Add-ons are the products that are sold together with a magazine or newspaper – like a DVD or book. Sometimes they come along for free, shrink wrapped together with the magazine, other times they are sold separate.

Almost opposite of regular book sales, the add-on enthusiast looks for products with a lot of parts – like a book series with a lot of titles. This is due to the fact that once the sales gets rolling, you want to reap as much and as long as you can. The marketing needed to launch a 4 volume book series and a 50 volume is almost the same, but with the latter, the sales should be higher.

Photo courtesy of ©photl.com/Studio Cl Art

Let’s have a look at some real life examples of add-on campaign and what was done to make it happen.

The main source of income for a magazine or newspaper is subscriptions and advertisements. However there is a third source in which to generate income and increase sales and that would be by offering Add-ons.

An Add-on is an item, like a DVD or book, that is often sold with, or added onto, a magazine or newspaper.

Add-ons can consist of:

• Creating an editorial series or a collection of enticing gadgets or digital devices
• Offering it to readers at an attractive price by utilizing an advertising campaign
• Selling it with the magazine or newspaper as an added option for a discounted price