By James Plouf

Have you ever read a story in the newspaper that was about you or about something that you were deeply involved with?

I used to read newspapers and think that everything in them was accurate. I guarantee you, if you read a story that covers you then you will get a taste of just how inaccurate newspapers tend to be. They make stuff up and get all the facts wrong. The only time I get to fact check a story is when it is about something that involves me. I do not trust what is written in the newspaper. At least on a blog if I write something that is factually wrong you can bet someone in the comments is going to point it out.

They say that the information in the newspaper is only worth as much as you paid for the issue. In my town it’s 50 cents.

Has anybody else had this experience?

By James Plouf

No surprise here (at least not for me). The latest circulation data for the top 25 daily newspapers shows steep declines for all but one newspaper. That lucky guy is the Wall Street Journal. And let’s not get all excited. It was less than 1% increase.  The other 24 were all down. USA Today was down a staggering 17% (ouch). I personally have not read a newspaper in years.

For a bit of good news, here is a list of the top circ gainers. Don’t get too excited. These are all tiny pubs not in the same league as the big daily papers

Here is the complete list as published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL — 2,024,269 — 0.61%
USA TODAY — 1,900,116 — (-17.15%)
THE NEW YORK TIMES — 927,851 — (-7.28%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES — 657,467 — (-11.05%)
THE WASHINGTON POST — 582,844 — (-6.40%)

DAILY NEWS (NEW YORK) — 544,167 — (-13.98%)
NEW YORK POST — 508,042 — (-18.77%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE — 465,892 — (-9.72%)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE — 384,419 — (-14.24%)
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER — 361,480 — N/A

NEWSDAY — 357,124 — (-5.40%)
THE DENVER POST — 340,949 — N/A
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — 316,874 — (-12.30%)
STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS — 304,543 — (-5.53%)
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES — 275,641 — (-11.98%)

The PLAIN DEALER, CLEVELAND — 271,180 — (-11.24%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS (e) — 269,729 — (-9.56%)
THE BOSTON GLOBE — 264,105 — (-18.48%)
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS — 263,810 — (-22.16%)
THE SEATTLE TIMES — 263,588 — N/A

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — 251,782 — (-25.82%)
THE OREGONIAN — 249,163 — (-12.06%)
THE STAR-LEDGER, NEWARK — 246,006 — (-22.22%)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE — 242,705 — (-10.05%)
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES — 240,147 — (-10.70%)

Are we starting to get the picture here? When a ship sinks you jump off it.

By James Plouf

You might have heard about the demise of Gourmet Magazine. So what happened? Why does a magazine with nearly 1 million circulation decide to call it quits? The answer is in the first derivative.

I don’t want to get into a long calculus lesson but the rate of growth of Gourmet Magazine was a clear signal that things were not good and only would get worse. Even if the magazine was growing (which I am not sure it was) the rate of growth showed a clear trend that it had hit a wall. That is what the first derivative tells you. It was slowly dying. Advertisers knew this information which resulted in a 46% decline in ad sales (ouch!). They saw the ship sinking and jumped off in masses.

In the video below Gary Vaynerchuk (hater of traditional media and lover of new media) gives a ‘no-holds barred’ take on Gourmet Magazine and its advertisers. The take-away her is that ad agencies need to stop screwing over their clients and spend their money more wisely on advertising that is cheaper, more effective and can be tracked. Not all ‘BIG BRANDS’ get it yet — but they will. And you can be positioned to take advantage of this mind-shift.

I like it when Gary says that magazines will be replaced by lean, entrepreneurial three person teams. I could not agree more.

Gary Vaynerchuk comments on Gourmet Magazine

I was going to make my own video on ‘How to Install WordPress on a Webhost.’ Guru blogger Yaro Starak has already done such a good job that I found it better use of my time to just post his video.

Check it out and don’t be scarred. This is fairly easy stuff (so far).

If you like Yaro’s stuff then I highly recommend that you grab his free report.

You can download it here.

I just received my latest issue of ITN (International Travel News). This is the magazine that inspired me to start my own magazine 12-years-ago. Back then, before the Internet put the ‘death-grip’ on print publications, the magazine (ITN) rolled in a whopping 250+ pages.

ITN is a strange pub. Most of the content is generated by the readers. Hence, most of the content is (from a journalism standpoint) CRAP! The design is awful. It’s black and white and printed on something slightly better than newsprint. Now that I have totally trashed the magazine let me tell you what they have done right.

They have maintained a loyal following of readers. ITN is really a travel social network in a form of a magazine. Maybe social network is a bit of a stretch but it certainly could be compared to a BBS. They had an amazing following and could have easily turned the magazine into an Internet powerhouse. But they didn’t. They put their heads in the sand and wished that the problem went away. Now my issue is a measly 88 pages. I give this magazine one more year before it goes out of business. They are on their 404th issue. Oh, another thing they did really, really well: They got their advertisers tons of response. I’m guessing that is no longer the case. I bet their circulation has stayed strong but their advertising (which drives pages in the pub) has gone down drastically.

Here’s why…

Tracking. It is hard to track an ad in a magazine. Before the Internet companies counted calls from an ad. Now every ad has a website. So, every reader goes to the website and the magazine is not credited with the lead they generated. That makes it difficult to resell ads. Online advertising is 100% trackable.  I compare it to a ‘video game.’ Put money in one end and see what comes out the other. Split test and repeat. Anyway, I’m getting off topic. The point is that print is dying and writers need to rethink how they are going to make a living in the travel space.

Do you want to spend all your time trying to sell features to ‘sinking ships’ ?

It’s time to reinvent yourself.

Watch the video screencast for a step-by-step tutorial of how create your first blog.

[flv]http://c0139201.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wordpress-screencast.flv[/flv]

Creating a blog on WordPress is free and you’ll get to experiment with the admin which is exactly the same for a self-hosted WordPress blog. Trust me. This is the first step. You can do it now or you can do it later. But, you will be learning this sometime in your future. Better to get a head start on this stuff before you are in a rush.

===> Get a FREE copy of Blog Profits Blueprint <===

This video explains pretty well how to really make money from a blog. It’s basically the same formula/tools I have seen many bloggers use.

My Blog Business Model from John Chow on Vimeo.

By James Plouf

I highly recommend that all writers register their real name as an Internet domain name. I’m sure you’ve seen this already when you get an email from a friend and it’s something like info@jamesplouf.com. They have that fancy email because they took the 5 minutes and about $8 it requires to register a domain name. So, take a few minutes and invest a few dollars and protect your name on the Internet. If you are thinking about starting a blog then you’ll want to have a registered domain name. I will cover in future videos how to setup web hosting with this domain name and install WordPress.

Watch this video to see how easy it is to register a domain name.

[flv:http://c0154601.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/domain-reg-flv.flv 600 450]

Click here to see if your domain name is available.

Here is the coupon code for GoDaddy:  cjc749fat- $7.49 .COMs (exp 9/30/09)

Never pay full price for Godaddy services. Always search for a coupon online.

Here is my recommendation for preferred domain names:

jamesplouf.com

jbplouf.com

jamesbplouf.com

Then…

james-plouf.com

By James Plouf

I use BlueHost for one of my blogs (DaysTalk.com) and find the interface really easy to navigate. Wath the video and see exactly how easy it is to get started.

Learn more about hosting your blog on BlueHost

I think their beginning packages start at about $7/month.