BF ad in B mag

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May 26, 1999
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I recently saw the BladeForums ad in Blade magazine. It was boring. I took me a long time to find the ad even when I was looking for it. The problem was that it was all words. It was informative, but there was nothing to catch your eye and make it stand out.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to advertise in Blade magazine. I think that most people who are interested in knives enough to read Blade are probably already aware of BladeForums. Looking at the recent survey, I see that only 2.6% of members found BF through the ad and that most members arrived at BF through links or search engines. It may be a better idea to advertise in a hunting or survival type magazine, although Blade ads will remind infrequent visitors that BF exists.

As far as ideas for a different ad go, some kind of graphics are a must. You could use the blue Native with a big "BladeForums" on it, although you probably don't want to advertise specific knife products. You could have some sort of deal with a knife cutting through a keyboard or simply resting on one. A similar idea would be a knife popping out through a computer screen, which I think would look cool.

Of course, you can't go wrong with hot chicks. It's not unusual to look through an entire knife magazine without seeing a single picture of a female, so this old advertizing trick would work especially well here. How about a shot of a buxom blonde from the waist up. She has an exagerated pout on her face and slighty exposed clevage. At the top in bold, large font: "My husband left me!" At the bottom in slightly smaller font: "For BladeForums.com!" Yeah, it sounds cheesy, but membership would sky-rocket!
 
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With the money Mike puts into this forum and the cost of an ad in Blade maybe "a good job Mike" would be more in order then armchairing how the ad should have been done.Everyone has there own ideas of what can be done here but the bottom line is Mike is footing the bill and until people here start walking the walk and contributing to the kitty it is really a moot point to complain. As was said on another thread Mike and Spark have done a damn fine job of building this forum to where it is today and maybe we should start asking what we can do to help so this forum stays as the best knife resource on the internet. I know if this form went south I would be lost without it and I'm sure most of you members out there would be to.
Bob
 
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cerulean - maybe BFC can woo Miss Paragon into doing some ads? LOL

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Dexter Ewing
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Spark

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I think Ceruleans post was meant to be constructive criticism, guys, and we can all benefit from that.

I've heard from people that the ad jumped out at them, and I've now heard that they barely noticed it.

Me personally, I would have liked to have seen it in a section other than the "page's o' ads that we toss in" but then, someone's ad has to go there, right?

Next time though, we will try some more graphics.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
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I have the Christmas issue of Blade. Just got it today. I looked but could not find the Blade Forums ad. Did you all just run it in one issue? Or did I miss it. I know what you mean about he ads being hidden with other ads. I paid extra to be in the editorial section, but somehow I am still surrounded by ads on page 55. Not to happy with my placement, after paying extra. Just came out today though, to early to tell how the advertising will help. I am sure it has probably brought some people to blade forums. I found out about blade forums though from JerryO.

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Lynn Griffith-Tactical Knifemaker
Winner of "Best Tactical Knife" at 1999 PKA show
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We are in the Blade Shoppe section. A 1/3 vertical ad is what I bought. Ya the ad is a bit boring but you know Spark
smile.gif


The next ad we do will be a bit smaller to save $$$ but it will be more graphic.

Kelly Mclusky may pose for us but I am sure Rick Maxwell (Her husband and owner of Paragon Cutlery) may not go for it
smile.gif


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Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
www.wowinc.com

 
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I go to every url. that appears in a knife magazine ad. Bet most computer knife people do.
 
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My previous post was certainly not meant as any type of complaint and I also think that BladeForums is the best thing on the internet. I did want to offer some new ideas, but it seems that you guys are already a step ahead of me. I agree that part of the problem was that the ad got lost amoung all the others in that section of the magazine. Long vertical ads seem to be especially hard to pick out when they're surrounded by other ads. Something smaller and more graphic would probably be a lot more effective.
 
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