What I Found on My Way to Publishing with Flipbook HTML5
This year, my friend Tommy and I decided to go into business.
We developed a business idea right away to sell high-end custom toys to an elite crowd.
Once the products were ready to sell, we needed an answer to this:
How do we make contact with our target market?
We needed a catalog we could give away free that would have the feel of exclusivity.
With our questions in hand, we went to Jon, a family friend in a similar business. We asked for his advice on how to present our products flawlessly and tastefully. We were ready to work to ensure we sent the right message.
Jon showed us his catalogs, which were beautiful HTML5 publications. He was in the process of updating when we arrived. We asked which flipbook maker he was using. His was an Issuu flipbook, he said. He stopped what he was doing to recommend that we look at several options to find the right one for our products.
He scribbled out a list that included:
· FlipSnack
· Issuu
· Fliphtml5
· Yumpu
· AnyFlip
· iSpring Flip
· Flippingbook
He also told us a few things to check for with them:
· Is it inconvenient to distribute?
· How much is automatic and how much do you have to do manually?
· Does it use flash?
· Does it enable clients to experience the publications like real catalogs?
Browsing Sample Flipbook HTML5 Catalogs
I did the research for this since Tommy’s specialty was more on the product design end. My first step was to look through sample catalogs on each of the seven platforms.
The first thing I noticed was that each platform gave a different user experience. I was looking for a catalog that would appeal to young, tech-savvy parents with a taste for the finer things in life. The ideal experience would include a real book feel, vivid colors, and a leisurely buying process.
Time to get the flash going and open the samples!
Flipsnack, FlipHTML5, Yumpu, Anyflip, and FlippingBook all gave the real book experience with the audio and visual effects of turning a page. I thought for our luxury items, a slow flip would be best. The slowest, smoothest turns came from Flipsnack and FlipHTML5. Yumpu Publishing pages turn at a moderate rate. Anyflip and FlippingBook turn at a brisker rate.
I saw right away it would be impossible to create the desired effect with Issuu. Issuu can make a slick-looking catalog. The problem for our purposes was that the pages slide across quickly. I mean, it didn’t flip like a book. None of the flipbook options will flip if you’ve disabled flash. This one didn’t flip at all.
Here’s something else:
The different flipbook HTML5 platforms gave visitors a different experience of colors on the website. I didn’t know what the original photographs looked like of course. I compared all the samples on each site and found that Anyflip and Yumpu Publishing catalogs tended to have more vivid colors. FlipHTML5 catalogs had more washed-out-looking colors.
What about the data?
The words were easy enough to read on all platforms that gave an option for full-screen. That included all but Flipsnack. Flash allowed the photos and data to display clearly enough to make out, though.
Flipbook Creation Features
I knew support would be essential. Fortunately, help is available. For instance, FlippingBook has a large help section and a toll-free support number. For flipHTML5, you’ll be stopping to wait a day to hear from support if the help section doesn’t answer your questions.
Something gradually dawned on me:
Would the catalog work on all browsers? After a little research, I found that’s the beauty of HTML5. It works well across everything from Firefox Mozilla to Chrome Google. HTML5 publications just don’t have the problems of the old HTML publications. Yumpu Publishing has a support email as well as a toll-free number for support.
To update, they recommend making changes to your original document and uploading it again. Unless you have inserted all your fields manually. Then, you can avoid redoing the entire process and just replace images and text one whole field at a time. The URL remains the same, so customers find your updated catalog online when they click on it.
What stays in your publication. The PDF update simply converts like earlier ones. HTML5 publications do convert from PDF easily. I suggest you do it this way rather than manually if time is the most important factor.
We moved forward with our business plan on the 17th of October 2016. Time was passing without a catalog published in the works. Jon created catalogs with Issuu. Another friend had used FlippingBook on a past, distant project. She switched to it from an HTML catalog that didn’t have great flash performance.
The nice thing is you don’t have to know how to use CSS or JavaScript. That’s all built into the flipbook HTML5 technology. HTML5 is a pure delight. I plan to use it for publications for the foreseeable future. Back then, though, I was just looking for the right creation software. Would it be FlippingBook, Anyflip, Yumpu Publishing, or something else?
Hold on a minute!
Before I commit to using the technology, I want to know every feature and stats on the performance. How do you use publication tools to get the right look and feel of turning a page? I was willing to spend what I usually do to create a catalog that appeals to a well-off target market. Visitors would see the sharp, vivid images and some of those unique visitors would become customers for certain after a few views.
With the right analytics, I would be able to see how the catalog was performing. FlippingBook, Flipsnack, and Yumpu Publishing integrate well with Google Analytics. FlipHTML5 and Anyflip have statistics sections of their own.
I had to know more!
The platforms seemed great. Now, what about customization?
Having templates at your fingertips always make things easier. In any event, all flipbook maker software offers them. With Flipsnack, you can create whatever you want from scratch. FlippingBook has 24 customizable skins. Anyflip and FlipHTML5 allow for custom backgrounds and skins. FlipHTML5 allows for background music, too. Yumpu Publishing lets you add multimedia from videos to images to music.
I could imagine all the views from visitors looking for both information and an experience. HTML5 publications with audio and video! Awesome! I was anxious to see what analytics Google would show me when I had the catalog online.
The standard in the industry is for pages to turn smoothly. Using the flipbook should be a pleasure for people who have an interest in the content. You can always start with a PDF. On FlipHTML5 and Anyflip, you can import multiple PDFs into one catalog.
The idea of seeing people with our catalog opened on their iPhone or laptop was exciting! The statistics would help me get to that goal. First, though, I needed to know more about publishing features.
Flipbook HTML5 Publication Features
Anflip and FlipHTML5 give you a personal homepage and a virtual bookcase you can share on your website. Yumpu Publishing notes that you control access rights. Perfect! Remember, we were going for exclusivity to our target market.
FlippingBook suggests several different ways to publish, including sending a direct link via email or uploading to third-party hosting. With Flipsnack, you can share on social channels, embed it on any site or blog, share by email, or even share a specific page of the catalog. Flipsnack also gives three privacy options: public, unlisted, and private.
On any of the platforms, you can publish your catalog within minutes or choose a date to publish it later. Yumpu Publishing says your catalog will be available on the web within two minutes! It’s simple. Start with a template or custom skin. Add text, images, audio, and video. Insert a table of contents. Look at how it previews. If you like every page, hit the publish button. Voila! It’s ready to search.
I wasn’t worried about people doing a casual surf of toy catalogs. I was focused on our special target audience. I wanted them to settle down to a nice, comfortable read. When my documents were ready, I would convert them into HTML5 flipbooks.
Consumers need info before they make purchases. Once they have an idea of what they want, they need to be able to find data and images without having to scroll forever. Viewers would find that inconvenient, and so do I. The PDF version had the needed content. But, navigating through documents like that isn’t nearly as pleasant as flipping around in a real-appearing catalog.
So, which platform makes navigation easy?
Flipsnack makes it simple to add links and buttons for navigation. Flipping Book software has an interactive table of contents. Anyflip notes that your flipbook will be indexed by Google bots if you do the SEO. For our content goals, my interest was not in being available for everyone to search, but only for my viewers to navigate my content once they got the link in their emails. Yumpu Publishing allows you to put links in the catalog that direct visitors to that product page on your website.
Choosing the Right Flipbook HTML5 Option
It was time to decide and get on with it!
From everything I’d seen, FlippingBook and Yumpu Publishing seemed excellent choices. I really enjoyed the way the PDF document was converted into a real-book experience with realistic page-turning action. It would capture the audience I had in mind. I couldn’t get the vivid colors of Yumpu Publishing out of my mind. I was pretty sure I wanted Yumpu Publishing, but that did lead me to go back and check plan costs.
Here’s what I found:
· Yumpu Publishing— free version did not include Google Analytics integration, privacy settings, or protection features. Only the paid version was ad-free. Plans ranged from $19.95 a month to $339 a month. At $95, the catalog would be ad-free.
· FlippingBook — trial version limits you to 10 pages per publication. For website embedding, web library, digital bookshelf, the fee was $399. That’s a one-time fee.
· Flipsnack — the free version has a limit of 15 pages. With the paid version, you get a few extra features, including statistics and password protection.
· FlipHTML5 — free version limits to 5 uploads a day and has ads. To get the custom domain, animation editor, online editor, and batch convert, you need the Platinum level, which is $25 a month. Plans range from $15 a month to a $ 999-lifetime Enterprise plan.
· Anyflip — free version limits to 30,000 daily opens and 500 uploads per month. At the $999 permanent Enterprise level, that goes up to 500,000 daily opens and unlimited uploads per month.
The pricing information didn’t lead me to a quick decision. I was set to create the publication right away. So, I chose the HTML5 option that would create the catalog I had my heart set on for this project. That was Yumpu Publishing.
So, here’s the way I saw it:
I could get leads. I could collect them from the young parents’ generation in various ways. That would lead me to my potential customers. I’d deliver the link to the publication in emails. From there, they could open it easily.
Communications for the ordering process would be one-to-one since these were custom products and elite customers. All our campaigns would follow this same marketing process. They would all have their own catalog publications.
Social media makes it easy for the viewer to share the HTML5 catalog and to upload a PDF to Twitter. I imagined lots of sharing among the soccer moms. Yumpu Publishing and others would make that easy. The video I planned to use would look great online. I would enrich the content with vivid colors, too.
As for branding, our corporate logos would show clearly on the catalog. I’d be using the right style for our corporate brand.
Creating the Flipbook
Remembering that the design is customizable, I had plenty of ideas to meet our needs. A gracious style was important. These weren’t dry business documents, after all. I would tailor the experience to my target crowd.
With the opportunity for customization via the flipbook HTML5 format, I knew the publications would be impressive. FlippingBook and Yumpu Publishing both had the right feel, but Yumpu Publishing had those awesome bright colors.
I started to create the first of our publications. I considered the reasons customers would choose our toys. Perhaps a birthday or other special date was coming up. The readers might be looking around for unique ideas. Seeing our individualized products, they might linger on the page. Sales seemed inevitable.
I can be a dreamy sort at times. But, Tommy is always there to bring me back to earth. He suggested that customers might get copies that were outdated. They might be unhappy if we changed our products. We were likely to do that, at least at first. So, the content available had to be the version that had the latest product offerings.
We weren’t giving access to everyone. Still, we needed to make sure the PDF update was done as needed. We could do it easily with Yumpu Publishing simply by uploading the PDF with the changes made. If something in the content needed to change, it was an easy process.
We did create a beautiful flipbook HTML5. We distribute the new version to our ideal customers via email. We encourage them to share via social media. Making a new catalog each quarter is one of my routine jobs now. Anything from the text to the presentation can change. With each new download, we know we’re reaching more of our target market.
What we always need are sales results. We enjoy seeing those statistics climb as we add new customers. Regardless of the browser they use, the link will open so customers can view our publications in all their glory.
The software doesn’t require special knowledge. It’s easy to use — just register at their platform. Customers like viewing the catalog on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. It works with any internet-ready device. The catalog is accessible through the provided link to the select target group we’ve chosen. We also give them this real book experience on a protected section of our website.
Browsing the catalog is enjoyable. Yumpu Publishing gave us the audio and visual effect of page-turning that is realistic and nostalgic. PDFs are okay, but much better are HTML5 publications like our catalog. Tommy is happy with my choice of this software over the Flipping Book publication option.
How the Quest Turned Out
So, we considered FlippingBook seriously, but we settled on this software. We converted our PDF document to a magnificent catalog that gives our customers an upscale experience with the looks and sounds of a real book.
I’m sure this software wasn’t the only software that would have given an acceptable result. Our second choice, FlippingBook would have worked. Still, I think our customers care about the look and feel of our publications the way we make them.
This flipbook HTML5 option was the right choice for our situation. Going online to turn the PDFs into publications was simple. I wasn’t sure whether FlippingBook would have made such a beautiful catalog. I knew Yumpu Publishing did!
The results were gorgeous. I had expected any online HTML5 platform would work. From what I’ve seen, that’s mostly true. Some platforms are more suited to other types of publications than ours. FlippingBook and Yumpu Publishing were more compatible with our goals.
For our purposes, I’m pleased with the catalog we created using HTML5 tools. We’ll be introducing a new product line next year. As easy as the process was, I can’t wait to get started!
