just dramatically better than what you see online,” Ramoth says. “Plus, Web sites come and go, but magazines can last decades. And for those of us chronically attached to our computers, it’s nice to be able to enjoy a magazine anywhere besides on our screens.”

Ramoth’s instincts were spot on. The first issue of Fotoblur Magazine drew 600 submissions from the fotoblur.com community. Issue 2 brought in 800. By the time Issue 3 (the most recent issue) came around, Ramoth was overwhelmed with 1,400 images.

Just as the fotoblur.com community votes for favorite images to be featured on the site’s home page, members also vote on which images should appear in the magazine. Ramoth and a small group of editors review the top 10 percent of the vote-getters, selecting 40 or so black-and-white and color images per issue that represent a diverse cross-section of subjects and a range of photographers, themselves.

Ramoth then designs the issues, usually devoting a full page to each image with very limited text and no advertising.

“There are already a lot of photo magazines out there with articles and ads,” he says. “But our philosophy is all about the image and the celebration of it. Each image contains a story in itself and requires a full page for it to be fully processed and appreciated by the viewer.”

The decision to bypass advertising meant, of course, that Ramoth needed a way to print the magazine without incurring any expenses. He heard about MagCloud from a colleague and decided to give it a try.

“I’ll admit that I was skeptical about the print quality,” he says. “But when I held the first issue in my hand, I was simply blown away — it truly exceeded my expectations. The color of the images was spot on. There was little to no color cast on the black-and-white images, which was one of my major concerns. I just remember thinking, I really did it!”

Since Ramoth runs fotoblur.com and manages the magazine almost singlehandedly, he appreciates that MagCloud handles all the printing, shipping and order processing details. He looked into working with a few newsstand magazine distributors, but found that the upfront costs and the need for advertising to support the distribution would have threatened his creative vision. “MagCloud allows me the freedom to concentrate on the results I desire creatively,” he says.

As each issue is published, Ramoth spreads the word via fotoblur.com, as well as through Twitter (@fotoblur) and digital publication sharing services like Issuu (issuu.com) and Scribd (scribd.com) and various file sharing services. Contributors to the issues also help publicize the magazine’s availability.

Ramoth makes the issues free to download and view online and supplies links to MagCloud for those who’d like to purchase the print version, $15.40.

Ramoth hasn’t given up on his hope to turn Fotoblur into a newsstand magazine if he can attract enough purchasers. He’s also considering combining all four of this year’s issues into a hardcover book.

His advice for other potential magazine publishers? Purchase a good software package, create the content and do it. “When I told people that I wanted to start a photography magazine, they thought I was crazy,” Ramoth says. “But I just didn’t listen — I just did it anyway.

“Be creative, publish, then promote,” he adds. “It’s an amazing experience in itself, and you’ll feel something special when you turn that idea in to something tangible.”

Check out the latest issue!