What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started your own magazine?

One approach would be to (1) Create a website from which your product can be purchased and downloaded; (2) Enable easy social sharing from the website so that happy customers multiply at no cost to you; (3) Market that site through PPC campaigns, targeting relevant search verticals. Basically, you'd be paying a commission to Google and Bing in exchange fore eyeballs on your site. Whether those impressions convert to sales depends on your presentation and (of course) the product itself. Conceivably, you might do all this yourself. But you might prefer to pay (1) A branding consultant / namer / domain broker to select and obtain the ideal domain name to use, (2) A web designer to build the site, (3) An SEM specialist to manage your AdWords and Bing campaigns, (4) A copy writer to craft your landing page sales pitch, improving your sales funnel and boosting conversion rates, (5) A content writer to produce additional articles, (6) An SEO to work on whatever it is they do this month. It isn't strictly necessary to pay for these services, if you're willing to teach yourself. You might accelerate that process and avoid expensive mistakes if you schedule a few short Clarity.fm calls with relevant experts. That's the approach I would use – building a site that functions like a store and advertising online through SEM. This way you can test the viability of your product without having to hire sales staff. Yes, you could try marketing through other channels such as local gatherings of college-bound students or via phone, email, radio, TV, mail, etc. But online you can access a broad range of potential customers with less initial investment in planning, staffing, and infrastructure. So it's a test case. If your product can't sell online in this way, then it may not be worth expanding with those other strategies. Furthermore, this online approach scales very well. If you're profitable while spending X on PPC, then you might grow those profits simply by reinvesting and raising that advertising budget. I offer professional services for #1 (names / domains) and #4 (sales pitch) above, if you're interested. To some extent, I know my way around #3 (SEM); but I don't manage campaigns for clients - only suggest tactics for those who run their own campaigns. Plenty of Clarity.fm experts could run an SEM campaign for you quite well if you'd like to outsource that marketing.

If you are a self-published author, you may want to consider publishing via both options. I just remembered a survey I did with US-based readers when I published my book. I initially wanted them to just be on print versions to hold a special offering for the books. However, 80% of the readers say they rarely read print books nowadays and most of them consider continuing the books via Kindle. Though, one answer struck me the most. One guy said, it's not up to us to decide the definition of "reading." It's up to your audience. So, if you're thinking of publishing your book, it's better of have it either way because the end goal, aside from profit, is having your books read by your audience. Whether it's on kindle, android or live book, they should have the option to choose.

When it comes to writing a book, there's some groundwork that needs to be done beforehand. There are even a few things you need to know before you begin to outline. Every good story is comprised of... 1.) A protagonist 2.) main goal/conflict of the book 3.) multiple tries and fails to accomplish said main goal and overcome main conflict 4.) satisfying resolution There are obviously more moving parts to this outline, but that would take a really long time to get into, and I'd rather have you go watch the video tutorial I did on how to outline a novel since it's free, it isn't too long, and it will break up the process of outlining a novel into actionable steps that make sense and are easy to understand. You're welcome! https://youtu.be/rlQDW9n0NyE

You ask an interesting question. AI is a broad field. Are you planning to specialize or generalize your content? In a world where traditional subscription-based media struggles to stay afloat, you are choosing a risky option to deliver content. I have been in magazine and book publishing for 30 years. Lots has changed in those decades. I have switched to online course creation as an alternative to traditional media. There is a strong trend toward online courses. It is possible to create a valuable newsletter for a target audience. Start by tightly defining your ideal subscriber. You must know who you are creating content for and why. You must be confident you can create highly relevant and useful content unavailable to access freely. What are the benefits to the reader? Use the Minimum Viable Product concept to begin your process. You don't want to invest any more than necessary for an unproven product launch. Consider using the Ask Method to help you determine the viability of the product. Marketing the product is like any other launch. You need visibility and authority. Guest blogging, and media coverage are recommended. Create a website or blog with detailed, authoritative content you can work to get high SERP rankings. Podcasting is another way to build an audience. Researching for audience interest and competitive analysis are also strongly recommended before you launch. Feel free to set up a time for a follow up call via Clarity.

In my experience, CPM ads pay much less than CPC. I think that your issue with AdSense was poor optimization / ad placement. I have a client who had very low CPC with high traffic website, and was making well over $10000 per month with AdSense. Before we optimized his site, with same traffic he was making less than $3000 (which is still pretty good). There may be some good CPM networks out there, but overall, CPC should yield much higher income. What was your RPM (revenue per 1000 impressions) with AdSense?