Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Marketing lojban

From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 18:55:49 -0500

At 07:25 PM 03/23/2001 +0000, [email-masked] wrote:
>I agree with lojbab's comments that advertising (as in something you
>pay for) doesn't make sense. (Although the success Loglan had with
>its advertisement is an interesting data point to keep in mind for
>when money isn't as tight.)

Scientific American articles are good advertising. But you can't really 
buy them. The paid ad got a lot of responses, but did not generate enough 
income to pay for the ad (the cost of a 1/4 page SA ad these days is 
something like $2500.) The Loglan Institute was in debt to JCB for 
somewhat more than $25K (in 1975 dollars) after that book came out, and 
never paid off more than a few thousand of that debt. By comparison, I 
loaned LLG a bit more than $10K to publish the Book, and the other $7K came 
from our accumulated bank account. That loan is down to only a couple of 
thousand, and possibly could be paid off this year.

>Instead, my thought was for guerilla marketing efforts -- basically
>zero-cost efforts that encourage the press (or other vehicles) to
>spread your message for you. For example, I recently came across a
>local newspaper article about a foreign language conference for high
>school kids and the most popular language was ... Esperanto. That
>was the main point of the article. The story of lojban or the
>history of artificial languages is fascinating and makes for
>interesting reading.
>
>I am no expert (or even a novice) in getting PR and so can't lead
>this charge. But at the appropriate time, I suggest thinking about
>press releases or story outlines sent to newspapers (y'know that
>center column on the Wall Street Journal's page 1?), newswires (AP,
>UPI, etc. cover more than just breaking news), or popular magazines
>(Omni, Wired, Discovery, Smithsonian, in-flight magazines?).

At one point I put out a feeler to Analog - they weren't interested.

> * If it's a pain to USmail anything but Cowan's book, perhaps
>everything else can be converted to: "Here's where to download it,
>here's how much we'd encourage you to pay, and here's where to send
>the check." This could simplify logistics.

That more or less is what we are trying to work out now. Relatively few 
(as in a couple a year) send any money, despite lots of "real" hits on the 
site (as opposed to search engines).

> * Can all other static (FAQ-like) responses be handled by the web
>site and dynamic responses handled by questions sent to
>[email-masked]? I don't clearly see the burden that 1000
>curious new people would impose.

If it were over a year, no problem. But I think if someone logged on to 
Lojban List one day and found 1000 messages, we would lose some 
subscribers. We lost several the one weekend where we had around 250 
messages in that weekend.

In one sense I would love it. The "problem" would be an inspiring 
challenge. But knowing how many turned away from Loglan when it was but a 
hollow paper tiger, I would be wary about attracting lots of the sort of 
people who would look, then turn away because they expected more than we 
actually have. As it is, most people who sign on Lojban List stay for at 
least a while if not indefinitely, so I presume they are interested in what 
they find.

lojbab
--
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org