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How To Make Your Mailbok Your Money Machine
No other way of doing business seems so inviting or attracts more
people than the business of selling something 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 of the work are your potential customers - you work from the
privacy and comforts of your own home - set your own working hours - and answer to no one
but yourself.
But, you have to have a product of your own - something you can produce
one time at virtually no cost, and sell at a top price. If you're buying something,
advertising that product and re-selling it, in order to realize a profit, you have to mark
it up at least 5 times - and when you increase the price of something, you start loosing
potential buyers. Your product has to have mass appeal, and it has to be
something not readily available to your prospective customers, except through you. This
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 reports. 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 in
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 big of an undertaking either.
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 is 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're the author or originator of these 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 you not to write one. If you've got an idea, the
background material, and the confidence that such a report or booklet will sell - get in
touch with someone who specializes in this kind of writing and have them put the finished
product together for you. Generally, the fees will run $75 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've got it together/written - you just continue making copies of your original and
filling prepaid cash orders for as long as people keep sending in those orders.
You should also have advertising circulars, a catalog or a
"follow-up" offer for ever 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 prepaid 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 in 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 direct 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 similar 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 more from you than when he receives something he's ordered. So everything
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. Being connected 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 word 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 saleability 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's spent his $500 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. People that 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 these 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 type ads. Look at how some of the established mail
order report sellers are doing it, and copy their methods. Do not copy their ads -
instead, use them as idea stimulators for your own original copy. Place an ad in one of
the largest circulation publications you can find, and 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 3 or 4 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 that 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 of your business income back into the business. To do
otherwise is a straight line to business failure.
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