In Tough Times You Have To Learn To Go Where The Money Is

      Infamous bank robber, Willie Sutton was known as a prolific U.S. bank robber. He robbed about 100 banks from the late 1920s to his final arrest in 1952 -- with several prison terms in between. He was also a master at breaking out of prisons.

           Sutton is famously known for answering a reporter who asked why he robbed banks and saying, "Because that's where the money is.”  In other words, success many times is simply about the obvious.  That’s why . . .

There’s One Market Sector that Typically Does Better

The Worse the Economy Gets – And, It’s Our Business!

When the economy is bad your suppliers are also affected by the economy as well. It’s called the trickle down effect. Yet, as quiet as it’s kept, people that market and sell money making opportunity resources typically do better the worse the economy gets. 

On the other hand, certain business industries struggle during a recession whereas other businesses don’t. For instance, if you work in finance, automobile sales, retail, real estate and/or the residential industries, your industry will probably be impacted more then most. 

However, like us, if you’re in the healthcare and money making industries, chances you just may experience a boom in your business.  The good news with us – is that we are in both industries – healthcare and opportunity.

People will always get sick.  People will always need vitamins, supplements and health related pharmaceutical drugs. That’s a given regardless of the state of the economy.

Health related occurrences are economy free.  Such products could care less about the state of the economy; interest rates or the Dow Jones industrial.  Just as tomorrow is virtually insured of coming, people will always have ailments, maladies and concerns and will pay dearly to alleviate them. 

On the other hand, as the economy worsens, the two areas that will always remain of high interest is one’s ability to make more money and remain healthy.

You can be certain that during a recession, people will start looking for other means of income – which is also why now is such a great time to capitalize on the wellness market.

This Is Just Amazing!

Moral of Story:  Confidence is everything!

             You have to act like you belong.  Even if you don’t think you do.   You need to at least show that you do, even if only in your mind.  Because what you firmly believe in your mind — eventually can and will become your reality.

            My father used to always say, “Perception is reality.”  When you begin to really believe your new (successful) reality others eventually will as well.  They can’t but help too.   That’s why I always recommend that you hang around achievers.  Go to their seminars or conferences.   Mingle and network.   Many times they will see themselves in you when they first got started.   Be confident in your new destiny. 

            Understand there’s a difference between confidence and arrogance.   Confidence is quiet.  Arrogance is brash and annoying.  

          Confidence is having the belief that you belong.

          I think why the lions were alarmed is because no animal on earth ever approaches them in such situations.   It’s a new experience for them.  A new reality.  Most animals run from lions, not come towards them.   Particularly when they’re eating.   The tribesmen showed no fear.  Animals keenly sense fear.   They didn’t have any.

            What’s interesting was how the tribesmen knew they needed to act fast, because it could quickly change if they showed any vulnerability.    The tribesmen were smart enough to know to only take a portion of the Wildebeest and leave most of it for the lions.

             There’s a very powerful message in their actions.   The main one was that confidence is entirely a mental state.   Sane or not sane.   It’s about not being afraid.

            The tribesmen were really “Bluffing” the lions.   Those lions could have easily killed those tribesmen if they attacked them.  If so, we would have laughed calling 

them fools!

            That’s why one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to believe you’re too old to do something.  

             Too old for what?   Too old for living your life more fully. Daring  yourself what might have been.

Did You Know You're Only One Direct Mail Letter Away From A Fortune.

How profitable is direct mail letter writing?

Extremely.  For instance, I had one letter I wrote that generated over $375,000 in four months. One letter that took me a couple days to write generated over $75,237 in sales in just two months. One simple letter I recently wrote has already generated over $48,000 in sales and I probably spent no more than three days writing it. 

Is that cool, or what?   Likewise, I can teach you how to turn everyday 'taken for granted' paper into money.  

Of course I can't guarantee you will have the same results.   I'm a professional direct mail copywriter.  I've been at this a long time and have studied from the greats.  I can guarantee you that I reveal to you everything I know.

Understand that is what is so beautiful about the magic of direct marketing. It gives you the ability to immediately take back control of your life. To live an exquisite life of luxury and comfort I’m sure you so crave in your life right now.

“If You Cannot Afford An Opportunity — Then You Probably Cannot Afford To Pass It Up!”

Well, back in the day I decided to attend one of those traveling infomercial opportunities that would hit local markets about some home based opportunity.  Well after you attend the intro event they usually try to backend you into the main program. 

            It was a three day workshop for $297 — which was a lot of money back then.   Any way I had to tell the guy putting on the seminar that I would not be able to attend.  I could  not afford to pay $297.

            I was embarrassed to admit to him that I couldn’t afford to attend because it was revealing my true state.   A state I really didn’t want anyone to know about.   When he heard why I told him why.  He responded by saying . . .

  

“If You Cannot Afford It —

Then You Cannot Afford To Pass It Up!”

            I then told him I that I just didn’t have the money.   

            He then promptly asked me, “How long have you been working?”

            I said, “Well, I’m not working now.   I got laid off.”

            “I’m sorry about that,” he responded.  Then said, “Let me ask you this . . . when you did work, how many hours a week did you work.”

            I said, “At least 40 to 50 hours a week for four years.”

            The guru then said “If you take 40 hours a week times 50 for four years that’s over 8,000 hours you spend making someone else rich.  What do you really have to show for it?”

            I was like wow he had a point.  All that and I still couldn’t afford $297.

            He then said, “Chris that’s just for four years.  There are people doing this for ten and twenty years . . . .

             Do you know how many people I talk to during this work shop that tell me the same thing.  They cannot afford to attend.   All ages.   People in their thirties, fifties, and seventies.    People that really cannot afford not to attend this workship.  They really can’t.    They have it all backwards.  These are people that have spent literally thousands of hours not being able to afford to save their lives.”

            The guru then asked me if I considered myself a hard worker.

            I said, “Sure.”

            “Well here’s a chance for you to take back control of your life.  Teach you how to become independent and free from someone that is already a self made multi-millionaire and you’re thinking you cannot afford to do this,”  he responded.

            “If you cannot afford this, you cannot afford to pass it by.”

            He then said “What if I could guarantee that if you could increase your income by over one hundred thousand dollars over the next 12 months with the secrets I want to share with you, would the $297 be worth it to you?  Would it be worth it to you to take a chance on this.”

            I told him “Man I’m really struggling right now.  I’ve had to move home.  I’ve depleted my savings.

            He then said “Let me ask you this Chris.  Do you see yourself as a good investment?  Because if  you don’t think you’re a good investment, why should anyone else?” 

            Okay, the multi-millionaire dude was blowing me away with such commensense logic.

            You know, asking me if I thought I was worth at least $297 to take a chance on empowering and taking back control of my life.  Of course I thought so. 

            He had me.  Now I had to find out.   I didn’t want to be the person looking back on his life  in regret. Thinking what could have been.   And you know what . . .

It Was The Best

Decision Of My Life Bar None!

            It’s one of the reasons why I’m where I am today.    I will admit I convinced my parents to help pay for it, but it was worth it.   It was great training.  I learned a lot about direct response marketing.  Learning not to only speak to one person at a time, but to always speak to people in numbers.   The work shop was instrumental in my direct marketing development. 

            Many of the principals I learned there are still relevant today — even on the Internet. 

            Here’s what else I learned.           

            In life there is a cost of doing something and there’s also a cost for not doing something.   I was looking at the cost of doing something when I should have really been looking at what it would cost not to attend. 

Offline Marketing Versus Online Marketing

Online is ultimately where you want to be . . . But . . .

It’s a well known fact that only 5% of the people who try to make money online are successful. That means that 95% of them fail to make money online.

The biggest reason making money online is so hard is because it actually takes skill and patience to do it. It’s not quite as easy as the web letters make it out to be.   

 As you may already know, there’s a tremendous learning curve online.  The upside is tremendous once you build an email list, but you will have to exercise patience to build your network and brand.   For some, it’s just too much and overwhelming.

You know, having to learn things like list building, article submission, blogging, SEO, Keeping up with (The Artful Dodger) Google who is always changing the game and getting more expensive by the day, Social Media Growth, Twitter, Deliverability, etc.  It can be frustrating trying to learn how to generate traffic.  Not to mention how competitive it is. 

Don’t get me wrong!

Ultimately you have to have a web presence if you ever want to be taken serious as business owner.   It’s where everything is going.  However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do direct mail as well.  In fact:

Direct Mail Is The Perfect Business For Those

Impatient And Want To Get Into Money Fast

If want to 'get into money fast' and take an aggressive approach to your marketing, you should consider taking what you’re doing online and taking it offline directly to your most targeted customers.

It certainly could allow you to make some nice early money and then slowly transition your offline business online.    In other words, make money as you learn. 

Offline if you have a strong "Free Recorded Message" postcard or sales letter and a decent list you can reach your market immediately.   You do have more money at risk because of  the cost of printing and postage.   It does take know how and extreme attention to detail, because you can lose your shirt if you don’t know what you’re doing.  No need to worry, because if you decide to team up with me as a consultant,  I will hold your hand and guide you.

Still don’t believe people respond by direct mail?

According to an article written last year by Mal Warwick, direct mail is alive and kicking.  In the article he stated that in the fund raising industry more money is raised through direct mail than email, in fact he says that email only accounts for 2 percent of the total funds raised in the United States by non profits, that is only $7 billion out of $306 billion.

Obviously at this point, I don’t have to keep selling you on the merits of direct mail.

There’s not a better way for you to quietly dominate a market with very little competition.  I’m living proof.  If you want, I will teach you everything I know and you can initially just test drive my knowledge and expertise for a buck.

What The New York City Caricature Vendor Hustle Can Mean To Your Bottom Line

Sign reads: “Need money for
 beer, pot and Hookers.  At least
 I’m not bull shittin you!

It’s been quite an interesting month for April and I.  First of all we spent Memorial Weekend in New York City.  We typically like to visit the city a couple times a year. We really enjoy plays and the city ambiance.

There is no city in the world quite like New York City. The simultaneous smell of roasted nuts, hot dogs, shish kabob, and urine all combined in one aroma only NYC can bring you!  We stayed in Time Square — a half block from where the Times Square car bomber parked his SUV.  Right in front of Toy’s R Us.  

What was remarkably amazing is that one of the street vendors on that corner was not even aware of the whole car bomber incident.  How do I know?  I asked him.  He was like . . ."What are you talking about.”

I just paused . . . looked at April and said “Geez, dude would have just been dead.”  

Of course, being a marketer, I always try to see the marketing lesson in everything I do and I will tell you one that I is quite clever are the street vendor caricature artists. 

  

You walk by them and they will say “Caricature five dolla!”  Of course, you’re thinking “Five bucks, that’s cheap.” 

Here’s where they get you . . .

The frames are twenty bucks!

As a tourist you can’t travel with your picture not in a frame it will get wrinkled.  They bottom up sell you.  How clever, but is it really. 

It’s the same concept with a free trial offer, eh?  Pay only $6.95 now and we will process your order for $57 for the balance.  Only the street vendor tells you after the fact.  You can of course turn down the card board frame, but no one ever does.

Perhaps.  Here’s what I mean.  April and I were chilling in Time Square one of the evenings when we saw a young guy with a Mohawk holding a sign that read “Homeless, Broke, and Just Looking for Some Weed.”

Shaking my head. Only in New York.  

We saw a Cop approach him and tell him he had to move.  Probably within five minutes the same Cop walked by us and I asked him about the “Weed Dude.”  He laughed.

He told us pan handlers can’t loiter, they have to move.  We talked about the “Naked Cowboy.”  Here’s what was amazing . . . April and I saw this drunk pan handler with a sign that read  “Please donate so I can stay drunk on beer.” 

The cop said that guy has been in New York for years pan handling and took all his money from pan handling and purchased a $75,000 home in Pennsylvania.  Amazing!

At least if you’re going to pan handle, give people a chuckle and they will be more inclined to donate, if for anything your gall. 

Most evidence confirms that panhandling is not lucrative, although some panhandlers clearly are able to subsist on a combination of panhandling money, government benefits, and money from odd jobs.  However, if I were you, I’d keep my day job. 

Email Over Load With The Next Guru Scam Launch! Oh Please!

How's your email box?  

Whereas your mailbox
 ain't got much!

Mine is overloaded with all these over hyped Clickbank offers.   Geez, it's crazy.  Not to mention most of the offers are promoting a bunch of rehashed garbage.  Most don't even tell you what the offer is about.  Only that 32 year old Harry Hype is making $127,237 a month from only four clicks because he figured out how to "trick" Google. 

"Geez, I need to get that."    Not!!

What I have found interesting is that some respected Internet marketers are promoting some of these offers as well.  It makes me even wonder if they purchase the offers they're promoting.  Or, do the programs even really work.  It really starts to become a credibility issue. 

Making money becomes almost too easy.  The easy lure with Internet marketing comes when you have a huge email list of some 100,000 plus names and you're in an affiliate contest.  Sometimes these guys get more caught up in winning the contest then they really are about helping their customers by promoting such a "weak or over hyped" product. 

Plus, because it doesn't really cost them much of anything to send out those 100,000 emails, they really have nothing to lose.  It's not like it's costing them postage.  The lure of easy money is just too tempting -- and they do make huge money.

Ironically what they do lose is their credibility.  You start to feel that perhaps they don't have their customers best interest.by selling out to greed.  What you also don't know is that such offers do incur a lot of charge-backs, declines and refunds.   

Personally to me it's not worth it in the long run.  Everyone ultimately has to make their own decisions.   

I say all this to say to Internet Gurus . . . what about the customer.  Who has their back?

Well, for one, I do. 

I suggest go more low key even if you are making a killing.  Don't lose touch with your customers and what they're really going through. Make everything seem more approachable.  More reachable.

I tend to respond to people that more homesy and folksy.   People like Marlon Sanders, Willie Crawford or Jennifer the Potpiegirl.    No matter how wealthy you get in this business, never lose touch of the heartbeat of your market.   You will do better in the long run.