[urq] Re: ProDiag in ec

[Steve Eiche]

Brett,
Well, we have been advertising for quite a while in EC.  Honestly, it has been our best advertising.  We can always tell when EC comes out as there is a big spike in hits on our site, and more importantly, sales.  I've been an EC (and before that VW&Porsche magazine) subscriber/reader with just about every issue since '85, and I must say that it is pretty cool to be seeing my product being advertised and reviewed there.

IME, it is pretty common to expect magazines to keep the product being reviewed.  Considering articles generally get better visibility and provide more credibility than an ad can, I really don't have a problem with this.  We sent them a system to try.  I don't expect to get it back.  No one has mentioned buying reprints, so I can't comment on that part.  We haven't felt railroaded by EC, but of course they always let us know that we can take out a bigger ad, or sponsor one of their competitions or features for a price. Personally, I expect this, and if it makes sense for us to do some of these things, we will to get ProDiag out in the market.  I just hope that they like the product, use it a LOT, and mention us every now and then, which I think they will if they like it.  

FWIW, rumor has it that the article on the CO S4 Mafia from a couple of years ago got greased through with some nice wine for a feature editor.  

Steve

At 5:02 PM -0600 5/13/04, Brandon Rogers wrote:

>>Just a heads up- Long-time Audifans contributor Steve Eiche's 
>>company Shadetree Software and their product ProDiag, is written up 
>>in the most recent issue of european car magazine.  Very cool. 
>>ProDiag is a Palm based diagnostic tool.
>  
>

Yup, noticed that this month flipping through a copy at the 
bookstore.  I know a number of listers have used their stuff and I 
haven't heard a bad word 'bout 'em.

This talk of EC reminds me of a conversation I once had(several years 
ago, so this is probably not completely accurate, and EC could very 
well have changed their policy- I have no idea) with someone who also 
had a product featured there, and shall remain nameless.  He said 
that he got a call from EC one day saying they wanted to pick his 
product for the "editor's gadget choice", but he had to:

a)let them keep the product afterwards
b)take out an advertisement- I don't remember how long, but it was at 
least several months
c)buy several thousand reprints of the "review" at a ludicrous price 
per copy which was not disclosed to him until after he had agreed 
("Boy, did I learn my lesson.")

If he didn't say yes, they'd pick something else.  He said he felt 
like he got railroaded, and that by the time they were done with him, 
he wasn't sure if he made a profit off the whole thing or not.  I 
hope Steve does better!

Brett