Need opinions and/or ideas

[wallzaker]

Greetings All,
New here to the forum, been with PR since the beginning, with a small gap......
This Past Sept. 2016 I retired and started back up again.
Basically I am doing a local, digital Little League Sports Magazine.
The digital copy is posted online for people to view. ( Home )
Then I will have printed 100 copies that I take to ballgames for parents to have for free.
Everyone really likes it and it promotes my PR site where they can buy prints.
So here is the situation:
I have tried to sell advertising in the magazine to local business.....very little to none $$$
I have changed my pricing on PR twice and still little to none in sales.....
My regular site does make a little but still, not much. ( Prom Photography, Seniors Photography - Webfeet Media - Morganton, Nc )
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Best Regards,
Wally

 

[Designer]

I have tried to sell advertising in the magazine to local business.....

That's tough. How many in the sales staff? If it is only yourself, then I suggest figure out a way to get more sales representatives knocking on doors. Most businesses need to know if it is worth it, i.e.; how many pairs of eyes see your magazine, and how often? That kind of thing. Do you have circulation numbers besides "printing 100 copies"? Does the website have a counter?

Personally, I think you should remove the big "FREE" banner on the cover. People already know/assume it is free. Sometimes something that loudly proclaims it is free turns people off because then they start looking for the "catch". I suppose the real catch is when they wish to purchase a full-size photograph?

 

[tirediron]

As far as the magazine goes... I agree with Designer; if you want to have something, than use the phrase "Complimentary Copy", the implication being that somewhere else, you would have to pay for it. That said, it's not really a magazine, rather just a random collection of photos. There is no information, no team or player names, dates, who played who, who won, what school(s)... all this is hugely important.

I understand that in this day and age, everyone wins, everyone gets a trophy, and all the rest of that s***, but the fact is, the kids know who won, and the parents take pride in it, even if they won't admit it publicly. I would bin at least half the images and replace it with text, large, sans-serif font so that it's easy to read for children as well as adults.

Advertising... WHY would I advertise in it (and how much would it cost me?). What's the circulation, how many schools, how many 'site hits, page turns. If I'm paying you money for this, I want to know what my turn-over is going to be. That said, I've tried similar things in my area and they invariably get me nothing.

As for your photography website. Umm... sorry, but IMO that needs work, not just from the web-design side, but from the photography side. There are exposure issues, WB issues and "unusual" poses. Additionally the background image (if you're going to use one) should be your best image. Bar none... while the young lady is attractive, you've not done her justice.

To be brutally frank, this looks like the work of someone who understands technically how to create an image, but not how to pose or use light.

 

[FotosbyMike]

I would echo Designer... why 100, what are people getting to advertise, traffic to the site, traffic to the mag.

Are you able to give all the printed images away, do you take some home... if you are left with some you are printing too many if you don't have parents/grandparents begging for more you are printing too many.

IMO I would print less and show more on an Ipad, pay onsite, email ASAP. Are you able to take payment onsite if not look into options like Square.

Next most of the images look like snap shots with a lot of in-focus background.

There are a lot of options for websites building and IMO this site is laking the 2017 look, look at WIX.com or Site123 or spend a little and use SquareSpace.

 

[wallzaker]

As far as the magazine goes... I agree with Designer; if you want to have something, than use the phrase "Complimentary Copy", the implication being that somewhere else, you would have to pay for it. That said, it's not really a magazine, rather just a random collection of photos. There is no information, no team or player names, dates, who played who, who won, what school(s)... all this is hugely important.

I understand that in this day and age, everyone wins, everyone gets a trophy, and all the rest of that s***, but the fact is, the kids know who won, and the parents take pride in it, even if they won't admit it publicly. I would bin at least half the images and replace it with text, large, sans-serif font so that it's easy to read for children as well as adults.

Advertising... WHY would I advertise in it (and how much would it cost me?). What's the circulation, how many schools, how many 'site hits, page turns. If I'm paying you money for this, I want to know what my turn-over is going to be. That said, I've tried similar things in my area and they invariably get me nothing.

As for your photography website. Umm... sorry, but IMO that needs work, not just from the web-design side, but from the photography side. There are exposure issues, WB issues and "unusual" poses. Additionally the background image (if you're going to use one) should be your best image. Bar none... while the young lady is attractive, you've not done her justice.

To be brutally frank, this looks like the work of someone who understands technically how to create an image, but not how to pose or use light.

Well being brutal is what I need, Being very new to this I so need the input from others. Lots to think about, Thank you!