I did lots yesterday but napped in the afternoon.  I put my storm shutter up on the window outside my office since it’s my only window without a burglar bar.  I like the bars because they catch the flying branches before they hit the window.  Even in just quick storms here during the day, lots of deadfall branches come down from the pines and oaks outside, so I wanted to be safe.  I like the storms, because they bring the dead limbs down so I don’t have to pay to get them cut.  I’m enjoying more personal interaction (well phone) and helping people Like Lisa A. for her new magazine and website.   I like helping folks do things like that. So I created her a mock 13 page magazine, and left a cd of it out at the mailbox, so she could go home and try to play with it until I had more time to give her on it.

Since each page is laid out differently, I wanted her to get used to seeing the page as a variety of frames and objects you learn to bend to do your bidding.  Like the cover is just one 8×11 pdf file, the table of contents has several “text frames” in it, as well as images.  The Classified Ads are two columns, with a header of one column.  The Phone Directory is 3 columns, with a one column header on the first page.   I wanted her to recognize the elements that make each page cohesive, such as the footer that says Horizons Magazine by subscription $26/12 issues  Visit horizonsmagazine.com.

So her first homework was to, using inDesign, on each page replace the name horizons magazine with her mag name, replace my name with her name, replace the address, just basically make a sample page.  use my table of contents as a starting point for what regular monthly features she might want to include.  Use my ad rates as a starting point to figure her own out, she wants the magazine to be her income source.

I told her about Virtual Merchant and told her she’d get much more income if she had a website.  I told her I use Webstudio.com (Webstudio 4) to create websites, and I’d teach her to do it herself.  This is the stuff I love to do, let people know how easy it is to get started doing basically anything they want to do, plus how to promote it and make money from it.