Create Your Own Publication

At some point, you may want to consider starting your own niche
market publication. Not only can you create a publication, you can
advertise your own products and services in the publication.
Now the problem would be to attract other advertisers to a publication
that had no track record. I would ask myself what I would want if I
were purchasing advertising from a publication of this nature. What I
would want is certainty. How do you do this?
One solution would be to offer the advertisers a “deal”. They would
get their ads free, and they would only pay for the number of leads
they get. My feeling is that it is the responsibility of your publication
to generate readership and leads; therefore it is the advertisers’
responsibility to close the sale on the leads you would generate.
So you might set up an 800# with different extension numbers for
each advertiser. This way people who were interested would call the
800 #, and dial the extension number. You would charge the
advertisers based on a dollar amount per lead. They would then be
responsible for closing the sales.
The nice thing about a publication like this is that it would break even
without a single advertiser. You could use the publication as a delivery
device to promote your seminars and other products, thus cutting your
own cost of direct mail and space advertising with the trade
publications.
At the low end of the scale you can produce a newsprint publication
with a two-color cover. After printing and mailing, your cost will run
around 65¢ an issue.