Zmags Publicator Pro

Digital Publishing Playbook

Simplif ied e-Publishing

Zmags | 332 Congress St. | Boston, MA 02210 | USA

ZmagsPublicator
Don’t you think it’s time you stopped
stressing about the high cost of print-
ing and distributing your magazines,
catalogues, brochures and other
printed material?
www.zmags.com
About Zmags?
Zmags Inc. helps print and PDF media come alive, with self-
service digital publishing software that transforms them
into interactive presentations that engage readers. Zmags
is known for its exceptional rich media, analytics and SEO
capabilities, and for its ability to give users wide design lati-
tude within a framework of templates for virtually any type
of publication – including magazines, catalogs, brochures
and reports.

Zmags new Publicator 3.0 platform transforms traditional

print media and PDF files into more appealing interactive
presentations that greatly enhance the reader experience in
order to increase circulation, boost online sales and lower
publishing costs.

Zmags is known for its exceptional rich media, analytics and

SEO capabilities, and for its ability to give users wide design
latitude within a framework of templates for virtually any
type of publication – including magazines, catalogs, bro-
chures and reports. Customers include 3M, Chevrolet, IKEA,
Microsoft and Volkswagen.

Thousands of companies in 35 countries rely on Zmags to

create a richer reader experience while lowering publishing
costs and boosting online sales. Zmags U.S. headquarters
are in Boston, Mass.
“We see massive potential for the Zmags platform as tradi-
tional media publishers begin to look for ways to leverage
online, rich media interactive marketing,”

“The Zmags team has done a tremendous job bringing the

solution to market and achieving the leading position in Eu-
rope for this technology. OpenView will help the company
secure a similar leading position in the U.S.”

Scott Maxwell, Founding Partner of OpenView Venture Partners.

www.zmags.com
Click the cover to read our
own digital magazine.

5.
Why choose Zmags?
Zmags technology is our own - AND is revolutionary.

We design it, we host it, we maintain it, and we invest heav-

ily in the development of the product to match our custom-
er demands and stay ahead of the competition.

Zmags Publicator is our core product and we have provided

our solution now to over 2000 customers in over 35 coun-
tries around the world.

Our sales team are all fully trained in the use of the Zmags
Publicator solution, along with having some key knowledge
about enhancing the usage of the product to suit your in-
dustry demands, and to ensure getting you up and running
for a fast ROI.

Once you have made the next step to using Zmags for dig-
ital publishing, our customer service team is on call nearly
24 hours a day. We offer start-up training, technical system
support, PDF support and access to our advanced Support
Center which includes; in-depth tutorials, user-guides, vid-
eo’s and much more.

We invest in our technology, because you invest in us.

Zmags Key Benefits
Reduce print costs by up to 95%
Double your online circulation
No set-up fee
Personal Login (self-service)
100% Web-based software (no plug-ins)
Advanced hosting included

www.zmags.com
Full system training (Free)
Unlimited pages per Zmag
Statistical data on all Zmag publiactions
Google optimization (automatically submitted)
Customizable viewer templates
Customer Support
Marketing advice
On-going product updates

7.
Quick Start Program
We wouldn’t expect you to be able to drive a new car if you
hadn’t even passed your driving test, and we don’t expect
you to be an expert in using the Zmags Publicator without a
helping hand.

Getting you up-and-running is a vital issue for our Customer

Service Team. Every Zmags Publicator Pro customer will get a
dedicated training session from one of our customer experts.
Through our Quick Start program you will get help meeting
your online publishing objectives by assisting you with:
Setting up your Zmags account
Helping create, customize and launch your first Zmag
Training you on using your Zmags and advising on the
best practices within your industry for the best perform
ance and results.
Introducing you to additional programs and resources
from Zmags that will support your ongoing a success.
Maximising your value output.
Support Center
Zmags Publicator Pro also comes with plenty of free custom-
er service resources via our support center. Whether you like
to explore the publishing software on your own or if you run
into a problem, help is always just a click away.

Through our online service center you will get access to:

Knowledgebase containing over 200 support articles and

www.zmags.com
Frequently asked questions.
Video Tutorials to cover all aspects of online publishing
Help sections bringing you immediate answers
Download sections with free and useful tools for
smoother online publishing

Assistance is just a click away so support is available 24/7,

with manual assistance available 18 hours a day.

Zmags are compulsive when it comes to Support

9.
What is the Publicator?
Zmags Publicator is an advanced Content Management Sys-
tem (CMS). The Publicator is 100% web-based, so requires no
special software to be installed on your local computer to use
the system.

Zmags Publicator technology is especially built so that even

users with very limited, or no webmaster knowledge can eas-
ily create their own online Zmag within minutes.

That means that your marketing or design team can just as

easily use the Publicator, as well as your Web or IT managers.

You simply login via your internet browser from Zmags.com,

upload the PDF, choose your preferred viewer, and let the
Publicator automatically create your online Zmag.

The Publicator is programmed to run an advanced check on

your uploaded PDF before converting this into a digital publi-
cation.

The time to convert your PDF will depend on a few things

such as the PDF file size, number of pages, if you are running
OCR and of course your local internet connection speed for
the initial PDF upload into the system.
Logging in is fast and easy:

http://admin.zmags.com

www.zmags.com

11.
Prepare for upload
The best and easiest way to create a Zmag is to feed Zmags
Publicator with a single PDF containing all of your pages. The
system works with most PDF settings. But if you want to
ensure a quick and safe process, follow this check list, which
shows Zmags recommendations for the best PDF set-up;

• Create One PDF file with pages sorted descending

• All pages must have the same dimensions

www.zmags.com
• One PDF page must be equivalent to one printed page
• The PDF should be without cutting/crop marks
• The resolution should be around 100-150 dpi
• All fonts must be embedded to the PDF file
• The PDF should have a defined language
• The PDF should have tags added

Do not make PDF files directly from Illustrator, Corel Draw or

other drawing programs but export the files as an EPS file.

Creating a PDF from other programs such as word or Pow-

erpoint etc will normally result in a badly formatted PDF.

All Zmags clients will have access to contact our technical

support team for help with the preparation of your PDF for
uploading.

13.
Google Optimized
General market knowledge tells us that flash is not craw-
lable by search engines such as Google, meaning you can-
not get indexed when working with flash presentations.

When you create your online publication with Zmags Pub-

licator, the system extracts all embedded text from your
PDF and places this in an area of your Publicator account
to be reviewed, and amended if required.

When a Zmag is indexed by google, we make the textual

contents of the publication available to the indexing spi-
der. This is necessary because your publications are dy-
namic and thus do not really contain any text.

When a Zmag is published we immediately send the URL

to google via a service called sitemaps. We cannot guaran-
tee when google will index the catalog but this will most
likely happen faster than if we just waited for the google
spider to drop by.

The text is also available to all other search engine spiders

so you can manually notify them all of your Zmag publica-
tions.
Tips for optimization
At Zmags we do not claim to be Search engine experts,
but we have of course picked up a few hints and tips along
the way, so we can help our clients with optimizing their
online publications.

• Send out your publication link to as many quality sites

as possible, such as popular forums or partner sites.
• A publication with a more narrow/specific content will

www.zmags.com
get better rankings.
• Repeated keywords throughout the document are good,
but take care not to exceed spam limits.
• Insert as many keywords in the browser title as possible
with the most important one’s first (66 characters max).
• Use the deep-link URL’s when distributing the publica-
tion as well as the standard URL.

Always remember “Content is King”

Get more hints, tips and success

stories from Zmags Blog at;
http://blog.zmags.com

15.
Zmags OCR
Before converting your PDF with PublicatorPro you will see
the option to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

This is the electronic translation of images of handwrit-

ten, typewritten or printed text into machine-editable
text.

This means when you convert your PDF, the OCR will de-
tect and extract the text which is embedded within ad-
verts or images and make the text available for further
search engine optimization.

OCR is a standard feature with the Publicator Pro and is

currently available in over 20 languages with and is proven
to be over 80% accurate.
Keyword Search

A standard feature with all Zmags Publicator viewers is www.zmags.com

the search function. This will allow your reader to search
for keywords within your publication, and also helps to
drive in further traffic from search engines.

So every Zmag publication is fully searchable both inter-

nally and externally.

17.
 Splash a personal touch
on your Zmag using Zmags
custom viewers.

Your Zmag, Your Style.

www.zmags.com
Viewer Templates
Within the Zmags Publicator Platform you will have the op-
portunity to choose from different viewer templates before
converting your PDF into a Zmag.

The Zmags Publicator Pro platform currently offers 8 default

viewer templates which vary in style, color and general ap-
pearance to suit your personal preference.

Once your Zmag has been created, you will be able to change
the viewer template applied to your Zmag and even create
your own custom viewer.

Creating your own custom viewer is easy, you simply select a

default template and customize this as much as you like with
the Add Viewer option, so you can create a viewer to look
exactly as you like it and make this the default for your ac-
count.

To give you an idea of what you can change using our core Pro
solution viewer templates, we have listed a few things on the
next page;
Viewer name
Viewer mode (single or multiple publications)
Viewer size
Viewer type (page flip, single/double page view, 3D visual)
Navigation buttons (5 options)
Zoom type (zoom window or in-place zoom)
Zoom view Type (one or two page zoom)
Zoom window (fit to publication or browser window)
Zoom navigation buttons (5 options)
Starting zoom level %

www.zmags.com
Thumbnail view (optional animated contents menu)
Control panel options (top, bottom, left, right, none)
Control panel height or width (auto, fit, fixed, %)
Add or remove any of the panel buttons
Select the control panel location of each button
Select the order in which the buttons are located
Select viewer language (automatic or forced)
Add intro page (text, HTML, flash)
Add personal browser title
Create your very own viewer skin, you can change;
Basic style
Background colors/images
Control panel styles
Button styles
Window styles and more

21.
Viewer Features
The standard Zmag viewer comes with a fantastic range of
features which are included free with all Zmags licenses.

With a Publicator Pro license you can choose to add or re-

move any of these features and place them where you like
within the control panel of your Zmag.

The PublicatorExpress license includes the following features

as standard;

Navigation buttons (next page, last page)

Page number field
Table of content button (image based)
Keyword Search window button
Print button (print all or selected pages)
Download PDF button
Crop button
Tell a friend button
Help button
Close button

With the PublicatorExpress it is not possible to remove or

change the location of any of the feature buttons.
The PublicatorPro license includes the following features as
standard;

Navigation buttons (next/last page, front/back page)*

Page number field
Table of content button (image or text based)*
Keyword search field*
Keyword search window button
Archive button (display archives)*
Print button (print all or selected pages)

www.zmags.com
Download PDF button
Crop button
Tell a friend button
Link button (custom text button including URL)*
Help button
Close button
Panel Logo with link URL*
Custom favicon option*
Intro page (Text, HTML, Flash)*

* Indicates that the feature is only available with Publicator

Pro.

With the Pro license you can choose to add/remove any but-
ton and select the location of the button within the control
panel of your Zmag.

23.
Integrate and Publish
Once you are happy with your Zmag, you simply activate it
and you’re ready to go. One of the best things about using a
Zmag is that it is so easy to integrate and distribute.

Your Zmag sit’s on a URL starting http://viewer.

zmags............ so you can simply send this link out to your
reader’s just like you would with your website address so it is
perfect for sending via email campaigns.

You may want to hide the Zmag URL so we have some simple
solutions for this:

URL Re-direct and Mask - simply purchase or set-up your

own domain or sub-domain and from your website adminis-
tration panel you simply point the domain to the Zmag URL.
Adding the option to mask the URL will then result in dis-
playing your Zmag but under your own URL.

IFrame - you can add a Zmag into an existing webpage by us-

ing IFrames, you will need to get your webmaster to do this.

HTML Window - you can also integrate your Zmag as a HTML

window which will open as a HTML box within an existing
webpage. The code for this is automatically generated within
your Publicator account under the Publication URL section of
the specified Zmag.
Tiny Preview - embed a tiny interactive preview on your web-
site which launches your Zmag when clicked. The tiny pre-
view will auto-flip on your webpage and grab your reader’s
attention. The Javascript code for this is again located in the
Publication URL section of your account.

Thumbnail - as above you can also add a static thumbnail of

the front cover of your Zmag to your webpage.

Rotator - if you are working with multiple publications, you

can add a rotator within a window on your webpage which

www.zmags.com
shows spinning previews of your different publications.
These can be clicked to view more information, and then
clicked again to launch the selected Zmag publication. Again
the javascript code for this is located in the Publication URL
section of your account.

25.
Your Zmag, Your Design, Your Domain
 A Zmag for
One key feature you may not have noticed wh
the technology automatically recognizes your
tation adapts it’s size

This means if you are using a 12” laptop or a 4

is always as big as yo

Using the Full Screen button will also

This also means that with small portable devic

will be able to view your onlin
r all screens
hen looking at your online publication is that
r screen resolution, and as a result the presen-

www.zmags.com
to match your screen.

40” large screen, you will see a publication that

our screen will allow.

further increase your publication size.

ces which allow installation of flash player, you

ne publications on the move.
Premium Hosting
At Zmags we understand the importance of having a reliable
hosting provider, and we do not compromise performance,
availability, or security.

All Zmag solutions are fully inclusive of hosting, and it is not

possible for any 3rd party to copy or self-host the set-up of
the Publicator on a local server.

Software as a service (SaaS) is fast becoming the market

preference for online solutions, helping to reduce the extra
headache of maintaining and updating your own servers.

Zmags main servers are hosted with www.rackspace.com

who are the world’s leader in hosting. We guarantee all of our
clients an uptime of at least 98.5% measured over a running
90 day period.

To ensure the safety of our business and your online publica-

tions, we have both manual and automated surveillance and
security set-up to moniter the servers 24 hours a day.

A system back-up is in place so that if our servers ever go

down, within 5 minutes the system will automatically switch
to the back-up servers and continue to run as normal.
www.zmags.com
Proxy Server Network
To further boost the distribution of your Zmags publica-
tions, we have joined other clients such Fox Interactive, and
MySpace on the the Akamai distributed network platform to
swiftly deliver data.

With 34,000 servers in over 70 countries, the Akamai net-

work is by far the world’s largest distribution network that
now benefits the readers of your Zmag publications.

www.zmags.com
To simplify how the Akamai platform works, when a user
clicks a Zmag link, the request is directed to the Akamai
server closest to the viewer. Using route optimization, the
fastest most reliable path back to retrieve the content is
identified. As a result, your reader will have the Zmag loaded
as fast as possible, regardless if they are located in Beijing or
Baltimore.

Results are already measurable. We’ve seen the average load

time cut by 30 % in North America since the switch to Aka-
mai and in Asia, the load time has halved.

You can read more about Akamai at www.akamai.com

31.
Statistics
With your Zmags license we include detailed analytics for all
of your publications so you can measure the success of using
your Zmags online.

Whether you’re a magazine publisher or a catalogue producer

you need to know what is grabbing your reader’s attention
within your publications, so gathering analytics is of key im-
portance.

With the PublicatorExpress you get visual analytics using

graphs and charts for all publications on your license so you
can see; visits to publication, page views per publication, av-
erage page view per visit, and the number of visits generated
from search engines.

With a PublicatorPro license the analytics are much more in-

depth and record every click of a mouse from each reader.

You access statistics from your Zmags control panel and will
first see a general overview of the account showing: most
viewed publications, most viewed pages, most searched
words, and the search engine traffic. A drop-down menu then
allows you to select each individual Zmag with even more in-
depth publication statistics.
www.zmags.com

33.
Statistics continued.......
When opening an individual publication overview in your Pro
license you will be able to see the following;

• Visual graph showing dates and visits over the last 5 weeks
• First/Latest visit date
• Total bounced visit
• Total page flips and page views
• Total time spent
• Total zoom clicks
• Total unique reader’s
• Total zoom time
• Visual chart showing search engine traffic
• Top 10 most read pages
• Top 10 outgoing links with number of clicks
• Visual graphs on page views, visits and zoomviews
• Total views per page
• Average time in pageview and zoomview for each page
• Total average time spent per page
• Total zoom clicks per page
• Dot statistics showing every zoom click location per page
• Total visits, page flips and zoom clicks for each day
• Daily and hourly period charts on visits, flips, clicks etc
• Hostname referrer % figures including hostnames
• Referer URL % including URL’s
• External link clicks
• Conversion rate’s (add-on module)
• Shopping list emails/SMS sent out (requires add-on)
• Internal search words used with number of searches per
word
• Search engine search words used showing the number of
hits and referrer URL.
• PDF Downloads requested
• Tell a friend forms sent

www.zmags.com
• Print count on number of prints per page

Geographic Statistics

• Track visits from country/region/city

• Data-sheet showing visits per country, region and city in
total and an overall % total.

It is also possible to generate reports to be sent to multiple

emails daily, weekly or monthly with the possiblity to also
manually download the data to an Excel sheet.

More statistical data than you could ever imagine.

35.
Language detection
Many of our clients distribute publications around the world,
so it is important that every reader can at least navigate
through your Zmag without any trouble.

When a reader loads your Zmag in another country the set-

up recognizes the settings of the reader’s computer/browser
language and automatically changes the tooltips for the
Zmag features into the reader’s preferred language.

www.zmags.com
The detection is automatic and this feature is standard for
all of your Zmag publications, so even an Englishman in Den-
mark can see tooltips in english that he can understand.

With the Publicator Pro solution it is also possible to force

the language to one of many specific available languages if
you wish to turn off the auto-detection.

At Zmags we have created a technology good enough to rec-

ognize over 30 different languages, but if you spot one we
don’t have, please let us know and we will implement it for
you.

37.
Zmags Organizer
Your Zmags Publicator Pro license will come with an organ-
izer section which offers 2 key features when working with
multiple publications in your account.

Archives
Create archives to include multiple publications so you can
display these within your publication control panel. This
means your reader’s will be able to view your back-issues
or other publications by using the archive button within the
control panel.

You can create as many archives as you like, and can also sep-
arate these into different tabs such as the year or category.

Publication Scheduler
You can make one URL which you never need to change with
the publication scheduler, which makes it easy to place your
latest publication on your website.

The scheduler creates a URL which works off a drop-down list

so you simply select from the Publicator which publication
will be displayed on the URL. You can also set the start/expi-
ry date of each publication so it automatically updates itself.

Perfect for regular publishers, and this means much less work
for your webmaster with replacing links on your website.
Sit back, relax, and let Zmags
Publicator do all of the hard
work for you.

www.zmags.com

39.
ZmagsPublicator
Express or Pro?

b l i c ato r
Pu
Express
Pro
Express or Pro?
PublicatorExpress
Zmags Publicator Express solution offers a simplified PDF to
Zmag conversion with many standard interface features at
no extra cost, along with an administration system to create,
publish and track your own online publications.

PublicatorPro

www.zmags.com
Zmags Publicator Pro offers a much more advanced solution
for businesses really looking to get the most out of their on-
line publications.

Publicator Pro is not just a solution for a simple PDF to Zmag

conversion but offers flexibility in the design of your online
publications with custom viewer templates so can add your
own personal style.

The Publicator Pro also includes detailed publication analyt-

ics, which are far more advanced than you could ever imag-
ine, with the possibility to track almost every aspect of your
reader’s behaviour.

Another key feature of the Publicator Pro solution is the abil-

ity to include one of the many Publicator add-ons so you can
include hyperlinks, video, animations, and much more.

41.
Zmags add-ons
With your PublicatorPro subscription you have the possibility
to further enhance the look and feel of your Zmag with the
advanced list of available add-ons.

Once you have invested in the add-on for your license, you
will then be able to use each add-on for all of the Zmags in
your account so you only pay one add-on rate.

Here is a list of what is available:

Links Manager - add internal or external hyperlinks within

your Zmag pages anywhere with multiple link effects.

Auto-Links - searches your Zmag for emails, URL’s, embed-

ded links and even find regular expressions such as product
codes and automatically insert the links for you.

Video Manager - place static video into a page, with the op-
tion of adding controls, playing on zoom, or even streaming
from an external source.

Shopping List - add a shopping basket within your Zmag

interface which allows readers to build a shopping list with
prices and item descriptions which they can then send via
SMS or email.
Conversion Rates - so that you can track the success of us-
ing links with a link and conversion statistic.

Form Builder - build interactive forms within your Zmag pag-

es so your reader’s can fill out and directly submit them to
you.

Reader Login - protect access to your Zmag issues with a

username and password.

IP Filtering - limit access to your Zmag to specific IP ad-

www.zmags.com
dresses.

Offline Manager - convert your online Zmag into an offline

presentation which can be used on a CD/USB.

Speech Synthesis - have your Zmag read aloud.

(available in English or Danish).

Zmags add-ons are only available to Publicator Pro sub-

scribers, but the good news is that you can easily upgrade
your subscription from Express to Pro by contacting your
Zmags Account Manager today.

Click HERE for a more detailed overview of our add-ons.

43.
Request a Proposal
The rates for Zmags Express and Pro solutions are based on
annual subscriptions. The cost of the subscription depends
on the number of activated Zmag conversions you require.

Subscribers to the PublicatorPro will also be able to include

any of the add-ons for an additional rate.

The pricing is annual with the subscriptions becoming more

cost-effective based on higher volume subscriptions. The
idea is that clients subscribing to more Zmag issues/editions
will get a lower average cost per issue/edition.

Some of our higher Pro subscriptions come with some add-

ons included free of charge.

Remember, you pay no set-up fees, no per page rates, and

have complete access to your own personal account to create,
customize and publish your Zmag publications.

Use the form to the right to request your no obligation pro-

posal today.

Please note that we do not accept proposal requests from

people not supplying the correct contact information.
Request a Proposal
Zmags
Zmags Publicator
ePublishing
e-Publishing
Flip-page
Flip page
PDF to Flash
Digital Magazine

www.zmags.com
Digital catalog
Digital brochure
Online magazine
Online newspaper
eZine
ePaper
eCatalog
eBook
eMagcreator
Zinio
Issuu
Page gangster
eBookcreator
My Virtual Paper
page turning software

45.