Freebie Ad Magazines

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 will have to do is a bit of legwork 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, and 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 Money Saver," 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.