Issue #2518

• WEALTHY: 4 steps to taking your brand-new business to profitability (Paul Lawrence)
• HEALTHY: A fruit that beats crow’s feet? (Kelley Herring)
• WISE: Arthur Lipper III on being an entrepreneur

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• Do you have the right job… and the right boss?
• Pumpkin seeds and blow-up lawn turkeys (Jessica Kurrle)
• It’s Fun to Know… about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
• Add “fey” to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

Internet Money Club 2009 Early Admission Hotlist Opening Up

A lot’s going to be happening over the next couple of weeks, so I’ll keep this one short.

There is a big flaw with many of the entrepreneurial programs out there. The information itself is outstanding… but does it give you the whole picture? Are there mechanisms built in to make sure you USE the information? Do they give you a step-by-step blueprint to ensure ALL your bases are covered?

After all, what’s obvious to one person may be clear as mud to the next. And when there’s even just one little piece that’s missing, that’s what they call a “stopper”. Stops you dead in your tracks and maybe you never recover… never get going again.

So for our upcoming Internet Money Club Class of 2009, we are building in strong features to make absolutely sure that NOTHING is left to the imagination … that NO stones are left unturned, that NO assumptions are made. Everything is going to be laid out 100%, every base covered, every step, crystal clear.

Our goal is to eliminate all of the frustration and roadblocks that prevent even the most eager start-ups from reaching their business goals.

Maybe you’ve tried other programs and experienced limited success because they didn’t give you the whole picture. Or perhaps you would like to achieve results faster in an interactive learning environment taught by experts.

If so, I know the Internet Money Club Class of 2009 is exactly what you’ve been looking for. But if you want to have ANY chance to get in, you HAVE to get on the Early Notification Hotlist now. Then you’ll be the first to get notified when we have our pre-release announcement and openings in the coming days.

So claim your free VIP pass for “cutting to the head of the line”.

“The entrepreneur all too frequently tends to forget that marketing is key to the success of most businesses.”

Arthur Lipper III

How to Build an Instant Business

By Paul Lawrence

If you read the advice of many “small-business experts,” you’ll be told that you should expect to wait at least a year – possibly more – before your start-up can begin to see a profit. That’s what I was taught when I studied business administration in college – and it turns off a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. “I can’t afford to wait that long,” they think. “I need to make money NOW.”

If the prospect of unpaid bills, astronomical credit card balances, and endless meals of ramen noodles is keeping you from starting a business, read on. Because today, I’m going to tell you how you can have a profitable business in as little as 30 days.

As Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby point out in their book, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business, the Internet has changed the way everyone does business. But, they remind us, anyone who thinks that the Internet has made traditional direct mail obsolete is quite mistaken. They note: “In fact, in 2007 direct mail spending grew 5 percent. That translates to $58.4 billion dollars being spent on direct mail.”

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if this kind of money is being spent, the profits from direct mail can be enormous. And as someone who has spent his entrepreneurial career focusing on small businesses, I’ve had quite a bit of experience with this marketing channel. I’ve proven firsthand that it’s a way to create a profitable business without a ton of capital – and to do so almost instantly.

I’ve used direct mail to start small local businesses with only a few hundred dollars, and I’ve operated larger businesses that mailed hundreds of thousands of pieces each calendar quarter. What I’ve discovered is that, regardless of the size of your business, you can use direct mail to win customers and make sales.

What’s more, as soon as you find a direct-mail formula that works for you, you will have a profitable business in less than 30 days.

Let’s say your business idea is to sell and install generators that work on solar power. Considering current concerns about energy and the environment, you’re confident that it is a very marketable idea. So now, if you can come up with the right direct-mail formula … you’ll have an instant business.

Here’s how to do it:

Instant-Business Step 1: Choose Your List

As MaryEllen has pointed out time and again, the list of names you mail your promotion to is your most important asset. You can have a top-notch product (a high-quality solar-powered generator) and an incredible offer (a low price and tons of bonuses)… but if you send that offer to a sub-par list, you won’t make a dime. On the other hand, if you have the right list, you don’t even need good copy. Mediocre copy to a great list will always out-pull great copy to a bad list.

If, for example, you mail your promotion for your solar-powered generator to a list of people who have recently lost their homes to foreclosure, you’re probably not going to find many buyers. But if you send it to a list of homeowners who have recently requested information on environmentally friendly energy devices, you could easily make a healthy profit.

To get a good list, you’re going to need a skilled and reputable list broker. If you don’t know someone who can give you a referral, you’ll find many possibilities listed in direct-mail trade publications.

Instant-Business Step 2: Create Your Offer

Your offer is another important part of your direct-mail formula. Even if you have a skillfully written promotion and you send it to the perfect list, if the offer doesn’t appeal to your prospective customers, you won’t be successful.

No matter how many impressive features your solar-powered generator has, it won’t sell if you price it too high or you fail to position it as a good deal (by adding value with your bonuses). So make sure you study your competition to see what’s working for them… and make your offer even better than their best.

Instant-Business Step 3: Come Up With a Blockbuster Sales Promotion

A strong direct-mail promotion can be as simple as a well-written postcard or as complicated as a 30-page sales letter.

Again, study what your competitors are doing… what’s working for them. To get your hands on their promotions, just get yourself “seeded” on their mailing lists. Contact a few of them and ask for information. Or go to their websites and “opt in” to receive information from them. (If it’s not too expensive, you might even want to buy one or two of their products online.) Before you know it, you’ll be added to dozens of related mailing lists and inundated with good (and bad) sales copy that you can learn from.

Instant-Business Step 4: Test

The golden rule of testing marketing copy is to spend the least amount of money possible to determine if the formula works. Most well-capitalized marketers will do a test of 25,000-50,000 names (compiled from an assortment of 5,000-name lists).

If you are that well-capitalized, good for you! Go for it! If you’re not, don’t sweat it. You can test with a lot less.

Some years ago, I was a partner in a mortgage-brokering business. I created an offer and a promotion. And I chose one list of 5,000 local names that were in the income bracket I felt would be most receptive to the offer.

To mail to all 5,000 names on that list would’ve cost $2,500 – which I was reluctant to spend until I knew that the formula worked. So I tested the list by mailing to 500 of the names – at a cost of $250. Well, there was a good response to that test – and we made a thousand-dollar profit. So I mailed to all 5,000 names – which, again, made a profit. Eventually, I sold my share to my partner so I could focus on other interests. But I had established a formula that worked for that business. And he was then able to use that formula to keep expanding it.

Because it is so easy, and inexpensive, to test every element of a direct-mail package (the list as well as the copy), this gives you a mechanism to quickly start a direct-mail business with minimal risk and capital.

And once the formula proves successful, there is no other business I know that can be expanded as easily.

[Ed Note: Starting - and growing - a direct-mail business doesn't require tens of thousands of dollars. Entrepreneurial expert Paul Lawrence has created a program that reveals how anyone can get started in direct mail with limited capital. For more information, follow this link.

For dozens of other ways to reach your customers, and for expert advice on how to write super-strong direct-mail copy, pick up a copy of ETR's 2008 Info Marketing Bootcamp DVD Library. Our panel of world-class Internet marketers will share their inside secrets to making big money online.] [link] ETRmarketing

== Highly Recommended ==

Should Making Money Online Be This Easy?

I hear stories of budding Internet entrepreneurs jumping through hoops to make a buck. And sure, many times building a solid, long term business does take real effort. But you can also quietly pocket some decent dough online for much less work.

In this case, you can copy the exact steps one man used to make $187,296 in one day. No, that’s not a misprint.

What’s stopping you from doing the same? The program is called Instant Internet Income and I guarantee it works exactly as it says. Take a look and see just how easy making money online can be.

Worth Quoting: Seth Godin on Where You Work

“Think about this for a second. Your boss and your job determine not only what you do all day, but what you learn and who you interact with. Where you work is what you market. Work in a high stress place and you’re likely to become a highly stressed person, and your interactions will display that. Work for a narcissist and you’ll develop into someone who’s good at shining a light on someone else, not into someone who can lead. Work for someone who plays the fads and you’ll discover that instead of building a steadily improving brand, you’re jumping from one thing to another, enduring layoffs in-between gold rushes. Work for a bully and be prepared to be bullied….

“[Not] every job (or every client) is worth your time or attention or love.

“If you want to become the kind of person that any company would kill to have as an employee, you need to be the kind of employee that’s really picky about who you align with.”

(Source: Seth Godin’s blog)

Reverse Wrinkles With the Jewel of Winter

By Kelley Herring

Question: What fruit appears at the holidays, stains your hands red, and may stop crow’s feet, fine lines, and sagging skin?

Answer: Pomegranates!

You probably already know that pomegranates are packed with antioxidants. In fact, they rank a high 10,500 on the ORAC scale. And new research shows this juicy fruit can keep you looking younger too.

That’s because compounds in pomegranate called punicalagins actually stop the enzymes (collagenases) that break down collagen. And collagen is essential for keeping skin looking firm, smooth, and youthful. What’s more, punicalagins promote healthy DNA repair, which isn’t just important for your appearance, but also your health.

Make a wrinkle-reducing cocktail using 1 ounce of pomegranate juice and 7 ounces of sparkling mineral water. Or try the seeds fresh over a big salad of winter greens to make the most of this age-defying fruit.

[Ed. Note: As nutrition expert Kelley Herring points out, you can find plenty of all-natural methods for staying healthy. Now, you can access the latest breakthroughs in weight-loss programs... healthful recipes... and other ideas for achieving optimal health - all from one of the largest integrative-medicine practices in the country. Learn more here.

Survive the holidays with Kelley's brand-new recipe e-books, Guilt-Free Desserts and Healthy Holiday Hors d'Oeuvres. You'll find 60+ healthy recipes you can easily make at home.]

10 Little Things I Love About Thanksgiving

By Jessica Kurrle

1. The colors… burnt orange, squash yellow, brick red, shades of brown and dark green… make me think of Thanksgiving and fall in general.

2. Pumpkins! The traditions of roasting pumpkin seeds and making delicious pie.

3. Working so hard all day to create a masterpiece of a meal… just to eat it in less than 30 minutes and then feel uncomfortably stuffed.

4. Visiting with family and friends and reminiscing about good times while you make new ones.

5. Laughing at the ridiculous decorative blow-up lawn turkeys and orange twinkle lights that emerge in my neighborhood.

6. Actually getting to use our good china, crystal, and silver for a meal. (Tell me, again, why I registered for all that stuff.)

7. Eating together at the dining room table.

8. Lingering over laughs, drinks, food, and fun instead of feeling rushed to clear the table and do the dishes.

9. Giving yourself “permission” to eat a huge meal at whatever time of the day you want. 1:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. … or all three!

10. Taking a moment to reflect back on the past year and really appreciate all the joy, warmth, and wealth that we have in our lives.

[Ed. Note: What is your #1 favorite thing about Thanksgiving? Let us know right here.]

It’s Fun to Know: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

• The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been held every year since 1924 (except for a two-year interruption during World War II when the helium and rubber used in the balloons was donated to the war effort).
• The first Macy’s parade featured animals from the Central Park Zoo. Inflatable characters came on the scene in 1926.
• The parade was televised nationally for the first time in 1947. When you watch it on TV this year, you’ll be watching a crowd of about three million people lining the parade route.

(Source: Guinness Book of World Records and Macy’s)

Fire Your Boss and Retire This Year Making Six Figures

Let me show you how to quickly start your own profit-generating business and enjoy life like never before because you are finally out of the rat race once and for all. Sooner than you think, you can have a business that has the greatest upside profit-potential, one that’s easy and enjoyable to operate and can be run from anywhere in the world…

If you’re looking for a new break and the opportunity of a lifetime, jump on this now.

Word to the Wise: Fey

To be “fey” (FAY) – from the Old English for “fated to die” – is (1) to possess or display a strange and otherworldly aspect or quality, or (2) to appear to be slightly crazy, as if under a spell.

Example (as used by Evan Thomas in The Very Best Man ): “Beneath a fey manner, his mother was highly competitive.”

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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