The Road to Big Profits

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Maps serve a purpose. People use them for directions. They trust them and
depend on them to get them where they want to go. It tells them where the
local attractions are, and other places if interest, particularly among
tourists - the people who use maps the most.

Considering the credibility and the power of maps as a printed medium, it
takes an entrepreneur 2 seconds to realize that there's money in maps...as
an advertising vehicle.

You can design your city map to be as large as 28" x 40" which can be printed
by commercial print houses with large format presses. Or you can use the
11"x 17" format and bring it to your neighborhood quick printer.

THE MAP
What you're going to make a map of is as critical as deciding about how
you're going to do it. These are the two questions that will make the
foundation of your business.

Big cities are very seldom a great market for City Maps. However, if you
break them apart and make maps for selected business districts, even down
to selected neighborhoods, the taking is plenty.

Focus on dense retail districts. Target those with neighboring restaurant
rows, historical spots or other tourist attractions.

Purchase reprint rights of already existing maps as this would prove
significantly easier and more cost efficient than producing one yourself.

"Cartoon" maps may be visually entertaining, but they are seldom useful.
You will probably attract more advertisers if you can equate your
advertising rates with potential use.

Advertisers position advertising blocks on the outer edge of the map area.
Depending of the size of your map and the paper you plan to print it on, you
can have as many or as few "blocks" to offer for advertising. Encourage your
advertisers to buy more than 1 block of advertising. This will not only make
your map look more exclusive, but it will also make your selling task much
easier.