# Are there any Betta magazines?



## SageMyster (Jul 13, 2011)

Just wondering, because I think it would be a great idea to have an informative, accurate depiction of Bettas in a magazine. Are there any fish magazines out there that focus on Bettas?


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## Aus (Feb 3, 2012)

It wouldn't be hard to make one.. Well. Not to _make_ one. _Running_ it's another story. :lol:

I co-created a now very successful online poetry magazine, originally using wordpress. It was a lot of work, when there wasn't staff for every major job (art, poems, interviews, etc) and two of us were doing everything.. If anyone wanted to make an online magazine, I'd recommend having a good host site with good tech support! (so invaluable), and somebody on staff with the patience to tinker with the coding (which wasn't me xD). 

There's also some brilliant print-magazine companies, a bit like lulu.com (but not lulu..) - you pay for the setup, and marketing is up to you, but they print on demand, which means you're not stuck with shipping costs or boxes full of last month's unsold magazines. You can also handle all sales monies and whatnot online. 

If anyone has the time and dedication to put in (and plenty of both) and is good at making and keeping deadlines, I highly recommend running a small magazine as an interesting and rewarding experience. I am pretty sure you'd never run out of article material where bettas are concerned! You could run a monthly picture comp, interview Thai fish sellers and betta experts, test run products.. all kind of great things to share! And having an 'ethical-only' policy for ads and review items would help spread word about good betta keeping  I hope somebody takes the challenge and does it - an online/downloadable betta-focussed zine would be awesome.

I know I'd be in line to subscribe, for sure!


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Yes but you have to be an IBC member. It's called FLARE and its a bimonthly publication.


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## ZackyBear (Dec 1, 2011)

Hmm...if anyone starts something like that up I would donate lots of time to it, as well as testing products and such!. :3


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

It would be cool to have a non IBC magazine for the hobbyist who isn't interested in breeding or showing.


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## Aus (Feb 3, 2012)

I agree, an 'average hobbyist' mag would be great. And even better if it's online! Postage is sooo expensive for OS mail.. 

Editors I know who sell online mags (mine was free) offer annual/biannual subscriptions by paypal for downloadable pdf files. That cover the site costs (it's hard to get rich running a zine, lol!) and artwork, hired tech help, etc. They sometimes offer last year's issues really cheap or a few free for 'previews'. 

I honestly think a well put together, informative zine would prove really popular.. it IS a lot of hard work to make a good-looking magazine that keeps readers' interest from month to month, but it is SO rewarding! 

I'm sure there has to be people or a group of people out there with the time.. it's time and effort that is the biggest cost, websites are relatively cheap. I think it cost us maybe two hundred dollars a year for the site but we were using an expensive host.


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## thekoimaiden (Oct 19, 2011)

I would certainly subscribe to a hobbyist betta magazine or e-zine. Maybe the IBC could produce it and use it as a springboard for proper betta care in the mainstream. It would be great to cite a publication by an international club like the IBC.


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## eaturbyfill (May 22, 2012)

I also agree, that kind of magazine would be nice to see!


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## rubinthebetta (Oct 9, 2012)

Hmmmm.....I actually might try to make one sometime......you guys inspire me way too much. lol


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## Maddybelle (Sep 29, 2012)

I'd definitely be interested in working on this. I use wix.com for my websites. I've designed 3+. I'm also a pretty good writer! =) (Anybody that would like to collaborate, shoot me a pm!)
Geez, I've really got too much free time.


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## stagmanv835 (Oct 5, 2012)

Just found a link to and old flare mag

http://www.rainyvalley.com/download/Flare39-2.pdf


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