Does the UK Need its own Industry Magazine?

[jess1]

Was looking through RevenueToday (July issue) and its so US centric but I have to concede I do read it cover to cover that's when I get it which is seldom (grrrr), not all in one go I hasten to add... cant be away from the putter THAT LONG!.

But was thinking now that the industry has its own event would it be too early for industry specific mag? It would be one way of reaching people who may not have considered affiliate marketing as a career or who are just coming into the space? NMA and Revolution touch upon aff marketing every now and then. Its just a thought I had and wondered what other people feel about it. I could see a few affs really make some decent money from it too. It would not be quite like an association but could be close? Id subscribe

[Greavsie]

i've worked in publishing for years and there is good money in it; but ALOT of work writing articles and selling advertising.

It would probably be best to approach Centaur or Haymarket (publishers of the main marketing titles) to produce a dedicated magazine; which talks about all things related to affiliate marketing i.e. SEO, PPC, content.

I'd pay up to £5 a month for a magazine more suited to my needs - so lets say the total readership paid on average £3 and we managed 8,000 readers per month = £24,000 per month in subscriptions; £288K per year. That should help towards the costs and distribution

I've still got loads of contacts in the industry, let's discuss when we meet up next.

[drivetowin]

Does it need it? - yes I think it probably does

Are there the number of subscribers to make it viable? - certainly as a printed magazine then I doubt it - as an online magazine - maybe.

Even at £5 a month I doubt that you would get more than 1,500-2,000 subscribers max - but of course it could make money from ad sales etc too.

[Azam.net]

I certainly would subscribe if there was a magazine, but I don't think the industry is big enough in the UK to support a print publication.

There are a lot of members of A4U, but a tiny proportion who would actually make the effort to subscribe to a magazine and pay for it. When I wrote for several niche magazines in the 1990s, I'd see that plenty of people would express an interest, but a small percentage would actually make the effort to subscribe.

And, as Andy says, there is a phenomenal amount of work involved. I'll still never forget having to regularly stay up the whole night to produce content in time for the deadline.

[Hero]

hadn't Revenue said that they were looking for a UK-focused website?

[jess1]

Hero: Lisa P did say they were looking into it when we were in Miami, have you heard something since then?
But would the UK want to be associated with or controlled by a US company?

Nice to see Im not the only one on a Saturday on me putter

[Keith]

If enough advertisers could be attracted free and trial subscriptions could be offered, which would build up readership.

Might be worth talking to these iGamingBusiness.com > iGaming News to see how they handle it, I get sent regular free copies of Cap Magazine which is published by them.

[Grounded Vertigo]

It's definitely something that I would read and I think it would really benefit the UK to have such a thing. It would probably get most readership as an online magazine at least to begin with.

Definitely worth doing.

[mikey_freedom]

NMA's 1/8th page ad in the aff marketing section is over £1500 for 12 issues which is why their AM advertisers are the networks and I feel it's a publication that couldn't really attract or accommodate the small scale publisher affiliate wishing to learn how to monetise their own work. I would hope that any UK affiliate mag would address that gap. I'm sure the OP remembers e-consultancy's survey twelve months ago when 49% of all respondents had made £500 or less in the year and at the other end 34 respondents made over £750k. That's a broad audience to address but like the forum I'm sure it would be possible.

Subs x 12 printed issues could include URL listing in a subscribers directory at the end of each issue perhaps - a few hundred on each page? Link off the publication's website from a subscribers directory? Simple & cheap but might get a more enduring interest from the affiliates if you offer subs like that along with the revenue it coud generate through the corporate 1/xth page ads

Would it be the equivalent of the guest blogosphere but in print? The time is probably just right but even if it isn't then it is still something that someone should have run with by now imho. So what if it starts life looking like a parish newsletter and doesn't have wide distribution in its print version? I'm of the old school. I like something printed to read on the train/plane/with breakfast but I hope that a project such as this wouldn't price itself beyond a point that most affiliates could justify. If it did then an online only subscription could be run at a vastly reduced cost but is that just reinventing the wheel because you would end up trying to replicate much of what a4u and the blogosphere already does pretty well.

To get a print magazine going would probably involve calling in of lots of favours just to bring decent writers onboard to start with and not only from companies that the publishers are already involved with. From an affiliate perspective I'd like to see content like

Business pages with an overview of recent news from the main verticals and regarding tax, compliance, legislation etc relevant to UK affiliates
Profiles of new networks and merchants (the ad-cherching content)
Guest columns from some of the established affiliates who already post here/blog
Postbag - Questions and Answers, Confessions of affiliate / merchant mistakes etc
Articles in each issue relating to ongoing themes or recent hot-topics and aimed separately at the newbie, established or professional affiliate. Sitebuilding and management, PPC strategies, Networks compared - yep it's basic to most but it's constantly evolving and advanced articles would be of interest to well experienced readers.
Latest technology for the affiliate and merchant - code, platforms, hosting and hardware reviews and tutorials.
Small ads options that the average affiliate could afford to buy for a single issue

Right price, right content, I'd subscribe too

[sgpratley]

I'm not sure the numbers would stack up just yet for a purely AM title, but an ongoing dedicated section in something like Revolution would work really well. It'd also be more likely to be seen by merchants wanting to understand more about it.

I've long thought that there's a need for a more 'hands-on' publication for online marketing as a whole. The dross that NMA churns out isn't that much use to anyone except job hunters and salesmen. I would have thought that a slightly more general title that covered PPC, SEO, affiliates, email, social media etc would do really well and have broad enough appeal that merchants would want to read it also.

Something like some of the web design & creative titles that have good hands on advice and relevant interviews or case studies rather than just a ton of regurgitated press releases about account wins would definitely get my wallet open.

[max99]

i'd def subscribe, and i think a lot of people on a4u and other business forums might do.

The idea of possibly having like a article from some of the big blog owners per month could be good. i.e kieron sumbits one article per issue for example, obviosuly it wouldnt be same as on the blog but i'm sure lots of affs would do it for free. just an idea

[tbp]

I`d definately subscribe to one if there was one. I do read a lot of US stuff, but it would be good to have something UK specific.

[Dazza30]

Can someone explain to me what the benefit of a magazine would be?

As i see it if the magazine would be for affiliates etc and full of news from the networks and merchants, how is this any different to what this forum already provides us.

I just want to understand what benefit the magazine would give me.

[philhancox]

I just want to understand what benefit the magazine would give me.

Well for a start, I can't access the forums from the bathroom

[Dazza30]

Well for a start, I can't access the forums from the bathroom

You could with a laptop, smartphone or a pda