I got a lot of questions, over the next few days, I'll give my answers...but, if you

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

3) Writing for profit, or even to make a living- travel writing, e-books, copy writing, slf publishing, etc.
In the last ten years or so, I've noticed a lot of marketers selling courses, membership to sites, e-books, webinars about writing for profit.

A lot of the promotion is about becoming a copywriter. I'm really not interested in becoming a freelance copywriter until I can write copy for my own products, and even then probably wouldn't have much interest.

I believe Jim Straw addressed the issue of freelance copy writing by saying that before you charge others to write copy you should be able to write good copy for your own products. Plus, there's so many copywriters out there already-both wannabes & pros.

First, although I've done pretty well as a HACK writer, a lot of areas have become commodities. Copy writing being one of the most glutted of the areas.

Since I used plethora already, how about an OVERABUNDANCE of would be copy writers. Only good ones will make a living at it, or by estimate, less than 5 0f 100 who take a course from_____________ (anyone).

And with Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the scene, pursuing Copywriting may be an exercise in frustration.

Also, I'm not big on the whole FREELANCE gig thing. Always chasing after work, half of them end up in hot IRS soup because they didn't put back enough taxes, feast to famine...

I do like to write (or did) under contract. I'd say most of mine were renewable 90 day contracts, with specific goals and outcomes written into the agreement.

But writing is an EVERGREEN MARKET. If you can write, and want to, the write what pleases you and brings in the money you want.

My kid just inked a deal to have her new book published, but she worked very hard for a couple of years to get the right agent. Sure, we can always self publish our writing, but going through that experience of rejection, rejection, and more rejection to accptance, a contract and a book on the shelves via "old world" publishing is still considered an accomplishment. Of course, she can write.

It helps if you have a point of view, a voice, a style.

But to write for a profit is pretty much the bulk of my work the last couple of decades.

Here is what I've found out. I teach a simple process:

Write a HOTSHEET.
Then a four page White Paper.
A 10 page report.
Add graphics, resources, illustrations.

Rinse and repeat; Bundle and sell.

Certainly NOT rocket science. But you can't believe how many people I've talked with who want to profit from their writing and can't even create a simple one page HOTSHEET, and I never hear from them again.

Here is my best advice:

Writers Write.

If you do that and work with a Focus, foundation, and framework, you will profit from your writing.

Gordon

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Since I used plethora already, how about an OVERABUNDANCE of would be copy writers. Only good ones will make a living at it, or by estimate, less than 5 0f 100 who take a course from_____________ (anyone).

Here's a current observation I've been making...

I never really looked for people advertising their copywriting abilities. But recently, I've come across people promoting their copywriting services...

And their self-promotions were... let's be polite... no good. The "selling" in their own writing, to sell their services, were terrible...

However, people who know little or nothing about sales or copywriting likely would not notice it. So they may still get a few clients (though I expect not many)... Those they get are probably due to their "low-ball" rates...

I think it is a very valuable skill to learn some essential sales and copywriting principles...

Advertising is "salesmanship in print"... That was apparently said 113 years ago by adman John E. Kennedy, and it's still true today...!

Gordon once advised me to get some experience in really selling. (That is, where you actively make a sale to someone; not where you are a kind of "order taker" for someone who was planning to buy already...) I took his advice, and it has benefited me ever since...!

Best wishes,

Dien

[unpinkpanther]

Have you heard of the advice to write the sales letter FIRST before the product?

What do you think of that? Do you recommend that?

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Advertising is "salesmanship in print"... That was apparently said 113 years ago by adman John E. Kennedy, and it's still true today...!

Dien

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by unpinkpanther

Have you heard of the advice to write the sales letter FIRST before the product?

What do you think of that? Do you recommend that?

When I had "students", I almost always made them write the sales pitch first.

Now, we're talking about creating info products out of thin air, and the air inside my head is as thin as it gets.

If acquiring a product, or working off of something already known, you can build from general knowledge about the subject.

Writing the PROMOTION does help in several ways. It helps organize your thoughts, it keeps your ideal PROSPECT (avatar) clearly in your bubble of preoccupation, and it makes you consider the MEDIA, or place, where the INTERSECTION takes place.

So, I believe it is a good idea to write the promotion (rough draft) before you make it or create it.

Sometimes, in the real world, you're handed a thing and told to write copy. For example, I was once given a tea cup from the TITANIC and asked to write a promotion about it. Other considerations came into play, including how it fit in the "catalog" of collectibles for this.

I wrote a promotion for a golf club and had to make the mundane interesting and exciting. Wedges aren't as exciting as Drivers, putters and utility clubs.

So, if thinking of adding to your INFORMATION EMPIRE, then sure, write promo first.

It makes you THINK. Nothing wrong with that unless it is all you do, eh?

Gordon

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Here's a current observation I've been making...

I never really looked for people advertising their copywriting abilities. But recently, I've come across people promoting their copywriting services...

And their self-promotions were... let's be polite... no good. The "selling" in their own writing, to sell their services, were terrible...

However, people who know little or nothing about sales or copywriting likely would not notice it. So they may still get a few clients (though I expect not many)... Those they get are probably due to their "low-ball" rates...

I think it is a very valuable skill to learn some essential sales and copywriting principles...

Advertising is "salesmanship in print"... That was apparently said 113 years ago by adman John E. Kennedy, and it's still true today...!

Gordon once advised me to get some experience in really selling. (That is, where you actively make a sale to someone; not where you are a kind of "order taker" for someone who was planning to buy already...) I took his advice, and it has benefited me ever since...!

Best wishes,

Dien

i ca'nt abide in blatant:, spelling and punctuation errors, especially the lower case i Will NEVER hire that guy. Although, I, am especially known, albeit in small circles, for over using commas...and ellipses. Do as i say, not as I do.

Also, there are several Sh*t copy writers, not bad writers, but they have to use the word SH*T in every thing they write. That may work for guys wanting 20/30 something teenagers (mostly prurient) as customers, but, if it is part and parcel of every piece of writing a guy does, NO thanks.

There are some good writers, and they are getting cheaper and cheaper, so it is a good buy as a commodity. As a consumer, good for me.

As a would be copy writer, not good for you.

Gordon

[GordonJ]

Information is easy to create or acquire. It is easy to sell. It is wanted. Needed. And people will pay YOU to get it. And technology allows you to sell and market your HOTSHEET with as much automation as possible. YOU can be sitting on the beach sipping a cool one and still be making money.

A HOTSHEET is usually a single piece of paper with topical information.

We consider Folios, Brochures, Instruction Sheets, Plans, Blueprints, Formulas, Cheats, Cheatsheets, Study Guides or any printed brief sheet of paper to be a HOTSHEET.

The size and shape doesn’t really matter. It is the brevity that counts.

For this purpose a HOTSHEET is anything printed on one or just a few pieces of paper that contains condensed and useful information, information that people WANT or NEED, and will pay for.to be a HOTSHEET.

Some sites to see different kinds of HOTSHEETS:

www.u-bild.com Plans

www.jinnybeyer.com Patterns

www.tipsbooklets.com Paulette Ensign, BOOKLETS ( a type of HOTSHEET)

http://www.barcharts.com/ Study guides

Sneaky Pete: http://bit.ly/2qenN4u

http://www.bigreddaily.com/

Millions of dollars are spent, one buck at a time, during college and NFL football seasons, on little bet slips, probably the most profitable, albeit, illegal...of all HOTSHEETS.

My story hasn't changed in advising people in the last 15 years. INFORMATION is an ideal product to offer.

I believe it should be in every MARKETERS tool box. It can be a small trickle stream of income, or it could be the main river of profits.

In two days, my 2017 revised APV report is going off the market, along with some of my other work which Dien has agreed to retire.

I'll answer questions, help however I can, and assist you IF you are a customer before MAY 1, 2017. After that, it will be hard for a non customer to get ahold of me and what little time I have allotted to deal with people, it will be a customer first situation.

I'm hoping all my writing related work will be taken off the market, Dien and I may repurpose it, may not...as part of a different venture, we are BETA testing now.

This will include the SOWPUB Writers Tollbooth, Small Reports report too.

You may have noticed we are starting to streamline things.

Less to come.

Gordon

www.writerstollbooth.com/apv2017.pdf

A type of hotsheet you might want to own, or sell, witH Trump as POTUS: Bomb Shelter

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

A HOTSHEET is usually a single piece of paper with topical information.

We consider Folios, Brochures, Instruction Sheets, Plans, Blueprints, Formulas, Cheats, Cheatsheets, Study Guides or any printed brief sheet of paper to be a HOTSHEET.

The size and shape doesn’t really matter. It is the brevity that counts.

Hi Gordon,

I remember one type of hotsheet you mentioned in the past was the Fishing Guide hotsheet... Which tells you the best places to fish in a particular region.

The info would probably change from month to month, and with the seasons...

Best wishes,

Dien

www.writerstollbooth.com/apv2017.pdf

A type of hotsheet you might want to own, or sell, witH Trump as POTUS: Bomb Shelter

[Dien Rice]

Hi Gordon,

Here's another example of a hotsheet I haven't seen mentioned here before...

It's called The Best of Journalism, by journalist Conor Friedersdorf.

He finds what in his opinion are the best long-form non-fiction articles.

Each weekly issue (sent by email) primarily consists of the headlines, plus links to those articles. For some of the articles (but not all), he writes a sentence or three introducing the article. The whole thing is less than a page.

He charges just $1.99 per month, but I suspect it would be relatively quick for him to put together (since he probably reads these articles anyway, as it's related to his work).

I don't know for sure, but I suspect he probably has thousands of paying subscribers.

The Best of Journalism
http://thebestofjournalism.com

Here are some of the articles he linked to in 2015...

Slightly More Than 100 Exceptional Works of Journalism
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...nalism/490622/

Best wishes,

Dien

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

4.) Additional fly low type businesses or activities that you may not have mentioned very much on your forum.

First, lets get on the same page. Flying under the radar has different connotations to people, for example:

Some might think in terms of an all cash, underground economy type thing. Like your babysitter, or like Rush Limbaugh's illegal housekeeper who got his opiods for him, those kind of things.

For others, they may infer illegal, or even illicit activity.

So, let me tell you how I came up with my version of fly low and collect the dough, OK?

There was a period of time when I was on TV, in magazines and local newspapers because of my OFFKEY SINGING TELEGRAM Biz. My wife and I went out to eat, and I was recognized. It was a creepy, uncomfortable feeling. As minor as my "celebrity" was, I wanted nothing to do with it. If I had any at all, I'd make Alec Baldwin look like an obedient Teen girl in a Donald Trump pageant.

So, I decided after that, I didn't want to be "recognized" by strangers. I prefer to fly low and collect the dough.

But, for full disclosure here, I was a Harry Browne and Howard Ruff student. And I knew who Colonel Cooper, Kurt Saxon, Bruce Clayton, et al. were. And there is a part of me that once embraced the survivalist thinking, or sorts. But, as a child, I thought, of course, of childish things.


Are we on the same page as far as what FLY LOW means to me? If so, here are links to other type of fly low activities:

For the would be Crime Boss http://bit.ly/2ppGKQX

Under the table anyone? http://bit.ly/2qiXOVS

If you must HIDE from the world: http://bit.ly/2oAmzQY

And from the GJA weird archives.

For two years I was a simulated patient at a nearby medical school, presenting myself and symptoms to would be doctors to do their best HOUSE impression. Paid well. I don't know about plasma centers, other than they are popular with college kids.

Now these were some part time jobs, all paying above average:

A food sampler at grocery stores.
A courier.
A driving instructor.
Golf teacher.
Focus groups. The local mall had plenty of these little jobs, and I did every Suarez focus group I knew about.

The fly low concept is just about making money, not making a lot of noise about making a little money, you want that? Visit the Warrior Forum. Sirens of ez dough yelling at ya.

Gordon

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

5.) How to profit from liquidations, surplus, and closeouts.

"Slop and Mess". Not for me, today. But I do belong to groups, if you are interested in this, this Facebook group is good, the leader and a few members know what they are doing:

http://bit.ly/2oMRftx

I have 3 of these facilities within an our of me, one in Medina, only about 40 minutes away.

My smart azz answer is, profit by avoidance. But, yes, the Jim Straw way holds up. HAVE BUYERS FIRST. See? It is a form of chatteling.

And who buys? Start with sellers.

There was a time when Joe Karbo showed me the HOTSHEET he paid to get every week about all these things.

But, long before Big Lots, 99 Cent, Dollar Tree, Dollar Stores, Dollar General, and a million and one Internet Marketers getting into it.

I really can't add anything, my experience is I think, outdated. Although I still look through the Junk that SCI has to sell, only because I can get it dirt cheap and make a buck on the postage too.

It takes a lot of spreadsheet activity, a lot of phone and contact work, and with Amazon in the game...I can't see a reason why I would suggest someone look into this, unless they come from a background of it, or they have the contacts to move it in big lots.

I'm sure there are plenty of gurus to take your money and teach you the ez money tricks. Not me, and it is at this time, not for me.

Good luck if you get into it.

Gordon