HOW TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS WITH YOUR OWN MONEY - MAKING NEWSLETTER

HOW TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS WITH YOUR OWN MONEY - MAKING NEWSLETTER

Writing and publishing a successful newsletter is perhaps the most competitive of all the different

areas of mail order and direct marketing. Five years ago, there were 1500 different newsletters in this

country. Todays there are well over 10,000, with new ones being started every day. It's also

interesting to note that for every new one that's started, some disappear just as quickly as they are

started - lack of operating capital and marketing know-how being the principal causes of failure.

To be successful with a newsletter, you have to specialize. Your best bet will be with new information

on a subject not already covered by an established newsletter. Regardless of the frustrations involved

in launching your own newsletter, never forget this truth: There are people from all walks of life, in all

parts of this country, many of them with no writing ability whatsoever, who are making incredible

profits with simple two-, four-, and six-page newsletters!

Your first step should be to subscribe to as many different newsletters and mail order publications as

you can afford. Analyze and study how the others are doing it. Attend as many workshops and

seminars on your subject as possible. Learn from the pros. Learn how the successful newsletter

publishers are doing it, and why they are making money. Adapt their success methods to your own

newsletter, but determine to recognize where they are weak, and to make yours better in every way.

Plan your newsletter before launching it. Know the basic premise for its being, your editorial position,

the layout, art work, type styles, subscription price, distribution methods, and every other detail

necessary to make it look, sound and feel like the end result you have envisioned.

Lay out your start-up needs; detail the length of time it's going to take to become established, and

what will be involved in becoming established. Set a date as a mile stone of accomplishment for

each phase of your development: A date for breaking even, a date for attaining a certain paid

subscription figure, and a monetary goal for each of your first five years in business. And all this must

be done before publishing your first issue.

Most newsletter publishers do all the work themselves, and are impatient to get that first issue into

print. As a result, they neglect to devote the proper amount of time to market research and

distribution. Don't start your newsletter with out first having accomplished this task!

Market research is simply determining who the people are who will be interested in buying and

reading your newsletter, and the kind of information these people want to see in your newsletter as a

reason for continuing to buy it. You have to determine what it is they want from your newsletter.

Your market research must give you unbiased answers about your newsletter's capabilities of fulfilling

your prospective buyer's need for information; how much he's willing to pay for it, and an overall profile

of his status in life. The questions of why he needs your information, and how he'll use it should be

answered. Make sure you have the answers to these questions, publish your newsletter as a vehicle

of fulfillment to these needs, and you're on your way!

You're going to be in trouble unless your newsletter has a real point of difference that can be easily

perceived by your prospective buyer. The design and graphics of your newsletter, plus what you say

and how you say it, will help in giving your newsletter this vital difference.

Be sure your newsletter works with the personality you're trying to build for it. Make sure it reflects the

wants of your subscribers. Include your advertising promise within the heading, on the title page, and

in the same words your advertising uses. And above all else, don't skim on design or graphics!

The name of your newsletter should also help to set it apart from similar news letters, and spell out its

advertising promise. A good name reinforces your advertising. Choose a name that defines the

direction and scope of your newsletter.

Opportunity Knocking, Money Making Magic, Extra Income Tip Sheet, and Mail Order Up-Date are

primate examples of this type of philosophy - as opposed to the Johnson Report, The Association

Newsletter, or Club-house Confidential.

Try to make your newsletter's name memorable - one that flows automatically. Don't pick a name

that's so vague it could apply to almost anything. The name should identify your newsletter and its

subject quickly and positively.

Pricing your newsletter should be consistent with the image you're trying to build. If you're starting a

"Me-too" newsletter, never price it above the competition. In most instances, the consumer

associates higher prices with quality, so if you give your readers better quality information in an

expensive looking package, don't hesitate to ask for a premium price. However, if your information is

gathered from most of the other newsletters on the subject, you will do well to keep your prices in line

with theirs.One of the best selling points of a newsletter is in the degree of audience involvement - for

instance, how much it talks about, and uses the names of its readers.

People like to see things written about themselves. They resort to all kinds of things to get their

names in print, and they pay big money to read what's been written about them. You should

understand this facet of human nature, and decide if and how you want to capitalize upon it - then plan

your newsletter accordingly.

Almost as important as names in your newsletter are pictures. The readers will generally accept a

newsletter faster if the publisher's picture is presented or included as a part of the newsletter.

Whether you use pictures of the people, events, locations or products you write about is a policy

decision; but the use of pictures will set your publication apart from the others and give it an individual

image, which is precisely what you want.

The decision as to whether to carry paid advertising, and if so, how much, is another policy decision

that should be made while your newsletter is still in the planning stages. Some purists feel that

advertising corrupts the image of the newsletter and may influence editorial policy. Most people

accept advertising as a part of everyday life, and don't care one way or the other.

Many newsletter publishers, faced with rising production costs and viewing advertising as a means of

offsetting those costs, welcome paid advertising. Generally the advertisers see the newsletter as a

vehicle to a captive audience, and well worth the cost.

The only problem with accepting advertising in your newsletter would appear to be that as your

circulation grows, so will your number of advertisers, until you'll have to increase the size of your

newsletter to accommodate the advertisers. At this point, the basic premise or philosophy of the

newsletter often changes from news and practical information to one of an advertiser's showcase.

Promoting your newsletter, finding prospective buyers and converting these prospects into loyal

subscribers, will be the most difficult task of your entire undertaking. It takes detailed planning,

persistence and patience.

You'll need a sales letter. Check the sales letter you receive in the mail; analyze how these are written

and pattern yours along the same lines. You'll find all of them - all those worthy of being called sales

letters - following the same formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action on the part of the reader -

AIDA.

Jump right in at the beginning and tell the reader how he's going to benefit from your newsletter, and

then keep emphasizing right on through your "PS", the many and different benefits he'll gain from

subscribing to your newsletter. Elaborate on your listing of benefits with examples of what you have,

or you intend to include, in your newsletter.

Follow these examples with endorsements or testimonials from reviewers and satisfied subscribers.

Make the recipient of your sales letter feel that you're offering him the answer to all his problems on

the subject of your newsletter.

You have to make your prospect feel that "this is the insider's secret" to the success he wants.

Present it to him as his own personal key to success, and then tell him how far behind his

contemporaries he is going to be if he doesn't act upon your offer immediately.

Always include a "PS" in your sales letter. This should quickly restate to the reader that he can start

enjoying the benefits of your newsletter by acting immediately, and very subtly suggesting that he may

not get another chance to get the kind of "success help" you're offering him with this sales letter.

Don't worry about the length of your sales letter - most are four pages or more; however, it must flow

logically and smoothly. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, indented paragraphs, and lost of sub-

heads for the people who will be "scanning through" your sales letter.

In addition to the sales letter, your promotion package should include a return reply order card or

coupon. This can be either a self-addressed business reply post card, or a separate coupon, in

which case you'll have to include a self-addressed return reply envelope. In every mailing piece you

send out, always include one or the other: either a self-addressed business reply postcard or a self-

addressed return reply envelope for the recipient to use to send your order form and his remittance

back to you.

Your best response will come from a business reply postcard on which you allow your prospect to

charge the subscription to his credit card, request that you bill him, or send his payment with the

subscription start order.

For make up of this subscription order card or coupon, simply start saving all the order cards and

coupons you receive during the next month or so. Choose the one you like best, modify according to

your needs, and have it typeset, pasted up and border fit.

Next, you'll need a Subscription Order Acknowledgment card or letter. This is simply a short note

thanking your new subscriber for his order, and promising to keep him up-to-date with everything

relating to the subject of your newsletter.

An acknowledgment letter, in an envelope, will cost more postage to mail than a simple postcard;

however, when you send the letter you have to opportunity to enclose additional material. A circular

listing other items available through you will produce additional orders.

Thus far, you've prepared the layout and copy for your newsletter. Go ahead and have a hundred

copies printed, undated. You've written a sales letter and prepared a return reply subscription order

card or coupon; go ahead and have a hundred of these printed, also undated, of course. You'll need

letterhead mailing envelopes, and don't forget the return reply envelopes if you choose to use the

coupons instead of the business reply postcard. Go ahead and have a thousand mailing envelopes

printed. You also need subscription order acknowledgment cards or notes; have a hundred of these

printed, and of course, don't forget the imprinted reply envelopes if you're going along with the idea of

using a note instead of a postcard.

This will be a basic supply for "testing" your materials so far. Now you're ready for the big move - the

Advertising Campaign. Start by placing a small classified ad in one of your local newspapers. You

should place your ad in a weekend or Sunday paper that will reach as many people as possible, and

of course, do everything you can to keep your costs as low as possible. How ever, do not skimp on

your advertising budget. To be successful - to make as much money as possible with your idea -

you'll need to reach as many people as you can afford, and as often as you can.

Over the years, we have launched several hundred advertising campaigns. We always ran new ads

for a minimum of three issues and kept close tabs on the returns. So long as the returns kept coming

in, we continued running that ad in that publication, while adding a new publication to test for results.

To our way of thinking, this is the best way to go, regardless of the product, to successfully multiply

your customer list.

Move slowly, start with a local, far-reaching and widely read paper, and with the prof its or returns from

that ad, go to the regional magazines, or one of the smaller national magazines, and continue plowing

your returns into more advertising in different publications. By taking your time, and building your

acceptance in this manner, you won't lose too much if one of your ads should prove to be a dud. Stay

with the advertising. Do not abandon it in favor of direct mail. We would not recommend direct mail

until you are well established and your national classified advertising pro gram is bringing in a healthy

profit for you.

Do not become overly ambitious and go out on a limb with expensive full-page advertising until you're

very well established. When you do buy full page advertising, start with the smaller publications, and

build from those results. Have patience; keep close tabs on your costs per subscriber, and build from

the profits of your advertising. Always test the advertising medium you want to use with a classified

ad, and if it pulls well for you, go on to a larger display type ad.

Classified advertising is the least expensive way to go, so long as you use the "inquiry method." You

can easily and quickly build your subscriber list with this type of advertisement. We would not

recommend any attempts to sell subscriptions, or any product from classified ads, or even from small

display ads. There just isn't enough space to describe the product adequately, and seeing the cost of

your item, many possible subscribers will not bother to inquire for the full story.

When you do expand your efforts into direct mail, go straight to a national list broker. You can find

their names and addresses in the yellow pages section of your local telephone directory. Show the

list broker your product and your mailing piece, and explain what type people you want to reach, and

allow them to help you. Once you've decided on a list to use, go slowly. Start with a sampling of 5,000

names. If the returns are favorable, go for 10,000 names, and then 15,000 and so on through the

entire list.

Never rent the entire list based upon the returns from your first couple of samplings. The variables are

just too many, and too complicated, and too conducive to your losing your shirt when you "roll out an

entire list" based upon returns from a controlled sampling.

There are a number of other methods for finding new subscribers, which we'll explore for you here,

detailing the good and the bad as we have researched them.

One method is that of contracting with what is known as a "cash-field" agency. These are soliciting

agencies who hire people to sell door-to-door and via the phone, almost always using a high

pressure sales approach. The publisher usually makes only about 5% from each subscription sold by

one of these agencies. That speaks for itself.

Then, there are several major catalog sales companies that sell subscriptions to school libraries,

government agencies and large corporations. These people usually buy through these catalog sales

companies rather than direct from the publisher. The publisher makes about 10% on each

subscription sold for him by one of these agencies.

Co-op Mailings are generally piggy-back mailings of your subscription offer along with numerous

other business offers in the same envelope. Smaller mail order entrepreneurs do this under the name

of Big Mail Offers. Coming into vogue now are the Postcard Mailers. You submit your offer on a

business reply postcard; the packager then prints and mails your postcard in a package with 40 or 50

similar postcards via third class mail to a mailing list that could number 100,000 or more. You pay a

premium price for this type of mailing - usually $1000 to $1500 per mailing, but the returns are very

good and you keep all the incoming money.

Another form of co-op mailing is where you supply a charge card company or department store with

your subscription offer as a "statement mailing suffer." Your offer goes out with the monthly

statements; new subscriptions are returned to the mailer and billed to the customer's charge card.

The publisher usually makes about 50% on each subscription. This is one of the most lucrative, but

expensive methods of bringing in new customers.

Direct mail agencies such as Publishers Clearing House can be a very lucrative source of new

subscriptions, in that they mail out more than 60 million pieces of mail each year, all of which are built

around an opportunity for the recipient to win a gigantic cash sweepstakes. The only problem with

this type of subscription agency is the very low percentage of the total subscription price the publisher

receives from these subscriptions, plus the fact that the publishers are required to charge a lower

subscription rate than they normally charge.

There are also several agencies that offer Introductory, Sample Copy and Trial Subscription offers,

such as Select Information Exchange and Publisher Exchange. With this kind of agency, details

about your publication are listed along with similar publications, in full page ads inviting the readers to

send $10 or $20 for trial subscription to those of his choice. The publishers received no money from

these inquiries - only a list of names of people interested in receiving trial subscriptions. How the

publisher follows up and is able to convert these into full term, and paying subscribers is entirely

dependent upon his own efforts.

Most major newspapers will carry small, lightweight brochures or oversized reply cards as inserts in

their Sunday papers. The publisher supplies the total number of inserts, pays the newspaper $20 per

thousand for the number of newspapers he wants his order form carried in, and then retains all the

money generated. But the high costs of printing the inserts, plus the $20 per thousand for distribution,

make this an extremely costly method of obtaining new subscribers.

Schools, civic groups and other fund raising organizations work in about the same manner as the

cash-field agencies. They supply the solicitor and the publisher gets 25% or less for each new

subscription sold.

Attempting to sell subscriptions via radio or TV is very expensive and works better in generating

sales at the newsstands than new subscriptions. PI (Per Inquiry) sales is a very popular way of

getting radio or TV exposure and advertising for your newsletter or other publication, but again, the

number of sales brought in by the broad cast media is very small when compared with the number of

times the "invitation commercial" has to be "aired" to elicit a response.

A new idea beginning to surface on the cable TV scene is "Products Shows". This is the kind of

show where the originator of the product or his representative appears on TV and gives a complete

sales presentation lasting from five minutes to 15 minutes. Overall, these programs generally run

between midnight and 2 AM, with the whole program a series of sales presentations for different

products. They operate on the basis of the product owner paying a fee to appear and show his

product, and also from an arrangement where the product owner pays a certain percentage from

each sale generated from this exposure.

Newsletter publishers often run exchange publicity endorsement with non-competing publishers.

Generally, these endorsements invite the reader of newsletter "A" to send for a sample copy of

newsletter "B" for a look at what somebody else is going that might be of especial help, etc. This can

be a very good source of new subscriptions, and certainly the least expensive.

Running ads in the Mail Order Ad Sheets is not very productive, either in terms of inquiries or sales.

About the best thing that can be said of most of these ad sheets (and there seems to be a million of

them with new ones cropping up faster than you can count them) is that your ad in several of them will

let other people in on what you're doing. You will be able to keep track of a lot of the people trying to

make a place for themselves in the mail order field.

Last, but not least, is the enlistment of your own subscribers to send you names of people they think

might be interested in receiving a sample copy of your publication. Some publishers ask their

readers to pass along these names out of loyalty, while others offer a monetary incentive or a special

bonus for names of people sent in who is come subscribers.

By studying and understanding the information in this report, you should encounter fewer serious

problems in launching your own successful specialized newsletter that will be the source of ongoing

monetary rewards for you. However, there is an important point to remember about doing business

by mail - particularly within the confines of selling information by mail - that is, Mail Order is ONLY

another way of doing business. You have to learn all there is to know about this way o f doing

business, and then keep on learning, changing, observing and adapting to stay on top.

The best way of learning about and keeping up with this field of endeavor is by buying and reading

books by the people who have succeeded in making money via the mails; by subscribing to several

of the better periodic journals and aids to people in mail order, and by joining some of the mail order

trade associations for a free exchange of ideas, advice and help.