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HOW TO TURN YOUR COMPUTER INTO A MONEY-MAKING BATTLEAXE! (Part 1 of 2)

Why did you buy your computer? Did you buy it to play games? Fair enough. Did you buy it to help you keep track of your current business? Good answer, too. Not sure why you bought it? That’s okay. That probably describes most people.

Here’s something you should know… your computer is an important tool that can springboard you into a very high-profit business! How high? 1000% profits good enough for you? If not, you’re too greedy, but if that sounds good to you, read this report. You’ll learn how you can start a highly profitable business creating and selling INFORMATION PRODUCTS with your computer.

Selling information is, in my opinion, THE best business. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons. Among them,

• It’s easy and inexpensive to start
• It’s easy and inexpensive to run on an ongoing basis
• It can be run in spare time or full time
• Anyone, young or old, male or female can do it
• It can be run from the home
• It can have incredibly high profits
• There’s no need to tie up a bunch of money in inventory

A very important aspect of this business is that people will ALWAYS want information. It’s not a business based on trends or fads (unless you’re writing about them), and competition isn’t as big a factor as in other businesses. There may be other people writing about the same subjects as you, but there will always be many angles and approaches that can be taken toward the same subject. This will make your information product unique.

There is no limit to the types of subjects that can successfully be sold. People will always want to know: ways they can make or save money; information about hobbies they either are involved in or want to start; travel tips and techniques; how-to information about various trades and businesses; and much more. The secret to doing this successfully is called TARGETING.

Targeting means that you are producing specialized information that will appeal to a specific group of people. To paraphrase an old adage, if you try to be all things to all people, you won’t succeed. But, if you try to be a certain thing for a certain group, you WILL succeed.

The trend that has shaped and reshaped this business, more than any other, has been the explosion of direct mail marketing. People are buying more and more by mail, and it seems like each year doubles the previous year. The great thing about direct mail marketing is that there are many ways you can isolate a specific group of people and market directly to that group.

To put this another way, if you put an ad in a newspaper that has a circulation of 25,000, maybe only 5,000, or even 1,000 or less, will be interested in what you have to offer. However, if you put your ad in a publication that has a circulation of 25,000 people interested in fishing, you’ve just targeted a group that will be interested in what you have to offer (as long as your offer has to do with fishing). The more you narrow down your target group to the exact people who will be interested in your information products, the more success you will see. This is targeting.

So how does your computer help you in this business? Well, besides the obvious uses of keeping your customer list and organizing your accounting needs, your computer can completely eliminate the need for inventory. That’s right! Create your info-products with your word processing program, and you can print them out whenever you need them, however many you need. That way, you don’t tie up a lot of money in printing and storage, plus, if you happen to create an info-product that DOESN’T sell (everyone does - just ask me!), you don’t get stuck with a bunch of product you can’t sell.

Also, the computer makes it easier to create these products. You say you can’t write? Well, don’t get scared away. You don’t have to be Tolstoy in this business. Here’s the secret: WHEN YOU WRITE SOMETHING, PRETEND YOU’RE TALKING TO A FRIEND! MAKE IT LIKE A CONVERSATION, AND IT WILL BE EASY TO WRITE, AND EASY TO READ. That’s exactly how I write. I do all my writing just like I’m sitting across the table from a friend of mine, or writing a friendly letter. Too many people churn out stilted, boring, college professor-type writing, thinking it sounds “high-minded” or “educated.” It’s just hard to read, that’s all. Conversational writing is the best, and the computer makes it easy. If you can type with any reasonable speed, you can type faster and longer than you could write, without getting tired.

PICKING YOUR SUBJECTS

What to write about? Make a list of everything you know. I know, that can be easier said than done. You may think you don’t know enough about much of anything to write about, but that’s not true. All of your hobbies, interests, work experiences, etc. can be great starting points.

Don’t worry about how much information you can pull out of a subject. Info-products aren’t all 200 page books. Successful information products have ranges from large books all the way down to single page reports! A three page report that costs less than 50 cents to print out and send can be sold for $5. What percent profit is that?

Pick a subject from your list that you think would interest a good number of people. Now, list the possible questions you could answer. The best way to organize them for an info-product is usually the “problem-solution” method, where you state the problem or question, then give the solution or answer. Now, talk to your imaginary friend! Tell him or her story. If it helps, talk out loud into a tape recorder! Then, type it with your word processor. You’ve just created your first info-product!

Another, more powerful way to create an information product is to find a market that is hungry for information, then research and write products that will feed this hunger. If you know the market is already there, then half your work is done for you!

How do you go about finding these markets? By doing a little creative research. The simplest method is to go to your library, and get at least eight consecutive months or more of magazines that have large classified and mail order ad sections. Look through the ads and find the ones that keep appearing in each issue. These ads are obviously drawing orders, or else they wouldn’t keep running. Make a list of the subjects of these ads. These will be some good markets to explore. And don’t worry about the competition! Offer these markets something different and better, and you’ll find success.

Part 2

The second and final part of “HOW TO TURN YOUR COMPUTER INTO A MONEY-MAKING BATTLEAXE! (2 of 2)” will be available next Monday.

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH JUNKY STUFF IN THE MAIL THESE DAYS?

I hear it all the time: “There is so much junky stuff in the mail. Most of the stuff is crooked, hard to read, copied 100 times and ugly. I wouldn’t order from them regardless of what they were selling.” I agree!

In fact — I have wondered what would possess people to actually send out some of this “junky” stuff. Don’t they realize it will cost them a great loss in potential sales? Don’t they care? Don’t they realize that they are actually LOSING money?

However, remember the old saying: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer?” While a poor person of today can be a rich person of tomorrow — a person that stays poor their entire life does so because they have made themselves that way. They have never learned the proper way to conduct business in order for it to turn a profit for them. Some of them may have tried and tried — but for some reason, they continually made bad decisions to keep themselves poor.

Let me give you a common example of what I mean. Around the first of the month, go grocery shopping. This is the time that people shop who are on fixed incomes and draw food stamp benefits. (I consider this the poor side of America.)

Now — watch their buying habits very carefully. Very rarely will you see someone use manufacturers’ coupons to save money. Very rarely do you see them purchase a brand name product (unless its cigarettes or beer.) Most of the poor people ALWAYS purchase unbranded products. These are fine in some circumstances, but if a poor person buys a unbranded name of laundry detergent or dishwashing liquid — it will run out 3 or 4 times faster than name brands like Dawn, Ivory and Palmolive. Sure — the name brand costs more in the beginning, but the long term effects will save the poor person lots of money!

What does going to the grocery store and watching poor people have to do with junky mail? Plenty! Junky mail is created by people who will never be more than they are today — OR they are people who have been taught by bad teachers and are trying to do what they are told. The fact remains through — ANYBODY can look at other things that come in the mail and learn from them. EVERYONE gets mailings from large companies that are written by professionals to sell products. All the mail order dealer has got to do is READ them.

When a piece of mail arrives that appears professional and looks like it came from a company who had a lot of money — dissect it. Find a way that YOU can make your materials look like theirs for a price within your budget.

One problem that some dealers have who mail this “junky” stuff is that they don’t believe they can look good without investing a lot of money. It doesn’t take a lot of money to look good. Just like it doesn’t take a lot of money to take a bath every day! You can still be poor but accomplish the same goal.

Another downfall for “junky” mail pieces is that quick-copy machines have made it easy for anyone to make copies. Copy machines are at most grocery and drug stores, libraries and convenient marts across America. Some people buy a desktop copier for $300 or $400 and use it to make copies of their adsheets; while others order typesetting and make copies of their camera-ready ads so they’ll have more copies.

This is all fine and dandy if you are copying a first-generation master, but if you are running a program or commission circular dealership you can’t get by with making quick copies and expect the quality to hold up. Suppose you have a typesetter design you a 8.5″x11″ circular for your program. You will give new dealers a copy of the circular from your original master the typesetter designed.

The new dealer now has a second-generation copy. He or she signs up new dealers and makes a copy of your copy. Those dealers are now getting a third-generation copy, which is probably looking poor and worn-out by this time.

Now, the guy with the third-generation copy sends it to a tabloid publisher who prints and mails it in their publication. This particular printing is now in it’s fourth-generation. Can you imagine what it looks like now?

Don’t believe me? Try it on a copier yourself. Take a camera-ready master and make a copy. Take the copy and make another copy from it. Compare the difference between this second copy and the camera-ready master. You’ll see how the circular is deteriorating — regardless of how professional it was originally typeset! This is one reason mail order is looking “junky” and it’s up to everyone to put a stop to it!

And don’t make the decision to keep your business poor and non-productive! Instead, you could be the next Montgomery Ward!

WHAT IT COSTS TO START A MAIL ORDER BUSINESS

You can read stories all day long about how easy it is to start your mail order business for as little as $10. But I’m sorry my dear friend. It costs much more than that.

Of course you can pay for expenses as you go along if you have another type of income you can use to pay your personal living expenses with some left over to invest in your mail order business. You don’t have to have all the money up-front — but regardless of what anyone tells you — it costs money to own and operate a mail order business.

How much money? Well, it all depends on what type of business you go into and how quickly you begin to generate orders that reimburse you for the money you pay out of your pocket in the beginning. However, it’s safe to say you need at least $500 to get going in the right direction.

Why do much? Because the first thing you need are office supplies. At bare minimum you need envelopes (the #10 business size), paper, a typewriter or computer, 3×5 cards to keep track of names and addresses of people, tape, scissors, ink pens and a pack of mailing labels (handwriting an address on an envelope is very unprofessional and shows you are an inexperienced beginner.)

Next, you will need to have enough money to pay a typesetter to design you some ads. Don’t buy a kit and make them up yourself. At this stage of the game, you are very inexperienced and don’t know how to write or present ads that will bring you a response. Invest $5 or $6 in a few one-inch ads that a mail order typesetter will design professionally for you. They will pay for their weight in gold!

You’ll also need some money to pay a mail order printer to get some copies made so you can mail them to prospective buyers. Don’t try to make copies at the quick-shop down the street. Most of them want 15c or more per copy and mail order printer prices range around $30 per 1,000 or 3c each. This is a big savings.

You’ll also need money for research and an investment in your education. This means purchasing “Big Mails” from other people to read and consider. You’ll also want to buy a couple good books on mail order marketing and even buy a few tabloids, adsheets, etc. This is the only way you can find other people’s names and addresses so you can contact them. It is also the only way you will be introduced to publishers and where to advertise so you can start getting some orders.

You’ll also need money for postage to mail out your letters and correspondence. This is a mail order dealer’s biggest expense.

From the day you place your first advertisement (display or classified), it will take anywhere from 1 month to 6 months to get your first order. Why so long? Because, no one knows you. Unless you are selling the Brooklyn Bridge for $24.95, you won’t generate a lot of excitement at first and most people who see your name will probably mail you their offers. (They know you are new because they haven’t noticed your name before.)

But a quicker way to generate some name recognition is to find several established mail order dealers who advertise or publish in mail order publications and correspond with them. When you find someone who is interested in you and takes you under their wing — you’ll begin to go places.

If you are selling reports, don’t be afraid to contact someone else who is selling reports. The mail order business is very different from operating a local business. If a pizza shop opens up across the street from your pizza shop — there will be a definite competition. But if another pizza shop opens up 60 miles away from you, it doesn’t matter. In mail order — the WORLD is your marketplace. Two people who sell the same product can work together and still have enough business to keep both of them happy. The world is a big place!

When you contact other people who share in your own interests and what you are selling, you can form lasting friendships and learn from the more experienced people. Invest some of your money into phone calls and contact these people directly. Ask them questions you don’t understand. Listen to their answers with an open mind. Although a mail order dealer has been in the business for 30 years though, if he or she isn’t making any money their advice may or may not be right for you. You can’t ask them how much money they make — but after talking to them awhile, you can determine if they know what they’re doing. Good luck!

A REAL LIST OF MAIL ORDER BUSINESSES TO CONTACT

Before you spend any money. Before you believe all the lies out there on the market — here are a few people you can contact that are honest and trustworthy folks in the mail order industry. Their names and addresses are current at the time of this writing, but since this report carries reprint rights, you could be reading it for the first time many months or years into the future. Therefore, you need to keep in mind that people move, lives change, businesses close and people die. However, since these people have already been in business a few years and become established — they or a relative should still be operating the business when you contact them.

Here’s how to contact them, write a letter that says something to the effect:

“I saw your name and address on a mail order report that recommends you as an honest business. I am enclosing two first-class postage stamps. Please send me updated information and prices on the products and services you currently offer. Thanks. (Your name and complete address.)”

Respected Mail Order Dealers

• J. Stewart Caverly, 216 McLean St, Wilkes Barre PA 18702
• Herman Holtz, PO Box 1731, Wheaton MD 20915
• Graphico Publishing, PO Box 488, Bluff City TN 37618
• Valentine’s Printing, 870 Bender Ave, Galion OH 44833
• Don Harris, PO Box 1052, Oviedo FL 32765
• Broadway Publication, 7546 Palm Rd, W Palm Beach FL 33406
• M.T.B. & Associates, 1482 Clairville Rd, Oshkosh WI 54904
• Ken Weiand, PO Box 624, Cherokee Village AR 72525
• Margaret Lucas, 1006 Runion Ave, Fort Wayne IN 46808
• Harland DeGroot, 2765-H Jefferson, Springfield IL 62702
• William Lee, Rt 1, Box 10790, Madisonville TN 37354
• David Dye, PO Box 1002, Battle Creek MI 49016
• Willie Damel, 25 Clifton Ave D-1508, Newark NJ 07104
• Robyn Hormel, 4615 Takilma Rd, Cave Junction OR 97523
• Gloria Rivers, 5308 NE 49th Ave, Vancouver WA 98661
• Mail Order Messenger, PO Box 358, Middleton TN 38052
• Gary Davis, PO Box 80, Foyil OK 74031
• Kathy Mathews, PO Box 8125, Fort Collins CO 80526
• Willie Mae Brehm, 1422 S Lake Pleasant Rd, Apopka FL 32703
• Gold Service, PO Box 508, Duarte CA 91009
• Joe Reinbold, PO Box 424, Morganville NJ 07751
• Glenn Bridgeman, PO Box 10150, Terra Bella CA 93270
• Tropics West, 130 E Main St #315, Medford OR 97501
• JRS Printing, PO Box 2508, Calcutta OH 43920
• Tom Leash, 64 W Main St, Dallastown PA 17313
• C.J. Nelson, 1825 Domanik Dr, Racine Wi 53404
• William Thrailkill, 4811-16th Ave, Chattanooga TN 37407
• George Norr, PO Box 70268, Salt Lake City UT 84170
• Gregory Bey, 1324« Lincoln Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15206
• Frank Novak, 3857 Heppner Dr, Chippewa Falls WI 54729
• Gail Lamothe, PO Box 46, Derby VT 05829
• Dale Rolland, 2045 Deer Trail, Floresville TX 78114
• Charlie Mims, 316 Hill St, Rochelle Ga 31079
• Ray Benbenek, 1151 Sonora Ave #118, Glendale CA 91201
• Bill Kern, 6460-65 Convoy Ct, San Diego CA 92117
• Edward Canty, 4828 Zorich Dr, Charlotte NC 27533
• Hamilton Plummer, PO Box 7768, Washington DC 20044
• Maynard Hawkins, PO Box 3403, Wichita Falls TX 76301
• Betty Culpepper, 3082 New Franklin Rd, LaGrange GA 30240
• Roy Beasley, PO Box 3087, Jekyll Island GA 31527
• Carl O’Shea, PO Box 700, Baldwin Park CA 91706
• Scott Covert, 24650 Eglinton Ave E #303, Scarborough, Ontario Canada M1K 5J7
• Don Smith, PO Box 7600, Newark DE 19714
• Chris Nelson, PO Box 745, Bloomington IL 61702

HOW TO ANALYZE A RIP-OFF SCHEME

This review is taken DIRECTLY from a piece of “junk mail.” It is for the program that starts out with the heading: “Before You Decide To Throw This Away, Please Read The Enclosed At Least Once — Then Decide. This is Not a Chain Letter! I Threw The Program in The Trash.”

The first paragraph reads: “I had received this program before and threw it away, but later I wondered if I shouldn’t have given it a try. Of course, I had no idea who to contact to get a copy, so I had to wait until I was mailed another copy of the program — eleven months passed, then it came. I DIDN’T throw this one away. I made $41,000 on the first try!!” Signed by D. Wilburn, Muncie IN

In order to get your attention quick, Mr. or Ms. Wilburn shares their experience of making the mistake of throwing the letter away. A normal person will say to themselves: “I don’t want to make the same mistake Wilburn did. He had to wait another 11 months before he had the chance, so I better really read this thing.” But in reality you’ll find out that this piece of garbage has been floating around for years and if you miss this copy, you’ll get another one tomorrow or the day after.

The next thing you see is a bold headline reading: “You are about to make at least $50,000 in less than 90 days — in the comfort of your own home. Read the enclosed program, and then read it again.” The average person is skeptical but the idea of money has been planted in your mind right up front. This will cause you to read a little while longer.

The rest of the page is completely filled with hype — informing you everything is LEGITIMATE and LEGAL. (We all want to be legitimate and legal don’t we?) Claims are made that the program works 100% every time and how thousands have used the program to raise capital to start their own business, pay off debts, homes, cars, etc., and even retire. You can ALWAYS recognize a scam because your emotions are appealed to in a big way. Think about it — doesn’t everyone on the planet earth want money to start a business? Pay off debts? Have homes, cars, etc.? Would anyone turn this offer away? NO! That’s what makes it so easy to recognize these scams — they appeal to everybody and do nothing! Your emotions are cruelly played with!

Okay, let’s move on. Frank T of Bel Air MD relates his personal testimonial at the top of Page 2. Try to look in the phone book and find either D Wilburn or Frank T. Notice how only a partial part of their names and addresses are ALWAYS presented. This is so nobody can find them. But why bother? They don’t exist!

The instructions are presented on the rest of Page 2. They consist of precise directions for ordering four reports, paying $5 cash for each one and moving the names around on the list. This is a typical chain letter and they don’t work because 99.9% of everyone receiving it replaces their name and members of their family with the people listed.

These instructions are completely stupid. They make you go through a bunch of bull just to make you believe you are doing something worthwhile. Actually — all they’re doing is selling you some worthless reports — which you may or may not ever receive.

Page 3 instructs you to get a mailing list to mail the letter you are reading to. Of course, when you order the reports, you will get information on where to purchase this mailing list. Don’t you see that these people only care about selling you a mailing list? They could care less if you get a response or not because they made their money from you purchasing their bunch of worthless names and addresses. In fact, you are even told to get names and addresses from your phone book. Come on! This is the ABSOLUTE WORST way to sell anything simply because you have no idea what these people are interested in. Even if you sold a real product, let’s say: baby-sitting services — you wouldn’t sit down and advertise it by writing letters to everyone in the phone book. Instead, you’d place an ad in the paper and have people only interested in baby-sitting contact you.

Now comes the guarantee. It says: “The check point which guarantees your success is simply this: you must receive 15-20 orders for Report 1. This is a must. If you don’t within 2 weeks, send out more programs until you do. Then, a couple weeks later, you should receive at least 100 orders for Report 2.” Notice the word “should.” The fact is, you could mail until the day the Lord comes back and you’ll NEVER get 15-20 orders. You’d be lucky to get even one. Believe me — 1,000’s of people have put the chain letter theory to a variety of tests and actually given it every chance in the world to make money. None have ever worked.

Now, here’s the hype that really gets most people. Here it is reprinted in its entirety: “Let’s say you decide to start small, just to see how it goes, and we will assume you and all those involved send out only 200 programs each. Let’s also assume that the mailing receives a 5% response. Using a good list, the response could be much better. Also, many people will send out thousands of programs instead of 200! But, continuing with this example, you send out 200 programs. With a 5% response, that is, 10 orders for Report 1 (ten people responded by sending out 200 programs each) for a total of 2,000. The 5% response that brings 100 orders for report 2. Those mail out 200 programs for a total of 20,000. The 5% response to those is 1,000 orders for Report 3. The 1,000 send out 200,000 total and the 5% response to that is 10,000 orders for Report 4 (10,000 $5 for you.) Your total income in this example is $50 + $550 + $5,000 + $50,000 + $55,550. Remember friend, this is assuming that 95 out of 100 people you mail to will do absolutely nothing and trash this program. Dare to think what would happen if everyone sent out 1,000 programs instead of only 200? Believe it; many people will do that and more. By the way, at current prices, your cost to send out 200 programs is less than $100. The participation fee is ridiculously low when you consider what you stand to gain! Consider your self fortunate to be invited to participate in an exclusive program that really works. Have faith. Think positively, Keep in mind that your investment is minimal and its easy money invested in you.”

Give me a break! What a bunch of lies. Anybody that reads this and really believes it can work must also believe that Snow White really lives in the forest with the 7 dwarfs.

The truth of the matter is that it really would work if everyone did what they were supposed to do — but they won’t. I’ll prove it. Go to a place where there are a lot of people (like a mall.) Walk up to the first person you meet and ask them to give you a $5 bill. In return for their $5, they will get $50,000 if they will just find 10,000 other people to give them $5 by promising them the same thing. How many people do you think will take you up on your offer? If you do find one person to do it they will either be mentally retarded or hard of hearing. So if you couldn’t work the program in person, what makes you think it will work through the mail with people who have no idea who you are? The truth is — it doesn’t work. It NEVER will!

Page 4 tells you all about these four wonderful reports you will be purchasing. Their titles are beautiful: “How to Make $250,000 Through Multi-Level Order Sales” and “Sources For The Best Mailing List.” I’m sure we all can’t wait to order them right away.

Page 5 is a personal note from the originator of the program — Edward L. Green. He doesn’t have a city and state beside his name. Why, because his full name is used. (Remember, they don’t want you to try and find these people.) A real testimonial would be proud to give you the full name, full address and phone number of the individual so you could get in touch with them to find out more about the program. Anyone hiding so that you can’t call them up or write to them directly is a scam artist. No doubt about it!

Edward L Green tells you about how poor he was in 1979. He also says that he will never see a penny of your money. He has already made $4 million and wants to retire. Give me a break. If you made $4 million wouldn’t you want $5 million or $10 million or $20 million? Why stop at a measly $4 million when you could star on the Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous and be interviewed by Robin Leach? $4 million is chicken feed if something really worked to bring in this amount of money!

Amazingly though, on Page 6, Johnson Distributing gives a real name and address. But try to get a phone number on them with an address of “PO Box 7, SAFB IL 42225-0007.” It doesn’t exist!

Page 7 and 8 contain letters from Chris Johnson, Paul Johnson, A. Zurki, Carl Winslow, A.S. Jalosyk, Bill Nelson, J.T. Adams, Charles Fairchild, Tommy Jayhet and Mary Rockland. They all tell you some hard luck story about how this program changed their life. Again — try to contact them. If you live in Waco TX, try and find Tommy Jayhet and see what he has to say about all this.

Do you get the picture yet? Almost all scams follow this same general theme. Don’t get taken!