The notion of ‘digital publishing’ is a very interesting one and one that is very different from pretty much any business model that has gone before it. The idea is that you are publishing digital content to engage customers and market the features and services of your business (or your vendor's businesses). So, instead of building websites for your clients, you are offering advice on how a piece of software that can do that for them.

The great thing about these businesses is that they can provide services that would be impossible to offer any other way and they can allow you to take a very backseat approach to running them – generating passive or near‐passive income. In this article, we'll explore building your own digital publishing business and how you can take steps to make sure your product is successful.

The first thing you need to do is to come up with your business idea. This is easier said than done, of course, but one useful question to ask is whether you can in any way productize a service that you’re already providing. This is how Matt Mullenweg came up with the idea for WordPress – by asking how his web design company could be made into a product, then focusing on teaching others how to use that product and thereby scale to unforeseen heights.

If you're starting from scratch and don't have an existing product, ask yourself what is a challenge that you're facing in your daily life that can be solved by a product.

The next step is to implement your idea. The problem with this is that it will very often involve establishing a strong online presence and brand. This will require some expertise in building websites, graphic design and writing content. Which can be very complex for beginners, which is why the best option is often to outsource the actual creation of your online presence as a digital publisher to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Another option in digital publishing, is to find existing companies who already provide that solution, and form a partnership where you're publishing advice on how potential customers can use that solution.

Finally, you just need to market your idea. A good place to start is with your existing client list if you have one and from there, you can try building an email list as you would do for any service. Often digital publishing means B2B, but not always. Another option is you can try using advertising and more traditional means such as article marketing. Invest the profits you make into more advertising and content development to scale up your business and then watch as it grows!

The primary goal of any business is to deliver a product or service that will satisfy a market’s need. You'll want to make sure that those needs are real rather than just make making assumptions. So how can you be sure that your digital publishing business does meet a need in the market? By building a minimum viable product.

A minimum viable product (MVP) can be a great test vehicle to help start your business and make it successful. This will be a great stepping stone that will allow you to validate your ideas, get useful feedback, and make crucial decisions that will help shape your publishing brand.

When creating an MVP in digital publishing, you need to keep in mind the goal. That is to test how people are receptive to the content you're developing within the market. This will help minimize any risk that may be involved - such as investing in significant resources into a content development or finding vendors that may not meet the customers’ expectations or gain any traction.

The answers are in your market. They will be key to your business success no matter where you are.

Next, an MVP will be great in reducing development costs and time. This will require investment in terms of time, money, and resources. In fact, it will require a substantial amount of each.

When it comes to an MVP, it will allow your business to focus on the core features and functionalities necessary for an initial launch. For example, your digital presence, how you'll capture and engage customers and so on. You want to prioritize the essential features for your digital publishing business so you can be able to reduce any time involved with development, along with the cost.

However, when you use a platform like Samex, you're starting with the core features of your digital publishing MVP already defined. This alone will help you reach the market faster and get an early competitive advantage.

The third thing to be aware of when it comes to MVPs in digital publishing is that it can help with user feedback. This is valuable data information where you can be able to learn the market’s needs, preferences, and pain points. This feedback will help you improve your content when and where necessary.

A minimal viable product in digital publishing can also attract investors and vendors. They’ll want tangible proof of concept that your content can effectively convert readers into customers, before they’ll commit any resources to your venture (or any for that matter). They want to make sure that you’re in it for the long haul.

The last thing any investor or vendor wants to do is throw away any money or resources. Especially on something that may be doomed to fail. So make sure your digital publishing MVP is being tested and improved constantly. This way, it will instill plenty of confidence in an investor or vendor that whomay have some interest in your business.

The primary goal of any business is to deliver a product or service that will satisfy a market’s need. There are so many business ideas that stay in the dark because of fear, or fail because of inadequate market research. However, building your own products and services takes more time and in many cases an investment of money.

Your digital publishing MVP won’t be perfect right out of the gate. However, building and expanding your company is much faster with digital publishing and there is less of a learning curve. But like many industries, digital publishing is rapidly changing and becoming more competitive - even with the introduction of artificial intelligence.

If you're looking for a way to quickly establish your digital publishing practice, use the button below to explore our full-day summit and how our platform accelerates developing your digital publishing MVP.

Explore: Digital Publishing Startup Summit.