How To Succeed With Your Own Money-Making Ad Sheet

Publishing and distributing a mail order ad sheet can be veryprofitable. They are simple and easy to produce, with mostquick print shops able to handle the printing at fairly lowcost. The important consideration is that you can use them topull in advertising dollars for yourself, as a free advertisingmedia for your own products, and as an exchange medium withwhich to get greater exposure for you own ads.
Before starting an ad sheet, you should plan it all out - decideon an interesting, informative title, choose a masthead, lay outyour columns for size, determine if it is to be a simple 8 1/2 x11 single sheet of paper or an 11 x 17 sheet folded in half. you'll also need to know your production cost for the number youintend to have printed, and the postage cost to mail them out.
Most of the ad sheets start out as single sheets of paper, 8 1/2x 11, printed on both sides. Usually, the front side is dividedinto three equal columns about 2 1/4 inches wide, with a 1/2inch margin from the edge of the paper on both sides and top andbottom.
Assuming that the space occupied by your title, masthead andlisting of rates for advertisers interested in placing an adwith you is two inches deep, this leaves you about 24 inches ofadvertising space to sell on the front side. Figuring a cost of$50 for 1,000 copies of such an ad sheet, printed both sides,and a third-class bulk-rate postage of $110, this means thatyour 24 inches of ad space will have to be sold at a rate of$6.25 each in order to break even. This means: You have to sellall of the ad space on the front of your ad sheet at $6.25 eachin order to break even. This means: You have to sell all ofthe ad space on the front of your ad sheet at $6.25 per ad - andthen expect to make your profits from the sale of the back sideof your ad sheet. Actually, it would be feasible to charge$7.00 per inch for the space on the front side, and carry youown full page ad on the back side. At any rate, don't boxyourself into a loss situation where you can't afford to placeyour own ads in your ad sheet.
You get ads by making up an advertising solicitation salesletter and sending it out to as many mail order dealers as youcan find. You can also run ads in other people's publications,inviting the readers to check with you regarding placement of anad in your publication. And of course, you'll be wanting towork out some exchange advertising deals (whereby anotherpublisher runs your ad in his publication, and you run his inexchange). From the experience of many, many publishers, thiscan be one of the most effective ways of getting your ads run,at low/no cost, and it is recognized to be successful in thefield of Mail Order.
You probably won't be able to fill up all of your available adspace with paid ads until you're well established - but noproblem - first you fill your ad space with paid ads, and thenyou fill in the empty space with ads of your own. Somebeginning advertisers fill a part of their empty space withcomplementary ads for other mail order operators, send them acopy of the issue in which the complimentary ad appears, andinvite them to continue the ad on a "paid" basis from there. Many of them will appreciate the favor and send you a check ormoney order to continue running the ad.
If you undertake the publication of an ad sheet, be sure toconsider the possibilities of sending out 100 to 1,000 copies ofyour ad sheet to other mail order operators to rubber stamptheir names/addresses as co-publishers and mail out for you. Thus, if you had 50 other mail order operators sending out 100copies each of your ad sheet, you'd be talking about acirculation of 5,000 copies plus the number of copies you mailout. If you can get this kind of program going, you'll quicklybuild your reputation as well as your circulation, and at thebottom line, your profits.
Some ad sheet publishers, once they've established themselvesand are putting out an impressive publication, set updistributor networks. Generally, they run ads calling fordistributor/dealers and asking for a $5 to $10 registration fee.In reply to the registration application, they send out aletter explaining that each distributor can buy at half price,so many copies of each issue of the ad sheet, rubber stamp theirname on each copy, and send them out as their own. In return,the distributors usually get 50% of the incoming advertisingorders, a half-price ad for themselves, and an opportunity tosell subscriptions.
The bottom line relative to becoming a successful ad sheetpublisher has to do with keeping your production costs -printing and mailing - as low as possible, while putting out aquality product that other people in the mail order businesswill want to advertise in - while at the same time using it as aadvertising/selling vehicle for your own products.
My advice is that almost everyone involved in mail order sellingshould have some sort of ad sheet - if for no other reason thanas a means to an end - an advertising vehicle for your ownproducts, an extra income form advertising revenues, and as anexchange media with which to gain greater exposure for your ownproducts in other people's publications. Once you've got an adsheet, or any kind of publication set up and being seen by othermail order operators, you'll quickly gain stature and a certainamount of prestige.
As with any business, your ultimate success depends on your ownfeasibility studies, and your "sharp-pencil" planning completedbefore you order your first issue printed. Think about it,weigh the pro's and con's, then go with your decision.