* Highly
Recommended *
Do
You Need To Start Out Small?
If
you don't have an Internet business yet, or if your company
is smaller than $1 million then you need something different...
something that lets you start off small.
One
man I know turned $10 into over $500,000. How's that for starting
small!
Let
me show you how to get a similar Internet
income stream running for almost nothing.
-
Patrick Coffey
3
Ways to Approach the Stock Market
By
Rick Pendergraft
Market
participants are divided into three categories: traders, speculators,
and investors. Each operates within a different timeframe.
Traders typically only hold investments for a few hours (sometimes
minutes) or days.
Speculators
typically hold investments for days or weeks. And investors
look to be in investments for months or years.
Do
you know which one you are? You should. Because depending on
your timeframe, the tools you use to analyze your investments
will be different.
For
instance, if you're looking to hold a particular investment
for months or years, five- and 10-day moving averages won't
mean much to you. But if you are a speculator, these two numbers
should be a critical part of your analysis.
The
same thing can be said for overbought/oversold indicators.
My favorite overbought/oversold indicator is the Relative Strength
Index (RSI). This oscillator measures a stock against its own
past. Investors (who look at the long-term performance of an
investment) would be interested in the 10-week RSI. Speculators
(who look at an investment in terms of days or weeks) would
be more concerned with the 10-day RSI - but they would also
check the 10-week RSI, because their objectives overlap both
the 10-day and 10-week timeframes.
If
you know which category you fall into, you can set your indicators
so they are appropriate for your timeframe. If you are a longer-term
investor, you shouldn't be worried about intra-day activity.
And if you are a short-term trader, even 10-day indicators
will mean little in your analysis.
[Ed.
Note: Find out how Rick Pendergraft can help you make money
- no matter what the market's doing - as the editor of ETR's
new investment service, the ETF
Options Trader.]
"He
liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns
along the dark unknown of another's personality, marking
vulnerable points."
-
Ayn Rand
The
Power of "Because" to Seal the Deal
By
Will Newman
You'll
never convince your prospect to buy your product, subscribe
to your newsletter, contribute to your cause, or vote for your
candidate by using logic.
Your
prospect buys because you have hit on some very strong emotion
he already possesses. Fail to understand this and you're not
going to make any sales. That's why the marketing experts at
AWAI (American Writers & Artists Inc.) recommend opening
any sales pitch - written or face-to-face - with a bold, believable
promise that touches your prospect ... not with logical reasons
to convince him your product is great.
You
continue the appeal to your prospect's emotions by making a
compelling word picture that builds on your promise. This picture
lets him see himself as richer, stronger, sexier, more successful,
more respected ... and so on.
By
appealing to his emotions, it may seem like you're manipulating
your prospect to do something he doesn't want to do. You aren't.
When done right, you're fulfilling a need he already has. By
appealing to that pre-existing desire, you're really helping
your prospect solve problems that are worrying him.
But,
here's the rub about appealing to your prospect's emotions.
If you rely solely on doing that to make your sale, you'll
fail as often as if you appealed solely to reason. You see,
few people take the final step to buy based solely on their
emotions. Why? Because doing so makes them feel guilty.
Here's
an example:
Why
does a person make the decision to buy a very expensive, high-end,
surround-sound stereo system? Maybe because the system sets
him apart from his neighbors who aren't savvy about sound systems.
Or because it's an excellent indicator of his fine taste. And
because he can afford it, it shows the world how successful
he is.
All
emotion-based reasons.
But
if you asked him why he bought the system, you wouldn't expect
to hear any of those reasons. What he'll tell you is that the
system allows him to hear the highest notes clearly and without
distortion. That the bass is tuned to excite listeners subconsciously.
That the wave profile is so realistic, it's indistinguishable
from ... etc.
All
logical reasons.
Your
prospect needs these logical reasons to take the final step
to buy what you're selling. He needs reasons he can tell others
to justify the purchase. More important, he needs a rationale
to justify it to himself.
It's
your job as a marketer or salesperson to provide those reasons.
You
can weave some of them in when you're discussing your product's
specific features.
For
instance, if you're selling that high-end stereo system, tell
your prospect how it handles the high notes. Give him charts
comparing the system's sound profile to that of a real concert
hall. When you do this, though, be sure to also keep coming
back to his emotion-based reasons for buying. ("Won't
your friends be impressed when the sound they hear is just
like being in Symphony Hall!")
There's
another, very powerful, type of rationale to present to your
prospect - one that's neither solely logical nor emotional.
It's both. With this one, you provide reasons based on another
person's emotional or physical needs.
For
a "male enhancement" product, for example, you might
capture your prospect's interest and convince him to make the
purchase by appealing to his vanity, his ego, and his desire
to recapture the sexual prowess of his youth. But then seal
the deal by reminding him of the pleasure he'll give that special
woman in his life.
(This
type of rationale also makes a heck of a strong P.S. in a written
sales letter.)
Never
forget: You convince your prospect to make the decision to
buy by appealing to his emotions. But then you have to lead
him to that important final step of actually making the purchase.
Give him a logical reason to do it, so he can say, "I
bought it because ..."
[Ed.
Note: The Power of "Because" is one of more than
five dozen powerful secrets revealed in Michael
Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting.
This step-by step program teaches entrepreneurs and copywriters
how to improve response to everything from their e-mails to
their direct-mail efforts to their space ads.
To
find out how you can use all of these secrets to boost sales
at your business, check it out.]
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Osteoporosis:
Not Just a Concern for Women
By
Jon Herring
When
I was home for Thanksgiving, I learned that a family friend
had recently fallen and broken his leg. While the fall was
relatively minor, his broken leg was the result of osteoporosis,
which has made his bones brittle and weak.
People
tend to think of osteoporosis as a woman's condition, but it
is a growing - yet often overlooked - threat to men. And because
most men don't know they're at risk, they're far less likely
to take action to prevent it. In fact, one-third of all osteoporosis-related
fractures happen to men. And their chance of suffering complications
and death as a result is dramatically higher than it is for
women. Men with prostate cancer are especially vulnerable,
as the disease and a common treatment called "androgen
deprivation therapy" (ADT) both contribute to bone loss.
Fortunately,
there are simple, natural steps men can take to prevent osteoporosis.
The first and most important is to maintain adequate levels
of vitamin D. If you are not able to spend at least two or
three hours per week in sunlight, you should be taking a vitamin
D supplement or cod liver oil. This should
be combined with at least 1,000 mg of calcium per day, preferably
gotten from your diet. And make sure you eat plenty of protein,
too. Recent studies have shown that a high-protein diet makes
more calcium available for bone mineralization.
Dear
Michael Masterson: "Now that I have bitten off almost
more than I can chew ... what advice can you give me?"
[Note
from Michael: This is a very long letter from an ETR reader
with an interesting problem. I'm reprinting most of it because
it may be helpful to other readers who are trying to make a
business more profitable with a combination of direct mail
and Internet marketing.]
Dear
Mr. Masterson,
I
appreciated your advice to TH in Message
#1871 about focusing on a single goal, but
I need to explore that further.
A
number of years ago, I decided to devote myself to one goal:
to set up our ranching operation to be profitable from year
to year, rather than be at the mercy of the usual wild cycle
swings of markets and weather.
My
husband and I own and operate a large cattle ranch (3,000+
acres) in Colorado that has been in his family since 1897.
We love the ranch and the lifestyle it provides us, and really
don't want to do anything else with our lives (yet).
One
of the driving principles of the McNeil family throughout
the generations has been to stay out of debt. I believe that
has been one of the main reasons why the family has been
able to hold on, and even prosper, when other ranchers were
going out of business in droves. Another tenet of the family
was to always keep at least a year's worth of operating expenses
in a liquid investment to get through the down cycle years.
We
could sell the ranch today, and with inflated land prices
(even with conservation easements in place) could put the
after-tax proceeds in a guaranteed, low-interest savings
instrument and be set up to never have to work again (as
well as be able to live far more opulently than we could
hope to now).
However,
we don't want to do that. We would like to be able to pass
the ranch on to our daughter and nephew, even though it would
be ever so much easier to just sell out. As you can imagine,
there are a lot of emotional elements to such a decision
that can equal or even surpass any monetary concerns.
I
want to get rich, but I want to get rich with what we have.
Yet all indicators suggest that the future of western ranching
is bleak. We still have agreements with wholesalers that
we have to honor - but we've made a conscious choice to attempt
to market our product directly to consumers in the form of
grass-fed beef.
Everything
I have read from ETR says that, in starting a business, you
never start with the product but instead with the marketing.
But our starting point is the product, and now we have to
figure out the best way to market that product.
My
question to you is: Now that I have bitten off almost more
than I can chew, in the pursuit of a single goal, what general
advice can you give me about how to best direct my efforts
and attention? Should I hire marketing experts who know what
they're doing? Or should I learn how to be a copywriter so
I can improve our website and promo material? Should I hire
an administrator, so I can focus on marketing? Or should
I manage the money end of the businesses myself? In
the meantime, we still have to keep meadows and pastures
irrigated, cattle fed and cared for, fences maintained, and
on and on.
I
realize you probably have little experience with production
agriculture, but business is business and marketing is marketing,
so any words of wisdom you could provide would be greatly
appreciated.
-
Cathy McNeil
Monte Vista, CO
Dear
Cathy,
I
sincerely hope everything works out well for you. Here are
some comments on your situation that should help.
First,
I applaud your grandparents/parents who established the principle
of being debt-free and having cash reserves. As all longtime
ETR readers know, I am 100 percent behind that kind of financial
planning.
Next:
You say you want to keep the farm for the next generation.
Did you ask them what they want? My kids wouldn't take over
my business if I handed it to them on a platter. Are your daughter
and nephew really interested? And if they are interested, are
they capable of making it work? If not, are you giving them
something of value or a burden?
Think
about that while you consider the following ...
You
have already encumbered your land with the deals you have with
wholesalers, so it would be a while before you could sell it
... even if you wanted to. And now you have decided to sell
grass-fed beef to consumers. Is that a good idea? I can't say.
I don't know anything about that industry. But I am a big believer
in grass-fed beef, and I do think that as people become more
educated about nutrition (and this is the trend) there will
be an increased demand for it. As a sometime purchaser of grass-fed
beef, I can tell you that it is not always easy to find.
Can
you sell grass-fed beef by direct marketing? Definitely. In
fact, I'll bet most of it is sold that way.
How
do you create sales? There are probably a half-dozen ways.
But for starters, make the distinction between wholesale and
retail.
Find
wholesale businesses that supply natural products to retailers,
and target them. Write them a simple sales letter telling them
why they should do business with you rather than anyone else,
and follow up with phone calls.
Go
after the biggest clients first (since just a few wholesalers
could buy out your supply) and work your way down the list.
Be sure you get your pitch to the decision maker. In business-to-business
marketing, getting to the right person is key.
Selling
to suppliers and selling to consumers are two entirely separate
businesses. But you can also attempt to market directly to
consumers by setting up a website and driving traffic there.
How do you do that? That's all explained in the Internet-marketing
and direct-marketing programs you can find through ETR.
Although
you say you have set only one goal, you have really set three
or four. You want to stay in the ranch business. You want to
sell grass-fed beef. You haven't given up the idea of being
a direct marketer to businesses. And you want to become a direct
marketer to consumers.
Do
the marketing yourself. You need to learn this side of your
business if you have any chance of making it grow. If you don't
have time to do everything, hire someone to administer the
paperwork for you.
What
you are trying to do is not easy, but it can be done. It will
take time - probably a year or two - and money (it could be
as little as $5,000 or as much as $250,000) to get both your
wholesale and retail businesses into profitability. Be prepared
for that.
- Michael Masterson
* Highly
Recommended*
The
Only Three Ways to Grow a Business
Did
you know that there are only three ways to grow a business?
1. Increase
the number of customers.
2. Increase
the average transaction value.
3. Increase
the frequency of repurchase.
Find
a way to maximize each one, and your business will experience
an
astonishing rate of growth.
In
his "9 Pillars of Business Growth" program, acclaimed
consultant Jay Abraham outlines hundreds of proven, frequently
unrecognized, and almost totally underutilized ways to grow
these three key areas of your business. If you own a business
(or would like to), be sure to take
a look at Jay's program.
-
Patrick Coffey
Word
to the Wise: Gimcrack
A "gimcrack" (JIM-krak)
is a showy but useless object.
Example
(as used by Jeremy Paxman in The
English: A Portrait of a People): "In
those cities most self-conscious about their claim to be part
of English history, like Oxford or Bath, the shops where you
could have bought a dozen nails, home-made cakes, or had a
suit run up, have shut down and been replaced with places selling
teddy bears, T-shirts, and gimcrack souvenirs."
