ADVERTISING IN HomeCraft's Small Business Journal (HSBJ) HomeCraft's Small Business Journal provides a new medium to reach potential customers in a unique and attention grabbing way. It allows you to place advertising within articles in such a way that the reader can't miss your advertisement. And we'll work with you to place your ad within articles related to your products. Three forms of advertising are available. 1 - Ads Within Articles 2 - Graphic images displayed using a menu option. 3- Text files displayed using a menu option. Examples of all three types of ads are included in this issue of HSBJ. There is a text ad in the 1992 Shareware Author Survey article toward the end of the article in the section listing advice authors have for other authors. The SSS Tapes Ad listed on the menu is a text file ad. And the Organize! software and Writing & Marketing Shareware book ads listed on the menu are examples of graphic images. Keep in mind that this disk may be in circulation as shareware for a long time. The rates listed here are subject to change at any time. After January 1, 1992 please write and request a copy of our current rate card. The advertising rates listed here are introductory rates and are only guaranteed through the end of 1992. However, if you purchase an ad at these rates, we will lock in the rate for a full year. SPECIAL OFFER: Please note that only every other issue of the HSBJ will be released as shareware. When you purchase an ad in any shareware issue you will receive a free ad, of the same type and using the same copy, in the following issue. (There is no discount should you not wish to run the second ad). A 10% discount applies to contracts for ads in three or more issues. We do not offer agency discounts at this time. Please note that ads using graphic images can be cleared from the screen by the reader pushing any key. This provides the reader with the same option they have with a magazine - they can turn the page at any time. ________________________________________________________________ RATE CARD #1 July 1992 ADS WITHIN ARTICLES Text Advertisements We've designed this type of ad to be similar to printed magazine ads. As you read through an article in a printed magazine some of the pages contain advertising. There are two forms of this type of ad. 1) In the HSBJ your ad can be displayed across the lower seven lines of the screen for a minimum of four pages. 2) Your ad can be included within the text of the article. Copy for ext advertisements must be supplied to us on disk. The first form of a text ad contains up to six 80 character lines of information. When displayed the ad is seven lines long, but the top line is always reserved as a header to indicate that the information is an advertisement and is not part of the article. This ad may only contain ASCII characters - no graphics can be included. The per issue cost is: $40.00 The second form of a text ad consists of ten 78 character lines. This form of a text ad must have a box around it, thus the total size of the ad will be 12 lines by 80 characters. There is an example of this type of ad in the "Software You Can Use" article. The per issue cost is: $35.00 We will be adding classified advertising to the next issue. Classified ads will be grouped together in a separate section and each will be ASCII text containing up to five lines of 35 characters each. Each classified ad will cost $5.00. Multiple ads may be purchased to create larger classified ads. Graphics Advertisements In future issues we will offer full screen graphics advertising within articles. The full screen ad must be a single PCX image and it can be placed at any location within the article (Subject to editorial limitations). The graphics screen will be displayed for up to 20 seconds. For information on the types of graphics files that can be included, please see the section on PCX files at the end of this rate card. The per issue cost for a full screen graphics ad is: $200.00 GRAPHICS IMAGES DISPLAYED FROM THE MENU Up to three PCX graphics images can be a part of a single ad. The advertisement for the "Organize! Your Music software" is an example of an ad that uses three graphics images (notice that Beethoven develops a smile). The rates for this type of ad are based on the number of images used and the total time they are on the screen. No ad may be on the screen for more than 45 seconds (on a 386SX with a 16ms hard disk. Running the HSBJ on floppy disks or slower computers may result in the ad remaining on the screen longer). 15 Sec. 30 Sec. 45 Sec. Single Image $60.00 $65.00 $70.00 Two Images $80.00 $85.00 $90.00 Three Images $90.00 $95.00 $100.00 The timing may be varied among multiple images in 5 second increments. For example, image one might be displayed for 5 seconds, image two for 15 seconds and image three for 25 seconds. ASCII TEXT FILES Advertising in the form of ASCII text files may be placed on the menu and displayed in the same manner as the articles. The Summer Shareware Seminar Tapes advertisement is an example of this type of ad. Advertisements using this format must be identified as an advertisement on the opening screen. ASCII text ads may be up to 50K big. In effect you can write your own "article" and speak directly to the readers to tell them about your company, what you offer, and why they should do business with you. The rate for ASCII text ads is: $10 per 1K with a minimum charge of $50.00. We have the right to limit the number of ASCII text ads included in any one issue on a first come first served basis. FRONT AND BACK COVER A single graphics screen advertisement may be included with the opening screens that are displayed when the HSBJ software is started. It will be displayed for a maximum of 15 seconds (the reader may clear it from the screen sooner by pushing any key). A single graphics screen advertisement may be included as the last screen displayed when the reader exits the HSBJ software. It will be displayed for a maximum of 15 seconds (the reader may clear it from the screen sooner by pushing any key). The rate for either the front or back cover is: $200 PCX IMAGE REQUIREMENTS At this time our PCX image requirements are somewhat tight. We are using the Crescent Software Graphics Workshop and it can only display images that have formats that match the characteristics of a screen image. An image scanned at 300 dpi can not be displayed. Scanned images must be scanned at a lower resolution in order for them to fit on the screen. We will be working to improve the HSBJ software to provide more flexibility in the future. A utility called PCXTEST.EXE has been provided as a part of the HSBJ. This utility can be used to test your PCX files to see whether the HSBJ software can display them. Sequences using up to three PCX files may be used. The PCX files must use the filenames: TEST1.PCX TEST2.PCX TEST3.PCX To test your PCX files give them the above names and place them in the same directory as the PCXTEST.EXE utility. Then type PCXTEST at the DOS prompt and push enter. If nothing appears on the screen, then the software can not display the PCX image. If sections of the image appear on the screen, then the image is "too big" (ie. scanned at too high of a resolution). A method that will provide the exact correct image size for use with the HSBJ software is to use any of the PCX images provided with the HSBJ as your starting point. Load them into your paint software (such as PC Paint), erase them and draw the image you wish to use. I apologize for the limits on PCX files. My philosophy is to make things as easy as possible for the customer, but unfortunately my programming skills are not up to handling this yet. And the graphics libraries I've tried so far have been very limited. But, I'll keep working and future issues will have more flexibility. Thank you for your patience. < end of rate card >