In 'defense' of Don: I've been lurking in the shadows for several years (maybe 7 or so), and this is my 1st post. I've ALWAYS found Don's posts (ok, maybe 80% of them) full of good, workable ideas. I don't need to try any of them--but they give a good, base level education in (door to door) advertising.
At one point in my life, I was between engineering contracts (I was in the Defense Industry), and I needed some extra money. I 'borrowed' Don's idea of a daily restaurant special fax sheet. I put on a suit, went to a local hospital, stopped at every nurses station and asked if they would like to receive a daily fax with specials from local restaurants, and daily love horoscopes. I carried a clip board (so I wouldn't get thrown out by security), and had them fill out and sign I postcard I printed up--so my fax wouldn't be considered spam. I collected about 150 'permission' cards. I used Publisher to make up a page of business card size squares for the daily specials. Around the border of the page I 'created' horoscopes. Always something good or positive to happen for each sign. I took my stack of pink permission cards to every restaurant, clothing and jewelry store in the neighborhood around the hospital. I charged them $25 a week (probably too little, but I didn't test the price), and WALA! as Don regretably says--$1200 for each of the 2 months I needed the extra money. The hardest part was creating the horoscopes each morning! I made up 5 master sheets of daily menues (because Monday's menu repeats every Monday, etc). I edited in the horoscopes, and hit the send button. I quickly learned 3 important lessons: 1) Get off your ass and try it--who knows, it might work! and you may meet someone who opens a another (more lucrative) door for you; 2) If you get a 'No' from a prospect, you're just one call closer to your next 'yes'! (and you only need 12 yesses to make this work); and 3) each sale is worth $100 a month to you, so trudge on! trudge on! And a final note: Now that I'm back on SOWPUB, I actually search for threads that have posts by ADMAN. (I can't believe I'm admitting this) because 1)my time for reading forums is limited--so I limit the scope of the forum, and 2)Don's solutions for posted 'problems' gets my brain going! And if you hate the idea of selling face to face--get over it! Life is selling yourself--to an employer, a spouse, to a cop when you get pulled over etc.