Pick up approximately any book or record on Mailorder Selling and invariably you will find the same advice. When you opt a mailorder product, opt one which:
- appeals to a large segment of the population
- is not facilely ready in stores
- is easy to ship by mail
- is worthwhile
- and a product that lends itself to repeat orders
Maya Bay
Most mail order writers will also tell you to try to accumulate exclusive selling possession to your product. Most writers will agree that a dealer has a best occasion of succeeding in the mailorder company if he has created the product himself.
All of this is certainly good advice. The problem with it is that it does not go far enough. It does not tell you How to create a product that is exclusively you own. In what follows, I would like to show you, step by step, How to create your own mailorder product.
Maya Bay
I would like to begin by production a very revolutionary statement. The First Step On The Road To Mail Order Success Is Not The option Of A Product! That may sound like a very strange statement, but there are three things you must do (if you want to be successful) before you ever opt a product to sell by mail!
First, you must Analyze Yourself. You will only succeed in selling a product, or a line of mailorder products if you certainly enjoy selling them, if you can be certainly enthusiastic about them, and if they are products you yourself would certainly want to buy.
Second, you must opt Your Market. Once you have analyzed yourself, you will want to sell to habitancy who have interests similar to your own. Only then will you be comfortable in your mailorder business.
Third, you must completely Analyze Your Market. Before you ever opt a product, you should Know what your store is buying, what it would like to buy, if available, and what it will buy form you, in the very near future.
Once you have analyzed yourself, prime your market, and then completely analyzed your market, you will have no problem choosing or creating a product to sell by mail. It will approximately opt you! Now, let's go back and study these three steps, one by one.
Analyze Yourself
To help you understand yourself, sit down and, as certainly as possible, write out your answers to the following questions:
1. When I go to a newstand, what kind of magazines appeal to Me?
2. What kind of books do I certainly like to read?
3. When I daydream, what do I daydream about?
4. What do I do with my free time? (How do I spend my evenings? What do I do on weekends?)
5. What do I do on my vacation?
6. What one field interests me more than any other field in the world?
7. If I didn't have to work for a living, how would I spend my time?
8. If I could go back to college, what subjects would I take?
9. What kind of products do I like to buy by mail?
Once you have certainly answered all these questions, you will see an remarkable pattern emerging. When you have finished, pay a visit to your local library. Go to the Reference Desk and ask to see the latest edition of the Writer'S Market. Sit down and study the Table of Contents, which lists all the main categories of magazines currently being printed. Determine which type interests you beyond all others. It is in that mailorder store that you will be most at home . . . And it is there that you will be most successful
Now go back to the Reference Desk and ask for two other publications. Whether one will supply you with the data you need. They are:
- The standard Periodical Directory and
- Ultich'S International Periodical Directory
I, of course, have no idea what your interests certainly are, but let us, for the sake of illustration, say that you have a compelling interest in Astrology. With a microscopic crusade in the standard Periodical Directory, you will find the name and address of at least a dozen or so Astrology magazines. In Ulrich's you will find even more, since it lists magazines published in foreign countries as well.
Jot down the names and address of each and every publication. Write to each of them, on your letterhead if possible. If you don't have a letterhead, you will still hear from most of them. Tell them you are beginning a mailorder business, specializing in Astrological products, and ask them for a sample copy of their publications, along with their Advertising Rates.
When you start receiving your sample copies, save them . . . And save the advertising rate cards. They will be invaluable to you in the future.
While you are waiting for these to arrive, go to the nearest second-and magazine store and buy a few dozen old astrology magazines. (The cost? Probably a dime apiece!) Get as many dissimilar magazine titles as inherent and be sure to get copies with Mail Order Ads in them. Issues that are ten or fifteen years old will be essential to you, but also try to accumulate some of the more current issues. You are now ready to start . . .
Analyzing Your Market
Start a notebook. Pick up one of the magazines which you have purchased at the second-hand magazine store. Read the first ad. . . Every line of it. Read it gently and carefully. When you have closed reading it, see if you can retell what is being sold in five words or less. If you can't, go back and read it again. If you can, record your record under one of three headings in your notebook:
- Merchandise
- Information
- Service
All mailorder offerings come under one of the three headings listed above. If the ad was for an Aquarian Necklace, it should be listed under Merchandise. If it was for a treatise on Flying Saucers, it should be listed under Information. If it was an offer to chart your horoscope, it should be listed under Service.
After you have analyzed the first ad, go on and study the next ad. Continue until you have completely analyzed every particular ad in the magazine, including the classifieds. When you are through, you will have three lists:
- A list of Astrological Merchandise for sale
- A list of Astrological Manuals (Information) for sale
- A list of Astrological services for sale.
As you read, watch for:
Undeveloped Ideas -- Especially in older issues, you will find certainly good ideas that were, for one infer or another, never developed. Possibly the creator lost interest or didn't have the capital to create his idea. He may have died or he may have run off with a chorus girl from Las Vegas and forgotten all about the mail order business. If you can create the idea, you have a mail order product.
Wholesale Sources -- Watch for ads that say "Dealers Wanted" (in more current issues, of course). Here may be the excellent source of mailorder products for you.
Study The Articles -- They will show you what the readers are concerned in and they will give you clues as to what the readers want to buy. Remember the articles are doing two things -- they are printing articles about subjects which the readers are already interested. But they are also Creating New Interests in the minds of the readers. Can You create A product That Readers Will Want As A succeed Of Reading Those Articles?
You will be amazed at what you will discover when you read magazines from the viewpoint of a mailorder man!
While researching this manuscript, I analyzed three totally dissimilar magazines from the viewpoint of a mailorder man. I would like to share some of my findings with you. Don't worry if the fields are dissimilar from those which interest you. Mailorder principles Are The Same For Every Market!
The first magazine which I analyzed was Astrology - Your Daily Horoscope, December 1975. I would like to begin with the Merchandise Offerings.
Astrology (Merchandise)
The first ad is for personalized stationary. Any mailorder man knows you can sell personalized stationary to any market. But this dealer took a commonplace product and adapted it to the Astrological market. Next to the name and address which he prints on the stationary, he prints the Astrological sun sign and he calls it Zodiac Stationary.
The next ad is for an additional one very commonplace product -- soap! You can buy soap in any grocery store. But this soap is special. It has Your Zodiac Sign imprinted in it, and it lasts as long as the soap lasts. Here is an additional one good example of adapting a commonplace product to the extra interests and desires of your prospective customers.
If you are now selling a product by mail and you would like to increase you sales, make a list of the kinds of habitancy you would like to sell it to. (For example, doctors, waitresses, farmers, gun collectors, etc.) Then go back and ask yourself what you could do to your product to make it appeal to each private group. You'll be amazed at how you can turn commonplace items into red hot mailorder sellers just by taking the time to put yourself in your customer's shoes for a while.
The next merchandise gift is for "Seashells For Virgos And Scorpios". Brother, this is a remarkable idea. Had this advertiser offered plain old seashells in an astrology magazine, his mailbox would probably have been empty. Had he advertised "Seashells for Astrologers", he Might have gotten a few orders. But he made his seashells special, exclusive, and very, very desirable, because they are only for Virgos and Scorpios. He is catching the concentration of one reader out of every six and I would bet that ad was a mailorder success! Here is an idea worth remembering. Try to apply it to Your product!
Another merchandise gift was a "Hand Bio-Rhythm Computer". For the past few years, Astrology magazines have been running record after record on the Bio-Rhythm principles (i.e. Every male and female man has emotional, intellectual and corporal cycles, which can be foreseen, in advance). The Astrology magazines, in effect, have been creating a mailorder store for this kind of new product. The ad promises, "it reveals your emotional, intellectual and corporal state . . . Even Before The Day Begins!" This dealer was clever adequate to do something about this new interest. If he had not studied his market, he could never have discovered the Need for a Bio-Rhythm computer!
Astrology (Information)
People who read Astrology magazines are very concerned in Love, Money, Success, Power, Miracles, Prayer, etc. One enterprising dealer has written six "personal guidance" manuals, and runs full page ads in Astrology magazines, selling them form .00 to .00 each! His ads have been running successfully for years. Back in 1960, when I first became concerned in selling by mail, this dealer was running small ads in mail dealer magazines, selling mailorder manuals!
Here are some of the other data manuals which dealers have written and are selling by mail:
- How the Maya Indians Foretold the time to come - .00
- qualified Words to Be Recited Daily to End Your Money Worries - .00
- How to Spiritually Heal Your Pets - .00
- A by hand on Etheric Astal Projection, written "especially for the Neophyte" - .00
Can you create a Worthwhile by hand for this market? (I predict that the first dealer who writes a good by hand on Bio-Rhythm will make a fortune!) If you need ideas for manuals, study the subjects being offered in the Astrology magazines. Remember --the readers are concerned in those subjects! In the issue of Astrology - Your Personal Horoscope which I read, the following data articles appeared. (This is only a partial list.)
"Yearly Forecast for Sagittarians" "Basic Astronomy for the Astrologers" "Sybil Leek Analyzes Your Dreams" "How to Make Your Dreams Pay Off" "How Mercury Inspires Your Creativity"
A study of Old Astrology magazines will supply you with a wealth of subjects for New Mailorder Manuals (or folios).
Astrology (Service)
If there is one thing habitancy who read Astrology magazines love, it is this . . . They Love To Be Analyzed And Counselled By Professionals. Do you have specialized training in the art of Horoscope Reading? If so, you can sell your services by mail. Here are some of the headlines form ads gift such services:
- "Let an expert Discuss Your Life!"
- "This Horoscope is about You"
- "Now . . . A serious study of You!"
- "Now there is a Horoscope written for the Two Of You! . . .
One for you, one for your loved one! It could mean the
difference between a Happy Marriage and a Painful Divorce!"
- "1976 - 1977 - 1978! Is one of these Your Year of Destiny?"
(This had been running in Astrology magazines for at least ten
years. Every year, the advertiser naturally changes the dates!
Other services being offered in this magazine include:
- Personal Questions Answered by Psychics and Mystics
- Spiritual Readings
- Tarot Readings
- Palm Readings
- Handwriting Analysis
- Questions answered through Astro-Extra Sensory Perception
Are you trained to offer such services through the mail? Or are you concerned in receiving such training? (You will find many such offers to train you in a newstand magazine called Fate.) If you respond is Yes . . . This is where you should begin your mailorder career.
The next magazine I analyzed was the November 1975 issue of Field And Stream. Since this magazine is aimed at two mailorder markets, hunters and fishermen, I analyzed only those ads pertaining to Hunters.
Hunters (Merchandise)
Men who hunt for wild game spend a lot of money on their hobby. They buy top ability hunting clothes. (Who wants to go hunting in a Cheap pair of jungle boots?) They spend a lot of money on their guns, their hunting knives, and on top ability binoculars. There are several dozen well-established mail order clubs selling this kind of merchandise to hunters. If you ar planning to create a one man mail order operation, you would be well advised not to try to compete with these companies. Instead, look for something unique that a hunter can Use, and begin you mailorder company there.
Here are a few merchandise offerings being made by enterprising dealers:
"Deer Hunter's soap" (Bathe in soap scented with the aroma of a female deer and you will attract a Buck. Only .50 per bay!) notice how a smart dealer Adapted a commonplace item to a specialized market. notice too, that he adapted it to Only One Kind Of Hunter. He Didn'T Offer It To Bear Hunters, To Coon Hunters, To Quail Hunters, Or To Game Hunters In General. He offered it to deer-hunters! If you are a deer-hunter, you would notice that ad!"
"Curtain rods for Hunting Vans - .95 a pair." (Sure, you can buy curtain rods in any dime store, but not curtain rods for Hunting Vans! an additional one excellent example of taking a commonplace item, adapting it to a specialized market, and creating a new mailorder product.
Also offered:
- Gun cleaning cloths (10 for a dollar)
- Brass Nameplates for Hunting Dogs (not for just any old dog!)
- Id Tags for Your Hunting Dogs
- Handwarmers and Bodywarmers (Boy, could you use these when you get lost in the snow!)
- There was a small classified ad gift "Fish and Game Rubber Stamps." I hope this dealer got a lot of orders, but if he didn't, I infer it was because his offer was too general. First of all, it would have sold best with an illustrated display ad. But even best . . . Let us go back to the Virgo and Scorpio plan above. How about rubber stamps for Coon Hunters? Or for Pheasant Hunters? Or rubber stamps for Taxidermists? You will always get more orders if you direct your ad to definite people.
Hunting (Information)
Frankly, I was amazed at the whole of data Folios being sold to Hunters. Here are some examples:
"How to Build Your Own Gun Cabinet"
"Duck Calling Instructions" (30 minutes on tape!) A lot of information, in every field, is now being put on cassette tape and sold by mail. If you would rather talk than write, this could be an aspect of mailorder selling for you to consider.
"Chart showing Life-size Tracks of 38 Animals in the Adirondack Mountains" (Incidently not all data is written. A lot of habitancy buy plans, diagrams, etc. To digress, recently a dealer advertised plans to build your own flying saucer detector!)
"How to Build Box Traps - .00"
"My secret on Coon Trapping, after 50 years. Guaranteed, .00"
"Mount fish for Fun and profit - Easy instructions - .00"
"Tan Your Own Hides - Hair on or off - Complete, easy to succeed instructions and Formulas - .00"
"Build (meat, fish, sausage) smoker! Inexpensive, protable.... Easy plans, .00"
"Wild Game and Fish Recipes - Deer, Bear, Rabbit, Trout, Salmon and dozens more - .00"
Can you write an data by hand for hunters? Can you tell him how to shoot ducks? Or how to hunt buffalo? . . . Or what to do for snake bites? . . . Or how to sign up for a Big Game Safari in the wilds of Africa? If you can, write a good by hand (or put it on tape!) and sell it by mail!
Hunting (Service)
Unlike the readers of Astrology magazines, Game Hunters don't give a damn about being analyzed or counselled! But if you can teach his hunting dog how to chase a bear up a tree, then he will probably pay you for your services. Can you heal his gun? Or can you stuff and mount his catches? If so, you can build a mailorder company gift such services.
The final publication analyzed was the Writer'S digest of November, 1975.
Writing (Merchandise)
If you are concerned in the craft of writing (or if you have done well in creative writing classes) you might Determine to build a mail order company catering to the needs of hundreds of thousands of persons who dream of becoming pro writers. Here are some of the merchandise offerings being made to writers:
- "Copyright and linked Laws for Writers"
- "Grants and Aids to Individuals in the Arts - 1500 Sources." (What writer isn't looking for a grant?)
- "I receive checks every week for features, fillers, news. Free details."
- "Gagwriters Guide"
- "Secret Way to Make Money Writing - .00"
- "Make Money Writing Fillers! recent Filler Directory."
- "International Directory of microscopic Magazines and Small Presses."
If you can furnish an data by hand showing writers how to write better, or how to sell their manuscripts, then write it and sell it by mail. You will have Created a new mailorder product! (To get ideas for subjects of interest to writers, study the articles in such publications as the Writers Digest, The Writer, Saturday Review, etc.)
Writers -- (Service)
Some of the largest mailorder company in the world sell correspondence courses teaching habitancy how to write for a living. There are also a dozen or more large printing clubs (called "Vanity Publishers" in the trade) whose sole company is printing books for authors, whose works have been rejected by the quarterly publishing houses.
If you are a serious literary person, with a gift for writing, you could very Possibly create a company gift your services to writers. Here are some of the services which were being offered in the November 1975 issue of Writer's Digest:
- Literary Counseling
- Literary Criticism
- Literary Editing
- Short Story Evaluation
- Manuscript Analysis
- record estimate (No Fiction)
- Ghost Writing
- Newspaper and Magazine Reference aid (Authors often need such a service.)
- Manuscript Typing
Are you qualified to offer any of these services by mail? If you are, you have found a aid to sell by mail! If you are not now qualified, why not accumulate pro training . . . And then offer your services by mail?
In Conclusion
I comprehend that I have just touched the covering of three dissimilar mail order markets. There are hundreds of other mail order markets for you to explore! Analyze yourself and then opt the store that is best for you.
Study your store completely . . . And Never Stop studying It. Most victorious mailorder habitancy read dozens of magazines every month. They Know what their customers are mental about, what they need, and what they will buy.
Successful mailorder habitancy are concerned in the Needs and Wants of their customers First. They understand that if they integrate on those, profits will flow naturally. Those who think only of profits soon pass by the wayside.
In the beginning of this manual, I asked you to write to every magazine in your chosen field. Subscribe to as many as possible. When you have created your first product, then start advertising in those magazines (which is why I said to keep their rate cards.) Never run an ad unless you can run it in three consecutive issues. Then Continue running it for as long as it continues to furnish new customers for you. gently add new (but related) items to your line. Whenever possible, progress your company by inserting your ads in new publications.
Remember these straightforward guidelines:
- Don'T Copy anything Else! You are a unique individual. Express your own individuality in your Mail Order business.
- create Something New And Exciting!
- create Something useful And Worthwhile!
- create Something You Yourself Would Want To Buy!
Copyright by DeAnna Spencer 2004
This record may be reproduced and redistributed freely on the Internet as long as the resource box remains intact.
How to originate Your Own Mail Order Products
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