It's TIME For a Mini Bike Magazine!
- Thread starter MBrestoration
- Start date
- Tags guide mini bike magazine
The mini bike guy in me thinks this is a great idea!
The 51 year old skeptic in me raises an eyebrow.
I will toss out my 2 cents and bow out ....
He said he wants a real magazine .. "high end looking (A real magazine)"
I'm thinking Car Craft, Motorcyclist, ect.
I dont know a lot about magazines but I do know that glossy, thick paper with color images can be very expensive. Materials, content, printing, delivery (and things I have no idea about).
Magazines of that caliber have lots of advertisements (with the exception of Consumer Reports) presumably to defer costs.
How many magazines do you need to print and sell to break even?
On the OldMiniBikes site there are about 42,000 registered users. How many would spend money on this magazine? (I would if it was real). Where else do you find buyers for a specialty mag like this? You might need a big player like Peterson publishing to get enough distribution to make a profit.
The content is key to success.
Having someone mail in some pictures and a description is minimal at best. They are not likely to "toot their own horn" like a reporter on the spot being shown around looking at it all with fresh eyes asking all the questions YOU would ask.
I imaging an insightful article with a side bar about the mousetrap the member made 20 years ago from and old engine block and some "Kiss" pinball machine parts that the reporter saw sitting in a corner.
MBrestoration has 9 posts .... is he really a big enough enthusiast to bankroll this project?
Is the plan to "crowd fund" this venture?
I would be VERY skeptical about that.
Now if we are talking about a magazine more on the lines of a local school news letter I could see one man pulling it off.
A "Real magazine" will take ALOT of time, talent and money.
But ultimately ....
The mini bike guy in me thinks this is a great idea!
Kevin
The 51 year old skeptic in me raises an eyebrow.
I will toss out my 2 cents and bow out ....
He said he wants a real magazine .. "high end looking (A real magazine)"
I'm thinking Car Craft, Motorcyclist, ect.
I dont know a lot about magazines but I do know that glossy, thick paper with color images can be very expensive. Materials, content, printing, delivery (and things I have no idea about).
Magazines of that caliber have lots of advertisements (with the exception of Consumer Reports) presumably to defer costs.
How many magazines do you need to print and sell to break even?
On the OldMiniBikes site there are about 42,000 registered users. How many would spend money on this magazine? (I would if it was real). Where else do you find buyers for a specialty mag like this? You might need a big player like Peterson publishing to get enough distribution to make a profit.
The content is key to success.
Having someone mail in some pictures and a description is minimal at best. They are not likely to "toot their own horn" like a reporter on the spot being shown around looking at it all with fresh eyes asking all the questions YOU would ask.
I imaging an insightful article with a side bar about the mousetrap the member made 20 years ago from and old engine block and some "Kiss" pinball machine parts that the reporter saw sitting in a corner.
MBrestoration has 9 posts .... is he really a big enough enthusiast to bankroll this project?
Is the plan to "crowd fund" this venture?
I would be VERY skeptical about that.
Now if we are talking about a magazine more on the lines of a local school news letter I could see one man pulling it off.
A "Real magazine" will take ALOT of time, talent and money.
But ultimately ....
The mini bike guy in me thinks this is a great idea!
Kevin
Snake oil salesmen (and women) have been around since the dawn of time. Believe me, with the oil boom we are experiencing presently they are out in force. But, I recall recently a would be flim-flam artist hit Big Spring, Texas. A small, dusty hamlet which we have a stock farm in the area.
This fellow happened to be a previous resident of the area in his youth and had relocated to Dallas and opened a small accounting concern. It turned out to be not your normal accounting firm. Meanwhile, this guy had gone to the city council and requested they GIVE him a 1930's era 15 story, dilapidated hotel named the Settles Hotel (google suggestion: settles hotel texas monthly). The local paper published letters to the editor expressing concern centered around this dude's intentions. (Including one from my skeptical uncle) Most folks didn't remember this city slicker from Big D.
The city council figured what the Hell, so they let the accountant have it. After all, it was almost destroyed as it was. What could happen? ....... Well, the guy spent, at last count, 38 million on the property. And he is still spending. He bought all the property surrounding the hotel and is going to overhaul it too. No one doubts him now. It turns out this native son runs one of the biggest accounting firms in the country and audits Fortune 500 companies books and receives payment for overpayment of taxes to the federal government. (half of what the overpayment was.......hundreds of millions of dollars)
Moral: You never can tell. :shrug:
This fellow happened to be a previous resident of the area in his youth and had relocated to Dallas and opened a small accounting concern. It turned out to be not your normal accounting firm. Meanwhile, this guy had gone to the city council and requested they GIVE him a 1930's era 15 story, dilapidated hotel named the Settles Hotel (google suggestion: settles hotel texas monthly). The local paper published letters to the editor expressing concern centered around this dude's intentions. (Including one from my skeptical uncle) Most folks didn't remember this city slicker from Big D.
The city council figured what the Hell, so they let the accountant have it. After all, it was almost destroyed as it was. What could happen? ....... Well, the guy spent, at last count, 38 million on the property. And he is still spending. He bought all the property surrounding the hotel and is going to overhaul it too. No one doubts him now. It turns out this native son runs one of the biggest accounting firms in the country and audits Fortune 500 companies books and receives payment for overpayment of taxes to the federal government. (half of what the overpayment was.......hundreds of millions of dollars)
Moral: You never can tell. :shrug:
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I'm with you Hent. I'd think that somebody that wants to put together a magazine and is not worried about making anything off of it would have been around here for awhile.
I'd like to see something like this though if that means anything. I like something for reference that I can look at without having to fire up a computer to do it.
Oh and just for my 2 extra cents, I'd like to see old material in a publication such as this to use as restoration reference. Now I look at others builds quite often but when trying to put something back to original I've found myself digging further to look at original pre restoration images to find the information I want to start one myself. I've been building a LiL Indian reference manual for my restorations and although others restorations help, it's their unrestored pictures that actually give me more information than the restored ones. Anyway, if you can pull it off, good, I'll be interested if there is that type of reference but I enjoy looking at the restorations in real time on here versus the printed matter.
I'd like to see something like this though if that means anything. I like something for reference that I can look at without having to fire up a computer to do it.
Oh and just for my 2 extra cents, I'd like to see old material in a publication such as this to use as restoration reference. Now I look at others builds quite often but when trying to put something back to original I've found myself digging further to look at original pre restoration images to find the information I want to start one myself. I've been building a LiL Indian reference manual for my restorations and although others restorations help, it's their unrestored pictures that actually give me more information than the restored ones. Anyway, if you can pull it off, good, I'll be interested if there is that type of reference but I enjoy looking at the restorations in real time on here versus the printed matter.
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One thing I would like to add to this discussion. If you are going to make a Mini Bike Magazine, I would think that you should have a lot of knowledge on the topic. You should know the basics and then some so that when you are receiving information from the people about their bikes you know what they are talking about. That way the information that you publish is correct. I.E. Shouldn't you know the difference between a Roper and a Stellar??? http://www.oldminibikes.com/forum/general-minibike-talk/101655-anyone-what-mini-bike.html
Coming from a guy who knows what he's talking about.
I would be glad when someone dumps their money into this finally to realize that print material is a thing of the past. Yellow Pages?
Joe (Joes Mini Bike Reunion) is a guy who is obviously heavily involved in print magazines, online and others - and still couldn't manage to get a mini bike mag or book off the ground.
Do I love old literature and paper work? Hell yeah, who doesn't?
Do I want to see that Phil Harrison decides to be a part of the community, because it's active, or because he has to contact the Author & Publisher of a book/magazine to be included...?
Websites are dynamic, and books are static which is why they are
becoming a thing of the past. Mini bikes died for a reason.
To write a mini bike book, unless you're one of the "few" who know a shit ton about them, you're going to be scraping data from this site, all from members who put their time and effort into it here - not your "free" book or magazine that will end up costing more than print.
I'm not against it, I'm all for it, but if people who can find $25 worth of info on here in 10 minutes won't sign up for a supporting membership, chances are they're not buying your book when the info is for free here.
Drew
Bam.
there it is........plus,why is he asking everyone to send stuff to him when he could just as easily do the legwork here himself.....
im sure i could collect a ton of pictures and write things up,but that sure wouldnt mean id be Right about any of it...and isnt that what matters the most?
there it is........plus,why is he asking everyone to send stuff to him when he could just as easily do the legwork here himself.....
im sure i could collect a ton of pictures and write things up,but that sure wouldnt mean id be Right about any of it...and isnt that what matters the most?
One of the biggest print companies in the US is just 5 miles from me. Just sold a few months ago to international buyers. Why? Time Magazine, sports Illustrated and the other mags are dying. The international company had the resources to convert to other print jobs. Most likely government. Lots of magazines are going web based. Environmental and financial. How many advertisers could you get to pay to be in a minibike mag? OldMiniBikes Warehouse would have to sell one of the helicopters!!!
Sent from my Texas Instruments Speak and Spell...
Sent from my Texas Instruments Speak and Spell...
Think I saw him waxing the motor home today:laugh:
On another note......I'm pretty sure that you can't use photos on this web site without the owners permission. :shrug: Once I post a photo on this web site, I'm pretty sure it becomes theirs. Notice the "OldMiniBikes" logo on the photos and I have many photos.:laugh:
But, I would buy a magazine. I still get magazines:thumbsup:
On another note......I'm pretty sure that you can't use photos on this web site without the owners permission. :shrug: Once I post a photo on this web site, I'm pretty sure it becomes theirs. Notice the "OldMiniBikes" logo on the photos and I have many photos.:laugh:
But, I would buy a magazine. I still get magazines:thumbsup:
Making a mini bike newsletter work .... ?
MBrestoration hasn't been on here in 2 days.
I hope he shows up and quells us naysayers with a plan to make his version of a mini bike magazine work because that would really be cool!
However the idea on a smaller scale might work.
If someone has the talent and plan for a newsletter or similar I would be more than happy to VOULENTEER my time in any way possible to make that happen.
I would love to be invited to a members house and try my hand at reporting and taking pictures. I bet other members would do the same.
Articles with even sketchey black and white photos would be pretty cool.
Paying for the printing and mailing might not be to painful either.
"Again someone with talent" can assemble it on a computer in a common format (Excel?). From there it can be emailed to others who can print and mail it upon request.
The requestor can pay via paypal to the person printing and mailing.
No need for a monthly or quarterly mailing either. Just wait until the masses make enough noise about the next issue to get it going.
No subscriptions & no extra printings. Purely mini bike enthusiast driven from start to delivery.
Yep there are LOTS & LOTS of details I'm missing but I bet there are a few people here who know how to pull this off.
Kevin
MBrestoration hasn't been on here in 2 days.
I hope he shows up and quells us naysayers with a plan to make his version of a mini bike magazine work because that would really be cool!
However the idea on a smaller scale might work.
If someone has the talent and plan for a newsletter or similar I would be more than happy to VOULENTEER my time in any way possible to make that happen.
I would love to be invited to a members house and try my hand at reporting and taking pictures. I bet other members would do the same.
Articles with even sketchey black and white photos would be pretty cool.
Paying for the printing and mailing might not be to painful either.
"Again someone with talent" can assemble it on a computer in a common format (Excel?). From there it can be emailed to others who can print and mail it upon request.
The requestor can pay via paypal to the person printing and mailing.
No need for a monthly or quarterly mailing either. Just wait until the masses make enough noise about the next issue to get it going.
No subscriptions & no extra printings. Purely mini bike enthusiast driven from start to delivery.
Yep there are LOTS & LOTS of details I'm missing but I bet there are a few people here who know how to pull this off.
Kevin
