Advertising, B2B, Memberships & Subscriptions

How they did it: Sample boxes create high-margin revenue streams

Alisa Cromer February 1, 2025

You don’t need to be a high end fashion publisher to make big money from sample boxes. B2b publishers such as Parking Today and Fresh Cup, the online magazine for the cooking industry, have gotten into the game. Even The Local Palate, the food culture magazine of the south, sees gift boxes as a high margin source for significant incremental revenues and brand extension. Here’s how they do it, including different concepts, cost, pricing and fulfillment.

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Categories: Advertising, B2B, Memberships & Subscriptions

White paper: Recent research on the value of print advertising

How should niche media, dominated by magazine brands, talk to advertisers about the value of print?

It’s a tricky issue. On the one hand, print sales continue to decline in the face of reduced advertiser demand. Media brokers place almost no value on profitable print advertising sales. This white paper shows all the research you need, with sources and links to use.

Alisa Cromer January 1, 2024

The Ultimate Guide to Selling Lead Magnet Advertising

Let's get creative! We researched more than a hundred different lead magnet campaigns to find the best ideas that command top dollars from niche advertisers, and how they did it.

First, to define the terms: A lead magnet is simply gated information a publisher creates that is valuable enough to persuade the audience to leave their contact information.

Advertisers will invest 2 to 5x the cost of a major campaign and in some cases $30,000 to $50,000 - for publishers to create the content, host the lead capture page or system, and deliver the leads generated. They, too, are worried about Google Zero.

The Lead Magnet itself could be a white paper, e-book, video, podcast, or webinar — as long as there is a “hook” that attracts the audience to exchange their contact info for access.

Steal these ideas: Below is a list of the most powerful peer-shared ideas for lead magnet campaigns from case studies and research.

Alisa Cromer August 6, 2025