PUT YOUR CATALOG ON A DISK AND MAKE HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY!

If you’re involved in any type of business where you sell products or services, you should know that you need to sell more than one product to be successful. Of course, there have been exceptions, like the Pet Rock, but those are few and far between. You see, if you only sell one product, you need to find those prospective customers that want that one product. Add a second product, and you’ve opened the door to customers who want it, but not your first product. Add a third, and you have more prospects, and so on.

You can present your products or services through separate ads or flyers, but it’s really more efficient and professional to have a CATALOG. That way, your customer can see all you have to offer in one place, instead of one ad here, another there. Having a catalog will increase the orders you receive, since your customers have more choices and you can show them everything in one mailing. There’s just one problem…

Catalogs are expensive.

If you’re thinking of putting together even an eight page catalog, call your local printer and ask for a price. Get a quote on 1,000, since you’ll want to have enough. My best printer would charge $150, which would be 15 cents per catalog. Then, you have the mailing cost, which would be 52 cents. You’re now up to 67 cents per catalog. Add in the cost of getting the name to send the catalog to, and you could be over a dollar per catalog. That means over $1,000 to print and send out all your catalogs!

Worse news to come… you won’t get rich from an eight page catalog. If you really intend on making it in your own business, you’d better offer at least 20 related products or services (or a combination). That way, you can hit a specific group of people and have a good chance of getting a decent return. But if an eight page catalog would cost over $1,000 to print and mail, think about a 20 page catalog! Printing alone would be $375 or more!

You can reduce your printing and postage costs significantly by having your catalog printed on a web press on newsprint. The only problem with that is, you need to print a higher quantity to make it worthwhile. Figure on at least 10,000.

There’s an easier, less expensive way to do this…

PUT YOUR CATALOG ON A DISK!

A CD will hold hundreds of catalog pages, if you do it right! HUNDREDS!!! The higher storage disks will, of course, hold more! Your customer will receive your disk catalog, put it into their computer, and will be able to view full descriptions of your products and services on their screen. They’ll even be able to print out an order form!

Right away, let’s look at costs. For a catalog disk, the disk will cost 10 cents (that’s right, only 10 cents – I’ll reveal the source for this low price later in this report). Next is postage – 52 cents. You’re at 62 cents. Your cost for securing the name to send your catalog to is the same as above.

You might be thinking, great, this saves me a big NICKEL! BIG DEAL! Well, it IS a big deal, and I’ll tell you why.

One cost that I didn’t figure in is storage. If you have a bunch of catalogs printed (especially if you had 10,000 or more newsprint catalogs), you’re going to have to put them somewhere. With a disk catalog, you can copy them as you need them. No need to have 1,000 made up in advance, unless you really want to!

Also, keep in mind the storage capacity of the disk. If you wanted a 68 page printed catalog, whew, it would break you, unless you have pretty deep pockets. A dime will get you one on disk.

Finally, consider this… you have 10,000 of your fantastic catalog printed. You start mailing them. All of a sudden, you discover you have to change the price of one of your products. Or, the source for a product dries up. Or, you want to add a new product or service. TOO BAD! You’re stuck with the catalogs the way they are. With a disk catalog, NO PROBLEM! You make the change on your master copy, and all subsequent catalogs are instantly up-to-date.

See the advantages? You can sell your products just as well with a disk catalog as with a printed one. In fact, people will keep your catalog around longer due to its uniqueness.

So, how can you get your own high-powered order-pulling disk catalog? Well, two ways… you can make one yourself, or you can have an expert put one together for you, saving you the time and effort.

THINK YOU CAN DO THIS?

If not, don’t feel bad. Unless you’re comfortable going beyond just using a program on your computer to actually construct a catalog, you may not want to spend hours upon hours trying to do this by yourself.

If not contact the company below for an estimate:

Northridge Electronic Publishing
522 Northridge Crossing Dr.
Dunwoody, Ga. 30350
404-901-9747

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.

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!