Magazine startups are expensive August 23, 2006
Posted by Niels in : Magazine , 1 comment so farAs I do more research into the launch procedure for a startup magazine, it has become more and more apparent that raising the capital to do this right is going to be difficult, if not impossible. We have a few aces in a few holes that we can pull out, but we’re crafting Launch Scenario, Plan B just in case.
Ideally, we would have somewhere between $500,000 and $5 million to launch our magazine. That would allow us to do things right, with focus groups and direct mail tests, and thousands of subscribers across the nation.
More realistically, we will likely have no money from venture capitalists, who aren’t willing to wait the five years it takes for a magazine to become profitable. Hence, Plan B.
Plan B involves a lot of hard work and a lot of risk. We can’t afford to test on focus groups, so we’ll have to trust our gut instincts. We can’t afford to hire a magazine designer, so I’ll be learning Quark. We can’t afford to hire a circulation consultant, so we’ll have to learn the intricacies of direct mail marketing ourselves. If all this flies, we can get by on a shoe string until the very last minute when we’ll need a few hundred thousand dollars for the direct mail subscription campaign.
It’s going to be exciting.
Your thoughts?I’m a dating coach! August 21, 2006
Posted by Niels in : Dating coach , 2 commentsNext weekend is the Art of Attraction workshop in New York and it’s official - I will be a field instructor! That means I’ll take one or two students with me to a bar, do a couple demonstrations, and then spend the rest of the evening helping them have fun flirting with girls! I’m really excited.
Part of the reason this is such a big deal is that it says something about how far I’ve come. In the last nine months, I feel like I’ve become a whole new person: confident, fun, and social. The fact that the other instructors trust me as a field instructor is a huge vote of confidence. It says that I really have changed, that it’s not all in my head.
My sister will be coming up for the workshop also. She’s always been the social one in the family, and she’s been very supportive of me as I tried to play catch up. She’s looking forward to seeing the new me, too. To be honest, though, she’s more excited about the fact that she’ll get to be one of the “girl practice” girls.
On the last day of the workshop, we bring in girls for the students to practice talking to. At this point, the students have already done a few nights of bar hopping, so they should be feeling pretty comfortable and confident. They get to practice their approach on the practice girls, and afterwards the girls give feedback. “It was kind of intimidating when you stood that close.” “You’re so funny!” “I felt really comfortable with you.” My sister, the beer spokesmodel and bartender, is totally fired up for this. She’s wanted to be a practice girl ever since I started interning at AoA and told her about it. I’m thrilled that she’ll be there, too.
Your thoughts?A long day August 20, 2006
Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a comment- And in Barnes and Noble
- DSW
- Whole Foods
- Starbucks…
- pretty sure Mystery doesn’t shop anywhere else
Nipple rings hurt when they get ripped out August 19, 2006
Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a commentIt has come to my attention that this blog is number 63 out of 5,270,000 results in a Google search for “nipple ring”. I don’t know how that happened. This blog is not about nipple rings. That said, I feel I owe a story to those unfortunate readers who arrived here assuming otherwise.
I had a male friend in college with both nipples pierced. I was always squeamish about piercings. I imagine myself fast asleep, getting a nipple ring caught in the sheet, and then rolling over. Owww…
But my friend would just laugh and tug on his. They were in there pretty solid. Not going anywhere. Until one day, when he was playing volleyball, went up to block, and got one of them stuck in the net. He jumped with two nipple rings, but landed with one. I should emphasize that this is no urban legend, word-of-mouth, friend of a friend story. I saw the bloody stump. It was a week later, after my friend finally reemerged from his room after seven days of continuous drinking. But it was not pretty. (You know how snakes’ tongues are forked?…)
And that is why I will never get a piercing. That’s not the story that made me throw up from laughing, though. For that, you’ve gotta ask me in person.
Your thoughts?Laundry day August 18, 2006
Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a commentHaving to walk half a mile to the laundromat makes me appreciate the washer and dryer in my house in Berkeley. Here I have to schedule laundry day according to the weather. It’s like I’m living in frontier days. Then I come home and write in my blog.
Your thoughts?