How to make GRRs mag Grow.

[Anonymous]

Marty, my final and best answer on "Making Garden Railroads Grow" is captured by your photograph, bring in the youth, good job!

[Marty Cozad]

I was not going to add to this thread any more, but. Heres the little boy who was in the arms of his dad.

His mouth was wide open the whole time. I could not get his photo cause each time he saw me he got shy.
He was wondering if the big train would catch Thomas, both trains are running.

[Anonymous]

Would a gatefold "Engine of The Month" complete with staples work? Naw, my sugars just low.........

[TurboOne]

Hey Marty, good tongue in cheek, great sense of humor. The pic of you is ok, kids would be better. The over the shoulder pick is great, can you send larger file, I would love to print and take to the rr club. Marty has the right idea, exposure, (yes its a pun) will make our hobby grow larger. Bring the new folks in with Thomas the train, Polar Express, Bikini babes, and then let them see trains are fun. In sales you have to get them to look at the product in order for them to buy.

Advertising is name of the game, all is fair in Love and War and model trains.

Lets make Marty the new spokesperson for GR and Rene can have her OK...

Tim

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Capt Carrales

This is maddness....[when] someone mentions sticking tongues to bridges a crucial line has been crossed.

Yes...certainly in the general context of 'budgie smugglers'. The whole thing just doesn't work for me. Locomotives, gardening, 'nubile' young things and Spandex just seems simply...wrong. This is out of control, and I think we have Marty to blame for the whole spectacle.[;)]

...and those poor, poor budgies! My God man! It's just terrible.

[Anonymous]

GR needs to get there suppliers to stock garden centers to bring non train nuts into the hobby and then make them nuts[:D]

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure I'd rather lick the bridge than attempt to smuggle a "budgie" in the manner discribed...... (This Parrot is Expired!) .

Sell more magazines? Get more out to the general public, not just the hobby shop crowd, why spend time preaching to the choir?

[Anonymous]

This is maddness....one someone mentions sticking tounges to bridges a crucial line has been crossed.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be two completely different issues or objectives here--I think. One is to grow the magazine, the other is to grow the hobby. While they are complimentary, they aren't exactly the same.

Increased distribution of the magazine is one way to increase exposure of the hobby to the general public, but a) it may not be the most effective way, and b) exposure to the general public may have little benefit to expanding the market. For example, I find it hard to believe the Average Joe at the Walmart magazine rack is part of the large scale market.

Printed magazines are great, I truly enjoy browsing them, and I like to see their success. Their main function is to sell advertising, and their circulation determines, in part, what they can charge for that advertising. But, as a means of conveying useful information, they are extremely inefficient. First, the sheer volume of information they contain is extremely small, and second, the ability to search, retrieve and reuse that information is nil. I believe most topic-specific magazines are best at generating excitement and entertaining--and that's very important. But once you've gotten engaged in the topic area, the need to access and 'consume' information (even if its product and availability information) far surpasses the capacity of any printed magazine. Also, as an aside, by far the worst business-to-consumer web sites are those that attempt to do little more than emulate magazine adverts!

As far as growing the magazine, unless your income is tied to sales of the magazine (either because you buy or sell advertising), why is that important to you?

[Curmudgeon]

See, Marty?
I try to guide you in the path of righteousness, and you fall off the wagon.
Geez.

[Anonymous]

Allright thats one NO from Troy on Marty showing more thigh in his photos

I'll second it!

Due I here a third?
One more to carry the motion,Mrs. Cozad's vote will not be counted[:D]

[Marty Cozad]

STICK my ,,,,,tongue,,,MY Tongue on the bridge????????

I agree with Ian, this thread is done,,,over ,,as in I'm out of here.
My mind is going the wrong way.
Long live garden railways!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Marty, just for good measure while wearing your speedo and holding your train have your picture taken on a real cold day and stick your tongue to the Cayon bridge[:p][:0][:D]

[Anonymous]

As happens many times i lose the meaning of this thread and I really dont know what it is all about. You have used words that i am familiar with but have no idea of what they all mean together.

Ian

[Marty Cozad]

John B.
I seen her site way back when I first learned to use the computer. Has her RR grown or is stuff the same? I often wonder how many people drop out of GRRing??

[bman36]

QUOTE: Originally posted by toenailridgesl

Speedos are commonly referred to here as budgie smugglers.

Phil,
Toooooo funny! [:D] I'll never look at those birds without a smirk now. Later eh...Brian.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by toenailridgesl

Speedos are commonly referred to here as budgie smugglers.

Of course it helps to know what a "budgie" is...dont worry, I do.... [;)]

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jebouck

Marty,
Go here and scroll down near the bottom of the page.

http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/1168/trains.html

"The Bikini and Flamingo Railroad"[:p][:p][:p]

jb

Nice ,ummm....layout?![;)][:D]

I'd like to see more of that hot-pink Pacific![:p]

[toenailridgesl]

Speedos are commonly referred to here as budgie smugglers.

[Anonymous]

That's it Marty.Put your Speedo swimsuit in the closet now.I've found someone else to push my trains [^]

[jebouck]

Marty,
Go here and scroll down near the bottom of the page.

http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/1168/trains.html

"The Bikini and Flamingo Railroad"[:p][:p][:p]

jb

[Anonymous]

Believe me,if the latest issue has a picture of a train holding bloke in a swimsuit I will have to start reading the adverts[:O]

[grandpopswalt]

Marty,

I beg you, rethink this latest idea of yours concerning photos of yourself, speedos, and trains, please. I've got a bad feeling that this might set the hobby back quite a few years.

Walt

[Marty Cozad]

OH, HI Rene
ol bud , pal
hope you had a good weekend.
The most common statement when people come to visit our RR is,, We have never seen or heard of anything like this.
That just bugs me.
My wife is into scrap booking big time. she now goes on all nighters with her friends. Which is good when i go visit train buds.
Word of mouth is making that hobby big and there is a need to keep photos in the history of our lives.
There was a scrap booking mag there at Wallymart.
Got to do something???????
But what?????
Tell you what, when my speedo gets here I'll try couple of winter shots with me holding a train and I'll send it in as a "poster Boy" for garden railways..

[Rene Schweitzer]

Hmmmmm, there's a holiday weekend and everyone goes crazy. [:0][:D] I have often joked about putting something on the cover that says "naked trains" or something similar to catch the eye. But I just can't seem to get that through. . .

And no, we're not in Wal-mart. It's very difficult to get in their stores (lots of competition). [V]

[Marty Cozad]

Matt
Good idea!!!!!!!
Thanks
Hey the guy in the middle is Dave Mead a concrete guy who does all our flat work on our jobs .Hes a big boy, and he loves trains. He brought his Godson out to see the trains. well behaved young man.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Marty Cozad

OK,,OK I will delete my photo if there is too much skin showing..[:I][:o)]

Marty, Speedo finally emailed me back there sending you a new bathing suit with your garden railroad logo on it. they said allow at least a week for shipping.

[Anonymous]

I see a lot of scantily clad attractive nubile bodies and never tire of it and thats a good thing. Any one know what "nubile" means; well i think iy means marriagable well thats what my dictionary says anyway.

Getting on the GRR magazines I don't read them and I put them in the same class as hobby shops. So I don't really care if the burn down, close down or go out of business although I don't like to see anyone gp broke or lose their jobs.

Rgds Ian

[Marty Cozad]

Other than what Phil said, theres nothing out of line.
It was meant to be light hearted, besides , its on the shelf at Wally Mart, how much more FAMILY centered can you get???

I don't think most people realize how big G scale is, and having a person on the cover would bring out the WOOW factor.
A company catolog is aimed at train people, GRYs mag is a news stand item also, it should CATCH the eye.
OK,,OK I will delete my photo if there is too much skin showing..[:I][:o)]
Hey heres a cover ," news stand shot".

folks walking by would look at say, what is that? I did not know they had trains that big. COOOL, and buy the magizine....[^]

Do you all get my point?? Even an N scaler or a punk rocker would stop and pick up a copy with this on the cover.