I recently received an email containing the following questions:
Your product [in5] looks amaaazing!
One issue that has always hassled me is the deployment, monetization and DRM [Digital Rights Management] side of things. Do you have any solutions like this for clients selling their creations?
…Aside from the vastly expensive DPS hosting and app store – there don’t seem to be any options available for the small guy to monetize a digital document…?
These are good questions that I believe are of interest to many people. There are several affordable ways to monetize your content and provide some protection to your content at the same time. I’ve put together a list of the best options below (and more are sure to pop up).
1. Host Content Behind a Paid Firewall
Hosting the web content produced by in5 behind a paid firewall (i.e. users pay a membership fee which gives them access to a private part of a website) is a simple way to collect revenue and can provide some basic DRM. Only paid members would have access to the site (via username and password) and content would remain on the server.
Taking the output into app form can also provide revenue (through an app store) and DRM (since apps can be difficult to distribute outside of a store). The options that follow all involve creating an app(s).
Check out this video course on creating a membership site. It uses WishList Member and WordPress to create private areas on your site and lets you easily accept payments.
2. Submit Directly to Amazon
You can submit in5 content directly to Amazon. Amazon will actually do the packaging for you! The app is then available to Kindle Fire and several Android devices through the Amazon AppStore. A developer account and app submission are both free. Doesn’t get more affordable than that. (demo video)
3. Create an App Using the Baker Framework*
You can also export to the Baker Framework using in5, and then package as a app for iPhone or iPad. The Baker Framework is an open source library (completely free) for Xcode (the Apple developer code editor, which is free, but requires a Mac) that can produce a standalone app or issues for Apple Newsstand. An Apple Developer license is $99/year (and up) and if you charge for your app (or Newsstand issues), I believe Apple will take a percentage. (demo video)
4. Package as an App using PhoneGap*
You can also package in5 output as an app for multiple devices using PhoneGap. The core of PhoneGap is based on a free, open-source product and there is also a nice web service called PhoneGap Build—which is free with an Adobe CC subscription, and super easy to use!
Check out the Create a Mobile App with in5 & PhoneGap Build course for detailed steps on creating a mobile app (without coding) using PhoneGap Build.
5. Use a premium service*
While a premium service, like Paperlit, will cost you more than options above, it will still let you create your app content with HTML, making the development process much cheaper. This type of service all comes with several premium features and is great for multi-issue magazine apps.
*There are some costs associated with submitting to the app stores (I believe is the most costly is Apple’s at around $99/year for a single developer) which are separate from the product or service that does the “packaging” for you.
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