SWF Looking for SWM, take charge kind of guy,  that enjoys shopping and watching all 20 Anne of Green Gables movies in succession. I am currently incarcerated. (That last part was for real!)

Now that's entertaining stuff but like candy corns you can only take so much of it. Then I remembered that when I was visiting my Grandmother in Kentucky a lot of places had a free little paper that had some entertaining facts and stories that I enjoyed. The next time I went to visit her I picked up several copies and several different issues which my Uncle saves religiously. He makes sure that he gets every issue. I checked this publication out and asked the publisher about getting one going here. I notice that the focus was quite narrow and seemed to offer very little to the audience. I wanted to use what the publisher had going but change it some to fit our area. The publisher was reasonable until it came to this point. He wouldn't budge on the content. I felt some of it was too extreme so as to offend some or exclude others. He was not flexible however and an agreement could not be reached. In retrospect, I am very happy that this was the case. Little Gems turned out so much better than this publication. It appeals to people of all ages. I get so many positive comments from unexpected sources. My wife was a great help in the creative process and is the proofreader (who JUST started proofreading the online version:) So if you see some typos, email sandy@littlegemspaper.com !

Also I was very inspired by Martin Edelston and the Bottom Line Newsletters. His Mottos: "Seek out those with not just good but authoritative information" and "No advertising" impressed me.

Once I solidified the idea for the paper, I thought I'd check the price of printing, distribution, etc. YOUCH! This reaction put my idea on hold for more than a year.  I could not believe the cost of self-publishing. So now I had to figure out how to make this paper create real value and pay for itself. It had to be free, so I know the readers wouldn't be paying.

ADVERTISERS! They could get the value from my publication and be happy to pay for it!

Then I remembered my experience with purchasing advertising. It was kind of hit and miss. I figured I would have to take the risk out of it and offer the advertisers their money back if the ad didn't work. That’s where the real value part came in! But now I would have to do some more research! More time goes by and finally after years of researching and deciding and planning the first issue came out May 1st, 2003. We were a little late getting the paper to some of our locations but it was finished May 1st!

The Content

I wanted to give some interesting facts and quotes and other items that people could enjoy without getting them  all stressed out! The rest of the media has plenty of controversy and stress. Here’s something you can look at while you are dining out that won’t turn your stomach.

Also I needed to provide for a large audience to help my circulation possibilities, so I came up with the features for kids. I have been to several Hispanic wedding receptions in New York and was amazed at the fact that from age 7 to 87 everyone seemed to enjoy dancing to the same music! Could I also have that same universal appeal in a publication? I hope so. The kid’s features will give plenty for the kids to work on and keep the paper around longer.

Any suggestions along these lines are appreciated. ideas@littlegemspaper.com

Mission Statement

Mission statements were a good idea but they have become so frivolous and meaningless that if you didn’t skip over this section I am sure you are in the minority.

To be sure, we have intentions of making a profit for ourselves. That’s what every “for profit” company’s mission statement should say. But in case you are interested in these things we also have a clearly stated goal of making this a successful venture for everyone and every business involved with the project, from the person who simply agrees to have the papers available in his or her establishment to the advertiser who spends hundreds. It just seems obvious that that’s how it should be, but we thought we’d better state it here for those who are here on this page looking for such information in writing. “In writing” is not such a bad idea by the way. This is something I know after 10 years of being in business for myself. So here it is again: “We want you to get your money’s worth in advertising or you get your money back.” I don’t know why you would care about any other part of our mission statement, because this is really the thing that guides our activities in this venture.

The Advertising

The goal of the advertising department is to sell for our customers. The way I look at it, if you are an advertiser you are hiring a salesman for the time that you are placing the ad. He needs to work cheap. He needs to talk only to the qualified prospects. He needs to get the prospect to call you or come see you to buy if possible. He needs to do something other that just sit there yelling “HEY! Buy this stuff!” If you hired a salesman and he did that you would fire him, as well you should. We want your ad to work. That’s why you bought it. That’s why I want you to have your money back if it doesn’t. If you don’t let us have a say in the ad design, we can’t offer this guarantee but we still may run your ad. We do not run any ads that are so controversial that they would violate our neutral ground that we like to operate from. So that means we have to reserve the right to refuse ads if we deem that necessary. We prefer not to include political ads and ads that promote a particular  religious creed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for you but it is necessary to insure fairness to all. We also reserve the right to refuse any ads that are deemed unsuitable for children, since so much of Little Gems is devoted to children.

To ensure that you get your money’s worth we are offering as much as we can for as little as we can afford to charge. For instance. we wanted to offer multiple streams of advertising. So every one of the 10,000 papers we are distributing is directing people to our website which in turn directs people to our advertisers' web sites or, if they don’t have one, their very own page on our site. Restaurants can put their whole menu on there so people can look at it from their computer. When we advertise Little Gems on other medium such as billboards or radio, our advertisers benefit too since this is an ad for their AD!

If we can work harder as an advertiser, please email me and tell me how we would do that. ideas@littlegemspaper.com

Effective Ads

We want to help with the ads when possible so they’ll work for you. That’s really our business. I think that is the business of all publications and TV shows except for those on public broadcasting. I recently called to place a very expensive one-day ad in a newspaper. The ad saleswoman was kind and considerate. Here’s what threw me: SHE HAD NO IDEA WHAT I SHOULD DO TO GET NOTICED. I asked if she thought this or that feature would be effective in getting people to attend my event. I told her whom I was trying to reach. I asked what section I should advertise in. She asked me which one I wanted to advertise in. So then I asked if she thought a certain feature would be advantageous. She really did not know. I asked which day other than the obvious one was a better deal. She indicated that I would just have to experiment and see. I thought “But you guys have all the data. Don't you know what works? Why don’t you just tell me what I should do?” Then it occurred to me, “She does have the data or her superiors do. They know what works. Maybe they’re not telling me because they don’t want me to know that NONE of it works!” I’m NOT saying that none of it works, but this is what I thought at the time. Now that I am in the business of advertising I have made it my business to make it a priority to know what works and to NOT ask YOU to experiment and let me know. If the ad doesn’t work you get your money back. ‘Nuff said.

Any suggestions along these lines are appreciated. ideas@littlegemspaper.com