Reflection Point : What Have I Learned About Independent Music Magazine Websites?

What I have learned from looking at three different independent magazines websites is that the level of quality can vary, this is due in part to the need to have a great amount of resources in order to have a top tier website. And to be a successful website needs to reinforce the brand identity, such as having the same masthead they use for their magazine as well as prominently displaying the most recent issue they have published; want you to buy it. The goal is for the website to feel like the person visiting the website is reading the magazine, by using the same colour scheme or speaking about similar subjects. The reason for this is that they wish long time readers to recognise the website as the magazine as it will make them more likely if a fan of the magazine to navigate the site for longer. 

Two features of all three independent magazines that I looked at were the promotion of social media platforms that the magazines have a presents on, a second way of boosting engagement as it will incentives further digestion of more of the brands content. A second, somewhat more important feature is the inclusion of advertisements. As these are what keep focusing on the site profitable, along with extra funds which can help go to the independent magazines other ventures, necessary as almost all independent magazines will not have piles and piles of cash to play with so need to use every avenue to be able to keep the business going. The use of advertisements on the website one such way.