I have to say that I'm proud…proud to be associated with Alan Mascord, that he's my client and I have a copy of Mascord Living Spaces in my hands right now.

The magazine costs $7.95 and even if your not a builder - it's worth having a copy of this home plans magazine with 112 Builder-Friendly Home Plans.

I think I may have had some influence in Mascord Living Spaces - at least from a metrics and sales perspective.  I found through my work with architects that BRAND sells best - and often the clients are local builders, many DIY, or Home Brokers and Home Realtors - or people in banking associated with home loans, and that's about it.  You actually don't have that many people that are just looking to build a dream home but are not builders or Realtors.  

I suppose, given the above,  advertising in AdWords and Panama is often a waste of time and money for the architect (easy for me to say - but my experiences support this - in other words, I have proof this is often so).  I found customers are more likely to be aquired by vertical search and offline media - including books and magazines.

In fact, that's one of eplans.com (Hanley-Wood) main strengths - they have a lot of magazines and books - and god knows how many sales were produced because of a nice magazine where the plans are in your hands - so to speak  -vs. online, where they are on a computer screen.

I predict that Mascord Living Spaces will generate a lot more sales for this Boutique House Plans company - they're all about quality - just the kind of client I like to have - the only architect I still am associated with.

Now, the first issue of Mascord Living Spaces has a lot that I can track in Web Metrics - but there's a lot of missed opportunities for tracking referrals to each house plan - in other words - it's very important to think of the metrics strategy whenever you print an offline material.   While I was somewhat keyed into this magazine, as it was created over the last 6 months or so, I did not have a chance to offer input in the design or URLs that would be added to each plan (if I had my way).

But I realize this is a first for my client, and a big step in the right direction. 

As Seth Godin once said in relation to the value of a book:

"….It's important not to underestimate the totem value of a book. The same way a white lab coat makes a placebo more likely to be effective (or a witch doctor's hat for that matter), a book delivers an impact that a blog can't.

While there's certainly some ego in wanting your thousands of posts not to disappear, there's also a real desire on my part to give my existing readers the ability to taunt their co-workers by handing them a book instead of emailing them a link. If my job is to make change, I need to use the best tools that are available.

It's also hard to read a blog at the beach."

Well, Alan Mascord and his company don't have a blog (yet - we're trying to change that) but they do have a book/magazine - buy the magazine, even if your not a builder - the pictures are beautiful and make you feel rich and happy - and that, coming from an artist (me).