The 5th Book Of Great Printing Tips From A Printing Pro
Copyright 2012 Printing By Design
This book is the fifth collection of blogs I have written since the last booklet and having done so over a period of the past months in order to help keep my clients informed and provide them with an understanding on how to get the most out of your printing jobs and at the same time reducing your costs. I hope you too find this helpful. 10-19-12 Ira Blacker
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INDEX
IS STARTING A COUPON MAGAZINE FOR ME?
PAGE 5
BOOK PRINTING PROMOTIONAL IDEAS FOR THE SELF PUBLISHER PAGE 7 DEFINING YOUR NICHE FOR YOUR MAGAZINE MARKET
PAGE 9
MORE UNIQUE CATALOG PRINTING CONCEPTS
PAGE 11
PRINTING TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
PAGE 13
I DON’T NEED A PRINTING COMPANY
PAGE 17
HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON DIRECT MAIL
PAGE 19
WHY AUTHORING A BOOK IS GOOD BUSINESS
PAGE 21
HOW DO I PUBLISH THEE, MY BOOK
PAGE 23
CALENDAR PRINTING AS A BRANDING TOOL
PAGE 25
IT TAKES MORE THAN “EYE CANDY” TO DESIGN
PAGE 27
HOW DO I CHOOSE BETWEEN WEB & SHEET FED
PAGE 31
MAGAZINE PRINTING AS A CAPITALIST TOOL
PAGE 33
Is Starting A Coupon Magazine For Me? So you want to start a coupon magazine but are not sure of the best way to go about it? Like any other business you would first draft a business plan for what you intend your business model to be and any niche you seek to fill for your magazine. Like any other form of magazine printing there are basic and acceptable business practices that you will want to be aware of, understand and try and adhere to. The bottom line is that before you venture into coupon magazine printing, you must first have a solid plan of attack or you may be its only reader. I have broken your potential magazine printing venture into several categories, each being important and all of which you will want to understand and master. So, let’s take a look at what some of them are:
Niche: The question that you first need to pose to yourself is “what niche will I be filling”? If you are competing with six other coupon magazines in a small town, why should yours prevail over the others? What makes your coupon magazine special? What are you offering that the others do not nor are you simply going into a locality where you currently do not have any competition for your magazine? Branding: Establish your brand by having a creative and eye catching look to your cover and layout style. Set yourself apart from the pack. You do not need to use more expensive paper or anything else that would be deemed as high end by a printing company, but simply create a “look” for your magazine that is both original and that you will keep constant within certain parameters for each and every issue. The point here is that you want people to recognize your coupon magazine as both interesting, along with a few quality and useful articles or information bits, as well as quickly identifying your “brand” when it hits the magazine newsstands or arrives in their mailbox. Promotion: You will want to promote your magazine so that people become aware of it. A website is a great help in this end as well as becoming a tool for your sales staff, as the same coupon advert that is in your magazine can also be placed online. It is not that difficult to build a website nor that costly if you start with the intention of only attempting to realize local results. Other ways would be advertising in the local newspaper with press releases about your launch as well as on local radio. Radio, other than cable or satellite radio is required by law to allow citizens “public access”. Fine, it maybe 5 in the morning, but there are plenty of folks up at that time and tuned in. You dan also drop into chambers of commerce (even cut a deal on advertising fees going back to them for any sales they can help you with) as they are chock full of your advertising audience. Organizations, churches and similar are also great places to hit as they and the chambers many times are looking for free public speakers where you can tout your new magazine. Sales: Whether it is yourself or people you hire, locate sales folks who are presentable, well spoken and credible. Try if possible to stay away from sales types who are overly slick in their approach and seek ones who are capable of having a casual conversation, humble in their approach who can ask a business person if it is OK to let him/her know about a new publication and then be able to sell benefits of advertising with you. Don’t be afraid to offer deals to local advertisers for multiple issues, so long as you cover your production costs and let them know it is a one-time promotional package. If you cannot get the biggest business in town to advertise, offer them a free add for the first issue. With the big guy on
board, you may have a much easier time getting the rest to follow. However, make sure the big guy understands you are cutting a special deal and it is not to be advertised. Size: Size is a consideration, in that you need to randomly ask shoppers and business owners relevant to display and usage, how they feel about a digest size of 5.5 x 8.5, quarter page size of 4.25 x 5.5 or full size 8.5 x 11” (these sizes are for sheet fed printing, while web printing of magazines would be slightly smaller). Each size has a benefit with the smallest fitting into a pocket. Page Count: The page count is important for any type of printed material but especially so in coupon magazine printing. A signature for a full page size is 16 pages, digest 32 and quarter page 64. If you have less, you will not save, but only increase the cost of your page. Should you have more pages, thus not using a new and full signature, as 68 or 72 pages, the per page cost zooms for those last few pages due to using only a portion of the paper going through the press. You are far better off keeping your page count constant until you have enough ads for another signature. You are also very well served when you turn away ads as the marketing value is immense. Quantity: The quantity you print will depend on how many people reside in your niche area or local where you intend to distribute. It will further depend on your cash flow and ability to print more than less. Remember, that once the magazine printing press is running, the “impressions” become much more affordable. You also want a press run that you can legally document and certify that then becomes a selling tool for your sales staff so that the advertiser can feel that he is getting his monies worth. Distribution: Don’t forget to apply for and obtain any necessary business licenses for selling advertising, distributing your magazine and for any applicable sales tax you or your advertisers may be liable for. Additionally as this is a business, be sure to purchase any relevant insurance for the running of it or any liabilities you may face down the road. There are a number of ways you can distribute your magazine: It is relatively inexpensive to purchase a “carrier route” mailing list for a local town, thus affording you very inexpensive postage costs so that you can mail a magazine to each resident. You can also utilize a distribution company to distribute them door to door, or simply drop ship an amount to each business in town. Even if what you drop off is to a business that did not advertise, it will only make it easier for your salesperson to close the deal for the next issue. Hopefully this information will be of use to you in your coupon magazine printing endeavor. We would love to hear from you concerning your commercial color magazine printing requirements or any print project you need help with. Please Contact Us Now by visiting us at Printing by Design, and request a quote to find out how you can benefit from doing business with our color magazine printing company; PBD!
Book Printing Promotional Ideas For the Self Publisher OK, you just came back from the book printing company with a carload of books following the completion of the printing of your books. Other than finding a safe and easy place to store them, such as the garage or your kid’s bedroom at the expense of him or her going ballistic, what next? You have this big pile in the corner of your house somewhere from your book printer, but now you must face the prospect of promoting them and selling them. Let’s assume your book is wonderful and that if anyone read it they too would agree. So the question is, how to best market your books all by yourself. There are several ways the self publisher can market and sell your work after you print a book. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that are potentially possible for you and hopefully some or all will meet your criteria of “yeah, I can do that”. Frankly the task ahead of you once you leave the book printer is immense so it is my judgment that you should be looking at doing each and every thing in order to succeed at selling your book once the printing is completed.
Your Own Web Site/Blog: Having your own web site or blog is a great way to not only have a “base of operations” for all of your promotion but where you can post daily items such as comments, reviews, appearances and anything else relevant to the promotion and sale of your book. Social Networking: Need I say more, as you are more than likely reading this as a post on one of the many social networking sites? It is a tedious job, but it gets results when you post daily bits about your book on such sites as LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, My Space, Pinterest, Squidoo, Digg, Tumbler, Google Plus 1 and more. The additional advantage of a social networking is that Google likes it and if you have a web site it will also circuitously promote the site as well. The minute you get your book back from the book printer start “tweeting”. Email Marketing: Email marketing is a direct way to make contact about your book with virtually everybody, from distributors, retailers, book clubs, reviewers and more. Specialized lists are available for any niche and media mail makes it reasonably affordable to send out copies should you choose or you can also have a sample set of pages or even the whole book if you like appended to the email or with a link to a private page on your website. Direct Mail Marketing: Direct mail is similar to email marketing as you can also purchase niche lists for any constituency of your choice. You can choose a simple post card, letter, or a brochure about yourself published book. Live Appearances: This is an oft overlooked avenue for self promotion and to promote your book following its printing. There are myriads of organizations from chambers of commerce, churches, various organizations, clubs etc. and those who are in a niche similar to the topic of your book, all who have functions and who look for interesting and FREE speakers to attend and speak at their functions or lunches. After your presentation about your book, what it is about, the adventure of writing it, why you became a writer or whatever else may be of interest you will be allowed to sell books at the back of the room and announce the sale at the end of your presentation. You can even ask each organization for a testimonial or endorsement about the book and the event. Book clubs are another avenue you could make direct contact with.
Broadcast Media: Here is another oft overlooked avenue by self publishers. The FCC requires that all stations dedicate a certain amount of airtime, by law, to “public access”. Albeit at early morning hours, but it pays as there are enough folks getting up for work, driving to work or just suffering from insomnia that you can appeal to. You can discuss your book and invite all to attend any open events you are presenting at. Cable media also has many public access channels where you could request to be on someone else’s show or even host your own. Public Relations: There are many examples online, such as mediabistro.com/galleycat/ that will review your books. A great way is to write a concise and favorable press release and post it to the many web sites that will accept such releases. An excellent way is to hire one of the many companies in India who specialize in Search Engine Optimization and you can hire them cheaply to send out press releases as well as for the marketing of your web site if needed. Prweb in the U.S. is a free service that will disseminate your press releases. Book Reviews: While hard to get a self published book reviewed there are important book reviewers such as Kirkus, BlueInk Review and Publishers Weekly that will review self published titles for a fee. However in today's blog-a-sphere there are many blogs that will review books and 28,000 searches came up looking for them so I will leave you to do your own homework there. The Ultimate Sale: Somewhere along the line if you are successful and I hope you become so, you will have sold enough books and garnered enough attention for doing so that the option of selling your publishing rights under favorable terms may become a reality for you. Unless you are prepared to hire staff, open a warehouse and start to print books at ever larger numbers, which will make your book printer quite happy, you will be faced with a judgment to make: Which business am I in, the business of writing books or the business of printing, marketing and selling books. Quite obviously each of these tasks is a full time proposition. With luck you will have a successful sale following your book printing endeavor. We would love to hear from you concerning your book printing requirements. Please Contact Us Now by visiting us at Printing by Design, and request a quote to find out how you can benefit from doing business with our printing company; PBD!
Defining Your Niche For Your Magazine Market Before ever considering printing magazines, you would be well advised to have a business and marketing plan. This of course is obvious to even the most rudimentary beginner in magazine printing and publishing. There is however the further consideration when defining your marketplace potential during the creation of your business plan for printing magazines and publishing one and that is “how wide an audience can your ability cater to? The question then to be answered is “what is my niche” and will it afford me more potential than just trying to appeal to everyone. Niche marketing is a smaller, focused slice of the overall market. Unless you have millions of dollars to start your magazine printing venture, the answer here seems obvious; you will have a greater opportunity for success catering to a smaller and specific niche that also falls into specific areas of your own expertise. This is more important than ever in today’s economy. It can allow you to compete with larger magazines by accurately targeting your audience. To define your own niche markets prior to considering magazine printing take a look at your competitors. Just don’t try to compete with them but rather review their overall appeal to their magazine’s base and see if you can distinguish one or two where you are an expert at and can better offer your magazine readership the knowledge you possess as an authority in that niche. Next, research your market and try and see who is using the products or services you want to print a magazine about. Find out their demographics, including age, gender, occupation, attitudes, politics, interests, etc. You can use simple things for this research such as Google Ad Words. Choose a few keywords and input them into their keyword tool and it will not only reply with more and similar keywords but let you know how many searches per month there are. This will give you an idea of how much interest there is for your potential niche magazine. It can let you know how many people may become potential subscribers to your magazine. Another great tool is EBay, as they list items for sale by category and sub categories ad infinitum. You can research categories and drill down in order to find the smallest niche. You can also check out the bidding action within that category for additional insight. Search blogs and other research online for your niche magazine target and see what others are writing about and the level of interest there is for your proposed magazine niche. There is also lot’s of published information that you can find online from a variety of sources that publish data regarding internet use, trends, sales and demographics. The internet should be your first stop on the road to niche magazine printing as it is the world’s greatest library and the search feature sure beat’s those old library cards from back in the day. Another benefit of having a niche magazine and printing one to a smaller section of the overall audience is that you become an expert as an authority on the niche subject. For example, if you focus on magazine bindery types, to site my own industry, printing, rather than just magazine printing, you have narrowed the niche area. A clear focus on that respective niche would allow you to get into specific areas of expertise and knowledge where you may find little competition. This of course is assuming that your research for your niche magazine also shows that there is sufficient interest among potential readership.
Find your niche by identifying what it is that you know best. As an example, I started years ago with a hobby of collecting antique mantle clocks. After a couple of years of collecting and acquiring knowledge both current and from a prior hobby of antique collecting (a wider field than the niche of clock collecting) I decided to use that expertise in an online clock venture. The same can hold true for any area of your expertise. It is always a great starting point if you can start with something you already are expert at, albeit a hobby like painting; stamp collecting, cat fancier or whatever you enjoy as it is always a “better mousetrap� to build a business around something you already love. Thus printing magazines about stamps, painting, or cats, while picking a niche market within those generalities can afford you to be in a business magazine printing and publishing that you already love. In the final analysis niche marketing offers you the clarity of who your market is and how to sell them rather than just starting a general interest magazine and hoping your readership surfaces like oil on water. Magazine printing and publishing is an expensive proposition and the best starting point for a new one is to produce a magazine about a subject you love, are expert in and that your research has shown that there is a market for. I hope this information has been helpful about magazine printing and publication. We would love to hear from you about your venture. Please Contact Us Now by visiting us at Printing by Design, and request a printing quote to find out how you can benefit from doing business with our color web printing company PBD!
More Unique Catalog Printing Concepts
Most every company with a sound business model utilizes catalog printing in order to categorize, display and sell their products with. So the question to be asked is; “How do I differentiate my catalog printing from that of my competitor?� Easy, use quality images, copy that sells rather than offers and excellent design. However there are things one can do when printing catalogs that in most cases are simple to execute and do not add much to the cost. Here are some unique ideas to help you print a catalog that stands out from the pack: Tabbing Your Catalog: There are a number of tabbing treatments for catalogs that can be simple and add minimal costs, if any to your catalog printing. Here are some examples of tabbing: Die Cut Tabs: This is the most costly as it requires tabs that first are die cut, an offline process, and then inserted, with tabs scored and folded so the tabs do not get cut off in trimming. Tabs can be left unfolded, but it would require that the cover overlap the tabs as well as using heavier cover and tab stock, with lamination on tab ends, so that the tabs are protected in the catalog from bending. Trimmed Bleed Edge: This is a very cost effective way to create sections as all you would do is create colored bleed edges for each section, starting at the top of face edge and moving downwards using different colors of ink. Custom Layered Trim: This would be created by trimming each section slightly smaller in a landscape format so that each section is visible with the catalog closed. This would mean that the top section extends towards the face with the smallest width, and the next section jutting closer to the edge and so on. This is not suited for mass run web printing of catalogs as it would be way too expensive, but more so for custom catalog printing on a sheet fed press and where there are limited budget restrictions and thus ideal for a high end shop or manufacturer. Die Cut Catalog Printing: There are many ways to utilize custom die cutting for catalogs. One simple way is the die cut cover with a see through area to expose purposefully place copy or an image so it shows through the hole. The hole can be simple as a circle or an intricate and yes more costly die cut pattern. Die Cut Corners: In addition to the opening as mentioned above you can print and bind your catalog and then round corner the four or only the two corners at the face. Presentation Folder Options: There are several options you can utilize in catalog printing that incur the use in some fashion of a presentation folder. You can stitch the catalog into a pocket folder, insert the stitched or loose pages into the pockets and even split the sections into staggered ones or separate booklets and insert them into the pockets so that each booklet represents a different and easy to reference section of the catalog. You can even print an index showing which sections are for what and where on the pockets of the folder.
Custom Bindery Options: Custom sizes, such as 4 x 9” or squared can also set you apart and if utilizing a single sheet for a smaller catalog on a sheet fed press, then consider custom folding of your catalog. An accordion fold is easy for the user to splay out and sell all at one time or to just thumb through the sections. A double gate fold is always a nice touch and it is where the outer two panels fold in and then the last fold is in half bringing the two panels together. You can also have a custom die cut fold where there are five panels, one in the center and one off each of its four sides. The panels that fold in can be square, scalloped or pointed and can all fold inwards or even tuck in. You can even place a little booklet in its center. Custom Envelope: Once your catalog printer is finished with the basic book, you can then have it inserted into a matching booklet envelope, utilizing the same paper stock and imagery as the catalog itself. The envelope can be as intricate as you like with such as scalloped edging on the flap. Catalog paper options: Generally speaking the reason catalog printers utilize gloss or dull coated stock is because “ink sits on top of the paper” unlike uncoated offset stocks where it sinks into the paper, thus spreading the image a bit. If you are selling products where “a picture is a thousand words” then clarity is king. However, there is no reason why you cannot opt for an uncoated cover and even one with a recycled look or laid look, especially for an upscale product. One thing to consider though, if you are printing catalogs for an auto parts company, that type of cover will get dirty real fast and you therefore would be better off with a coated cover and a UV or varnish finish to protect it. Contact Us Now by visiting us at www.pbdink.com as we want to be your catalog printer.
A Non-Blog Blog With All The Printing Terms & Definitions For Quotes You Receive
Glossary Of Printing Terms And Definitions These are some of the printing terms and printing term definitions that will help you to understand the way the printing process is described at our printing company. These printing terms are those used by printing companies when they send you a printing quote utilizing these same printing term definitions for online printer services. This glossary is the exact same one you will find on our website when you visit us for your quote whether magazine printing, books, catalog printing or any other form of commercial printing service. DESCRIPTION: What type of printing item do you need the quote for (book printing, brochure printing, catalog printing, etc?) QUANTITY: How many of the above item do you need? It is a good idea to bracket your quote up, as the unit pricing is more favorable once you are on the printing press and running. NUMBER OF PAGES: How many pages do your book printing or brochure printing has? This is different from how many sheets of paper. For an "apples to apples" and easy to quote them it is best to always deal in page count and not sheet count for a given item. TRIM SIZE FOLDED: What is the size of your final printed piece once folded? (Example: if you fold a letter to fit an envelope, the folded size is the "trim size folded=3 2/3 x 8 1/2" verses the flat size of the letter you started with of 8 1/2 x 11"). FLAT/SPREAD SIZE: This is the flat and trimmed size of your printed piece before folding. (Example: and 8 1/2 x 11" 4 page brochure spread out as a 2 page "spread" would be 17 x 11 ") NOTE: IN COMMERCIAL PRINTING THE WIDTH IS ALWAYS THE FIRST DIMENSION GIVEN. TEXT STOCK: The paper you require for the inside of your periodical. If there were not a separate cover, then would be the stock for the entire piece (i.e. a "self cover") COVER STOCK: This is the paper you require for the outside 4 pages of your periodical, providing that it is different from the text. If it is not, then your piece is a "self cover". TEXT INK: The ink you require for the inside of your piece. This is described by the number of inks you require and the two numbers used are separated by a slash sign /. If the front of your piece has 4 colors and the back has 1, then your piece would be described as 4/1 or "four over one". There are 2 main kinds of inks, CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black)
for process printing, such as color photos and Pantone inks also known as spot color, such as PMS # 187. PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. This a universal system to pick the same color every time. (Note: always count on a slight variation of color from paper to paper and press to press. COVER INK: This is as above, but for the cover portion, if the cover is different from the text. COVERAGE %: Coverage refers to the amount of ink on the page. Always let your printing company know if there are large solid areas of 100% ink on a job and the overall ink coverage. It better allows the printing company to place your job on the appropriate press. BLEEDS: A bleed occurs when your design allows the ink to print to the very edge of the paper. If your bleed on one side goes completely across the side from top to bottom, that would be 3 bleeds and not one. The reason for this is due to the fact that you would then also be "bleeding to the top and bottom. CAMERA READY ART: This is art on board or paper output that can be photographed. If there is more than one color, they should be separated to different boards or sheets. A composite of your separations should also be included as a guide for stripping of the film for press. Photographs should not be included within the camera-ready art, but photographed as "half tones" in a separate process. COMPOSED FILM: This is film that is ready to be "stripped" (pieced) together with other pieces of composed film in order to then have "plate ready" film. It is the plate ready film that is used to "burn" or make the plates to print with. OUTPUT READY DISK: A disk that is complete and does not require any further production other than to "rip" (the conversion from digital to analog) to film. This disk should also contain a folder for all of your images and another for your fonts used. SCANS FROM TRANSPARANCIES: Scanning is the process that records your images as a digital file from a transparency (35mm, 2 1/4" or larger). REFLECTIVES: A print made from your original photographic negative. HALF TONES: A black and white photo shot with a camera with a honeycombed lens or scanned, that recreates your image as a series of dots required in printing. SET TYPE: To chose the appropriate font (typeface) and type your copy and laying it out on the page.
DESIGN: Design is the finished product you receive when you combine the elements consisting of your type, images, colors logo and other items into a finished eye pleasing piece for output of film. OUTPUT FILM: The output of film from files occurs when the printing company rips your digital files and produces your art as final film or plates. BLUELINES: A contact proof from the film used to verify that the film is correct. The word comes from the blue paper used, although other colors are occasionally available. COLOR KEY: A contact proof from the film made from acetate. There is one sheet per process color, which is overlaid with each other to verify that your color film is correct. Process or CMYK colors are generally all that is available. The benefit of this type of color proofing system is cost. It is accurate on most things, but the color on a match print is more accurate. If color is not 100% critical and cost is than this is the proofing system for your piece. MATCHPRINT: A multiple piece of contact proofing that is pieced together and laminated as a single piece. This is the most accurate proofing method; especially where color is a critical factor, such as in skin tones for a cosmetics brochure. DIE SCORE OR CUT: To die score a piece is to make a "steel rule" die, which is composed of thin pieces of steel that will be used to stamp a line or rule where your piece needs to fold. This action compresses the paper and allows for ease of folding and prevents cracking. 100# gloss book and heavier, especially where there is "cross over art" (ink going from one panel to the next), especially on the spine (outer edge). To die cut is to create a steel rule die and to cut your finished piece as if it were a cookie. The most common example of this is a "presentation folder with pocket". The glue flap that is used on the pocket, as well as the pocket and the slit cut to hold business cards are examples of die cutting. FOLD TYPE: The type of fold you require in order to finish your piece. A letter fold is a paper folded in thirds with each end folding towards the center. A "z" fold differs in that one third of the sheet folds to the front and the other to the rear and so on. SADDLE STITCH: Two staples added to the center of the piece on the fold line, with the head of the staple on the outside of the folded piece. PERFECT BIND: A squared off edge; with scored hinges for ease of opening and glued in pages define this type of bindery. An example would be your standard "pocket" or "soft cover" book, as opposed to a "case bind" which is hard cover binding. PERFORATE:
To perforate or die score in holes that allow one to cleanly remove a coupon or page from the piece with ease and not destroy the piece. If the perforation goes from top to bottom, that is a vertical perforation. If from side to side, it is a horizontal perforation. HOLES: The term "holes" refers to the punching or die cutting of holes in the piece to allow for binder or other similar use. FOIL: To foil stamp create a stamping tool, known as a die and stamping a material onto the paper. The material usually is seen as metallic gold or silver, but can come as enamel colors as well. If the foil touches nearby ink on the piece or is raised by embossing, it is referred to as "registering". EMBOSS: This is a process where the embosser will stamp the paper from the rear in order to create a raised effect. De-bossing would stamp the paper from the front in order to create a sunken effect. If the embossing or de-bossing does not touch ink or a foil, then it is referred to as "blind" embossing. Should it touch ink, or have a foil on top of it, this is referred to as "registered" embossing or de-bossing.
I Don’t Need A Printing Company, My Marketing Is All Online. WRONG!
“The problem is not the medium, the problem is the message, and the fact that it is not trusted, not wanted, and not needed.” This is the view of the noted Prof. of Operations & Information at the famous Wharton School of Business. "When I am online, looking for information, the ads are in the way and I block them out." Bill Thompson on BBC News
The fact also is that much of the advertising dollars spent on internet advertising fail. Just look at the Face Book IPO and the further fact whereas they have lost major advertisers who were able to see, or more to the point not see any worthwhile results for their online expenditures. I have found other online properties from experience to also be a waste of money. Yes, there are ways of making online marketing (not advertising) work for you but the problem with that is one must also be or become a social marketing expert, which is still a new phenomenon to many companies. You can hire expensive “so called” online marketing specialists and there are good ones out there as well such as ZD Design out of San Diego, but as a rule you can count on; don’t trust or put any faith in SEO or online marketing gurus when your product or service depends on it as it still is like the wild west out there as it pertains to that crowd. Don’t get me wrong, social bookmarking has its place as part of the branding process and making Google happy as you show off page “relevance”, but the impact is just not the same nor as predictable as print. There still are many reasons to hire a commercial printing company in order to get your message out for your products and services and the results, unlike when you gamble with online advertising or overly depend on social bookmarking. Let’s take a look at some of them: Cost Effectiveness: With printing vs. online advertising in a head to head, printing wins hands down. If you had the money to wage both campaigns at once your new motto would inevitably become; “have you hugged your printing company today”? In order to have online advertising work you need tons of traffic and tons of traffic means spending tons of your money. It is far easier to wage smaller test campaigns or campaigns in general with the help of your printing company than to do the same on the internet. To give you an idea of the cost of an ad on Google Ad Words, it would cost you $14.00 per click to be on page one in Google for the phrase “Catalog Printing”. If you use the direct marketing adage of 2 percent return on your efforts, 100 clicks or hits would cost you $1,400.00 and 2 percent return would be 2 catalog customers and that is $700.00 off the top of the catalog printing by the printer. That is not a very cost effective way to do business, especially in my view, that this would be for a shorter run catalog with minimal profit, as the more sophisticated and larger run buyers are going to opt for searching for and discovering a company’s website from an organic placement. Organic listings have always implied a better quality of search rather than a paid for position in my opinion. Printing and Direct Mail: Here is an area where you can depend on the tried and true with a printing company that also offers direct mail marketing. With printing and mailing you can target your audience based on many different types of demographics from buying habits, income, location, industry or simply saturate a few carrier routes within one zip code. Targeted marketing allows you to really pin point which your buyers are and unlike online advertising, the 2% return has been verified over decades of success. Also the more you target your audience the more this percentage increases.
Age Of Reader: While readership is not as high as it once was among younger readers printing your message still works when aiming your advertising in their direction. The quality of the printed ad or printing and direct mailing is perceived to be of higher quality content that similar on the net. The bottom line; any scammer can have a website. As the audience becomes older tradition kicks in with many beyond their youth years still like the feel of a newspaper of printed magazine in their hands. Many folks read at work and on breaks leave the computer and pick up something in print to read, whether a magazine, book, or newspaper. Lasting Impression, Lasting Use: Lasting Affect: There is a compelling and lasting affect with the printed piece. A magazine, catalog or book will have a lifespan that not only is a long one, but also may pass from hand to hand. There is nothing like reaching behind oneself at the office for a readily handy catalog in order to reference what you need for your business. A well written magazine offers much more in depth information about a subject than an online advert. Many advertisers, although not touting it in their rate schedule, will let you know through the sales person, that an article can be had along with their paid advert. With commercial printing, the magazine, book or catalog is also portable. The printed magazine or paper “bookmarks itself” and is available anywhere in the house, office and even the john. Quality Of Content: Too much material that is popped out online is never a match for the quality of a magazine, book or catalog from the printing company. The thought, planning and time that goes into the printed piece is far greater than the recent online article or advert. Organized Content: Nothing beats the organized content than a well laid out magazine or even a quality catalog printing in order to allow your products to be presented in the most digestible and sales inducing fashion. This can be done with sections for product or service types as well as tabbing for ease of use and indexing of product or service types. The ease of reference in a catalog or magazine many times is superior to one’s website where the location of items can be confusing and hard to find, or the simple copy of a small and expensive online advert. In the final analysis I believe print wins hands down. Yes, you should hug your printing company as you are getting more “bang for the buck” than with online advertising. However for the purpose of branding; an online presence is of course necessary as an adjunct to the more traditional and time proven ways used over the decades.
Contact Us Now by visiting us at www.pbdink.com as we want to be your printing company.
How To Save Money On Your Next Direct Mail Marketing List Purchase Direct mail marketing is a time proven way to get your message to the audience of your choice. There are decades of stats you can rely on all of which pointing to one thing: an average return of at least 2 percent on your direct mail campaign. While there are many ways you can save money on your direct mail advertising with the printed piece, whether choosing a postcard over a brochure, a catalog vs. magazine, you can also save money on the purchase of a mailing list if you are clear on the purpose of your niche mailing. The main thing that will allow you to better target your audience with direct mail marketing is mailing to pre qualified recipients who would be in the best position to be interested in your product or services. You can utilize lists that can be purchased by either list brokers or direct from companies with a similar clientele yet a non competing one, which would be at the top of totem pole re cost per thousand. While this can give you a better percentage of return it is also the most expensive type of list to buy assuming that it is an accurate one. You can accomplish the same thing at a lesser cost by targeting a similar audience based on demographics. A reasonable priced direct mail list of mailing records/addresses would provide you with the income of the addressee, age, property ownership etc. However the more you narrow down your list and add additional specificity, say all people with a size 8 show, just kidding, the price of the list may go up. The least expensive mailing list to purchase is a carrier route list, without the name of the occupant, which is why you see direct mail in your inbox addressed to “Dear Occupant”. This type of direct mail list features two low cost features; it has the lowest per thousand pricing of all direct mail marketing lists and will provide you with the least expensive postage when you mail your piece. For example, a postcard mailing, or a bulk mailed letter will run you approximately .25-28 cents for a letter or flat up to 3.3 Oz, a carrier route mailing of a postcard would cost you approximately .14 cents. Let’s say you want to narrow your niche direct mail marketing plan to people making over $100,000.00 per year and who own their own homes, as you are selling upscale widgets for homeowners. Do you purchase a direct mail marketing list to include homeowners, making over $100,000.00 or is there a cheaper way to mail to the same person and get the same results? Your choice would therefore in dollars be; mail for almost twice the postage cost and buy a direct mail advertising list for either X or 4-6 times X, yet in either case get the same results? I think you would opt for the money saving methodology to reach the same people with your list and here is how you do it. First you need to understand who you are trying to reach and who is capable or wanting to become your customer. If you do not know this well before you are even considering a direct mail campaign, you had better stop what you are doing and rethink your business model. If you do know who your potential customer base is, the most cost effective way of reaching them and bringing your method to them is by buying an “occupant” list but tailoring it to your requirements. I am sure you do not care if your upscale customer lives in Hollywood or Bellaire, so long as they become your customer. Therefore, Google for “purchase mailing lists” and a ton of companies will come up, although there are only about two providers for all of the resellers of direct mail lists in America. Choose “occupant” lists and review their carrier route selections by zip. If you have an upscale item you will want to choose carrier routes within zip codes that are in upscale neighborhoods such as Beverly Hills, Manhattan From 96th street and south and so on. Within each zip code will be the “carrier route”. The carrier route also known as the walk route is a given smaller territory within a zip code assigned to a carrier(s). Most list brokers will provide additional information in addition to the amount of addresses within a specified carrier route, such as businesses, postal boxes and homes or apartments. If your widget only appeals to homeowners you can either exclude routes that are heavily populated with business and choose residential routes and if a mixed route, since you
only need to mail to 75% of the occupants in order to qualify for “carrier route” direct mail services, you can select a smaller portion excluding the business or postal boxes etc. I will tell you in front, the work to segregate out your requirements can be tedious and a bit time consuming but this can lead to great savings for you on your direct mail marketing campaign, both on postage and on purchasing your list of addresses to mail to. This style of honing down an “occupant” list to meet the requirements of your particular widget that you are promoting is obviously most beneficial to smaller businesses, businesses on a budget or start ups. Contact Us Now by visiting us at Printing By Design in order to find out how you can benefit from our money saving direct mail and commercial printing expertise. Let us be YOUR printing company!
Why Authoring A Book Is Good Business Let’s face it, one of the primary reasons people have a website, give speeches, partake on social networking sites, advertise or market their product or service is to promote their product, service or themselves. Now I am not referring to the authoring of “the great American novel”, text books, history books, or your average library edition when I state that authoring and printing books is a great advantage to the author and his or her product or service. What I am stating emphatically here is that those companies who do have an individual who can author and print a book will most definitely benefit from doing so due to the fact that when people seek the services of a professional, they seek an expert and what better way than to establish your bona fide’s as an expert in your niche or field but to become an author (ity) on your subject through writing, book printing and publishing your work and thoughts on your subject matter. As an example, I have printed for many years for Karrass, whose slogan and book titles refer to “Effective Negotiating”. I am sure you have seen them every time you take a plane ride as they usually have the centerfold within the airline’s magazine advertising their seminars and books. Let’s take a look at how authoring and the printing of books can help you or your company. As an example, if you are selling widgets, you need to make the case on a daily basis as to why someone should purchase your widget vs. the widget of your competitor. Clearly when you author a book you become an “authority” on the subject as you have a tomb to refer to bearing witness to your authority as well as a readily available “book of knowledge” about your widget. Some of the ways in which authoring and printing a book can be of benefit to the author and “his or her widgets” are as follows: Branding: We all know the value of branding and how it helps your business as people are more likely than not to buy or stick with a brand they know and trust. Writing and printing books is a great way to expand your branding and to expand the horizons of your business. Initially there are many non paid speaking engagements to be had with the likes of chambers of commerce at their luncheons, schools, organizations, churches and more who are happy to have a free speaker at their event. However, with a potential success of your book you may find yourself in such demand that the speaking engagements which start out as a vehicle to sell your book at the end of your talk, may turn out to be paid speaking events in the future. Advertising: How wonderful it must be if someone buys your book? You not only get to pay for the book printing, but it serves as free advertising for your business. It is not only free, but because it is a book rather than a simple display advert, it allows you to weave the story of not just your expertise but of the benefits to the reader if they utilize your product or services. Another benefit is that a book unlike an advert, due to the depth of content, can position you for the “back end sale” a traditional fixture of marketing. A “back end sale” is when you buy a product from a TV advert and whether by phone or website, you are offered a great deal on either a part that compliments what you bought or simply to get a second one free for the cost of shipping only. You can, as you are in control of the length of your book, offer “coming attractions” or new additions to your product line or services without the cost of having to advertise them. Reference: By writing and printing a book that you can either self publish or offer it to book publishing companies, you can increase your credibility as well as that of your business. Your book can become, if well written, a reference source for your industry. You can even seek out testimonials for your book from others in your industry. These would not necessarily be your competitors, but your peers in such areas as your supply chain, sub vendors, and the like.
Expert In Your Field: By authoring a book about your niche or field you are quickly perceived as smarter, as well as having an ability to garner customers who seek you out, lessening the need for cold calling or other forms of advertising. Your book can demonstrate your abilities, competence and credibility with you being in control of what is written, thus how you and your product or service are perceived. By authoring and book printing, you become “an authority” on the subject and as I have said before, who better than a customer seeking products or services such as yours, than to seek out the “authority on the subject”. Generate More Profit: Add participants to you seminars and further enrich the profitability of them by having a book to sell at the event. It can become almost circular in a life of its own, as each can generate more success for the other. People can buy your book at the seminar as well as the book becoming a driving force to get people to come to your seminar. Telling Your Story: When you write and print a book, here are a few things you want to be sure to cover in an organized fashion for the reader: Create a great and catchy title, one that the prospective buyer of your book can visualize in a way that it can answer their problem, issue or how it benefits them. On the back cover tell the potential reader why you are in a place to write such a book. Point out your expertise, history in the business or service, and what makes you able and qualified to write about the topic. Make sure you understand your niche and who you are trying to appeal to as well as how they can benefit from doing so. Describe the content and the benefits to the reader as people never want to know what you offer, just how they will benefit if they buy your book. Become the expert by printing your book. Contact Us Now by visiting us at Printing By Design and let us be YOUR book printer!
How Do I Publish Thee My Book, Let Me Count The Ways?
With today’s technology an author has many ways to produce his or her book. In addition to book printing there are electronic publications of many types that can also be to an author’s advantage. Let’s take a look at these technologies, including book printing and how they may serve an author and in particular those authors who self publish. Book Printing: Needless to say, there is not much to say about a topic that many of my blogs have covered on book printing. The most important thing to note is that it is still a necessary component of getting your book published and while there are many other steps in order to disseminate your work, book printing is still the building block to your success. eBook: The eBook is a simplistic digital format that allows the reader to download, store and read a digital file that is very similar in look to the printed page of a book. The most universal file format for this type of publication is the ePub file format. The ePub format can be read on all types of readers from Android to Windows Phone with one exception, the Amazon Kindle, which can read a .txt file format. The very first book, or at least its index ever published as an eBook was Index Thomisticus, the electronic index to the works of Thomas Aquinas, prepared by Roberto Busa beginning in the late 1940s. Some typical readers for eBooks are Amazon Kindle: Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook: Nook 1st Edition, Nook Simple Touch, Nook Color, Nook Tablet, Kobo, Sony Reader and the iPad. Some of the drawbacks of E-books are as follows: They come in many formats thus making them less available across all platforms. With book printing usage of the printed books remain readable for years to come. E-books may need to be copied or converted to different technology which may even use a different file type. Books that are printed can easily be presented as a gift whereas digital ones seem less tangible. Books created by a book printer cannot crash, turn off, generally not have illustrations such as those required for children’s books and the heat from leaving an e-book in an auto on a hot day will damage the e-book but not one from your book printing company. Additionally the resolution of an e-book is lesser than a printed book and may also create eye strain while reading. Flipping Books: This electronic version of the printed page is more sophisticated than the eBook format in that it actually turns a page, as if you were reading a book or magazine, providing the same feel as if you had the printed book in your hands, rather than scrolling. It allows for color, indexing of sections, hyperlinks to your contact information and is also readable on many devices from your computer to smart phone. Additionally many of these applications allow for CD Rom versions and the replication of disks using the same file you create. You also can drop an HTML file on your server so others can read it online. Another nice benefit is the bookmarking feature where the reader can bookmark any page they like for future reference. Electronic Journals: These tend to be scholarly type journals that are generally published in either HTML or as a PDF and published on the web for access by other scholars and educators. They also may be referred to as e-Journals and most are subscription based. Online Magazines or Newspapers:
These are many times referred to as e-zines and may be published as HTML, PDF or Flipping Books. PDF publications: PDF stands for Portable Document Format and as the name implies, with the Adobe Reader it has been for the longest time the most universal and portable document format over all types of devices. It in essence is an image file, but if created correctly can also become an editable file. With the PDF, you can create documents from sophisticated software than many will not have and thus not be able to access and save them in the PDF format and make the same document universally readable. CD-Rom and DVD: While this is an older format, it still is a digital one. The advantage is that it is an easy way to distribute electronic files and publications and it does allow you the space to do so inclusive of images and graphs. Blog: The term blog is a shortening of the original term of web log and it is meant to be a discussion or informational post that may or may not allow for additional third party contributions. It has also been described as a type of online diary. Today blogs can be personal, corporate, educational and usually are done around a specific niche genre such as politics, music or educational. Blogging can be done in HTML or PDF, but most nowadays is done with Word Press types of simplified formats. Mobile Apps: This refers to a software application such as Windows Phone, BlackBerry apps, iPhone or others which allow for electronic transfer of data and documents on mobile phones. Podcast: This is simply electronic files whether ePub, PDF, or streaming video files that tend to be syndicated as a continuing episode on the topic. POD simply stands for Portable Media Player.
In the final analysis book printing is still the preferred technology as not only is there still a large segment of the population who prefer the heft of a book in hand, but libraries and publishers demand the copy from the book printer in hand as the primary methodology for selling books. In fact, you may even damage your chances of ever securing a book publisher should you precede the book printing with the publication of a digital version first. It is not only an issue of affecting the demand of your book but also one of piracy. With that being said what it all amounts to, is that it is in the author’s best interests to proceed along the path of least resistance and the most successful path as well. Therefore establish your book first by contacting a book printing company, hopefully Printing by Design, and arrange for the printed version as the first version. You can promote your book and add to the sale of it by the utilization of electronic versions as well. You may or may not, depending on the circumstances, sell a digital version or simply have excerpts from your book in order to encourage people to buy it.
Calendar Printing As A Branding Tool You have a product or service to sell, but as you live in a large civilization and not alone on some far away planet, you are probably not the only one hawking the same thing. So let’s face it, why you, why your product or service and why not someone else’s? One answer is “branding”. Wikipedia defines a “brand” as “a name, logo, slogan, and/or design scheme associated with a product or service”. Wikipedia further defines “association” as “a connection between two or more concepts in the mind or imagination”. Therefore it is easy to see how when one sees a familiar “brand”, albeit simply the logo or a slogan, one immediately “associates” that logo or slogan with the product or service itself. A classic oldie but goodie is “Where’s the beef” as asked by that wonderful character actor Clara Peller, with the association bringing immediately to mind the Wendy’s hamburger chain simply by the association of the slogan with the product as ingrained in our minds by the commercials: Branding. Now to my point: Calendar printing is a fabulous and inexpensive way to achieve a great branding result for your product or service. It does not matter if you are a manufacturer who has heretofore relied on catalog printing to present one’s products, an author promoting a new printing of books, or the release of a new magazine, branding helps and calendar printing is a cheap way to reinforce your brand image on the public. The fact is that the public tends to buy “brand” products and even when not refer to the brand when purchasing the generic or the rival, such as the “Kleenex” brand or “Google it for search. Think about this: How many marketing vehicles do you know that you only pay for once and it gets your message out all year long? This is one of the best features of calendar printing in order to promote your brand. You can even get a year and a half bang for your buck if you are printing calendars midyear with an 18 month calendar. Calendars also provide the user with a regular reminder about your product or service. Every month the user get’s to see a new and original message created by you for them about your wares. The individual dates can even have little tidbits about the features or benefits of your product or service which may or may not be tied into a given month, but in any event adding more grist to the branding mill. Just think about the end user checking to see today’s date and at the same time getting a message from you extolling the virtues of what you are selling. Calendar printing makes for great promotional gifts. It is a nice way to say thank you to clients, yet at the same time presenting them with a daily reminder that you are there for them and how they can benefit from doing business with you. The percentage rate of purchases made that were influenced by information on a calendar is immense. Industry stats indicate that about ¾ homes or business make purchases resulting from the advertiser who supplied them with the calendars. Not only does calendar printing result in sales, it has the double benefit of creating good will and appreciation for the supplier by the one receiving this free gift. If your calendar is on someone’s wall there is also the additional benefit of it being in the view of other potential customers as they pass by and view it. It is like a magazine that gets passed around after the reader is through with it. You can think of it as the “gift that keeps on giving-TO YOU!” Imagine, your company calendar promoting your brand, bringing you sales and good will and at the same time being a piece of functional art. What better and more cost effective way than this to promote your brand and your business?
It Takes More Than “Eye Candy” To Design For Magazines, Catalogs Or Books When you present your files to a printing company for a magazine, catalog or book, do you get them rejected? Are you told they are not print ready files? Do you seem pre press charges mounting for your employer or graphic design client that are causing you grave embarrassment? If so, it is clearly because you do not understand the differences between designing for magazine and catalog printing to that of a desk top graphic or web graphic. Just because it looks pretty, does not guarantee you that it will not look ugly on paper. Graphic designs to be utilized by printing companies differ greatly from any other format and there are things the graphic designer must learn as well as ascertain from the printing company prior to handing off files. Let’s review the things you need to know: Print Ready Files: This means that your files are ready for the pre press rip and they do not need to be touched, fixed, altered or meddled with in order to make them work on press if they work at all. Therefore let’s assume they are fine and work from the last stop on the train. Before handing off your files to the magazine printer ascertain whether they can work from native files, web printers do not, or at least will charge you extra for the privilege. Thus, if you are offering a PDF file for the work you must ask of the pre press department at the printing company, what type of PDF they want. They may prefer an older version or an eclectic version but something that will be very specific to their rip. Before you make your PDF, ask “what type of PDF”, their rip takes. Also, do not send in individual pages as it will take longer to rip and assemble and you will be picking up extra charges for this failure. One file for the entire doc is best unless you are having trouble uploading to their FTP. Send the cover as a separate file. If you must break up the files in order to upload, do so in even signatures, 16/32/48 or 64 page sections depending on how big your catalog or book is. Color Formats: Magazine or catalog printing uses the CMYK format. Many designers still send us files with either RGB color formatting or some Pantone or other colors still in the files. Before making your PDF use your utilities feature to ferret out the non CMYK colors. If not two things may happen; 1-the default in the rip gives you a color different than the one you intended and 2-you may have artifacts in the printed image that you did not intend to have their at all. RGB is not a printing format. Pantones are, but if more than two you are asking for trouble if you do not convert to CMYK if producing a small job on a small two color press or unnecessary costs for inks and wash-ups on a large press. Creep: This is something that many graphic designers never think of when planning a job. If a down and dirty throw away, no biggie, but if you are presenting your talent in order to design something nice, “don’t be a creep, and plan for creep”. Creep is what happens when you fold and refold paper. As you fold the spine takes up room and makes the successive panels smaller and smaller in the width. So if you have a catalog or brochure with several panels and it is a roll fold, every time you fold a panel over your will make the next one thinner, by about 1/32nd of an inch. Therefore if you do not want half of a panel for your front cover, following many folds, plan your brochure or catalog from the finished size. Deduct 1/32nd of an inch to the size of each panel as you go inwards towards the final inside panel. This may vary depending on your paper choice, which also tells you get some samples and score and fold them to be able to visually judge the fold and adjust for the creep. Panels or Sections: Aside from being concerned for the creep if you are doing a roll fold with a number of panels, you want to make sure your panels fold neatly and cleanly and look even. It is highly advisable to put fold marks above and out of the image
area where each panel is to fold. Print out your piece and fold it. You would be surprised how many so called designers never make a dummy of their piece and just hand over files to the printing company and hope for the best or simply be oblivious. Images: Images can be problematical on two fronts. Your desk top printer and your computer screen and the URL’s you view are all in the RGB color format. Secondly, the resolution of a screen image is about 5% of the quality needed for commercial color printing. 72 x 72=5184 dots per inch which is fine for the web. Since the average magazine or catalog is printed with 300 dpi images, that amounts to 90,000 dots per inch which is a far cry from 5i84 dots. Therefore if you do not want your images to look washed out or have a shift in your intended color, you must convert to CMYK and then color correct your files as is appropriate to your piece. If you do not use the correct resolution and use web images, be prepared for a giant blur. Bleeds: Contrary to what some graphic designers think, a bleed edge is not created on press. It is created by the ink going beyond the trim area and then trimmed back so that you wind up with a clean edge, cleaner than possible if depending on the press alone. The bleed is created by extending any color that bleeds beyond the crop mark on ALL sides. If sheet fed, an eighth inch is fine and if web printing, a quarter inch is the norm. Image Area: If you were designing a web site or even just typing a letter, you would not extend copy or images to the very edge or near edge of the page as it will look horrible. The same holds true for commercial printing. In addition to the look of the page there is also the safety of the magazine printing job that is at stake as web presses have some jiggle as the roll of paper feeds through the printing press. Therefore you risk cutting into relevant copy or images if you do not pull back to a safe area on the page. Sheet fed presses and heat set web printers are OK with all that does not bleed to be a quarter inch from the trim edge. Book printers prefer as much as 3/8 of an inch as they usually are printing books on older cold set web printing presses and they have more jiggle. Spine: Anything perfect bound has a squared off spine and like any other panel needs to be adjusted for bleed and of course page count. Before creating your spine, whether as a printer spread, with the back cover to spine left and front cover to spine right, ask your printer about the spine width based on your paper and page count. The spine, just as any other section of the printing job requires bleeds on all four sides. Paper: Get paper samples in advance. Paper can affect not only the look of your job but the bindery portion as well. Know that offset uncoated stocks will not have images as sharp as dull or gloss coated paper stocks due to the fact that the polished coated stocks allow the ink to sit on top while the uncoated paper allows the ink to sink in a bit and thus spread. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid, as they say in the world of computers. Do not overdesign for print as you will only make it harder to end up with a quality catalog or magazine. An example of this is to have a spine that can allow for some adjustment in
the fold. You would want to have the same color background if possible or at least a gradation of the spine color to the covers allowing for it should you have misjudged the spine width. There are many things to learn in order to design for the world of printing and these are only a few. If you are coming from anywhere else but a design for print background it will be massively important for you to learn what the printing company requires so you can incorporate all needed into your designs and have something that is not only eye candy but brain food for the press as it prints.
How Do I Choose Between A Web Printing Company & Sheet Fed? You have a book, magazine or catalog to print and you are not sure which printing company may suit the job best. Rather than spin your wheels calling willy-nilly or Willy the printer blindly, your time would be better spent if you understood the differences between commercial web printing and commercial sheet fed printing. Therefore let’s do a comparison of the two technologies in order to see the advantages or disadvantages of each printing company technology as it would benefit you with magazine printing, catalog printing, book printing or other types of commercial offset printing. I will also point out that in today’s commercial printing there is virtually no difference in quality between either type of press, when running the newer and well maintained printing presses. There are many reasons to choose either web printing or sheet fed and while we can look at many of them here, the first and foremost reason to choose web printing is quantity. Web printing presses print from large rolls of paper and at a much faster impression rate (a signature moving through the press), than a sheet fed printing press. However since the web printing presses are much more costly to purchase, own and run than sheet fed, the startup costs for a printing job will be much more and thus requiring a much larger quantity to amortize those costs over the run. Therefore we will review quantities and page count first. Run Quantity & Page Count: The quantity of your magazine, book or catalog that you want printed, along with the page count will dictate where your money will go furthest. This also depends on the nature of the press and the printing company. Some down and dirty newspaper presses may quote jobs of as little as a couple of thousand publications and with a minimum page count of 8 or 16 pages. Others, especially the more costly heat set web printers, with their more costly start ups, may start at 10,000 finished magazines or catalogs with a minimum of 32 pages, especially if they are running a double 16 page (32 pages) printing press. Book printers may segue from digital to the web press with as little as 500 books. Therefore there is no starting point as a general rule, but hopefully this gives one a reasonable yardstick depending on the nature of your project. Page Size: Unless you can be flexible with the size of your magazine or catalog printing, should your page size not be suitable for a web press, you will be printing on sheet fed equipment. As web printing companies print from roll paper stock, there are far less choices of paper sizes available to the web printer. Therefore if you cannot swim downstream with some typical sizes, such as 8 3/8 x 10 7/8” (many newer presses have a 10.5” height cut off), 6 x 9”, 5 3/8 x 8 3/8” or the larger half or full tabloid sizes similar to your local newspaper, you may not be printing cost effectively. Sheet fed presses can offer more sizes as there are many more sheet sizes available to them to run through the sheet fed printing press. Paper Stocks: There are far more paper styles that are available on a sheet fed press, such has cover grades that are heavier than 9 pt, high end stationary or other branded stocks, a wider variety of recycled stocks as well as heavier grade coated and uncoated stocks. Web printers generally are set up to print standard periodicals using standard and generally thinner stocks then sheet fed presses. On a sheet fed press, the lightest stock that can be run is 60# coated or 50# uncoated papers. Webs can run 27# news, 32# coated etc. Also the higher runs, where cost is a major factor with paper being half the cost of the job, most print buyers for magazines, catalogs or books want to use the lighter stocks. Bindery Options: If your bindery options are standard folding and binding, one reason to be on a web press is that much of the binding and sometimes even die cutting, gluing, UV coating and more can be inline. As Henry Ford discovered with the Model A,
anytime you can produce printing in line, as a one stop assembly line process, your cost goes down. Since at the very minimum, web printing provides with the press signatures coming off the press folded, this precludes the need for folding and collating offline which must be done by sheet fed printing companies. In the final analysis, if you are shopping price and your magazine, book or catalog has sufficient run quantity and standard page sizing you will be best served seeking a web printing company. Should your ultimate goal be to make a “fashion statement� with a printing job that is very unique and eclectic, so that when it hits the end users desk, providing the quantity is not too large, you stand out in the crowd? Please remember Printing By Design for all of your printing requirements whether a sheet or web printing fit. We will save you money and at the same time provide you with the quality you seek.
Magazine Printing As A Capitalist Tool There are many ways to market one’s business and in this economy it is important to be aggressive. Those who are not may fall by the wayside and you could be one of the ones standing there at the end of the day once the economy turns. While there are a variety of ways to market your business a fun one is magazine printing. Your own company magazine could be just the ticket to get out your message or disseminate your product information. Catalog printing is fine but imagine how much sexier your product line would look in your own company magazine, and the fun you could have with each issue as you talk about your product, its uses, with testimonials from users, more casual photos and more. One nice thing about today’s technology is that printing magazines does not need to be done in such large numbers. You can scale your quantity to the size of your customer base. This means you could print a magazine today at a cost effective price for only a few hundred copies using the latest digital technologies or move it up the ladder of quantity with sheet fed or web printing depending on the scope of your business’ reach. Magazine printing can get your message or product info out in a way that would be more enjoyable to the reader, who may come to look forward to your next issue much more than your next catalog. You can keep things simple and have a magazine with as little as 8 or 16 pages. Some of the software on your computer, such as Office with Publisher, an inexpensive program, not loved by printing companies, but sufficient if you learn how to use it properly. This way you can use your entire staff as writers, photographers, editors, sales force and so on by delegating the specific areas to specific employees. The benefit to them would be some editorializing about themselves and thus seeing themselves and their story in print. Not only does your company magazine serve as a marketing tool, but also as a fun item for your staff. If your company, as many are, is invested in community service, you can also devote a section to your philanthropic endeavors. This not only serves to get more people involved there but shows off your company in the best of ways. Unlike catalog printing, magazines, assuming they are published on a regular basis and may contain many less pages than a catalog, serve as a way of updating your customer base on any changes in your product line or services. Another benefit is that it will help with your companies branding efforts as you are more regularly putting your image out there. You can include coupons to promote a new product at a discount and even include some coupons for local businesses in your area, which could help pay for your venture. It would even allow you to distribute your magazine through their businesses, providing your company and its products or services with another marketing venue. You can also run contests and reward your staff when they achieve something notable with a write up about that employee’s accomplishments. Therefore why not break from the mold and consider magazine printing as a great new “tool” in your tool box of promotional venues in order to “kick it up a notch”, as Emeril the chef would say. Your customers will love it, your staff would too and mostly your wallet may be the happiest of all when you print a magazine and the increased clientele you will garner for your business from it.