No Time to Cook App

Real Simple came out with an iPad, iPhone and Android app that is for people who needto create meals during the week in a hurry. It's called No Time to Cook and it was released around December 2010. It was re-released on April 13, 2011 to version 1.0.3

Screenshot of the app on the iPad and iPhone

The reason behind the new launch was because so many people who downloaded the app said that for the $4.99 price tag they expected less ads and more functionality. According to Real Simple this app is supposed to deliver this.

However, after reading comments from users they haven't really since a decrease in the amount of ads. Some even believe that because it's a paid app that it should be ad-free. This is something that I think many app developers are dealing with when it comes to app building. When should ads be used and when should apps be totally ad-free.

On another note, the branding of the application is done very well. It matches the tone and feel of the magazine. The colors and typography are consistent through all of Real Simple's products.

Twitter Presence

 

Twitter account

Real Simple (@Real_Simple) is on Twitter, and it looks like they've been on the site for quite awhile now. The magazine does a great job branding themselves and distinguishing their brand from others. The colors are always consistent, the design is always beautifully done. Nothing is over-the-top or loud.

Right now, Real Simple has 171,804 followers on Twitter and 2, 243 tweets. The amount of tweets compares to what Vox Magazine has at 2, 590 tweets. Real Simple's twitter presence is there. They don't spam people's accounts, but they balance their content promotion with their ability to engage with the community. It's a brilliant plan and by the looks of the tweets it seems to be working.

Tweets with the community.

On top of their magazine twitter presence, Real Simple also holds accounts for their food (@RealSimpleFood) and special offers (@RS_Offers).  The other two accounts don't get as much play as the main twitter account, which is understandable because there won't always be as many food tips or offers for the readers. Overall, I think Real Simple has their Twitter presence down pretty well. At least from what I've seen today.

Simple Stated Blog

The Real Simple blog.

Real Simple has a very active blog presence. Their blog Simply Stated. is updated frequently. It looks like it takes a break on the weekends, but posts are constantly being put up on the site everyday. Usually there are multiple posts in one day. I think it's interesting that the blog goes dead on the weekends though. I'm not sure what the statistics are on the weekend traffic to their blog, but it seems like a big risk to only maintain it Monday-Friday. However, no where on the site does it say it is a daily blog, so maybe they only want it to be a weekday stopping point. 

The posts are spread out at different times throughout the day. This gives readers an incentive to come back and visit the blog more than once a day. It looks like posts will go out as early as 8 a.m. to as late as 7 p.m. I'm sure what the strategy is behind the times, but it works because nothing is going up within minutes of something else. 

Something that  I like about their blog is that when an editor makes a blog post their picture is right next to the title of the post. This brings a human aspect to the blogger. I think seeing the picture of the person who is blogging makes the reader feel more connected to the subject matter and shows that even in the far-off land of New York City that real people are still writing these blog posts and that they still do exist. 

One of the down-falls of the blog is that is doesn't seem like it's promoted enough. I had no idea it was a blog until I clicked on it. On the homepage of Real Simple there is spot where it lives. It only says "Simple Stated. : Daily Tips from our Editors and Experts." I would have been more inclined to click on the link earlier had I known that it was a blog. They should consider making that more clear on the homepage somehow. If they included it in the masthead of the blog title on the homepage, instead of the "Daily Tips from our Editors and Experts" I think it would be much more clear that it's a blog and not just another area on the site that offers daily tips like the "Daily Finds."

 

What the blog looks like on the homepage of Real Simple.

Advertisements

One of the nice things about Real Simple's website is that it doesn't have an overload of ads popping out at you as you scroll through the site. Most of the advertisements live on the right side of the site. They aren't distracting and they don't over power the entire page.

 

Advertisement on the right rail.

Real Simple only has one pop-up ad that appears when you open the site. It occurs when your first visit the home page. It's generally an in-house ad that promotes a subscription to the magazine. The good thing about this is it's easy to close out of the ad quickly. The downside of these types of ads is that they are annoying. I know advertising is what keeps most businesses running next to newsstand sales, but pop-up ads ad nothing to content of the site and discourage readers from wanting to visit more often. Generally, I don't even read what these pop-ups say and especially since this is an in-house ad Real Simple could easily nix the ad to create a better user experience.

Another area with ads is above the navigation bar. This is a hot spot for advertisements. Most of these ads are flash graphics and promote products that Real Simple would write about. 

Advertiement above the navigation.

The last place that I found ads was when they were interspersed throughout galley-like stories. I was flipping through the Daily Finds of "The Best Reusable Bags" and within the story was an ad for Clorox. I've seen ads placed like this before and it's second nature for me to just flip right past it. These types of ads are also annoying, but I know they probably create a good amount of revenue. However, the interesting thing about this ad is that it promotes Real Simple on Twitter and the Clorox product. This sort of advertising technique is a great way to boost sales for the product and drive traffic to Real Simple's Twitter account.

Ad within the story for "The Best Reusable Bags."

Overall, the amount of ads on Real Simple's page is fairly low compared to a lot of the other sites. They don't junk up their page with unnecessary flash graphics that would take away from the feeling a reader gets when reading the magazine or browsing the site.

Video Strategy

This week I looked at the video strategy on Real Simple's website. Like I mentioned in an earlier post about multimedia there are usually videos hidden throughout the website. It just depends on what sections you're looking at. For the most part, the video is service journalism pieces. From what I've seen there are only how-to videos, which makes sense because this reaches the target audience and personality of the magazine.

They don't promote their videos on their site and I don't often see many tweets to their videos, but this might be because they don't do them that often. The first video that pops up when I search for video is from May 5, 2010. This video is under the most recent tab. However, it's hard to say when these videos went up on the site because they aren't dated. I have no idea how many videos they put up in a week.

For the most part the videos last about a minute to a minute-and-a-half. This is the usual time frame for videos.

This video was under the most recent tab. It is 54 seconds.

Date of most recent comment for above video.

Navigation Bar

 Navigation Bar

Real Simple uses pull down menus for their navigation bar. I think it is pretty self-explanatory and simple to use. Now that I am getting more accustomed with the website I can easily go straight to what I want and find what I'm looking for without much thought.

Pull-down Menu

Most of the content is categorized by subject matter within the department. Once the user clicks on a subject in the navigation bar the site takes him or her to a page that is templated the same way. There is a large feature with a photo and blurb explaining the topic and underneath are smaller stories in the same category. The reader can organize the subject matter by most popular and most recent.

The navigation bar appeals to the person who doesn't come to the website very often. Real Simple doesn't assume that all people who visit the website are subscribers, which is great for casual visitors.

The drawback of their navigation bar is that it can be hard to find the latest content. Most of the stuff that pops up are the most popular stories, but overall Real Simple does a good job of organizing their stories.

New Daily Content Item

There are many different aspects on realsimple.com that refresh daily. The Daily Find is a section online that is complete service journalism. Each day Real Simple gives relevant information to the reader, the topics span from the "Best Kitchen Trash Bags" to today's topic, the "5 Grooming Gifts For Him." 

The Daily Find 2/14/2011

This is a great section for online because it does change daily and can be relevant for holidays and themes that the print publication might not be able to fit into print or isn't timely for the print version. This is also great because readers are able to browse through the many Daily Find archives. 

The drawback of this section is that I cannot tell if these are recycled ideas from past Daily Finds that previously ran or if they are unique ideas every day. The Daily Finds are not dated, so there is no way to know the uniqueness unless you are a frequent observer of the website. From what I can tell, since the beginning of the semester each Daily Find has been new each day. There is also a newsletter that accompanies this section. I have signed up for it and will update with information about how the two complement each other once I begin receiving the newsletters.