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Our sales were hurting. Every one of our distributors was selling three to five times more of our competitor’s cheaper, inferior air ionizers than ours.
It seemed that consumers decided at the shelf that all ionizers are pretty much the same. So why should they spend 67 percent more on ours? (more…)
Products — the most successful products — meet urgent needs and solve important problems.
But what solves today’s problem won’t necessarily solve tomorrow’s. We must constantly refine and reinvent to make our products “new.” (more…)
As I explain in today’s essay, you can learn a lot about wealth building and success from your average junkie. Don’t believe me? Some of these guys make as much as $900 a day. What’s your typical payday? (more…)
At the beginning of the year, The New York Times profiled several investors. Their stories were similar.
As a result of the market plunge in 2008, Cindy and Eric Canup had to put off their dream of “buying land in Northern California or Oregon.” Joe Mancini had to put off his retirement. Robert Paynter, a retired Wachovia executive, said the past year made him feel as if he were witnessing his own death. (more…)
What I am about to tell you is the most important thing you will ever hear about starting a business. (I have probably started more businesses than anyone I’ve ever met, so please forgive me for sounding like a know-it-all.)
Ready? (more…)
Many people wonder where so-called “creative” people get their ideas.
They’re looking for answers that are profound. There aren’t any.
Ideas are in the air at all times. You simply reach in and pull one out by doing something that all young kids do in their imagination each and every day.
That is – you “make it up.”
Yes, you may “make up” your ideas based upon things you’ve already seen and heard – or felt. Yes, you may combine one thing with another thing until you have something unique. But you still “made it up.”
And when you make things up, you do so without resistance. You simply imagine – then move.
The other day, my eight-year-old and five-year-old were pounding me with punches while I was lying on the couch. They were yelling “Inside Kung Fu!” – then chopping me. A minute later, they were flexing and strutting around, saying “Errh, muscles!”
Where are they getting this stuff?
Sure, they’ve been influenced by me. But I have never gone around our home saying “Inside Kung Fu” while throwing punches. Nor have I ever flexed in front of my kids, grunted, and said “Muscles.”
Yes, there are bits and pieces of these elements at play – though most certainly NOT in the way my kids put them together. But as soon as the ideas “popped” into their creative little minds, they began expressing what they were thinking.
Becoming successful in business is much the same.
My successes – on the Internet as well as off the Internet – have NOT been a result of long-term planning, trying to get every detail right before doing anything. They have been a result of using my imagination to come up with an idea. Then moving forward on the idea – and continuing to move forward on it until the idea got completed.
And coming up with ideas isn’t hard. They’re all around us. Just look at little kids and you’ll see what I mean.
[Ed. Note: Matt Furey, an internationally recognized expert in self-development, fitness, and martial arts, is president of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, Inc. With Matt's 101 Ways to Magnetize Money, you can learn the REAL SECRETS of financial success known only to the most prosperous men and women who have ever lived. Find out more right here.
Once you've got the idea, you need to put it into action. Get a step-by-step guide for turning your thoughts into a money-making business with Michael Masterson's runaway best-seller, Ready, Fire, Aim: From Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat.]
This recession has revealed a psychological rift in the world’s consciousness.
A lot of people are scared and angry. They’ve lost their jobs, their businesses, their insurance, and in some cases their self-worth. They feel victimized by events, by elites, and by entities. So they bob up and down, waiting to be rescued by a government or a friend. They hunker down into a form of abdication of self-responsibility because it feels better to be justified in misery than vulnerable in power.
And the interesting thing about this group of people is how threatened they are by another group.
This second group of people may be suffering just as much in real terms as the first group, but they refuse to see themselves as victims. Instead of giving up and waiting to be rescued, they are scrapping and hustling and retooling. Starting businesses. Taking risks. Flexing muscles they may not have fully understood or claimed before. In crisis, they are making opportunity – and, in the process, taking responsibility for making themselves.
They are discovering something amazing about work: that it really isn’t about the money or the power or the status. In other words, not about the external rewards. Those rewards are nice (actually, they’re awesome when received in the right way) – but the real reward of work, or entrepreneurship, is the flowering of passion. When we take responsibility for our contributions to this universe, we discover that work truly is, in Khalil Gibran’s words, “love made manifest.”
[Ed. Note: Which group are you in? You can take a stand against the recession this instant. Not only can you pursue your passion, you can turn it into a moneymaking venture. Get all the details right here. Hurry - the price goes up $200 this Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
When not contemplating social issues, Howie Jacobson is an expert on Google AdWords and driving traffic to your website. Get his complimentary AdWords ER Report "Why Most AdWords Campaigns Fail - and How to Make Yours Succeed" at www.AskHowie.com.]
With Google AdSense, you can run Google advertising on your website or blog – and get paid every time your visitors click on those ads.
There are hundreds of ways to drive traffic to your website. Some of them are free, and others cost money. The trick is to get “targeted” traffic. By that, I mean visitors who are likely to be interested in the content on your website and in the Google AdSense ads you’re running.
My favorite ways to do this are as follows:
1. Targeted e-mail newsletter advertising. Preferably using deep discount or remnant ad campaigns.
2. Keyword advertising on discount ad networks like Advertising.com, 7Search.com, ExactSeek.com, Kanoodle.com, and AdBrite. You can purchase keyword advertising “clicks” on these networks for as little as 5 cents.
3. Building your own search engine or directory, and redirecting traffic to your website that’s running Google AdSense. A search engine or directory is simply a website with a database and a searching mechanism. Most programmers can easily build one for you.
The best part of Google AdSense is its “auto pilot” feature. If you have a website running Google AdSense ads, and you have targeted traffic coming to the site, the ads run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – without requiring any maintenance or babysitting on your part.
[Ed. Note: These tactics for driving highly targeted website traffic to boost AdSense revenues were originally published in the Liberty Street Letter, a monthly publication dedicated to under-the-radar business opportunities and investments. To find out if you're eligible to receive regular profit alerts that could help you boost your income, click here.]
You know what a stored-value card (SVC) is, right? You’ve seen racks of them near the checkout counters at Walmart, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, Rite Aid, and thousands of other retailers. You probably call them gift cards. And you’re probably familiar with phone cards, too.
Well, guess what? You can resell prepaid cards like those online as an affiliate. There are hundreds of markets to choose from, including prepaid cellular, restaurants, auto repair, computers, and game rentals for the Xbox and Nintendo Wii systems.
One opportunity I particularly like is with TracFone, the biggest prepaid cellular company in North America. They have a very lucrative affiliate/partnership program that enables entrepreneurs to make a 15 to 20 percent commission on all TracFone sales. This includes the TracFone itself, airtime, and accessories. (The largest TracFone reseller averaged more than $30,000 per month in sales in just one year.)
Entrepreneurs are offering TracFone airtime cards on websites and/or promoting them to their opt-in subscribers. I’ve even seen TracFone affiliates selling products, accessories, and airtime through keyword ads on Google and Yahoo.
As I said, there are hundreds of SVC markets just waiting for someone like you to take the bull by the horns. But the TracFone program is a great place to start.
[Ed. Note: Marc Charles is a member of the board of experts at the Liberty Street League, a group of like-minded entrepreneurs and investors dedicated to making money "off Wall Street" with under-the-radar opportunities like this one. Find out if you are eligible to join the Liberty Street League right here.
Interested in becoming an Early to Rise affiliate? You'll get access to bestselling products and proven advertising materials that have brought in millions. And the program pays commissions as high as 90 percent! Find out more about the ETR Affiliate Program here.]
There are more opportunities than ever for you to sell reality show concepts to Hollywood. Virtually every broadcast and cable network is aggressively airing as many reality shows as they can.
The reason is simple. It’s cheap to produce them. And if a show catches on – like American Idol, Survivor, or The Real World - it can attract larger audiences than the most popular scripted programs.
This year, the reality show Dancing With the Stars snagged as many as 22.5 million viewers per episode. In comparison, a top-rated sitcom like How I Met Your Mother brings in about 8 million viewers.
The low cost of producing reality shows, combined with their large audiences, equals big profits. According to The Wall Street Journal, each episode of UPN’s Top Model costs about $800,000. Meanwhile, the cost of an average scripted drama is in the range of $2 million.
Why is it so much cheaper to produce reality shows? Simple. The people appearing on them can usually be paid much less than those on scripted programs. In addition, filming is usually done in the participants’ homes, which avoids expensive set construction and labor costs. And they require only a bare-bones writing staff.
If the show is a big hit, the production company can earn enormous licensing fees. The New York Times reports that the production company of American Idol had revenues that grew to $96 million last year from $67 million two years earlier, with gross profit margins expanding to 77 percent from 69 percent.
If you could get in on that kind of action, you’d not only have “made it” in Hollywood, you’d have a nice chunk of change for your “trouble.”
However, you need more than just a good idea. I’ve pitched shows to producers well over a hundred times, and I’ve found them to be surprisingly unimaginative.
They need to be shown precisely what the show will be like.
One of the best tools for doing that is a video “demo.”
Let’s use Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice as an example.
In this show, two teams of celebrities compete by performing a specified business task. The team that does it better wins. One member of the losing team is “fired.” The following week, the remaining celebrities are given another challenge – and this continues until only one celebrity is left.
The celebrities appear on the show in order to raise money for charities they support – plus, they get publicity as a result of being on nationally broadcast network TV.
Viewers watch the celebrities as they go about planning and completing the assigned task. Along the way, there is constant bickering and feuding… as well as plenty of drama.
So, if you were going to make a demo for Celebrity Apprentice, it might look like this:
1. A 30-second clip of Donald Trump telling the celebrities about their task.
2. Several quick sound bytes of celebrities speaking into the camera about how they feel about the task.
3. Some scenes of celebrities butting heads as they try to get the task done.
4. A 30-second clip of their final results.
5. Some brief squabbling while Trump berates the celebrities in the boardroom and then fires one of them.
Almost anyone can produce a demo reel. It has to look fairly professional (i.e., it can’t look like you shot it with your cellphone), but it doesn’t need to be anywhere near as polished as an actual broadcast show.
Fortunately for today’s aspiring reality show producers, high quality video equipment no longer costs an arm and a leg. A basic mini-DV camera can be bought for only a few hundred dollars – and if you don’t want to buy one, you can rent one for even less. Not only that… if you don’t want to shoot the demo yourself, there are many professional videographers out there who charge very reasonable rates.
If you’re interested in creating a video demo to pitch an idea to reality television show producers, here are some tips to get you started:
If you come up with a hot idea for a reality TV show and present it to producers in a professional manner, they will take you seriously – even if they’ve never heard of you before. And, if they like your idea… you could be on your way to a new career in the entertainment industry.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter who's had a multimillion-dollar film produced and released worldwide. He has signed two development deals to produce reality shows with established Hollywood television production companies. For more information on Paul's "How to Break Into Hollywood" program, just click right here.]
The summer of 2009 will mark two years of the housing crisis being in full force. Nothing in recent times has wreaked as much havoc on the lives of homeowners. On the other hand, nothing else has created as much opportunity for you to make a fortune in real estate. Even if you have bad credit or no credit, even if you don’t have any money to invest.
Sound too good to be true? Give me a few minutes and I’ll make you a believer.
Today, I am going to give you two ways to bring in extra income (or build yourself a small fortune), starting this week, in spite of the economy.
Strategy 1. It’s a Numbers Game
One of my students, Matt, impressed me so much that I began partnering with him on investments. And we evolved a system that works like a Swiss watch.
You start by looking at lower-priced houses, $150K and under. You are going to buy them for about half of what the fair market value is, and you are NOT going to do anything nasty to achieve this. The catch is, you need to make about 25 offers in order to get one deal. You want to focus on houses that are already listed below fair market value – and the longer they have been on the market, the better.
Your formula for this: Fair Market Value x 60% = Your Offer
In other words, for a house that has a fair market value of $100K, you would plug in $100,000 x 60% = $60,000. That would be your maximum offer, give or take. If you have good credit, banks will very likely lend you the money because you’ll be getting the property for so much less than market value.
Matt does this and, in most cases, he rents the property out for cash flow. You could also flip it to another investor. Buy it for 40 percent off; sell it for a 20 percent profit. If you find a property that is already discounted 20 percent, you offer less – say, 30 percent less than the asking price. Matt offered 10 percent less on a bank-owned house that was already at 50 percent and it was accepted. He had a buyer lined up before he closed on it, and presold the house for a $20K profit.
By the way, only 10-20 percent of the properties we buy are foreclosures. The rest are owned by people who just want to get out immediately.
If you don’t have the money or credit to use this strategy, find private money. There are plenty of people out there who would love to earn more than their 401(k) or IRA is delivering now, and would be delighted to invest in properties where you’ve done all the legwork.
Remember, it’s a numbers game. You’ll need to make 25 offers (on average) to get one deal.
Strategy 2. Control With Contracts
This strategy allows you to put cash in your pocket in 5-20 days. Ideally, you’ll have a few people lined up to help you when you need them: a realtor to help you find deals, a broker to help you get your buyers approved for loans, and a lawyer to draft/okay your notes/contracts.
You also have to create a list of people who buy investment properties. To find them, simply run ads in your local Pennysaver, put out flyers advertising “Houses 50% off,” get phone numbers from “I Buy Houses” signs, check out REI (Real Estate Investing) Clubs, etc.
Then you build a list of potential tenant-buyers – 10-15 people who would be interested in a lease-option deal (renting with the option to buy). Again, use Pennysaver ads and flyers. In addition, advertise on CraigsList, tell your realtor that you will do some rent-to-owns, and post signs at apartment complexes, bookstores, convenience stores, etc.
And then it’s time to find the properties.
You’re looking for motivated sellers. People who are behind on their payments are perfect. Find them with the same advertising techniques mentioned above, using phrases like “stop foreclosure” and “debt takeover.” Get expired listings from your realtor, and look for “For Sale by Owner” signs.
You’re also looking for houses that don’t need much in the way of repairs. You’ll wrap the cost of necessary repairs into the down payment you ask for from your investor or tenant-buyer, so get an idea of what you might have to pay for painting, carpeting, roofing, door and window replacement, etc.
Now you put it all together.
You get the houses under contract as cheaply as you can. (Check comparable prices on homes in the neighborhood on sites like zillow.com and realtor.com and in local real estate listings.) You tell the sellers that it will take you anywhere from 5 days to 60 days to pay off their notes because you are going to wholesale or lease-option the property. And you write the contracts as “and or assigns” so you can turn them over to someone else.
As soon as you get a property under contract, call the people on your investor list. Tell them all about the house. Mark up the price a little (or as much as you can). But make sure they can still make plenty of money on resale or they will move on to another deal.
If you cannot flip the property to an investor, go to your tenant-buyer list. Pick the one with the most money for a down payment or the best credit. (Your mortgage broker will help you.) Offer to put that person in the house with a 12-month lease-option. Let as much money as you can stand go toward the down payment for three months or so. The mortgage company likes that – and you should have their mortgage done in 3-6 months.
Basically, none of it is your money. You use the tenant-buyer’s money to get the house.
Go and Invest!
I always look for positive solutions to problems. That is why, instead of giving in to the gloom and doom of this down economy, I look at the current real estate market as an opportunity to make money while helping others.
Let’s say property values in your area are down 20 percent. Put out 25 offers at around 60 percent of market value. (If a property is listed at $200,000, maybe you offer $120,000.) In my experience, you can expect one of those offers to be accepted. Now you have a house with a fair market value of $200,000 that you can purchase for $120,000 – and you can easily find someone who will want to purchase it for $145,000, because that is still $55,000 under value.
You have just made $25,000 without risking any of your own money… and you have helped someone else find a great deal.
[Ed. Note: Dean Graziosi has been an active real estate investor for over 20 years. His first two books, Totally Fulfilled and Be a Real Estate Millionaire, were New York Times bestsellers. And his newest book, Profit From Real Estate Right Now, is already out-selling his previous book - which was the fastest-selling real estate book in America.
Dean offers proven programs that teach people to succeed as investors, starting with little or no money, credit, or experience. His free online investors' website and free training calls reach thousands of people every week. For more information, please visit www.deangraziosi.com.]
Michael Masterson has often written of the benefits of being a “chicken entrepreneur.” He uses this tongue-in-cheek expression to describe someone who starts a business or creates a new source of income while remaining at a full-time job or otherwise minimizing the risks.
Today, I want to tell you about a variation of that strategy that has proven successful for me and many others. You might call it being a “chicken salad entrepreneur.”
I’m the quintessential business coward. I have no management or leadership skills. Moreover, I never wanted to take on all those challenging business tasks and responsibilities: raising capital, hiring and firing, dealing with suppliers, and so on.
When I was in school, I expected that I would one day get a “real” job with an ad agency. As a result of some fortunate contacts, however, I became a freelancer with my own copywriting practice – for more than 30 years.
I soon discovered that there was a demand for my marketing expertise. So I embarked upon a series of lucrative and enjoyable sidelines: public speaking, corporate training, consulting, and critiquing. In these “presentation activities,” as I call them, I share what I know – and I’m paid well for it, between $2,000 and $10,000 per assignment. What’s more, the jobs are often fast, easy, and fun.
While researching my e-book, The Versatile Freelancer,I interviewed numerous other professionals who have double or multiple careers. They range from a career counselor who speaks, consults, and trains… to a book editor who coaches authors and critiques their manuscripts.
The “chicken” factor at work here is evident. For all of us, the risk of diversifying our careers was minimal, requiring a tiny investment of time and money – sometimes none at all.
Now, how about you?
Do people tell you that you’re a natural teacher? Do you possess the necessary skills and enthusiasm? Would you enjoy it? Ask yourself: “In my current job, are there elements of consulting, training, coaching? Are there people and companies that could benefit from what I know? Would they be willing to pay me for that knowledge?”
Do some research and apply some creative thinking. You may be surprised by what you discover.
If you’re hesitant about your presentation skills, fear not! You don’t need to dazzle your clients. You only need to have marketable knowledge and experience, and the ability to communicate it. And keep in mind that, if you have serious stage fright issues, consulting and critiquing can often be done via phone, e-mail, or written reports.
There are other benefits. For example, you can sometimes recycle content from one presentation activity or assignment to another – and get paid for it over and over again!
Let’s say you receive a fee for a corporate training presentation – and then realize that it can be repeated almost verbatim at another company or at an industry conference. This is not unethical as long as you’re not disclosing confidential information or duplicating material to which you’ve sold exclusive rights. Getting paid more than once is an established and accepted practice. It’s simply the adroit use of leverage to expand your time and multiply your earning power.
Despite all the advantages, this sort of career may not be for everyone. I couldn’t do it – until I had reached the point where I had something to say that was of value to others.
How will you know when you’ve achieved a sufficient level of knowledge and expertise? One tip-off is that people will start asking you questions such as, “How much would you charge to come to our company and…?” That’s a clear signal that the market is ready for you.
Caution: If you moonlight, as most chicken entrepreneurs do, be sure you’re not violating the terms of a current employment agreement – a non-compete clause, for example. If you have any doubts, talk to a lawyer. In addition to legal considerations, be aware of possible ethical conflicts.
Now… how do you get your first assignments?
Referrals are always best. A good way to start is by capitalizing on your existing business contacts: co-workers, industry colleagues, friends, online social networks, and so forth.
Beyond direct networking, the next most successful tactics for gaining exposure and building your reputation are writing articles for trade publications and speaking at business events. Both are low-key approaches that promote your services in a professional way. In contrast, cold calling and paid advertising can appear unprofessional – and may not generate enough business to justify the costs.
The late Howard Shenson, renowned as “the consultants’ consultant,” wrote: “I have long been an advocate of indirect marketing techniques. … I believe that the direct, hard-sell techniques [cold calls, advertising, direct mail] are not as effective as the indirect strategies, which are more like public relations activities. As an added bonus, these indirect, low-cost/no-cost techniques are much less expensive.”
In advocating the indirect approach, Howard wasn’t relying on guesswork. He did periodic surveys and received responses from thousands of consultants about what sorts of marketing efforts they used and what worked. The results? The lowest-paid consultants marketed themselves via cold calls and paid advertising. The most successful and highest-paid used the public relations techniques: writing and speaking.
There are many advantages to diversifying your career into consulting, training, and coaching. One that might be especially appealing to you right now is that it can give you some protection against a weak economy or a recession.
How so? You’ll have a wider portfolio of skills and services to offer. You’ll have not just one source of revenue, but multiple streams of income.
And there’s another reason. In tough times, companies trim their staffs. To fill the gaps, they are likely to hire freelancers.
Many of the people I interviewed for my book told me that their businesses were unaffected by current economic conditions and that they are doing as well as ever, or even better. In most cases, they credited their survival and success to their versatility. Because they have multiple careers and income streams, when demand for one declines another often picks up.
So if you’re looking for a safe, low-risk way to increase your income while keeping your “day job,” and which might eventually turn into a full-time career, this might just be your ticket.
[Ed. Note: Don Hauptman writes ETR's Saturday column, "The Language Perfectionist." The above article was adapted from his e-book The Versatile Freelancer: How Writers and Other Creative Professionals Can Generate More Income by Seizing New Opportunities in Critiquing, Consulting, Training, and Presenting. The book comes with a free bonus report and a 100 percent money-back guarantee of satisfaction. Order your copy without risk here.]
If you’re in business, you’re always on the lookout for breakthrough ideas. Ideas for new products… Ideas for attracting new customers… Ideas for communicating more effectively with your existing customers…
If you’re not constantly searching for new ideas – and applying them to your business – you’ll get trampled by businesses that do.
In-house brainstorming sessions are an excellent source of moneymaking ideas that will make your business soar. But don’t stop there. Michael Masterson recommends that you expand your search by keeping tabs on the actions of other businesses in your industry – and he has three guidelines to help you do it:
1. “Get out of the office and into some generalized business environment several times a year.” Industry functions like ETR’s upcoming Profits in Paradise conference, for example, would be a great place to meet like-minded businesspeople and hobnob with successful business mentors.
2. “Seek out and question successful colleagues, competitors, and others – even if you don’t especially like them.”
3. “Be attentive to what they say. Sometimes, what seems like an innocuous comment can trigger a great idea if you listen hard – and think while you listen.”
[Ed. Note: If you're looking to reach the next level in business or in life, the simplest and fastest way to get there is to read Michael Masterson's best-selling book, Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat. Pick up your copy here.]
I just spent a week with family – mostly my sister’s boys and their wives and kids.
I was sitting in my sister’s living room, watching the grandnieces and grandnephew play (ages 2, 4, and 6) with rambunctious glee… and I realized that all the adults were reading books.
No TV blaring. No radio jangling.
In fact, we’d just finished playing some guitars together and having an intense discussion about world affairs. You know… like really intelligent people enjoy doing.
Not everyone was reading great literature, of course. There were volumes of happy trash being devoured, along with some really good stuff. But I was kinda stunned, just the same.
This was a room full of very educated people. Three are teachers, one is a school shrink, another runs a program for troubled youth. All were involved with written stories. All deeply involved, too.
No one wanted to talk about marketing B.S. Or ways to get rich. Or systems to get ahead. These were family-oriented people, content with doing their jobs well and living their lives as fully as possible within their means.
I felt a little… humbled.
I don’t apologize for my entrepreneurial DNA. Unlike most of the rest of my family, I chafed at authority, and desperately needed to find my own path.
However, as I hang out with more and more of the elite “winners” in the online marketing world… I am becoming acutely aware of how little I am driven by the desire for money.
Not that there’s anything wrong with making money. But throughout my career, I’ve felt out of place among the guys for whom business success was the ONLY thing that mattered.
I honestly do not “get” people who need piles of cash to justify their existence. And I am often offended by gratuitous displays of wealth. The path I took veered away from the glistening skyline of power and fame that most of my colleagues were attracted to.
I like having lots of dough, don’t get me wrong. But long ago, I figured out what “enough” was, and I’ve not sacrificed my other lifelong interests to build my pile bigger than my humble little self can handle.
We used to call it “F*** You Money,” to be honest.
True independence comes when you are no longer desperate for whatever your current client is offering you. You can walk away and not worry about the consequences if he turns out to be an ass. Or if the deal seems squirrelly.
You don’t need his money… because you’ve got enough stashed away.
It’s a stash you put aside and never touch unless you absolutely need to. If you die without ever dipping into it, you’ve won.
The psychological juice behind knowing you don’t “need” anyone’s money is staggering.
The size of your FYM stash, of course, is dependent on what you feel you “need” – in cold, hard, liquid cash – to be confident you’ve got enough to tide you over until circumstances change.
For me, it’s not a huge amount. Enough moolah to survive for a year or so with no other income. Being frugal, I could stretch it out for much longer. And still have fun, and still indulge in things I love.
But the key thing is… it’s your support system. It’s not an investment.
However… once you get a taste of business success, it’s easy to be lured into living each day FOR that business. You put off other pursuits, you start to obsess on projects, you become… boring.
You’ve suddenly got 20 times your basic FYM, and yet still get up each day focused on bringing in more.
I’ve been lucky. I don’t need lots of money to have a great time. So much of life’s best adventures are actually dirt-cheap.
I’m seeing a group of old college buddies this weekend, for example. None are “successful,” according to any measure a businessman would use. And yet, all are happy. All are good friends, and I cherish the time we get to spend together.
They don’t envy my success. And they don’t treat me differently. (To them, I’m still the nutcase I was 30 years ago at the university. And I embrace that character with gusto.)
All this gets me thinking about what “true” wealth is.
Being broke sucks. No getting around that. But somewhere between being broke and being stupid-rich, with 12 cars and three homes and more boats than you can count… is a sweet spot where many people live in near-bliss. Minus the expensive toys.
I think, by now, you know what I’m getting at.
It’s sappy, yes. It’s all about love and living well with what you have.
Ambition can be a curse. I’m very lucky to be ambitious… but also to be lazily moderate about pursuing what I want. I’ve done most of what I set out to do at this point in life. The goals remaining on my master-list are good ones, and I hope I’m around for another half-century to knock them off, too.
But, more urgently, I am reminded of how amazingly “rich” my family and friends are who sink their teeth into life without driving ambitions.
Sometimes, playing with your grandniece on the old swing set at the park is enough wealth to last an eternity.
There’s been a big shake-up in the economy. As with any shake-up, there are lots of opportunities to profit. If you have ambitions, this could be your year to break out. When you do, though… keep a little Zen awareness in your brain about what truly counts in life.
You can’t take your FYM with you when you die. But you can’t tell me that the love you generate and receive doesn’t travel to the Other Side.
[Ed. Note: If making more money this year is your top objective, that's great. ETR can help you grow your wealth every step of the way. But keep John Carlton's words in mind - and remember that amassing money isn't the only type of wealth you want to find this year. Whatever you're looking to achieve - business success, personal fulfillment, becoming a better parent or friend - our Success Mentor can help you find it. Learn more about how to get everything you want out of life right here.
John Carlton is an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. He knows marketing inside and out. Discover how to get your hands on the kick-ass secrets of the world's smartest, happiest, and wealthiest marketers.]
I had some good news yesterday. The latest product I licensed to a marketing company has brought in about $250,000… so far. So from this one product alone, I will be receiving a royalty that will net me at least a $25,000 profit for the year, although it will probably be more.
Plus, I’ll be getting royalties of between $5,000 and $10,000 from two other products that I licensed in 2008. Which means my total profit for the year from products I’ve licensed to other companies will likely be between $35,000 and $45,000.
The most amazing part of this is that – other than keeping track of what I’m owed – I won’t have to do much more than cash the checks.
I’m not telling you this to boast. I just want to give you an idea of how good this little side business is. And it works for a wide variety of products. (My current deals vary from an educational investment product to a natural health supplement.)
The essentials of the business are fairly simple. You either create your own products or acquire the rights to market other people’s products – products that you believe will appeal to a significant number of prospective customers. Then you approach marketing companies that have more resources than you do, and you sell them the rights to market those products.
This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this business in ETR – but I’ve focused more on how to acquire the rights to the products. Today, I’m going to show you how to find companies to market the products for you.
While it’s certainly possible to make licensing deals with major marketers, I’ve found that it’s much easier to work with smaller direct-marketing companies. Though these companies employ only a few people (because they outsource so much of their work), many of them bring in millions of dollars every year.
That’s the kind of marketer you want. They’re extremely good at what they do – but, because of their small size, it’s easy to get to the person in charge of making decisions. As a result, you can make deals quickly, without being put through a lot of bureaucratic red tape.
How do you find these companies?
The best source I know of is list brokers.
You see, most direct-marketing companies have relationships with list brokers. That’s because they need “names” to market to. And though they may have a house list (names of their own customers), they also need to rent names from other list owners. The list broker is the middleman.
The list broker is very familiar with her clients. In order to be able to recommend appropriate lists to them, she has to know what kind of products they market and how successfully they do it. So if you contact a broker who has a fairly large client base, there’s an excellent chance she’ll be able to connect you with companies that might be interested in your products. (Naturally, you’ll have to compensate her for doing this. But if it leads to a deal, it will be well worth it.)
Here’s how to use list brokers to help you find direct-marketing companies to license your products to:
1. Get names and contact information for list brokers from trade organizations and industry publications. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), for example, has a long list of members who are list brokers.
2. Before you start contacting the brokers, prepare a phone or written presentation that you will use to explain to them (a) what your product is, and (b) that you are interested in licensing the rights to a direct-marketing company.
3. Put together another presentation that the brokers can use to pitch the licensing opportunity to direct-marketing companies that show an interest in your proposal. You will submit this to the brokers, who will then forward it to the companies.
4. Once a broker has found a direct-marketer that is interested in your product, you’ll sign a licensing deal with that company.
[Ed. Note: Acquiring and then marketing the rights to products is a little-known way to make a lot of extra money. Paul Lawrence reveals his detailed strategies for this side business in his "Getting Rich With Rights" program. Get the details here.
For more business opportunities with high profit potential, sign up for ETR's Profit Center Dispatch. You'll get weekly "profit alerts" with specific, proven ideas. Learn more here.]
How do you ensure that the information products you sell online give fair value to your customers? One way is to follow Internet marketing guru Fred Gleeck’s “10 times” rule. Fred says that the information products you sell should be worth at least 10 times the price you charge for them.
Alex Mandossian and I were discussing this in a recent ETR teleseminar – and looking for a way to determine whether a particular product and price point meet Gleeck’s criterion. The solution we came up with is something I call the “loose-leaf test.”
Here’s how it works…
Traditional nonfiction paperback books (around 200 pages long) typically sell for $10 to $20.
To determine whether your e-book is worth 10 times that amount – Gleeck’s “10 times” rule – print out the book manuscript on 8.5 by 11-inch sheets of paper. Now, three-hole-punch those pages… put them in a three-ring binder… and maybe even add tabbed dividers to separate the sections or chapters.
Information products in three-ring binders are typically dense in content… and consequently command much higher prices than bookstore books. It’s not unusual for these “loose-leaf services” to cost $100 to $200 or more per copy. (One loose-leaf service for executives on how to write and give speeches, American Speaker, sold for $297.)
Does your $20 e-book contain enough valuable, in-depth content that you could reprint the thing in a three-ring binder and sell it for $200 to customers who would feel they got fair value for their investment… and not ask for a refund?
If it does, you can rest assured that the content you deliver in your book is indeed worth at least 10 times more than the $20 you intend to charge for it.
However, if you think customers who would pay $200 for a loose-leaf version of your book (remember: same content, just different packaging) would feel gypped and ask for their money back, then your book doesn’t follow Gleeck’s “10 times” rule.
I increasingly see nonfiction business books that are thin and light. They present just one or two new ideas, often in a book of 150 pages or less.
If people buy such a book in a bookstore, they probably won’t complain. Expectations for trade books are modest. If it’s a good read, they’ll be satisfied enough.
But your customers perceive that information products published and sold online contain more specific and highly specialized content than “bookstore books.” So if you are an Internet information marketer, you have to deliver far more value to your customers for their money.
Gleeck’s “10 times” rule – and the Bly/Mandossian “loose leaf test” – help you ensure that you’ll do just that.
I have discovered that if the customer thinks an information product is worth the $20 he paid but no more than that, he still may be dissatisfied and want a refund.
One customer, JB, recently asked for a refund on one of my e-books. He wrote: “Your e-book was certainly worth the $19 you charged me, but no more than that. So please send my money back.”
At first, I thought, “How odd!” JB said the product was worth what he paid for it. So his desire for a refund made no sense to me.
But in Internet information marketing, we make big promises in our copy to grab the reader’s attention and make a sale. (In a bookstore, by comparison, the only “selling” is usually done by the book and its cover.) JB apparently felt that the book did not live up to the copy on my landing page, and was disappointed on that basis.
The solution, of course, is to charge less (not very desirable), write weak copy (also not a good idea), or, preferably, make the product stronger. Add content until the product meets the Gleeck/Bly/Mandossian test – and delivers content not just worth what you charged for it, but worth 10 TIMES what you charged for it.
When you sell an item worth $200 for $20, customer satisfaction will soar and refunds will be minimal to nonexistent.
As a famous marketer once stated: “It is our goal not to give the customer her money’s worth, but to give her MORE than her money’s worth!”
Or, more specifically, at least 10 times her money’s worth.
[Ed. Note: Info-publishing is one of the easiest and most potentially lucrative businesses you can go into. But if you don't know where to start when it comes to creating your own info-publishing business, don't worry. ETR is here to help. As a member of our elite Internet Money Club, our team of experts will walk you, step by step, through everything from setting up a website to creating your products to writing sales copy, and much more. Get the details here.
To learn more marketing secrets from freelance copywriter and marketing expert Bob Bly, sign up for his free e-zine, the Direct Response Letter. Do so today and get $116 in bonuses.]
As we keep telling you, just about anyone can start a business. But there’s an important caveat – and it jumped to mind when I got an e-mail from Lynn, who wants advice on starting a newsletter. She writes:
“I’ve worn many hats, juggled them off and on in my years as Mother, Grandmother, Realtor, Concessionaire, and Artist Retailer/Wholesaler. Love, divorce, custody issues, death, inheritance, bankruptcy, accidents, health issues, friendship, betrayal. I’ve either been through it or carried someone through it.
“What I seem to do best is calm nerves and give good advice, to the point where it often interferes with other endeavors. I’ve seriously thought about ETR’s copywriting/ Internet ideas, but I’m wary of selling things. It seems that, among family and friends at least, I am the oracle of issues, the witchy woman matriarch with the final answer. The trendy term ‘life coach’ isn’t quite it. I want to be like an e-mail comforter. A listener of last resort. A sounding board.
“It’s the only thing I think I’m really quite good at. Could this be a business?”
Yes, it could be a business. But not if you are leery of selling.
Business is selling. You can’t make money unless you sell something. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, “I find it useful to remember, everyone lives by selling something.”
So the first thing Lynn needs to determine is what it is she is going to sell.
People will pay for comfort… but not if it’s billed as comfort. Think about what therapists do. They charge pretty good money to give people comforting advice. Yes, there are some who deliver discomfort, but they don’t stay in business very long. People pay money to have their therapists make them feel good. If you’ve ever been in therapy with a successful therapist, you already know that.
But if therapists said that they were in the business of comforting their clients, no one would take them seriously and no one would pay them good money for their comforting advice. Rather than advertise what they are really selling, therapists advertise their methodology (Freudian, Behaviorist, etc.) or the type of “problems” they deal with (addiction, obsessive compulsive disorders, etc.).
Since Lynn isn’t a trained psychotherapist, she can’t honestly advertise those sorts of things. So she will have to come up with her own ideas about why people get themselves into trouble and how they can find solutions. These ideas will form themselves into a unified whole, if she thinks about them long enough. This unified whole is what we call an “intellectual franchise.” That’s what Lynn needs to develop. And then she needs to test it and see if it sells.
Remember, starting a business and making it a success is not just a matter of having a good idea. The idea has to be one that people will be happy to pay money for.
So if you are in Lynn’s position – looking to turn your idea into a profitable business – you have to become comfortable with selling.
How do you develop the skill of selling when you are “wary” of selling, as Lynn puts it?
The first step is to understand that there are really two kinds of selling:
1. pushing people (to buy things they don’t want)
2. helping people (to select those things they do want to buy)
Pushy salespeople – the telemarketer who calls you while you’re eating dinner, the broker who calls you on the weekend with a “hot deal,” the proverbial used-car salesman – take delight in persuading you to do what you don’t want to do. Such salespeople see the selling process as a kind of battle where they bully and beat you into submission. It’s an ego game for them, and your acquiescence – even if you really do want the product – is an indication of submission.
Such salespeople should be tarred and feathered, run out of town, dunked, and pilloried. They are the same people who delight in not letting you merge in traffic and cutting ahead of you in the supermarket line.
Helpful salespeople are actually more common than their obnoxious cousins.
If you understand that the job of a salesperson is to solve a customer’s problem or help him meet a need, selling won’t seem so odious to you.
Let’s say your prospect’s main concern is the future of his marriage. What you would do, in this case, is ask him questions about it and find out, in as much detail as possible, what his worries are. Having done this, you are then in a great position to address each one – to explain how your product (in Lynn’s case, her advice) can give him effective solutions. By driving home the benefits of your product that the prospect cares about, you are making a very strong sales presentation. You are telling him exactly what he wants to hear.
Remember – your prospect wants to be sold. So long as you help him understand how your product can help him achieve his desires or solve his problems, he will be prejudiced in your favor. You lose your prospect when you start talking about other things – your interests, for example, or product features that he doesn’t really care about.
So don’t sell him, help him. Begin by finding out what he wants and needs. And then (if and only if you can really help him), make the strongest, most specific case you can make to convince him that his desires will be achieved and his problems solved.
Once you’ve figured out how to sell your product, and have gotten over your distaste of selling, you need to start testing… preferably on the Internet… until you find some way to position the product that catches on.
And then, to grow your business, you will have to produce lots of products that tie into your initial business idea and lots of sales letters to convince people to buy them.
Does this sound like something you can do? If so, you are on your way!
[Ed. Note: Getting over your distaste of selling is critical to succeeding in any business. Fortunately, you have the chance to learn six-figure marketing and business-building techniques from a dozen top-notch Internet marketers - including Michael Masterson himself. And you can get the benefit of their ideas and expertise in the comfort of your own living room. Discover how right here.]
Creating your own videos is a great way to make a little – or a lot of – extra cash. In fact, I’ve been producing instructional videos for years. I enjoy a steady stream of income from this fun side venture. And you could, too.
Despite the profit potential, some people are reluctant to get into the business of producing and marketing their own videos. One of the main reasons is that they don’t know what kind of video to produce.
In past ETR articles, I’ve recommended producing videos where you teach a subject or skill that you’re an expert in.
I’ve also recommended hiring outside experts to “star” in your instructional videos. For instance, one of my videos featured a gentleman who had created his own exercise program for middle-aged and older men. (That video brought in over $30,000 in 30 days.) For another video, I hired a fitness instructor to demonstrate a back-stretching technique she’d developed. (That one made me a $5,000 profit within just a few days of offering it for sale.)
But there is an even easier way to produce marketable videos.
All you need to do is find an upcoming event that people might want to watch, and make a deal with the promoter of the event to videotape it.
You could, for example, produce a video of stand-up comedians performing their acts… a financial consultant giving a seminar on investments… a Little League championship game. The list of video-worthy events is practically endless.
I know one entrepreneur who records the performances of amateur contestants at ballroom dance competitions. A major ballroom competition has hundreds of amateur dance enthusiasts who dance in multiple heats. Naturally, they want to buy the videos of themselves dancing. In one weekend, without spending a dime on marketing, he clears $10,000. By working just one weekend a month, this guy can make close to $120,000 a year.
And remember, you don’t need to be a video expert yourself to produce a video. It’s easy to find hungry videographers who will record your event professionally for a very reasonable rate.
The key to making serious money by recording live events is to find promoters who have not already made plans to videotape their events. You will find plenty who either haven’t thought of it or just don’t have the time or desire to do it. These people will be your perfect partners.
To create marketable videos of other people’s events, take the following steps:
Step 1: Identify Potential Events
Most large and well-organized events will already have a video program in place. ETR, for example, always has its fall Bootcamp professionally recorded. You can certainly approach the promoters of major events, but you’ll have a higher likelihood of success with smaller operations. Combing through the “upcoming events” calendars in local newspapers and websites is a good place to start.
Step 2: Create a Marketing Plan for the Video(s) You’ll Produce
In some cases – as in my example of the fellow who videotapes ballroom dance competitions – your marketing plan will be very simple. All you have to do is sell your video to the attendees and participants of the event. But for many other kinds of videos, you’ll need additional marketing strategies.
Let’s say you produce a video of a tax expert giving advice on how to take advantage of little-known tax deductions. Your best shot at marketing that kind of video would be via the Internet, and maybe through direct mail, too.
Before you produce any video, make sure there’s a market for it. Using pay-per-click ads is a quick, cheap, and easy way to see whether people will buy it at a price that will allow you to make a reasonable profit.
Step 3: Submit a Proposal to the Event Promoter
You’ve got to give the promoter a reason to let you record and sell a video of his event… and that usually means money. Some promoters will agree to a one-time fee – and if it’s cheap enough, that might work for you. But you might be better off with a profit-splitting deal, where they get anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of the profits on every video you sell.
Sometimes, you can get the promoter’s permission simply by persuading him that your video will benefit him in some way. This approach is especially effective when the promoter is an expert in some area (like martial arts or business) and the video will enhance his image.
Step 4: Make Sure the Participants Have Agreed in Writing to Be in the Video:
I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t offer you legal advice – but my lawyers have told me that, in most cases, you cannot commercially exploit other people’s images in a video without their consent. Fortunately, consent is usually not hard to get. One good way to get it is to have the promoter require each participant to sign a release form before they can take part in the event. (You can find boilerplate language in books with legal forms or you can have your own lawyer create a release form for you.)
Creating videos of live events is an excellent way to get a side business started with a very small investment. And if you choose marketable subjects, you could have a real moneymaker on your hands.
[Ed. Note: Making money in any venture - including the video business - is much easier when you've mastered marketing strategies that are proven to create profits. You can discover 12 powerful marketing strategies and get step-by-step instructions for how to put them to work in Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby's new book, Changing the Channel. The book will be released on Tuesday - but you don't have to wait to learn more about the profit-building advice it contains. Learn more right here.
For more detailed strategies on how to make money by producing your own videos, sign up for entrepreneurial expert Paul Lawrence's "Get Rich in the Videobiz" program. ]
“By learning from Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby’s marketing achievements in their book Changing the Channel, you can shave years off the time it would take you to achieve your own success.
“Are you ready to make more money? This book gives you the perspective and skills to market your ideas, services, and products across multiple channels for today, tomorrow, and beyond!”
- Bob Cox
Author, The Billionaire Way
[Ed. Note: Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business is the brand-new book by MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson. The book doesn't come out until October 28 - but you can learn more about it and the power of multi-channel marketing at www.ChangingtheChannelBook.com. Keep reading ETR for details on when you can secure your copy.]
My eighth-grade teacher was a tyrant. Seventh-graders shook in their proverbial boots knowing that they were about to face MISS ZIMMER.
Her main job was to drill basic grammar into us.
“A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing,” we repeated… over and over again.
“A verb is an action word,” we repeated… over and over again.
To burn prepositions into our brains, she had us memorize something that started like this:
With, on, for, after, at, by, in,
Against, instead of, near, between.
Through, out, from, under, down below,
To, over, up, according to.
(Does anyone out there remember the rest of this?)
But Miss Zimmer had taken on a second mission. “No blue jeans in my class,” she commanded.
Huh?
“If you come to class dressed for play, you will play,” she insisted. “If you come to class dressed for work, you will work.”
I can’t imagine a teacher making such a dictum in this day and age. But back then, we (and our parents) bowed down.
Was she was right?
Many business-success experts would agree with her. They would tell you that even when you’re working at your kitchen table, you should forget the sweats and baggy jeans.
But, hey! One of the benefits of working at home – one that we often mention when encouraging you to start your own Internet business – is that you don’t have to “dress up.”
Yes, you always want to look professional when networking or meeting with a client or potential partner. But when it’s just you and your computer, who cares? (And think of all the money you’ll be saving on suits and ties or dresses and heels.)
Sorry, Miss Zimmer.
[Ed. Note: The prospect of working in your jammies from your back bedroom may sound like a pipe dream... but it's easier to achieve than you think. Join us in Florida this November when a dozen of the best Internet marketers in the world will be revealing exactly how you can start and grow your own home-based Internet business. You'll be working in your sweatpants in no time...]
Obtaining and selling the rights to products can be very profitable for entrepreneurs, even those with little or no capital.
As I mentioned in a previous ETR article, securing product rights is a painless process. And in most cases, once you have those rights, you’ll make a deal with a larger company that has the resources to mass-market it. Your payoff comes in the form of an upfront fee or a share in the back-end profits.
I receive checks every quarter for thousands of dollars as a result of having made deals like these. And today, I want to share with you a secret on how to approach larger companies and convince them to buy the rights you’ve obtained – whether it’s for a health product, an information product, or anything else.
Many people own the rights to great products or ideas, but are unsuccessful at marketing them. A big part of the problem is that executives at big, successful companies are constantly barraged by product rights holders who are trying to make deals with them.
To break through that clutter and get those executives to sit up and take notice, take these three steps:
1. Catch their attention.
If you use a letter or e-mail to get to the decision-maker you’re trying to reach, your attention-getter will be your headline. If you intend to contact him in person, it will be the first sentence you say. Whatever method you use, you must have a powerful grabber that will make him want to take action and buy the rights to your product.
When marketing the rights to a natural supplement formula for men, I sent an e-mail to one company with something like this in the subject line: “This supplement will enlarge your bank account.” Since I expect to earn a six-figure payment in royalties from that particular deal, it’s obvious this attention-getter worked.
2. Show them how to promote your product.
Don’t just write a couple of paragraphs saying that your product is sure to sell like hotcakes. You need to convince the decision-maker that your product can be marketed effectively.
Show him exactly how to do it. Create some promotional literature for the product, including sample ads, Web pages, and/or direct-mail copy. Give him a marketing plan that the company can put into action and quickly start seeing profits pour in.
3. Have the actual product or a prototype in your possession.
A young man I know had a great idea for a breakthrough technology for computer games. The executive he met with loved it. Then he said, “Let me try it out and see how it works.”
The deal soured when my friend admitted that all he had was a computer program that illustrated how it could be done.
If you don’t actually have the product, the best you can hope for is that your prospect will ask you to get in touch with him when you do. But that’s a long way from making a deal. If you expect to close a deal on the spot, you need to have the goods.
You may be thinking, “Why would a big company need me? Surely they can develop their own products to market.”
Well, what they want is what anyone in their position wants: a potential money machine handed to them on a silver platter. If you can provide the full package – the product as well as some good marketing ideas for it – you will get very serious consideration… and maybe your first “Getting Rich With Rights” deal.
[Ed. Note: Acquiring and then marketing the rights to products is a good way to start a business without much capital. Paul Lawrence reveals his detailed strategies for making money with this business opportunity in his "Getting Rich With Rights" program. Get the details here.]
Look, I’m no conspiracy-theorist… but yes, there is. “They” have been using it for years, and what I’ve discovered could be a sure-fire way to make fast profits time and again. See exactly what I’ve found by clicking here…
If you possess valuable knowledge and experience, you might be able to share it – and get paid for it – as a consultant. This could be a lucrative sideline to your current business or career. Consultants are well compensated – as much as hundreds of dollars per hour.
The word “consulting” might call to mind an image of a huge multinational firm sending teams of dozens of its staffers into Fortune 500 corporations. But many consultants have solo practices. Anyone who can help companies solve problems, avoid mistakes, or increase revenues deserves the title.
Companies often need expertise that isn’t available in house. For example, to handle a project for which they don’t want to hire a full-time employee. Or to offer a fresh approach to a problem.
Executives and entrepreneurs I interviewed told me that the consultants they hire must have experience specific to the company’s needs, that they must be practitioners and not theorists, and that they must be able to supply direction and specific, useable answers.
I’m a copywriter, but I had a sideline as a consultant for 30 years. Clients who hired me said “We want you to show us how to improve our marketing.” Or “Explain to me and my direct-mail guy how we can write packages ourselves that will pull better.” Or “Spend a day with us as a coach.”
Can you diversify into consulting? Quite possibly. Are you good at what you do, and do you have the ability and the enthusiasm to communicate your knowledge and skills?
Think about what sort of information and advice and intelligence you’re capable of offering, its value, what you could charge, how to identify prospective clients and persuade them to hire you.
Whom do you know who might be interested? Your employer? Clients? Contacts? Could you write an article or give a talk that demonstrates your expertise for an audience of qualified prospects?
Establishing your reputation, networking, and marketing are the keys to building a successful consulting practice. No one would claim that it can be achieved overnight. But I did it – and so have many others.
[Ed. Note: Don Hauptman writes ETR's Saturday column, "The Language Perfectionist." The above article was adapted from his just-published e-book The Versatile Freelancer: How Writers and Other Creative Professionals Can Generate More Income by Seizing New Opportunities in Critiquing, Consulting, Training, and Presenting. It includes additional advice on breaking into consulting, along with details on diversifying into other rewarding sidelines. The book comes with a free bonus report and a 100 percent money-back guarantee of satisfaction. Order your copy without risk here.]
Aging baby boomers, who are retiring in droves these days, are fueling a $20 billion mega-market because they want to look and feel younger.
The market I’m talking about is nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals. And you can make a lot of money selling these products on the Internet or by direct mail – even if you have limited capital to invest.
“Cosmeceutical” is a combination of two words: cosmetics and pharmaceutical. Cosmeceutical products claim to have “drug-like” benefits without the harmful side effects. Examples of cosmeceuticals include certain skin and hair care products, anti-aging creams, and moisturizers.
“Nutraceutical” is derived from the words nutrition and, you guessed it, pharmaceutical. Neutraceuticals include dietary supplements and nutritional ingredients that promote optimal health in a natural way.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have a lot of power as far as what you can and can’t do in this market. The most important thing to keep in mind is to avoid making unsubstantiated product claims in your marketing materials. Just play by the rules and you’ll be fine.
As I said, aging baby boomers are driving this multibillion-dollar “feel good and look good” market. But that doesn’t mean baby boomers are the only ones using these products. There are products in this market that appeal to every demographic.
Entrepreneurs are reaping windfall profits in this market by concentrating on and selling to “A” prospects. In other words, by focusing on people who have recently purchased similar products at approximately the same price point as theirs. These repeat buyers are pre-qualified and primed to buy.
The easiest and fastest way to enter this huge industry (and start turning a profit) is through direct marketing – by reselling products for other companies or becoming an affiliate.
Reselling products for other companies is easy. You offer their products to your “A” prospects on a website or via direct mail. Consumers place their orders with you and you ship (or have the manufacturer drop-ship) the products to them.
Affiliate marketing is similar – but, in most cases, you won’t handle any products, customer service, technical support, or billing. The company you become an affiliate for will take care of those things.
Believe me, affiliate selling works. You can get started with very little money. You don’t need to stockpile products in your garage or spare bedroom. Plus, when you sell products as an affiliate you don’t need employees, accountants, lawyers, or even a formal office space. And there is no face-to-face selling, no customer service headaches, and no back-office junk. So you don’t have to worry about database management, online shopping cart issues, software glitches, or refunds/returns.
Instead, you can focus all of your energy on your direct-response marketing efforts.
This could mean running Google, MSN, and Yahoo! keyword advertising campaigns, or even mini-infomercials. Or it could mean marketing your cosmeceuticals and/or nutraceuticals directly to consumers via direct mail.
If you choose to go the direct-mail route, you’ll need a mailing list of repeat buyers for those types of products. A good place to locate lists like this is at SRDS.com.
When you have products to sell and a mailing list of repeat buyers, you can send out a catalog (the manufacturer’s or one of your own design) and/or a sales letter. Most of the companies that offer distributor and reseller programs for affiliates already have pre-printed catalogs that you can use.
If you prefer to create your own catalog and/or sales letter, you can get lots of ideas by subscribing to Who’s Mailing What.The Who’s Mailing What archive includes more than 1,500 successful direct-mail campaigns, and most of them are for consumer beauty and nutritional products.
You should also add your name and address to as many cosmeceutical/nutritional product mailing lists as you can find so you can start receiving other marketers’ promotional pieces. Do this by buying one or two of the products in this category that you see advertised – and, before long, your mailbox will be loaded with catalogs, brochures, etc. That will give you an edge over the competition, because you’ll see what’s working. (You can be pretty sure that the promotions you receive over and over again are bringing in lots of money for the people mailing them.)
If you mail a catalog or a powerful sales letter to “A” prospects – repeat cosmeceutical/nutraceutical product buyers – the probability of making substantial sales is quite high.
If you market on the Internet by running keyword advertising campaigns, you’ll need a website to drive interested people to. And you’ll need strong copy on your website to persuade them to buy. You can educate people on the attributes and features of your products on your website. But the main objective is to sell them. Hire a freelance copywriter if you need help coming up with compelling copy for your site. Better yet, make a good investment in a copywriting program for yourself.
Once you have the copy, there are four ways to market your products online: search engine marketing (via pay-per-click advertising and organic search), e-mail newsletter ads, and dedicated e-mail promotions.
You can also post your products on all of the high-traffic marketplaces, including Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo Shops, Buy.com, and ClickBank.
However you choose to market cosmeceuticals and/or nutraceuticals, the profit potential for these products just keeps growing and growing. The desire to look and feel younger – and maintain good health – spans generations and won’t be dissipating any time soon.
[Ed. Note: Marc Charles is an expert at discovering low-effort business opportunities with high profit potential. And now you have the chance to meet him in person... and pick his brain about the best entrepreneurial ventures around today. Just sign up for ETR's 2008 Information Marketing Bootcamp. Not only will you get to hear about Marc's freshest business opportunities, you'll also get insight into the Internet's hottest trends from 11 other money-making masters. And be prepared to be blown away. We've insisted that each speaker share at least one idea that could place $100,000 cash money in your pocket within just 12 months or less... regardless of your current level of skill, expertise, or the state of your business. Learn how you can reserve your spot right here.]
The longer I invest, the more I realize that simple investing works best. The fewer rules you have, the better.
Simple investing should be a natural outgrowth of having more knowledge and a better understanding of how investing works. Your ability to pick out what’s truly important and what works for you is key.
The worst thing you can do is try to have a well-rounded knowledge of the market. I know that sounds odd – but by trying to be well-rounded, you won’t develop mastery in any part of the market. At best, you’ll know a little about how the market operates in any particular segment.
How to simplify?
Three rules. That’s all you need.
[Ed. Note: ETR Investment Director Andrew Gordon has turned his attention to the energy sector. He's put together an urgent special report with two of the world's best (not the biggest, but the best) drilling companies that you can still buy on the cheap. Learn the details here.]
Right about now, you may be wondering what to send your niece for a high school graduation gift. If you’re like most people, you’ll wind up mailing her a check. At least that’s what 57 percent of gift givers plan to send to their graduating loved ones this year, according to a National Retail Federation survey.
The three next most-popular gifts (according to the survey) are gift certificates, clothing, and electronics.
Whatever happened to good old-fashioned books? Just because your graduate is done with school doesn’t mean she’s done learning. Why not give her a book that has been meaningful, useful, or enlightening for you?
When my little brother graduated from high school, I gave him a copy of Michael Masterson’s best-selling book Automatic Wealth for Grads… and Anyone Else Just Starting Out. It turned out to be a book he’s read a dozen times. One reason: It’s packed full of strategies for building wealth from the bottom up.
For instance, he’s taken Michael’s chapter on the miracle of compound interest to heart. Instead of spending every penny he earns, he thinks seriously about whether his purchases have long-term value. And he puts a big chunk of his earnings into savings. When he gets out of the Army, he says, he’ll have more than enough for a down payment on a house.
But even more important than that, Michael wrote the book specifically for young people – people with no knowledge of investing or real estate or business-building. He has nearly a dozen nieces and nephews and three sons of his own. So he made sure that every piece of advice in the book is useful for people just starting out. And that each suggestion is easy to follow. For example…
Sure, you could give your graduate a check or an iPod or a gift card from Best Buy. But wouldn’t a better gift be one that could help him discover financial independence?
[Ed. Note: Get the perfect gift for your graduate right here.]
To most travelers, a vacation is a time to relax, take in a few museums, enjoy coffee in an outdoor cafe, eat out, and meet new people. But to me, a vacation is also the ticket to some easy extra income…
Take Paris, for instance. (I’ve been there twice.) I enjoyed the cafes… the lavish meals… the leisurely strolls along the Seine. And I took pictures as I went – just like we all do when we’re on vacation.
The big difference for me is that I don’t just slide my pictures into an album when I get home. I sell them. And the truth is, thousands of websites, magazines, and travel agencies buy vacation photos from travelers like me all the time. And it’s not hard to find buyers…
Online stock photo agencies, also known as "microstock sites," are how I make most of my cash. Enough, in some cases, to cover the cost of my trip.
They’re happy to work with amateurs, but they do expect near-perfect photographs. So you’ve got to have a good digital camera and an eye for composition.
Travel agencies, art directors, and even high school kids looking for photos to illustrate their MySpace page or their geography and history papers are all customers of these online stock sites. It doesn’t cost you anything to upload your vacation shots, and buyers can download whichever pictures they choose for anywhere between $1 and $20 a pop, depending on what size image they want.
You, in exchange, get a percentage of the sale. I average 80 cents per image per month for all the photos I have on file at the stock agency I use (Istockphoto.com). That may not sound like a lot – but, at the end of the month, I get a check for a thousand or so dollars for my efforts.
Over time, I’ve collected several thousand images from my travels, and even pictures from inside my hotel room and from my house and backyard. I don’t have to do any marketing. I just upload the photos and they sell in my sleep.
It’s fast, easy, and fun.
Here are three things you can photograph on your next trip to sell for stock. Keep these in mind when you travel, and you can have fun, take lots of pictures, and make some extra money to boot.
1. Farmers’ Markets
Farmers’ markets are teeming with stock shots… from the repeating patterns and colors of seasonal fruits and vegetables to signs scrawled in chalk and people picking out their wares.
Almost every online stock agency requires you to submit a model release for images that contain recognizable people, so I suggest you focus on the fruits and vegetables at first. Model releases are specific to each site, so get your account up and running before you try to submit people photographs.
2. Your Hotel
One photo of a front desk bell has sold 1,021 times on iStockphoto.com. And I’ve sold photos of curtains, tassels, pillows, and more. Do some research and look up hotel pictures on the stock sites before you leave to take inventory of your competition. It’s okay to photograph the same things – just be sure to make them yours by making them unique. But look for what’s selling and what’s not. Put your attention on the type of photos that sell best.
3. Textures and Patterns
People like to buy photos of simple textures or patterns to use as backgrounds for their websites… fine art on their wall… and a myriad of other things. Keep an eye out for them as you travel. Peeling paint, rusted metal, brick walls, cracks in the sidewalk, bark on a tree… can all make for interesting patterns and textures.
Make sure you read the site’s technical requirements and submission guidelines before you start uploading pictures. Some of the leading sites are: Istockphoto.com, Bigstockphoto.com, Shutterstock.com, and Dreamstime.com.
[Ed Note: Shelly Perry specializes in documentary or lifestyle portraits. Her images have been seen all over the globe on music CD covers, books, magazines, catalogs, websites, ad campaigns, and even on the American Music Awards. She's a contributor to Turn Your Pictures Into Cash: A Comprehensive Program in Taking and Selling Amazing Photographs. Find more ideas for how to turn your vacation shots into cash here.]
If you took a penny and doubled it every day for a month, how much would you come up with? A hundred dollars? A thousand dollars? How about a million dollars?
Not even close. If you start with just a single penny and double it every day for 31 days, you’ll end up with… $21,474,836.48. Over twenty-one million dollars in a single month! This is an example of the power of compound interest.
Your original penny will have turned into two. But then those two will have turned into four, those four turned into eight, and so on. The growth of your money will have accelerated, or sped up, not only because your original penny was collecting interest but also because all the pennies you received as interest also began to earn interest. And so the growth built up – or compounded.
That’s how we get the term compound interest. That’s how you get rich. And that’s why, when it comes to wealth building, being young gives you a major advantage.
[Ed. Note: The above was excerpted from Michael Masterson's New York Times best-seller Automatic Wealth for Grads... and Anyone Else Just Starting Out.
If you know a young person who's going to graduate this year... or if one of your 2008 goals is to increase your income... pick up a copy. Learn more about this and all of Michael's books at his website.]
A few years ago, I suffered from terrible back pain. It was so bad that I was taking steroid injections and trying every other pain-relieving method I could find. Looking online, I discovered that millions of others were going through the same ordeal. That’s when I had a brainstorm: If I could find a way to rid myself of my own back pain… maybe I could create a little side business by helping other people get relief at the same time.
How was I going to do that? I had no idea.
Then one night I was talking to an acquaintance, Jamie K., about my back. It turned out that Jamie was a certified physical trainer – and she had some stretching techniques that she was sure would help me. She taught me a few of her stretches on the spot, and it felt good. After performing those stretches for just a few weeks, I felt noticeably better. And after a few months, I felt better than I had in years.
A light bulb went off in my head. I would produce an instructional video to help people use stretching to ease their back pain!
I’d already produced a successful ballroom dance instruction video, so I had experience doing it. And that video was pretty easy for me to make. After all, I’d been a dance teacher for years, so I was qualified to teach the material myself. I was totally unqualified to teach others how to do stretching exercises – but Jamie was the perfect person to do it.
That was the first instructional video where I hired an outside expert to be on camera. It turned out to be a bonanza that profited me over $5,000 within 48 hours of putting out my first ad. Three years later, I still regularly fill orders for that video.
Realizing I could use outside experts in my instructional videos opened up a whole new world of opportunity. I no longer had to stick with skills I was personally adept at.
My next video featured a very fit senior who had created his own exercise program for middle-aged and older men. That video brought in over $30,000 in 30 days.
Now you might think it costs an arm and a leg to hire an expert to star in your videos. Sure, if you asked Tiger Woods to star in a golfing video for you, you’d need to shell out big-time. But it can be surprisingly inexpensive. For instance, I paid Jamie only $100 to do the back-stretching video.
The instructional video business is an easy and fun way to make extra income. There’s a demand for how-to videos in just about every area of interest. So the opportunity to make money is practically unlimited – especially when you realize you don’t have to star in your videos yourself.
Here are some guidelines to help you…
* Choose a subject that you believe will fill a need in the marketplace.
Like I said, there’s a demand for videos in almost every area of interest. Just be sure the market isn’t too obscure. Let’s say you want to produce a video teaching people how to do magic tricks. Based on the fact that there are plenty of books and videos on the subject, you could guess that the market would be large enough for you to earn a reasonable profit. On the other hand, a video that teaches people how to identify the nest of the North American Spotted Owl would appeal to too small a market. You might find a handful of customers, but not enough to make the venture worthwhile.
* Figure out what you’re going to pay your expert.
When I was working with Jamie, she was employed by a spa where she made $15 an hour. I offered her $25 an hour for the time it took to shoot the video, which made her quite happy. But if, for example, you wanted to hire a lawyer to be your expert, you’d probably need to pay quite a bit more.
You can also go the royalty route by offering your expert a low upfront payment as well as a percentage of the video’s sales. This is often the better deal for both sides. It keeps your out-of-pocket costs down, and eases any worries he may have that he’ll get a piddling amount for his time… and then your video will wind up selling 100,000 copies.
I’ve found that offering a royalty of something like $1 per sale is usually well received. Even if your video ends up selling only 500 or 1,000 copies, your expert would still be getting a pretty good deal for a few hours’ work.
* Recruit your expert.
I’ve had a good deal of success advertising on Craig’s List for a variety of different experts. Those who responded to my ads were all well-qualified and willing to work for a reasonable fee.
You can also find experts in special-interest chat rooms on the Internet, via local newspaper classifieds, or sometimes through simple word of mouth.
* Get an agreement in writing.
I’m not an attorney, so I’m not able to offer you legal advice. But I can tell you that having a contract in writing is a good way to protect yourself and your experts. In my contracts, I always spell out very clearly what the compensation will be. In fact, I write in big, bold letters that this is the only compensation the expert will be getting and that no other promises have been made. My agreements also include a statement that says I own the full rights to the video, and can do whatever I please with it. And I include a clause that says I’m allowed to use the expert’s image, name, and material in any way I choose to promote the video.
You can find templates for contracts in the library or online that you can adapt to your purposes. But if you want to be sure you are fully covered, you should consider having an attorney write up a contract for you. Yes, this may cost a pretty penny. But you can use the same basic contract for every expert, so the cost won’t be that great in the long run.
Producing specialty videos is one of the best low-capital businesses you can get into. And by using outside experts, there is almost no limit to the number of subjects or markets you can appeal to.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is the creator of the Quick and Easy Microbusiness System, ETR’s program for starting a business for under $100. Learn more of Paul’s video-business secrets HERE.
Right now, there’s no better business in the world than information publishing.
Whether you are marketing e-books, newsletters, or any other electronically distributed product, the advantages over most other businesses are enormous…
There’s no inventory or warehouses. No spoilage. With the Internet, distribution is virtually free. You can work from practically anywhere, anytime. Because of near-zero overhead, profit margins can range from very good to incredible.
There’s just one problem.
You can’t really be successful selling information.
We’ve said it before in ETR, and now I’ll tell you again. These days, no one needs more information. What people are looking for is advice… expert guidance… trusted opinions.
Just think about today’s most popular media personalities. The days of solemn "fact-reciting" talking heads such as Walter Cronkite and Harry Reasoner are long gone. The new stars are brash and opinionated . Howard Stern… Rush Limbaugh… Chris Matthews… Jim Cramer… Anderson Cooper… Keith Olbermann… Bill O’Reilly… and on and on.
In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains how the data collection of straight journalism has been largely outsourced to low-paid stringers. The value is added later, when it’s filtered and interpreted in "opinion and analysis" pieces.
So here’s a thought. Maybe instead of Information Publishing, we should start calling what we do Idea Publishing! Because when you give people advice and ideas, they’ll listen… and pay for the privilege.
Rodale Inc. reported revenue of $632 million last year, primarily from marketing dozens of advice publications such as Prevention, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Organic Gardening, Runner’s World, and others. Agora Inc. had sales of over $300 million in 2007 through newsletter publishing. And thousands of individual publishing entrepreneurs on the Web today are pulling in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
So let’s say you’re interested in getting into this field. (And why wouldn’t you be?)
One of the first problems you’ll have to overcome is very common. Here’s how ETR reader Liby Nel put it in a recent letter to us:
"My biggest challenge at the moment is to learn how to write down powerful ideas that can be used as headlines, attention-grabbers, and concept-originators. Conceptualizing is something I really have to push. So, any pointers, advice, or sources that you can provide on these subjects and on stimulating creative thinking in general will be lapped up, I think, by many ETR readers. After all, brilliant ideas and original concepts presented perfectly is what everyone is after."
Liby is correct. You won’t become wealthy or successful publishing boring, unoriginal ideas and advice.
Your readers or customers will pay for unique, interesting, useful, actionable, and cutting-edge ideas. They will pay more for ideas that can help solve their biggest problems.
But how do you, as an aspiring "Idea Publisher," get such ideas?
I’ve looked into this challenge myself, and through research and personal experience, I’ve discovered five distinct stages:
Stage 1: Preparation
You should always be gathering raw material for ideas. Do this by becoming an information junkie. Explore new areas. Be active. Do stuff. John Locke said that "all valid knowledge comes through experience." You’ll probably get lots of little ideas during this stage. They won’t seem especially interesting, but "hold that thought"… because they’ll be back soon.
Stage 2: Mastication
Here’s where you take the problem you’re trying to solve and chew it over… toss it around… think it over for a while. Start mixing in the little ideas, the fodder, and see if anything happens. Usually it won’t. Not right away, anyway. That’s why you need…
Stage 3: Disassociation
Take a nap. Go for a workout. Do something else for a day. Free your mind of the details. This is a key step, and it’s why I’m not a big believer in "brainstorming" sessions as the be-all and end-all of idea generation.
Brainstorming is really the mastication step done in a group setting. Yes, sometimes good ideas will come up here. But if that’s where you stop working on them, you’re going to miss out on some far better ones.
Stage 4: The Aha Moment
Out of nowhere, there it is. You don’t know why, but you’re lying in bed… taking a shower… driving the car. And suddenly, BAM! You’ve got it! This is what you’ve been hoping for.
What you’ve got to do now is get it on paper, tape recorder, or computer as soon as possible. At this moment, you’re going to be filled with energy and the details will be gushing out of your neurons. You have to capture that immediately or you’ll lose the magic and power of the idea.
"When it comes to getting brilliant innovations actualized, time is your enemy," says Michael Masterson. In Ready, Fire, Aim, he explains: "Time fogs the memory, erases important details, and eventually dissolves all great ideas. The faster you can get a great idea out of the realm of the conceptual and into action, the better your chances of preserving its original brilliance."
Stage 5: Refinement
But wait just a second. You need a reality check here to make sure your good idea is not really a stinker. How will you know? Michael advises that you define what "good" actually means. For example, if it is a product idea, does that mean it’s better than the competition? Or that the market needs it? And in what quantity?
Be humble. Don’t assume the world is dying for your idea. Make sure there’s already an unmet need for it.
So now that you know the five stages of developing good, marketable ideas, here’s some practical advice for generating those ideas:
* Read and Absorb Life Like a Sponge – ETR’s good friend and business futurist Rich Schefren says he starts the day with one goal: Learn one new, useful, interesting thing. Just one.
As I mentioned, exciting new ideas rarely appear out of nowhere. They need plenty of fodder – the little ideas you get from reading and observing and learning new things.
* Get Pissed Off – Television infomercial genius A.J. Khubani is always on the alert for little annoyances in his life that are likely to be irritating to many other people. And then he thinks of ways to eliminate them. AdAge.com tells this story…
"When Khubani went to fix a fuse in his house a few years back, he found himself on the dark side of his basement. ‘I said, "When we built this house, we really should have put a light bulb here,"’ he recalls. ‘And that was it.’ Light bulb! He invented a battery-operated light that looks like an ordinary incandescent. Its holder sticks to the wall, but the bulb can be removed and carried around. It made its debut in September 2006. More than 5 million have been sold – so far."
* Recombine – Take existing ideas and try fitting them into different places and spaces. In ETR’s program Think Inside the Box, David Deutsch has tons of unusual suggestions for getting results this way. For example: Do the Opposite (flip it or reverse it)… Divide It Up (split it into pieces)… and Take Something Out (extract, isolate, or highlight one part).
* Zone Out – At Rich Schefren’s recent "New Beginnings" conference, Product Launch guru Jeff Walker was asked how he comes up with good ideas. I was a little bit annoyed when Jeff "stole" what I considered MY best practice…
"When I’m trying to solve a tough problem, I go for a run," said Jeff. "Chances are better than not that I’ll come up with a great solution by the time I’m home."
I’d say at least 75 percent of my best ideas come to me when I’m out running. I strongly suspect there’s some kind of chemical change that kicks in and actually triggers something upstairs. Sometimes I’ll get one idea. Sometimes all sorts of stuff starts popping up. What fun! More than once, I’ve come home from a run and had to scramble for a sheet of paper to write down the ideas before I forgot them.
Kellogg School of Management professor Andrew Razeghi agrees with Jeff and me. "Encounters with extraneous and apparently irrelevant bits of information appear to be common precursors to moments of creative insight," he writes in his just-released book The Riddle – Where Ideas Come From and How to Have Better Ones. "Write down the problem or question you have. Then do something else for a while. When you come back to it, see what new ideas may have emerged."
Try out this physical approach to mental inspiration and see if it doesn’t work for you!
* Travel and Network - Here at Early to Rise, we’re big believers in getting frequent exposure to new ideas from outside the office.
I’d estimate ETR’s Internet Marketing Director, Patrick Coffey, attends an outside conference at least four times a year. Inevitably, he returns bursting with ideas for new marketing strategies and tactics.
ETR’s Publisher, MaryEllen Tribby, always seems to be flying around the country to attend various events. In fact, she spoke at Rich Schefren’s big summit in Orlando just two weeks ago. She explained to over 200 attendees that ETR’s success has come largely from being an idea publisher rather just a marketing company. "If you’re just trying to sell the next hot product, you’re going to be spinning your wheels and working too hard," she told the crowd. "But a single good idea can explode into multiple marketing ideas, multiple content ideas, and multiple product ideas."
And this week I’m off to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW), where I’ll hear from (and report back to you on my blog about) cutting-edge idea generators like MIT professor and futurist Henry Jenkins, Mark Zuckerberg (23-year-old founder of Facebook), Tim Ferriss (author of The 4-Hour Workweek), Frank Warren (of the viral "My Secret" postcard phenomenon), and dozens more.
Start thinking today about how you can integrate the "idea factory" steps I’ve given you into your life… and how they might help you become the next multimillion-dollar "Idea Publisher."
You know the old saying: When you can invent a better mousetrap (or light bulb or social-networking website…), the world will beat a path to your door.
And with wallets wide open!
[Ed. Note: Charlie Byrne is ETR's Creative & Editorial Director. Once you've put his idea-generating advice to work, you will be well on your way to creating a lucrative "idea-publishing" business. Get step-by-step instructions for getting that business off the ground with ETR's Magic Button program.]