People
are always interested in saving money.
If you can develop a product
or
service that will help them save, you are almost guaranteed success.
This
report will tell you about a special type of magazine you can produce
and
give away, free, that will generate substantial profits for you.
The
magazine is an ADVERTISING TABLOID. The
magazine is made up almost
completely
of advertisements from local businesses, with a coupon section
filled
with money-saving offers from these businesses.
These are fairly
easy
to put together. The only real work
you'll have to do is a bit of leg
work
to get your advertisers for the first issue.
The subsequent issues
will
get easier and easier, because your original advertisers will return to
you,
due to their success, and new advertisers will feel confident about
advertising
with you.
What
if there are free ad magazines in your area already? Get a few copies
of
each one. Take your time to look through
them all. Make a list of the
things
that you like and dislike in each one.
You should then be able to
look
down your list of dislikes and find ways to improve upon the current
magazines.
Also, consider the type of advertisers in each one, and the
group
of people the publisher is marketing to.
Your magazine could
specialize
in an area that they are ignoring. You
could do one that's all
restaurants,
or caters to upper-income families, exclusively.
Here's
the best way to start an advertising tabloid.
First, think up a
name.
Here are some words to your brainstorming:
SAVE, FREE, DISCOUNT,
VALUE,
MONEY, PAPER, PEOPLE'S, CONSUMER'S, COUPON, GUIDE, GUIDEBOOK. Think
of
words that will convey the money-saving feel of the magazine. When you
come
up with one (for example, "People's Free MoneySaver," then you are
ready
to start identifying potential advertisers.
Make
a list of the potential advertisers for your magazine. Put down their
name,
address, phone, and type of business they are.
For example, if your
magazine
will market to upper income people, then make a list of the
recreation
businesses that these families might like (marinas, bed &
breakfasts,
etc.), higher quality restaurants, and higher-priced retail
stores. Even upper income families like to save money
(they didn't get to
be
upper income by spending it all!). Then
prepare a letter to be sent to
these
advertisers. This will be your first
contact with them. Detail your
planned
publication, how they will benefit from it (it will draw new
customers
in and will give experienced customers an extra incentive to
return),
advertising rates and how you plan to distribute it (we'll cover
both
later in this report). Your computer
will be indispensable for this.
Set
up a database with the business' contact information, then type your
letter
as a form letter in your word processor.
You can then merge these
and
print them, then print labels for the envelopes, saving hours of time.
A
good idea is to enclose a business reply postcard with your letter. Check
with
your postmaster for details about getting set up for business reply
mail.
You pay postage on the postcards, but only on the ones that get sent
back
to you.
An
11" x 17" paper will carry 4 regular size pages, so if you think you
can
sell
24 pages of ads, that would be 6 sheets, printed front and back.
Therefore,
if you will be getting a 15,000 circulation (a good number to
work
with for advertisers), you would need a quote on 6 11" x 17" pages,
15,000
copies each, collated and saddle stitched (stapled like a magazine).
Divide
the price quote you receive by the number of pages of advertising
(24,
in this example) and you will have your PER PAGE cost. You can then
divide
this cost into smaller increments (half page, quarter page, 1/8 page,
etc.).
As
the ad size gets smaller, it should also be proportionately more
expensive,
as an incentive to the advertiser to purchase a larger ad.
Observe
the rates of other giveaway advertising magazines in your area when
figuring
how much profit to add in above your cost.
Price yours
competitively
and you'll do well. If your market is a
more targeted one
than
the competition gets, you can charge a bit more. You should offer a
multiple
issue discount, like "advertise in three issues, get the fourth
free." This will increase your advance sales.
When
you talk to potential advertisers, find out if they have camera-ready
ads
that can be used. These are ready for
the printer, and can save you the
time
and effort of typesetting. Most
businesses will have ads pre-made,
which
you can insert into the master copy that will go to the printer. If
they
need an ad made for them, your printer should be able to help you with
the
typesetting.
There
are a few ways you can distribute the finished magazines. First, you
could
deliver them door-to-door. Don't put
them in the mailboxes, as there
are
postal regulations against that. Leave
them in the customer's door
instead. Hire some teenagers to help out. Or, you could have the newspaper
insert
them into the newspapers going to the area you want to hit. Most
papers
can do this. Contact them for their
cost.
Bulk
mailing is infinitely easier and more efficient, but requires a bit of
paperwork
and registration fees. If you are
delivering in one zip code area,
you
can use either five digit presort mailing, or carrier route presort
mailing. You should check with your postmaster
regarding rules and fees.
Another
option is to divide the copies among the advertisers and ask them to
give
them to their customers. Other
non-advertising businesses will often
agree
to do this, since it will be a freebie to offer their customers. If
you
do this, a good idea is to put a list in your publication of all the
places
people can get a copy. This will make it
easier for your readers to
get
future copies, and it will entice other businesses to act as distribution
points. This can be a very successful
distributio
n
method.
In
a city of 350,000 people, there can be many free advertisers. The best
one
has 48 pages, a 15,000 circulation and, at the start, was published
every
two weeks. It only took them three
issues to get to the point of
publishing
weekly. Every issue, by my calculations,
takes in around $6,000
of
ad revenue. After you take the costs
out, you have a profit of around
$4,000
per week! And this is being run by just
three guys... You can
succeed
in this, too! Just plan your steps ahead
of time, and you'll do well!
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