Over the last 50 years I must have seen thousands of ads, mostly 2 line classified ads in chance magazines, trying to sell the latest in a long line of "How to Make a Fortune in Mail Order" books or systems. Most have these have been the same ol', same ol', regurgitated 4 page rant priced from $5 to $20. Occasionally there has been a full blown course or manual for $97 to $197. Since the advent of the cyberspace, these kind of publications have been transitioned to "How to Make a Fortune on the Internet", but still the same ol' regurgitated rant.
Are any worth buying? Perhaps a couple of, but the $19.95 type will only make money for the shysters marketing them, not the suckers buying. There are one or two about that do teach the science (or art) of Direct Mail and perchance one or two more that effectively teach how to make money on the Internet. But these systems are ordinarily priced well above $100.00.
Some contain a couple of nuggets of gold, others, the more costly ones, teach the technical aspects and some techniques, but I haven't seen any yet that are complete. Let's face it, Direct Marketing (by Direct Mail and Mail Order) is a complex business requiring many skills and to teach it properly would require a full-time University course or a set of manuals the size of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In practise, it is for the most part learned by experience and hearing to others in the business.
Incidentally, what is the difference between Direct Mail and Mail Order? Very little. They both come under the comprehensive of Direct Response Marketing. Direct Mail marketing is ordinarily initiated by sending out a posting piece to thousands of people; they respond by mail, phone, cyberspace, or in person. Mail Order can be advertised in the press or other media, including mail, but the response is ordinarily by mail (hence mail order). So today, with all the media available, including the cyberspace, the more descriptive term is Direct Response Marketing (DRM).
DRM is a business whereby the marketing content is delivered by advertising through one or more of the media, including mail, and orders or responses are sought-after by telephone, mail, email, cyberspace or personal visit. Delivery is established by post, courier, download (in the case of electronic products) and any other available means.
The overriding purpose of DRM is to attract positive attention to the ad or posting piece, cultivate a positive interest in the offer, provide information on how to order and invite the product, and make an imperative call to take action. In other words, to promote a direct response.
One of the most common traps for young players in Direct Marketing is to produce or secure a product, then look for somebody to sell it to.
Hey! I made that mistake too. I wrote this super book on the value of vegetable and yield juices in health, with lots of recipes to treat many common ailments. It was a great book and I written up much ready to sell. It would be a best seller, I was sure.
Not so! People ought to be vitally interested in their health, and should be willing to pay a hardscrabble 20 bucks for a book that would help them get healthy, right?
Wrong! People, lots of people that is, don't buy that kind of book. I still have few copies at home, but most made it to the electric pig on my last move.
So, how can you tell what people will buy?
The answer is simple! Check out what people are buying now. To be reasonably sure you won't be left with a garage full of widgets, you must identify what people want, and are presently buying. And sell more of the same or similar.
If 5,000 people a day are buying dog collars, chance are you can sell dog collars; or name tags to attach to dog collars. Chances are that people will buy other dog related products too.
If 50,000 people a calendar month are buying books on how to succeed in an cyberspace business, chances are they'll buy a similar product from you.
The answer shortly to the question what will people stock DRM (including the cyberspace) is this: "What they are already buying."
If you come in the supermarket and walk down the gangways you'll likely see a whole gangway devoted to dog food and dog products. Another whole gangway will be devoted to cat chow and cat products. People love their pets. So you know that products correlated pets are ordinarily good sellers.
Keep going and you'll come to other gangway devoted to babies. Yes people have babies every day, some say there are 120,000 babies born in America every calendar month. So baby related products will be a sure winner.
Every calendar month a similar number of people die, get married, get divorced. Can you see a market there?
Do you want to make it easy on yourself and find an well-nig endless source of markets for all kinds of products?
Then get yourself a copy of the SRDS, the world's largest list of lists of people all told kinds of categories buying all kinds of things.
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