Pen
Pal clubs are very easy to start, and can provide a very
comfortable
"by mail" income for the sharp operators.
The
best way to operate is via a monthly newsletter, and listing
of
new members. We've found that a simple,
one page, typewritten
sheet
is all you need to get started. This
should be, or should
include,
a quick run-down on what your members are up to, i.e.
Janice
C is planning her holiday in Greece next month; Debbie O.
is
taking night classes to learn Spanish; John R. is thinking of
changing
jobs - he wants to get more involved in sales; Bon L. is
setting
up his own carpet cleaning business; Dave A. is wanting to
move
to Ireland ... etc.
This
kind of reader-membership involvement will get your
"newsletter"
off to a running start, and keep your members loyal
to
you because of the "gossip" you pass along in each issue.
You
follow your "gossip story" with either a question and answer
session,
or letters from the readers. Complete
the newsletter
with
a short story on how to meet men or women, what to say, and
how
to develop a friendship. The back page,
or extra page, is
then
a listing of men and women - including a short description of
each,
and their addresses - wanting to correspond with or meet
other
people with similar tastes.
You'll
need a typewriter, paper, and names of people in writing
and
receiving pen pal letters. You can
quickly secure a start
with
names answering ads (classifieds) placed in your local
papers,
and some nationals that have similar ads in, and it won't
be
long before you have the basic 100 replies to begin your
operation.
You
should have letterheads and mailing envelopes and return reply
envelopes
printed. Get quotes from local printers,
and mail order
printers.
Next,
make up a sample copy of your newsletter, and an application
sales
letter than will explain your membership fee of about œ10 a
year
for the newsletter, plus œ1 per month each time you carry a
member's
name and address in your "correspondents wanted" section.
Be
sure to ask for reports on what members are doing, and
encourage
them to send up to date news on what they're doing in -
this
keeps the "personal touch" gossip supplied.
Now,
send out your newsletter samples, with your sales letter/
membership
application, to the list of names we've supplied you
with,
or you may have purchased from other sources.
At
the same time, you should run an advertisement in as many of
the
small mail order publications and ad sheets as you can afford.
For
a complete listing of these, you should order the Guide to
British
Magazines and Adsheets, published by John Pooley, 27 Carey
Street,
Reading, for œ3.00. Your ad could read
something like
this:
Pen
Pal Listings! Nationwide
circulation! œ1 to: (your name and
address).
Tom's
Pen Pal Letter! Monthly Club News and membership listings!
œ1
to: (Your name and address).
Of
course, you'll want to keep records on all your members, and
continue
to update the listings you carry, but basically that's
all
there is to get started. You could even
run ads of this kind
in
your local newspapers and get a good response.
We recommend
that
you send for sample copies of other Pen Pal Club bulletins to
see
how they operate and what ideas of theirs you can adapt for
use
in your newsletter. By all means, become
a browser, and look
through
all the magazines and leaflets with information about pen
pals
and mail order introductions, every time you pass a magazine
display
rack.
Be
sure to get your newsletter out regularly, and don't stop
advertising. Keep up your efforts to sell as many issues
of each
publication
as you can, expand your membership list, and get as
many
new listings for each issue as you possibly can.
Something
you might want to consider - 3 back issues of your
newsletter
for œ3, or as a free bonus to all new subscribers. You
could
carry this idea as a free bonus in your advertising, and as
a
special offer in your newsletter.
You
might also want to expand your income potential by offering
booklets,
books, tapes, motivational and informational material.
By
keeping good records of all the mail you receive, you can also
sell
or rent name lists of people who have responded to your
offerings
to other mail order dealers. Real
opportunities exist
for
sales mentioned in the paragraph above - the opportunities
limited
only by your imagination.
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