Tizra Blog

Continuing the Feature Frenzy series , today we'll introduce the new account batch loader, which provides a simple way to create and tag user accounts on Tizra hosted sites.  Who cares?  Anyone who wants to do things like... Sell content via email promotions  — The loader lets you quickly add members of your mailing list, and give them access to special deals, free samples, etc. Deliver content in bulk to schools, companies, etc.  — Use the loader to fulfill large numbers of orders quickly when selling through an existing sales team or other offline method. Manage "members only" access  — The loader provides a quick, simple alternative to single sign-on integration, helping associations and other groups keep member lists up-to-date. We'll detail some sample applications in upcoming posts, but first, the basics: To use the batch loader, just go to the "USERS" area in the Tizra Control Panel, then click the "Upload" button down at the bottom o...

Continuing the Sisyphean task of trying to blog as fast as Tizra is upgraded, today's Feature Frenzy  covers the new Sampling License, which as the name suggests, makes it much easier to give away precisely those chunks of content that advance your marketing mission...while keeping the rest behind the paywall or otherwise off limits. The sampling license is ideal for promotional strategies like... Using one content format to promote another  — Say you want users to have free access to a web-only version of your content, but to charge them for the convenience of a version they can download, print, or load into their iPad or other ereader.  Or maybe you want to charge for video, or other multimedia extras. Metered paywall — Gives users free rein to sample whatever parts of your content interest them, but limits the total number of pages they can view.  With the Sampling License, you can achieve an effect similar to what publications like the The New York Times ...

Already, it's clear 2011 is going to be different.  Holiday shoppers gorged on ereaders, iPads and smart phones.  And after years of talk, digital content sales are actually skyrocketing the way the pundits said they would. We're seeing the results in a whole new level of action and ambition from our customers.  They're pushing beyond ebooks to create digital destinations that combine anything from conference video to consumer editorial to classroom PowerPoint slides. As you'll see below, the sites speak for  themselves.  Our customers are building their brands and achieving their goals, while teaching us new things every day! Consumer Reports http://www.healthspecialreports.org Consumer Reports Health was looking for a way to market a series of downloadable reports providing in-depth, unbiased information.  Working with Tizra, they succeeded in launching a custom-tailored e-commerce portal within weeks.  Tizra provided design and producti...

Sometimes a customer uses our software so well all we can do is gape and point.  (Actually, it's been happening quite a lot lately.)   Example: The way Columbia University Press has neatly exploited Tizra features to turn simple PDF files into a whole range of ebook products, including... Web-only subscriptions of various durations. Full book download/web combos. Single chapter download/web combos. A reader who just wants to answer quick questions about, say, how the concept of Strategic Innovation applies to Bill Gates, could just buy a chapter  and browse it immediately online.  Someone with a deep interest in the topic could buy the right to download the whole book, load it into their ereader and take it with them on the road. Tizra's supported these kinds of options—and a lot of others—for some time, but it takes design and copywriting flare to present them in ways users can quickly make sense of.  We think the paywall page below does it really nice...

Tizra isn't the same software it was a year ago. Or even a month ago. In this series, we'll outline a few recent upgrades that are making our software more useful and valuable all the time. Upcoming posts: Promoting your content with flexible sampling licenses . Quickly creating and tagging user accounts with the new batch loader . Tailoring advanced search with custom fields. Applying and updating access and sales terms across large numbers of documents, or document subsections, with the new content lists. Single Sign On integration with popular association management software. Customizing user profiles to gather key demographic details. Today: Quick fixes and updates with new publishing options. Ever have post-publication panic…that sudden chill when you catch an error right after clicking "Publish to Live"? Fixing these slips has always been pretty easy with Tizra, but now it's quicker and your users need never know it happened…even if you goofed...

America’s fourth oldest university press today became the latest in a string of prestigious organizations that have chosen to manage, distribute and sell electronic versions of their books and other content using Tizra's highly flexible web publishing platform . Great validation for the idea that, in an era of commodity content, some publishers really understand value of their brands , and are taking steps to extend and build on them. Read the full release .

Update: New Session Added. Join us for a live webinar , Friday, May 21 at 1pm EDT If you own valuable content, there's a dizzying proliferation of new ways to sell and otherwise distribute it electronically...from downloadable Apps, to embeddable widgets to expensive custom XML-based websites. All have their tradeoffs, but at Tizra, we think there's one factor that, more than any other, should guide your long-term strategy: Does it build your brand? Brands aren't just colors and logos. Brands are what happens when publishers deliver content that readers believe in visit after visit, and build audiences that authors want to reach. Like Joe Esposito, we believe in the power of publisher brands . And we agree with Mike Shatzkin that the publishing brands of the future are being built right now on the web . Our software sits quietly in the background, helping some of the most respected organizations in the world promote, sell and deliver their own electronic ...