SSII (Was: Best Apple II publication of all time)

[joko@crl.com (Joe Kohn)]

 >And I'll add my $0.02 and say: Can we have adverts, please? GS+ was
 >about the last magazine I knew of that still ran Apple-II adverts, now
 >that's gone, where do I get my buying information from?
 
I like to think that Shareware Solutions II has something better than paid
advertisements. In "Such A Deal," we hunt up money saving deals on some
great Apple II products, review those products, and then let subscribers
know exactly how they can order those products at a deep discount.
 
As an example, in the last issue we told you how to get ProTerm for $60.
Keep in mind that I've never seen an ad for Proterm for less than $79. So,
would you rather get a ProTerm review and the chance to buy it for $20 off,
or would you rather have an ad, and pay full retail price?
 
Plus, there's Cynthia Field's ongoing "Apple II Products" column that let's
people know about new hardware and software products.
 
In any case, I've gotten a couple of suggestions in the past few days about
including ads in SSII. Maybe the time has come?
 
First off, I would not want to decrease the amount of editorial content in
order to accomodate ads. I could imagine, however, increasing the page
count from 20 pages to 24 pages.
 
In order to do that, though, there are 2 very important considerations.
SSII is just a shade under 2 ounces, meaning that postage to US
destinations costs $.55. Adding 4 pages would bump the postage up to $.78.
Also, it would add 20% to the cost of getting SSII printed.
 
Knowing that, I would consider adding ads to SSII _if_ the costs of ads
would pay for the extra postage/printing costs.
 
Let me dig out my calculator, and see what I come up with.
 
(As an aside, it's interesting that the comments concerning ads were posted
by people who don't subscribe to SSII.)
 
Joe Kohn
Publisher, Shareware Solutions II
 
         (e-mail or finger joko@crl.com for subscription info)
         (       or point your favorite web browser to       )
         (    http://www.ericse.ohio-state.edu/SSII.html     )