Except for a brief visit from my daughter Tiffany yesterday, and a break to go to dinner with Greg and Jan White, I spent most of the day at my desk working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal.

Since I am in the process of switching production from our antiquated Adobe PageMaker computer page layout program to the current InDesign program that most of the newspaper industry uses these days, there is a learning curve that I am trying to master.

That being said, I really don’t have much to write about for today’s blog, so instead, I thought that I’d post a blog on frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Gypsy Journal. We get some questions over and over about how we produce the paper, and why we do things the way we do. Here are some of our most often asked questions, and an explanation of the whys and wherefores of how we do what we do.

Q. How do I know when my subscription is due to expire?

A. We send out a renewal notice with your paper two issues before it is due to expire, and again with the last issue before expiration. For subscribers to our digital issue, we send an e-mail alerting them when it is time to renew. There is also a number on the top line of your address on the envelope the paper arrives in. That number is the issue your subscription expires with. The issue number is always in our masthead, at the bottom right of Page 2. For example, I am working on issue 67, so if the number on the top line of your address block is 70, you have three more issues to go before you are due to renew.

Q. What does the letter C, G or R after my expiration number mean?

A. The C is a code we use to tell us you have a courtesy subscription (usually given away as a door prize at a rally). G means you have a gift subscription. R means you are a customer that has renewed in the past. You may also see a series of letters after the expiration number. LOW means you first subscribed at Life on Wheels, OW means you came to us from the old Out West newspaper, and TLR means you were a subscriber to Two Lanes Roads before that publication shut down.

Q. Why do you use different printers and mail houses around the country, instead of just having one place you use to print and mail each issue?

A. Because we travel all of the time, and because we always print several thousand extra copies to pass out at rallies and RV parks, shipping those extra papers to wherever we may be would be both expensive, and cause travel delays that we can’t afford.

Q. Why don’t you just go to an all electronic format instead of a printed publication?

A. While we do have a digital issue available, the great majority of our readers tell us they want the printed format. I’m a dinosaur who loves the feel and smell of ink and newsprint. Besides, it’s too hard to carry your laptop computer to the bathroom.

Q. Why don’t you have very much outside advertising in the Gypsy Journal?

A. I have sold millions of dollars worth of advertising in my newspaper career, and even though I’m pretty good at it, I hate sales. I’d much rather spend my time searching out new things to write about. Also, when you have advertisers, they sometimes want to dictate what a publication can say. I’m too stubborn for that. If I think a particular product is junk, I say so. Not many companies want to spend their advertising dollars with a publication that may tell the truth about their products. If we could find an experienced, energetic salesperson, we would probably let them try to build up our ad count a bit, but we’re not trying to make a fortune, just get by, and our business model has worked so far for us.

Q. Why isn’t your telephone number included on your masthead on Page 2 so I can call you if I want to?

A. We do not have an established office; we run our business from the road. We check our e-mail several times a day, and we usually receive snail mail every week. Those are the best ways to reach us. At one time we did publish our telephone number, and it became a problem. We got calls at midnight when we were on the East coast from people on the West coast who were looking for a campground for the night and wanted recommendations. When we were on the West coast, we got calls at 6 a.m. from people on the East coast wanting to tell us about a funny sign they had seen and should include in the paper. It just became too much of a problem.

Q. Why do you have other websites, such as your Honor A Veteran or the Bad Nick Blog?

A. We have several websites, GypsyJournal.net, MotorcycleTravelOnline.com, Publishing4Profit.com, HonorAVeteran.com, and the Bad Nick Blog. I started them partly because they cover topics I am interested in and saw a need for, and partly for economic reasons. Each time someone clicks the ad links on our websites, we make a small commission. It all adds up to help us make a profit.

Q. What happened to your Today’s Hero Blog?

A. While I really enjoyed Today’s Hero, and it is still online, though I haven’t updated it in months. People just stopped sending in new nominations and I ran out of heroes to write about. I’d like to revive it someday if there is enough interest.

Q. Why is your main website GypsyJournal.net instead of .com?

A. The .com suffix was already taken when I started our Gypsy Journal website and the .net was the next best thing available.

Q. You seem to be going in a dozen different directions at once, between the paper, your rallies, speaking at RV events, and your websites. Where do you find the time for everything?

A. Everything in life takes some sacrifice, and one has to set priorities. In my case, I have given up dieting and exercise to squeeze in the extra time I need. Seriously, I’m pretty much a Type A person and I thrive on all of this. After a lifetime of publishing daily and weekly newspapers, having a deadline come around every two months is like a permanent vacation, and I need to fill the time.

Q. You do an Eastern and a Western rally every year. How about a third, floater rally, maybe in the Pacific Northwest one time, in the south another time?

A. This has come up before, and Miss Terry assures me that if I add one more event, she’ll be sitting under a palm tree on a beach somewhere when it happens. We can only stretch ourselves so far.

Q. I have all of your books. Are you going to bring out any more?

A. I have a couple written now that still need to be proofed and formatted. I hope to be able to announce them very soon. And there are several other writing projects I am also working on.

Q. What do you see in the future for the Gypsy Journal and for yourselves? Any long term plans to settle down someplace in the future?

A. Terry and I are both in agreement that we’ll continue to do just what we are doing for as long as we possibly can. We’re both in pretty good health, we’re having fun, and we’re happy. Why would we want to do anything else? As long as we can physically continue, and as long as our readers keep on wanting what we produce, we’ll be out here exploring America’s small towns and back roads, and writing about our travels.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

I apologize for sounding so negative in yesterday’s blog. But to a longtime newspaper man like myself, missing a deadline is a mortal sin. I think we’ve finally got this issue of the paper whipped, and hopefully next time around will be easier. I appreciate everybody’s comments and your e-mails of support. I’ll try not to let things get me down so much, and if they do, I’ll try not to be such a party pooper.

After reading yesterday’s blog, several readers suggested that we forgo the print edition of the Gypsy Journal in favor of an all electronic version. That just won’t happen,

We have toyed with electronic delivery, but the file size is much too large, due to the high resolution photos and type we have to use for the print version. To make it work, I would basically have to redo and re-size all of the pictures, which in our layout program, is a very time consuming job. As technology changes and more user friendly electronic newspaper layout tools become available, hopefully we can someday do a supplemental electronic edition.

But even if that happens, we will still continue with the printed version as our main product. There are a huge number of our readers who never touch a computer and want a printed newspaper. You can’t take your computer into the bathroom with you, and if you swat your puppy on the nose with a computer for piddling on the floor, someone will call the ASPCA on you!

In the past (as late as August 2008), when we have polled our readers about an electronic version, many were interested, but very, very few have been willing to pay for it. Not nearly enough to make it worth the time involved.

Most of those who said they are interested in it want it for free, they do not want to continue to pay the regular subscription fee. The common response is “But there’s so much free stuff on the internet, why should I pay for it?” As a business, that just does not work.

I’m about the laziest human being you’ll ever meet. If you don’t believe me, just ask my mother-in-law. Trust me, if there was a way to go all electronic, and still keep all of our readers, I’d have done it years ago and spared myself the labor and expense of the layout, printing, and mailing processes.

I wrote a while back that Terry and I are thinking that it’s about time we replaced our faithful bus. Since then, quite a few people have contacted me to tell me about some great deals on diesel rigs they have seen for sale. I appreciate that, but unfortunately, I’m a poor boy and some of the rigs they have referred me to are highline coaches costing well over $100,000. It would be nice to be able to afford some of them, but we’re realists. We need something not nearly that expensive.

Like a lot of folks, we are faced with having to sell our bus before we can get into something else, or trading it on a different rig. And these days the trade in value on any RV is just below nothing.

Ideally we’d love to find someone who wants out of their RV and needs someone to take over payments, with a good down payment on our part. That way we could sell our bus to a private party once we’re into the new (to us) rig.  

Thought For The Day - It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.

I have the greatest job in the world. I go to the places other people go on vacation, stay as long as I want to, the local attractions usually let me in free because I will be writing an article about them, and I get paid for having all that fun!  

But as much as I love my job, putting this issue of the Gypsy Journal together has been an absolute nightmare. We started out a little behind schedule because of our rally earlier this month. Then we discovered that the newspaper we usually use to print us has gone to a smaller size of newsprint. Newspapers nationwide are going to smaller paper in a move to save money. It’s kind of like the pound of coffee you used to buy that now only weighs maybe thirteen ounces, for the same price.

We have resisted switching to the smaller newsprint, because it reduces the amount of information we can put in an issue of the paper. It also requires a major reformatting of the layout, a very labor intensive job. But after looking all over the region and not finding a web press with the old size paper, I finally accepted the fact that we would have to resize our pages.

The printer gave me the new dimensions, I spent many hours making the switch in our layout, and then the printer’s production manager told me that their sales rep had given me incorrect page sizes, and I would have to do it all over again!

To add to all of that frustration, my page layout software suddenly does not want to cooperate. Needless to say, it hasn’t been much fun, and I’m afraid I’ve been a grouchy bear to live with.

When we started publishing the Gypsy Journal, we told our readers that they would always receive their paper no later than the second week of the first month of that issue date – for example the middle of January for the January-February issue. Thanks to improved technology and relationships we have formed with newspaper printers around the country, for the last few years, we have usually been able to get them delivered before the first of the issue month.

Unfortunately, we’re going to miss both deadlines this time around. So if you are a subscriber, I ask for your patience. It should be printed and in the mail by the end of next week.

My little frustrations seem pretty inconsequential when I remember that one year ago today, I got the terrible news that my good friend Dave Baleria had died suddenly and unexpectedly. Dave, the weeks and months since you left us have been hard. You left a very big hole in our world, one that can never be filled. I miss you everyday, brother.

Thought For The Day - Cherish your dreams, for they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.