OCTOBER 2005
Greetings & Salutations:
Since so many of you seem to like it, I am going to publish
a few more of the interview questions I was asked by wanna-be
publishers last year ... along with my answers, of course ...
if you'd rather I'd publish something besides these Q&A sessions,
please let me know.
Q: Can you give a primer
on setting up a business from the legal aspect? Any guidelines
on how to move in this regard?
A: Whoa! I'm not
an attorney.
Suggest that anyone planning to start a business should call
on an attorney; or their legal aid society, to get guidance from
a qualified professional.
Q: How would someone with zero
money, zero credit, and no product go about raising money to
start a business?
A: With no money, no credit
& no product, what reason would any person have to raise
money to start a business?
If you don't know what you are going to do (no product), you
shouldn't even be considering starting a business - but ...
As I have said a thousands times, "If I had it to do
all over again, I would never create my own products. I
would simply sell other people's products."
So ... before you decide to raise funding for a business,
you need to first find a product to sell. Only then can
you even begin thinking about financing a business.
Q: We live in a very competitive
world, how do we stay in front of those that may be marketing
identical products?
A: If necessity is the Mother
of invention, competition is the Mother of necessity.
Rather than restate what I have already written on the subject,
I'll just direct to you my Free report ... "Competition!
- To compete or not to compete? -- Should we even ask the question?"
... at:
compete.html
Q: What would you say
your secrets to becoming a Marketing Genius are?
A: There is only one secret
(??) to becoming a Marketing Genius ... it is also the only thing
that separates the professional from the amateur in the marketing
game. -- That secret is to test, Test, TEST, then, test some
more.
You can write the very best ad copy in the world - but - if
nobody buys, you ain't yet a marketer.
Some 20 years ago, I wrote what I thought was the most powerful
ad copy I had ever written. I passed it around among the
office staff ... they all loved it and praised it as being the
best I had ever written. -- I gave copies of it to the production
staff ... they loved it even more - SO, I didn't even test the
copy. I mailed 10,000 pieces.
The results were abysmal ... that 10,000 piece mailing produced
one (just one) paid order. (I never made that mistake again.)
Of course, if you are really asking about how to write better
ad copy, you can find out everything you've ever wanted to know
about ad copywriting in the June, 2000, issue of my "Business
Lyceum e-Letter" at:
Jun00.html
Q: How do you see the
correlation between offline and online marketing?
A: If you had asked me
that question just 5 years ago, I would have told you that online
marketing was a fad ... soon to pass into marketing oblivion;
just as the 900# marketing had.
Today, I see online marketing as a viable marketing tool -
but - it should be made part of the complete marketing package
of any business, rather than being touted as the sole method
of marketing.
When I established my website in September, 1999, I did so
because my mailorder customers were, more and more, asking "Where
can I find your products online?" -- In response to those
inquiries, I established the website as an addition to my offline
marketing.
In the beginning, the Business Lyceum was nothing more than
an online catalog of my offline products. -- Beginning in September,
1999, we added our URL to all of our outgoing mailings.
The site had covered all of its costs and produced a profit by
January, 2000.
Today, our website is producing over 80% of our revenue -
but - over 80% of the online orders are still coming from my
offline customers.
Think about this for a moment ...
AOL is one of the largest online companies in the world -
but - they didn't start by advertising online. If you will
remember, they used to send you disks ... later CDs ... inviting
you to sign-up for Free Minutes, by Mail. -- They are a prime
example of building an online business using offline techniques.
Just ask yourself, "Am I smarter than AOL??" --
If you think you are, try building your online business solely
online.
Q: What do you see as
the biggest hurdle that any new marketer has to overcome to succeed
... be it offline or online?
A: You're probably going
to think I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but the
biggest hurdle any new marketer has to overcome is their lack
of testing.
Believe it or don't ... 99% of beginning marketers NEVER test
anything. They just "try" things. If it
doesn't work the first time, they move on to something else that
"might" work ... when it doesn't, they move on, again.
It isn't all their fault.
Unfortunately, much of the problem is caused by the pseudo-gurus
themselves. -- They provide their dealers, distributors and/or
affiliates with "ad copy" to use to sell the guru's
products - but - in all too many cases, the guru him/herself
has never really made any money using that ad copy.
What does it matter to the guru? -- If 100 dealers use that
ad copy and produce just one order for the guru, the guru is
ahead by one order - BUT - in 99% of the cases, the dealer "tries"
the ad once; doesn't get any response, and moves on to the next
"make a fortune overnight" deal.
If a "dealer" (affiliate) tested the ad copy and
discovered it didn't produce, the dealer should; if he/she "really"
wants to make some money from that product or service, change
the ad copy and test it again; and again; and again, until the
dealer finds ad copy that works.
Let me tell you a true story I use to illustrate the method
for my affiliates ...
Here's the "secret" used by my most productive dealer
to produce an income of nearly $100,000 per month selling my
products and services.
When Gene first became one of my dealers ... 1977 or 1978
... I sent him copies of all the various (and many) classified
ads, space ads and sales letters we were using to sell our products
and services (just like we did for all of our dealers). -- All
tested and proven successful.
At first ... like most of my dealers ... Gene began earning
a few hundred dollars per month. After a few months, he jumped
from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars for a month.
Then, his earnings began getting bigger and bigger, month after
month ... in a few years, his earnings grew to over $100,000
per month (producing over $100,000 for me as well).
When I finally asked Gene what he was doing to increase his
income so much, he told me ...
He Was Writing His Own Ads!
Every month, he would go through my publications to pick out
new phrases and ideas to include in his advertising. -- He even
began writing ads directed to very specific customers ... using
the catch-phrases, headlines, and other items from my publications.
When Gene died in 1992, I lost a friend - and - $100,000 per
month.
The few (very few) of my affiliates who are knocking down
the big bucks each month are following my advice. -- It won't
be long before I'll have another Gene; maybe more than one ...
maybe YOU will be my next Gene.
Q: Both offline and online
marketers say that the key to your business is your list.
What advice can you give to those that want to quickly build
their list ... are there any secrets you can share with us?
A: Over the nearly 50
years I've been in business, I have found that anything you do
"quickly" usually isn't worth doing.
I once signed up for a list building service ... shame on
me ... that really produced. The service seemed to be phenomenal.
I was adding people to my list almost faster than I could keep
up with them - and - I kept that list separate, so I could run
specific tests against it ... just to find out what kind of customer
list I was building.
For over a year, I tested that list again and again ... with
every offer in my stable. -- I even went so far as to change
my ads that had worked for years, to see if I could reach them.
-- Nothing worked.
After I discontinued the list building service, most of them
... slowly but surely ... faded from my list. Some asked
to be removed but most of them just ended up in my dead letter
file to be removed.
The secret (??) to building a list is to test, Test, TEST
and test some more until you find one (just one) method that
adds addresses to your list. Then, expand your use of that
method while you continue testing more methods to build your
list. -- It won't be too long before you will have a stable of
tried and proven methods of your own ... for your own use.
Actually, the big problem with too many beginners is they
want to do everything fast, faster & fastest ... without
considering the results.
Just remember the story of the tortoise and the hare.
Q: What's the best way
to market my products and services to Fortune 500 companies?
A: Don't be silly. --
There is no difference between marketing to Mom & Pop and
marketing to the Fortune 500.
It's just a matter of defining your audience; studying your
market audience; then "selling" to them.
Copyright - 2005, J.F. (Jim) Straw. All rights reserved.