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Charlie Traffas
Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com.
What's New
2010-08-01 13:01:00
What is The SE Kansas Q & A Times Journal?
Answer: Always glad to be asked. The SE Kansas Q & A Times Journal, a monthly newspaper, looks like a regular newspaper, but it is quite a bit different. Two of the most glaring differences are: first, you won’t see any classified, puzzles or comics; and secondly, you won’t find too much in the way of current events’ coverage. Daily papers, TV and radio do that much better than a weekly or monthly publication. Our publication provides in-depth information and education on a wide range of topics…in a non-commercial manner. We like to say, “It’s kind of like a ‘Hard Copy Google.’” Perhaps the best way to explain what it is we do is to tell you how the idea came about. While it might be a bit difficult to believe, the “seed” for the idea happened more than 50 years ago. I was born and raised on a farm south of Sharon, KS (Barber County). Every so often in the summer time, Mom would take me, my brothers and sisters to town to visit our Grandma and Grandpa Duckworth. We actually didn’t do a lot of visiting, but rather just ran in the front door, said “Hi,” and ran out the back door. We had bicycles there that we would ride with some of the kids in town. Once off the farm, we didn’t want to lose a minute. A couple of blocks from our grandparents’ house (there weren’t too many blocks in the entire city of Sharon), was Shirley Hart’s Derby Filling Station. Shirley, the owner, was a real nice man. He always hummed while he worked. There each day, under the canopy, on two wooden benches, sat several of the older, retired men in town. Among them was my Grandpa Duckworth. After I would ride my bike for awhile, I would most always end up stopping by, sitting on my bike and listening to them. They talked about everything, from the price of wheat and livestock - to things confronting the little town of Sharon - to why someone got more flat tires (that Shirley had to fix) than anyone else in town. I thought they were the smartest people I knew. Over a period of a couple of years, two of them died. I have always spent a lot of time thinking about death, even back then. I thought, as I continued to listen to the men who were left, the two that died were no longer here. They were no longer of this world. All of their experiences and all of their knowledge...gone. What a shame! Now keep in mind, I am listening to these older men, sitting on my bike, next to the old gasoline pumps. At different times, folks would pull up in their cars and trucks and Shirley would put in a dollar or two worth of gas. I thought, “You know, if those old pumps could be turned on in reverse, and the nozzle stuck in these men’s ears, all the knowledge they have could be sucked out, stored in a tank and the folks that come along after them could just stop by and fill ‘er up and they wouldn’t have to re-learn these things. Wow, I thought. How fast could we all move then!” In the late 90’s, I was writing articles on Senior Living (Assisted Living, Independent Living and Skilled Nursing Care) for several newspapers throughout the country. Among other clients in other industries, our advertising agency performed marketing services for several Senior Living firms throughout the country. This, together with being fully-licensed as a Life, Health, Property & Casualty agent, specializing in Senior products, made me rather qualified to write on not only the types of care folks could, would and did receive, but also ways to pay for this care. My articles went from being a headline with supporting editorial, to using the questions I received as the headlines, and the answers as the editorial. This produced even more questions. I then began to think (which is sometimes dangerous), “Why couldn’t we produce an entire publication of questions and answers about every subject (like Ol’ Mike Oatman from the old KFDI Radio in Wichita used to say) from “hair nets to hip boots?” Who would answer the questions? The people who own and operate their own businesses, of course. After all, who knows more than they know about the topics? They have been schooled and trained on all aspects relating to everything to do with their products and services. They know which shortcuts one can take and which one cannot take. All I would have to do is to be sure the answers were credible and that they didn’t get commercial. So I set up the criteria that their answers could not use pronouns like I, We, Ours or Us, and they couldn’t use the name of their business, products or services in their answers. Thus all we would have is pure information and education. Readers would be glad to get the information and education, especially in a non-commercial fashion. Good will would be induced by these businesses, owners and operators to the readers, which is the very definition of public relations. Then, a few pages away from their Q & A, they would have an ad that would tell the reader who they were, what they did and what they wanted the reader to do with the information. The businesses would get a two-pronged marketing approach, one of public relations for taking the time to answer a question from a non-commercial standpoint informing and/or educating the reader, and their ad. No other media offered this to an advertiser..nor does one today…anywhere in the world that we know of. In addition to offering this two-pronged marketing approach to our advertisers, we offer the longest time-spent-reading of any type of editorial there is...outperforming all other types of editorial by as much as 250%…and there is nothing as important to an advertiser as the amount of time a reader spends reading the publication that in which he/she is advertising, because the more time a reader spends reading a publication, the more opportunity that reader has to act upon the advertiser’s message. Combine this with the lowest cost per thousand advertising rates in the entire area, and the fact that our circulation to businesses and households will be nearly 30% larger than any other publication distributed in Crawford County, we have what we feel is a huge, bona fide value for area businesses. That’s how we started and how we have kept things going in Wichita. We are in the 10th year of publishing our paper in the Sedgwick County area and are beginning what we hope to be a very successful publication in the Southeast Kansas area as well. We are proud to have formed an alliance with Jerod Norris, a Southeast Kansas native, graduating from Girard High School and receiving his Bachelors Degree from Pittsburg State University. Jerod resides in St. Paul with his wife Tammi, daughter Ashton and son Brec. He has been in the advertising industry for the past several years and has taken an active role in the publishing of several publications in this area and throughout the state. When I first asked him why he wanted this opportunity, he replied, “I have a passion for marketing and media…particularly print media. To be able to introduce this most unique publication to our area, operating the same, and working with local businesses, is very exciting to me. It is exactly what I was looking for at this time in my career.” I promise you, you don’t find that kind of passion, enthusiasm and ability wrapped up in the same person that often. I knew then he was the person we were looking for. Jerod will be the “person on the ground” that takes care of everything to do with our publication in Southeast Kansas…from creating marketing solutions for businesses with our advertising…to assisting with the artwork and ad materials…to Q & A ideas and assistance. His contact information will always be on Page 3 in the lower right hand section of the page. Our company contact information is there too for any additional assistance you might need. We have featured hundreds of answers, from hundreds of writers, to hundreds of questions over the years. Every one of them can be found at our website, www.theqandatimes.com, categorized by both subject and writer. All of the questions and answers we receive from this area will be there too. That’s our “tank” if you will. To me, our writers are analogous to the older men in Sharon. They are some of the smartest people I know. We hope you enjoy our publication.
 
The Q & A Times Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs.Materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Thank you.
 
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