Ben Shoemate's Notebook

Name: Publisha

Quick Pitch: Publisha is a free browser-based solution that allows integrated publishing across digital platforms with built-in social media, analytics and revenue streams.

Genius Idea: Publisha is a free new platform that enables users to simultaneously format and publish content to the web, Facebook, RSS, iPhone and iPad from a single dashboard.

You can import and host your blog or online publication on publisha.com, or keep it at its current domain and simply take advantage of the service’s Facebook, iPhone and iPad publishing features.

The Facebook app is particularly robust. It creates an articles tab you can add to your Facebook Page, complete with a searchable archive, polls and other interactive content. Readers can like, rate and comment on the articles, and respond to polls.

You can also use the platform to publish your content on Publisha’s iPhone and iPad apps; the company has also offered to help “qualifying early adopters” create their own branded apps and drive traffic to their content. The apps host all participating publications on Publisha’s network. To minimize the size of the app, audio and video content are not supported.

Although Publisha is free to use, the company will take a 20% cut of all ad, affiliate and subscription revenue, and charge $2 per every GB of bandwidth used beyond 10GB if you decide to host your publication on Publisha’s website. It will also use 20% of your ad space if you have a free account. Publisha eventually plans to offer two premium packages — priced at $50 and $250 per month, respectively — that offer more bandwidth and take a smaller share of revenue.

Publisha’s Head of Marketing Anna Sjostrom also told us that an aggregated ad service is in the works, which will help match publishers with advertisers. The company also plans to add support for the Kindle and other e-book readers, as well as Ping FM and podcasts.

While we think the costs of Publisha’s services are pretty steep for users who want to build up a publication on publisha.com, we think many could take advantage of Publisha’s Facebook app and keep their sites on a blogging platform like Wordpress or on their own domains. It also couldn’t hurt to push your content to Publisha’s iPhone and iPad apps in the interest of attracting new readers.

What do you think of Publisha’s offerings? Do you plan to use them for your online publication?

[img credit: smaedli]

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