perry@well.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) (12/11/85)
In conversations between Eric Lavitsky and myself we've come upon something which troubles us a great deal. We are, as are many of you, independent developers. That means from the minute we get home from work, till we drop off to sleep we work on products for the AMIGA that we hope will sell. Up till now we have been preoccupied with getting what we want to sell into working, releasable shape. Well, now we are in a position (that of having nearly completed products) where we've begun to think about how it is we are going to sell our wares. Gee, how about an ad in AMIGA World! That'd be great but there are two really negative factors. (1) AMIGA World ads are very expensive. Nearly $1000 for a one time 1/4 or 1/6 page. (2) The lead times are unusually long. Today, the 11th is the deadline for the March/April issue. That means if we wanted to spend the money we couldn't get in until May (half a year away!). While lead times for ads are generally long, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't 6 months longer than average? As for cost, there are those who'd say ``If you can't afford n dollars how can you afford to support etc...'' This is a resonable point to only a small extent. I can afford to typeset and copy manuals. Print disk labels and dupli- cate disks. I can afford to call customer's back after my work day ends. But the cost of AMIGA World ads coupled with the lead time is crushing! Suggestions: To Commodore---- Lean on AMIGA World to: Lower prices OR provide smaller, lower cost ads such as classifieds or 1/8 pagers. Provide some vehicle for us smaller developer types to get are wares known. Perhaps mention in a newsletter or subsidies on advertising to reviewed products. To Independent Developers Everywhere: Perhaps what is needed is an independent developer's cooperative? We could band together to share the cost of large ads in expensive widely read mags. The cooperative need not imply that we are in ``business'' together. It's just that through numbers we can break into the market in a way that we couldn't otherwise. Let's at least get some dialog going here as to how we might approach this problem which affects us all (AMIGA developers and users) directly or indirectly. Perry (sittin on two products) Kivolowitz
hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer) (12/11/85)
> In conversations between Eric Lavitsky and myself we've come upon something > which troubles us a great deal. We are, as are many of you, independent > developers. That means from the minute we get home from work, till we drop > off to sleep we work on products for the AMIGA that we hope will sell. > ... > Gee, how about an ad in AMIGA World! That'd be great but there are two really > negative factors. > ... > > (2) The lead times are unusually long. Today, the 11th is the deadline for > the March/April issue. That means if we wanted to spend the money we > couldn't get in until May (half a year away!). > Do check for the date when the March/April Issue comes out. Dates of magazines sold on news-stands are usually for the time when the issue is *taken off* the news-stand, not for when it arrives. > While lead times for ads are generally long, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't 6 > months longer than average? > ... Yes. > Perry (sittin on two products) Kivolowitz --henry schaffer
mjg@ecsvax.UUCP (Michael Gingell) (12/12/85)
> > (1) AMIGA World ads are very expensive. Nearly $1000 for a one time 1/4 or > 1/6 page. > > (2) The lead times are unusually long. Today, the 11th is the deadline for > the March/April issue. That means if we wanted to spend the money we > couldn't get in until May (half a year away!). > > > Perry (sittin on two products) Kivolowitz Welcome to the real world Perry !. Amigaworld's advertising rates are typical of all the more popular computer mags which are mostly published by the same company - CW Communications. They may be a little higher because of the fancy color production but not much. Of course you could get a discount if you took a one or two year contract with them. The fact is that just because you have a better program doesn't mean you are going to make a fortune unless you also have business acumen and are prepared to think big. If your program is really any good every $1000 you spend on advertising should bring in $5000 in sales. If it does not then you are in the wrong business. And this is business you are in - if you have fun writing the programs that's a bonus. (I think most Amiga programmers have fun too of course). My advice is, if you don't want to spend the money then find someone else to publish it for you. And that is another big can of worms. Alternatively start small and work up. Computer Shopper is a good place to start - over 100,000 circulation and more modest ad rates and very much shorter lead times due to their newspaper type format. I supposed the world must be littered with the ideas of people who thought they had invented the better mousetrap only to find they couldn't sell it. Oh well ... keep smiling ... :-) Mike Gingell ....decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!mjg
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) (12/14/85)
As moderator of the 'os.9' conference on BIX, I haven't looked at our
Amiga conference (probably a Commodore conference), but our current policy
seems to be fairly open right now. If you haven't announced your product
there, you might start with that. It could be one of the best 'non'adver-
tising type of advertising you can do. I think our current approach is
ththat we allow posting of announcements which are sort of in good taste.
I don't know our policy on really outlandish hype yet. If your product
was OS-9 based, I could tell you what I'd do with it :-)
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
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