Working with ePublishing’s SaaS model provides ongoing improvements -- driven by proven best practices from your fellow publishers — to your existing Enterprise Publishing System (EPS).   Each update offers the opportunity for your multi-platform presence to grow and change, and most importantly, to help you make more money. Our goal is to future-proof your website with a focus on ground-breaking innovations in audience management, content marketing, eCommerce, and editorial workflow.

As many of you know, many of our platform updates come with new site launches.  For examples of recent eCommerce and Audience Data Management updates, see our Launch Announcements page.  Advances in eCommerce greatly streamline the secure checkout process of our shopping cart, reducing cart abandonment significantly while improving the buyer experience.   Audience Behavioral Data, now available to all ePublishing clients, has contributed to an increase in trial conversions at Natural Gas Intelligence, and represents a big step toward Individualized content delivery.

What's New?  

Search Engine-Friendly Directory URLS: easier to find, more value to sponsors

We’ve updated our built-in SEO tools to present search engine friendly URL's for each Directory listing - eliminating URL’s with numbers only.  Here's an example: 

http://www.housingwire.com/directories/196-mortgage-services-guide/listing/31-assurant-field-asset-services

Your site will become more visible to search engines, your listings will appear higher in search results, and most importantly, your sponsors - those paying to be listed - will be happy!

Landing Pages and Secure Pages Just Got Easier

If you create new pages as landing pages, microsites, or for premium content or registrations, you’ll find these enhancements greatly reduce the time and effort to launch blank pages and secure pages.

In the Page tool, we’ve added two new Page Manager Classifications: SECURE_PAGE and BLANK_LAYOUT

BLANK LAYOUT: The entire body portion of the page is empty. There are no logos, navigation menus, or footers on the page. The head area includes all of the site’s JS, CSS, and other meta tags. You’ll find MANY purposes for this new streamlined layout: landing pages and custom micro sites, while retaining consistent branding, SE visibility, and Analytics tracking.

SECURE PAGE: Now, when you create a new page for a registration form, send secure data or for any other reason must be secure, you can make the page secure simply by selecting the Secure_Page classification from the drop-down menu.   The new page will use the site’s SSL cert (https://) and show the LOCKED icon on the user’s browser. 

Here's how easy it is to select the type of page you want - simply check a box:

With this update, you’ll be able to select from three page manager layouts, all of which can be made SECURE by selecting the Classification taxonomy SECURE PAGE:

• DEFAULT: includes all site navigation, branding, footers, and rails

• NO SIDEBARS: shows all of the default layout EXCEPT sidebars. Content flows the full width of the site

• BLANK: as described above: an empty canvas in the BODY.

Unique RSS Feeds for Individual Blogs

Content Marketing is top of mind for almost everyone in publishing, and we’re looking for ways to make it easier to make your content visible through many channels.  With this update,  instead of one RSS for all blogs, if your site has multiple blogs, you’ll see an RSS icon and feed for each blog.  Here’s what it looks like: 

That's all until our next update.  If you have questions, please contact your solutions manager.  Here's one more link to a list of best practices you may want to consider to make more money.