Are you interested in having your own mail-order business? Then check out this
 

important new research tool.

NOW you can search through online mail order catalogs using Google, through http://catalogs.google.com

How can you use this?

See what others are selling... And HOW they are selling it.

Check out the potential competition. Or study and learn.... an online direct response university at your fingertips!

I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time searching and browsing through this.... Click on the link below to check it out!

- Dien Rice


Google Catalog Search

Catalog Math Plus An Idea...
 

Catalogs remain one of the top moneymakers for the direct marketing industry...even with the popularity of the Internet. Why? people still love the idea of being able to hold printed material in their hands. A good catalog is used as a reference book and can stay in a household or on a desk for literally years. And it continually rings up orders for it's owners.

I just wanted to give you some idea of catalog costs. To print a 48 page, 5.5" x8.5" full color catalog on gloss paper, it would run about $5,000 for 10,000 or .50 each. Add to that, about .25 each for catalog bulk-rate postage (the catalog needs to weigh less that 3.3 ounces) and .10 each for the name of the prospect (assuming you are buying a mailing list) and you have about .85 cents (in U.S. funds) invested per catalog. You might be thinking that is pretty expensive.

But if you have products somebody wants and a good list, you'll have a good shot at averaging more than a $1.00 in sales per catalog. I know several catalogers that are earning $10-$15 per catalog on their house list. Plus they are earning more than a $1 a catalog on their prospect lists. Remember though, cost-of-goods is not figured into the equation yet...that is why you want products where you are at least doubling your money. If you are dealing with products at a higher price point, like consumer electronics, your profit margin can be much smaller.

A black & white catalog is obviously going to cost much less. I just did a 64 page 8" x 10" catalog for a client that cost .15 each, printed black & white on newspaper type stock. It even had some spot color in. This was a 10,000 catalog printing.

A catalog is far more powerful for generating sales than the Internet...for most product catagories. Where the Internet shines though, is order processing. You combine the power of a catalog with the low cost of order processing through the Internet and you'll have a heck of a combination.

And even with the tons of catalogs out there, highly profitable niches still exist. I'm working on a cosmetics catalog for a client right now. There are many, many more. Does it take an investment? Absolutely...but cataloging is still one of the very best areas for people like you to make money and have a successful business.

Now my idea, with all the people out there that have self-help or self-improvement products or life-enhancing products, I don't know why someone doesn't do a small black & white catalog containing all those products. Heck, you could swap catalog space for a percentage of the profits. You could combine Gordon's various projects with the people that have created booklets with some others that have done other projects, and you could probably have a nice 24 to 32 page catalog. I would be more than happy to help someone get the wheels turning if they wanted the assistance.

Take care,

Mike Winicki

I'll take you up on that
 

Hi,

What's the best desktop publishing solution for designing a catalog?

What's the specific formula for printing a test run at the lowest possible price?

Thanks in advance,

- Boyd

Re: I'll take you up on that
 

> Hi,

> What's the best desktop publishing solution
> for designing a catalog?

> What's the specific formula for printing a
> test run at the lowest possible price?

> Thanks in advance,

> - Boyd

Boyd,

The software I use is Pagemaker 6.5, but if the catalog was just a basic black & white, you could use just about anything that a printer could shoot film off of. For a color catalog you would need Quark or Pagemaker...something you could create color separations from.

As far as the minimum number of catalogs you would need to do a test...The magic number is '30' or 30 responses. Once you have accumulated 30 responses from any list or customer segment, that will give you a pretty accurate read of how responsive your list or customer segment is. Obviously 30 responses on a mailing of 100 catalogs is much better that 30 responses on 10,000. But you need to reach 30 responses to get an accurate feel for the list.

Now as far how mnay catalogs you should have printed...it depends on how what size the catalog is and how many pages. The 'x' factor is the paper cost.

As I said previously I know I can get 10,000 64 page black & white catalogs printed on newsprint for about .15 each. How many would 5,000 cost? probably .20 to .25 each. But who knows, right now printers are pretty hungry for work and may cut some pretty good deals on low quantities. One word about quotes from printers...they are literally all over the board. One printer may be 2.5x the price of the least expensive printer for exactly the same specs. Remember, when mailing you need to follow bulk mail rules and do a minimum of 200 at a crack.

I'm not saying that doing a catalog is easy...there is a lot of detail work involved but for the entrepreneur that isn't afraid of spending a little money and doing a little work, cataloging is still a very profitable field.

Take care,

Mike W.

Can you explain please?
 

Hi:

Can you explain what is involved in the color separation. - process,getting it ready for the printer, etc..

Also for black and white with black and white pictures - will pictures taken with a digital Sony Mavica provide the right resolution for a catalog, and how are they provided to the printer for use? - are they submitted separately, or embedded into the Pagemaker document?

For compiling ads where graphics are involved - is there a specific software program you find the best?

Thanks...I'm sure we'll all benefit from this answer.

Bud

I guess there's three things I hate about mailing sales pieces
 

Hi,

Thanks for the info.

I guess what I hate about mailing sales messages are:

* It's an art and it has the learning curve of an art;

* It's expensive;

* It's based on you finding the prospect instead of on the prospect finding you.

I see why DM people learn about the lifetime values of customers--it's very difficult to make an initial profit.

Just my two cents.

- Boyd

How deep are your pockets? The cheap way and the expensive way to direct response....
 

Hi Boyd,

I think you can do direct response cheaply or expensively....

If you want to do it cheaply, you can go the two-step classified ads route, then regularly mail your customers with announcements about your other products. I think this is essentially how Melvin Powers grew his business.

(For those who may not know, a two-step classified ad is an ad which offers a free or very cheap booklet or some other product your target market will find attractive. When people respond to your ad, you also send out your much longer sales material for your real product, the one you make the real profits on. You can also stretch this to 3-steps, 4-steps, etc.)

Or you can do it more expensively, using space ads or renting mailing lists. I think it's riskier (because you have more money on the line), but you can also grow more quickly this way too (or go bust more quickly as well).

Using two-step classified ads, then regularly mailing your (hopefully growing) customer list, seems like a pretty safe and inexpensive route to me, though slower.

Even better is to do joint ventures.... Have others promote your products for a cut of the profits. Then there are no up-front costs for you (assuming you already have your own products to provide to others).... Use their customer list under a joint venture arrangement. It's win-win for everyone.

I'm not doing any mail order by the way at present, but I see what I'm doing as being the online equivalent.... The idea behind it is the same.

- Dien Rice

Re: Can you explain please?
 

> Hi:

> Can you explain what is involved in the
> color separation. - process,getting it ready
> for the printer, etc..

> Also for black and white with black and
> white pictures - will pictures taken with a
> digital Sony Mavica provide the right
> resolution for a catalog, and how are they
> provided to the printer for use? - are they
> submitted separately, or embedded into the
> Pagemaker document?

> For compiling ads where graphics are
> involved - is there a specific software
> program you find the best?

> Thanks...I'm sure we'll all benefit from
> this answer.

> Bud

Bud,

To get color separations you need to have the photo in a format like 'Tiff-CMYK' which is the one many printers use or accept. The photo when printed will yield 4 pieces of film, 1 for Cyan, 1 for Magenta, 1 for Yellow and 1 for Black. Together they are your color photograph. Maybe someone with a printer's background can elaborate more--mybackground is more from the catalog production end.

Black & White printing is of course much easier. Some printers are now doing documents from pdf files. To use photos from a digital camera, you need to make sure you have a resolution of 300dpi at least. A jpeg photo is only 72dpi so you can imagine the resolution of a jpeg as opposed to a tiff at say 300dpi, would be much 'fuzzier'. The key is to find out what your printer wants and then give it to him (or her).

Take care,

Mike Winicki

Re: Can you explain please?
 

> Bud,

> To get color separations you need to have
> the photo in a format like 'Tiff-CMYK' which
> is the one many printers use or accept. The
> photo when printed will yield 4 pieces of
> film, 1 for Cyan, 1 for Magenta, 1 for
> Yellow and 1 for Black. Together they are
> your color photograph. Maybe someone with a
> printer's background can elaborate
> more--mybackground is more from the catalog
> production end.

> Black & White printing is of course much
> easier. Some printers are now doing
> documents from pdf files. To use photos from
> a digital camera, you need to make sure you
> have a resolution of 300dpi at least. A jpeg
> photo is only 72dpi so you can imagine the
> resolution of a jpeg as opposed to a tiff at
> say 300dpi, would be much 'fuzzier'. The key
> is to find out what your printer wants and
> then give it to him (or her).

> Take care,

> Mike Winicki

I almost forgot...software.

I use both Adobe Pagemaker and Adobe Illustrator for creating ads. Pagemaker for catalog stuff. Illustrator for space ads.

Take care,

Mike W.

Dien's right...
 

Boyd,

The thing to remember is that you don't have to go from $0 to $50,000 in the first month. To do that you are going to need to make a sizable investment.

All you want to do (and Gordon has touched upon this extensivley) is turn say a monthly budget of $500 into something...be it $1,000 in product sales (with $500 in profit to cover your cost in advertising) OR if you can afford to 'invest' the $500 per month, into names of people that might be interested in your product using a two-step marketing model. If you consistently do this month after month you'll soon have a growing direct marketing company.

As far as the learning curve goes, quite frankly Boyd you (or we) are most informed people ever. We have all the information we need to succeed...no ifs, ands or buts. All the information we need to create a profitable business is right here on the net or in your local library or at your local book store. We have far more information at our fingertips than any previous generation of entrepreneurs. What stops us is not a lack of knowledge...even though we quite often use that as an excuse...but willingness to spend (or earn and then spend) a few dollars every month to make our business dreams happen. The other pitfall is our lack of focus, not because we have too little knowledge but because we have too much. Instead of picking one avenue and doing something we're always on the lookout for something easier...something less expensive or free that will put gold in our pockets. I grin everytime someone releases a 'new' colletion of guru tips. Everyone falls all over each other to get a copy to get the same info that's been out there (and known) all along.
If the folks that get all exciting at a new 'How To Get Rich' course got just as excited at really starting and seeing through a business opportunity they probably wouldn't be as excited about the next guru's offerings.

Take care,

Mike W.

> Hi Boyd,

> I think you can do direct response cheaply
> or expensively....

> If you want to do it cheaply, you can go the
> two-step classified ads route, then
> regularly mail your customers with
> announcements about your other products. I
> think this is essentially how Melvin Powers
> grew his business.

> (For those who may not know, a two-step
> classified ad is an ad which offers a free
> or very cheap booklet or some other product
> your target market will find attractive.
> When people respond to your ad, you also
> send out your much longer sales material for
> your real product, the one you make the
> real profits on. You can also stretch this
> to 3-steps, 4-steps, etc.)

> Or you can do it more expensively, using
> space ads or renting mailing lists. I think
> it's riskier (because you have more money on
> the line), but you can also grow more
> quickly this way too (or go bust more
> quickly as well).

> Using two-step classified ads, then
> regularly mailing your (hopefully growing)
> customer list, seems like a pretty safe and
> inexpensive route to me, though slower.

> Even better is to do joint ventures.... Have
> others promote your products for a cut of
> the profits. Then there are no up-front
> costs for you (assuming you already have
> your own products to provide to others)....
> Use their customer list under a joint
> venture arrangement. It's win-win for
> everyone.

> I'm not doing any mail order by the way at
> present, but I see what I'm doing as being
> the online equivalent.... The idea behind it
> is the same.

> - Dien Rice