HOW TO JUMP INTO MAIL ORDER WITH BOTH FEET AND SUCCEED:
By Kathleen VanBeekom (copyright 2007 KVB)
This has nothing to do with joining business opportunities or getting people to sign up for anything.
This is a basic "how-to" gain experience and name recognition in the mail order industry by simply capitalizing on the behind-the-scenes activity of gaining leads, networking with other serious mailers, and learning the ropes.
First, get your name listed on as many "Mail Wanted" lists as possible, be sure to use a different version of your name on each listing, such as: Kathleen VanBeekom...K. Vanbeekom...KVB, so when you receive mail, you'll know which listings are bringing in the most response.
When you receive mail, study it and look for people who are offering commission ads, or big mails, and also ads that state "50% Dealership" or "100% Dealership". Then contact those people with your own ads using the examples below. If people are already advertising and mailing other commisssion ads, they will most likely want to become a dealer for you, and also get their name listed with you.
Place classified ads in several different publications, and use the same method above for tracking responses. For the number of words in a classified, count the words in your name and address first, then subtract that amount from the total allowable word-count so you know how many words you have left for your ad. You'll want to run your ads in at least 3 consecutive issues of each publication. Here are a few examples of classifieds that bring in the highest response rates, people won't usually spend more than $2 for a classified offer:
(Sample Ad)
GET MORE MAIL! Your name listed to 1,000's of mail-order dealers! Send $2 and this ad to: Kathleen VanBeekom, 2110 Swensberg Ave. N.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49505
When you get responses to the above ad, you can either put the customer's name on a list and include it in your outgoing mail, or have the list published as part of an adsheet or put your list online. You can also add this line to the end of your ad: "Free 50% dealership with order" and then you'll get other people placing that ad and they will send you $1 from each order, then you just compile the listings.
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Below is a 100% commission ad, why would you let someone keep ALL the money? You can supply your dealers with a large amount of mailing copies of commission ads with YOUR AD on back, so they will be spending their money on postage while your ad also gets sent out. You can send them 100 copies of a 3x8 or smaller size ad for approximately $2 worth of postage, which you're requesting below.
All you need to pay for is printing, and if these are small ads, you can get 3 or more per 8x11 page so your printing cost won't be very much. This way, if you print on colored paper, it's very difficult for your dealers to publish just their side of the ad in a magazine, it won't make a clear image if they try to copy it onto white paper, so there's not much worry for you about them only promoting their side of the ad and not yours.
Your main goal with offering commission ads is for your dealers to generate leads for you, on their postage stamps, not yours. You can offer them an incentive such as 100 more copies of the ads each time they send you $10 worth of orders. Don't offer a competing product or service on the back of the dealership ad. Give your dealers a good chance to bring in orders and they'll be happy to work with you! Here's how to find dealers:
(Sample Ad)
FREE 100% COMMISSIONS! Get 100 copies of an ad that pays up to $10 per order! That's $1,000 worth of ads for just the $2 cost of shipping them to you! Send this ad plus $2 or 5 stamps to: Kathleen VanBeekom, 2110 Swensberg Ave. N.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49505
Below is a starter ad to get people interested if they don't want to send you $2 for 100 copies, just offer them a sample for one stamp, you can mail five 8x11's for one stamp so if you're offering 3x8's, you can send 10 to 15 of those. This is an ad I run offering ten 3x8's that pay up to $10 per order:
(Sample Ad)
FREE SAMPLE: $100 WORTH of 100% Commission Ads!
Send 1 first-class stamp to: Kathleen VanBeekom, 2110 Swensberg Ave. N.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49505
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Here's how you get other Prime Source advertisers to send you their ads, very often they will send them to you for free:
(Sample Ad)
COMMISSION DEALERSHIPS WANTED: I'm looking for at least 50% dealerships, if you offer free master copies, thank you! Send to: Kathleen VanBeekom, 2110 Swensberg Ave. N.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49505
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If you follow the above examples, within a few months, your name will be recognized in many mail order publications, you'll be networking with other active mailers and Prime Sources, and you'll have a steady stream of customers and your income will grow larger each month.