Magazine Advertising

I'm going to take the plunge, and pay for some postcard advertising in GayTimes - for BlokeToys.

This will mean a slight revamp of the home page to make sure it's packed with the top gay toys, but I can do that for a month or so.

I'm going to start working on some designs, but wanted to know if there's anyone here with any tips or advice, experience or lessons, to help me create the perfect postcard ad.

Should it be funny, horny or highly styled?

Any advice greatly appreciated. And I'll post some here once I have some designs to work on. :icon_wink:

Hi Conran;
We've advertised in GayTimes off and on over the last couple of years. We found that we seemed to get a better response by keeping it tastefully sexy, but not too much and I think more professional as far a stylish would be best. Because of their geographics being more mature and financially established, you'll get a better response. That would be my thoughts, based on our experience.

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Originally Posted by lisa

Hi Conran;
We've advertised in GayTimes off and on over the last couple of years. We found that we seemed to get a better response by keeping it tastefully sexy, but not too much and I think more professional as far a stylish would be best. Because of their geographics being more mature and financially established, you'll get a better response. That would be my thoughts, based on our experience.

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Thanks Lisa, that's really helpful, I appreciate it.
I think I'm going for a semi nude male figure, and only a little text. With the logo and site name, maybe a discount offer on the back (that way I can track the sales from it too)

Is it a printed publication, or on-line?

Have you considered others?

I bought an ad on a blog for a week, and AdWords for 2 months. I made some sales, but don't know how much to attribute that to either. While I think Google should do a better job of presenting our sites to surfers, I find some value in advertising in blogs that have a following.

After all, I got started doing this in 1993 with a $100 ad in PlayGirl marketplace classifieds.

How lame. I go to their "Advertise" page, click on the link to mailto the appropriate person. Get Auto Responder that he no longer works there!!

And that I should mailto a choice of others, from a list that includes topics I'm not interested in!!

Almost as lame as a VOD site yesterday that returned a 404 page when I clicked on a link they gave me for my studio titles. About an hour later it got fixed - after the top guy scraped egg off his face.

But, REALLY, these guys think they are the "heavyweights" with outdated links to their inside staff and pages?

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Originally Posted by nickbaer

Is it a printed publication, or on-line?

Have you considered others?

I bought an ad on a blog for a week, and AdWords for 2 months. I made some sales, but don't know how much to attribute that to either.

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I'm currently looking at physical print, because on-line just doesn't seem to work for me. I've dabbled with AdWords a few times and get no sales at all from it, and I've tried out blog advertising too, but it's impossible to find gay blogs, with a UK audience, and at a decent price.
I just don't get sales from the USA, because it's obviously not practical for them, and every single blog I have found to advertise on sends me hundreds of hits from guys in the US.
Both AdWords and blog advertising are like throwing money away for me.

I would really like to find a UK targeted mailing list, or a reasonably priced on-line campaign targeted to the UK. I have one I'm intending to go for with a dating network, but it's still gonna cost a fair bit for an unknown return.

One of the first things I tried was magazine advertising, and I saw a jump in sales that gradually tapered off. So I know that method does work. I think I just need to streamline and manage the process this time around to ensure I can get firm stats on the response (through offering a discount code) and altering the landing page for a period to suit that audience.

Hey you hit me up if you want to consider Cybersocket Magazine! Lisa can tell you all about us as she has advertised for years with us! holly at cybersocket dot com

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Originally Posted by MysticMarketing

Hey you hit me up if you want to consider Cybersocket Magazine! Lisa can tell you all about us as she has advertised for years with us! holly at cybersocket dot com

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Wouldn't that be global though? I'm really looking at spending on UK targeted audience only.

It's true, we've advertised in Cybersocket Magazine since it's inception. It would be more of a world wide type of exposure for you, but we've seen continued success in advertising in Cybersocket, which is why we've been a customer since their beginning.

Conran,

Have you looked at websites that can geo-target ads to specific countries. I believe that Queerclick can do that. Maybe hit Mary up? I believe that JUB can as well...

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Originally Posted by zbuckz_lloyd

Conran,

Have you looked at websites that can geo-target ads to specific countries. I believe that Queerclick can do that. Maybe hit Mary up? I believe that JUB can as well...

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Mary at Queerclick is just fabulous! I :love: me some Mary! She'll really help. Ask her about the sticky. She'll know what you mean.

Queerclick sends us some very nice converting traffic. We've been buying traffic from them almost a month now.

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Originally Posted by zbuckz_lloyd

Conran,

Have you looked at websites that can geo-target ads to specific countries. I believe that Queerclick can do that. Maybe hit Mary up? I believe that JUB can as well...

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I agree - try running GEO targetted web campaigns. It shouldn't cost too much for UK only traffic!

Conran,

I don't have any design tips or strategy to offer, but in terms of tracking the ROI - what about creating a unique vanity URL exclusive to the postcard? something close to your brand, but different enough that they will hit the special URL rather than going to the normal site direct. Just a thought. Perhaps you've already considered this, but wanted to give my two cents :) good luck!