Well, I'm sure in the past you have been inundated with what most people term as 'junk mail' either through your mailbox or through your e-mail inbox.
There was a time when I took great pleasure in throwing these letters away, and deleting them quickly, but not any more. These mailings are actually very valuable indeed - like gold dust in fact.
Now I know better, and when these so-called junk mail letters pop through my mailbox, I sit down and read them through. Yes, some are actually very good indeed, and some are so good - too good to ignore. So I find myself reading a letter right through, and now and then it seems to strike a chord.
Then I think to myself, hey this is exactly the sort of sentence, or paragraph, I need in the sales copy I'm writing - maybe I can use a phrase just like that. If you read through your mailings, you'll see some of them are really brilliant, and demonstrate an excellent way of putting together a good sales letter.
So now, instead of putting my junk mail straight into the recycling box or the gash bag, I read everything through and then carefully file them away for future use. My own piece of advice here would be to keep everything.
Have a box file for your sales letter examples. Put everything in there, the good, the bad, and the crazy - no matter what it is.
I call my box file 'Swipe Files' because I can swipe snippets of paragraphs that could be relevant to my sales letters. Sometimes I'll even print off a particularly interesting web page sales letter, and add that to my box. They when I need inspiration I'll have a quick look through my box.
All these swipe files are simply tools to get some ideas flowing. It's certainly not a good idea, and definitely not one I'd recommend, to just plagiarize the sales letters. Never re-use them just as they are. This I would wholeheartedly discourage. But it's quite ok to use the ideas, and turn them around to fit in with your own sales letter.
Don't be tempted to throw stuff away because it's 'out of date'. What goes around comes around - and some day you may be very glad you kept them.
So my one piece of advice is - keep everything. Collect all your swipe files and keep them safely in a box. Have another box for your own ideas - sometimes out of nowhere a flash of inspiration 'light bulb' will go off inside your head. Write your own ideas down too, and keep them safe!
Ps2 Hints And Tips
Direct Marketing involves a direct response from a customer. It is NOT selling books, manuals, CDs, DVDs or any of your information products in fact, in your high street stores.
Why is this, you ask? Well, stores would expect you to sell your products to them for anything up to 70 percent discount off the retail price. They keep most of the profit leaving you, the author and producer of the product, with very little indeed. This is always assuming you can get one of the stores to sell them for you in the first place.
However, with Direct Response Marketing you are able to sell your own products direct, for anything between $9.99 to $5,000, or more.
You don't have to suffer the injustice of surrendering a huge percentage of your profits to the wholesalers and stores. You keep all the profit on your retail sale.
With Direct Response, you will never have to persuade anyone to buy your products, or make a sale face to face. Your customers come to you. They send their orders directly to you - well in fact it's usually via PayPal, Clickbank, Paydotcom, or similar payment system. This removes any 'rejection' from the equation.
Direct Response is a business structured to avoid the pain of rejection. It's also unique because you don't need a large amount of capital to start. Small change is all that's necessary. Compare this with a Franchise for example, which would require an investment of anything between $100,000 to £900,000.
All that is basically needed to begin is a laptop, and a strong desire to succeed!
You can start your business from home, using the kitchen table, or perhaps spare room. You can be as private as you want, and no one need be aware of what you're doing from your kitchen table or spare room. You can start in your spare time whilst keeping your regular job while building your business.
You have complete control over what you sell. As long as your business is ethical and honest, you won't go far wrong.
So far we've talked about working your business with a laptop or PC. So what if you can't abide computers? No problem! You can work your business for example, by placing a tiny classified advert in the paper, which can generate thousands and thousands of dollars worth of orders.
Your small classified ad, or a small display ad, contains a 'phone or fax number. Your prospective customers call that number and leave their name and address. You send out the sales letter, and your customers order from you.
Your local printing firm would be the first to approach about printing your manual or report or book. There are plenty of firms out there waiting for your business.
It has to be said; starting your Direct Response business this way is going to cost you more than using the Internet. It's all a matter of personal choice.
Some people love the Internet; some will avoid it at all costs!
Ron Woodham has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Marketing and Cars. Ron Woodham retired at 65 and set up his own Internet Business. He spent 9 months teaching himself how to create and build websites from scratch, and now shares his knowledge through his Building Blocks for Beginners.Visit his website. Ron Woodham's top article generates over 2900 views. Bookmark Ron Woodham to your Favourites.
