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Adsheet Website

Using the Web with Your Adsheet

Not every area or community will prove a good market for an ad sheet as I've described in the previous pages. Some communities provide a better market for tabloid-sized shoppers, for special interest papers and magazines, and some may prove better suited for Internet-based communications. In such places an adsheet may seem unnecessary.

However, even a small ad sheet or even a local consumer or bargain-hunter's newsletter may do pretty well if combined with a small website. Websites are funny things. They often require lots of attention and work, but produce very little income. Yet they may also produce a lot of income. And they very often enhance the income produced by even a small printed publication.

How to make the website work for you

The biggest problem facing most websites that fail to produce anything is the lack of public awareness. If no one knows your site exists, then no one will visit it, except by purest accident. If the site offers nothing of value, then it will just sit there, never producing any income. But if the site works as an extension to your little ad sheet or newsletter, then you may have a winning combination.

The ad sheet gets distributed through your local market, alerting everyone to the website, and the online site adds depth and value to the ad sheet or newsletter. Now something is happening, and the community may be served in ways far beyond what just the site or just the ad sheet could ever accomplish alone.

If you are not a technically-inclined person or if you simply have no time to start learning all about websites, then something on the order of WordPress may serve you well. WordPress, developed for primarily blogs, is a CMS (content management system) that lends itself quite well to periodic updates, ads and announcements.

As with anything, there is some learning curve involved, but only very minimal. Buy a domain name that matches your ad sheet, register it and host it with a web-hosting service (someone like 1and1.com), get your free WordPress software, set it up, pick a them, do any personal customization, and you are on your way. Better yet, if you have a spouse or good friend who already likes to play with web sites, you may be able to have them handle the website.

Another good option that's free is Google websites. They have site for personal, community and business use. You can use the Google search engine to find all the information you need. Just type in the words Google and sites or websites. Some people even use Blogger or Blogspot, also free services, to host a site. If you search the web, I'm sure you'll find even more options.

Adding Online Value to the Adsheet

The Very Important thing to remember is that your site must be kept current. Always include a web version of your adsheet when publishing a  new issue.  Always provide something extra for advertisers online. If they buy an ad in the adsheet, include free photos and more detailed business information about them online. You can add a whole page online for each advertiser (or offer additional pages for a reasonable monthly fee). You take the photos, write up the material, and edit the pages.

Add a local calendar of events, especially highlighting advertisers, but also including community events and non-profit organization events, meetings, etc. You can add as much online content to the site as you want, and use the adsheet to point people to the helpful information you have online. There is literally, no limit.

As your printed distribution grows and your website services grow, you may find it possible to charge for online ads. Be careful. Make sure you have real traffic, local traffic on your site before you promise online results. Be honest with your advertisers, and you will build a strong customer base of your own. Make the website work hard for the community and you will soon be in real demand. The site will feed the adsheet with advertisers and the adsheet will feed traffic to the website. You will be providing a real and useful service to your entire market.

For more information that may prove helpful in starting up an ad sheet publication, feel free to visit www.Newspaper-Info.com . You'll be surprised to see how much of the information that applies to small newspapers will prove helpful for your adsheet publication, as well.  Happy advertising.

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