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Is there a place for small ad sheets or mini-shopper
papers in today's marketplace?
Yes, in some circumstances.
When a small Ad Sheet Might Work
If no local or regional paper is
serving the local
community effectively, or if there is no nearby source for
newspaper/tabloid printing on a web press, then a smaller,
newsletter-sized publication may be the best or only choice. The web
press option is an important cost factor. It will often cost less to
run a tabloid sized newspaper, with each page measuring
11 x 17 inches, than it will to have a small print shop run off the
same number of small, newsletter-sized ad sheets. In a tabloid or
larger paper, you have lots more room for meaningful content and
nice, large ads.
But if you don't want to include a lot of other
content, and if your local businesses don't have the means to pay
for larger ads, then an ad sheet may be all you need. In this mini
version of a shopper, you just sell and publish ads. Mostly, of
course, you will want to serve the businesses in the area. But you
may also include classified ads from anyone wanting to sell a
product, hold a garage sale or advertise their services.
How Big is the Typical Adsheet?
The typical ad sheet page size is 8.5 x 11. That's the
standard size for most printers and copiers. This tiny page-size is
big enough to include quite a few ads, if that's all you publish.
And it's handy for stacking on a sales counter, and cost-effective
for mailing. Ad sheets that will be mailed can be simply folded in
half or tri-folded just like a letter. They can even be sealed in a
regular #10 envelope, if you want, although that's rarely done. In
most cases, there is no mailing at all, just regular free
distribution via participating businesses.
Ad sizes in an ad sheet are greatly reduced in size.
Instead of the typical ad being several inches high and several
inches wide, it is most likely an inch or two high by a couple of
inches wide. Obviously, then, the price per inch or per column inch
needs to reflect the difference in page size. But since the ad sheet
is usually more local, the number of copies produced is often fairly
small. This keeps your costs down and therefore makes it possible
for you to be very reasonable in your rates to advertisers. But,
again, there is no real competition in ad sheet rates with what you
could offer if you published at least a tabloid-sized paper.
How Do I Price the Ads?
According to an old and tried method, a quick way to
figure your pricing for ads is to take the costs for printing
and distribution, and then price all ads so that these costs are fully
covered (to at least a break-even point) on the front page of your
ad sheet. Then you can take whatever you earn on the remaining pages as
profit. This pricing method is a little over-simplified, but it is a
pretty good rule of thumb when figuring your prices. (see
Designing and Pricing Your Ad Sheet)
The profit margin will vary according to the number of pages
you fill with ads. You should not consider trying to publish even an
ad sheet if you cannot fill at least 4 pages, total. (Four pages
will be an 11x17 inch sheet fold once.)
What About Printing the Ad Sheet?
An ad sheet can be copied by any small print shop or
copy shop. When deciding where to go for printing, you will need to
get pricing from your local suppliers, and then balance that with
the quality and production time offered by each one. Price is by no
means the only thing to consider when producing any publication or
product.
If the service, quality of paper, quality of
printing, or time-frame is going to hinder your reputation and
ability to sell a great service to the community, then a low price
becomes too costly.
Something Important to Remember
If you leave too big a gap between what you provide
for a given price and what someone else can do for the same or
slightly more (or maybe even less), then you invite unwanted
competition. If you create an opportunity for competition, and your
competitor happens to be better in some way at this business than
you are, you have just cut off your own source of income by trying
to be too cheap. Being "cheap" in business, does not mean you sell
your product or service for a lot less. It means that you fail to
give what the market really needs, in an effort to make a better
profit. In business, "cheap" never means economical. Economical
means that something really works economically.
Basic Ad Sheet Layout Considerations
A good page layout for an ad sheet, if you want
generate income, is a 3-column page. Obviously, you can sell ads of
any size, and I'm sure some of your advertisers will want you to
offer them odd things. The best reply, when someone wants an
odd-ball size or some other special consideration, is to say yes,
anything is possible, so long as you are ready to pay the price. You
sell ads by the column inch. Three columns give you, the publisher,
more column inches to sell, while maintaining a size and appearance
for ads that will still serve the advertiser and any readers well.
And a nice, clean, 3-column page looks nice. (see
next page for images and details)
But if you feel the need to offer more options, you
simply need to know what the space on the page really costs, and
what you really need to earn from each ad. That way, it will not
matter so much what the size, shape or payout of an ad might be, you
can sell to everyone at a fair price, knowing that you are not
cheating some while giving away free space to others. And hopefully,
you will also make enough money from the ad sheet to pay for the
time you spend selling and then building all those ads, not to
mention, paying the printer and any distribution service (such as
the post office) you may use.
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