How To Pocket $75,000 A Year, Or More
As A Newsletter Publisher
According to Howard Penn Hudson publisher of The Newsletter
on Newsletters, "There are at least 100,000 professional and amateur
newsletters in the United States-some estimate as many as 500,000-
and they are read by millions of people."
To be successful with as a newsletter publisher, you have to
specialize. Your best bet will be with new information on a subject
that is not already covered by an established newsletter. Writing
and publishing a successful newsletter is perhaps one of the most
competitive of all publishing ventures, and in order for you to
succeed in this field you must find a void in the marketplace
and
then fill it with your specialized newsletter.
Regardless of the frustrations involved in launching your own
newsletter, never forget this truth; There are people from all
walks of life, in all parts of this country, many of them with
no
writing ability what so ever, who are making incredible profits
with a simple two-four-six and eight page newsletters.
Your first step should be to subscribe to as many different newsletters
as you can afford. Analyze and study how the others are doing
it. Attend as many workshops and seminars on your subject as possible.
Learn from the pros. Learn how the successful newsletter publishers
are doing it, and why they are making money. Adapt their success
methods to your own newsletter, but determine to recognize where
they are weak, and make yours better in every way.
WHAT REALLY IS A NEWSLETTER?
There is some confusion about what a newsletter is as evidenced
by
many pieces of material that carry the name, but lack the proper
characteristics. A newsletter is NOT a magazine; it is NOT a
newspaper; it is NOT an ad sheet. It is none of these, yet it
will
often encompass a few characteristics of each. A newsletter is,
by
simple definition, a LETTER containing NEWS about a specific field,
business, profession, industry, hobby or activity.
HOW TO FIND YOUR PLACE IN THE NEWSLETTER FIELD
You don't have to be an accomplished writer to publish a
newsletter, but you will need three basic elements:
1. A subject that is not being covered by other newsletters,
or is
not being covered thoroughly enough.
2. A specific market for your subject material. unlike a magazine
or newspaper which may require a circulation of 10,000 to over
a
million readers to achieve success, a newsletter can produce a
nice
profit with as few as 500 subscribers.
3. A continuing supply of material that you can draw from to
provide readers with news, facts & feature articles, ideas,
supply
sources and other bits of information to round out each issue.
These are the basics. Naturally, you should be an AUTHORITY on
the subject on which you intend to report through your newsletter.
You can draw from your knowledge and experience, of course, but
in addition to this you should be a member of associations, clubs
organizations in your field, subscribe to several magazines,
newspapers (possibly other newsletters) and other material, all
of
which will help to provide you with an on-going stream of
information for your own newsletter. Your function (other than
publisher) will primarily be that as EDITOR OF THE MATERIAL
you gather, refining it to useful worthy of printing in your
newsletter.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU PUBLISH?
Some newsletters are published monthly; a few are issued on a
weekly basis. But until you work out the "bugs" and get yourself
established in your particular field, it is advisable that you
plan
a quarterly newsletter, publishing every 3 months. Thus, your
newsletter will carry issue dates such as Jan-April-July &
Oct.
This will give you nearly three months between issues to gather
material, write and layout the next issue. I say "nearly" three
months because you'll have to allow at least two weeks (maybe
longer) at the printer. Once you get a few issues under
your belt,
you might be able to work out a tight schedule with your printer
in
which you can furnish newsletter copy on Monday and have the
printed issues delivered to you on Friday. Until then, you will
be
at their mercy, and that means it might take two weeks to a month
turn around time.
WHAT'S MY NEWSLETTER WORTH?
When we talk about worth, we're referring to the value to a
subscriber. It might surprise you to learn that some subscribers
pay $300 to $400 a year to get their hot little hands on vital
information that keeps them abreast of current trends and shifts
in
their respective fields. There are the heavy hitters; the major
league newsletters that are few and far between, and need not
concern us for this report. On the other end of the economic scale,
many beginning newsletter publishers go too low in pricing their
publication. Some are priced as little as $12 to $15 a year. It
is
extremely unlikely that these publishers will ever get out of
the
red and will soon be forced to increase their subscription rates
or
ultimately cease publication. Right from the
start you'll have
to set $24 a year as your bare minimum price. As time goes on,
you
might try $36--$48 or even $64 a year...but don't go to the higher
extremes until you can establish some kind of projections on the
next year's edition.
WHAT ABOUT SIZE?
Some newsletters run 8-12-16-24 pages, and virtually all of them
are printed in the convenient 8 1/2 x 11 size. Naturally, the
larger sizes are usually those commanding the higher subscription
rates. You'll probably want to begin with the standard 8-page
format. This can either be 4 single sheets printed both sides,
to
two 11 x 17 sheets printed two sides, folded to 8 1/2 x 11. If
you
go for the 8-page format at $24 a year, published quarterly, this
gives you a price of $6 per issue.
This might seem a bit steep for just 8 sheets of paper, but here's
what you must keep in mind...and stress in your advertising and
promotion: You are NOT selling and subscribers are not buying
the paper; they are buying the INFORMATION you are providing,
information that might easily cost them $100 more each issue if
subscribers had to search, weed out, edit, evaluate and condense
the same information you are giving them.
A newsletter's true value (although style, format and
printing quality are all important) is in the information content
each issue offers its readers. This is what you have to sell.
Everything else is packaging.
WHAT SHOULD YOUR NEWSLETTER CONTAIN?
It's your publication, so you can include anything that is moral,
legal, ethical and useful to readers, just so it pertains to the
subject and market for which it is intended.
Here are a few examples.
* EDITOR'S PAGE Here's the place for your own opinions,
viewpoints, editorial comments about your subject or field. Say
what you like or dislike about what's going on, what changes should
be made, what the competition is doing, what happened at a seminar
your recently attended. Also, ask readers for their opinions about
what you are providing in your newsletter; what would they like
to see covered? This is YOUR page to blow your stack or toot your
own horn. Make the best of it.
* LETTERS FROM READERS Eventually you'll be getting letters from
subscribers, some congratulating you on your progress, others
complaining about you or somebody else in the field. A few might
ask questions or be looking for additional help and information
that you haven't yet provided in your newsletter. These can be
printed as-is (with the subscriber's permission) or edited to
fit
your space. They also give you needed input for additional features
in future issues.
* BOOK REVIEWS--NEW PRODUCTS Aside from your newsletters, there
are probably many other publications out there offering information
in your specific field: new books, magazines, newspapers, directories,
courses, audio/visual tapes and, yes, maybe other newsletters.
Buy some. Subscribe, read, evaluate, digest and report on them
in this spot. Include a special invitation to solicit additional
publications to be featured in future issues. Is there a new
machine on the market? A new gadget or product that might help
readers? Here's the place to tell them. All publishers,
manufactures and distributors want and need publicity for their
wares, and this gives them a good outlet.
* WHAT'S NEW--WHAT'S HAPPENING This is where you report on the
NEWS that makes your newsletter what it is. Include the latest
innovations, changes in the law, new companies in the field, new
ideas, new people, or anything that will help readers accomplish
more in their field of interest.
* GUEST WRITERS If you see articles or columns in other
publications by prominent people in the field, you can write to
them and ask if you may reprint a particular article in your
newsletters, naturally giving the author full attribution for
their
work. Some may grant permission if you allow them a plug for a
book or service they provide.
* USE YOUR IMAGINATION Use your initiative to include whatever
you think readers want to know. Be concise, keeping all information
brief and to the point as you make every issue informative, interesting,
helpful and valuable so subscribers will want to file all issues
for future reference, and renew their subscription year after
year.
BUILDING A SUBSCRIPTION LIST
This is what will make you a millionaire or break you as a
newsletter publisher. It has been reported that many newsletter
publishers must spend up to 75 cents on promoting their newsletter
for every dollar they take in. Others say that at least 50% of
their subscription revenue must be used for advertising and
promotion.
This means you can expect to spend $500 in advertising
for every $1,000 in subscriptions you receive. If that seems
discouraging, don't let it. You can still make big money in this
field, but that's why the high subscription price was stressed
earlier in this report. You need the additional dollars to work
with.
As with promoting any product, you will advertise your
newsletter in publications that are read by your target market.
Also, if your market is somewhat limited, not the mass audience,
you can solicit subscriptions by renting names of likely prospects.
There is some disagreement on this, but most authorities tend
to
favor NOT offering a free sample issue or even a sample issue
at
the regular price.
The reason given is that best results are usually obtained by
building interest and anticipation in the advertising, but not
satisfying the resulting curiosity until you get the subscription
order. Once a prospect sees a sample issue, it seems, they have
satisfied their curiosity about it and procrastinate about subscribing,
usually not sending in their order at all, however sincere their
intentions might have been.
You might want to test both methods and continue with the one
that brings best results for you.
A HYPOTHETICAL PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
Let's say your newsletter will sell for $24 a year. You spend
$5,000 in advertising and receive $7,500 inquiries. You answer
these inquiries with a good sales letter and descriptive circular
explaining all the benefits of subscribing.
You convert 10% of these inquiries to subscribers. This gives
you 750 subscribers @ $24 each for a total gross of $18,000. Subtract
your original $5,000 advertising cost leaving you $13,000. Now
subtract the mailing cost to publish and mail your newsletter
to subscribers 4 times a year, and this gives you a total cost
of about $1,050, depending on whether you mail First Class or
use bulk mailing permit, which is a considerable saving. In round
numbers it leaves a net profit of about $10,000.
Of course, the next logical step is to increase the advertising
to
three or four times the original amount, hopefully to produce
an
equally proportionate number of subscribers or a net of $40,000.
Although blatant hard core advertising should NOT be included
within the pages of the newsletter itself, you can generate
additional revenue by including subtle offers of books, reports
or
a service that you can provide to readers.
If presented in a dignified manner that is perceived as being
helpful, not as cold advertising, this can provide many extra
orders from subscribers throughout the year. Before subscription
end, send renewal notice to keep the subscriber on your list.
Everyone won't renew, of course, but you should be able to keep
about 40 to 50% each year...and there will not carry the high
promotional cost. That's
where the real money will start coming. That's when you'll be
well
on your way to your $75,000 a year...or even more.
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED
Plan your newsletter before launching it. Know the basic premise
for its being, your editorial position, the layout, art work,
type
style, subscription price, distribution methods, and every other
detail necessary to make it look, sound and feel like the end
result you have envisioned.
Lay out your start up needs; detail the length of time it's going
to take to become established, and what will be involved in becoming
established. Set a date as a milestone of accomplishment for each
phase of development; A date for breaking even, a date for attaining
a certain paid subscription figure, and a monetary goal for your
first five years in business. And all this must be done before
you publish your first issue.
If you follow this advice before you start your first issue your
chances for success are greatly increased. The more time you take
in the planning stage, the more professional looking and profit
potential your first issue will become.
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