How To Get Money By Placing Simple Ads

Are you looking for a way to get money that is simple
and doesn't require the strength of Hercules, the
smarts of Albert Einstein or the networking prowess
of Donald Trump to pull off?
If so, then here's a true story you might be interested
in.  (This is a Marlon Sanders writing)
When I got into the direct response marketing
business back in 1978, the Game back then was
interesting yet simple.
You place classified ads in magazines and weekly
newspapers.
You offered a free report, newsletter, book or sample.
People wrote in to get it.
You mailed back your sales letter (the free report).
And off to the races you went.
There were only a few variables:
1. The classified ad you ran.
2. The sales letter you sent.
3. How many times you followed up.
That business model took people from the kitchen table
to the boardroom many times. What I mean is, there were
many people that started on a shoestring placing a few
ads and over time were able to parlay that investment
into small or large bankrolls.
I'll never forget the THRILL the first time I ran an
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ad that brought in money.
I think I only had 3 orders.
But those 3 orders PROVED to me I could do it. In a song,
the R & B artist once said, "It's never as good as the
first time."
And in reference to running these little ads and getting
orders and money, it's true.
Those first few sales you make take your breath away.
They make you see, feel and believe it's real.
My first success on a larger scale came when I ran ads in
weekly shoppers. People called from the ad to a message
I put on an answering machine that was 3 minutes long.
People left their name and address and I sent out the
product C.O.D., which meant that people paid on receipt
of the shipment.
People didn't want to leave their credit card number
on an answering machine. So that is why you used the
C.O.D. shipping.
I worked my way up to 3 or 4 of those little answering
machines (we didn't have voice mail back then) and sent
out hundreds if not thousands of packages.
My ads ran in 72 cities.
I ran the whole business out of a 650 square foot apartment!
Crazy times back then.
In the early 1990's, I went from running ads in magazines
and weekly papers to running ads on AOL, Compuserve and
Prodigy. At the time, Compuserve and Prodigy were huge.
I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!
Why? Because you didn't have to wait 2 or 3 months for
your classified ad to appear in a magazine. You placed
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the ad and it showed up almost immediately!
And instead of running down to the print shop late at night
(I think I kept Kinkos in business) to whip out letters to
send the next day, you just sent emails.
In those days we didn't have autoresponders that send out
emails automatically. I had to send people their free report
via email by hand.
But when you compared that to the time it took to fill out all
the UPS C.O.D. paperwork, it was awesome! That C.O.D.
paperwork
was quite time consuming.
Plus, 50% of the packages you sent out came back.
With AOL and Compuserve, you just placed your little ad, the
replies came in and you emailed back the free report.
Life was good!
Another big secret back then was how to get your classified ad
listed at the top of all the AOL classified ads. That was the
big secret passed around in the "inner circle" at the time.
And some smart cookie figured out how to strip out the email
addresses of all the people running classified ads and send them
emails. That was one of the first renditions of what later
became a glut of emails in your inbox.
I'll never forget when the World Wide Web burst on the scene.
Many of us marketers didn't think it'd work because those pictures
and graphics took too long to load and all people cared about
was the text anyway.
Some people STILL think that about direct response marketing.
That it's all text and graphics don't matter.
If that were true, the World Wide Web would've never beat out
the old text-based Internet.
Anyway, somewhere in that time frame, a little method came
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along called "the cookie cutter method." The idea was that
you'd run little ads just like you did in the classifieds in
magazines and make sales that way.
That drew a starck contrast to the early seo days when people
advocated every trick for creating "doorway pages" and all
kinds of other hooey dooey to get listed in the early search
engines.
Ezine advertising became extremely popular. You could place
these simple little classified ads in ezines inexpensively.
You offered a free report, audio, newsletter or sample just
like you did in the old days.
Life was good for marketers!
Then, litigation got involved and rained on everyone's parade.
Sending out email became regulated. People dumped ezines and
email by the truckloads and started doing Adsense, RSS marketing
and so forth.
Which brings us to right now. Today.
There are a few schools of online marketing:
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
School one: The product launch school
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
You run product launches and try to make a zillion in one day.
It's absolutely breaktaking when you see it happen.
Of course, the people with the zillion in a day success stories
are the modern-day equivalent to Dr. J. or Michael Jordan flying
through the air with the greatest of ease and dunking the ball
like it ain't no big thang.
 You have a decision in life.

Do you want to trade your TIME for dollars?

Or do you want to trade PRODUCTS for dollars?

http://www.getyoursales.com?w=infodash&p=ms75486

Donald Sander,  2810 Concord Lane, Woodward, OK 73801-USA