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HOW TO GET BIG DOLLARS IN YOUR MAILBOX -- EVERY DAY!
No other business venture seems so inviting, or attracts so many people than
that of selling via mail order. On the surface, it appears to be an easier and
faster way to become rich than almost any other method of doing business. All
the people in the world are your potential customers; you work from the privacy
and comfort of your own home; you set you own working hours; and you answer to
no one but yourself.
Ideally, you should have a product of your own - something you can produce at
very low cost, and sell at top price. If you are buying something, advertising
and reselling it, in order to realize a profit, you have to mark it up at least
500%. This is not an unreasonable mark-up for mail order sales.
Your product has to have mass appeal, and it has to be something not readily
available to your prospective customers except through you. The product should
be such that you can carry an inventory without worry of spoilage, aging or
other damage. It should be something you can send through the mail - deliver to
your customer - for next to nothing in relation to your selling price.
The best money-making product of all is a "How-To" report such as this one. You
don't have to be a literary genius, or even an experienced writer to write one
of these re ports. In fact, the easiest way is to buy a set of these reports -
read each one over, set it aside and write a similar one with more elaboration
or from a different point of view. Give your report a commercially appealing
title, set a price for it, advertise it widely in a
number of nationally circulated mail order publications, and you could have
something that will continue to bring in money for you for many years to come.
The absolute best money-maker of them all is a report you've found a great need
for, researched thoroughly, and written from scratch. Discovering these needs is
not that difficult a task.
If you just don't have the time to write and market one of these reports, or
just cannot produce one for whatever reason, the next best thing to purchase a
set of these reports with reproduction rights. Here, you can have a number
reprinted for as little as one or two cents each, and sell them for one to five
dollars each. The only problem with this approach is that after a year, nearly
everyone in mail order will have a copy of these
reports, and will be trying just as hard as you are to sell them.
Now, if you have bought the reproduction rights to the reports, you simply
rewrite them, put new titles on them, make up a new advertising circular, and
send them out as new reports each year. There are a number of mail order
self-help reports that have been making the rounds for the past 25 years in just
this manner.
Just because you haven't got the time or the tools to write one of these reports
is no reason for not producing one. If you have an idea or the background
material, and the confidence that such a report will sell - get in touch with
someone who specializes in this kind of writing, and have then put the finished
product together for you. Generally, the fees will run to $100 per page. But
this is an "incidental fee" indeed, if you come up with something that has the
potential of bringing in several thousand dollars per year for the next ten
years or so. Remember, once you have it together and written, you just continue
making copies of your original and filling prepaid cash orders for as long as
you wish to stay in business.
You should also have advertising circulars, a catalog or a "follow-up" offer for
every order you get. Many people make the mistake of "sending their whole store"
in response to every inquiry. When you receive an inquiry to your advertising,
you should have a prepared sales letter describing the item you're advertising,
and perhaps a circular listing in catalog style some of your other products that
tie in with the product of your sales letter. This is known as the "featured
Selection Plus Alternates" approach.
When you receive an order for the product you've been advertising or featuring
in your mail efforts, include one of your product catalogs in the package with
the customer's order. The most effective practice is to include an advertising
circular or brochure of a leader item or special-of-the-month, and your catalog.
The main thing NOT to do is to include more than a couple of separate "featured
selection" circulars. Keep your eyes
on how the big mail order houses do it, and duplicate their operating plan
within your own means.
The important point to remember here is to be sure to include something
different - something new - something your customer has not seen or been offered
a chance to buy - with each successive contact you make with him. Once you've
broken the ice and got him
spending money with you, continue showing him products of a related nature that
should stimulate his appetite for greater success. For sure, he'll never be more
in the mood to buy from you than when he receives something he has ordered. So
every time you fill and send out an order to a buyer, include an opportunity for
him to buy even more from you.
You can make a very comfortable income, but you'll never get rich so long as
you're having your orders dropshipped for you. Having a connection with a prime
source that will dropship orders for you is one of the surest and best ways to
"learn" the business
of selling by mail - but if you really want to make it big, you'll use
dropshipping sources for learning, and to back up your primary product with
follow-up offers.
If you don't have a primary product of your own, the next best thing is to buy
in quantity lots at wholesale prices. A work of caution here, though: do not buy
a quantity supply of anything until you've seen a sample of the product and have
thoroughly tested the salability of that product.
Too often, the beginner is sold a quantity of a certain product at so-called
wholesale prices, only to find that after he had spent his capital he either
doesn't want to put forth the effort and time to sell that particular product,
or that he can't "give it away," let alone sell it. Suppliers who operate this
way, almost forcing you to buy an inventory to have available for your orders,
generally derive most of their income from the sale of the initial "required"
inventories. Always investigate and check out the salability before you buy
anything more than just a single sample.
Selling your reports depends on your advertising. You have to get the word out
that you have "money-making information" available for sale. Start out small by
using short classified typed ads. Look at how some of the established mail order
reports sellers are doing it, and copy their methods. Do not copy their ads
-instead, use them as idea stimulaters for your own original copy. Place an ad
in one of the largest circulation publications you can find, then use the income
from that ad to buy and place more advertising. In other words, use the money
that comes in from the first ad to place similar ads in three or four other
publications.
One of the insider secrets of the mail order business is in multiplying your
advertising exposure. This means simply that you start with an ad in one
publication, and from there, expand your exposure by advertising in more
publications. Be patient, and
wait for the returns form your current ads, then use that money to increase the
number of people who will have a chance to see your ad. It's as simple as that,
and it works every time. Try it and see for yourself.
All of this means that as you are getting started with a new mail order
business, you have to reinvest all your business income back into the business.
To do otherwise is a straight line to business failure.
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