Back to the Future with Circulars, Hotsheets and Folios

[GordonJ]

GULP! Have I bitten off more than I can chew?

Well, we'll see. But here's the deal.

Since the response has been overwhelming and there are so many great ideas to choose from, it should be a very interesting test.

It appears that each package I send out will have 6-7 pieces of paper, 12 to 14 pages. Some may be 11 x 17 folded in half, most will be single pieces of paper.


That means about 6 to 7 thousand pieces printed and mailed PER 1000.

It could get messy (for me) very quickly, as in keeping track and getting mailings out...I AM taking Ankesh's very good advice and outsourcing almost everything.

Here's ONE problem I'm facing, so if you have a solution, shout it out.

Should I have a web site where people can select the 5 TOPICS they want to receive? Since I already have over a dozen topics, and a commitment from people who are eager to do them...

I'd like to be able to segment, or at least give people a chance to choose which ones they would like to receive.

So, my THINKING, which may not be great on this...is...

I'll give people 5 HOTSHEETS and charge 2 dollars and then 50 cents for every other one they select. Does this sound fair?

So far, I like a couple of ideas, tell me what you think, OK?

GrannyC is offering a hotsheet on her dumster diving expolits and two, back to back...others...one on a Coupon Clipping Club, where people send in ten coupons and get 20 back on things they want...


And a RECIPE club, where people REGISTER their recipes to be included in future cookbooks as well as being guaranteed to be put and mailed on 1000 circulars. She has priced all recipes at 2 bux, and the idea is to sell your registered recipes and start a club/group of people who buy and sell recipes.

Another lady is a backyard garden specialist, she does something called a Pyramid garden, it looks like a pyramid and goes about 5 feet up with spreading plants on the bottom well and she teaches gardening/cooking specializing in heirloom and organic vegan type stuff. I'm not sure the market is big enough for this however. .....

Another lady wants to write on getting grants, which is her full time job, and her back end would be to help people write them...she claims there is a lot of money out there in grants, again, I'm not sure how big the market might be on this one.

So, would a web site which allows a person to pick and choose which circulars she wants, and charge a minimal fee be feasible?

I'm tempted to just keep it to the original 5 and test and see what happens, which is probably what I'm going to do, but, looking ahead, and IF it works and takes off, why not expand it...

I remember several little reports and folios from the 60's which turned into magazines, like Soldier of Fortune and Entrepreneur and Mother Earth News. Who knows?

While magazines are dying off like crazy maybe hotsheets and newsletters can take their place??????

Good news is there is some great mailing list software, and so many hungry printers/mailers out there, outsourcing won't be a problem...the question is can I get it quickly to scale up and be a hands nearly off project for me???? If other people write their own hotsheets and provide what we used to call camera ready copy....why not?

Thanks for any and all feedback, even that by PM or email, it is greatly appreciated.

The first mailing will have 7 sheets of paper and go out to 1000 people.

Next, is to create a free report to build a list of niches from.

Gordon Alexander