LauraAustinNow

5 Cool things a container app can do

There’s a range of solutions that YUDU produce to help publishers get their content online and onto a number of devices. My favourite is the container app. Here are 5 cool things a container app can do:

1) You can create your own micro-bookstore where books are stored by genre/by category/publication date. Looks tidy and so useful for community building and tracking data

2) Rather than starting each marketing campaign from scratch, you can use your existing community within the app to push content to via free updates, news flashes and sample material

3) By promoting your app on your website you can bypass Apple’s 30%. YUDU’s dual subscription model enables discovery on the app store (therefore paying Apple their dues) or alternatively you can sell direct to consumers at no extra cost

4) It’s an excellent place to experiment with different pricing models. Try selling video or audio content; or set up offers on those back-list-titles - you might even want sponsorship on the homepage. So many options to sample within the app to help you find the best way to monetise content and find extra revenue streams

5) We use Adobe Air to create the app, and wrap it in the native code for each of the platforms you wish to publish on. This means that as you want to extend your content to new devices, it’s ready to go and doesn’t need expensive, timely coding updates

If you’d like to see some samples of how this works, or discuss options for your company - please do get in touch laura.austin@yudu.com

5 favourite websites (this week!)

Every now and then you stumble upon a site and think wow! So, here are my favourite sites (this week!)

1) So Amazon can tell you what to read next and so can The Book Seer. Well, truth be told Amazon is still telling you what to read next (it works via affiliate links to the Amazon site); still, it’s a more creative way to access new reading material.

2) Bookfessions aggregates content from a Book lover’s Shelfari and Goodreads accounts to create a truly bookish site, full of suggested reads. 

3) I tend to bang on about the Jellybooks site, but really it’s the best example of responsive design I’ve seen on a book related site. Try it on your phone, your tablet and your desktop to see.

4) The 4 easy steps on Flooved are a great example of simple, no-frills marketing. 4 clear steps. How much simpler could it be? Look forward to seeing some of the actual content …

5) If you give online presentations, you’ll know how tricky it is to decide whether to show your face or your slides. Present.me shows both. I still might be swayed towards Youtube for SEO - but this site looks so smooth, it makes me want to put together a presentation right now.