Mailbox Millions

What do Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Murray, and Arnold Schwarzenegger have in common?

Successful direct mail order businesses!

Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac” made him anything but in the 1730s while Arthur Murray waltzed right into a fortune the 1920s with his “Correspondence School of Dancing.” And long before Hollywood came knocking, Arnold pumped up his fortune by selling “How To” info through the mail.

You know direct mail works–the number of catalogs you receive September-November tells you as much. People like to shop by mail, in the convenience of their homes, with no pressure from salesmen.

So how can grab your share of the “mailbox millions”? There are several great ways to make money with direct mail, including:

• Sell a Great Product. Clothes, shoes, food, cars, brides–you name it, it is probably shipped by direct mail. Start with a product you feel passionate about, perhaps a hobby or favorite topic, and do some market research to determine if there’s a need. If so…fill it!
• Generate Leads. If you have a high end product, you can sort the lookers from the buyers through an effective mail piece.  People will qualify themselves by contacting you or visiting your website.
• Sell to Your Customer List. Once you have a customer who’s bought something, sell to him again and again and again. It’s “easy” money, yet 95% of businesses fail to make full use of their databases. Why? They overlook the potential. If this is you, dust off your database, send a direct mail piece, and inject some cash into your business.

With a great product, the right offer, and the right mailing list, fortunes can literally be made overnight. Sound simple? It is–if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, it can eat a hole in your bank account. It’s a viable marketing method that translates well to the web while still being effective by “snail” mail. If mail order piques your interest, you owe it to yourself to learn more.

Resources:

How to Start a Home-Based Mail Order Business

Marketing Secrets of a Mail Order Maverick

Kits for Kids

You probably discovered your life’s great interest when you were a child. Why not revisit that magical time by creating a product for kids that offers a fun introduction to your passion?

For example:

If you like:

Growing Tomatoes…

Create a startup kit for growing tomatoes from seed. You could include a package of seeds, instructions for growth, and an application to the “best grower” contest that you list on your website, in your store, or in your newsletter. They could then submit a photograph of their plants after a certain amount of time for a chance at winning a prize–like a nice planter, gardening set, etc.

Studying Alligators…

Create trading cards with strange and fascinating facts about the various species.

Solving Mysteries…

Develop a “Junior Detective” kit with a magnifying glass, finger dusting kit, a way to cast footprints, etc. And of course, give them a mystery to solve, like the Case of the Missing Cookies, or Big Sister’s Lost Diary

Egyptology…

Create costumes for aspiring Pharaohs or a game about finding what’s in a mummy’s tomb.

Bird Watching…

Develop a guide to the best bird-watching areas in your region. You could sell the guide or give the information away free on a website, and use bird watching equipment and books as back end items to your guide.

See how simple this is? Focus on the discovery process and let your imagination run wild!

If you’re good at promoting, you don’t even have to create the products yourself-just find an existing source, negotiate distribution rights, and market the heck out of the product.

BY THE WAY, if you have an existing retail business, focusing on kids is great way to generate traffic.

Depending on your business, you could offer classes, demonstrations, or field trips that fit in nicely with your establishment. Charge for the activity or promote it free of charge-what’s ever appropriate for your industry.

I’ve seen this done successfully with craft stores, woodworking supply stores, bakeries, orchards, farms-just to name a few. Think of fun weekend things you’d like to do with your children or grandchildren (if you have them), and offer the experience to your customer. If you promote it through community announcement venues on television, radio, web sites, and the local paper, I think you’ll be surprised by the turnout.

Kits for kids and other kid-related stuff is a great way to make money.  Tap into your kid passion and see!

Information Product Empire

Information products are hot–hot–hot! They’re selling like hot cakes on the web and are turning average people into above-average income earners.

Why? Because the Internet is all about information.

Whatever you’re looking for, whatever you can imagine, you can find information about it on the Internet, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

People want to know who, what, where, when, why, how–NOW. And if you can learn to supply the demand, you can make money. Perhaps A LOT of money.

Here are a few examples of people who turned their knowledge into cash with information products:

• Done For You Fat Loss Meal Programs

A busy personal trainer – who didn’t think he had the time or energy to eat a balanced diet and described himself as a fitness “fraud” – took the proverbial “bull by the horns” and got his diet under control.  Within a matter of days he felt better and had more energy, and suddenly those extra pounds he’d packed on started melting away like ice cream on a hot day.  He decided to share his tips with the world and makes more money with this than he ever did doing one-on-one personal training.

• Registry Easy

Slow computer?  Need to reboot all the time?  Don’t spend hundreds to repair – just download this registry software and clean thing up.  So says the man behind this software company, who turned his teenage geek time into big bucks online.  Hmm – how did you spend your teenage years again?  And could you profit from it now?

• Get Paid to Draw

Like to draw or have take pictures?  So does this guy.  But he’s no “starving artist.”  He learned how to harness the power of the internet to get others to buy his drawings, and makes TONS of money from his talent.  He also makes a TON of money showing others where and how to sell their drawings and photographs online.

See the diversity?

If you have some experience or success at something, YOU can make money teaching others what you know.  Here’s are some ways you can create and use information products:

As a Profit Center

Write about something you know and sell it through direct mail, from your own website or from many of the information product sites around the web. Here’s a great example of information brokering.

As a Lead Generation Tool

Whether you’re selling condos in Aspen, baby grand pianos, or marketing an MLM, information products build rapport and establish expertise. They can also be profit centers in and of themselves, like they are for this guy (click on “Recent Success Stories”).

To Build Your Career

Nothing establishes expertise faster than having your name in print, whether it be on an article, a “how to” report, a videotaped demonstration, or an audio recording. The first time I stumbled across the powerful technique, I garnered a promotion and an “Employee of the Year” award. .

The best thing about information products is that you can create them quickly, easily, and inexpensively. You don’t have to be a trained writer. All you need is a hot topic and a way to tell people about it. Recipes, gardening, celebrities, cars, travel–you name it, you can create an information product to sell.  Try it yourself and see!

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“Best Bet” Resource:

Make Your Knowledge Sell! is the single best product I’ve seen on how to sell information in its many shapes and sizes. From conception to production to marketing, Make Your Knowledge Sell! takes you step by step through the entire process–then throws in tons of resources and insider notes just for good measure. It has information on every aspect of the information industry, whether you want to make books, audio tapes or video tapes. If you’re at all interested in creating info products, you owe it to yourself to take a look.  Best of all, it’s FREE!

Movie Critic, Food Critic – Get Paid to Criticize

Want a simple way to make money in your area of expertise?   Become a critic and write a review. Movies, food, books, CDs – you name it, people want to know if they should spend their hard earned money on it. Love small theater? Write reviews for your local paper or regional magazine. Mad about Monster Trucks? Give fans of the sport an honest review. Crazy about Bed and Breakfasts?  Travel magazines are hungry for this kind of data. Have a passion for peppers? Rank local restaurants on your “hot and spicy” scale for the Food Section of your local paper.  Your options are only limited by your imagination.

To get started, request a tip sheet from the paper, regional magazine, or trade magazine you intend to target. This tells you what the publication is looking for, rates they pay for different assignments, and whom to contact for additional information. You can usually find the address on the mast head of the publication, or by picking up a current Writer’s Market. If reviews aren’t specified in the tip sheet, call or write the editor to pitch your idea.

Not only is this a great way to earn some extra money, it’s an excellent way to establish your expertise in an area…which can ultimately lead to additional business.

A ballet master I knew would go to the opening night of any dance troupe that performed in town, and write an unbiased review for the next day’s paper. She would tell the good, the bad, and the ugly, and no unpointed toe, sloppy arm, or thunderous landing escaped her notice. It was clear to anyone reading the review that she knew what she was talking about. The newspaper bought her ticket and paid her for writing the article, and she got a byline and usually several students as a result of sharing her expertise.

So what do you know well enough to render an educated opinion? Beer? Gardening? The hottest nightclubs in town? Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the amount of interest people have in reviews.

I’ve seen critiques on everything from the kid-friendliness of restaurants to which hair sprays work best in which climates. One of the most popular local celebrities in Houston for decades was a flamboyant television reporter named Marvin Zindler. Marvin would get copies of the health department restaurant inspection reports and spend a few minutes every week telling Houstonians just how their favorite restaurants violated local health code ordinances. “Mouse dropping in the storage room!  Slime in the ice machine!”  Was it popular? You bet!  It also cause some restaurants to go under, so powerful was Marvin’s influence.

Just find a topic that interests you and think about ways to critique it-again, and again, and again. Restaurants, books, movies, bands, candy makers, customer service centers-whatever it is, you can write a review and make money.

Good luck!

Make Money With Salvage

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure…literally!

Recycling isn’t just the mantra of environmentalists and the green movement – it’s a savvy way to conduct business.  Just because something’s no longer wanted doesn’t mean that it’s without value. If you can see worth in what’s worthless to you, then you can make money in salvage.

Sell things like:

• Old clothes to vintage clothing stores
• Old toys, records, photographs, etc., to collectors
• Old furniture to antique dealers or used furniture stores
• Unused jewelry to jewelers
• Old business equipment to second hand dealers
• A wrecked car for parts
• The architectural salvage from a dilapidated building or barn (ceiling beams, floors, mantle, shutters, etc.)

I think you get the picture.  If you look around your community, you’ll realize just how much people recycle – particularly in the farm community.  In our area, horse manure from all the horse farms is sold to the mushroom farmers.  The compost from the mushroom farms is sold to the soil vendors.  On and on it goes.  Find your link in the chain and make money.

Start with cleaning and selling your own unwanted items.  Once you’ve cleared the clutter from your house and realize the profits to be made, you can place ads to buy OTHER people’s stuff to sell. Remember, people would rather spend money than time, so most folks would rather sell something to you for next to nothing rather than take the time to dispose of it themselves.

You can then resell it at a profit by placing classified ads, having a garage sale, taking a booth at a flea market, joining the action on eBay, or even opening your own secondhand shop.  “Like new” is desirable in a down economy and attractive to the thrifty in ANY economy, so keep that in mind.

So, consider turning “trash into treasure” through salvage or resale.  It’s a quick, easy way to make money.  Good luck!

Info-Products: Turn Your Knowledge into Cash

Know a lot about something, like gardening, beekeeping, kayaking — or dating hot guys?  Then turn your knowledge into cash by creating an info-product and selling it online.  It’s one of the fastest, easiest ways to make money these days, and people are literally making fortunes selling doing it.

So what’s an info-product?

An info-product (or information product) is simply information that you create (write/speak/video/software) about something you know well that others may like to learn.

For example, let’s say that you have extensive knowledge about how to care for specialty plants in your region. Think others might benefit from your years of experience? You bet! Take all your favorite tips and tricks and turn them into a guide. Know how to raise chickens, find a needle in a haystack, or scuba dive in New Zealand? You could have yourself a infoproduct!  You’re only limited by your imagination.

Here are a few examples of what other people have come up with:

Instant Sales Letters
A marketing wiz took his best sales letters templates, put them together in a collection, and sells them online.  This one product alone has been paying his mortgage for nearly a decade.

Calling Men
A relationship expert shares her tips and tricks on how and when to call and text the datable men you meet.  This product was developed to answer the tons of questions she got on this subject matter from the other relationship books she wrote.

How to Build a Chicken Coop
No only does this product show you how to build a chicken coop that will protect your chickens from predators and deliver delicious eggs, it’s an internet best-seller!  Who’d a thought?

Learn How to Play Piano at Home
A classically trained pianist, tired of the quality of piano programs on the market, decided to produce her own play piano info-product.  She’s been able to replace her teaching income, and now sells info-products and plays in jazz clubs for fun.  No starving musician there!

See the wide variety?  Turn your knowledge into cash!  Just down some of your passions and then take a little time to “flush out” the ideas and see if you have a winner.

How?

Before you do anything, make sure you have a buying market for your product.  This is crucial.  You don’t want to spend time, money, or energy creating something that only a handful of people might buy.  Do your research first.

The easiest way to do this is by going to Google and typing in a phrase that best describes your proposed idea, like puppy training, cooking for two, wedding theme ideas, or whatever, and seeing what’s already available.  If there are millions of pages and lots of paid ads running along the top and right side of the screen, that’s good.  It means you have competition because the market is buying this kind of product.  It’s what you want.  Think about it – how many books or products about your hobby do you have?  Just one?  Unlikely.  You probably have a dozen resources or more.  Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to create an info-product that fills a void in your market, whether it be video, software, checklists, or whatever.  Give the market what they want in a format they haven’t seen before – and you’ll make a ton of money.

If your research turns up few competing websites and few or no paid Google ads, it’s probably because this market doesn’t spend money.  Come up with another idea.  You want to fish where there are plenty of fish to take your bait, not in a vacant field.

If you have an existing business, you can also use infoproducts to educate your customers. If you own a jewelry store, for example, you could create an infoproduct to show what to look for in a diamond. If you’re an accountant, you could produce a “business startup accounting checklist.” By giving your customer valuable information for little or no cost, he’ll be more inclined to trust your advice and buy your product or service.

I first saw this idea in an article about a used piano salesman who created a “How To Tell If Your Used Piano Is Worth The Money” pamphlet in which he revealed the dirty tricks some second hand dealers use to make a used piano sound like it’s in better shape than it is. The pamphlet was distributed to students free of charge through piano teachers in the area, and brought in a huge response from parents not wanting to get ripped off on this major purchase.

It’s a clever tactic you can modify to suit your own needs.

If you’d like to learn more about creating an infoproduct, I highly recommend Make Your Knowledge Sell! by Ken Evoy and Monique Harris. Not only is this course a great bargain – it’s free! - it walks you step-by-step through creating an infoproduct so you’ll have marketable material by the time you finish. See for yourself.

Could you make money with an info-product?  There’s only one way to find out…

Make Money with Auctions

Auctions are a great way to make money!

You’ve no doubt heard about eBay and other online auctions, and you may have wondered what all the fuss was about. Well, let me tell you: it’s the ultimate open market experience…without the crowds, the noise, or the hassles.

With more than a million auctions a week on eBay alone, online auctions are BIG business and growing bigger every month. If you think it’s just about getting rid of your junk–think again.

Yes, you’ll find plenty of attic items on these sites, but you’ll also find everything from collectibles to livestock to homes listed there as well. People have become addicted to the auction excitement, and many who came to dispose of their cast offs have stayed around…and made big money.

Here’s how:

• Selling — Folks who love to frequent garage sales, junk shops, and second hand stores have found a ready market at online auctions. If you have a discerning eye and know how to pick up treasurers for pennies, forget the flea market scene–become a virtual dealer instead and take weekends off.
• Surplus Inventory — If you have or can get your hands on overstocked or discounted items, you can sell them online and make money. Why write it off when you can sell it instead?
• Lead Generation — A lot of businesses put lead items up for auction and then offer a link back to their web site and main items. You could see a substantial jump in traffic for the nominal cost of offering a lead item.

If you don’t have any idea where to start or if the thought of putting items up for sale is a little scary, here are some pointers:

• Start small. Sell your own unwanted items and use the proceeds to buy other items for resale.
• Buy from smaller, lesser know auctions for pennies and resell on eBay for profit.
• Use the search capability on eBay to see what’s being auctioned and what your competition is doing. Lots of bidding = desirable product. No bidding = dud. Keep this in mind when you’re looking for things to resell. Remember: research is the key to any successful business.

There are TONS of ways to make money on eBay; here are some resources that can help: So…that’s a little about auctions.  If you’re thinking about starting an online business but don’t have a lot of time, this could be a great option for you.

Become an eBay Power Seller in 90 Days

Tips and tricks from eBay Power Seller John Thornhill, who’s been making big bucks on eBay for years.  He shows you what to do and how to do it in a step-by-step fashion.  Excellent resource for your learning library.

Auction Inspector

Can’t figure out which niche to promote?  Wish you knew what people were looking for?  Auction Inspector can help.  This nifty software scans the eBay marketplace, telling you which markets are underserved and which have too much competition.  Why go through expensive trial-and-error when this tool can give you laser-target precision?

Affiliate Programs: Make Money Selling Other People’s Stuff

Affiliate programs are one of the hottest trends on the web today, with good reason. If you’re looking for an easy way to add to your income without spending a lot of time doing so, promoting different affiliate programs could be what you need.

Here’s the basic premise: you sign up in different affiliate programs and promote another company’s goods or services in exchange for a percentage of the sales you send to them. There are no sign up costs to participate, and because visitors you send to the host sites are usually “tagged” with a traceable “cookie”, you can get credit for the sale for a certain length of time if the customer returns to buy later (although this varies from program to program–read the fine print on any agreement).

Affiliate programs are strictly pay-for-performance and the ultimate “win-win” situation. Businesses get an army of salesmen to promote their product or service (not to mention TONS of advertising), with no payroll costs–and individuals are able to sell great products, with no inventory, handling, or fulfillment hassles.

Here’s how you can make money with affiliate programs:

1.  Easily establish a web presence. Want to make money online but have no product to call your own? No problem! Determine what your site is about, and find existing products to promote until you can develop a product of your own. Visit AssociatePrograms.com to find suitable products. Sign up for Allan’s newsletter while you’re there.

2. Create an instant backend. Have a great product but nothing else to offer your customers? Join and promote several affiliate programs relevant to your website and collect a percentage of the sales.

3. Easily add to your bottom line. Once you’ve established a web presence, people are going to ask you about your vendors. Why? They want to know the fastest way to get up to speed. If you’re satisfied with your web host, merchant account, tracking software, etc., recommend them to others and collect a percentage as an affiliate. It’s only good business sense, after all.

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“Best Bet” Resources

If the affiliate programs idea appeals to you but you have no idea where to start, download these resources and get on the FAST track to success:

Super Affiliate Handbook

Rosalind Garner collected her 1st affiliate check for $10 back in 1998.  Over the next two, through hard work and by making lots of mistakes, she was making $10,000 a month and quit her day job.  By 2002, she was raking in $400,000+ per year as an affiliate, and these days, she does six figures a month – working a few hours a day and taking month-long vacations.   This book shows you how to do the same…A LOT faster, and without all the trial and error she went through.  A “must have” for your affiliate library.

 

Google Cash Sniper

This program will have you up and running fast and profitably within a matter of weeks.  Super Affiliate Chris Fox shows you step-by-step how to find a niche, do keyword discovery, set up a website, and promote the heck out of it.  Once you’re done, you’ll have a network of sites that not only score well on Google, bringing you TONS of targeted, hungry buyers for FREE, but that fill your bank account as well.  I’ve been online for a decade and learned some stuff I’ve never seen.  Awesome!