Income from Other Peoples' Ads

As you make contact with local businesses (either as a customer or a trade contact), bear this simple and proven blueprint in mind...

Publish your own Advertiser (Ad Sheet), TV schedule or business directory. It is no longer absolutely necessary to have a printing press to be a publisher, although you may decide to get one once you get started good.

A local AD SHEET is usually given out free at supermarkets, local stores, mailed out (bulk) and/or delivered door-to-door. Your income is from paid advertisements in your publication. Prices charged for advertising is low for classified ads (a dollar or so each) with higher rates for contract and display ads.

Advertising rates are proportionate to the circulation – the total number you print distribute to people (not the extras you throw away). Therefore, the more you print and either sell or give away, the more you can charge for your ads!

A BUSINESS DIRECTORY is a booklet or pamphlet that is sold, subsidized (bought and given away) or given away free to local citizens, visitors or tourists.

The Directory contains a wealth of information of interest to visitors and is also enticing to the advertisers. It too, is financed primarily by the ads it contains.

A small directory publisher works out a plan to list all restaurants, sights to see, banks, motels and/or groceries (so the list will be of value to the reader) then sells ads to the merchants who are listed.

For a small amount, they can have their ad in bold letters; a little more will get them a slogan or log; or they can purchase space for a separate advertisement, coupon or what-have-you.

Some publishers will include an article about an advertiser if the ad is a certain size. The number of copies each merchant gets to give out or sell also may be governed by his financial participation, especially if the publication has a printed price.

For example, and advertise gets one (or some multiple) free copies to sell or give away for each dollar he spends for ads. If he wants more copies, they are available at a wholesale cost to him, which he can either sell or give away. Naturally, front and back page and larger ads command the best prices.

By getting an idea of what THEY think is needed, you will be forming a concept of what type of publication THEY would advertise in. Don't be shy about asking them for suggestions. They know the area as business people and may be able to provide you with some very worthwhile ideas.

This auction of physically contacting potential advertisers for advice has more than one objective. Every one that you personally contact establishes a relationship between you and a potential advertiser.

From this point, whether by letter, phone or personal contact, you are communicating with someone you know. Future contacts are not only based on this first meeting, they can refer to the gist of the conservation. Of course, as a professional business person, you keep a notebook and write down the gist of that conservation so you can remember it and the name of the persons you talked to at each stop.

BONUS OPPORTUNITY: As you make contact with all the local businesses you will be in an excellent position to create alliances between them! Look for ways businesses could help each other and charge a fee for setting it up. For example, a bridal dress shop could introduce customers to a jeweler’s and vice versa but rarely do small-minded shopkeepers do this sort of thing.