How to Make a Magazine

These days it seems like there are online and print magazines covering every conceivable topic, issue and group. Magazines can be entertaining, informative and thought provoking. Making a magazine is a lot more involved than just reading one. It takes perseverance, creativity and resourcefulness to create a magazine that will be popular and successful. Here are some guidelines for creating a magazine.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Choose your medium. Magazines used to come only in print form, but many magazines are now published solely online. Choose the medium that you feel best suits your budget and topic. Making a magazine online requires a web page, which can save you printing and circulation costs, but will still require you to solicit advertisers and publishing. Recruiting writers will be different for online publications than print magazines, too.

2. Get good writers. The heart of every magazine is its writers, so hire reliable and smart writers to help get your magazine off the ground. Hire freelance writers or journalism majors. These writers are often just as talented as on-staff writers, but they'll be less expensive to hire because most can be paid per article.

3. Do it yourself. Getting a magazine off the ground can be expensive. Save money by completing as much of the production yourself as you can. Make copies and assemble the first few issues of your printed magazine by hand or format and post the content for your online magazine on your own. Once you're established and can afford to hire printing and webmaster help, hand this work off to someone else.

4. Know your market. Research your target market so you know what your audience wants to read. Check out other magazines with similar topics or audiences. Poll readers to find out what they want in a magazine. If you find out what other magazines are lacking it will be easier to make your magazine successful by filling that void.

5. Find lots of sponsors. Local business sponsors can help you get exposure and circulation for your magazine. Offer discounted or free advertising to bookstores and coffee shops where you can distribute your magazine or online businesses that will link your magazine from their site.

6. Vary your content. Regardless of your magazine's focus, it's important to vary your content and format so readers don't get bored. Include how-to sections, personal experience stories, product comparisons and expert interviews. A wide range of information will keep your readers interested and turning the pages.

Resources

• Get more help with launching your own magazine.
• Check out this article about making a magazine successful.