Issue# 2710

• WEALTHY: Have someone else put $1,900 a month into your retirement fund (Julie Broad)
• HEALTHY: Why you should do as the French do (Kelley Herring)
• WISE: Claude Hopkins on the science of advertising

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• 2 books every marketer must own (Clayton Makepeace)
• The check is in the mail (Charles Newcastle)
• It’s Fun to Know… about the firefighting jumbo jet
• Add “seraglio” to your vocabulary

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The Easiest Little Retirement Plan

By Julie Broad 

My brother is a talented carpenter. Before becoming a carpenter, he was an amazing chef. He is also extremely good at repairing and rebuilding cars. In fact, he’s good at anything that requires patience and attention to detail. Except, that is, when it comes to his finances.

He just turned 32, and says he is happy to keep working for the next 30 years or more. But as his sister, I worry because he’s saved only a few hundred dollars for his retirement. So I decided to help him.

Here’s the plan I came up with – and it’s one you might be able to use too.

By taking on some odd jobs on weekends (people are always asking him to build fences or help with kitchen renovations), I think he will be able to save enough money to get into real estate within the year. All he needs is 10 percent to put down on a beat-up house that he can buy for, say, $200,000. 

For a couple of years, he can live in that house while fixing it up and continuing to save money. After turning the house into a property he can rent out for about $1,400 a month, he can then buy another beat-up house that he can fix up and live in permanently.

Assuming he adds about $25,000 in value to his investment property and it appreciates by 4 percent each year, in 25 years he will own a place worth $576,743. And his tenants will have paid off the mortgage for him! It’s almost like having someone else put $1,900 a month into his retirement savings account! ($576,000 divided by 25 years divided by 12 months = $1,920) 

Even if the property doesn’t appreciate by 4 percent every year (which has historically been the average), his tenants still will have paid off his mortgage in 25 years. Plus, he will be enjoying the rental income he gets each month – and that rental income will keep increasing.

Of course, he also will have paid off his own home by then… giving him more than $1 million worth of property that he can cash in for his retirement.

My brother has already sold one of his cars, pocketing a few thousand dollars from the proceeds, and has begun to save about $500 a month just by having one less vehicle to insure and maintain. He’s also done a few weekend jobs that have added up to about $1,500. At this rate, he will be ready to buy his first property in less than 12 months and start his retirement plan in earnest. 

[Ed. Note: For more insider strategies for getting started as a real estate investor, sign up for real estate expert Julie Broad's free monthly newsletter. Get your free report for making money with real estate here. 

For a unique way to make money in real estate –-taking advantage of the foreclosure boom - check out the Bandwagon Raiding Machine here.]

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Why Good Sales Copy Is Priceless

By Clayton Makepeace

About a week ago, a subscriber called to inquire if my direct-marketing agency, Response Ink, would build a website for him. Although we are not looking to add new clients at this time, his company has an intriguing – even ingenious – business model. And so my curiosity got the better of me.

As we talked, it became clear that, instead of searching for the best marketing strategies and sales copy that money can buy, he was price-shopping us! And so I politely quoted our admittedly outrageous price (which includes a commission on each sale we produce), then let him off the hook by apologizing that we couldn’t get his site done in the time allotted… and politely wished him good luck.

At this moment – unless I miss my guess – he’s now discovering the joys of working with the lowest bidder: a company that agreed to his deadline and quoted a dirt-cheap price. My prediction? He’s about to endure a painful and costly object lesson in the true value of great marketing.

Here’s what typically happens:

• The lowest bidder proves (surprise, surprise!) incompetent. The sales copy stinks, the Web pages are ugly and unreadable, functionality is limited – and the third, fourth, fifth, etc. drafts blow the deadline to smithereens.
  
• The lowest bidder is fired. The next-lowest bidder is hired and starts from scratch. This step is often repeated two or three times until a website – of sorts – is finally finished.
  
• Sales stink. Months after the initial deadline, the website finally goes live, and promptly disappoints by producing pathetic sales.
  Pity.

Whether from hubris or ignorance, this otherwise very bright man is making one of the most common blunders in the business world. Believing that they have “built a better mousetrap,” folks like him expect the world to automatically beat a path to their door.

They evidently understand that they need sales copy – although they’re probably not sure why. And they’re certainly ignorant of the fact that great marketing can often produce many times the sales, revenues, and profits that mediocre, lukewarm promotions do, thus multiplying the size of their business in a fraction of the time.

To “penny-wise, pound-foolish” guys like these, marketing strategies and copywriting are merely a commodity. Just another business expense. No more important to their company’s success than ink cartridges, yellow pads, or toilet paper.

One can only hope that, sooner or later, they will have an epiphany. That they will finally realize that great marketing strategies and sales copy, combined with flawless execution, is AT LEAST as essential to their success as the quality of their products. Quite possibly, even more so.

98 Years Ago, Albert Lasker Already Knew What These Poor Guys Are Learning NOW…

During the early days of the twentieth century, advertisers begged for a coveted spot on advertising agency Lord & Thomas’s client list. And they happily paid L&T’s outlandish fees. Whether they sold washing machines, Palmolive soap, or Lucky Strikes, every company that experienced L&T’s sales miracles knew full well that the great copy the agency produced was well worth the price.

Albert Lasker – the so-called “founder of modern advertising” – knew it too. That’s why he gladly hired John E. Kennedy for a whopping 205 times more than he was paying another copywriter at the time. And it’s why, in 1908, Lasker jumped at the chance to hire a 42-year-old copywriter named Claude C. Hopkins for a mindboggling 4 million (in 2009 dollars).

Hopkins had already carved out a stellar advertising career for himself by using the very “Salesmanship in Print” and “Reason-Why Advertising” principles Kennedy and Lasker so fervently believed in. And his brilliant copy took the sales of numerous products to the moon – including Pepsodent, Quaker’s Puffed Wheat, and Chevrolets.

How to Make Any Product Feel Truly Unique

Of all his great campaigns, Hopkins is probably most famous for the one he created for Schlitz beer in the early 1900s.

In those days, a beer’s purity was of paramount importance to consumers. And knowing this, most breweries claimed – but never really proved – that their beers were the purest available.

Hopkins reasoned that he could lift Schlitz head and shoulders above the competition by proving his claims beyond the shadow of a doubt. Instead of merely claiming purity, he would trumpet the reasons why Schlitz was purer than the rest. To do that, he needed to become an expert on the brewing process. And to do that, he would have to visit the brewery.

Now, picture this… Here’s a guy who makes millions as a copywriter – arguably the greatest word-juggler of his time – and he realizes that second-hand research isn’t enough.

Hopkins could have simply visited a library (remember them?) to do his research on the brewer’s art. Better yet, he could have saved several valuable days of his time and just sent an eager young apprentice to the brewery to do it.

But, no. Hopkins understood that, to write the most compelling ads possible, he needed a deep personal understanding of the product. He needed to experience the sights, smells, and sounds of beer making – and get answers to every question that sprang into his mind.

Only, after his tour of the brewery, did Hopkins begin writing. In meticulous detail, he described the 4,000-foot-deep artesian wells from which Schlitz drew its water… the wood pulp filters that ensured the water was 100 percent pure… the spotless plant… the way Schlitz’s bottles were sanitized with germ-scalding steam… and more.
But Hopkins did leave out one teeensy-weeensy little fact: Pretty much every brewery made its beer just like Schlitz did!

In reality, Schlitz’s beer wasn’t one iota purer than its competitors’ brewskis were. But by being the first to tell the public about the steps they took to ensure purity, Hopkins convinced the entire nation that Schlitz was the purest beer anywhere.

More than that: By making Schlitz the first brewery to reveal how beer was made, Hopkins ROBBED competing breweries of their purity claims. After his ads ran, any brewery that claimed its beer was pure came off looking like a second-rate, “me-too” competitor.

RESULT: In no time flat, Schlitz soared from America’s fifth-biggest-selling beer… to NUMERO UNO!

Hopkins described his strategy beautifully in his book My Life in Advertising:

“This is a situation which occurs in most advertising problems. The article is not unique. It embodies no great advantages. Perhaps countless people can make similar products. But tell the pains you take to excel.

“Tell factors and features which others deem too commonplace to claim. Your product will come to typify those excellencies. If others claim them afterward, it will only serve to advertise you.

“There are few advertised products which cannot be imitated. Few who dominate a field have any exclusive advantage. They were simply the first to tell certain convincing facts.”

Although Claude C. Hopkins may be best known for his Schlitz campaigns, he also pioneered sampling and the use of coupons, replaced reckless claims with money-back guarantees… and much, much more. In fact, he reveals so many powerful copywriting techniques in My Life in Advertisingand Scientific Advertising, that nearly all of today’s top writers still worship the ground he walked upon.

If you have not read him – or have not read him lately – I strongly suggest that you remedy this situation post-haste.

[Ed. Note: Master copywriter Clayton Makepeace publishes the highly acclaimed e-zine The Total Package to help business owners and copywriters accelerate their sales and profits. Claim your 4 free moneymaking e-books - bursting with tips, tricks, and tactics that'll skyrocket your response - at MakepeaceTotalPackage.com.

Good copy is just one element of a successful business. For a step-by-step guide to researching a niche, finding your target market, and then marketing effectively using search engines, e-mail, and more... check out the Internet Money Club: Independent Learner Edition.]

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Can You Really Change Your Life in Just 30 Days?

You have big money problems… ones that are affecting your family’s future and your own health. You are at your wit’s because you just-don’t-get it!

You keep doing the same thing over and over again just like it says in the “new program” you just bought (for the umpteenth time!) and yet it’s not working.

Yes, you followed the instructions… HOPING this time every thing is going to work and you’re going to make LOTS of money!

But it doesn’t, does it?

Just then, a very wealthy man enters your life. Not just any wealthy man, but a mega-wealthy man who personally mentored 4 men to becoming billionaires… (that’s with a “b”).

He makes the bold statement that he can help end all your bad “money habits” and replace them on a silver platter with “Billionaire Wealth Attraction habits” that will bring money and lots of it!

Here’s the amazing thing: He is so sure of your success that he personally GUARANTEES to transform you into a “money magnet person” in just 30 days!

Why 30 days? Because Psychologists have proven it takes 30 days to lose a bad habit and learn a new positive one.

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The Post Office’s Loss Is Your Gain

By Charles Newcastle

The U.S. Postal Service is slashing services to the bone. They are reducing business hours and eliminating delivery on weekends in many areas. All of these cuts have opened the door to a unique business opportunity for you: providing private mail services.

With this business, you would offer the same services as your local post office, including mailbox rentals, mail forwarding, and selling shipping supplies and postage. But private mail services usually offer other services, too – like copying, imaging, collating, professional packing, and Internet access.

The popularity of this business is growing. Some customers just like the privacy. Others – like college students and “snow birds” – move around quite a bit and don’t want their mail to get lost in the shuffle. (With a private mail service, they can keep the same address, no matter how many times they move.) Having a private mailbox also allows a business to have a street address, rather than a P.O Box number. This has numerous advantages, and is often used by entrepreneurs who want to have a physical address in one city but live and work in another.

You can run a private mail service on your own or as a franchise. The most popular franchisors are the UPS Store, Pak Mail, and PostNet.
As you know, ETR almost never recommends opening a retail or storefront business. But there are a few things that make this one different from most others I can think of. For one thing, private mail services do not require a lot of space. They usually need only 500 to 1,000 square feet. (The actual mailbox rental area typically requires 100 square feet or less.) Plus, there is very little (or no) inventory to keep track of.

One more thing to keep in mind before you start investigating this opportunity further: The net rental revenue per square foot generated by private mail services often surpasses the net revenue per square foot of apartment buildings, hotels, office parks, marinas, and residential homes.

[Ed. Note: This unique and lucrative business opportunity was originally published in the Liberty Street Letter, a monthly publication dedicated to uncovering under-the-radar business and investment ideas. To find out more, go here.]

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The French Cure for Obesity

By Kelley Herring

I admit it. I’m in love with the French. They make even the most urbane words sound like music. They frown upon frumpiness. And for them, the presentation of food is revered as art.

But what really gets me is this. The French culture revolves around decadent cuisine and copious amounts of red wine (an average of 20 liters per year, per person). And amazingly, they stay trim enough to don their skinny jeans and haute couture without sporting “muffin tops” or “man boobs.”

Researchers just may have discovered why.

It looks like resveratrol – the compound responsible for red wine’s anti-aging properties – may flip the body’s fat storage function to the “off” position.

A recent study published in the Journal Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology found that fat cells converted less glucose to fat in the presence of resveratrol. What’s more, fat cells got “skinnier” in the presence of resveratrol and adrenaline, meaning a little red wine could boost the benefits you see at the gym.

To do as the French do, rely more on your bike or feet to get around. Enjoy organic red wine (in moderation, of course), and make delicious, home-cooked meals with fresh ingredients a central part of your everyday life. As a result, you may find that you’re not only slimmer… but happier too.

[Ed Note: Want to get the anti-aging, fat-fighting benefits of red wine? Make sure it's organic! Grapes grown conventionally contain some of the highest levels of pesticides, many of which are known obesogens - compounds that cause weight gain. Learn more about how to avoid obesogens and other hormone disruptors in Kelley Herring's revolutionary 7-part health transformation program, Your Plate, Your Fate. Get all the details and find out how to get 3 bonus books right here.]

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It’s Fun to Know: The Firefighting Jumbo Jet

When wildfires are raging, they are often fought by firefighters on the ground, as well as by tanker planes and helicopters dropping flame-retardant material. But now, there is a new weapon in the firefighting arsenal: a 747 that’s been modified by Evergreen Aviation International to spray 20,500 gallons of water on a fire with specially made high-pressure nozzles. That’s eight times the capacity of current tanker planes.

Wow!

(Source: Popular Science)

From $16,635 in Debt to an Extra $36,000 per Year

It’s no secret that you want more money.

If you’re like the average American, says U.S. News and World Report, you’re in over your eyeballs to the tune of $16,635 – and that’s excluding mortgages!

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Word to the Wise: Seraglio

A “seraglio” (sih-RAL-yoh) – from the Persian – is (1) a large harem or (2) an enclosure; a place of separation, especially when referring to a sultan’s palace.

Example (as used by Toni Bentley in a New York Times review of The East, the West, and Sex by Richard Bernstein): “The seraglio of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire housed about 1,600 virgins, each hoping to be chosen for one night of honor. The sultan makes Brigham Young, who had only a few dozen wives, look like a piker with low self-esteem.”

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

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