Start Your Own Adsheet Business

Starting your own ad sheet or sheets is a smart decision to make. Ad sheets can: pay for your mailings; increase the reach of your advertising; and turn a profit. All for only a few hours of work!

First, what exactly is an ad sheet?

If you are on any mail order or opportunity mailing lists, you'll know. Ad sheets range from part of a page to multiple tabloid size publications, full of ads. These ads are placed primarily by other mail order dealers and service providers. Circulation of an average ad sheet ranges from 1,000 to 20,000 and more.

Advertising prices are usually far lower than in a national publication, such as Income Opportunities and Small Business Opportunities. This is because of the lower overhead of the person producing the ad sheet, as well as the lower circulation. But, your ad in an ad sheet will hit mail order buyers, your primary market.

Why start an ad sheet?

Well, here's a good reason. If you divide an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper into three columns the long way, you'll have 30 column inches (3 columns x 10 inches of usual space, leaving ½ inch margins for the printer) of advertising you can sell.

For a circulation of 1,000, the usual ad rate is around $5 for a one inch ad. That's $150 for that page! Printing 1,000 copies would be around, say, $20, which leaves $130 to put toward the cost of mailing it.

If you want an inexpensive way to get your ad sheet mailed, use a reliable print & mail dealer. You'll see them in the other ad sheets you read. You can take care of the printing and the mailing in one shot, for an extremely low cost! Include an ad or two in your adsheet for your products and services on the sheet, and you've given yourself a few extra ads at no upfront cost. But don't stop at 1,000.

Print an extra 1,000. You can increase your ad rates a bit, since your circulation will be doubled.

Scan through the mail order publications you receive, and look for other ad sheet publishers or circular mailers with a code like this in their ad:

X-50-SY.

(X means Exchange, 50 is the quantity, SY means Send Yours.)

They will send out 50 of your flyers if you send out 50 of theirs.

This is Exchange Mailing. Find 20 of these mailers (easily done, there are A LOT out there), and exchange your ad sheet for theirs. Insert one ad sheet into each of the envelopes you're mailing.

Your ad sheet (and YOUR ads, which you inserted on your own sheet) will be seen by an extra 1,000 people for little expense on your part.

How should you set the advertising rates on your ad sheet?

Get on as many mailing lists as you can, so you are receiving other adsheets daily. Pay attention to their ad rates and circulation. You will get a good feel for the current going rates, and yours should fit in. If your rates are competitive with the others out there, you should have no trouble filling your sheet.

As the size of the ad increases, you should discount the rate, usually starting with three inches. In other words, while a one inch ad may be $5, a three inch ad might be $13 or $14. Continue discounting all the way up to a full page, which should correspond to the rate you are charging for full page flyers in your circular mailing ads. (You ARE letting other people's flyers ride along with yours for extra $$$, AREN'T you??

How to get advertisers?

Find the best of the ad sheets you've received in the mail, with the best value (ad rate/circulation) and put a one inch ad in each one. This ad should have the name of your ad sheet, the circulation, the rates, and your name and address, the words "Camera-ready ads, please," plus any other details that will fit. When your ads get out, you will start to receive ads of all sizes in the mail.

Take a sheet of paper and draw two lines, top to bottom, so that you have three columns, each around 2 7/8 inches wide. On another sheet of paper, make a heading for your adsheet with the name of the adsheet, rates, circulation, and your name and address.

Be sure to cut your header out STRAIGHT. Too many ad sheet publishers don't take the time to cut and lay out straight, and it looks really shoddy. Don't make their mistake! Using either rubber cement, "spray-mount" glue, or clear, non-shiny tape, attach the heading to the paper. Then, as the ads come in, attach them in the same way to your page. Use a ruler to keep your ads aligned straight, for a more professional looking ad sheet.

Once your sheet is full, send it to your printer. If you're only doing an ad sheet on one side of your page, put one of your flyers on the back. If you still have more ads, well, continue them on the back! They're money in the bank.

Once you've started one adsheet, start another! One could be for general ads, one for print & mail dealers only, one for multilevel offers only... Use your imagination! Watch the other ad sheets and use the good ideas you find. You'll find it's both fun and educational to publish an Ad sheet!