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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!

HOW TO SELL REPORTS LIKE THE ONE YOU’RE READING NOW

Okay. You just purchased a set of reports with reprint rights. First of all, determine the “age” of these reports. This information will be your key in selling them profitably. How do you find out how old they are? Normally you can judge them by their appearance. Compare it to another package you recently purchased. Do yours appear to be printed crooked, hard to read and contain worthless information? Chances are — they are old and everybody, their sister and mother has seen them who have been in business longer than 6 months. You won’t be able to sell them to most people.

On the other hand, reports that are new and updated for will sell well to almost anyone looking for a new business opportunity. Be sure and stress this fact in your advertising so people don’t get them mixed up with the old stuff.

Make Up Your Sales Circular

If you can’t afford to send $35 to a mail order typesetter at the moment to create you a dynamic advertising circular, simply type a list of the reports you are selling (by title) on a sheet of 8.5″x11″ white typing paper. Each listing should look something like this:

How to Make Money (2pgs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1
How to Win At the Lottery (4pgs) . . . . . . . . . $2
How to Sell These Reports (1pg)  . . . . . . . . . 50c

At the bottom of your list, ask the customers to order by saying something like: “Circle the title(s) of the reports you would like to purchase above and enclose with proper payment to: Your name and address.” You also could offer them a special bonus of 5 reports for $4 or 10 reports for $7. (Remember, they only cost you a few pennies to copy.)

Now, place classified ads in mail order publications under the heading of “money-making opportunities” that advertise the fact you have reports to sell. Your ad could be worded something similar to this: “Brand new Victoria’s Reports you can sell to make big money. Reprint rights included. Send $1 to: Your name and address.”

When people respond to your ad they will send you $1 (or you could ask for a LSASE [large, self-addressed stamped envelope] instead).

Place a copy of your typed list of report titles with a note or letter in the envelope and mail back to the person. Your note or letter should read something like: “Thanks for answering our ad. Enclosed is a list of the reports we sell which are making money for us. We hope you find several titles that interest you and we look forward to receiving your order. Please let us know if you are looking for a title not listed and we’ll try and locate it for you. Thanks for your business.”

Including a cover letter or note like this will increase your chances of getting an order from this person by 100%. Why? Because by the time someone orders more information from a classified ad they saw until the time they receive the information from you — they normally forget “what” they ordered. Naturally, they will have answered many different ads and won’t remember the ad they saw with your name on it by the time your package arrives. When you remind them of why they originally answered your ad in the first place, they will identify with the incident and re-generate the enthusiasm they originally felt. Then — they’ll probably order one or more reports.

Every person that orders from you should be placed in the database program of your computer or on a 3×5 card (if you are using the old method of record keeping.) Be sure to record the person’s name, complete address, telephone number (if possible), the date they ordered, what titles they ordered and the amount of money they sent you.

Be sure to indicate in your records if this person just inquired from one of your ads or if they really ordered a specific report title. If they ordered a specific report — you can determine the type of subjects this person is interested in and sell them other products and services in the future in their field of interest.

Regardless of whether you make a sale or not, just generating the original inquiry is worth its weight in gold. Keep accurate records of the names and addresses and when you have 100 or more, you can sell your mailing list and generate another income. This is one reason advertising pays you. Never stop advertising so that you never stop generating new inquiries to your offers.

SELF-PUBLISHING: A GENIUS MONEY-MAKING IDEA

Some “crazed nut” started a rumor that publishing a book costs lots of money. What this “nut” didn’t tell you is that self-published booklets do NOT!  In fact, it’s one of the easiest ways to make money in the world and doesn’t require any talent! It’s true — let me show you step-by-step how it’s done:

1. Choose a subject to write about. Select something you enjoy or want to know more about yourself. As just an example, we’ll use “Household Hints” (something I personally know nothing about.)
2. Now, to collect the information to put in my book about “household hints” I would go visit my mother, talk to my aunts and cousins, call friends on the phone, and in general — ask everybody I came into contact with to give me their favorite “household hint.” After a few months I’d have a lot of stuff.
3. At this point I would start categorizing all this information. I’d put all the stuff about “kitchen tips” in a separate file from “home remedies.” Each separate file would be a new chapter in my book.
4. Then I’d begin typing out my book on a computer or typewriter. (You also could utilize the services of a publisher such as Graphico, PO Box 488, Bluff City TN 37618 or Muchmore Marketing, PO Box 50027, Reno NV 89513.) If I was typing it myself though, I would simply number each tip as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . . with a title at the top of the page as to what type of “household hint” this particular page referred to. (i.e., kitchen tips, cleaning hints, home remedies, words of wisdom, etc.)
5. Okay. Now the book is ready to print. You’ve read everything and there are no misspelled words or obvious grammar mistakes. You are ready to see the final result of your labors. How much will it cost? Let’s assume that my “household hints” book is going to measure 5″ wide by 8″ tall (like a sheet of 8 1/2×11″ paper folded in half.) There are 2 pages on each side or 4 pages front and back. These are the best size for mail order unless you write a 100-page novel.
6. Now, the only thing left to do to make my book a success is to sell them and make some money back. One idea would be to call all the people who gave me the information for the book. I’d put a price tag of $5 on the cover and offer it to my aunts, cousins, friends and co-workers at a discount of $3 or $2. Everyone whose name or contribution is in a published book will want a copy for a keepsake — at least.

Are you still with me? My “household hints” book is a total of 24 pages. That means it will take both sides of 6 sheets of 8 1/2×11″ paper to print each one of my books. That includes the cover and everything.

Based on standard mail order prices, you could have 250 of these books printed for $109 or about 44c each. 1,000 would run even less — $200 or about 20c each. That’s cheap! Even if I sell each one for just $3, I’ll make a great profit! (A good mail order booklet printer we recommend is Kem’s Graphics, 549 Friendship Rd, Seneca SC 29678.)

Another method of saving money with printing of booklets is to have the mail order printer print them at the same price you would pay for 8 1/2×11″, 2-sided printing (around $25 per 1,000) without having them collated, folded and stapled. This way, your cost would only be a total of $150 per 1,000 or 15c per booklet.

This method is great if you want to do some of the work yourself. Your only expense would be a saddle stitcher from an office supply store. This is a long-armed stapler and the cost is around $45. Of course you would not want to make this investment if you were only going to be publishing one book per year — but if you plan to go into heavy production, it would be worth your while. I personally don’t care to do this myself because I’m saving tons of money. I’ll get paid in the long run for my time.

So you see; it’s not that hard to create your own money-maker. There’s no hidden secret to it. You don’t have to pay $29.95 for the same information. We’re GIVING it to you free of charge.

Every single human being has a book inside of them! Everybody knows something that other people don’t and everybody has interests that other people don’t have the time to learn about. There is a subject that interests you that would interest others. Guaranteed!

So, get busy. Pick a subject, gather the information and type it up! You’ll be a hero before you know it. Neighbors will begin to label you as a notorious writer. You’ll be able to hold your head high, and you’ll be able to start putting “, Writer” at the end of your name on your business letters. Won’t that be something?

COMPUTER SOFTWARE REVIEWS

Learn to Type

If you are trying to learn how to type, you’ll love the software program –
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. It’s available for $34.95 from Global Software
(1-800-8-GLOBAL).

This program is well worth the money because it actually making typing fun.
I tried this out on my friend Laurie, who had never sat down at a computer in her life. She was labeled as the “typical” hunt-and-peck typist. However, she even loved this program.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is menu driven and the more you use it the more it adapts to your particular strengths and weaknesses. (Aren’t computers smarter than ever now?) It also entertains you while you learn by providing 2D and 3D graphics, lifelike keyboard and “guide hands” to show you the perfect technique for added convenience. We especially liked the Racing Game, where the faster you type the faster your race car travels.

Help For Dot-Matrix Printer Owners (as if they still exist)

Emulaser, exclusively available from TigerSoftware (1-800-888-4437) for $69.95 is worth every penny! It’s the best thing I’ve seen — especially if you own a dot matrix printer.

Emulaser enables you to print Postscript smooth, typeset-quality type, Postscript graphics, halftones — even spectacular color images. Emulaser gives you the power to also scale type for optimum quality from 1 to 1000 points!

A friend used this on his 9-pin printer and it almost matched the same print-out from my Hewlett Packard LaserJet. When used on my LaserJet — the output was close to LinoTronic (the best available). You’ll love Emulaser — especially if you are on a tight budget and cannot afford to upgrade your printer at the present.

Emulaser also comes with 24 professionally designed borders and over 70 premium fonts including a host of symbols and graphic images!

(The only problem you may encounter is if you have one of the older IBM-compatible computers, such as an XT or 8086. Emulser may not properly print within the designated margins due to the restrictions of this older machine. It’s probably safe to assume you need a minimum 286-based system with 1 megabyte of RAM for Emulaser to run properly. 520K and 640K RAM systems just won’t cut it. Sorry.)

Thumbs Down on This One

CardsNOW is a software program for designing business cards. It’s available from Global Software (1-800-8-GLOBAL) for $39.95.

First of all, business cards are normally printed with a raised print. Anything less makes you look unprofessional and amateurish. In addition, people will normally use a color ink for their logo or company name. Both of these options are NOT available with this program, which degrades the quality look of your business cards considerably.

So why spend $39.95 for a program and $10.95 for 25 sheets of perforated business card paper, when you can send a camera-ready master to any mail order printer and have 1,000 professional business cards printed in RAISED lettering as well as 2-color for around $30? How long does 1,000 business cards last you? That’s about a 6-month supply for us, which would not warrant the extra money to spend on this software program.

A Low-Cost Graphics Library

Lotus SmartPics, exclusively available from TPC Connection (800) 800-5555 for $75. No — you don’t need Lotus software to take advantage of this magnificent package of graphics. This is an excellent way for any desktop publisher to add to their collection! Over 2,000 high-quality and professional graphics to enhance all your documents, flyers, memos, reports, bulletins, presentations and other business communications. And they’re flexible too. Choose a vector format to size, rotate and edit images or choose bitmap for editing in paint programs.

And as an ADDED BONUS, when you order Lotus SmartPics you get FREE Bitstream L’il Bits Winter Holiday Font Pack. These fonts are also a designer’s dream. You get unique ones like SnowCap, the ornate Cloister Black, the elegant Shelly, Allegro, or the ghostly FreeForm 721. Now all you have to add are turkeys, snowflakes, bells, sleds and candy canes to name a few.

Grab this package today!

BUSINESS IDEA FOR BEGINNERS

Did you know that you can market mail order materials in your own area, to your own friends and co-workers without losing any money? It’s easy! All you have to do is find a product, mark up the price to take care of your commission and sell it.

One of the easiest items to sell in your local area is printing. Call any print shop (Minuteman, Quik Print, Pip, etc.) and ask them the price for printing 1,000 copies of the same original (one-side). Prices will differ across the nation, but I have found the medium range to be between $60 and $90. However, most mail order printer’s prices range between $20 and $30 for the same job! That’s about a 50% difference — even going by the lowest local rates.

Okay — now we have an idea. Let’s do our preparation and I’ll lead you step-by-step into the marketing of this idea. Let’s stick with our example of printing. Before you begin to advertise printing services in your local area, you need to locate an honest and good mail order printer. If you don’t, you will be stuck with unsatisfied customers if the order isn’t right.

In order to locate a good printer, you will need to read mail order publications. Compare prices and services. Look at the quality of their advertisement. Is it professional looking? Does the printing look sloppy? Find a printer with the lowest prices but the most services. It is more important to have someone who is reliable, ships on time and never lets you down versus saving $1 per order.

Three printers we recommend are, however, there are many other good ones in mail order:

Kem’s Graphics
549 Friendship Rd
Seneca, SC 29678

JRS Printing
PO Box 2508
Calcutta, OH 4392

Tom Leash
64 W Main St
Dallastown, PA 17313

To get a current Big Mail of up-to-date information, write to the following and request a copy of their current publications to get you started:

George Norr
PO Box 70268
Salt Lake City, UT 84170

G&B Records
PO Box 10150
Terra Bella, CA 93270

Once you’ve narrowed your company selections down to a few choice ones, you probably will want to send each of them a small order. Keep records of the date you sent each order and how long it took to get back. I would mail all my orders on the same day. This way, you would automatically know “which” printer was the fastest in shipping orders. (This fact is very important when dealing with local customers who want their order yesterday or last week.)

Now, compare the quality of the printers you have selected. Choose the best! Remember, when you deal with local customers you will have to provide the same type of commercial quality they are used to receiving locally. Even though they will be paying less, no customer should expect “less.” Your business will grow if you offer the same quality for less money.

After you have selected the printer you want to use, write them a letter. Explain that you are going to market their services locally and would like to obtain their “best” price. Often times, they will discount their prices even more just to get repeat business. This brings you in more commissions.

Now, all that’s left is to make yourself a price sheet listing YOUR prices (marked up from the prices your printer charges you and how much the same item sells for locally). Pass these price sheets out at work. Place on car windshields. Tack on bulletin boards. Advertise in the paper. Drop off at small business establishments. Contact people in the paper who are planning a wedding or pass out flyers in your neighborhood. When you get an order, you keep your portion of the customer’s money and send the order to your printer, who normally dropships to you or your customer.

This is only one idea for selling mail order printing in your local area. There are 1,000’s of other mail order products that are superior as well as a lot of talented folks who provide exceptional products that cannot be purchased at all locally! Just choose one that interests you and find a way to sell it in your neighborhood.

Another way of selling locally is by contacting Coal Publishing, 27 South 4th Ave, Highland Park NJ 08904. Start a newspaper in your area and have local businesses place advertisements. When you have secured advertisers, send the ads and payment to Coal’s “Small Business Keeps America Growing” newspaper services. Copies are professionally printed and shipped back to you. Have kids and teenagers help you distribute them and you’re in business. This idea can net you as much as $1,000+ per week once you build up the advertisers for it.

Selling locally is the quickest and easiest way to start a business of your own without any money. It’s better than working for McDonalds. Just look around — opportunities do exist everywhere!