How to Start an Online Magazine in 4 Steps

Haiden Hibbert

I'm a Content Manager at MemberSpace helping entrepreneurs and creators sell digital products.

Whether you have a background in journalism or you’re an entrepreneur looking for your next income stream, starting an online magazine can be a great way to grow an online community and earn recurring income. Plus – you have a lot more flexibility with a digital magazine than you do with a print publication – from the format and layout to the frequency of publishing and the monetization methods. You can even bundle your digital magazine with other digital products and sell it as a part of a membership (this is what some of our most successful customers do!).

The key is to start simple. Your design, content, and marketing can all evolve and improve overtime, but getting your first issue out into the world should be your priority! And we’re here to help you do just that. In this post, we’ll walk through the 4 simple steps on how to start an online magazine – from launching your website to welcoming new subscribers.

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Creating Your Digital Magazine

The beauty of an online magazine is that it doesn’t need to be as polished or professional as a print magazine, and you definitely don’t need to hire a designer or use expensive software to make it look presentable (unless you want to, of course).

You can create your entire digital magazine in Canva by simply customizing one of their templates and saving your design as a PDF.

What matters most is giving your readers quality, unique content that they can’t find anywhere else, like:

4 Steps To Launching Your First Issue

One of the biggest benefits of starting an online magazine is the freedom to make it whatever you want. For example, MemberSpace customer, Frames Magazine offers a membership to its readers that gives them access to tons of exclusive content and perks alongside the digital magazine, like access to a private community platform to connect with other members and exclusive events. Setting up your digital magazine as a part of a membership also increases the value of your subscription AND allows you to charge more!

But no matter how you choose to package your online magazine, the process of getting it launched is pretty simple. Just follow these 4 steps.

Step 1: Create Your Magazine’s Website

Once you’ve created your first issue, a simple website is all you need to publish your magazine online. You can use any CMS, but we recommend Squarespace if you’re new to web design because they have tons of templates and a super simple drag-and-drop editor. WordPress is another great option if you’re looking for more advanced features.

Start off by launching a homepage where visitors can learn about your magazine and subscribe. If you plan on offering more than just magazine issues—like community access or special events for your readers—make sure to include that here, as well as pricing info.

Don’t worry about adding additional pages just yet. You can build out your site overtime as your business grows!

Step 2: Upload Your Magazine File(s)

Next, you’ll need to create a new web page for your first issue.

Keep it simple and add a preview of the cover, some bullets about what’s in the issue, and a “read now” button that links directly to your PDF file.

To keep your magazine issues organized and easy to manage/find on your site, be sure to create a parent page like yoursite.com/magazine with consistent child pages like:

Step 3: Add a Paywall to Your Magazine Pages

To make sure only subscribers get access to your magazine, you’ll need to convert your website into a membership site with a tool like MemberSpace. This is as easy as adding a snippet of code to your website in just a few minutes (any CMS works!).

Then, simply tell MemberSpace which pages should be for subscribers only (e.g., yoursite.com/magazine/spring-2025/), and our paywall will instantly appear, requiring readers to sign up and pay before they get access to your content.

Quick Tip: As an added layer of security, we recommend uploading your PDF files to MemberSpace as Content Links. This will create a secure link that you can add to your “read now” button, ensuring only subscribers who have signed up and paid for your magazine can view it.

Step 4: Set Your Pricing

Most digital magazines follow a subscription model, where members pay monthly, quarterly, or annually. But there are no rules – you can charge however you want by setting up your pricing plan(s) in MemberSpace.

You can also set all of your billing details like payment amount, frequency, and billing date.

Once you’ve set up your pricing plan(s), copy the sign up link from your MemberSpace account and add it to “Subscribe” buttons across your website – on your homepage, inside free content, at the end of blog posts, etc. When someone clicks, they’ll see a signup and payment form.

Once they subscribe, they get instant access to all your past and future magazine issues!

Final Thoughts

Unlike print publications, starting an online magazine doesn’t require a big budget, team, or tons of experience. You can start offering exclusive content to your community and earn recurring revenue from your magazine in just a few steps. We’ve helped thousands of creators, like Frames Magazine, turn their passions into profit. Let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for reading!