Susan Robinson of Red Bluff, California writes:
“We publish two hobby railroad magazines in a niche market. We reach people who either own commercial scale railroads (those large enough to ride in) or who own or are building their own private railways. Many people remember these trains from when they were children at amusement parks, drive-in theaters, or other promotional events and don’t realize that they can be involved in the hobby now.
“We have two web sites at GrandScales.com and 7PlusRailroader.com which are being updated with articles, letters from our readers, a press room, and more. We actively try to place articles in other publications. And we just concluded an event where our guests got hands-on experience laying track, running locomotives, attending seminars, and much more. But we still need to find ways to get the word out about this hobby and our company. Any ideas from other Hounds would be appreciated.”
One outlet she should explore is American Heritage magazine. They do a lot of babyboomer memorabilia/collectible “I remember that…” type of stories, and they may be open to this one. It’s a beautiful magazine.
I found this site last night while doing some surfing– I am really enjoying the articlesw. Is there anyway for me to sign up for updates via something simple, like FeedBlitz?
Also, I had a very hard time finding contact information for Joan, the Blog’s owner– I had to sign onto the website. And then, I only found the address in little, little print at the bottom. It makes it hard to contact you!
All the best–
Thanks for the idea regarding American Heritage magazine Patricia. I will look into that right away.
Kind Regards,
Susan
In Carson City, and Virginia City, Nevada, we have Railroad Museums. Railroad buffs from around the world come to visit and ride our old trains of the Wild West. It is a big tourist draw. There are probably thousands of train museums across the US and Canada. You’ll have to research to find them. Contact them to get your magazine in their gift shops by sending them a review copy and a letter telling them how to order. You will probably be working with volunteers who will need lots of guidance. Good Luck!
Here are four ways to get the word out about your organization:
—Look for bloggers who blog on the topic of modeal railroads and post comments at their blogs that link back to your websites.
–Start blogging yourself on this topic. Because the search engines love blogs, this will make it easy for people interested in model railroads to find you on the Internet.
—Contact publishers of ezines whose newsletters are devoted to this topic. Offer free tips.
—Create your own day, week or month of the year for model railroaders and submit it to Chase’s Calendar of Events at Chases.com. Piggyback story ideas about the hobby off the day, week or month of the year. Also submit your events to Chases.com for free.
Here’s another idea I just thought of:
Find people in your group who are over 60 and who do this as a hobby. Then pitch stories about them to their hometown newspapers and to magazines that are read by people over 60.
Magazines that serve a “senior” audience are no longer interested in stories about doddering old people who spend their day playing cards. They want to feature people who are doing fun, dynamic things in their spare time.