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HOW TO GET RICH WITH CD-ROMS (2 OF 2)

This is part two of a two part series. Part one was published on Monday.

HOW TO START THIS BUSINESS

First of all, immerse yourself in the CD-ROM world. If you don’t already have a CD-ROM unit, spring for one. Here are two sources for low-priced CD-ROM units: CRAZY BOB’S (yes, that’s the actual name of the place), 50 New Salem St., Wakefield, MA 01880 (800) 776-5685 (an excellent source for CD-ROM units starting at $259, plus tons of CD-ROMs at low prices - call for their catalog); and CORPORATE SYSTEMS CENTER, 1294 Hammerwood Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (408) 734-3475 (new and refurbished CD-ROM units from $149). Read the computer magazines, especially ones dealing with multimedia topics. Many of them will have lists of the top selling CD-ROMs. Become a frequent visitor at your local computer stores - pay attention to what people buy. All these will give you clues as to what the big sellers are. Take good notes, and keep them handy!

Next, decide how you will run this business - in a store, or by mail. This business can be run equally well both ways, though the methodologies are a bit different. If you run it retail, you’ll need to be in a good, visible location, with a decent amount of advertising and publicity. If you operate as a mail order business, you’ll need to put together a catalog of what you have to offer and get it out to CD-ROM buyers.

Now, put together a starting inventory. You can do this by advertising in local and national magazines. Put a classified ad out saying something like this: “CASH FOR YOUR CD-ROMS!!! Excellent condition only, must have all manuals. Send your list for quote. (Your name and address).” Good places to put this ad include Computer Shopper Magazine, Computer Monthly, PC Magazine, multimedia-oriented magazines, BBSs, and local computer user group newsletters. When you receive lists in the mail, compare them to the information you compiled earlier. Find out what your local dealers and national mail order retailers are selling the titles for. Offer the person an average of 25% of the normal selling price. Most of them will take it, rather than have the CD-ROMs sitting around on a shelf, gathering dust. You should try to compile at least one to two hundred CD-ROMs before you advertise them for sale.

When you DO start advertising, emphasize that you will take trade-ins (remember the two for one deal described earlier) in addition to selling for cash. This is a very cheap way to build inventory. Remember to get at least double what you paid for each CD you sell.

If you want to run your business as a retail store, you should consider stocking some new CD-ROMs. Allow customers to trade their old CD-ROMs in for new ones, keeping your costs in mind. There’s no reason why you have to have a hard set concrete rule, such as “you get one new CD-ROM for every three used ones you bring in.” You can set a certain dollar credit amount for each CD-ROM they bring in, if some are more desirable than others. Also, you don’t have to take EVERY CD-ROM that people bring in. Like any other product, some CD-ROMs will be total dogs that no one will want to buy, except someone who’s never heard how awful it is. Don’t take these. If you manage to pass one off on an unsuspecting customer, good for you, but you’ll probably never see them again. You want customers to return, and return, and return. You want them to buy a CD-ROM from you, come back and trade it in, then do the same again and again. That’s where the real money is.

After all, say a customer buys a CD-ROM from you for $50 that you paid $25 for. You’ve made $25 profit. That customer comes back in a few months later to trade it in. Now, that CD-ROM might only be able to bring in $35, so you offer $17 for it. You still have $8 profit. You’ll make $17 profit on it when someone else buys it, bringing the profit amount back up to $25. The customer now buys another $50 CD-ROM, giving you another $25 profit.
And so on…

If you’re running a retail walk-in store, you won’t need a huge one. In fact, a smaller store can be better than a large one. Your products are small, so a large store will just look empty, even when fully stocked. Plus, get four or five people into a small store and it looks busy. Put four or five people in a huge store, and it looks dead. You want your store to at least LOOK busy, don’t you?

The best way to display your stock is to put the CD cases out and keep the disks behind the counter. You can either put cheap racks on the walls to put the cases on, or build some cheap bins for people to flip through. The advantage to the racks is that people can see the artwork on the front of the case, which draws their attention. The bin advantage is that you can store more CD cases in less space. Plus, it appeals to human curiosity to rummage through the bins. I’d have bins in my store.

If you build your own bins, all you need to do is make a wood box that’s 16.5 inches wide and anywhere from 10 to 15 inches deep. Now, divide the box into three compartments that are 5.5 inches wide. You will be able to stack the cases in each compartment so that the spine with the CD-ROM title is showing on the top. That will make it easy for customers to flip through them. Arrange them alphabetically by title in the bins.

To keep the disks, get some 5 inch wide strips of 2 inch thick high-density foam (not the Styrofoam that flakes apart - you want the tough stuff that can be sawed). Glue this foam to strips of plywood that you have nailed either under your counter or on shelves. Next, saw slots 3/4 of the way into the foam every 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Use a vacuum to get rid of any foam dust. Now, you can insert the disks into the slots, where they will take up little space. You may want to put labels on the foam and corresponding labels on the CD cases, so the disks are easy to locate when a customer wants to buy one.

A good idea, if you can afford it, is to have a computer or two out, so customers can try out the CD-ROMs. This will drastically increase your business, because customers will be less wary of being “taken”. Plus, when it isn’t busy, you can play some games…!

Where to advertise? Use your head when buying advertising. You want your ads to be seen by people who will actually be interested in buying your products. You’d be better off to contact every BBS in town and offer to pay maybe $25/month for a full screen ad that everyone who calls in sees, than to pay the same total amount for a few newspaper and radio ads. Why is this? Because, the BBS ads are TARGETED ads. They will only be seen by people who own computers. The newspaper and radio ads will be seen by a higher total number of people, but most of those people probably won’t own computers or even know what a CD-ROM is. Good avenues for targeted local advertising are: BBS’s; computer user group newsletters; computer stores; high school and college newspapers (students are big CD-ROM freaks, especially games!); and other media that appeals directly to computer users. Be sure to put flyers up around school campuses, especially in computer labs, if possible.

It may have occurred to you that there is a hidden possibility for profit in the used CD-ROM business… CD-ROM RENTALS! Why not? Video rentals brought forth video game cartridge rentals, which have exploded nationwide. Rent your stock of CD-ROM disks.

You’ll get the student who needs an encyclopedia for the big term paper; rent them an interactive CD-ROM encyclopedia.

You’ll get the game freak who just has to play something new; rent them your newest and most exciting CD-ROM games.

You’ll get the parent who’s looking for a new educational program for their kids; there are hundreds of educational CD-ROMs out there.

You’ll get the business person who needs special reference material; rent that CD-ROM in your stock that contains the names and phone numbers of every buyer for every large company in the U.S.

How much to rent your CD-ROMs for? Well, it’s pretty much an open market, since there aren’t many (if any!) CD-ROM rental stores around. I’d say, start your rentals at $3.50/day, and see how it goes. You need to find the highest price the market will bear, without damaging your business. For example, if you can rent 100 of your CD-ROMS per day for $3.00 ($300), or 75 for $3.50 ($262.50), it should be easy to see which price to charge.

As with any rental business, you should get a heavy supply of standard rental agreements. Standard video rental agreements should do. Your customer needs to fill one out and sign it before the first time they rent. Basically, the agreement states that anything they break or steal, they buy.

Should you charge for memberships to your CD-ROM rental club? I would answer a resounding NO!!! Many video rental stores charged for a membership. Those days are over. The smart rental stores realized that they’d make far more bucks down the line by giving out free memberships and having many more potential renters, than they would make by having only the people willing to pay $10 to $25 up front, before they rent. Make up some inexpensive rental membership cards (plain cardboard will work fine), and give them out FREE, after the renter fills out the agreement.

A good idea is to stock up on CD-ROMs that contain collections of specialized programs. For example, get a collection of CD-ROMs with shareware programs on them. Let BBS owners know you have them available. Keep in mind that there are over 60,000 BBSs out there, with more starting every day. Sounds like a good market for rentals and sales.

Or, put together a stock of CD-ROMs containing typestyles and clip art graphics. Then, do a special mailing to desktop publishers, businesses that have in-house art departments, schools, etc., any business that could need these CD-ROMs. Be careful about renting these, though. If you’re dealing with CD-ROMs that contain programs that can be copied, such as graphics, make sure the contents of the CD-ROM aren’t protected by copyrights. If they are, they are only intended to be used by the PURCHASER of the CD-ROM. If they are public domain, then you may rent them as many times as you want.

I hope you can see the profit potential locked inside CD-ROMs. They are not a fad, they are a coming wave. Look at how CDs revolutionized music… they WILL do the same for computers. Establish yourself as a source of quality new and used CD-ROMs, for sale or rent, and you’ll do well! This is a fantastic business that can be easy and fun. Plus, you’ll be keeping up with exciting technology. Be sure you start right away, though. It’s hard to open a profitable video store these days, because everyone’s in on the technology. CD-ROMs are the new technology on the block, waiting to be picked up and used profitably by you!

HOW TO GET RICH WITH CD-ROMS (1 OF 2)

CD-ROMs are the way of the future. Not only do the turn your computer into a super-high-powered knowledge and entertainment machine, they can make a LOT of money for you, if you have vision and the willingness to try some new things. This report will explain exactly what CD-ROMs are, and how they can bring high profits for you.

A CD-ROM is basically a compact disk (like the kind music comes on) that can be used in a computer. CD stands for Compact Disk, ROM stands for Read-Only Memory (which means your computer can read what’s on the CD, but it can’t write new information to it). In order to use a CD-ROM on your computer, you must have a CD-ROM unit, much like a disk drive, installed in your system. These CD-ROM units can either be internal (installed inside the computer case) or external (hooked to the computer by a cable). Note: Most CD-ROM units can also play regular music CDs, as well as the new Kodak Photo CDs.

Why would anyone want a CD-ROM unit? Well, for one thing, a CD-ROM can hold tons more information and programming than a regular computer disk, almost 400 times as much, to be exact. For example, there are whole encyclopedias that come on only one or two CD-ROMs! And these aren’t just plain, boring encyclopedias, either. The high amount of storage on a CD-ROM allows full-motion video, digitized sound, and other special effects to be included. For example, if you look up the first moon landing, you might see an actual short video of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon, and you might hear him say his famous “one small step” speech!

CD-ROM games are incredible! Many CD-ROM games are ultra-realistic, with real actors, real speech, and thousands of possibilities.

Desktop publishers love CD-ROMs, too. There are CD-ROMs available that hold thousands of typestyles and clip-art graphics.

The ability to use CD-ROMs is almost essential these days if you run a BBS (Bulletin Board System, accessible by modem users). There are dozens of CD-ROMs available that contain hundreds of shareware programs each. Callers to your BBS can download these programs to their computer, so they can use them. With a few of these, you can have the largest file base of any BBS in your area literally overnight!

Major software companies are jumping onto the CD-ROM Catalog bandwagon. Some companies are now putting all of their programs onto a CD-ROM. These programs will be hindered in some way from functioning 100% (for example, a word processing program may not be able to save what you’ve typed). They do this so you can try the program and see if it’s what you want. If you like the program, you can call them, give them your credit card number, they will charge you for the cost of the program, send you the manuals, and give you a code you can type in to make the program fully functional. They are discovering that it is very cost effective to operate this way, plus, people get to try more software out, and potentially purchase more.

So, this is the “why” of CD-ROMs. Just how can they make money for you, you might ask?

First, you need to know how popular CD-ROMs are becoming. According to an article in Fortune magazine (February 21, 1994), about 15% of the 5.85 million computers sold last year contained CD-ROM units. That’s over 877,000 CD-ROM units, just in 1993. That doesn’t count the tens (or hundreds) of thousands of people who are adding CD-ROM units to computers they already own. In other words, this is a HUGE market!

Have you ever been to a music store where they sell used music CDs? Used CDs are as good as new ones, and you can usually buy them for half the price of new CDs. This has become an industry in and of itself. People naturally want to save money, but get the same quality of product.

Remember the number of people I mentioned earlier who either bought a computer containing a CD-ROM or bought one to add on to their current system? They’ll be buying CD-ROMs. After awhile, they’ll get tired of the particular CD-ROM they purchased. They may have finished a game, and not want to play it again. Or, they may have bought a CD-ROM that they just plain didn’t like.

START YOUR OWN USED CD-ROM BUSINESS! HERE’S AN OVERVIEW…

You can run a used CD-ROM business much like the used music CD business is run. Here’s a nutshell description of what happens in a typical used music CD store. Almost everything will function the same for CD-ROMs.

A customer brings in a CD that they want to trade-in. If the music store owner wants it for his or her stock, they’ll usually offer the customer $2 to $5, depending on the demand for that particular CD. Then, they’ll slap a price of $6 to $10 on the CD, and put it out for sale.

That’s basically all there is to it. The difference with CD-ROMs is the price. Music CDs, at least in my neck of the woods, retail for around $14 to $16 each. CD-ROMs usually start around $25, and can cost over $150! The price varies with the type of program on the CD-ROM (games are cheaper than encyclopedias, for example). If you were looking for an encyclopedia CD-ROM, and could buy the same one for either $150 new, or $75 used, and they’d both function the same, which would you buy?

The basic formula for this is to offer the customer who brings in a CD-ROM 20% to 40%of the usual selling price for that particular item. Then, you retail it for 50% to 75% of the usual selling price, depending on the demand for that item. If it’s a hot new game, give the customer a bit more and price it higher.

You don’t have to give the customer money, either. You can give them credit toward another CD-ROM from your stock. One used music CD store in my area might give me $3 for a CD I bring in if I want cash, or one new or used CD for every two I bring in. This makes a lot of sense. For example, if they paid $4 for the CD I want and I give them two CDs, they’ve basically paid $4 for TWO CDs, which they might sell for $8 each. Thus, they paid $4 for $16 worth of CDs. Not bad, and you can do this too, with your used CD-ROM business. Be sure to keep good track of the amount you paid for the CD-ROM your customer selects in this sort of trade, making sure that you will profit from the two they bring in.

Well, that’s an overview of the used CD-ROM business. Now let’s get down to details. I’ll tell you how I would run a business like this. You put your thinking cap on while you’re reading this, and I’m sure you’ll think of some ideas, too.

This is part one of a two part report.  Part two will be published on Wednesday the 23rd.

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

Part 1

The first part of “HOW TO TURN YOUR COMPUTER INTO A MONEY-MAKING BATTLEAXE! (1 of 2)” was published last Friday.

WHY DO PEOPLE BUY INFORMATION?

An important thing to keep in mind is that every single person who buys an information product does it for one of two reasons: to avoid a pain, or to find a pleasure. Sometimes the reason they bought the product could be both. For example, why did you buy this issue (or subscription)? Did you want to learn ways to make extra money? That’s finding a pleasure. Or, did you want independence from working for someone else for the rest of your life? That’s avoiding a pain. Use this fact as a guide that will help you attack an information subject from the proper angle. Show your target market how to find the pleasure or avoid the pain, and they will buy.

How do you find information on a subject you’re writing about? There are many ways. Your local library can provide most of the information you’ll need. You can interview experts on the subject, either in person, or through the mail or phone. Write to groups and associations connected with the subject. Whatever you do, though, DON’T just copy the information you find. This will more than likely violate copyright rules.

DON’T WANT TO WRITE?

If you still don’t feel like you can successfully write an information product, or just don’t want to, there is still a way you can get a successful start in this business. What you need to do is find information that is either PUBLIC DOMAIN or includes REPRINT RIGHTS.

Public domain means no one controls the copyright. Either it is older material that never had the copyright renewed, or it was released free of copyright to the public. One excellent source of copyright-free material on a myriad of subjects is the U.S. Government Printing Office. If you want some information on a certain subject, or want to get on their mailing list, write:

Superintendent of Documents
Government Printing Office
Washington, DC 20402

The best type of material to look for, though, is information products that include reprint rights. In other words, when you buy the product, you also buy the right to reproduce it and resell it. Many times, a sales flyer or advertisement is included, with a spot left open for your name and address, so you can immediately start making a profit. This is a secret of the business that has been kept our of the general public eye. You can find droves of material like this mostly from mail order dealers who specialize in informational products. Everything from single page reports to full books are available. Besides being great for starting out, reprintable materials are also fantastic as add-ons to your own line of products. That’s what I do, and it works great!

When you purchase an information package including reprint rights, the smart thing to do is type the material into your word processor, and save it to your hard disk. That way, when you receive an order, all you need to do is print out a copy.

A breakthrough in the reprint rights business has been the emergence of reprintable material already on disk. Most of the products are contained in ASCII text files, which can be loaded by almost any word processor. Some of the disks even contain menu and printing programs, so your word processor isn’t required. I have an excellent product like this available, called the INFO-DISK Business Report System, which contains over 120 reports that you can print out and sell. The package includes personalized flyers and ads, so you can get started right away. I’ll tell you more about this later… back to the information!

By the way, you don’t have to limit yourself to the printed page. Information can be published on audio cassette, computer disk, video tape, use your imagination! If you’re writing about how to refurbish old bicycles make a video! You can do it with a regular home video camera, with some practice. Or, create your product on audio tape. This can be as simple as reading your printed info-product into a tape recorder. Thus, your customer can listen and learn while driving, riding a bike, or whatever.

Whatever publishing method you use, be sure to copyright your original material (even if you’re creating a product that will be sold with reprint rights - you still own the copyright, you just give certain people the right to reprint your work). This can be done easily and with no expense by putting a copyright notice on your product, such as this: Copyright 1993, Pat Flanagan Publishing & Design. Either spell out “Copyright” or use the official copyright symbol (the letter “c” with a circle around it). Don’t use (c), as this is not legally acceptable. If you have put together valuable information that people may want to copy, you can officially register your copyright. Call the U.S. Copyright Office at (202) 287-9100, and they will send an application form, along with full instructions.

MARKETING YOUR INFO-PRODUCT

I’ve written a lot about marketing in many of the articles in my own and other publications. All of the methods I’ve discussed are applicable for info-products. For example, read the report on this disk titled “Power marketing with your Modem” for some good low cost publicity methods.

The most important marketing methods you can use are press releases (send them frequently); reviewers (get your product to as many of them as you can); articles/columns (offer to write articles on your subjects for publications free of charge - as long as they include a short paragraph you supply that contains your name and address, and a short description of how readers can benefit from you and your products); and, of course advertising.

When advertising, the best method to use is the two-step. That’s not a dance; it’s advertising that asks for inquiries instead of selling the product outright. People write for more information, and you send them a ton of info on your products and services. This is what draws the order. It’s much less expensive, easier, and produces better results than a bunch of expensive ads which will send you to the poorhouse if they don’t pull.

There are many ways to cut your mail order ad expenses. You can use expanding classified ads (your classified ad gives a “teaser” message with a phone number - callers get an answering machine that delivers a 2-3 minute sales message, and takes credit card or COD orders); you can use print & mail dealers (they will print and mail your flyers or ads by bulk mail to large numbers of people - usually opportunity seekers - for much cheaper than if you tried to do it yourself); you can advertise electronically on computer Bulletin Board Systems; you can create your own ad sheets (your ad takes up part of a sheet or sheets of paper, and you sell the rest of the space to pay your ad’s way - this is a business in and of itself); and you can set up your own advertising agency (most large magazines and newspapers give agencies a 15% discount and an additional 2% discount if paying in advance - create a new business name with new letterhead to do this).

IMPORTANT RULES TO FOLLOW FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS

Guarantee your products - Offer a money back guarantee on your products. If you feel uneasy doing this, maybe your product isn’t as good as it could be. If you are proud and confident about what you’ve created, you shouldn’t have any qualms about doing this. A guarantee will boost your sales by building customer confidence.

Always be good-natured with your customers, even when they complain - If you’re surly with your customers, they’ll tell others not to do business with you. Enough said.

Keep your ears and eyes open - Watch what others in your field are doing. If you see a company that has come up with a good idea, think about how to adapt it to your own business.

Walk a straight path - Be honest, pay your taxes, be ethical, etc. You’ll sleep much better at night.

Don’t be afraid to admit your mistakes or failures - You won’t hit a home run every time you go to bat. If you create a product that doesn’t sell, don’t run your business into the ground trying to get it to sell. Drop it and move on. Keep plugging away, because mail order is a “get-rich-slow” business when done right.

Share your knowledge - Once you’re good at this business, help others get in. Teach a beginner what you’ve learned. This is called mentoring, and I feel it’s an important concept. It helps you stay in touch with your business, and helps the home business and small business industries grow and advance.

Above all, HAVE FUN! - Why work so hard to get into your own business if you don’t even like it? Take things lightly, and have a bit of fun. Self-publishing can be a very rewarding, relaxing and fun business. Stay at home with the family, work a few hours a day, and enjoy what you’ve accomplished.

CONCLUSION

Self-publishing your own info-products can be done by anyone who’s willing to apply themselves and reach past their limits. It’s not as hard or expensive as you think. Start small, with a few short reports, and work your way up. Look at me - I’ve publish a newsletter, a book, this disk, and literally hundreds of info-products, all from an office in my home. If I can, you can too!

Part 1

The first part of “HOW TO TURN YOUR COMPUTER INTO A MONEY-MAKING BATTLEAXE! (1 of 2)” was published last Friday.

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.

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!