Posted by Samuel Great on April 18, 2009 at 1:57am
How to Start a Free MagazineIt's possible to make a free magazine by selling advertising space to cover the costs of producing your magazine. It's even possible to earn a profit from making a free magazine if your publication has enough readers to command higher advertising rates. Advertisers will pay premium rates to have ads in publications that have a widespread readership or that are highly targeted to their ideal customer.Step1Decide on the topic of your free magazine. You could make a free local or regional publication focusing on local news and information, or you could make a free niche content publication related to a specific area, such as craftmaking or boating. Even though your magazine is free, you want to choose a topic that will attract a lot of readers so that you can charge premium rates for advertising space.Step2Determine who your target reader will be. If you are making a boating publication, your target reader will be those interested in boating or those who own boats. If your publication is related to a geographic region, your target reader will be those who live in or would be interested in visiting the area. Keep your potential advertisers in mind when determining your target reader. If you can't think of a business that would want to market to your target reader, you may want to consider choosing a different topic. Since your magazine is free, the revenue you earn through advertising must pay for all of your operating costs, therefore you must be able to attract quality advertisers.Step3Estimate your budget. Keep in mind all of your operating costs plus any additional income you wish to earn by publishing a free magazine. This is the amount you will need to earn through advertising. Use this number to break down the costs of advertising space in your free publication that you will sell to advertisers.Step4Make a list of potential advertisers. Your advertisers should make sense with your target reader. For example, local businesses would want to advertise in a local publication, and any business selling boats or boating supplies would be an ideal advertiser for a boating publication. Think of enough potential advertisers that you would be able to meet your budget to cover the costs of producing your free magazine even if only a few of them purchase advertising.Step5Create your content. Write your own content, if you choose, or hire freelance writers or volunteer contributors to write articles. Since your magazine is free, you will want to keep your costs as low as possible.Step6Lay out the visual appearance of your magazine. You can do this using a number of programs, such as Microsoft Publisher, Adobe PageMaker, or even Microsoft Word. Some of these programs have templates that you can use to aid you in creating the layout for your magazine. Be sure to leave space available for advertisements in several different sizes. Completing this process yourself on your home computer will help to keep the costs of producing your free publication down. Be sure to display the word "free" clearly on the cover of your publication, so people can see at a glance that the magazine is free of charge.Step7Sell your advertising space to your advertisers. You may want to have a sample copy of your first issue printed out so you can show your advertisers the visual ad space that is available. They may also want to read your content to decide if the topics covered in your publication are in line with their advertising objectives. The fact that your magazine is free is encouraging to advertisers, because it means more readers are likely to see their ads.Step8Place the ads you've sold in the layout of your free magazine. Some advertisers will have their own ads they want to use, while others may want you to create ads for them. If you're not skilled in graphic design, you may need to enlist the help of a graphic designer. Encourage your advertisers to provide their own ads, because hiring a graphic designer can be expensive.Step9Take your magazine to a printer to have a test run of several hundred copies printed. Start with a low number to keep your costs down until you determine how many copies you will need. If your free magazine will be a monthly publication, it is better to run out of copies a few days before the next issue is out than to have hundreds of copies left over at the end of the month.Step10Approach your advertisers and other businesses to place your free magazine in their physical locations. Many businesses have racks in the front of their buildings to hold free publications.Your free magazine will probably gain popularity as it gains more exposure. Starting with a low number of copies and gradually increasing the number of copies you make with each issue is the best way to keep your costs down while you build your business.An alternative to traditional publishing is to host your magazine on the Internet. Instead of laying out your magazine in Microsoft Publisher or another program, you would use web design software. You can sell advertising space on the Internet the same as in a print publication, and your only additional expense would be the cost of your domain name and hosting. Your magazine would be free to anyone to access from the internet. www.digitalproductsolution.blogspot.com
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