When creating a product from scratch, not only do you have to find a way to make people aware of it; you also have to find a way to make people want it. If this new product you wish to sell and market is a magazine, you need to take further lengths to spread word of the information and product. Thankfully, there are a few methods available to you for advertising a new magazine, some of which you don’t need to spend a good deal of money to perform.

Print Advertising

When you create a new product, you have must a set demographic in mind that, most likely, enjoys your material and content. These are the individuals you need to advertise to. Chances are there are similar magazines available that provide similar information. You need to look towards these magazines for potential ad space. Take up a few ads in the magazines to help garner interest in your product. When a potential customer sees that you provide similar information, they are more inclined to check out your services and see what you can offer. Typically, the larger the ad space the more expensive the ad costs, so take this into consideration when buying out advertising room for your magazine. Larger ads are usually noticed more, but they set your pocket book back. It all depends on how much you can afford.

Online Advertising

Shifting advertising gears to the Internet is important, as you don’t need to spend much money should you develop the right marketing scheme. For starters, creating a website that runs alongside the magazine is an excellent option. With this, Internet users are more likely to stumble upon your magazine site thanks to search engines. Additionally, creating social media links to your information, such as pages on Facebook and Twitter, all help bring new faces to your material. Creating a Facebook page for your magazine doesn’t cost a dime, and if you want to further expose your product, simply creating ads on the social media website helps you reach additional people as you can select a specific demographic for the magazine.

Image copyright – dinostock – Fotolia

Knowing how and where to distribute your magazine is vital in regards to getting your articles read. Without adequate distribution, potential readers will be left unaware of your existence, leaving you without valuable customers. Healthy distribution should consist of constant exposure to the intended audience and direct selling to potential subscribers.

Distribute With Exposure

Distribution should first be encouraged by constant exposure to the intended audience. Customers can only buy what they can see and know exists; it’s as simple as that. This means that you need to put your magazine where your audience is. For example, if your magazine is about art and culture, put it in coffee shops and art galleries. If your magazine is about travel, utilize travel agencies or airports. Communicate with vendors in high traffic areas. Make deals with stores that attract your audience. The more your product is seen, the more synonymous it will become as an everyday purchase.

In addition, you may try giving out copies of your magazine for free. Find places that will allow you to leave copies out on display for free. Libraries, schools, colleges, and other public places are a great place to start. Although this may seem like an uneconomical way to distribute in the short term, sometimes exposure requires giving a free taste of the product in exchange for long term credibility.

Sell Sell Sell!

Once you know where to distribute and who to distribute to, you need to become a salesman. Approach the customers you seek with your product as the focal point of your relationship. One of the most timeless means of personal distribution is going door to door and selling your magazine directly to your customer. Another avenue refers back to exposure. Go to vendors and shop owners where you wish your magazine to flourish. If you want them to display what you have worked so hard to create, they need to be sold on its value to themselves and, most importantly, their customers.

Image copyright – Friday – Fotolia

Being a magazine editor may sound like an interesting and enjoyable job, but it does not come without its difficulties and pressures. It is ultimately down to the magazine editor to decide what the final content and feel of the magazine will be, and this can involve having to make some tough decisions in order to get it right. There are certain problems that all magazine editors must face, no matter what style of magazine, and it is a good idea to know what some of these problems are if you are interested in becoming and editor.

Information Selection

Selecting the correct information to include and drop from each edition of a magazine is one of the fundamental issues faced by a magazine editor. Depending on the scale of the magazine, the editor will be faced will a whole number of articles on various different topics, and will be faced with the task of choosing a certain amount of them to run with and discarding the rest. For the magazine to be popular, the content needs to be original and interesting and, in many cases, push the boundaries of journalism in that particular field to ensure that it does not become boring. In order to do this effectively, the editor must be up to date on all aspects of the magazine subject. It would be no use for a current affairs magazine to be including information that has already been published a number of times by other publications, as this will not entice the readers. Equally, it would be a mistake to decide not to include an article on a particular subject that then becomes a hot topic, as the magazine will have missed out.

People Management

It is not the information selection alone that is important for a magazine editor, as the writers submitting the work need to be taken into account also. It needs a certain skill to be able to keep a team of writers happy and this is important for success in an ongoing publication. Correct personnel management and coaching can lead to much a much higher standard of magazine and this should not be forgotten. It is important for magazine editors to try and ensure that they can get the most out of their writing team, and sometimes this means taking time out of their day to speak directly with the writers about any issues that may arise.

Picture copyright – Swellphotography – Fotolia

Product Range

Check whether the items supplied are genuine products made by the original printer manufacturer. Ink cartridges and toner bottles can be re-filled with non-original materials which are generally not to the same high standard as original items. Using them might also invalidate the manufacturer’s warranty on a fairly new printer.

Are the Products in stock?

It can be frustrating going through the checkout process and paying for items only to receive an email saying that they are not in stock and that it could be some time before the order is fulfilled. Reliable suppliers like www.toner24.co.uk only list products that are in stock or will indicate before payment that an item is not available.

Returns Policy

Read the website’s terms on product returns carefully. The circumstances under which you can return an order should be clear, unambiguous and fair. If they aren’t then look elsewhere.

Payment

When it comes to paying for the ink and toner, a site should offer a secure page where you can provide your personal details. You can check this by looking at the website address in your browser’s toolbar. The beginning of the address should have changed from “http” to “https”, the “s” signifies a security protected page. At the right of the address there should also be an icon of a padlock. Clicking on this will show a pop-up box which enables you to check the website’s security certificate. Bona fide sites such as www.toner24.co.uk will always have this safeguard in place on the checkout page. By following the simple tips given above it should be possible to find a good deal when buying ink and toner on the internet and to ensure that any transaction is as secure as possible. Sites such as www.toner24.co.uk sell only genuine original replacements and will offer a reasonable returns policy. Be sure to bear these points in mind before making your next purchase of ink and toner online.

Pic: niyenar – Fotolia

Starting your own magazine involves a lot of planning and careful research. Gone are the days when editors could simply cobble together some interesting articles and send them to print (though those days never really existed anyway). Before you can even begin putting ink to paper, you need to consider target audiences, content, style, tone as well as in which format you want to publish your magazine and what the current market situation is.

Content over Looks

The format of your magazine is one thing to think about before any other planning goes ahead. Many ventures that may once have been print-based are now online, with the proliferation of so many so called e-zines proving this. Publishing in an electronic format may be more useful for magazines which are serving a niche or specialist market. This can reduce operating costs significantly. Publishing in an electronic format also opens up the world of mobile phone and tablet publishing. Magazines have always been portable, and electronic formats make them even more so.

It should always be remembered, however, that what is in a magazine is far more important, in real terms, than the way it looks. While the graphic design elements are important, a magazine needs good content in order to have an effect on its audience.

Learning and Networking

Whatever field the magazine will be covering, it always pays to make positive contacts with prominent people involved in that field. Thanks to the internet, contacting people who are not personally known has never been easier. Featuring a prominent person in the magazine helps it gain credibility, as well as being another source of high quality, unique content.

An important aspect of succeeding in any business is to learn from mistakes. No one is perfect and things will go wrong. What is crucial, however, is that errors or poor ideas are not forgotten, but properly evaluated and re-assessed. Ego has little place at a successful magazine, and the person behind the venture needs to be able to appreciate that their ideas may not always be the best available.

Finally, what is perhaps most important when starting a magazine is to remember that it is about what an audience wants to read, not what the writers want to write. Once the needs of the readers have been properly assessed and met, then success should follow.

Image copyright – Roman Sigaev – Fotolia

Finding decent contributors for a new publication has become more difficult in recent years because of the boom of budding writers on the Internet. However, the Internet still remains the first port of call for editors looking for new and talented writers. However, regardless of how many authors are available online, there is no quality guarantee in place and finding the real gems can sometimes be a long and painstaking task, especially if you have a specific tone and content in mind. After all,  the launch issue of a new publication is key as the content in this initial issue must be finely tuned for the target audience, or it could turn some people off.

Where to find writers for your publication

Finding new writers on the Internet means you often don’t meet face to face, so a Skype or instant message meeting is essential to try and meter out their communication skills and, of course, that all-important spelling and grammar. Once you have had the initial conversation, ensure the writer sends over only relevant examples of their published work. A quick Google search will check whether the work can be attributed to who you’ve been talking to, and will also check against plagiarism. A writing test on a specific subject will ensure the potential writer can generate original copy tailored for your magazine. Most candidates should be more than happy to do this for free. Of course, if you want to recruit locally, you can meet candidates in person so they can chat to you face to face, bring their portfolio and talk about their strengths

How to test the skills of writers for your new publication

A strong portfolio and examples of previously published work are good assets for a candidate for a new publication to have, but a more effective ways of testing a new writer is to set certain tasks relevant for your particular publication. For example, ask them to write a short brief on who they think the target market is for the new magazine or see if they can come up with a list of feature ideas on a certain topic. If you are getting down to a shortlist of candidates, ask them to write a full-length article on a certain topic that you would feature in their magazine to see if they have the true potential you need.

Image copyright – Minerva Studio – Fotolia