Designing a small Ad Sheet

I've included a few images to help you see what your ad sheet pages might look like, and what the ad space works out to be in some typical pages. You can use these page layout images to figure your basic costs. But, ultimately, you must work with your local print shop to decide how things will work.  

Download Images: (requires free Adobe Reader)

For example, the images I supply show only a 1/4" margin all around the outside of each page. This works just fine for most copy shops that use electrostatic copiers (such as Xerox brand equipment). It will not work for a print shop using actual printing presses. Typically, an offset press needs at least a half-inch margin on the leading edge, so the paper can be grabbed and pulled through the press. This difference in outside margin makes a practical difference in the area available for ads.

For the most professional appearance, you should lay the page out to fit the equipment it will run on. This keeps all outside margins looking good, enabling the ad sheet to do the best job of presenting the ads to readers. But you can also do as many publishers do, and cheat a little. You can lay out your pages to fit the copiers, and then, if your ad sheet ends up being run on offset presses, you can simply ask the printer to reduce the page to fit. The difference in overall size will be insignificant, in most cases. (A great many news papers, shoppers and glossy magazines are also reduced slightly when going to press, so you'll be in good company.)

Selecting Back Page Options

The images provided show one front page, one inside page and 2 optional back pages.  If your ad sheet will not be mailed at all on a regular basis, then your back page will be just like the inside pages, and you can simply use that basic design.

If you will be distributing many or most of your ad sheets by mail, and you decide to simply fold the publication in half, then you should use the half-fold back page layout.  This will take away some of your available ad space, but may work better if you have 6 pages or more.  Use the tri-fold back page layout if you decide to letter-fold your publication for mailing.

Of course, any ad sheets placed in envelopes for mailing do not need an address box on the publication itself, so the back page can be set up like an inside page.

It's a good idea to add a header or footer to all pages after the front page, with a single line of type that identifies the ad sheet.  This would be placed at the very top or the very bottom of each page.  You may need to adjust the available ad space to compensate for this added information.

Pricing Your Ad Sheet Space

As already mentioned, ads are sold by the column inch. A one inch ad may be your basic ad. You can influence this by how you price the ads. If you make a slightly better deal for 2-column-inch ads than for one-column-inch ads, then more advertisers may choose the larger ad. And some may even wish to buy a half or 3/4 inch ad. And some advertisers, in most regions, will automatically buy whole-page or half-page ads. In fact, many publications, such as magazines, sell ads by the fraction of a page: whole-page, half-page, third-page, quarter-page, 1/8 page, 1/12 page, and so on.

For this reason, it's not a bad idea to offer your pricing in more than one way, to help advertisers identify what they may be more accustomed to buying.

For example, if I decide, after adding up all my costs, that I need to sell my ads for at least somewhere between $7.50 and $8 per column inch (a purely arbitrary number for example only), I may show my pricing as:

1-column inch ads -- $12.00/each (ad that is one column wide and 1 inch high)

2-column inch ads -- $22.00/each (ad that is one column wide and 2 inches high)

3-column inch ads -- $30.00/each (ad that is one column wide and 3 inches high)

And then, on the same pricing sheet, I can also show the fractions of a page:

Whole page ad -- $248/ad** 

3/4 page ad -- $200

Half Page ad -- $144

1/4 Page ad -- $75

and so on...

As with any newspaper or magazine the idea is to offer a slightly better price to the advertiser buying the most. Volume discount is fair to all parties. You have only one ad to create (assuming you build the ads) and place, while the buyer willing to buy more space gets a slight break in price. The one-time advertiser buying the smallest ad size, costs you more. You get paid less for the time you must spend building the ad, plus you will have to sell that space for the next issue. But if the guy who buys a one-column-inch ad wants to run that ad for the next year, then he also deserves some break in price, so long as the price never goes below your base price (in my example, a minimum of $8 per column inch for each ad).

Prices must be fair and competitive. Prices must pay the bills (for production/distribution) and compensate you for the time you spend. The time you spend with this ad sheet, in selling ads, running errands, distributing, researching, etc., is time you cannot spend on some other income-producing work. So unless you are independently wealthy, you need to make a decent wage. (If you are independently wealthy, I wonder if I might interest you in a very worthy investment in my various ventures...)

One Final and Important Consideration: 

Using the Web with your Ad Sheet

Not every area or community will prove a good market for an ad sheet as I've been describing. Some regions provide a better market for tabloid-sized shoppers, for special interest papers and magazines, and some may prove better suited for Internet-based communications. However, a small ad sheet or even a newsletter may do pretty well if combined with a website. Websites are funny things. They often require lots of attention and work, but produce little income. But they may also produce a lot of income. And they often enhance the income produced by even a small printed source.

The biggest problem facing most websites that fail to produce anything is the lack of public awareness. If no one knows your site exists, then no one will visit it, except by accident. If the site offers nothing of value, then it will just sit there, never producing any income. But if the site works as an extension to your little ad sheet or newsletter, then you may have a winning combination.

The ad sheet gets distributed through your local market, alerting everyone to the website, and the site adds depth and value the ad sheet or newsletter. Now something may be happening, and the community may be served in ways beyond what just the site or just the ad sheet could never accomplish alone.

If you are not a technically-inclined person or if you simply have no time to start learning all about websites, then something on the order of WordPress may serve you well. WordPress, developed for primarily blogs, is a CMS (content management system) that lends itself quite well to periodic updates, ads and announcements. As with anything, there is some learning curve involved, but only very minimal. Buy a domain name that matches your ad sheet, register it and host it with a web-hosting service (someone like 1and1.com), get your free WordPress software, set it up, pick a them, do any personal customization, and you are on your way. Better yet, if you have a spouse or good friend who already likes to play with web sites, you may be able to have them handle the website.

For more information that may prove helpful in starting up an ad sheet publication, visit the rest of the pages on this site. Much of the information that applies to small newspapers will prove helpful for your publication, as well.

Be sure to visit the Happy Advertiser website.

Newspaper Business