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I've been around the knife world for a while, and based on my personal experiences, there is no doubt in my mind that for the average custom maker, advertising in any of the knife mags is at best non-effective, and at worst a horrid waste of money. That is partially because the majority of subscribers are makers themselves. (the results for somebody like Alex may differ greatly, because most of the magazine subscribers being knifemakers, are looking for the items he supplies)
I my early years I advertised in all the Mags of the time.....Blade, Knives Illustrated, Knife World, and the now defunked Fighting Knives.
I NEVER received an order as a direct result of the advertisement in a magazine. I have however, receive my fair share of orders when I, or one of my knives appeared in an article within the magazine, and was advertising with that magazine at the same time. (I always ask customers how they found/chose me.)
The magazines KNOW that advertising by makers isn't effective. It is a mechanism to generate revenue for the magazines. How do I know this? Let's just say that I keep in contact with key people on most of the magazine staffs. Another indicator is the "trade off" that all of the magazines make. That trade off is that those who spend the money on advertising are given the ink within the magazines.
About a year ago I was working on exposure, and called each of the magazines, and asked the question "Hey, it's been a while since I've had a photo in your magazine....what does it take to get published with you?"
Without fail, the immediate responses I got from each was... "How much have you spent on advertising with us over the past year?"
In one instance the individual had a somewhat snotty attitude and I asked "So, your telling me that in order to get any photos in your magazine, I need to be a paid advertiser!?" "Sounds like Blackmail to me." I was told..."That's the way the game is played."
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to paint the magazines as doing anything underhanded, they are simply looking out for their own best interests, but it does illustrate where the printed magazines fit into the over all scheme of things these days....which is WAY down the ladder in terms of "bang for the buck".
Look at all the knife mags these days....they are filled with ads, mainly from knife companies, and if you're observant, most of those advertisers are contained within the few actual articles that appear within the mags. Furthering the notion of "pay to play".
There was a time when I subscribed to ALL of the major knife publications, mostly to keep up on trends, but after I realized that the magazines only cater to those who spend the most money on advertising, I also realized that they were attempting to "set" the trends for their best advertising customers, rather than be objective. Right, wrong, or indifferent, that just rubs me the wrong way. Besides I realized that I would look at the magazines while walking back from the mailbox, throw them under the coffee table, and wouldn't look at them again until my wife would say.... "What are you going to do with that stack of magazines.
Guess I got a bit off course Alex. More to the point.....I view any form of advertising just as I do a knife show. To be considered successful, it must pay for itself, and in my experience that just does not happen for the average knife maker where printed magazine ads are concerned.
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