Starting an online Space Magazine in the trillion-dollar space economy is an excellent work-from-home career. The content you chose will decide your niche for the space economy. The need for information (content) in the new Space Economy is growing daily. In 2015 with the success of the first reusable rocket the space economy is expected to triple, to over a trillion dollars in less than ten years.
After deciding on a niche (topic) for a new space publication you should then prioritize your time. Different publishers have different priories so they cannot be listed in any order. You decide what your priorities are.
How a magazine looks affect readership. Most everything is done by artist rendition since not too many publishers are astronauts currently certified to enter space. For a hundred dollars you could buy some copyrighted images to get you started at places like 123rf or Shutterstock just don’t forget to use the copyright info when in use. Since this is an online publication there are no printing costs.
Publication Content as a publisher you will need to decide what you will and will not include in your online space publication. As a space publication, there won’t be much use for articles on guns and politics Links to several or many military commands with constant tributes to fallen heroes could overwhelm a common audience with grief. Space disasters, project failures, misinformation, and disinformation about the space economy can turn off a member from returning. Stay positive until you have a feel for what your audience enjoys.
Content or finding a niche is one of the biggest obstacles to getting started. The space economy is too broad a niche. The space economy is global and the activity is worldwide participation. It wouldn’t seem feasible if one person could know everything about the space economy. A more focused niche such as a single space ship, space station, satellite, or rocket would be more useful. Try not to pick a niche that will be outdated in a few years or replaced with new technology relatively soon unless you plan to keep your niche updated.
As a publisher, you will also have to look at timely and controversial subjects. Most magazines are published monthly so very timely articles are hard to cover and best left to newspapers. Controversial subjects can bring in a strong readership as they won’t have such wide coverage. But, being controversial, you also stand to lose readers who don’t agree with the article. As the publisher and editor (unless you hire someone to do this), you will have to decide what you should and should not run.
The cost of the publication of an online magazine includes many things. SEO, SEM, Domain, Hosting, Bandwidth, and advertising are a few online obstacles. Rules of thumb don’t pay for it until you need it. You can write all your own content at first. There are plenty of content writers for bloggers. You should also consider YouTube and other social media platforms.
Other costs and considerations, like distribution costs to think about before starting an online magazine. What format will your magazine be in? Will it be HTML, PDF, an E-book, or plain text? Is it downloadable and printable? Will it be emailed out or posted online? Is your publication Monthly or Bi-monthly?
Profits from your magazine. Putting together a magazine even a fairly small one is a lot of work. Whether it’s a hobby or business venture it’s always nice to break even on costs. Lots of other people will start space publications and make money and there is no reason why you shouldn’t either. Turning a small hobby into a profitable business or full-time income is a great feeling and becoming a publisher in the space economy is a great niche.
Profits can be made in several ways. Since it’s online there will be no cover charge, there can still be subscribers if you put in a Paywall. Affiliate sales, Google Adsense, Advertising, and product or information sales are a good start.
Along with subscribers, most magazines will also sell advertising. While it will distract from the content of the magazine most readers realize that they are needed to keep the magazine in circulation. The advertising rates will greatly vary depending on circulation, how many copies are produced and distributed, and the target audience, or readership.
If you do go with advertising you need to decide on the edit-to-ad ratio. This will be how much content you have as compared to how much ad space you have. The edit-to-ad ratio will depend on the cost of your publication and how much profit you want to make.
Magazines vary greatly on what they feel is a good ratio. A magazine with a high subscriber rate will go with a small edit-to-ad ratio; this will give readers more content for their pre-paid dollar. A start-up magazine will usually need a higher ratio to cover not having a set subscriber rate. The exception to this rule is the publisher who gets the subscribers built up before putting out the first issue, though this is very difficult unless you have a recognizable name in the area, or spend a lot of money on advertising your magazine.
Your audience: Who do you want the magazine to appeal to? While it would be nice to create a magazine that appeals to everyone this just isn’t going to happen. If you want to target a younger audience you would include more information on careers and gaming. For an older audience, you may want to focus on space history and new trends. Either way, you will probably want to include as much information as you can that will appeal to everyone. General space articles on rockets, satellites, and space stations will attract a wide variety of readers.
Once you decide on the above factors, and probably a few more I didn’t include, you have actually done the magazine, here comes the hard part. If you have the knowledge and software you can do the entire layout yourself.
How do you want the cover laid out? Will it be a photo cover or will you start the text on the cover? Most major magazines have a full-color image on the cover, with feature content titles laid out. A small publication will usually start with text on the cover; this saves a lot of room, more for advertisers, or more
content.
How will the inside be laid out? Even a standard page can be set up very differently. You could have a single page of text and photos, or have columns of text with photos. Most magazines are set up with two or three columns of text, with photos overlapping. Though, I have seen text all the way across wrapping around the photos or with the photos on top or bottom of the article.
Laying out the magazine before getting advertisers can be beneficial to do. While it may mean more work, the ad space you have already laid out may not fit what the advertisers need. This means you may have to redo the layout. If you are paying someone to do the layout make sure they know the layout may change. If you are doing the layout yourself then be prepared to put a lot more time into the design aspect.
As I mentioned above setting up the magazine yourself may be to your benefit, here’s how. With a fully laid-out magazine, you have something to show potential advertisers to let them see what you have planned and that you are serious about putting it out. While you can print this mock edition on your computer, even a decent home-printed one will help to draw the advertisers in.
Advertisers will look at the subscription rate above all else. A smaller 1000 distributed copies won’t appeal near as much to advertisers as a larger 10,000 subscribers. They will also ask you about the distribution of the publication. Where do you plan on selling the magazine or finding subscribers?
When looking for places to distribute your magazine look to bloggers and Vloggers as good places, Backlinks to your articles. Also, social media groups and clubs have focused readership on numerous subjects.
This is by no means a full description of how to put out a space or any other type, of a magazine. As you start you will find various other aspects that I didn’t cover here. A full step-by-step procedure would require a lot more time and space than I have for this one.
If, after all this, you still want to put a magazine out I suggest starting small. 500 to 1000 or so subscribers or members will be fairly easy to put out and will teach you the ins and outs of what it takes.
Good Luck
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