Good news for online publishers today: The company Endevver has announced the availability of a new plugin for the Movable Type content management system to enable subscription-focused e-commerce functionality. In their announcement, they describe the plugin as a general-use e-commerce platform, but what is really interesting are the features that speak to subscriptions, specifically:

• Creating subscriptions and accepting recurring payments
• Associating purchases and subscriptions to Web site users (subscriber-only content)
• Support for subscription-focused needs like trial periods, billing frequencies, and subscription fees

In their own words:

We have worked and built subscription based products before so we know just how confusing managing an e-commerce site can be. That is why we have worked so diligently to produce as an intuitive interface as possible. Especially for subscriptions, whose policies around trial periods, billing frequencies, and subscription fees can be very confusing. Using the Store Front plugin administrators can see a human readable description of the subscription model they want to create

The plugin currently supports Paypal, but as Endevver points out:

The Store Front plugin is more than “just a plugin” though - it is a framework that is easily extensible by developers, allowing developers to easily develop drivers for additional payment gateways, as well as giving them the ability to integrate the Store Front plugin into existing systems like Salesforce.com, or another internal billing or CRM solution.

At a time when Movable Type’s own developers at Six Apart seem to be distracted by other projects and priorities, it’s great to see that other development teams are picking up the slack and continuing to push forward what has historically been a great product. That’s open-source software development at work.

Image via CrunchBase

This weekend, I decided I wanted to finally order a copy of Beyond The Echo Chamber. Unfortunately, the book's publisher doesn't offer direct shipping to Canada, so -- after chatting with one of the authors -- I was directed to Amazon. Don't get me wrong: I use Amazon quite a bit. However, when buying a book from a smaller or progressive press -- like The New Press -- I try to go direct, or get it from a smaller distributor. Don't ask me why, I just do. (Probably some incorrect assumption that more of the proceeds will get to the author or some-such lefty nonsense.)

As I finished my order, I remembered that I had purchased Amazon Prime long ago and that -- because of its US-only shipping policy -- I had never used it. Now, Amazon prime was about $75 USD and was supposed to offer very low, or free, shipping in exchange for that annual fee. However, I had missed the rather fine print at the time of purchasing Prime and had, subsequently, never used it. It had long expired, in fact.

Some time ago, I purchased Amazon Prime at the suggestion of the site. However, I was not able to use it as I do not reside in the US and rarely send things to people in the US. I don't feel that the US-only shipping condition of the Prime service is well presented. So, in the interest of future customers, you may want to make that a bit more clear. I'm not formally asking for a refund, but just wanted to make you aware of my experience.

It was probably a bit longer, but that's roughly what I said. The next day -- a Sunday, no less -- I had this response in my mailbox:

Hello,

I'm sorry for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

I've forwarded your feedback about the Amazon Prime membership program to the appropriate department. It is always important for us to hear how customers react to all aspects of shopping at Amazon.com. I'll make sure the appropriate people in our company see your message. Strong customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we provide, and we appreciate the time you took to write to us.

Thanks for your suggestion about making  Amazon Prime option eligibility criteria more clear to those who do not reside or often ship to US. 

Because you didn't purchase more using Amazon Prime option, I've made an exception to our standard policy. I've requested a refund of $79 to your Visa card. You'll see the refund in the next 2-3 business days.

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We're writing to let you know we processed your refund of $79.00 

Many of the publishers I work with are (still) grappling with questions about charging for content: if, why, how, and so on. These questions can become almost paralyzing when taken to their extreme, and in this situation I've often advocated to "give it away or don’t: pick one," i.e., choose a direction, stick with it for a while, and then re-assess. Nonetheless, there will be those that want to fret over the decision endlessly and to carefully consider every angle -- and those folks will want to have a look at Alastair Bruce's recent presentation about "Charging for content."

Bruce's presentation is a thorough examination of the current state of affairs in the online publishing world. He offers a comparison chart the explores the different models used by major newspapers, local news, and specialist publications. He delves into the specifics of many of the models -- micro-payments, metering, freemiums, etc. -- and leaves us with a nice snapshot of the landscape that's current to February 2010.

It will be a great addition to your weekend reading list, I promise. I particularly liked the exploration of how publishers are pulling social media, search advertising, and other models (membership, etc.) into their revenue mix. Great stuff and hope to see more like this from Mr. Bruce.

(Thanks to Mark Coddington's weekly roundup at Neiman Journalism Lab for the pointer)

This just in from online strategy sage Jason Mogus of Communicopia:

Digital Innovation: New Tools for Engagement

Social Media is dramatically changing the way we build relationships, lead our organizations, and inspire social change. Coupled with new technologies is an increased demand from consumers and clients for accountability, access to information and transparent institutional conduct. This course will focus on how your organization can make the cultural shift required to capitalize on technology’s capacity for creating meaningful public participation and social change. You’ll leave this course with fresh perspectives and concrete ideas about how your organization can embrace technology to further your social mission.

You will learn:

• how to use emerging digital tools to engage the individuals or groups that influence your organization
• how digital tools can aid collaboration across your organization best practices from other organizations who have succeeded in using digital innovation to collaborate across silos, create authentic dialogue with the public, harvest new ideas, and better respond to a changing world
• how to overcome barriers in order to foster a culture of openness and collaboration in your organization with regard to digital innovation
• what human resource models are needed to support effective use of social media

Who should attend: This course is of interest to managers and leaders in the public and non profit sectors who want to better use social media to engage their constituents and further their social mission. Seating is limited to 40 participants.

Great opportunity for this in Vancouver to learn from an experienced leader in the field of social media and online campaigning.

The event is on March 5, 2010 and the cost to attend is $195. The registration site is here.

This just in from our friend and online campaign workhorse Eric Squair:

If you are running online campaigns in Canada, I want to invite you to an event in Toronto later this month to find out more about some open source tools for running campaigns in Canada.

Make Poverty History wants to share the free tools they have developed for Drupal, tools that make it quick and easy to set up online petitions, create online actions that put people in touch with their Member of Parliament (based on postal code) and allow supporters to opt in to the Make Poverty History email list.

If you are in Toronto (or know anyone who could benefit from these tools) here's an invite to an information session on Saturday, Feb. 27th starting at 1pm.

Looks like a fantastic event that will explore the state advocacy software for Canadian organizations running online campaigns. The event will focus on the "Connect" module for Drupal, built by venerable Mike Gifford and the team at Open Concept. (An early version of these tools was used for the Greenpeace Canada's Kleercut.net campaign.)

These tools are only possible with the support of the organizations that choose to use them, thus providing the necessary feedback and financial investments to make them sustainable. So, if you are working in one of those organizations, go register now!

So, I'm going to call bullshit on the recent Wall Street Journal article titled "Why Email No Longer Rules...". The article's title is striving to be sensational -- and I guess it worked, as I surfed over to check it out -- but, from that point on, it falls flat and doesn't manage to land one good argument in favour of the idea that e-mail is going away any time soon. 

Here are the main points the author tries to make:

• New ways of communicating -- always-on, connected, real-time ways -- are faster and "more fun" than e-mail.

• According to some research by Nielsen Co, more people are using social network sites than e-mail. (Though, I don't see how that is possible, given that most -- if not all -- social network sites require that you supply an e-mail address to sign up.)

• In the "land of the stream" (social networks), there are (or will be) more sophisticated filtering available to help manage the information flow. 

Frankly, I think all three points are bunk. Here are five reasons why e-mail is still the king of Internet applications:

One of the things that I love the circulation-guru Jon Spencer for is his devotion to the Church of Measurement. In the recent post about how publishers can build a Twitter following, Jon raises a number of good points about how organizations can measure the efficacy of their social media efforts (should they want to). But, beyond Twitter, what are the other valuable metrics for publishers to track in the age of the Internet?? 

I happen to be a bit of a metrics addict myself, so I thought I would build on the idea of circulation metrics and try to introduce the metrics that I encourage the publishers I'm working with to track. There's no magic here: just a list of metrics that have been cobbled together over the years that -- if measured the same way every month -- can provide an organization with the information necessary to make good decisions. 

I recently received some questions from a friend who's applying for a position as an "online editor" along the lines of "What do I need to understand about Web sites to bring value to an online position?" and "What do I need to know to communicate effectively with my Web-development counterpart?"

These questions come across my Inbox often enough to justify a quick summary of what I think are "Top five" resources for folks making the transition from print to online. These aren't editorial resources, specifically, they're mostly technical in nature (as that's my "thing").

Okay, here’s an objective for your organization, or publication, this year:

• On Feb 23rd at 6:57 AM, the Walrus Magazine — a general interest magazine about Canada — joined Twitter and had zero followers.

• On Feb 24th at 7:23 PM, I wrote a blog post about being impressed by their approach. They had less than 50 followers when I wrote that post citing their witty and fun take on how to “do Twitter.”

• Today, they posted this Tweet “Alright, let’s get to 4,000 followers, shall we? RT this and be entered to win a free subscription.”
• Now they have more than 4000 followers. (Translation: more than 4000 real people who want to hear from them: marketing, promotions, contests, and all.)

The person behind the Walrus Twitter account is a someone I know in Toronto; a writer, editor, and a generally witty and smart person, but not a “social media guru” (by profession, at least). This person also has a “regular” — i.e.: important and traditional — job at The Walrus. I mention that to emphasize that the “Twittering” is part of the job, not something done on the side.

With some focus, the Walrus has grown its following in just six short months. They have gone from zero to more than 4000 followers. If ever there were a model of how to “do Twitter right” for a magazine, this is it.

If your organization or publication is interested in marketing with smarts not $s, take note. (And fire your “social media guru.”)

UPDATE: It was pointed out (on Twitter) that another Canadian magazine — Best Health Magazine — has managed to grow their following to more than 7,000 in just ten months. Ain’t Canada great?

Originally posted on the New Internationalist Tech blog

Over the past several years, I’ve worked with many organizations and campaigns that have seen their e-mail subscriber lists grow dramatically. As these e-mail lists grow past the thousands of subscribers mark and head into the tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, new strategies for list management are often required.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Avoiding e-mail list data corruption and – continuing on that theme – I’ll attempt to start documenting some of the approaches that I have explored to keep large lists growing, manageable, and insightful.

This week I’ll focus on making them more manageable.