A Bestseller and a World Tour

In February 1994, I began laying out the first issue of my very first magazine using Aldus PageMaker on my Macintosh Classic, balanced on the edge of my bed in my Jersey City townhouse.

I included two full-page house ads — my own ads. The premiere issue of PowerBuilder Developer’s Journal was scheduled to debut at the Powersoft User Conference in Disney World that June.

The first full-page ad announced a book:

PowerBuilder 4.0: Secrets of the Masters

by Steve Benfield

The second full-page ad promoted something even bigger:

World Tour with PBDJ — 10 Cities in 30 Days.

It was a two-day conference series scheduled to travel through Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Austin, Chicago, New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

As for the world tour, I had solid dates — and nothing else.

But once the dates were printed, the ad looked real.

And somehow, that made it real.

At the time, I had never seen the advice later attributed to Richard Branson:

“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes — then learn how to do it later.”

Without realizing it, I was already living by that rule.

* * *

Over the next five months, I finished designing the first issue. It was more or less printable.

I paid the Brooklyn printer and received the magazines just five days before the Orlando conference. I brought 5,000 copies with me.

After landing, I drove my rental car to the Orlando airport cargo terminal. It took three trips to haul all the boxes to the Dolphin Hotel.

When I finally arrived, nearly 100 delegates surrounded my car. They ripped open the boxes, each grabbing as many copies as they could carry, and walked away reading my premiere issue as they went.

David Litwack was there. He grabbed a copy.

Steve and I then took the elevator up to Mitchell Kertzman’s room, where he posed for a photo holding PowerBuilder Developer’s Journal in his hand.

* * *

There was just one problem.

I had forgotten to mention the book to Steve Benfield.

He discovered he was writing one when he saw the magazine in Orlando, surrounded by 5,000 PowerBuilder developers at the Powersoft User Conference.

He came up to me and said,

“I just saw it in the magazine. I guess I’m writing a book. Let me jump on it right away.”

* * *

That book would become a huge hit.

I found a printer in Secaucus, New Jersey, and printed 10,000 copies. Jim laid out nearly 600 pages using PageMaker.

We priced the book at $69.99 but sold it for $40, plus shipping and handling. The printing cost was one dollar per copy.

Over the next twelve months, the book generated roughly $250,000 in profit.

I offered the authors either 5 percent equity in the company or $50 cash per article.

Every one of them chose cash — including Steve.

Twenty years later, he still calls me from time to time and asks if he can finally collect his 5 percent of SYS-CON Media.

* * *

My 10-City World Tour with PBDJ was actually my first live event — though I didn’t realize it at the time. I simply announced it without overthinking what I was doing.

To me, it felt like a natural extension of the magazine.

If companies were willing to advertise in it, I also needed things to sell to my readers. A book and a live event were the two most obvious products I could create.

I reviewed the dates I had placed in the ad. The first 

two cities were Los Angeles and San Francisco.

It was time to repeat the same formula I had used to finance the magazine’s first issue.

I began selling world tour tickets, sponsorships, and exhibition space — and it worked immediately.

My print advertisers became sponsors and exhibitors. The authors from the premiere issue became the speakers. And my readers became paying attendees, eager to learn PowerBuilder directly from the celebrity PBDJ writers they had been following.

I secured hotel space in each city. Knowing I would still need operational help, I hired J.R. Shuman Associates — the same team that produced the official Powersoft User Conference.

* * *

The 10-city world tour turned out to be extremely profitable.

Even more profitable than the book.

* * *

Within twelve months of bringing my premiere issue to that user conference, I was no longer experimenting.

I was a real company — generating real revenue.

All in under a year.