The BBS As A Profit Center How To Successfully Run a BBS for Profit: By S. Carol Allen _________________________________________________________________ Review by Dan D. Gutierrez, SYSOP, AMULET:vc BBS: A Collection of Virtual Communities (specializing in Virtual Reality, Artificial Life, Nanotechnology, Cyberpunk Lifestyles, Cyberspace). 310-453-7705 dataline. As a Sysop who has been running boards since 1984, the idea of charging for what in the past has been a labor of love, a hobby, a way to communicate with my students at UCLA, and the occasionally useful tool for my business, is new to me. The realities of this economy, a mortgage, and the desire to excel in virtual reality, have been the impetus for me to look around for information about making my board self supporting. There is not much out there that I could find and when I received a copy of this book from the publisher, the title intrigued me -- How to Successfully Run a BBS for Profit. Being a skeptic by nature, I approached this new release in my usual fashion. I read the foreword, checked out the table of contents, then started to scan the chapters that most interested me. I was instantly hooked. For me, chapters 8-10, Getting the Word Out, Hooking Your Caller's Interest and Assuring Your Callers Return, were exactly what I had been looking for. I read those chapters then proceeded to read the entire thing (unusual for me). When I finished, I couldn't wait to put several of the creative and inexpensive marketing ideas to work. As I assume is the case with most Sysops, when setting up my board I concentrated on the technical needs of the board while the marketing needs seemed unimportant. In my case, they were also unknown. The author of this book obviously recognizes that for most of us, marketing experience is not part of our past. She tutors the reader, not with just an explanation or description of what needs to be done, but with numerous worksheets and a collection of sample marketing tools (press release, direct mail letter to potential subscribers, a "report card" for user feedback, etc.) that can easily be customized for any BBSes use. Don't think that this book is just for the hobbyist turned entrepreneur. Any individual or business that is running or planning a BBS will benefit from the marketing secrets revealed throughout this book. True, there is the basic business information on putting together a business plan, determining start-up costs and long term costs, and getting financing if you need it. But, then there are the BBS focused tips on attracting new callers, getting them to call back and to pay you top dollar, collecting the fees by credit card (even if you don't presently have a merchant account) and guaranteed ways to generate other revenues besides subscription fees. There are phone numbers, board numbers and addresses for a long list of BBS resources. Some of the suggestions seemed pretty simple and were just common sense, but I hadn't know about them so they gave me ideas for my board. Other marketing avenues seemed too advanced for me, but on the other hand, I can see myself growing into them. In essence, the tools are laid out in the book, it's now up to me to choose the timing and implementation. For all of us, the timeliness of this book seems significant. Although I found little information out there on making money with my BBS, it's hard to read a magazine these days without seeing references to the explosion of the BBS industry. With this book has come the realization that a BBS can be a significant profit center. Not only does it contain the marketing tools described, it also includes over $1,000 worth of money saving coupons from vendors of products and services for Sysops. Also included with the book is a disk with the full version of a DOS based decision support program. It proved to be very useful and lots of fun whenever I needed to choose between alternatives the book recommended. Here's a list of the Chapters from the book: 1) Winning in the 21st Century 2) Surveying the Marketplace 3) If You Fail to Plan Then Plan to Fail 4) Choosing the Theme of Your BBS 5) Value Adding Options For Your Customers 6) Pricing for Profits 7) Increasing Profits by Reducing Costs 8) Getting the Word Out 9) Hooking Your Caller's Interest 10) Assuring Your Callers Return 11) Collecting Your Money 12) Owning a Gold Mine 13) Growing and Expanding Successfully 14) Achieving Your Goals Appendix A - BestChoice3 Documentation (software disk included) Appendix B - Marketing Toolkit Appendix C - Bibliography, Glossary and Quick Phone Directory Appendix D - Coupons Index The publisher is so confident that a reader who applies the techniques described in this book will be making profits within 90 days that they offer a 90 day money back guarantee for the book. I would be surprised if they get many back. It's on my reference shelf with a 5 star rating. So, bottom line, this is probably the BEST investment you can make for your BBS! The book has 304 pages and costs $49.95. You can call the publisher, InfoLink, to order this book by credit card (Visa/ Mastercard/AMEX) by calling toll free 800-776-3818 Ext. FG41 (US) or 619-228-9653 Ext. FG41 or Faxing an order to 1-619-369-1185. FAX orders please include: "ATTN Dept. 254-FG41". Orders with checks can be mailed to InfoLink, 56089 Twentynine Palms Highway, Suite 254-FG41, Yucca Valley, CA 92284. $49.95 + $5.00 shipping and handling + California sales tax. Reprinted by permission of AMULET:VC BBS ----------------------------------------------------------------end