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.

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.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

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.

By James Plouf

Se here is the latest release of WordPress. Don’t let the fast pace of the video scare you. WordPress is extremely powerful even using only the most basic functions. Once you learn a bit about widgets and themes you’ll see that WordPress is like a ‘Swiss Army Knife.’ Since it is open source software, 1000s of people are working on ways to make it better and more powerful.

If you want to get started and up-to-speed in a hurry I highly recommend taking an online video course. If I had taken this course in the beginning it would have saved me 6 months of struggling with WordPress and blogging.

I’ve checked out a bunch of these online courses and by far the best one I found was WordPress Wizard 2.0.
It is the only course I recommend to my students.

Right now they are doing a $30 OFF Deal.

*Click here* if you want to get your head wrapped around WordPress (without getting frustrated)!

I have always said that in most projects taking the first step is the most difficult thing to do. If you are new to blogging then getting started might seem like a daunting task.

Nothing about getting setup with your own blog is that difficult. But, there are many little pieces to the puzzle. And, any one of those little pieces can be enough to freak you out and completely derail you from getting to the finish line.

My advice: Pay for a course.

It will save you time and money (no need to repeat mistakes). It will get you to the finish line (if you want to).  These courses are worth the money if you apply the information. They are designed to take you step-by-step through the entire process.

WordPress Wizard 2.0 is made up of six modules that will take you from how to register a domain name to RSS and email marketing.

All the video tutorials were made with the absolute beginner in mind. You’ll never feel like you’re listening to some rambling tech geek.

Once you finish the first two modules, you will be able to get a new WordPress blog up and running. Then you’ll learn how to get traffic and make
money from your blog.

You get access to all 50+ videos at once. There’s no waiting until next week to get the next video. This way you can skip over the stuff you already know and learn the stuff that you don’t.

WordPress Wizard 2.0 is covered by a 60 day no questions asked money back guarantee. If you’re not 100% satisfy with the product for any reason, let them know within 60 days and they’ll send you your money back.

Click here for a break down of what is included in all 6 Modules