Flipboard rolls out new features to help boost visibility for publishers

Flipboard on Tuesday announced the launch of its new self-service program that helps publishers with reader discovery and building new traffic. It has also introduced Reader Enhanced Display — known as RED Bolt — to make reader-friendly websites more visible on its platform.

With Flipboard — available for iOS and Android — you can find popular stories and news based on a variety of genres all in one app. It also allows you to build your own magazines focused on specific topics by filling them with content from any source, publication, or person. For those who share similar interests and passions, there’s the option to follow each other through the app, where you’re able to like or comment whatever is shared.

For further social discovery of its content, the company has incorporated RED bolt, which will specifically appear next to articles on Flipboard that have mobile-optimized pages. The publications that will receive RED Bolt at launch include The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Esquire, among hundreds of others.

With a large majority of traffic coming from mobile devices, Flipboard wants to be able to give readers an experience that is not only fast but also high in quality. With the advancements it has rolled out in design and mobile standards, its platform is now open to millions of different sources.

In order to receive RED Bolt, Flipboard requires mobile sites to follow a few specific guidelines. The sites should be able to load in one second or less, be free from aggressive pop-up ads, and should not redirect readers to another site either. In upcoming months, it will roll out to thousands of more publishers and — by the end of 2017 — will be automatically awarded to sources that follow its user experience guidelines.

Launching alongside RED Bolt is a more simple way for publishers to join the platform. Using a new publisher sign-up tool, publishers are now able to add, edit, and organize their content automatically on the app. Once you sign up as a publisher and submit an RSS feed for review, your content will be live on Flipboard, and articles will be indexed and surfaced in related topics using an algorithm.

If you’re an existing publisher, you can log into your account on Flipboard’s site and add or manage the RSS feeds under your profile. You’ll also be able to edit, add, and update feeds that are associated with any of your Flipboard magazines. The new interface allows you to control your feeds on the app, and make sure fresh content and important coverage is reaching your audience as stories are published.