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Making Money With Voice Mail

Although this money-making is continuously being marketed as “a way to make money with your answering machine”, new technology has actually rendered this idea obsolete.

With the proliferation of voice mail, fax-back service, and very inexpensive computerized voice processing systems, the answering machine, with its limited one-call-at-a-time capacity, is no longer ideal for making money.

With the advent of this new technology, the concept has also expanded to a variety of processes which you can use to make money.

PEOPLE MUST CALL

With answering machines, the only way you can make money is when people call you up. Since an answering machine is hooked up to a specific phone number, and since it does not advertise on its own, you will have to establish ways to attract people to call your phone number so that people can listen to the message recorded on your answering machine.

THE MESSAGE IS THE KEY

The message recorded on your answering machine is the key to your ability to make money.

The message can instruct people to send money for information about any subject matter, or instruct callers to leave their name and address so you can send them a sales brochure. The information you have recorded on your machine should be encouraging and convincing enough to motivate the caller to do what you have instructed.

THE 1-MINUTE SPIEL

Think of your recording as a radio commercial. Since callers have short attention span, used to hearing radio and TV spots that are not more than 1 minute long it is advisable that you limit the length of your message to about 1 minute, 2 minutes tops!

GETTING THE CALL & COLLECTING PAYMENT

Whatever it is you are selling, and by which you are using your answering machine or service, your primary challenge will be in two areas:

1. How you can advertise and make your telephone number known to as many people as possible.
2. How you are going to collect payment for whatever it is you are selling.

SELLING THE INFORMATION

One of the most popular topics sold on “answering machine schemes” is information about how people can make money with their answering machine.

This is worn out and very unimaginative. More than likely, your caller will feel insulted and not order whatever literature, report or booklet you want them to order.

Remember, if you want to have a recorded sales message over the telephone, use a voice mail service, which may cost you around $8 a month.

IDEA: HOW ABOUT A NATIONAL “HELP” LINE?

Mail order dealers better get geared up. Everyone in America is thinking about starting their own business. A large majority of these people will choose mail order because they don’t like selling door-to-door or face-to-face.

Newcomers to the mail order industry normally ask the same types of questions. Us old-timers remember the misconceptions and misunderstandings we had when we first began our business. Who helped us? Someone always came along that we formed a friendship or telephone relationship with that taught us. Some of us spent time reading articles written by other people (like the report you’re reading now). Someone, somewhere, has to help a newcomer in mail order to become successful. It’s inevitable!

A lady at the grocery store the other day said she’d like to get involved in mail order. I handed her a tabloid to look through at her leisure, but she said she would feel strange writing to these ads since they were all from large companies! She had no idea that if she opened her own mail order business, she would have a company name also and appear to be one of these large companies too! This is just one of the many misconceptions newcomers have toward the mail order industry.

Another misconception is that mail order is a rip-off world — which we know is entirely untrue! Some of the best products and services are obtained through the mail! Just look at Walter Drake and Lillian Vernon as examples! Ed McMahon and Dick Clark even jumped on the mail order bandwagon with their Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes!

The general public entering mail order for the first time cannot understand how the concept works. They are used to going into a store, looking at an item and purchasing it. Mail order (as we all know) is quite different. In fact — it’s so simple to start a mail order business that most people can’t believe they can do it. But with the proper education, these people can become thriving, money-making companies — ones that will remember YOU as introducing them to the market.

The Idea

If someone started a National Help Line for questions and answers for newcomers it would not only be a big help — but a fantastic money-maker for its owner. All it takes is establishing a 900 line (how about 1-900-FUN-MAIL) to handle calls and a person to answer the questions. In fact, you might use the service to direct business to other mail order dealers by having them submit monthly dues in order to have business referred to them.

Suppose a newcomer wanted to get involved in publishing their own booklets. Several competent mail order publishers would buy the right to have this type of business referred to them. The newcomer calls your 1-900 number (an income for you) and you refer them to the mail order dealers (another income for you.) If handled honestly and legitimately — this could turn into a pot-of-gold for you and help our entire mail order and small business industry as a whole!

The only thing left to do now is advertise the 1-900 number service you have. Initially, you will have to invest into advertising; and with something of this magnitude you should advertise in some national publications as well as adsheets and tabloids. National publications like Small Business Opportunities, Income Opportunities, and Entrepreneur will give you a much greater circulation. Also — don’t overlook the opportunity to advertise in your local Penny Savers and community-type newspapers. These rates are normally lower than one-day advertising and could generate lots of initial business for you.

Another benefit to the person who would be establishing the 1-900 hotline would be that he or she could promote their own products and services, as well as obtain names and address of hot prospects; in which they could sell in the form of mailing lists.

One example of this idea in action is being done by Thomas McCrary, owner of USAPrinting & Advertising. You call his USA National Opportunity Hotline at (708) 429-4301 and respond to advertisers you see in his monthly tabloid. These ads all have a 3-digit number to call so you can leave your message.

Although this is only one idea for using your phone to generate profits — the area is still open to start a “900 Number”. I don’t think it will be long before someone does this — but you may still have time to get the idea off the ground in your own neck of the woods!

MAIL ORDER DEALERS CAN LEARN FROM MLM’ERS

After 7 years in business I still read almost every piece of mail I get. (I guess that shoots down those rumors and detailed instructions from people on how to get your envelope opened since I open them all.)

Also — I’m not involved in multi-level marketing (MLM) simply because I’m not motivated in that direction. I don’t care if I could get $100,000 per month for sending out 100 flyers, I’d still lack the motivation it takes to be a winner in the MLM field. However, I still get MLM-related magazines and tabloids. I mean, we are all from the same “clan” are we not?

Multi-level marketing is a fantastic business. If you are the type of person that enjoys a lot of people contact and have a great product you believe in — multi-level marketing can work out great for you. There are people making $1,000’s of dollars per month in commissions alone — but they worked hard for it. I prefer mail order though because it’s slow-paced and more “people-oriented.” Now, don’t get me wrong. Multi-level marketing is “people-oriented” too, because a product is being sold to people. However, multi-level marketing is also a “money-making” industry that places great emphasis on building downlines and selling lots of product to meet the monthly criteria established by the main multi-level company.

Although the articles in multi-level publications are not related to mail order, they teach you about positive thinking that is needed in any type of business. You can pick up some good business tips whether you are in mail order, MLM or selling homemade pies at a garage sale. Business is business. Marketing is marketing. Selling is selling!

One such article I read a couple months ago was related to thinking like a millionaire. For instance, when most people are asked: “What would you do if you won $50?” they would say that they’d take their spouse or friend to dinner and a movie. When asked, “What would you do if you won $5,000?” most say they would buy a car, pay off old bills or take a trip. But when these people were asked, “What would you do if you won $2 million dollars?” they all said they would INVEST it.

The article went on to say, that if these people would only INVEST when it came to big money — how could they ever hope to achieve it? I mean, how can you ever accumulate $1 if you don’t start saving the change? How can you save $120 per year if you don’t start putting in $10 bills now?

Some of the best multi-level type publications on the market today are “Opportunity Connection,” “FreEnterprise,” and “Big Al’s Recruiting Newsletter.” In every issue you will find information that will help motivate you to sell your product and fantastic marketing tips that the professionals use. Multi-level marketing is truly a professional business. This is the place you will find new and exciting products that are not available locally. In fact — multi-level marketing firms produce some of the best products in the world.

Please don’t confuse multi-level marketing with birthday clubs, chain-type schemes and those circulars that ask you to place your name and address in Position 1 and move all the other ones down before making copies. These pieces of “trash” will never make you a dime and if I could — I would outlaw their existence. They steal lots of money from many innocent people on a daily basis.

On the other hand — multi-level marketing is when you have a REAL product to sell. You build downlines (people who sell the same product under you) and you make commissions every time these people sell. But watch out for those matrix definitions too. Many people don’t really understand them fully and just look at the bottom line of how much money they’ll make. Also, many newcomers think that if they get a friend to sell products for them that they will earn commissions off every sale the friend makes. Sometimes this is true and other times it isn’t. More often than not — you have to build a downline of 10 or 15 people before you start earning commissions, so make sure you know exactly how a particular multi-level marketing company works before you sink a lot of money and time into it and think the entire industry is a big waste.

Look over your business goals. Decide what you really like to do. Basing your decision on how much money you make won’t cut it. You wouldn’t decide to have children just because of the tax deduction you would receive would you? Well — you should never start a business for the sole purpose of making money. Instead — find something you enjoy doing that will make you money. When you love what you are doing, the money will flow naturally and you’ll see a business emerge within a few years that you never dreamed could be possible. Have fun!

Once upon a time….the words: “the best” really meant just that — the BEST! Unfortunately, over a period of time, everyone used these same words in their advertising. We were introduced to the best watch, the best car, the best job, the best money-making idea, the best MLM program, and so on…

Pretty soon, the “best” became commonplace — those words just didn’t seem to have the “impact” they once had. To rectify this situation, advertisers started guaranteeing they were the best. They would say something like:

If, after examining our product, you don’t agree it is the best simply return it for a no-questions asked, cheerful refund of all your money.

We all soon learned that these words lost their “impact” also. Why? Because many people were not backing up their guarantee. If the customer was dissatisfied and returned the product for a cheerful refund — often, he or she never received their money back or were confronted with a hassle to get their money back. The advertiser would make money when the customer purchased the product, then they would re-sell the merchandise you returned from the guarantee. It was a double money-maker for the mail order thief and the customer lost on both accounts!

The word “free” also received the same type of publicity. Once upon a time, the word “free” meant that you received a REAL sample of something that you could personally use before placing an order. But the scam artists twisted this word too. Instead of offering something really “free” they offered “free information” which was really a sales circular in disguise. (In my opinion, this is NOT really anything free. It’s something to sell the product that should be free anyway.) Therefore, when the general public soon learned that everything they sent away for offering something for “free” was really a bunch of literature loaded with sales hype — the word “free” lost its REAL meaning.

Now what’s left for an advertiser to do? Well….there is one solution that has been used for centuries and still works; it’s called telling the truth. The first step in telling the truth is to only deal in products and services that YOU believe strongly in. Money should never be the motivating factor in the item you wish to promote or you will lose in the long run every time. Begin dealing with a product or service that you would personally buy yourself — one that you believe in and know to be worthwhile and worth it’s price. Once you do….it won’t be hard to tell the truth about your product — and the clientele and lucrative business you build will be sincerely worth the effort.

Downside to telling the truth-

You won’t get rich quick. Why? Because there are more greedy people out there than there are honest ones. That’s why those get-rich-quick ads work for some of the big-timers. They appeal to people’s greed and people buy it. Check out the ads if you don’t believe me and compare them with legitimate ones.

The ads that read “Get Rich Overnight With No Effort” causes a greedy person to reach for their checkbook, but an ad that is honest and states, “With Hard Work, You Can Make a Full-Time Income With Our Unique Product” sounds like it’s too much trouble for the greedy person to send away for.

But in actuality — the greedy person will not achieve their goal in getting rich by answering the first ad above. THERE IS NO GET-RICH-QUICK SCHEME! There is no one willing to give you money or teach you a secret plan or reveal some unknown law to you. Without hard work — NOTHING will work for you. That’s why millions of people drop in and out of mail order every day!

So you have to make the choice. Are you in business for the long haul and want to make a lot of good contacts? Do you want to be able to sleep at night without the fear of the postal inspectors closing you down?

If you could sell a bunch of your products every day over the phone, without talking to any customers, would you be interested? Of course you would! There is a new technological breakthrough that a few smart people are using to sell piles of their products, and you can do it too, with the secrets contained in this report.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/silas216/

This technological breakthrough is called VOICE MAIL. Voice mail is kind of like an answering machine, but you need no equipment. In many cases, your local phone company will offer it. If they don’t, there are service providers who do. You may find some listed in your phone book. In case you can’t, I’ve included contact information at the end of this report.

Here’s how voice mail works. You are given your own voice mail “box,” which is assigned an extension number. People calling the phone number you provide just need to type in your extension number on their touch-tone phone to be transferred to your box. You can call in anytime, type in a special access code, and record an outgoing message, which can usually be up to five minutes long! People calling in hear your message, then can leave their own message to you, just like on an answering machine. The big difference, though, is they can be directed to different “areas” within your box, by pressing 1 or 2 or 3, etc. The number of areas you can have depends on the provider of the voice mail service, and how many you want to pay for.

So how can you sell your products through voice mail? Here’s an overview. The outgoing message is your sales message for your product, for example, a book on running a mail order business. After hearing the message, the listener is directed to press 1 to order by COD (cash on delivery), press 2 to order by credit card, or press 3 to request more information by mail. The voice mail is your salesman! You can then call in at any time of the day or night, type in your access code, and get your messages. A good idea is to go to Radio Shack or another similar store and pick up a small telephone recording hook-up device (usually around $10). That way, you can tape your messages, and you can then write out the required paperwork and labels at your leisure.

The first step, and most important, is to write a sales message for your product. Use your five minutes to describe the benefits your customer gets from your product. Note I didn’t say to describe your product. Describe the benefits. For example, if you’re selling a book on the secrets to succeeding in a mail order business, don’t tell them “My book has a chapter on mailing lists, and a chapter on drop shipping, and a…” etc. Give them a forceful explanation of how they will directly benefit by using your product: “You won’t waste anymore money on crummy mailing lists after you read my secrets in chapter 4… You’ll increase your profit margin by using the drop shipping methods described in chapter 6.” This is much more persuasive and convincing to the listener, and will draw far more orders.

Practice reading your message with enthusiasm. Make sure it fits into five minutes, without sounding rushed. Deliver it in an exciting yet realistic way. Your goal is to get the listener “pumped up,” so their ready to part with their money, just so they can share in the incredible secrets of your product. Don’t mislead them, give them the impression that you’re confiding in them. This will work.

Now tape your message. Don’t worry if you don’t sound as polished as a TV announcer. Just speak clearly, and with emotion. Then, record the ordering information in the selected “branches” (press 1, press 2, etc.). Give the customer complete details on your COD shipping policies, credit card policies, etc.

Next comes advertising. The best type of advertising to use for this selling method is the classified ad. There is a way of wording an ad for this purpose that is clearly better than other ways. Here is a sample which you should be able to adapt to your product. It uses the product described above:

“Double your mail order business’ profits! Incredible recorded message tells secrets… Call (219) 555-5555, ext. 1234 24 hours!”

Because you don’t have to use up words on an address, you can be wordier in your ad. The ad above, however, is only 17 words. It’s exciting, though, with “Double…profits,” “Incredible,” and “secrets” being the action words. “24 hours” will also be a motivating phrase for readers. Don’t worry about your voice mail phone line being busy when more than one person calls in. One of the great things about voice mail is that multiple people can call your “box” at the same time! This is because your messages and their messages aren’t recorded on tape, as in an answering machine. They are recorded digitally in a computer. No tape rewinding, no busy signals!

What will happen is that people will call from the ad, and, if your selling message is good, they will order your product. Try placing a 17 word classified ad that will actually sell your product! It can’t be done. Yet, by “expanding” your classified ad in this way, you can actually draw sales at a far lower expense than if you had to send out information, or place display ads.

How much will this cost? Voice mail prices vary from service to service, and with the number of features you need. You can usually get started with a basic voice mail box for around $10 per month! You might think you can get an answering machine for a few months worth of voice mail rent, and do this at home. You can, but you’ll have to get multiple phone lines installed and a very expensive answering machine in order to get the benefits you’ll get from voice mail. Someone else has laid out the equipment expense, you just use their equipment!

If you can’t get voice mail from your local phone company, or there aren’t any local service providers, here is a company you may want to try:  Dial-Com Voice Retrieval (800) 366-7581