Est. 1970

Facebook Twitter Linked In

Member News

Bulletin Board

Career Track

Guest Speakers

Dan Ambrose

Dan Ambrose

DAN AMBROSE

Managing Director, ambro.com

Headlining this year's AHP seminar in New Orleans is Daniel M. Ambrose, Managing Director, of ambro.com, corp., launched in 1994.  ambro.com provides sophisticated strategy consulting and Advertising Sales Training to advertising driven media clients in the U.S. and abroad.  Since the founding of About.com and iVillage in 1995, ambro.com has worked with hundreds of clients on strategy planning and sales training to help accelerate advertising revenue growth.  They work with the management of media companies to customize training to precisely serve the needs of sales staffs selling local or national media; Internet, television or print.

In late 2008, Ambrose's popularity and experience lead Media Industry Newsletter to partner with him to publish the Internet Sales Guidebook: Selling, Managing and Marketing Web 3.0 Media Brands.

Ambrose will present the first-ever AHP pre-seminar workshop targeted for AHP members. The Internet Sales Workshop will be held on Thursday, June 25, 2009 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and will cost AHP members only $99 to attend. Attend this workshop for immediate return on your investment, as you will be able to quickly make a sale to an advertiser.  Here is how to tap the fastest growing source of advertising revenue today:  Sales people and Publishers will learn the basics of Internet Advertising in this workshop that covers how to sell, package, price, guarantee, serve, measure and track internet advertising.  The session will cover the basics, and will touch on a range of innovative sponsorship opportunities that are used by other specialized magazine publishers who are most successful with Internet advertising.  How do advertisers know they get what they pay for?  How do you respond to demands for ‘per-click' or commission-only based advertising payments from advertisers?  Want to better understand Google ads? Internet ad networks?  See examples of each successful approach that works for other specialized publishers.  Get your questions answered.

On Friday, June 26, Ambrose will open the seminar schedule with a morning session on The Successful Internet Business Model. Will giving away your content on the Internet help or kill your magazine?  How can you sell advertising at prices that will allow you to make a profit? How can you harness the Internet to help you grow your business?  This opening presentation will give you the perspective and the understanding – especially for editors and non-techies – to clearly see how your Internet strategy can support your magazine, serve your advertisers, and become a profitable revenue stream.  Hybrid Media strategy harnesses the strengths of Print and the Internet to create a clear rationale for how you run your business.  You'll get a basic introduction to the Internet content strategy that will help you create a meaningful audience for your advertisers online, and then the advertising strategy that will allow you to earn profitable revenue.  We'll look at blogs, social media (i.e.; Facebook), webinars, ad serving, email, in short all the elements of a manageable and successful targeted publishing business.

Ambrose is especially known among clients for being able to earn the respect of even the most hard-bitten experienced sales staffs, helping them to learn new approaches to increase success.  Ambrose's approach works well for a broad range of sales people because it's not about developing an overpowering personality -- like some trainers -- but about using the principles of human interaction and persuasion to get the client to open up, talk, listen, and buy.

Before establishing the company Ambrose was Vice President and Publisher of Child Magazine at the New York Times Company. Ambrose led Child to be named in Adweek's "10 Hottest Magazines," two consecutive years. He also spearheaded an initiative to make Child the first major consumer magazine to selectively deliver individually-customized editorial content.

Previous to working for Child, Ambrose was Advertising Sales Director of Cahners Consumer Magazines (and TV) Division where he managed ad sales in Healthy Kids magazines, and American Baby TV Show and Sampling & Couponing programs. 

From 1983 until 1987 Ambrose served in several executive management positions at Hearst Magazines Division, first at House Beautiful, and finally as Director of Corporate Advertising. As director he led marketing, sales and administrative management to multi-magazine advertising packages for Hearst's largest and most important clients, running approximately 3,500 advertising pages annually. Ambrose was also responsible for the creation of the first "Electronic Rate Card," on computer disk, which was used by advertising media planners to instantly price Hearst Magazine packages.

Ambrose joined Hearst from Ziff Davis where he was Advertising Director of Backpacker, and SkiXC magazines and where he was trained in the classic Ziff Davis structured selling method.

Ambrose began his media career at The Washington Monthly a small but influential public affairs magazine. He served as Advertising Manager and Advertising Director of American Film magazine at The American Film Institute for four years where he quadrupled advertising pages and increased revenue 10 times.

For more information about Dan Ambrose, visit www.ambro.com.

Don Nicholas

Don Nicholas

DON NICHOLAS

Managing Partner, Mequoda Group, LLC

Don Nicholas is a popular media consultant, author, editor, motivational speaker and media entrepreneur. He is a leading expert on Internet media strategy. The Newsletter on Newsletters has dubbed him "a publisher's publisher" and the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) calls him one of "America's leading experts on website publishing strategy."

Don will present Making Money Online, a six-part series for publishers, editors, business owners and freelancers who want to market their publication, product or content to the online world, starting Friday, June 26 at 1:30 p.m. and sessions will continue through to all day on Saturday, June 27.

Don't miss your chance to learn the key concepts and strategies for capturing more readership online and ultimately profiting from the Web. Attend this 6-part Making Money Online series, led by one of the publishing industry's most sought-after experts, and:

Since 1994, Don and his team have helped design, launch and optimize dozens of America's most successful Internet marketing systems. Nicholas is Managing Director for Mequoda Group and the firm's lead media strategy consultant. Over the past 30 years, he has guided the media strategy for hundreds of companies in the areas of content development, information product design, marketing, economics, mergers, acquisitions and organizational development. He has a talent for identifying new media business opportunities and creating media strategies to pursue them.

Some of his current and past clients include: the American Ceramics Society, Aspire Media, Baum Media Group, Bennett Travel Media, Business & Legal Reports, Campus Marketing Services, Consumer Reports, Dark Intelligence Group, Harvard Business School Publishing, Harvard Health Publishers, IDG, Morningstar, The Motley Fool, Ogden Publications, Ohio Magazine, Unity School of Christianity, University Health Publishing, Taunton Press, Tech Republic, Time Inc. and USA Today.

Nicholas is the creator of many popular Internet marketing strategies, concepts, terms and tools. They include The Mequoda Method (a concise system for building and managing "niche media empires"), the Mequoda Internet Marketing System (an online content-driven direct marketing system) and the Mequoda Internet Marketing Model (a budgeting and forecasting system for Internet marketing professionals).

He is the principle founder of Lighthouse Software, MagazineWeek, Blue Dolphin Group and Mequoda Group. Don has also held senior management positions with Bayland Media Group and Sacramento Magazine.

Don has authored hundreds of articles and industry reports for leading business magazines and journals, plus four books on consumer behavior, media strategy and information technology. His fifth book, Internet Strategy for Publishers & Authors was published in April of 2006 along with a companion DVD and audio CD.

Nicholas is a regular contributor on Internet marketing strategy and other related topics each week as editor for the Mequoda Daily. He has also authored all of the special reports and handbooks available in the Mequoda Bookstore.

During his 30 years in media, Don has served as editor and/or publisher for American Writers Review, Editorial Strategies, Internet Voyager, MagazineWeek, Writer & Editor and Writing for Money. In 1989, Don created the Editorial Excellence Awards, which became the magazine industry's largest editorial awards program. His journalism career began as a writer-producer for the Armed Forces Radio Network (AFRN) while serving in the United States Navy.

Nicholas has led hundreds of educational programs for leading universities, trade associations and corporations on media strategy, information technology and management in the United States, Canada and Europe. Thousands of marketing and media industry professionals have attended his programs including his most popular seminar and workshop—Making Money Online. Don also leads the bi-annual two-day Mequoda Summit which explores current best practices for media strategy, Internet marketing and website design.

Nicholas received his B.A. in Journalism from California State University, Sacramento. He studied Film & Television at Rice University and received his M.S. in Organizational Management from the Capella University Graduate School of Business.

The Making Money Online Workshop is a 6-part series which includes the following sessions:

Online Market Analysis — How familiar are you with the online market in which you operate and compete? Do you know how big your market is, or how fast it's growing? Do who know who your top competitors are online, or your potential content and marketing partners? If you don't know the answers to these and other important questions, you could be leaving money on the table, or worse, leaving your company vulnerable to competitive annihilation. Learn how to make your publishing company more competitive. Discover how to do market analysis research, determine your market size, annual year-to-year growth, seasonality and traffic patterns. Learn how to determine which content models are dominating (or perhaps missing) in your market.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — In the days of old, editors had one primary responsibility: writing great content. Getting people to subscribe to, buy and read that content was someone else's job. In the online world, things are much different. If a publisher wants their content to be found and read online, they must learn to partner with Google. They need to understand what people are searching for that is related to the content they offer, and must write and produce content specifically to those search terms.  It's not easy, but it is necessary for online success. But where to begin? What is the process for identifying, documenting and managing keywords and the editorial campaigns that should follow? Learn how to research, analyze and monitor your keywords. Understand how to prioritize online content development around those keywords to ensure you attract the targeted website traffic you deserve.

As a freelance writer, knowing how to write for SEO can put you high on an editor's list of freelancers, because many editors and other outlets (i.e., universities, local businesses, regional shows) haven't yet learned how to write for SEO. Suddenly your articles are bringing more traffic to their site than other articles--they are baffled and amazed! They want you!  Understanding how and why editors have Websites will help you target your freelancing time and efforts; and find additional markets (including non-equine) for your content that was previously published (articles, books for excerpts and chapters, photos, illustrations, compilations of previously un-attached articles, etc.)

Website Conversion Architecture — Any webpage on your site is a potential landing page, as most traffic arriving at your website, especially when coming from the search engines, will not enter through the homepage. So how can you make sure your entire site is designed to attract, retain and monetize traffic? We've identified several webpage templates used by today's top publishers that are built to attract lots of traffic and convert the most visitors. Understanding how to design and optimize each of those templates will increase the chances a visitor will take the action you desire and not click away. In this session, you will learn how to design and implement clean and intuitive website templates that are built to convert more visitors into subscribers, and more shoppers into buyers.

Online Content Management — Many editors are now responsible for print and online content, and in order to be effective, they must learn how to successfully unleash print content onto the web for maximum exposure and efficiency. The process of unleashing archived print content online helps facilitate search engine optimization and helps build a database of potential paying customers. But how much archived content does your publication have, how old is it, and how can you put it to work to make more money online? Learn how to quantify all the content your organization produces and understand when and how it should be redeployed on your website for additional marketing, sales and profits. Learn how to establish a policy governing your editorial release schedule to generate the most profits.

Email Newsletter Marketing — Email newsletters are an invaluable way for publishers to repurpose the content they are posting at their websites and generate significant revenue in the process. Successful online publishers have a very specific editorial schedule and promotional strategy for their email newsletters, which leverages their opportunity to sell more product and advertising inventory. For some publishers, email accounts for 60% of their total online revenue. But what are the strategies being used to capitalize on all this email revenue opportunity? Learn how publishers are aligning their email content with their products and sponsors and understand the role of service journalism and clever copywriting in increasing email revenue. Discover how publishers are improving open rates, click through rates and conversion rates and understand the things that can help – or hurt – a newsletter's chances of achieving its revenue goals.

Business Plan Development — Every viable publishing business, whether contemplated or existing, needs a business plan suitable for senior managers, equity partners and venture capitalists. By inputting various data points into an excel-based publishing model, a publisher can closely analyze the past and forecast what the next 5 years might look like financially. . Learn how to create a publishing model, using the formal Mequoda publishing business plan creation technique, including key statistics and a five-year financial forecast for your market. Attendees will receive a blank model and will learn how to populate it for their own business. Attendees will understand how all of their metrics drive revenue, costs, cash flow and overall profitability.