Why Mainstream Publishers Can’t Make Money

Looking around the web, I’ve noticed two types of publishers—private and public (these are terms I coined myself).

The Private Side

Private publishing puts marketing first. It treats content as commodity—like an ebook or a free report or even a blog that drives people to opt into a list. The list is where the magic happens: suave but automated relationship building that push sales of affiliate products in a given niche.

When done right, private publishing works. It rakes in huge profits not because the content is good, but rather good enough. By this I mean the content serves as the tool (aka weapons of marketing) for selling other products rather than serving as the product itself.

Click to enlarge my awesome drawing

I consider private publishing as a practical and efficient way to make money. Nothing wrong with that, eh?

Except for one thing: privately published content is mostly always crap. There’s a huge editorial void in what gets published that results in bad writing, bad design and unreadability.

The Public Side

So let’s take a look at public publishing.

It’s all the highly polished mainstream stuff you read: news sites, top blogs, well-funded corporate niche sites. All the content that involves teams of trained writers, journalists and editors.

Happy happy joy joy, right? Not.

Because as much as we love to consume the products of public publishing, it’s not making any money. The public publishing industry is in peril.

What do you think the problem is? Why do private publishers pushing substandard content get rich while the public publishers get poorer? It’s not making too much sense, is it?

The Reason is Marketing

Traditional public publishers still haven’t figured out the ins and outs of internet marketing, and perhaps they never will.

Somehow you can’t blame them: there’s something a little seedy about desperate ebooks and free reports and emails laced with overly-persuasive copywriting that gives IM a bad name.

Why is this? Because private publishers aren’t really publishers at all—they’re marketers, and they’re good at making money.

So let’s face it—internet marketing works. List building works. Copywriting works. Affiliate marketing works. Landing pages work.

And public publishers need to make money.

So Why Not Both Sides?

The way to make money as a public publisher is to play both sides. Focus on uncompromised editorial quality but don’t be afraid to get innovative and aggressive with internet marketing.

I’ve got many more ideas on this coming up in future posts, so please take a minute to subscribe To Wordful.

Pancake photo by d.loop.