Saturday, June 17, 2006

Guide to Making Money With A Mail Order Business: Make Money With Your Mailbox

By DeAnna Spencer


Starting and making money with a mail order business is easy and inexpensive.
However, there are three things of absolute importance that must be considered before you begin.
The first consideration is your product, then there's your capability to advertise and finally you have to have a handle on your operating costs.

One of the most profitable and easiest products to sell via mail order are short,
no-nonsense reports and folios that guide or instruct other people in how to make
money. Reports such as this one.

Look at it this way, the majority of the people in the world are looking for a
"magic method" of making money without putting forth too much effort, time or
money. You write or buy the reproduction right to 100 different titles - titles
that appeal to these people looking for that "magic method" to riches - circulate
a list of these reports, priced at $2 to $3 each, and you've got yourself a real
gold mine! Sell a thousand copies of each of these reports each year, and in 10
years you will have made a million dollars or more! It's easy - it's being done
every year - and you can do it too!

Advertising is the life-blood of any mail order business - for a direct mail
enterprise, it's the mailing list. But with an honest mail order business, your real profits or losses will depend almost exclusively on your advertising.
Classified ads are the safest and simplest way to get started. Regardless of what you're selling, the best way to drum up business is through what is known as the "two step" approach. Advertise a "loss leader item" such as: FREE REPORT!
$50,000 a year profits with a spare-time business from your home. Details for SASE to : (Your name & address).

Start out by running this ad in as many of the mail order publications as you can afford, keeping your costs as low as possible.
When you receive responses from these ads, simply take one of your one-page "How-To" reports and slip it into the
self-addressed stamped envelope that you received, along with a listing of your other materials you have for sale - see our enclosed list of other money making reports - and along with an order form showing your address - send it back out to them.
With this kind of plan, you'll be building a mailing list which you can rent out or sell as soon as you've accumulated a thousand or more names. Renting and/or selling mailing lists of people who have responded to your ads can be big money
for you - all by itself - simply by renting or selling the same list over and over to different people.

At the same time, you should clip off the postage stamps from all your incoming
mail. When you've acquired a shoebox full of these stamps, you can sell them.

Save the envelopes - you can sell them to just about anybody. The same thing holds true for your "filled in" order coupons. Save them, and when you've
acquired a box-full or more, ask around and see who wants to buy them from you.
In many instances, these little extra-money making efforts can keep you going.

So, you've received a number of SASE in response to your ad for a free
money-making report - the report that you send out should be a one-page or two page report that pretty much describes how a person could take an idea and make
an unlimited amount of money, if he has initiative to put it into action. This is your "giveaway" or loss leader item - what you use to set the stage for presentation of your catalog or entire inventory of reports.
Generally speaking, out of the total number of people sending in for your free report, and to whom you included a complete listing of all your other reports, you can expect about one third of them to send in another order for other reports
from your list. This is where you'll start making money, and why this approach
is called "two-step" approach.

This is how you should put the free report together Top page) A full page
advertisement selling a book or business plan Second Page) A complete listing
of the other reports you have available such as our enclosed list of reports...
Third page) The report they ordered... You could then enclose a couple of
coupon-sized "ride-alongs" for other offers or order forms to buy other things
from you, such as mailing lists. If you can handle print & mail services, you
might include a coupon for that.
Basically, that's all there is to getting started with a profitable mail order business... Selecting a product that sells: How To Reports - Advertising to
pull in a list of interested buyers, and following up with your catalog: Your list of money making reports - and finally, a good handle on your operational costs.
If you own a photocopy machine, a printing press or a quick print shop - you've got it made and can make an unbelievable amount of money almost overnight.
If you don't own a photocopy machine or a printing press, and cannot afford to either lease or buy one, then your best bet would be to shop around and come up
with a working agreement with someone or a shop that has one of these machines.
Have a copy shop or print shop run you off a supply - if at all possible, a thousand copies of each report. You then agree to give or allow your "printer"
25 cents from the sale of each report that you make. You could total your sales and square your records at the end of each month, every 90-days, six months or once a year. Remember, if you sell a thousand copies each of 100 different reports over 12-months, you'll be talking about a gross income of $100,000 - and that could all happen from your initial press run or inventory supply.

To make it all as simple and effortless as possible, either buy, build or have built, shelving to fit in your garage or basement to hold your inventory. Simple
shelf space with slots for 100 different reports is all you'll need. Then when the orders come in, you simply pull the report orders from the shelves, slip them into an envelope with your pre-printed follow-up offers and once a week, drop
them off at the post office.
Relative to fulfilling orders - you've got to ship whatever it is you're selling within 30 days from the date you receive the order. If there's some problem that keeps you from fulfilling the order within that period of time you have to notify
the customer of the delay and give him the option of getting his money back. The only ads that allow you to slide through that 30 day time limit are those that state specifically that the customer should allow x-number of weeks for delivery.
Prompt shipment of the customers' order within a couple of days after receipt, will also build your credibility and image with your customers - resulting in more sales down the line for you. You should be able to allocate your time to
handle such a business on a part-time basis - in addition to your regular job - until the orders start rolling in. When that happens, you may want to hire some "contract help" or perhaps quit your job and devote all your time to it.

Copyright 2004 by DeAnna Spencer


DeAnna Spencer is a virtual assistant that helps entrepreneurs run a successful business by providing affordable administrative help. She also publishes a blog for small business owners. Visit this small business resource today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=DeAnna_Spencer

Friday, June 16, 2006

Everything You Need To Know About Ebay Money Making Opportunities

Everything You Need To Know About Ebay Money Making Opportunities
By Randy Wilson

Ebay money making opportunities are simply the best thing to come along since the wheel. Seriously, everybody from grandmothers to middle school kids are cashing in on what’s been called the $14 billion ebay pie.

And you want your slice, right? Well, all you need to get going on your ebay money making opportunities are a computer and some items to sell on ebay. We know you have a computer or you wouldn’t be here.

For your first items to sell on ebay, look in your closets. On your bookshelves. In your garage. Even in the trunk of your car! They are all places to look for items to make money on ebay.

Because remember that old saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? Ebay proves it’s true, so start today on your ebay business. So all those old CDs, books, shirts, dresses, belts, slacks, and other stuff you have lying around that you no longer use. They are actually ebay money making opportunities just waiting to happen.

And once you make a few sells on ebay. You can use those profits to buy higher-ticket items for buying and selling on ebay and make even more money. Electronics, cell phones, and stereo equipment are all big sellers. So are designer clothing for men, women, and children.

Click Here! for ebay money making opportunities in Janiece Smith's ebook on lessons teaching you how to easily and quickly find and sell products for a profit on ebay.

Believe it or not, children’s clothing is always a hot item on ebay. Just make sure you’re selling the proper clothing for the season. One woman buys all the children’s clothing she can at the end of a season, then goes on ebay, selling it the following season.

So always be thinking a little ahead if you’re interested in selling children’s, or any other, clothing. Use that as one of your ebay money making opportunities. It doesn’t do a lot of good to try and sell that beautiful forest green wool winter coat in the middle of July. But it’s likely to sell on ebay quickly and for a great price come the middle of September or October.

You don’t have to limit yourself to these kinds of ebay money making opportunities, though. Your ebay business can consist of buying and selling beauty care items, bikes, handmade goods, antiques, art, furniture, china, stemware, and practically anything else on ebay.

The list is truly endless, and the really great thing is that you can start small and grow your ebay money making opportunities as large as you want. Selling items on ebay is a great way to make a little extra money or some major bucks. It all depends on the time you want to spend and the money you’re willing to put back into your ebay business opportunity.

You can learn more about making money on ebay with a Free eBay Course. This course covers how to buy name brand products at discount prices for reselling on ebay. Plus what items are really selling on ebay, and much more... For more information on the free ebay course Click Here!

Another great way to turn ebay money making opportunities into lots of cash. Sign up with discount clubs and wholesalers to resell their goods on ebay. Many of these will actually do all the shipping and handling for you (drop shipping is the proper term for this).

You never even have to see the products or touch them using this method. They’ve done the work for you when it comes to figuring out how to get things from point A to point B to point C. Plus they know the shipping and handling costs involved. Most of them will charge you a generally small fee, usually one-time, monthly, or yearly, in exchange for the right to buy and sell their items. But the prices are so low on their goods that you can easily turn a profit. Just make sure you do your research and know you’re dealing with reputable people and companies.

As for research, if you’re thinking about going after the major ebay money making opportunities, do lots of it. There are books and websites on nothing but how to make money the ebay way. And you can. But know what’s involved. Learn about postal rates, drop shipping providers/companies, popular items, the pros and cons of online auctions, what to expect realistically when it comes to ebay money making opportunities.

Go to ebay and study the tutorials that put all the information you need about its online auction system into easy, understandable terms. This puts you ahead of the game. It also keeps you from wasting time that could be put to better use. Like hitting the estate and garage sales in your area—which means more money in your wallet.

You also want to learn about ebay employment opportunities. Ebay has an affiliate program that can help you make even MORE money with an ebay job. Truly, nothing beats ebay money making opportunities for an easy, low-cost start-up that has the potential to grow as large and fast as you want it to.

So when it comes to making money, whether you’re looking for a little extra cash for luxuries. Or for a full-time career, there’s only one word you need to know: Ebay, ebay, ebay!

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy has dozens of home based business articles such as Start a Mattress Cleaning Service, Unusual Home Based Businesses and Start a Catering Business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randy_Wilson

Thursday, June 15, 2006

10 Sizzling Tips For Affiliates

By Ken Hill

1. Create an infopacked mini site. Build your mini site for a specific niche audience and then choose affiliate programs specifically for that niche audience.



2. Test and track your ads and promotions for your affiliate programs.



Tracking and testing your ads will show you exactly which ads, promotions and affiliate programs pay off the most for you and are excellent choices for you to continue to promote.



3. Publish an ezine.



Your ezine will give you a powerful way to promote your affiliate programs to your subscribers.



Choose affiliate programs that relate to the content of your ezine and that make it worth your while to promote them.



4. Promote your affiliate programs by recommending their products.



You could recommend your affiliate programs to your ezine subscribers in your publisher's note or you could create a recommended resources section where you promote your affiliate programs in every issue.



You could also recommend your affiliate programs to your visitors by creating a recommended affiliate programs section where you list your favorite affiliate programs along with descriptions of their products or services.



In addition, you could create a best affiliate programs section that helps you build up your second tier by listing the affiliate programs that have paid off the most for you.



5. Write product reviews where you detail the benefits you like about your affiliate program's product.



Make your product reviews honest and hype f~ree and post them on your site along with your other articles.



6. Write your own ads for your affiliate program.



A good way to create your ads is to look at the ad copy on the site of the business you want to promote and also ads they provide for their affiliates to use, and use their unique selling proposition or USP to write your ads.



Their unique selling proposition is a unique benefit that they promote in their ad copy that their competitors don't stress or offer to their visitors.



It could be that their product saves lots of time, is easy to understand, that their product is a complete answer to a problem, or it could involve their price.



Some businesses develop more than one USP so you'll be able to choose the one that you think works best in getting more targeted visitors to their site.



7. Try out the support of the companies you want to promote by asking questions.



This will help you to find out how long it takes them to respond to emails (if they respond to emails) and how professional they are.



8. Create freebies that promote your affiliate programs.


You could offer your visitors a f~ree email course, an ebook filled with your tips or articles or an ebook that provides your visitors with places to promote their businesses.



When creating freebies for an affiliate program that is 2 tier, increase your profits by letting your affiliates in your second tier use your freebies as a promotional item.



9. Create a directory.



Your directory could be an article, ezine, ebook or affiliate program directory.



List your own resources within your directory to increase your commissions. For example, you could add your own affiliate programs to your affiliate programs directory or your ebooks to your ebook directory.



Add a what's new section to your directory to garner more repeat traffic from your visitors.



You could also provide a tutorial on the subject of your directory, or add things to your directory that your visitors can use on a regular basis to get more repeat traffic.



10. Run ezine ads for your affiliate programs.



You could purchase sponsor, feature, classified or solo ads for your affiliate program.



Choose ezines with subscribers targeted to be interested in the products of the business you want to promote.



Run your ads for multiple issues in a row when possible to maximize the profit you get from your ads.



You can also run f~ree ads in ezines as many ezines offer
f~ree advertising on a weekly, monthly or per issue basis to
get more new subscriptions.



Running f~ree ads can help you find out which ads work best,
and which ezines are most responsive before you purchase
ezine advertising.

Article by writer, Ken Hill. Get more marketing tips by
joining Ken's Top Notch Marketing Ezine at:
http://www.netpromarketer.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Hill