[no subject]

> 
> Frank - I agree, but it's awful expensive to send out mail to former
> inCider readers. I am contacting them, slowly but surely, but I guess
> at this time, I'm trying to garner the only form of advertising I can
> afford...word of mouth advertising.

> Joe

Joe,

Stick with that idea for the time being. Look at A2~Central. They
advertised like crazy for Fishhead's Children and in the end said that
they spent $100 for each $10 they took in on new subscriptions.

In March of 1990 Ross Lambert started a mag for programming types
titled, "8/16." I talked to Ross several times and asked how things
were going and he said, "just fine, we are making enough to keep it
going and I'm getting some side programming jobs." It went out of
business after issue #9. Why? I talked to Ross and asked that
question. He replied, "I bit off more than I could chew with an
expensive ad (A+ I think) and didn't get much response and so I'm
having to fold."

The one thing Ross didn't understand (at the time) is that there are
two distinct groups out there, those that like/love to program and
those that like to use their computer. He already had the majority of
the the first group and those in the second were not interested in the
type of things Ross' publication had to offer (Merlin 8/16 for the most
part).

Continuing, the subscribers to 8/16 were given to A2~Central where they
converted the paper copy folks to 1 disk copy for each two months left
on their subscription. This didn't turn out to be a world beater and so
those folks were then handed off to GS+. (Here, you take these geeks.)

I guess the bottom line is that Ross' bad luck turned out to be exactly
what GS+ needed (ying/yang anyone?).

(BTW, GS+'s cover and page paper quality is about the same quality of
8/16 i.e., quite good for something aimed at the techie types.)

Later,
-- 

		Joe Walters att!ihlpm!bird, NW 31-K14 (708) 224-7189
		To know, and not to do, is not yet to know