I recently got contacted by a company starting with cyber and ending in socket -- about advertising in their magazine and also in their Gay Net Directory.
I wanted to find out what other people on the board have experienced if they have done any advertising with this company -- has it been beneficial for you?
This thread can also expand to other publications or Off-line vs. Online advertising and what has worked for you.
Thanks for your feedback!
BoyNation
i've heard a lot of good things from people who advertised at cs. we had good luck with print with other publications, but we were advertising phone sex, not a website.
Laurence,
On June 8 Just Us Boys is premiering their print magazine. And when I heard about it, I jumped all over their inside cover page. Without even seeing the magazine or knowing what it was going to be all about, I just know that whatever the Just Us Boys gang does flies brilliantly. I can't wait to see it. I'm sure AndyMike will be around to help you out, but in the meantime here's his e-mail: andymike@mesmerotic.com. I believe their next issue is coming out in August.
As for the CyberS mag, I haven't advertised in it, so I can't comment. One of my sites was featured as a hot site of the month, I got a bit of traffic out of that, but it wasn't the boom I was hoping for. I have a listing in their annual directory, too. I can't track the affect that has. And I'm listed in their online directory, but CyberS figures in position 92 of my top 100 referring sites. So they don't send me much, maybe their surfers aren't into bears.
cheers,
dzinerbear
Hey Laurence!
I have an ad running in the June 8th issue of Just Us Boys Magazine and I can't wait to see the results. Just like what Dzinerbear said, anything that JUB does is a great success. I have to say that was all I was thinking when I took out a spot in their magazine.
Guys! Thanks so much for your kind words. We'll do you proud!
Print Pubs for us have never amounted to much direct conversion, and we ran ads in the mentioned C S publication for over a year, on two different sites.
I can see print pubs if you have a huge branding ad budget, but when you need to make dollars work, and you need to know if, when, how, they are working ...or not working, i think online ads are the way to go...you just don't get the trackability offline that you do online, and since we are running online businesses, i would think that we would want to concentrate our ad dollars on those that are online.... not that read print mags.
anymore you can get all the trackable clicks you ever wanted and then some using the same ad budget and you will KNOW what works and what does not, in may cases immediately.
We have more than doubled revenues on our retail site wehovideo.com just by using PPC and banner placement, tracking them, adjusting them, and redeploying those that don't work and it's almost immediately trackable.
Using print, you have to give yourself a several issues cushion to measure branding results..but then how do you accurately track that?
While print serves its purpose, and may be great for some products, i sincerely believe that some publications are highly over rated, and very self serving, and not really worth the highly priced dollars required for presence in them, when you could spend the same dollars online, know what works now, adjust, redeploy, and see results from all in a matter of hours rather than months...
JMHO
As has already been mentioned, print advertising is good for building and establishing a brand but, not being able to track the results from that advertising effectively is a huge downfall to print media.
That being said, if you have an established brand that the surfers know about, print advertising can be just the thing to solidify that brand name even more.
Regards,
Lee
I have been advertising in CS for over 4 years now, I would highly recommend it for any Webmaster Based programs like affiliates, hosting, billing, etc. For direct memberships its the biggest waste of your money, advertise in there directory and in the classified section of the magazine but don't waste your money on an Ad for membership sites.
Boy Nation,
We've experimented with print advertising and for the most part have stopped it. As Lee said, it's very difficult to track. It's damned expensive. We advertised for a couple of years in the magazine you mentioned. Stopped late last year and are sales are actually running ahead for the same time period so I think the ads for us were just a waste of money. A lot of money cause they ain't cheap.
Of all the print ads we've run, seemed to be that we got our best results from the small classified ads in Unzipped magazine. Smaller cost, but seems to be read by many.
Just my two cents worth.
Bill
Hello. I am newbie here on this board. I read sometimes, but do not post because of my English. But, I thought I would try now. I agree with the many here who have spoken about the building of the brand in print. This is the best for us and we have made much progress by using the print advertising. The Gay Web Monkey, Next Magazine, Frontiers, etc. are very good for us. The *********** is not a good investment, in my opinion. It is not the magazine for the surfer. You look in the magazine and see the ccbill ad in the first cover and the many advertisements for how to get rich selling the porn. This makes the surfer not want to buy. *********** is magazine for webmasters only i think. Why do surfers want to know about making money on the porn. Maybe not a good idea to tell them if the surfer thinks we all rich? It is not pointed to the wants of the surfer I believe. I do not understand the *********** magazine. Good Bye and thank you for this board.
I dont understand that at all....Originally Posted by CBLCasey
You advertise webmaster related products in a bar magazine?
But you shouldnt advertise surfer related products in it?
Something doesnt seem right there to me, that should be the other way around surely? :notsure:
Regards,
Lee
That's what's always really confused/surprised me about cyber*socket magazine.
It is attempting to speak to two ENTIRELY different and COMPLETELY incompatible audiences... webmasters and surfers. It seems that a lot of the ads in it are aimed at webmasters, and inexplicably, from what I've heard, many people seem to report getting results when placing ads . (Perhaps webmasters frequent the bars where the magazine is distributed.)
But I've heard a lot of people say that it doesn't seem to produce when ads are aimed at surfers. This is totally counterintuitive, I agree with Lee, but one of the things I've learned over the years I've spent in (non-adult) marketing is sometimes the most wacky media buys that you'd never think would work are the most effective.
If I were starting a magazine like cyber*socket today, I'd aim it, as JUB is doing, solely at the bar patrons and end-user surfer traffic. If I were going after webmasters, I'd distribute it in a totally different way, perhaps as Klixxx does. But hey... obviously they're doing something right, otherwise they wouldn't keep delivering a magazine full of ads each month.
Perhaps the reach to webmasters comes not from frequenting the bars where they are distributed, but from the free copies that are sent to each advertiser, which are webmasters...so you put in ads that appeal to webmasters who are going to look through the free copy they receive to validate their ad, and presto...your ad gets seen by webmaster eyes.
Exactly my point from earlier. It is extremely hard to convert from print to clicks, and click conversions are what drives membership sales.
However, print is a very valuable long term branding tool and if you have a product or name you want branded, and you have a rather large budget to pursue name recognition of that product or brand, then print is your way to go. If you are running ads trying to get clicks and memberships, forget it...it's an overly expensive and probably non productive medium.
If you want realistic ad buys, campaigns that work, are easily trackable, and instantly productive, then stay with online click campaigns and save the print mediums for branding when you are rolling in the dough from your online click campaigns.
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