Running an online magazine
Print magazines have influenced our daily life considerably for a long time. Produced by expert teams of photographers, writers, and editors, readers will indulge in a wealth of knowledge that has been thoroughly strategized and beautifully presented.
However, the golden age of magazines is gone. Technology explosion has mainly replaced physical publication. Average adult internet user claims to spend over 20 hours online per week. That partly explains why the total revenue of U.S. based periodical publishers is estimated to fall remarkably, from 46 billion U.S. dollars to around 28 billion in the period of 2007 – 2017.
This challenges magazine publisher on adapting the new trend. Besides printed magazines, they’ll need to keep the digital editions on their website as well.
Store published magazine via flipbooks
Once a new magazine is ready for getting out, you can turn its digital edition into a flipbook and save on your WordPress site. Unlike PDFs, this file type keeps the looks and feels exactly the same as a printed publication with pages that can be flipped and turned.
Most websites store their flipbook magazine files in HTML format and save them in a folder for easier management. Those having the folder access will be able to view all your published magazines, with the same experience when reading the actual printed versions.
Restrict access to the flipbook landing page
Similar to normal readers who have to pay to get the magazines, online readers shouldn’t access these e-magazines for free. You can lock the pages that list out all your flipbooks using a membership plugin, e.g. MemberPress.
Online users have to subscribe and become members in order to log into this landing page. They sometimes might need to pay to get several flipbooks and read the content.
Is a membership plugin enough?
Although the landing page is protected by MemberPress, all the embedded digital files are not secure though. Members can open every file, copy the link, and then share it with their relatives or friends.
Here is an example of a flipbook URL in the folder Digital Magazine: https://your-domain.com//wp-content/digitalmag/january-2020-06.html
Worst still, these files can even found directly on Google search results.
As a consequence, unauthorized users can use these links and view your online magazines without having to register or log in to the landing page.
Protect your flipbook folder
Prevent Direct Access (PDA) Gold plugin restricts direct file access to authorized users, e.g. logged-in users or paid members only. However, the plugin only protects media files uploaded to WordPress Media library by default. You should use an additional solution to protect these flipbook HTML files, which are stored outside our the Media library.
Extending PDA Gold’s functionality, Access Restriction takes file protection to a higher level. You’re allowed to protect all files under selected folders, such as HTML and PDF file types.
Follow these 2 steps to protect your flipbook files & folder:
- Install our PDA Gold plugin and its File Access Restriction extension to secure folders under the WordPress uploads directory.
- Set the file access permission to open the e-magazines under the protected folder to, for example, logged-in users.
Install the PDA Gold plugin and File Access Restriction extension to have your online flipbook folder protected now!
