Dkcember, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



767 



lu retailing my owu honey crop, 1 spend 

 $100 or more eiicli season in advertising in 

 my local newspaper. I live in a town of 

 12,000 with a large country population 

 tributary. I have secured the best results 

 by the use of what is generally known in 

 newspaper offices as a "space reader"; 

 that is, not less than four inches of space, 

 one column wide, set in the regular news- 

 size type, with no display lines except the 

 heading, which is set similar iu style to 

 the ordinary news headline of the paper. 

 Newspapers sometimes charge extra for ad- 

 vertisements so set, but the slight addi- 

 tional cost is justified by the returns. Posi- 

 tion is important. Ask your publisher to 

 give you good position. Don't ask that your 

 ad be spread all over the front page or sur- 

 rounded on all sides by reading matter, for 

 he'll smile at you. Be content to liave the 

 first ad iu the column, or in the column next 

 to reading matter on a page containing home 

 news. He '11 give you that, usually, espe- 

 cially if your ad is as much as six inches 

 long. 



In my own advertising I generally use a 

 six-inch space. I like to have the heading 

 occupy just a single line, with letters about 

 half an inch tall — some plain letter resem- 

 bling that in their regular news story heads. 

 The idea is to give my ad the general a.])- 

 pearance of a news story. In the headline 

 I always use the Avord "honey" in some 

 combination, as, "Say, Honey!" "Your 

 Honey," "My Honey," "Fancy Honey," 

 "Oh, Honey," on the tlieory that those 

 likely to be interested in honey will "spot" 

 such a headline at sight. Here is one that 

 ii]>peared reeentiv in a local paper. 



YOUR HONEY 



I want to sell it to you. 

 You won't find better at any price. 

 Still selling for Six Dollars a can 

 (60 lbs.) for Standard No. 1 light am- 

 ber extracted. 



A good grade of melted, strained 

 lioney from broken combs, for Five- 

 fifty per can. Not quite as choice as 

 my No. 1, but good pure honey just 

 the same. 



A 10-pound pail of the best, water 

 white alfalfa honey for $1.50. Come 

 to the Honey Shop at 720 Eleventh 

 street and see and taste. Money back 

 on any purchase that is not 100 per 

 cent satisfactory. 



C. H. WOLFE, Beekeeper. 

 Sign of the Honey Shop. Phone Gr. 

 365. Free deliveries every day 

 within the city. 

 Having attracted the attention of the 

 reader, I try to give him some real informa- 

 tion in the reading matter that follows. I 

 have honey to sell, so I tell him something 



about my lioney — the kind, the (luality, how 

 1 produce and prepare for market, size of 

 container and price. I stress tlie quality of 

 my product because I believe in my honey, 

 and I know the conditions under which it 

 is j)roduced. I know tliat my honey is bet- 

 ter than niucli that is on the market, and I 

 try to convince the honey user of the fact. 

 But I don't run down the other fellow. I 

 stick to the truth and write just as I would 

 speak to my customer if he stood before 

 me. I don't try to be eloquent or grandilo- 

 quent — just plain everyday beekeeper talk, 

 I find, will reach nearly everybody. 



I never run the same ad more than twice. 

 Changing every time is better; tell the same 

 story in different words. Usually I do not 

 run an ad every issue in. the daily. Two 

 or three times a week will cost slightly 

 more per issue, but not so much as an inser- 

 tion every day, and I find the results equally 

 good. But I find that during the main honey 

 season, a material spurt in sales follows each 

 ad, and a corresponding drop when my ads 

 are left out for a week or more. Such a 



The right kind of advertisiiia; in local newspapers 



hrings the customers to the houey-house, thus 



making the route between producer and consumer 



the shortest possible one. 



space reader as I use may be had in the 

 average village newspaper with 1000 or 

 more circulation for 20 to 30 cents per run- 

 ning inch per issue. If my home paper 

 were published weekly instead of daily I 

 should have an ad in every issue from Aug- 

 ust to December. 



Bee Stories in Honey Advertisements. 



liust August 1 tried the exi>erimeiit of 

 ruiining a series of short articles in our daily 

 paper about bees and honey and honey pro- 

 duction. In each story I told some inter- 

 esting feature of beekeeping. One time, 

 how lioney is gathered, stored and ripened. 

 /\tu)ther, how the extracting is done, and 



