Need expert advice please
 

For the last couple of years now I have been creating what I call Software Cards.These are just cards I create and print from my computer and cut out.(Two cards per sheet of card stock.)In side the card I put a 31/2 disk with a small software program or some interesting utility I find that's free online and download it to the disk. I give them as Christmas cards or Birthday cards,etc; Everyone seems to really enjoy the idea of getting a card with a gift included.My question for the expert marketers here is How could I turn something like this into a small home business?
I would appreciate all advice and suggestions.
Best regards,
James
p.s. Michael Ross and Dien Rice!
You might consider this idea for one of your The Great Ideas Letter. Which I do subscribe to.

Here's one idea....
 

Offer the "Cards" (with CD's inside) to Realtors.

Create a "Self-running Slide Show" of 10 or 12 photos of the property (house)

The Card would have info about the property and realtor.

You can make a "Self-Running SLIDE SHOW" and an "AutoRun" CD (meaning the Slide Show starts automatically)....with FREE SOFTWARE.

I would charge $500 per property including 100 CD's and Cards. The realtors give you the photos and info and you make up the CD's and Cards.

Once a realtor sees a Sample CD run in his own PC...he is SOLD!

Let me know if you'd like to know where to get the free Slide-Show and Auto-Run software.

Don Alm




Some of my Unique, money-making programs.

Here's another......
 

Make up a "Town CD".

Again...an Auto-Run CD with an autorun Slide Show using the free software along with a Card.

The CD would have photos of the Town AND...Photos of 40 or 50 businesses that will pay you $500 for a minimum of 500 CD's that will be mailed by your local Chamber of Commerce to people who inquire about your Town.

My little town of 20,000 gets about 200 inquiries a month to the Chamber. The Chamber sends out a "package".

Some years ago I did this with Floppy Disks and a high compression program that would compress 50 photos down below 1.4meg. Using a CD you can place a lot of photos in a 640 meg CD.

When I did it the Chamber charged me nada. My only expense was the floppies and labels (about 50cents ea) and I was getting a buck per floppy from 50 advertisers so my "Net" was $49 per floppy.

Mailing out 100 CD's a month thru your local Chamber and making $49 per CD....amounts to a Nice chunk o change for doing nothing but duplicating 100 CD's and getting them to your Chamber who would LOVE to have something like this to include in their "Town Info package".

Do this in 40 or 5 Towns and the numbers now get VEEERY interesting.

All you do with the software programs is place the 2 files in the same folder on your harddrive as the photo files and whala....they make an Auto-Run Slide Show that will WoW the pants off anyone receiving it.

Give it a go! Local businesses WANT to reach people who are considering moving to your town and they are willing to PAY.

Don Alm




Some of my work from home programs.

Also....
 

Make up a "Town CD" for REALTORS!

Realtors have prospective home buyers contacting them every day. They would be HAPPY to HAND OUT a CD with info about the Town and Area AND... photos of some of the realtors properties....especially if the CD's are FREE!

You would personalize the CD's for each realtor and CHARGE businesses 50cents to $1 per CD given out.

Again...businesses WANT to reach NEW HOME BUYERS.

All the home buyer does is plop the CD into their CD drive and wham-bam....they just sit back and watch a Slide Show (you can control how fast each photo lasts)

Thinking about this has got my own "greed glands" a-poppin.

THIS is DOABLE! All it takes is someone to make up a Sample CD and "show it to prospects"!

Don Alm




Some of my Unique, money-making programs.

Hey Don...
 

I just wanted to say that I love reading your posts. You've always just such great ideas.

And James: I think we'd all be interested to find out how it goes if you decide to make a go of this.

To your success!

Karol Gajda


What is one dollar worth to you?

Re: Here's one idea....
 

I was thinking that a more interactive CD for Realtors would even be a better idea, such as using a camcorder and recording the Realtor showing the house for sale room by room well giving the houses details. Then take that recording and place it on a CD. This way the Realtor could give the CD to potential home buyers in or out of state. Now if you wanted to go all out you could contract to work with a whole Realtors office and do a CD that's like a home buyers showcase tv show on CD. This is just how I would go about doing this idea. Let me know what you think?

Martin

Re: Here's one idea....
 

I think this is a great idea, but... the $500 price seems a little steep. Not being that familiar with the realty biz, my concerns may be unfounded. But, they are:

1) Isn't that an awfully big chunk out of the agent's commission?

2) Is it typical that a property be shown to as many as 100 (or more) prospects before it sells?

3) Once the property sells, the leftover CD/cards are useless. Wouldn't the realtors resent this or consider it a waste of money?

Please educate me if I'm way off on this.

Chris

> Offer the "Cards" (with CD's
> inside) to Realtors.

> Create a "Self-running Slide Show"
> of 10 or 12 photos of the property (house)

> The Card would have info about the property
> and realtor.

> You can make a "Self-Running SLIDE
> SHOW" and an "AutoRun" CD
> (meaning the Slide Show starts
> automatically)....with FREE SOFTWARE.

> I would charge $500 per property including
> 100 CD's and Cards. The realtors give you
> the photos and info and you make up the CD's
> and Cards.

> Once a realtor sees a Sample CD run in his
> own PC...he is SOLD!

> Let me know if you'd like to know where to
> get the free Slide-Show and Auto-Run
> software.

> Don Alm

Re: Here's one idea....
 

>Good points Chris....
I'm trying the town cd and start with whatever a months worth of cd's are apt to be shipped based on the Chambers educated guess. They can always be recopied as Don mentioned. To keep it from being too tedious to watch, I'm using 30 businesses instead of 50. One from a variety of business. exclusivity. Some will drop out and others will renew. Easy enough to redo a cd.

Re: Need expert advice please
 

Thank you All,
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my post. However I may have posted it incorrectly.I'm not really selling software. The software is just a added incentive for people to purchase my cards. The software is included with each card. For example you buy a Birthday card you also get a gift(software.) Hence the name Software Cards. So when you purchase a card for someone they will also have the gift included so when looking for a gift for someone all you need do is buy a card and it has the gift inside.SIMPLE! The software I use is very generic.It's good for anyone to use.Mostly desktop utilities ,etc:
Thanks again for you time and best regards,
James

Re: Tom
 

I read your post. How is your town cd going. Do you find the busineses are receptive to your idea?
How much do you charge?
Kelle

Re: Tom
 

>Hi Kelle... I'm running with Don's idea starting today with a little modification. Thanks Don for another great idea. Nothing to report yet. Rather than hit people up for $500 off the top (Don's specialty :-) not mine ) I'm just having them agree to $1 a disk and a 3 month minimum. $150 upfront. If the C of C doesn't want to use this in their business package that gets mailed out, I'll mail them out on my own and ask $2 a disk, and set up a small website pointing to me. There are 3 town websites in my area and all are poorly designed & run, however combined they are averaging 12k a month in hits. Not huge, but enough to keep the advertisers around. I can ppc and optimimize my site to be #1 in short order rather inexpensively. (one of the sites is the C of C lol) I think they will be very receptive to the idea, both the C of C, and the local bus. owners. I'm also going to offer them advert. space on my website, 2 revenue streams, and they will have greater exposure. No reason both can't work side by side.

I read your post. How is your town cd going.
> Do you find the busineses are receptive to
> your idea?
> How much do you charge?
> Kelle

Re: Need expert advice please
 

>James, You posted correctly and I think Don was just offering a way to tweak what you are doing with a business idea that worked for him. If you aren't interested in his idea, how about creating multiple cards like you're doing, and offer them for sale to the local businesses as thank you gifts to their clients, or something of the like. A small website offering them wholesale to people selling on ebay or at flea mkts., etc etc would be a good idea. Dennis Bevers (sp) who frequents many of the forums might be able to give you advice. He has been in advertising specialty goods market for many years. Good luck you have a great idea and possibilities.

Thank you All,
> I really appreciate you taking the time to
> answer my post. However I may have posted it
> incorrectly.I'm not really selling software.
> The software is just a added incentive for
> people to purchase my cards. The software is
> included with each card. For example you buy
> a Birthday card you also get a
> gift(software.) Hence the name Software
> Cards. So when you purchase a card for
> someone they will also have the gift
> included so when looking for a gift for
> someone all you need do is buy a card and it
> has the gift inside.SIMPLE! The software I
> use is very generic.It's good for anyone to
> use.Mostly desktop utilities ,etc:
> Thanks again for you time and best regards,
> James

OK, here's another
 

James....why not offer a "THANK YOU CARD CLUB"?

Very few (in fact in the last 25 yrs as a consumer I think I've rec'd 3 "Thank You Cards" from anyone. One was a motel, one was a carpet store and one was a carpet cleaner)

Program #1;
Offer local businesses a service of mailing "Thank You" Cards to their customers, clients or patients. Each card would sincerely thank them and offer an "incentive to revisit" AND the end of the Card can be perforated so as to be given to a friend or relative as a "Referral tool".
And...you could spice it up by mentioning in the Thank You note that the business will pay a "Bird Dog Fee of $25" if the Card is brought in by a New Customer, Client, Patient.
Long time ago I did a "BEE BACK CLUB" the same way for Car Dealers. (The Car Dealer paid $25 if the holder of the Card bought a car. Nowadays they could give $50 per referral)
Charge for each Thank You Card. Forget the "software thingee". Just a NICE Colorful THANK YOU Card will build Good Will for your clients. Add in the "referral thing" later.

#2) EVERY Hotel & Motel REQUIRES that guests fill in a Card whenever they register for a room.
This Card contains Name, Address, Phone, Car Type and License Number.
Offer to mail Cards for Hotels/Motels offering a "Thank You" AND an incentive to their previous guests of "Stay an Extra Night On Us!"
Not one Hotel or Motel that I know of has even considered doing ANY kind of promoting during the "off season". All they do is sit around and bitch about how "9-11" has killed their business.

I took one of these "complainers" a year ago October...set up a Mailing Program sending a combination Thank You and Incentive of an extra night on the house....charged him a nice chunk o change for the service....put 2 stay at home moms to work addressing and mailing cards and the guy was SWAMPED with business.

We even had a Christmas and New Years Special where he was booked SOLID...and he's usually lucky if he get 15% occupancy during that time.

He did it again this year (on his own, the dirty dog) and AGAIN was BOOKED SOLID.

So...put together a "Program". Make up some Samples and go out and see some businesses, Accountants, Dentists, Chiropractors, Car Dealers or motel owners. This thing WORKS! And nobody is doing it!

Don Alm


Make money Restoring Wood Decks

CofC Membership
 

Remember if most C of C are like my town .. you do have access to the Chamber mailing list of members if you didn't have the time to prospect personally. Maybe a good postcard mailing could get prospects.

As a member of the Chamber .. you could be in a better position to ask them to insert your CD
into their package.

As a final point ,,, many of these chambers have "social mixers" and believe it or not the last chamber mixer I went to was full of REALTORS
.. get the hint ... you can buy a booth and hand out your sample CD for all to see .. with a great sales pitch to advertise on the CD ...

Get go'in ...

WCSandMan

Re: CofC Membership
 

> Right you are Sand...
I walked in to the C of C yesterday after post and walked out with the whole membership list in a catalog with name tel add and web add if available. For free. The local newspaper mails out a Chamber monthly meeting agenda and more about 10 pages worth and that came yesterday as well. Lots of mixers, I think that's all they do. hah! The sales membership person wasnt there so I didnt get the numbers for packages mailed out per month or membership fees, but I will go back today. Thanks again Don for the idea, James and Sand for your post. Kelle I hope you are looking into this as well. Have a good weekend.

Remember if most C of C are like my town ..
> you do have access to the Chamber mailing
> list of members if you didn't have the time
> to prospect personally. Maybe a good
> postcard mailing could get prospects.

> As a member of the Chamber .. you could be
> in a better position to ask them to insert
> your CD
> into their package.

> As a final point ,,, many of these chambers
> have "social mixers" and believe
> it or not the last chamber mixer I went to
> was full of REALTORS
> .. get the hint ... you can buy a booth and
> hand out your sample CD for all to see ..
> with a great sales pitch to advertise on the
> CD ...

> Get go'in ...

> WCSandMan

Thank You All !Your a GREAT bunch !
 

Thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to respond to my post.Your ideas and words of incouragement are amazing. This board truely does have some of the internets most wonderful members helping each other.I'd like to invite you all to my place for dinner.LOL Thanks again everyone,your the best.
Respectfully yours,
James

Re: Need expert advice please
 

Great ideas Don and everyone.

I just wanted to share my knowledge in creating CDs.

You don't need special software to make a CD autorun. All you have to do is create a text file called autorun.inf and in the file put the following:

[autorun]
open = program_name.exe

Program_name.exe is the name of the program you want to run.

This is a universal method that will work on all versions of windows and with all CD drives.

Also, if you are going to create a lot of copies of the CD consider investing in a CD duplicator.

At my former company we bought a Primera 32X Composer off eBay for about $1500.00. It is a great product! Very easy to use and the CD's are error free. You just load up to 50 CDs in the hopper at a time, click the record button and let it rip. It also has an optional printer that will imprint the label right on the CD but you have to buy special CDs to use this.

Don't forget to include...
 

private schools, child care, and churches in your likely sponsors.

me too..
 

Don,
I'd like to know where to get the autorun and other item you mentioned.
I create disks, too.

a) I use them as my brochure... I put articles I've written on them. I then put the disks in nice clear cases in business offices (with permission of course).
b) I use them to send assessment tests and things like that to my clients.

However, I'm going to move to using CD's, since disks are not used by Mac's and will go the way of floppies soon (IMO). I think it would be nice to use an auto run and maybe put a PPT presentation, about my business, on the disks since I'll have the space.




Maria's Place: Coaching, Consulting and Courses

Re: Excellent idea Steve, Thx (DNO)