Publisher’s Year in Review 2019

A year of growth – testing ideas, launching projects and refining strategies. #

When January began, we had a soft launch of the digital magazine after almost a year of preparation. Affordable Mallorca is a custom-designed online magazine with a few features in the back-end that organize our content for our readers and our advertisers. While we are in the early stages of the property site, this management of data is central to our long-term vision to help people learn more about the intricacies of living on the island, what areas have what gifts and why you may want to live in one area over another.

At its essence, our magazine is a tool for residents and frequent tourists, for small business owners and for real estate agents. We offer details that you might not find otherwise. Our articles are focused on showing how to authentically live on Mallorca. Several lifestyle publications show the luxury living on the coast. We show life in areas that are lesser-known and the special people who make the island better

A few touchstones for the year: #

As we opened the year, our team created Complete Guides to living on the island in certain places, dealing with issues like Relocation, Pets and Work. We have #UltimateGuides on the homepage of the magazine where you can find Guides that cover major topics.

We moved into our office on Ca’n Danus off Plaza Mercat. This puts us in touch with central Palma, close to the bus and train stations. While we can walk almost anywhere in town, the airport is an easy 10-minute ride.

Holly Veneman joined us as Director of Client Solutions. We are not a traditional news and media outlet. Our goal is to enhance our client’s outreach by using the innovations of digital technologies. Because we offer only digital outreach, teaching small businesses and advertisers about our services requires a patient person and Holly has just what it takes. She’s moved to the island almost 20 years ago after marrying a Mallorquin (and his family) then raising their two boys here. She speaks English and Spanish.

Our Commitment to Mallorca's Community #

Because of our strong commitment to community development, we selected three main issues that affect the standard of living on the island: Sea degradation, Graffiti and trash and abandoned dogs and cats. We selected Save the Med, ARCA Patrimoni and Baldea. Over the next year, we look forward to sponsoring events and providing you with more details about how you can participate in helping our community work.

PechaKucha Palma de Mallorca #

Affordable Mallorca sponsored the BEST PECHAKUCHA PALMA Vol. 1. Directed and produced by Rosalinda Much, the nine presenters – all extraordinary in their fields with tremendous experience, graciously gave their time and efforts to show us a taste of the creative class in Palma. We hope to join forces again as this type of event brings together expats and native-born for a truly Mallorquin experience. For more, check out www.pechakuchapalma.com.

Created An Independent Ad Channel #

Over the summer of 2019, we disconnected from all third-party advertising platforms in orderBy to strengthen our market concentration. Have you ever noticed how you land on a newspaper or magazine site then see ads that take you to parts unknown. Then, mysteriously, your email fills up with special offers and you then have screens full of ads from third-party marketers? After careful design, we have an advertising platform that puts us in control of who and what is on our website. We have affordable pricing to help support local businesses who want to reach our readership.

What I learned in developing this magazine, Google lies. You can not truly limit the geo-targeted area of advertisers on your website, digital newspaper or magazine. We are now a completely closed eco-system. This has a potential challenge in that we now have to drive advertising like a traditional print magazine, with a sales team and back office staff.

The upside is that we control 100% of our magazine content and ads, thereby creating a safe environment for all ages, focused only on Mallorca. As we expand our Affordable Brand to other markets, we will maintain this ad channel to be used for local ads, maintaining 100% control and 100% of the ad revenue.

Like a traditional print magazine, we control the ads. This might get tricky since local advertisers do not see us or digital media as a viable advertising media. However, I’m betting that our long-term strength will be in creating a central place for advertisers for expats and residents. And because we have created a “closed loop system,” our readers will never be spammed. Ever. When you click the “Accept Cookies” message on the homepage, that simply allows us to comply with the EU Data Regulations. We do not capture any personal details and never ask for any identification numbers so you are 100% safe and protected when reading our content.

Boosts in Testing Methods to Promote Events and Articles #

As we moved into Autumn, we hit a high of 24,000 unique visitors to our magazine. Guided by our Editor, each of our writers offers her own style while maintaining our family-friendly standards. Your 10-year old can read our magazine and watch the videos while our senior readers are equally as captivated.

We had the great fortune of trending #1 on Google for searches about the European Hot Air Balloon Championships. We began our coverage prior to the event, sent Vincent to film and Adele, our Social Media Manager, shared daily updates on schedule changes due to weather on our Instagram account. All of this showed how we can coordinate special event promotions, capture visibility and support sponsors to generate real returns for their investment in advertising and marketing.

Who is our audience? #

While we do not track individual readers and we never spam or sell our analytics to third-party advertisers, we do have Google Analytics to show us geo-locations and preferences. We want to know what people like to read and our advertisers want to know where people are from. Mallorca has over 20 million visitors a year - by air and sea, with 850,000+ residents from over 128 countries. This is a major market for international readership.

Because our readers are online and we can see general preferences, we know that our readers have the following characteristics:

• an interest in international travel
• connections to Mallorca
• 50:50 male: female

40%+ of our readers are Spanish – yes, we are English-only at the moment but we plan to add Spanish-language preferences to the site for those people not familiar with how to navigate Google Translator. read in most countries around the world. Predictably, after Spain, we are read most in the UK and the USA.

However, my surprise came when I counted the countries where we have no data on readers. Our map shows ONLY 17 countries without reader engagement.

Crowdsourcing Fun #

Through our promotion of the European Hot Air Balloon Championships, we engaged an audience that wants to have fun. We promoted the event on our Instagram and Facebook feeds to connect with people all over the island through our daily photos, videos and posts. We have so many extraordinary photos - hard to select just a few but we'll have to for this article. If you want to see more, let us know.

In November, we had our First Photo Contest for the Light Show at the Cathedral when the sun shines through the stained glass to reveal an infinity of light. Here is the winning photo – creative.

In December, we sponsored a second Photo Contest for Christmas Lights with winner treated to lunch at Santosha. People took photos of Christmas lights around Palma. Next year, we will be covering the entire island as Pollença, Andratx, and Valldemossa/Deía have beautiful holiday lights.

Vital Statistics #

As we end 2019, we have had 170,800+ page views of 350+ articles with over 111,000 users.

On Facebook, we reached over 257,000 people in December. We posted a Christmas video for our website and had over 55,000 people watch, 1.2k shares with over 100 comments in less than 30 days. We can now post ads on Facebook for our clients and drive traffic for them. If an advertiser uses video content, the reach is 60%+ greater.

On Google, we had 170.8k pageviews on 350+ articles with over 111,000 users. We will continue to explore ways to reach our audience and carry insights on lifestyle options for the island and beyond. In the end, we are all about finding ways to live an extraordinary life, knowing value is more than just the value of money. We are a new magazine and still have plenty of growth to do.

Next Year, we look forward to more engagement with our audience. While we will continue our support of our non-profit partners, we are interested to know who you support in your efforts to help make Mallorca a better place to live, work and play. Check out our daily Instagram and Facebook posts for inspiration along the way.

Looking Back #

When I look back for why I founded this online magazine, the goal was to connect expats and locals to lesser-known villages, local foods found off the beaten path, people living here who are doing extraordinary work and unique happenings that can only be experienced here on the Mallorca. Our Editor guides our writers to distill the essence of this unique and diverse island. Get off the beaten path and away from the hype of luxury, coastal living, this place is hands-down better than any other place in the world.

A few of my favorite stories – The Vulture Sanctuary article and video shows the cons of tourism and development. Reading about Christer Södenberg, I know that change agents live among us. When I read the Ultimate Guide Sustainable Living, I see the extraordinary government and citizen activists leadership for managing future growth which puts the island ahead of COP Paris targets. The carob and olive articles – all our food articles – remind me that we can eat local and well. Next, we need to help those less fortunate here on the island. Yet, there is a gap between those with and those without means to live comfortably.

Moving Forward into 2020 #

We will continue to showcase all issues that affect living on Mallorca - including the not-so-pretty. Our article, Confessions by a Female Alcoholic continues to be read and shared. The ongoing crisis of addiction is not simply a matter for others to cover but a healthy community cares about all aspects of living.

We will also continue to show the places, people and issues most in need of volunteers and community support. For a directory of charities, read this >> Directory of Charities on Mallorca. If you want to volunteer, check out this >> Charities and Volunteering on Mallorca. Please send your ideas, issues you see that need to be magnified so that we can help make our island a place to call "Home."

Watching our videos, seeing our daily Instagram posts, reading our articles and our reader’s comments – all this gives me a feeling of being here, even when I’m traveling. This island has a history that spans Millenia and I’ve only been here since the mid-1980s. I have seen progress made in the infrastructure after the creation of the EU with road, water and sewer improvements that support a larger residential community. With these upgrades, we also have a vast change on the island with ravages of mass tourism that has brought a lack of affordability in housing and food. The gap between those with and those without can be helped if we band together to support one another.

This site is a network for sharing ideas, supporting small businesses and providing a listing site for real estate and boats so that people with property valued under €500,000 will have a place to showcase these assets. Did you know that the average price of a house on the island is under €350,000? Over the next year, we will explain where to find the best real estate deals, how to identify good value and what is happening to the market. Proper titles and deeds, taxes and other financial details are becoming necessary to protect your investment. We’ll help show how to best manage your information so that when you decide to sell, or buy, you will be prepared.

We have much to see and do in 2020. Let’s keep showing each other the best of Mallorca and where we can focus of efforts to improve conditions for those less fortunate so that we can be happy.