Make Money From Drawing - With No Artistic Ability

It is really quite regrettable that twice divorced Geoff Atkins is

no artist and claims he never can be, because this funny chap is a

constant source of material for many of the funniest cartoons you

have ever seen.

He is in constant touch with commissioning editors now, and indeed

approached us with a possible cover cartoon for another

publication.

We asked him for more details about himself. 

The fact is that someone whose mind can conjure up such humorous

and satirical situations, does not necessarily also have the

ability to express these ideas.

However, Geoff started by making reasonable money by selling his

ideas for cartoons to artists who specialise in this type of work.

Ideas just pop out of the blue, for the most part, he says, and

they are probably sparked by just such human situations as we

encounter every day.

It takes someone with his keen sense of humour and imagination to

visualise the expression of such amusing circumstances in a

humorous sketch with a tricky caption below it.

He has accumulated from the national Thompson Local Directories

(surprisingly, perhaps, rather than the Yellow Pages), a list of

cartoonists (usually listed under Graphic Artists), who always pay

him a flat fee and often royalties as well on the ideas he posts

to them.

He also found many names in magazines which use their cartoons.

Additionally, he had a cheap circular photocopied at a local shop,

which many magazines were willing to send to cartoonists who had

sent their cartoons in on the 'off chance'.

He is particularly pleased with the fax machine (rented from

British Telecom) which has increased his income an amazing 8 to 10

fold, as it enables him to send topical cartoon ideas to local

newspapers (all of whom can use them as so called syndicated

material) along with national magazines, where it's the first to

make an offer who's allowed to print!  To save costs, this clever

machine has what is known as a 'polling' feature, enabling Geoff

to send the same cartoon to up to 99 different publications during

the night - hence at much cheaper rates - totally automatically.

It also has the unexpected side effect of getting his cartoons

always looked at by the commissioning editors first thing in the

morning - it's always good to stand out from the crowd!

Getting addresses and 'phone/fax numbers is easy if you wish to

operate a similar business yourself - just ask at your local

library to see BRAD, the British Rate and Data Digest, a huge book

which lists every publication in Britain along with full details

about it.

It's updated on a monthly basis, believe it or not!

The Do's And Don't Of Profitable Mail Order Ads

Regardless of how you look at it, the most important aspect of any

successful mail order business is its advertising.  In fact, mail

order success is wholly dependent, and even predicated upon good

advertising.

First of all, you've got to have a dynamic, spectacular ad that

attracts the eye, and grabs the interest of the people you're

trying to sell to.  Thus, unless your ad really "jumps out" at the

reader, your sales won't live up to expectations, and your ad

money will be wasted.

The eye catching appeal of your ad must start with the headline. 

Use the headline to very quickly create a picture in the minds of

the reader - a vision of all their problems being solved, and

attainment of the kind of happiness they seek.  If your headline

fails to catch the attention of your prospect, you cannot hope to

capture him with the remainder of the ad, because it will go

unread!  So in writing your advertisement, put yourself in the

shoes of your reader.  You have his attention for just a little

while, so you must quickly interest him in your offer, show him

how he can get what he wants, and then cause him to send

immediately for your "solution" to his problems.  Your copy must

exude enthusiasm, excitement, and a positive attitude.  Don't be

afraid to use a hard-sell approach!  Say what you feel and believe

about your offer.  And use common, "everyday", but correct

English.

Even so, you can and must remember to be honest.  Don't exaggerate

or make claims you can't back up.  Never make promises you cannot,

or do not, expect to keep.  To do so could get you in trouble with

the Trading Standards Department.

Stress the benefits of your product or service.  Explain to your

reader how owning a copy of your book (for instance), or receiving

your services will make his life richer, happier, and more

abundant.  Don't get involved in detailing all the money you've

spent developing the product or researching the information you're

selling, or your credentials for offering it.  Stress the "sizzle"

and value of ownership.

It is important to involve the reader as often as possible through

the use of the word "You".  Write your copy, just as if you were

speaking to, and attempting to sell to just one person.  Don't let

your ad should as a speaker at a conference addressing a huge

stadium filled with people, but as if there were just one

individual listening.

And don't try to be overly clever, brilliant or humorous in your

advertising.  Keep your copy simple, to the point, and on target

towards selling your prospect the product or service because of

its benefits.  In other words, keep it simple, but clear; at all

costs, you don't want to confuse the reader.  Just tell him

exactly what he'll get for his money; the benefits he'll receive;

how to go about ordering it.  You don't have to get too friendly. 

In fact, avoid becoming "folksy", and don't use slang expressions.

In writing an ad, think of yourself as a door to door salesperson. 

You have to get the attention of the prospect quickly, interest

him in the product you're selling, create a desire to enjoy its

benefits, and you can then close the sale.

Copywriting, whether for a display ad, a classified ad, a sales

letter or a brochure, is a learned skill.  It is one that anyone

can master with a bit of study, practice, and perhaps some

professional guidance.

Your first move, then, is to study your competition, and recognise

how they are selling their wares.  Practice rewriting their ads

from a different point of view or from a different sales angle. 

Keep a file of ads you've clipped from different publications in

a file of ad writing ideas.  But don't copy anyone else's work;

just use the ad material of others to stimulate your own

creativeness.

Some of the "known facts" about advertising - and ad writing in

particular - tell us that you cannot ask for more than œ3 in a

short classified type ad.  Generally speaking, a œ5 item will take

at least a one inch display ad.  If you're trying to sell a œ10

item, you'll need at least a quarter page - perhaps even a half

page of copy - and œ15 to œ20 items require a full page.  If you

are selling something for more than that, you'll need a four-page

sales letter, a brochure, separate order coupon, and a return

reply envelope.

If you're making offers via direct mail, best get your letter into

the post on a Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, to be sure it does not

arrive on a Monday, the first and busiest day of the week.  And

again, unless you're promoting an item with a large price tag, the

quality or colour of your paper won't have any great effect on the

response you'll get, but the quality of your printing definitely

will, so bear this in mind when you place your printing order.

One final point to remember:  The summer months when people are

most apt to be away on holiday are usually not good months for

direct mail.  But they are good for opportunity advertisements in

publications often found in holiday resorts, and in hotels.

Again, it cannot be stressed too much or too often:  Success in

mail order does, indeed, depend upon advertising, and as with

anything else, quality pays off in the long run.  Read this report

again; study it; let it sink in.  Then apply the principles

outlined in it.  They have worked for others, and THEY CAN WORK

FOR YOU!

How To Develop A Profitable Worldwide Distributor Network

When you select a product, your choice should be based upon your

knowledge of how and to whom you're going to sell it.  You may

have the greatest bargain in the world, but it will be of no value

to you if you don't know who's going to buy it, or how you are

going to get the word out about it.

The first rule to achievement of a fortune is to produce or buy

your product for pennies and sell for pounds.  So after

preliminary market research to determine who'll buy your product,

the next question to answer is:  How much will the majority of

this market be willing to pay for your product?

For the sake of our discussion, let's say you have written a "How

To" manual on how to make £100,000 a year compiling and selling

mailing lists.  You check with a number of printers and get a

product cost of £1.50 per book in lots of 1,000.  You figure that

with sharp advertising, you can "sell a million" of these books at

£10 a copy, but that advertising will cost you £1.50 per book. 

Thus far, the basic cost of your book is £3 per copy.

Even though you will probably be the one selling most of your

books, you must realise that it will take you an awfully long time

to move out a million copies of this book.  It will keep you busy

25 hours a day, 8 days a week to do it all by yourself.  So the

thing to do is recruit as many other people as you can to help do

the selling.  This means setting up a dealer distributor network.

To do this, you must make it worthwhile for other people to sell

your product.  You offer a percentage of the sales price on each

book they sell for you.  Generally, this is about 50% for each

single copy sold; 60% when purchased in quantity lots of 25 to 99

copies; and 75% when purchased in lots of 100 copies or more.  The

important thing is to shave your profits to a minimum when you

have other people doing the work for you.

Let's use, then, our example of a £10 book that costs you £1.50 to

produce in lots of 1000.  For people who buy from you in lots of

100 copies, you could cut your profit to £1 per book, sell it to

them for £2.50 per book, and let them do all the advertising, as

well as the selling.  Don't offer more than 50% on single copy

dropship sales, because you'll have to furnish this type of dealer

with selling materials, and continue to do most of the advertising

yourself. 

Setting up your distributor programme will require advertising and

a sales kit for the sellers.  Thus, you should make up a series of

"Dealers Wanted" ads and place them in as many different

publications as you can.

The national "opportunity" magazines are the best place to place

your advertising for dealers.  Remember, the ad should be a call

for dealers, distributors and independent extra income seekers. 

Do not try to sell your product in this ad.  Use it only to enlist

or recruit people to sell for you.  Remember too, the more you run

your dealers wanted ad, and the more different publications you

run it in, the more people you'll get to sell your product for

you.  The easiest way to go is with "Dealers Wanted"

advertisements in as many worldwide publications as possible.

You'll lose your shirt attempting to recruit people via direct

mail, and you'll never make any headway with just a "Dealers

Wanted insert" for each book you sell.  If you want sales people,

you must advertise for them.

To actually get these interested opportunity seekers to sell your

product for you, you'll need a dynamic sales letter and seller's

kit to send out in response to the replies to your advertising. 

This kind of sales letter is usually four pages in length, printed

on A4 paper, and then folded in half.  But if it takes 10 or more

pages to sell the prospect on the idea of selling for you, use the

amount of space and paper that's necessary.

In addition to your sales letter, you should have at least three

camera ready ads the opportunity seeker can use to advertise your

product.  These should include a classified ad, a one inch display

ad, and a larger ad with blank spaces for him to insert his own

name and address.  You should also include at least one full page

camera ready circular he can use as an "original" in ordering

printing of his own direct mail circulars.

If you've written your sales letter properly, that's all there is

to it.  Some people charge an "up-front" dealers' registration

fee.  We don't recommend this, for a number of reasons - mainly

because it immediately eliminates a great many people who might

want to at least try to sell the product for you, but are not

willing to "pay" to sell for you.

Some sellers charge £1 to £5 for details and complete dealership

set-up to offset the cost of the initial seller's kit and postage. 

This is what we recommend at the start.  If you offer your program

for nothing, you'll get as many responses from curiosity seekers

and opportunity collectors as from bona fida prospects.

If you charge for the dealership set up, you should include a

sample of your product.  For the more elaborate sales kits and

expensive products, most people ask for a deposit, which is

refunded after a certain number of sales are made by the dealer. 

Any charges more than £5 should not be mentioned in your "Dealers

Wanted" advertisements, but held over and fully explained in your

sales letter.

This is how you set up a dealer/distributor network:  Get other

people to sell your product for you!  You can, and should be

prepared from the start, before you place your first dealers

wanted ad, and proceed only as you can afford the advertising

costs from the profits of sales of your product.

It's simple, and it's easy, and it can make you rich!  You had to

have real interest to have ordered this report.  We hope that it

has motivated you with the entrepreneurial spirit, and that you

act on it!

The Direct Mail Formula

Most of us have been at the customer end of Direct Mail.  Who

hasn't had a mailshot from Reader's Digest, sumptuously

illustrated in colour, temptingly written ... who has been

able to resist ordering, on approval, one of their excellent

publications?

Reader's Digest is, of course, at the top end of the Direct

Mail market.  There are many more of us who make money from

Direct Mail by posting out much less extravagant brochures. 

One of my own most successful mailings consist of just one

sheet of white paper printed on both sides!

So how can the small operator take £1,000,000 using Direct

Mail? First let me say that he won't do it in a week.  He

won't even do it in a year.  This is not, after all, Cloud

Cuckoo Land.  But I reckon that with a combination of luck

and skill it could be possible to turn over this sum before

you go off to the Bahamas for a well-earned retirement.  And

if you think that's too long to wait, work out how much your

present job will bring you in that time.

To show you that it is possible, let's do a little thought

experiment.  Let's imagine that you go into the Direct Mail

business and let's further imagine that you are selling, let

us say, a book with a retail price of £20.00.

A really good mail shot will bring a five per cent response. 

This means that out of every hundred letters you post, five

people will actually order the goods you're promoting.  Note

I said really good.  Most mail shots don't achieve this

figure.  I only get it myself very occasionally.  So let's

say that you'll average two per cent during your Direct Mail

career.

If you get a two per cent conversion rate, you'll take £40

for each hundred letters you post.  How many letters could

you post a day? Well, the big firms think nothing of mailing

out 10,000 pieces, but they've got all kinds of sophisticated

machines specially designed to print circulars, fold them,

put them in envelopes, stick on address labels and frank them

with the correct postage.  I assume that you don't have one

of these machines tucked away in your garden shed, but have

to rely on your own hands.  Shall we say three hundred

letters a day?  It would take two or three hours to do this,

so it's certainly achievable.

Three hundred pieces of mail and a two per cent return.  That

means £120 turnover per day.  Do this for six days a week,

forty eight weeks a year (you deserve a holiday) and you're

taking £34,560 a year.  At this rate you'd have turned over

one million pounds in about twenty nine years - which is less

than the average working lifetime.

Yes, yes I agree.  That £120 a day isn't all yours.  In fact,

most of it isn't.  It's going to cost you (at the time of

writing) around £60 to print the circulars and post letters

to three hundred customers.  Then you've got to buy the books

to fulfil orders.  If you buy them for a fiver each,

wholesale, your total expenditure per day is £90, leaving you

with £30 a day for yourself.

Doesn't sound much, does it?  But with only a couple of hours

work a day, it's a part time income.  And if you can pocket

£180 extra a week by dabbling with Direct Mail part-time,

think what you could do if you made it a full time

occupation!

This is all an oversimplification, of course.  We've assumed

the addresses are free, and that the customer is paying post

and packing on top.  But it does serve to give you some idea

of the eventual possibilities.

The Direct Mail Formula can be stated as follows:

1.  Find something to sell which you can buy at a suitable

wholesale price.

2.  Obtain some tempting promotional literature for your

chosen goods.

3.  Get the addresses of people likely to be interested in

your goods.

4.  Post a lot of letters.

5.  Keep on mailing your buyers with details of new offers.

6.  Rent out your own list to other dealers.

We'll consider each of those points in turn. First, however,

a word on the subject of investment.

Anyone starting a business has to invest both time and money. 

There's no escaping this.  A person opening a shop, for

example, will have to spend quite horrendous sums of

premises, shopfitting, stock, advertising, etc.

If you move into the Direct Mail business, you're also going

to have to invest your time and your money.  Fortunately you

won't have to find large sums for premises and shopfitting. 

The money you invest will be quite small sums spread over a

period of time.  It will be money spent on posting letters to

people who don't want to buy - or on goods which have no

appeal.  The money will be spent, in short, on testing. 

Testing different address lists, testing different products,

testing different sales circulars.  This means that you

shouldn't, under any circumstances, give up your job to go

into Direct Mail.  You're going to lose money to start with. 

This money won't be lost for ever.  Eventually you should get

it back many times over.  But in the early stages of your

Direct Mail business, you'll need money to live.

CHOOSING A PRODUCT

Most of the readers of this manual will be in the Business

Opportunities section of mail-order and will be interested in

selling books, manuals, cassettes, newsletters - anything on

which information is recorded.  We'll therefore assume that

you're going to sell an information guide.  The general

principles outlined here, however, are relevant to selling

all goods by mail-order.

Obviously your product must appeal to the market you're

aiming at.  The only sure way of knowing that your

information guide will appeal to the market is to try it. 

Here's your first investment of "test money".  However, your

own feelings will give you some guide, and the longer you

spend in the business, the better you will become at

selecting a winner.

One thing you can make sure of, however, is that the price is

right.  You saw from the example above that even with buying

a book for £5 and selling it for £20, most of the takings

were swallowed up in expenses.  You're going to need this

sort of mark-up to succeed.

SALES LITERATURE

The best product in the world won't sell by mail-order unless

the literature which promotes it is both well written and

attractively presented.

Many Business Books which you can buy wholesale already have

tried and tested sales brochures to accompany them, and it's

often possible to have your own name and address added to

these.  Check with your suppliers.

If your product doesn't come complete with sales literature,

you'll have to get some done for you.  This is very much a

job or the specialist and you'll need to get in touch with an

author skilled in the art of copywriting.  See the end of

this book for useful names and addresses.

The sales literature doesn't need to be lavish.  There's no

need for expensive colour printing, for example - you can

often achieve a very attractive effect with tinted paper.  A

typical mail-shot will consist of the following items: a

circular describing the book (or other goods); a letter

underlining the advantages of the book and urging immediate

action; and an order form.  The mail shot may also include

other bits and pieces - a reply envelope or some additional

incentive for prompt ordering such as a discount or a free

gift.  The value of including these extras can only be

assessed by testing.

FINDING A MAILING LIST

This is the hardest job of all.  Finding a mailing list which

will give you that necessary two per cent - or whatever

percentage conversion you need.

Many professional mail-order operators build their own

mailing lists by advertising in the press and recording the

names of people who respond to the ads.  Since the whole

business of classified advertising is discussed later in this

book, we'll assume for the purpose of this book that you are

going to rent other dealers' lists initially.

You'll need a list of people who have already bought a

product similar to the one you're selling.  With business

information guides there's no problem.  There are many lists

available of "Business Book Buyers".

It's not too difficult finding a mailing list to rent.  Many

list owners advertise in the business pages of the national

papers, or in Exchange and Mart, and when you've been in

mailing order for a few months, you'll get plenty of mail

shots from companies wanting to rent you their address lists. 

See also useful addresses at the back of the book.

Unfortunately only a very small fraction of the lists

available are good ones.  What do we mean by a "good" list?

A good mailing list has two characteristics.  It's clean and

it's fresh.  Most rented lists are neither.

A clean list will contain less than five per cent "gone

aways" or "not known at this addresses".  A fresh list will

have been compiled in the last six months.

One way to ensure that you get a clean, fresh list is to buy

several enquiries from other dealers.  Several mail-traders

use this approach - they write to small mail-order firms

advertising in the Business Opportunity press offering to buy

the actual letters which enquirers have sent, provided they

are not more than, say, three months old.  if you do this,

you'll have to pay around 10 - 12p for each name, but the

date on the envelope should ensure that it's fresh.  The only

snag is, most advertisers now record the names of their

enquirers on computer, then throw away the letter, so you

might not get too many addresses using this method.

How much should you pay for a mailing list?  They are

currently on offer at prices ranging from £20 to £100 per

thousand, with the addresses on self-adhesive labels.  And,

note, this is just a rental charge in some cases.  That's

what you pay for just one use.  In point of fact, one use is

all you'll want, since it's buyers you're interested in. 

Those people who buy from you will become part of your own

list, of course, and you can (and should) remail them as

often as you wish.

If you try to use a rented list twice, or, worse still, try

to sell it to someone else, you'll be found out in no time. 

You see, the person who rents you the list will have

"planted" it with the names of a couple of trusty friends in

different parts of the country.  If they get more than one

mailing from you - or a mailing from someone else who hasn't

rented the list, they'll inform the list owner.  He will have

cleverly coded these addresses in such a way that you are

immediately spotted as the culprit.  I mention this because,

as I'm sure you will already guessed, one day you will be

renting out your own list (clean and fresh, let us hope) and

you'll be using the same techniques to prevent cheating.

O.K.  You've obtained some mailing lists.  Start posting your

300 letters a day - or as many as you can afford anyway.  I

emphasise again that you are making an investment here - if

you break even right away you're doing well.  The object of

the exercise is to build up your own list of buyers.

Let's assume that you don't get your desired two per cent

return.  Let's assume that you only get, in fact, a one per

cent conversion.  You can work out how much money you're

losing yourself (I repeat, this is your investment).  My aim

here is to show you how your own list of buyers will grow.

With one person out of every hundred buying and with a

mailing of nearly three hundred per day, after one year

you'll have nearly 1000 names on your own list.  This list

will be worth far more than it's weight in gold to you.  It

will be a list of PRIME, FRESH, BUYERS.  They will be people

who like to buy by mail and they will be people to KNOW YOU.

You'll now have a list which will give you a much better than

two per cent return on your future mailings.  You'll have a

list which other dealers will be eager to rent.  And if you

keep it nice and clean they'll be eager to rent more off you

later.

With your own list you'll now be in a position to get free

mailing lists by simply swapping your list with another

trader.  You can do this as often as you like.  You're now

spending much less money on your own mailings, so your second

thousand buyers won't take as long to build up.

The actual management of a mailing list is a complex subject,

and there's certainly no room in this short manual to

consider it properly.  Your usual supplier should be able to

suggest a readable guide on the management of mailing lists.

You will now be aware that you only make money from Direct

Mail when you have a list of your own.  Mailing to lists

rented from other firms may not make you a profit, may even

make a loss.  The purpose is to construct your own list.  It

takes time, it takes money.  But once you have your own list

- the £1,000,000 Direct Mail Formula will work for you.