Big Bucks from Niche Market Periodcals
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 05:34PM Near the top of the “About Tom Williams” page on this site is this sentence. “I always wanted,” I tell the reader, “to make my living with words and books.” The key phrase there is “make my living.” Not earn a little money on the side, not inflate my ego with good reviews and little cash for publication in obscure journals, not pick up an extra buck here and there. My goal was to make a living, and a good one at that.
I have done just that, but in doing so I quickly learned the bed-rock fact on which all writing/publishing success rests: you’ve got to broaden your horizons, recognize opportunities wherever they exist, and take them as they come.
That’s why I focus on niche markets. They produce profit more quickly and more surely, and they are everywhere, if you know how to recognize and exploit them.
The writer/publisher/sales team: A powerhouse of profit
The quickest way to generate real cash flow, cash flow that will pay the rend, put food on the table, and pay for the kids’ braces, is to find niche and create an advertising-based, free circulation publication to exploit it.
This is not at all difficult to do. A writer/editor teams us with a sales rep, and in a matter of a few weeks a tabloid or digest-sized magazine is out there chock full of advertising. I recently helped a writer in South Carolina start such a magazine. The first issue contained $36,000 of advertising. Production costs were $10,000. Do the math. Get three or four of these projects up and going and you will have created that “living” that I spoke of.
Such publications are just part of the mix. The editorial half of the team is free to take on other writing assignments, and the sales half is free to represent other, non-competing clients.
It is quite possible, in the start-up phase for one person to do it all, and with little or no cash up front. How to do this is the subject of my publishing manual, Publish Your Own Magazine, Guidebook, or Weekly Newspaper, available from Amazon.com at a discounted price.
Where we are going
So I will devote considerable time on this blog to such questions as these: How do you find a niche? How do you know the niche you have found is a good one? What are some examples of successful advertising-based, niche market publications? We will even do a case study or two tracking the day-by-day process of starting up a niche-market publication in the town I live in, Savannah, Georgia.
So stay with me. It ought to be an interesting—and very informative—ride
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Reader Comments (3)
Interesting idea, Tom. I did it the other way around. When I found an already-existing magazine that was in the niche that I was interested in and had some knowledge about and pitched my ideas to them. I always included a comment in my query letter to the editor about a particular article in the current issue that I really liked. After more than 30 years of doing that, I now have magazines coming looking for me instead of the other way around, which I did for a long time. And yes, you can earn a living by doing it that way too. I guess I'm a chicken. I want somebody else to do all the hard work, leaving me free to do the writing for them. So far, it has worked for well over 3000 published articles, 3 magazines where I am a contributing editor (with regular articles and columns published in almost every issue), and the Assoc. Ed. for another one.
I really like your blog so far, thanks for sharing. I'll have to get some of your books soon.
I am in the research stage of starting a free monthly niche newspaper and just finished your book. I found it very helpful, on many levels. I am headed to Amazon.com for your new book next. And I look forward to reading your blog on a regular basis. Thank you for sharing your knowledge in the publishing business with those of us that need some help venturing into it.