First
of all you will need a product: what we have in mind is an
information
product, similar to the printed guides available, of
which
this is one. Add the number of guides also available on
computer
disk and you have a choice of literally hundreds of
guides
to choose from.
How
would you normally sell these guides? By advertising
them
in newspapers and magazines, using cheap classified
and/or
display advertisments. For the sake of this example,
let's
say you put together a compendium of information on
money
matters: how to improve credit rating, removing
County
Court judgments, money raising techniques,
offshore
details etc, etc., and say the asking price is $25.
Improving
their financial situation will appeal to a wide section
of
the population.
Let
us say you really went to town and spent $13,000 on
adverts
on a national scale, advertising to magazines and
newspapers
with combined circulations of, say, 13 million.
You
use the "two-step" method of selling, whereby readers
are
invited to send for a free report which is a type of sales
letter,
whereby their appetite is wetted by the information
telling
them how they will benefit from buying your financial
guide.
Let's
say you get 10,000 replies: you invite them to ring a free
(to
them) 0800 number which also quickens the replies
coming
in and is convenient for them. What have
you spent
so
far? $13,000 for advertising, $12,500 for the 0800
telephone
service (at $1.25 per call, administered by a
call-taking
agency), $4,500 for the 10,000 "free report/sales
letter,
bringing a total so far of $30,000.
Of
those who requested the free report/sales letter, say,
2,000
people then ordered your $25 manual . The manual
costs
$5 each to produce ($10,000), so that this exercise
has
cost you $40,000 to promote. 2,000 manuals at $25 each
will
bring in $50,000, or put another way, a profit overall of
$10,000.
There are many if's and but's to the above, it's
merely
an example - you could spend a lot on advertising and
only
sell 1,000 manuals, in which case you have made a loss
of $10,000.
Now
imagine, most of the overheads we have mentioned, like
$13,000
on advertising, $4,500 on the free report/sales letter
and
$10,000 on the printing of 2,000 manuals no longer exist:
you
are now faced not with a profit of $10,000, but a profit of
$10,000
plus $27,500 giving you $37,500. Even if you only
sold
1,000 and were facing a loss of $10,000, with most of the
overheads
gone, like advertising ($13,000), free report/sales
letter
($4,500) and print cost of 1,000 manuals ($5,000), this
saving
of $22,500 minus the $10,000 loss would give you a
profit
of $12,500.
All
well and good, but how would you possibly manage to get
rid
of those overheads? The answer is advertising on the
Internet.
The Internet is the international computer
communication
network, and your adverts would be placed
on
BBS's (Computer Bulletin Boards).
Some
years ago a West Coast author was having problems
having
his novel published and into the book stores. He had
the
first few chapters "uploaded"
onto a few of the local
BBS's,
along with a small classified type of advert to
encourage
people using the BBS's to "download" his novel
from
the BBS's via their telephone link and modem into their
computers
and read off the computer screen, or printer.
Bearing
in mind this was a "freebie", thousands of people,
much
to his surprise, "downloaded" his novel. After having
read
the first few chapters and having had a "taste" of what
was
being offered, when the computer readers came to the
fourth
chapter, a notice came up on their screens telling them
the
rest of the novel had been scrambled, and to obtain the
special
code to unscramble the remaining novel, they should
ring
this special telephone number and give their credit card
number
for payment and the special code.
In
two months, the author received over 100,000 orders for
the
code. What did he charge? If he charged just $1, that's a
cool
$100,000. The 100,000 codes allowed that number of
people
to read his book, the equivalent of selling 100,000
novels,
but without the cost of printing, finishing, distribution
etc.
Now you can understand how it is possible to do away
with
the overheads mentioned earlier, and how, with minimal
cost
and hardly any risk, some serious money can be made.
In
Britain there are over 1,000 Computer Bulletin Boards
(BBS's)
and 60,000 in the English speaking USA. Imagine you
advertise
on 10 BBS's and sell 25 manuals on each BBS in
one
month - you have earned 250 x $25 = $6,250. Manage to
advertise
on all 1,000 BBS's and sell only 4 manuals - you
have
earned 4,000 x $25 = $100,000. Amazing. Whilst this is
just
a mathematical projection it does illustrate the potential
of
this system.
Some
BBS's do charge between $10 to $15 per month to
carry
an advert, most are still free. Compared to the cost of
printed
adverts it is still very small change.
How
to get an advert on the Internet? Look in computer
magazines
and others like Exchange & Mart under the
Business
Opportunity or Business Services section and
contact
companies who can do the job for you on a monthly
basis.
We think you will be impressed as to the relative,
modest
costs involved. They can also advise you as to
whether
you or a company service the set-up as far as
potential
customers contacting you, or having a service look
after
that part of the business.
As
far as customers paying by credit card is concerned,
unless
you already have a merchant account with companies
like
Visa and Mastercard, it would be simpler to come to an
arrangement
with a telephone answering company who have
themselves
a credit card set-up. Ask your bank or the card
companies
themselves as to what might be a suitable solution -
after
all, you will be putting commission their way by
promoting
credit card sales.
As
regards the actual setting up and day to day running of
advertising
on the Internet, you could either put a small
classified
ad in a computer magazine or your local paper
asking
for assistance. There should be no shortage of
computer
literate people only too willing to display their
practical
knowledge in this subject, including the scambling
of
codes, and at very modest cost.
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