This is part two of a two-part blog, so please STOP and read part one before you come back and read this part. Click here to read part one (there will be a link at the bottom of part one that’ll lead you back here … plus there’s always that “back” button on your browser).
Here’s more of my regular, on-going job duties (all of which I need to consider delegating to someone):
Subscriptions that come in via our online store. I get an email report from our online credit card payment checkout system, which includes the name and shipping address of the buyer, along with what they bought. In this case, it’s a subscription. I give all print subscribers a free digital subscription, so I copy their email address and paste it into the admin back-end of our online/digi-edition server. After I log in I paste the subscriber’s address in three spots, click “add user” and then open an email form letter I’ve composed (Outlook lets you save emails as a .msg file, which I keep in a special folder that allows me to double-click on the file and it opens as an email. I’ll paste the subscriber’s email in the “send” field, as well as in two places I have left blank for “username” and “password.” This way the subscriber gets his or her login info as quickly as possible after they subscribe. I’ll also print out this email report and then use it to type in the subscriber info into our mailing list database. After this is done I’ll insert the latest copy of HM into an envelope, fill out a mailing label and send them their first copy of their subscription (unless it’s a renewal, which would mean they were already sent the latest issue or if it’s close to the next issue, we’ll just make the next issue their first). Then I’ll file this one-page email print-out in a box with all paid subscriptions (I do this because we could be audited by the Post Office, who would require me to show them proof that 10 people they’d randomly pick from our mailing list had paid for their subscription. In that case we’d have to pull their subscription order, as well as a deposit slip from our bank showing those funds being deposited.).
Merch orders that come in via our online store get sent to me as email reports, too. I’ll print this out as well and then fulfill the order by going to my storage closet where we live, pulling the item (a t-shirt of a certain size, a sticker, poster or coffee mug, back issue, etc) and placing it in an appropriate mailing envelope or package. I’ll fill out a mailing label and then either print postage online or take it to the Post Office on my next visit and pay for the postage then. If the order was placed with “Priority Mail” postage, there is a special emphasis on placing and mailing this order as quickly as possible.
Confirming ad sales. When an ad client expresses an interest in advertising, I will compose an “Insertion Order,” which is a document I have saved with pertinent info for their ad. I will change the things specific to their ad (like their name, contact info, ad size and price) and save the document with a specific name (like “IO_companyX.doc”) and then email it to them as an attachment.
Processing credit card sales. Lots of our advertisements are paid for by ad clients with credit card (information they supply on the Insertion Order). Some customers will order subscriptions or merch this way by calling us on the phone and placing their order. I will log on to a website that handles our credit card processing, fill out the card member information and submit it as a sale. If/when the sale goes through I’ll mark “approval # such and such” on the paperwork and file it away.
Tracking ad sales. I use an online spreadsheet to track ad sales and the many stages they go through – from booking the ad, the size of the ad, invoicing for the ad and receiving payment for the ad.
Listening to independent music. We get on average 80 to 100 albums sent to us (either physical CDs or digital files, links to streaming audio and even a login platform called Sonic Bids). We listen to each and evaluate it. When we had a staff, all of us would vote. 1 is a veto vote that says “No way!” 5 is a veto vote that says, “Yes! This band is a ‘Pick of the Litter’ and I don’t care what anyone else on staff thinks.” Obviously, 5 ratings get in, as do most 4’s and the occasional 3-point something (we get detailed here with decimal points) gets in. It’s all a competition and the top 12 albums/bands get chosen. Sometimes 30-seconds into an album tells us all we need to know (both in the good and bad senses). Sometimes we have to listen to more than one song, etc.
Writing a blurb for each of the 12 “Pick of the Litter” bands. These “blurbs” are really glorified highlight information rather than critical reviews. The purpose of the “Pick of the Litter” section is to showcase the top 12 indie bands we’ve come across. It’s not to dissect what might be wrong with an album. These bands will get more of those kinds of reviews as their careers progress. We are just trying to highlight young, emerging artists that are not signed to record labels with national retail distribution. By the way, that is the HM definition of “indie.” An artist is indie if their music is only available via mail-order, internet-order or online streaming. Meaning some person in Miami, FL another in Seattle, WA and another in Cleveland, OH cannot go into their local music retail store and pick up a copy. In other words, if they do not have national retail distribution, then they’re indie.
Interviewing artists. I’ll record the audio from a phone interview (called a “phoner”) using a relatively cheap little Radio Shack device that hooks up to the phone line. I will compose questions that I hope will get the interview subject to open up and talk. After recording the interview I’ll transcribe it. I have a machine that features a foot pedal, which allows me to type as I listen, lifting my foot off the pedal to pause the tape. It rolls back a couple seconds to allow for the delay in the “reaction time” between my brain deciding to pause and my foot actually lifting off the pedal. If it’s a digital recording I have to actually pause the player by using my hand on the device or moving my computer’s mouse to the pause button. Once transcribed I’ll save the document in a folder for the issue number and type of file (doc, ads, or image), like “artistname.doc”
Composing feature article. Unlike the “So & So Says” feature, where I just draft an introduction and then place the raw “Q&A” (question & answer) interview, most of our articles are feature style, which major on editorializing, story-telling, descriptions and the occasional interview quote from the artist. This usually flows better and is more concise and fun to read.
Reviewing albums. This usually involves listening to an album several times and comparing this work with the artist’s previous work and possibly the work of others. This can be hard, but rewarding if you feel like you’ve “nailed it” and evaluated it fairly and described it well. Usually these are between 150 and 250 words long.
Gathering images, photos and cover art. Our “Album Review” section spotlights album covers as small squares that are less than one-inch tall. Because they are so small, the low-resolution or small size images found on the internet can be used here. Each one still has to be re-sized at 300 dpi and converted from RGB color to GRAYSCALE black & white and then saved as a .tif file. Photos and other artwork usually needs to be requested from a publicist, who emails me a large-sized, high resolution image. Because we not only print a magazine but post a digi-edition as well, I like to save the original color versions of images that we print in black & white. This will mean having to save the images with different file names.
Invoicing advertisers. We use an accounting program called QuickBooks to track and run our business. While looking at our ad spreadsheet I’ll go to each client and create an invoice for their ad. I’ll then either print and mail the invoice or email it to them. The program will track whether or not it’s been paid, alerting me if they pass the terms we’ve agreed on the sale.
Collecting money. This is a touchy subject. Once I complained about ad clients owing me money and a wise and caring friend from a record company “pulled me aside” with an email and pointed out that making such accusations hurt the “good guys” as well as “the bad guys.” The average person might see an accusation like I made and think, “I wonder if my favorite record company (possibly a good guy) owes them money, too?” This casts the good guys in a bad light by association and since the average consumer doesn’t know who’s good at paying their bills and who’s bad, they are left to guess … and the guessing causes harm. Perception of this nature can be bad. I’ll share a few things that will help alleviate this guessing. We have a policy. It’s like the motto “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” If an advertiser doesn’t pay their invoice (and new advertisers have to pay upfront anyway), then we don’t allow them to advertise again. We’re not going to stay in business if we keep letting some irresponsible company continue to mount up “debt” to us that never gets paid. The system of invoicing clients is basically a system of lending money to those clients. If they are not paying upfront, you are giving them your product or service (an ad in HM is like a service we are providing – getting the client’s ad message in front of thousands of people) with the promise that they will pay. Normal terms are 30-days. If the client does not pay by the 30th day, they are “late” and “past due.” So, before we go any further here, let me repeat: If an ad client is delinquent in paying their invoices to HM Magazine, we don’t let them advertise again (until they pay up their past-due invoices and then from then on out they are paying upfront). So, if you are playing the guessing game, be assured that the regular and repeat advertisers you see in HM Magazine are good businesses and are faithful to pay us for the advertising spots they buy. I’m still toying with the idea of posting some jpgs of ads that we ran but were never paid for. Some of my close friends tell me not to do this. They say, “Shaming people is not a good way to motivate them.” That’s easy to say when they don’t have over $70,000 in bad debt owed to them. If I end up having to go out of business someday, it will be hard not to be upset and bitter about this kind of debt. Those people stole from me. I fulfilled my end of the agreement (ran their ad), but they did not hold up their end. Every one of these delinquent clients has their own story. Some have gone out of business long ago, like Planet Records, No Compromise, Rugged, Rocket Dog, Rustproof, Slanted, Affinia Music, Media Solutions, Berean Stores and others. Some companies work with us, which we appreciate, sometimes paying small amounts per month. Some just offer one broken promise after another. Many collection agencies will not bother chasing invoices that are more than a year old (a majority of our bad debt is very old, some going back to the late-’90s), plus they usually charge 50% of the amount collected if they are old like that. I’ve heard lots of advice about this problem and I don’t bring it up here to dwell too much on the past. The problem of collecting money continues on for just about any business (just much less if managed well), but there is still some energy spent on sending statements, making contact, etc, with these accounts.
Reviewing DVDs, books and gadgets. While HM Magazine’s primary focus is music, we have branched out over the years to include reviews or editorial on music gear, electronic gadgets, books and DVDs of movies, etc. This takes time, of course, as evaluating anything requires focus and “test driving” or reading/watching the subject of the review.
Uploading files. When an issue of HM is finished, I will send a PDF file (one per page) to our printer for the print version. I will repeat this for the digi-edition and the new app versions. For the print magazine I use a web browser, which has upload capabilities. Once I upload a page or pages I can preview them and approve/reject the file so that, when I am finished approving, the magazine is ready for plating and printing at the printer. For the digi-edition and app versions I have to use special FTP software to upload the files and they do the rest.
Mailing list maintenance. I have to turn in our mailing list, which is broken down to foreign and domestic copies, as well as a few hundred that are sent out to advertisers, publicists and other industry people that get a complimentary copy. This all has to be documented to comply with our special “Periodical Rate” permit we have with the Post Office. This database of the mailing list has to be turned in on the same day as all of our magazine (PDF) files. This new arrangement makes the final days of deadline a hurried rush, but the benefit is that now our printer only takes 7 working days to “turn around” (print, stitch, label, sort and mail) an issue of HM Magazine. From time to time we will get torn covers of a magazine with a little yellow label affixed from the Post Office, telling us when a subscriber has moved. Subscribers will also phone, mail or email me with their change of address. I open up our mailing list database software, find the subscriber and change their address information. Also, when a new issue is mailed out I have to export the subscriber records of those subscriptions that have expired out of the mailing list, so that is only has active and current subscribers in it. I’ll save these exported records in a file I can later use to possibly mail those former subscribers a renewal notice or promotion to get them back.
I’m probably not done. I’ll add more later (in a third post), but is there anything so far that you could see yourself doing or helping out with? Let me know.
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