Actual for You - Home Based Business

Commercial Financing for Special Purpose Business Properties
Funeral homes, assisted living facilities, campgrounds and other special purpose properties represent one of the most difficult commercial loan situations which will be confronted by a business owner. Unique properties are not easily understood by traditional lenders, so the most common solution involves finding a non-traditional lender for funeral home financing as well as commercial financing for other special purpose properties. Such non-traditional lenders will be appropriate for purchase situations as well as refinancing and new construction.KEY REASONS FOR DIFFICULTY IN ARRANGING COMMERCIAL FINANCING FOR SPECIAL PURPOSE PROPERTIES(1) By definition special purpose properties are not similar to other commercial properties. This makes many lenders uncomfortable due to the likely difficulty of finding another owner for a unique commercial property should it be necessary due to a loan default.(2) For funeral homes and many other special purpose commercial properties, most of the business value is represented by non-real estate assets. With traditional commercial lenders that focus on commercial real estate loans, it is almost impossible to get a loan based on the real estate value and the business value. For example, it is not uncommon to have a situation in which the real estate for a funeral home is valued at less than one million dollars while the overall business value is in excess of three million dollars.(3) Because commercial financing is so difficult to arrange for special purpose properties such as funeral homes, assisted living facilities and campgrounds, sellers of such properties are generally willing to provide substantial seller financing to assist the buyer in acquiring the business. However, many traditional lenders do not recognize or accept seller financing as a means of reducing down payment requirements for special purpose properties.(4) Many lenders simply do not understand the business complexities associated with a special purpose property. As a result, it is not uncommon for these lenders to attach onerous and expensive requirements such as business plans and environmental reviews. In most cases such lenders do not even want to make the business loan but will use undesirable loan requirements as a means of appearing to approve a loan when in fact they have disapproved the loan by adding commercial loan terms that they do not expect a commercial borrower to accept.COMMERCIAL LOAN SOLUTIONS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSE PROPERTIES For a business borrower facing the situation described above, the highest priority should be to locate a non-traditional commercial lender that engages in the following commercial loan practices:(1) Openly welcomes special purpose properties and routinely finances such properties.(2) Provides commercial financing for both the business and real estate.(3) Accepts substantial seller financing.(4) Does not add special requirements to the business loan for special purpose commercial properties.(5) Has a history of making loans for the specific type of property under consideration.(6) Can accommodate both small and large commercial loans for special purpose commercial properties (for example, loans as small as $100,000 and loans as large as $5 million or higher).Copyright 2005-2006 AEX Commercial Financing Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

the fields are different from those which interest you.
MAILORDER PRINCIPLES ARE THE SAME FOR EVERY MARKET!

The first magazine which I analyzed was ASTROLOGY - YOUR DAILY
HOROSCOPE, December 1975. I would like to begin with the
Merchandise Offerings.

ASTROLOGY (MERCHANDISE)

The first ad is for personalized stationary. Any mailorder man
knows you can sell personalized stationary to any market. But
this dealer took a commonplace product and adapted it to the
Astrological market. Next to the name and address which he
prints on the stationary, he prints the Astrological sun sign
and he calls it ZODIAC STATIONARY.

The next ad is for another very commonplace product -- soap!
You can buy soap in any grocery store. But this soap is
special. It has YOUR ZODIAC SIGN imprinted in it, and it lasts
as long as the soap lasts. Here is another good example of
adapting a commonplace product to the special interests and
desires of your prospective customers.

If you are now selling a product by mail and you would like to
increase you sales, make a list of the kinds of people you would
like to sell it to. (For example, doctors, waitresses, farmers,
gun collectors, etc.) Then go back and ask yourself what you
could do to your product to make it appeal to each individual
group. You'll be amazed at how you can turn commonplace items
into red hot mailorder sellers just by taking the time to put
yourself in your customer's shoes for a while.

Personal Loans For Home Purchases
It is of course more expensive since the interest rates on home loans are generally lower but if you can’t resort to home loans it is definitely an option to consider. Provable income is a must to qualify for a mortgage loan as well as good credit. You may meet the rest of the loan requirements but if you can’t probe that you have the necessary income to afford the monthly payments, chances are you won’t be able to get approved for a mortgage loan.Pool Of Personal Loans With several personal loans of $5000 to $10000, you could easily raise the money needed to purchase a home. Many banks offer pre-approved personal loans for that amounts without having to meet additional requirements than those you needed to open the bank account.With the aid of some friends and/or family you can obtain a pool of personal loans and get the money to purchase a home. This method requires that you have an excellent income though you may not be able to prove it. This is due to the fact that personal loans carry higher interest rates than home loans and thus the overall monthly payment of the combined loans will be significantly higher. Easing Requirements And Reducing The Advantages The main advantage of this method is that the requirements for approval are eased. You no longer will have to prove a steady income (two years in the same job) nor will you have to show an impeccable credit history in order to get approved. Most of these loans are already pre-approved by banks and lenders so they are really easy to get.However, the interest rate you’ll have to pay will be significantly higher. The interest rate of personal loans can double the rate of secured loans like home loans (12% APR instead of 6% APR) which can turn the pool of loans more onerous. Also, the repayment program of personal loans is generally shorter than that of home loans. Thus, chances are you won’t get longer repayment programs than 10 years and therefore, the monthly installments combined will be high too.And above all, your friends or family are risking ruining their credit if you can’t repay the loans on time. They must be ready to afford the monthly payments on their own if they want to make sure their credit score will remain untouched. Otherwise, a late payment, missed payment or default will ruin their credit history. The Advantages However, your home purchase won’t be at risk of repossession. Since the property wasn’t used as collateral the lenders can’t claim it in order to recover their money. Besides, you can always take a home loan later when you can show provable income and repay the previous loans obtaining longer repayment programs, lower rates and thus, smaller monthly payments. It’s just like refinancing an outstanding home loan.

Pick up almost any book or report on Mailorder Selling and
invariably you will find the same advice. When you select a
mailorder product, select one which:

- appeals to a large segment of the population
- is not readily available in stores
- is easy to ship by mail
- is worthwhile
- and a product that lends itself to repeat orders

Most mail order writers will also tell you to try to acquire
exclusive selling rights to your product. Most writers will
agree that a dealer has a better chance of succeeding in the
mailorder business if he has created the product himself.

All of this is certainly good advice. The trouble with it is
that it does not go far enough. It does not tell you HOW to
create a product that is exclusively you own. In what follows,
I would like to show you, step by step, HOW to create your own
mailorder product.

I would like to begin by making a very revolutionary statement.
THE FIRST STEP ON THE ROAD TO MAIL ORDER SUCCESS IS NOT THE
SELECTION OF A PRODUCT! That may sound like a very strange
statement, but there are three things you must do (if you want
to be successful) before you ever select a product to sell by
mail!

FIRST, you must ANALYZE YOURSELF. You will only succeed in
selling a product, or a line of mailorder products if you really
enjoy selling them, if you can be honestly enthusiastic about
them, and if they are products you yourself would honestly want
to buy.

SECOND, you must SELECT YOUR MARKET. Once you have analyzed
yourself, you will want to sell to people who have interests
similar to your own. Only then will you be comfortable in your
mailorder business.

THIRD, you must thoroughly ANALYZE YOUR MARKET. Before you
ever select a product, you should KNOW what your market is
buying, what it would like to buy, if available, and what it
will buy form you, in the very near future.

Once you have analyzed yourself, selected your market, and then
thoroughly analyzed your market, you will have no trouble
selecting or creating a product to sell by mail. It will almost
select you! Now, let's go back and study these three steps, one
by one.

ANALYZE YOURSELF

To help you understand yourself, sit down and, as honestly as
possible, write out your answers to the following questions:

1. When I go to a newstand, what kind of magazines appeal to ME?

2. What kind of books do I really like to read?

3. When I daydream, what do I daydream about?

4. What do I do with my free time? (How do I spend my
evenings? What do I do on weekends?)

5. What do I do on my vacation?

6. What one subject interests me more than any other subject in
the world?

7. If I didn't have to work for a living, how would I spend my
time?

8. If I could go back to college, what subjects would I take?

9. What kind of products do I like to purchase by mail?

Once you have HONESTLY answered all these questions, you will
see an amazing pattern emerging. When you have finished, pay a
visit to your local library. Go to the Reference Desk and ask
to see the latest edition of the WRITER'S MARKET. Sit down and
study the Table of Contents, which lists all the main categories
of magazines currently being printed. Decide which CATEGORY
interests you beyond all others. It is in that mailorder market
that you will be most at home . . . and it is there that you
will be most successful

Now go back to the Reference Desk and ask for two other
publications. Either one will provide you with the information
you need. They are:

- THE STANDARD PERIODICAL DIRECTORY and
- ULTICH'S INTERNATIONAL PERIODICAL DIRECTORY

I, of course, have no idea what your interests really are, but
let us, for the sake of illustration, say that you have a
compelling interest in Astrology. With a little search in the
Standard Periodical Directory, you will find the name and
address of at least a dozen or so Astrology magazines. In
Ulrich's you will find even more, since it lists magazines
published in foreign countries as well.

Jot down the names and address of each and every publication.
Write to each of them, on your letterhead if possible. If you
don't have a letterhead, you will still hear from most of them.
Tell them you are starting a mailorder business, specializing in
Astrological products, and ask them for a sample copy of their
publications, along with their ADVERTISING RATES.

When you start receiving your sample copies, save them . . . and
save the advertising rate cards. They will be invaluable to you
in the future.

While you are waiting for these to arrive, go to the nearest
second-and magazine store and buy a few dozen old astrology
magazines. (The cost? Probably a dime apiece!) Get as many
different magazine titles as possible and be sure to get copies
with MAIL ORDER ADS in them. Issues that are ten or fifteen
years old will be valuable to you, but also try to obtain some
of the more current issues. You are now ready to start . . .

ANALYZING YOUR MARKET

Start a notebook. Pick up one of the magazines which you have
purchased at the second-hand magazine store. Read the first ad
. . . every line of it. Read it slowly and carefully. When you
have finished reading it, see if you can describe what is being
sold in five words or less. If you can't, go back and read it
again. If you can, record your description under one of three
headings in your notebook:

- Merchandise
- Information
- Service

All mailorder offerings come under one of the three headings
listed above. If the ad was for an Aquarian Necklace, it should
be listed under Merchandise. If it was for a treatise on Flying
Saucers, it should be listed under Information. If it was an
offer to chart your horoscope, it should be listed under Service.

After you have analyzed the first ad, go on and study the next
ad. Continue until you have thoroughly analyzed every single ad
in the magazine, including the classifieds. When you are
through, you will have three lists:

- A list of Astrological Merchandise for sale
- A list of Astrological Manuals (Information) for sale
- A list of Astrological services for sale.

As you read, watch for:

UNDEVELOPED IDEAS -- Especially in older issues, you will
find really good ideas that were, for one reason or another,
never developed. Perhaps the originator lost interest or didn't
have the capital to develop his idea. He may have died or he
may have run off with a chorus girl from Las Vegas and forgotten
all about the mail order business. If you can develop the idea,
you have a mail order product.

WHOLESALE SOURCES -- Watch for ads that say "Dealers Wanted"
(in more current issues, of course). Here may be the perfect
source of mailorder products for you.

STUDY THE ARTICLES -- They will show you what the readers are
interested in and they will give you clues as to what the
readers want to buy. Remember the articles are doing two things
-- they are printing articles about subjects which the readers
are already interested. But they are also CREATING NEW
INTERESTS in the minds of the readers. CAN YOU CREATE A PRODUCT
THAT READERS WILL WANT AS A RESULT OF READING THOSE ARTICLES?

You will be amazed at what you will discover when you read
magazines from the viewpoint of a mailorder man!

While researching this manuscript, I analyzed three totally
different magazines from the viewpoint of a mailorder man. I
would like to share some of my findings with you. Don't worry
if the fields are different from those which interest you.
MAILORDER PRINCIPLES ARE THE SAME FOR EVERY MARKET!

The first magazine which I analyzed was ASTROLOGY - YOUR DAILY
HOROSCOPE, December 1975. I would like to begin with the
Merchandise Offerings.

ASTROLOGY (MERCHANDISE)

Exposed: Your Customers' Most Secret Desires
There’s one thing that every consumer in the world is seeking. It doesn’t matter if that person is a blue-collar worker or an executive for a Fortune 500 company. This “thing” is the same for everyone. And if you can help your potential customer find it, you will profit far beyond your competitors and dominate your market.What could this thing be?A solution? A resolution? An experience? A feeling? A benefit? A low price? A brand?Nope. Not even close.Consumers have other things they could be doing with their time than buying your product or service. They could be expanding their career, spending time with their kids, watching reality TV, volunteering or swimming in their pool.But most companies – probably even yours – waste the time of their would-be customers or clients by unnecessarily lengthening the “seeking process.” If you would only cut through the noise and give them what they’re truly searching for, the sale would be made sooner…and you’d be more likely to get the lion’s share of the business.So what is this mystical grail-like prize your customers so ardently desire? A preference, of course. A simple, clear and compelling buying preference. A reason to choose one over the other. A reason to choose you above your competition – every time.But it so rarely exists.To witness this marketing crime in action, just spend a few observant minutes in the aisle of your local electronics superstore. You’ll see confused shoppers desperately seeking this preference – and rarely finding it. Packaging, employees, advertising – all have failed them on their quest for a preference. And everyone loses. The buyer ends up frustrated – and perhaps doesn’t get what they truly want or need – and the seller is shrugging their shoulders wondering why sales are in a slump.Ultimately you are lumped in the same lame category as your competitors. A sea of sameness. An ocean of mediocrity.But the good news is you can fight back – with a vengeance!These are the basic ingredients you’ll need to market smarter and make a bold and clear statement that you ARE NOT the same and begin to clearly compel your target to believe that you are the obvious choice:1. Do The Opposite: One great way to get more than your fair share of the market is to take Earl Nightingale’s advice, "If you want to be successful, look at what everyone else is doing, and do the opposite."Most of the people in your industry have similar backgrounds and experiences. But the opportunity for success and the attention of your prospects is endless.You must become a risk-taker. Status quo thinking and common sense action delivers status quo and common results. If you are seeking more than average results and success you need to do the opposite.Doing what’s comfortable is safe for you – but boring for your customers. And it fails to deliver any kind of preference. Boring is invisible and invisible means no sale.2. Give Value First: At the beginning of every buyer/seller relationship there is a set of emotions like fear, distrust, uncertainty and lack of knowledge that exists and stands between you and the sale. Think of this as the Mighty Wall Of Mistrust.Most marketers try to do a standing jump over the wall, only to miss it by a mile.It’s foolish to try to jump the wall in a single bound. The smart thing to do is break the wall down from the bottom, brick by brick.By providing your customers with valuable information that helps them develop a preference, you put yourself on the same side of the table as them. You become a trusted advisor instead of a product-pusher.This allows you to bulldoze wall and overcome all the emotions that stand in the way of the sale.3. Create An Irresistible Offer: While all of your competitors are screaming price or quality, service or selection, y

e you have analyzed yourself, selected your market, and then
thoroughly analyzed your market, you will have no trouble
selecting or creating a product to sell by mail. It will almost
select you! Now, let's go back and study these three steps, one
by one.

ANALYZE YOURSELF

To help you understand yourself, sit down and, as honestly as
possible, write out your answers to the following questions:

1. When I go to a newstand, what kind of magazines appeal to ME?

2. What kind of books do I really like to read?

3. When I daydream, what do I daydream about?

4. What do I do with my free time? (How do I spend my
evenings? What do I do on weekends?)

5. What do I do on my vacation?

6. What one subject interests me more than any other subject in
the world?

7. If I didn't have to work for a living, how would I spend my
time?

8. If I could go back to college, what subjects would I take?

9. What kind of products do I like to purchase by mail?

Now go back to the Reference Desk and ask for two other
publications. Either one will provide you with the information
you need. They are:

- THE STANDARD PERIODICAL DIRECTORY and
- ULTICH'S INTERNATIONAL PERIODICAL DIRECTORY

When you start receiving your sample copies, save them . . . and
save the advertising rate cards. They will be invaluable to you
in the future.

ANALYZING YOUR MARKET

- Merchandise
- Information
- Service

- A list of Astrological Merchandise for sale
- A list of Astrological Manuals (Information) for sale
- A list of Astrological services for sale.

As you read, watch for:

WHOLESALE SOURCES -- Watch for ads that say "Dealers Wanted"
(in more current issues, of course). Here may be the perfect
source of mailorder products for you.

You will be amazed at what you will discover when you read
magazines from the viewpoint of a mailorder man!

The first magazine which I analyzed was ASTROLOGY - YOUR DAILY
HOROSCOPE, December 1975. I would like to begin with the
Merchandise Offerings.

ASTROLOGY (MERCHANDISE)

How To Generate the Most Traffic to Your Site With These Four Simple Steps
If your website or blog is not generating any traffic, there is not even a good way of testing the main ingredients of your marketing campaign to see why it's not working. And you can't roll out a large traffic campaign before you've tested your site because you risk losing sales and looking unprofessional to potential business partners and affiliates. The only way to combat this problem is to get instant traffic to your website so you can test key components of your sales process before you start that large-scale traffic campaign you need to ensure future success of your blog or online business. These four steps will show you how to generate qualified traffic to your site, so you will not have to speculate as to how your future marketing campaign should be structured, you will actually KNOW what works to get that huge influx of visitors to your new site or blog.1. YOU MUST BUY TRAFFIC WITH A PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINE By using this method, you will be able to test your article writing and copy writing skills within a week or two. These web companies allow you to bid for top-ranking positions under keywords of your choice. For each visitor who searches the keyword(s) you bid on and then clicks through to your site, you pay whatever you bid. Prices typically range from five cents to a few dollars per click-through for popular keywords.You can then test how well your ad copy or blog writing is doing by examining the top keywords that you bid on that are having the most success in generating the most web page viewers to your site. For example, if your site sells poster art and the keyword "poster" is generating 50 clicks to your site, but "color poster" is generating 100 click-throughs to your web page, then you know you should be using more descriptive phrases in your content to get those specific web visitors to your site that will buy your poster art.2. DO NOT USE A FREE SITE SUBMISSION BUSINESS TO GET YOU LISTED IN GOOGLE This is a great lesson that you don't want to learn the hard way. Because every major search engine has their own strict guidelines that you must adhere to, you cannot trust a free site submission company to take the time and the care needed for you to generate a decent rating at any of the major search engines like Yahoo!, Google or AOL Search. You have to take the time yourself to make sure that each time you submit your site to a different search engine, you are abiding by their strict individual guidelines.There are some decent site submission companies that will do a good job on submitting your site to all the major search engines, but you will have to pay a few hundred dollars to get it done right. Try to do some research first on which companies have the best customer testimonials before you send them any of your money from your promotion budget. Also, you should make sure that they will throw in some keyword site optimization for your web pages along with the fee for the site submissions. Every good company will do that for you these days because of the huge competition out in cyberworld amongst site submission companies.3. USE VIRAL MARKETING TO GENERATE FREE WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING The concept of "viral marketing" is not as sophisticated as you might believe. Nowadays viral marketing can be as simple to develop as just adding a byline to all of your future newsletters you will sending to your web site or blog subscribers. For instance, by including the phrase "If you really loved reading this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!" you will automatically generate at least 40 new visitors to your site within hours if done correctly.Other methods of great viral marketing techniques include offering a free trial of your service with a "share this great resource" button on your home page. If your service offers something of value to your site visitors, you can be sure that a happy web visitor wil

u have a
compelling interest in Astrology. With a little search in the
Standard Periodical Directory, you will find the name and
address of at least a dozen or so Astrology magazines. In
Ulrich's you will find even more, since it lists magazines
published in foreign countries as well.

When you start receiving your sample copies, save them . . . and
save the advertising rate cards. They will be invaluable to you
in the future.

ANALYZING YOUR MARKET

- Merchandise
- Information
- Service

- A list of Astrological Merchandise for sale
- A list of Astrological Manuals (Information) for sale
- A list of Astrological services for sale.

As you read, watch for:

WHOLESALE SOURCES -- Watch for ads that say "Dealers Wanted"
(in more current issues, of course). Here may be the perfect
source of mailorder products for you.

You will be amazed at what you will discover when you read
magazines from the viewpoint of a mailorder man!

The first magazine which I analyzed was ASTROLOGY - YOUR DAILY
HOROSCOPE, December 1975. I would like to begin with the
Merchandise Offerings.

ASTROLOGY (MERCHANDISE)

Free Internet Marketing: Replace Your Income Using Only Free Online Strategies
I started internet marketing in January of this year and, despite earning enough money to allow me to quit my job and do this full time, still feel like a newbie. In this business, you quickly realise how vast and the internet marketing arena really is. Because of the sheer scale of the internet and the number of money-making strategies to reflect this huge amount of opportunity, the average newbie will spend months just getting to grips with most of the general profit avenues internet marketing has to offer, and they will find themselves divulged with offers of brand new internet marketing software, internet marketing books, internet marketing tips etc. However, it is essential that the newbie always bears in mind that the quickest, simplest and easiest way to make money online is via free internet marketing.There are many free internet marketing methods to make fast money online. For example, a newbie could collate free information about blogging, and then set up a free blog at Blogspot or Wordpress; the newbie could then insert some Adsense for free and get about optimising the pages so the search engines would attract visitors. Or the newbie could try affiliate marketing; the newbie would simply go over to Clickbank, get a free affiliate code, choose a product to affiliate for, and then start hitting free internet forums targeted for their product to promote it in their profile signature. And this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to free internet marketing.The internet marketing Gods reward those who are innovative. So why not see how creative you can be? You could try and link several free blogs to articles and to forum postings. Create a large network that is earning money for you on autopilot. I know of several individuals who do nothing more than post in forums all day long and earn a small fortune from it. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot replace (and even improve) your full-time job income using simple free internet marketing methods. You do not need the latest internet marketing software to make cash.Whenever a newbie asks me how to make money online, I strongly urge them to do it through free internet marketing methods. I tell them to research all the free internet marketing methods they can through internet marketing forums, make comprehensive notes, then compile a plan, and then follow through with it. Never allow yourself to get distracted. And here is my golden rule - if you cannot replace your full-time job income through simple free internet marketing methods, then you should not consider moving any further in the internet marketing world. This is basic stuff. Just because they happen to be free methods, don’t make the mistake of thinking that somehow limits the amount you can earn, because there is no cap. Some people have become multi-millionaires through using free internet marketing methods.Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Don’t buy into the hype of aggressive sales letters, don’t allow yourself to get magnetised by the latest software releases. Focus on the established free methods of making cash online, take consistent action, be open to constructive criticism, and it’s more than likely you will eventually become a very wealthy individual. This is the bread-and-butter of internet marketing and, in time to come, you will realise that the expensive courses only really provide tips, tricks and refinements to the education you gave yourself from free internet marketing methods.

rchandise. If it was for a treatise on Flying
Saucers, it should be listed under Information. If it was an
offer to chart your horoscope, it should be listed under Service.

- A list of Astrological Merchandise for sale
- A list of Astrological Manuals (Information) for sale
- A list of Astrological services for sale.

As you read, watch for:

WHOLESALE SOURCES -- Watch for ads that say "Dealers Wanted"
(in more current issues, of course). Here may be the perfect
source of mailorder products for you.

You will be amazed at what you will discover when you read
magazines from the viewpoint of a mailorder man!

The first magazine which I analyzed was ASTROLOGY - YOUR DAILY
HOROSCOPE, December 1975. I would like to begin with the
Merchandise Offerings.

ASTROLOGY (MERCHANDISE)

Getting Your Home Ready For The Summer Market
Across the country home owners are getting ready for what promises to be a great summer in the real estate market. With the doldrums of winter on their way out and spring starting to emerge the time is perfect for the real estate market to start heating up. For those who are planning on listing homes this spring, this is the perfect time to start doing home upgrades and getting rid of some of the winter mess that has no doubt accumulated.Its not hard for a home to gather up a fairly significant mess over the fall and winter months, especially in areas where there is a lot of rain and snow. This kind of weather can turn a lawn and yard into a soupy mess and present some distinct problems when trying to bring it back to life. Gardens can look like a mud bog and any gardens that border on the home may have left dirt and streaks on the home itself. A good place to start is with the lawn.Depending on the kind of grass you have the lawn will green up at different rates. Some types of grass need to be fertilized early in spring and some other need the same closer to summer. Ask a lawn care professional about what is right for your type of grass. Now, when attacking the yard, spend some time clearing away the debris from the winter if there is any and then do a low cut on your lawn. This will help to clear away any dead plant or damaged grass. This gives the lawn a fresh cut to grow on, and after the first cut of the year it will grow like crazy. After taming the lawn back to a normal length, try aerating. This allows much needed oxygen into the soil and will help the lawn to look great.The gardens are a somewhat easier task. New topsoil and mulch brings a garden back to top condition quickly. If you have flowers that bloom yearly then you may not have to worry about what will bloom, but adding some new color never hurts. Usually a quick power washing can remove any marks that mud and dirt may have left on the home. while you are at it, why not wash the driveway and make the entrance to your home more attractive?There is a lot more that anyone can do to prepare their home for the summer markets. Its always a good idea to put a stress on the home's exterior as that is the first thing people see and summer months mean a lot of time spent outdoors. Let's face it, good yards can sell homes.

the fields are different from those which interest you.
MAILORDER PRINCIPLES ARE THE SAME FOR EVERY MARKET!

The first magazine which I analyzed was ASTROLOGY - YOUR DAILY
HOROSCOPE, December 1975. I would like to begin with the
Merchandise Offerings.

ASTROLOGY (MERCHANDISE)

The next merchandise offering is for "SEASHELLS FOR VIRGOS AND
SCORPIOS". Brother, this is a fantastic idea. Had this
advertiser offered plain old seashells in an astrology magazine,
his mailbox would probably have been empty. Had he advertised
"Seashells for Astrologers", he MIGHT have gotten a few orders.
But he made his seashells special, exclusive, and very, very
desirable, because they are only for Virgos and Scorpios. He is
catching the attention of one reader out of every six and I
would bet that ad was a mailorder success! Here is an idea
worth remembering. Try to apply it to YOUR product!

Another merchandise offering was a "Hand Bio-Rhythm Computer".
For the past few years, Astrology magazines have been running
article after article on the Bio-Rhythm Theory (i.e. every male
and female person has emotional, intellectual and physical
cycles, which can be predicted in advance). The Astrology
magazines, in effect, have been creating a mailorder market for
this kind of new product. The ad promises, "it reveals your
emotional, intellectual and physical state . . . EVEN BEFORE THE
DAY BEGINS!" This dealer was clever enough to do something
about this new interest. If he had not studied his market, he
could never have discovered the NEED for a Bio-Rhythm computer!

ASTROLOGY (INFORMATION)

People who read Astrology magazines are very interested in Love,
Money, Success, Power, Miracles, Prayer, etc. One enterprising
dealer has written six "personal guidance" manuals, and runs
full page ads in Astrology magazines, selling them form $2.00 to
$11.00 each! His ads have been running successfully for years.
Back in 1960, when I first became interested in selling by mail,
this dealer was running small ads in mail dealer magazines,
selling mailorder manuals!

Here are some of the other information manuals which dealers
have written and are selling by mail:

- How the Maya Indians Foretold the Future - $15.00

- Powerful Words to Be Recited Daily to End Your Money Worries
- $4.00

- How to Spiritually Heal Your Pets - $5.00

- A Manual on Etheric Astal Projection, written "especially for
the Neophyte" - $3.00

Can you create a WORTHWHILE manual for this market? (I predict
that the first dealer who writes a good manual on Bio-Rhythm
will make a fortune!) If you need ideas for manuals, study the
subjects being offered in the Astrology magazines. Remember --
the readers are interested in those subjects! In the issue of
ASTROLOGY - YOUR PERSONAL HOROSCOPE which I read, the following
information articles appeared. (This is only a partial list.)

"Yearly Forecast for Sagittarians"
"Basic Astronomy for the Astrologers"
"Sybil Leek Analyzes YOUR Dreams"
"How to Make Your Dreams Pay Off"
"How Mercury Inspires Your Creativity"

A study of OLD Astrology magazines will provide you with a
wealth of subjects for New Mailorder Manuals (or folios).

ASTROLOGY (SERVICE)

If there is one thing people who read Astrology magazines love,
it is this . . . They LOVE TO BE ANALYZED AND COUNSELLED BY
PROFESSIONALS. Do you have specialized training in the art of
Horoscope Reading? If so, you can sell your services by mail.
Here are some of the headlines form ads offering such services:

- "Let an Expert Discuss YOUR Life!"

- "This Horoscope is about YOU"

- "Now . . . a serious study of YOU!"

- "Now there is a Horoscope written for the TWO OF YOU! . . .
One for you, one for your loved one! It could mean the
difference between a Happy Marriage and a Painful Divorce!"

- "1976 - 1977 - 1978! Is one of these YOUR Year of Destiny?"
(This had been running in Astrology magazines for at least ten
years. Every year, the advertiser simply changes the dates!

Other services being offered in this magazine include:

- Personal Questions Answered by Psychics and Mystics
- Spiritual Readings
- Tarot Readings
- Palm Readings
- Handwriting Analysis
- Questions answered through Astro-Extra Sensory Perception

Are you trained to offer such services through the mail? Or are
you interested in receiving such training? (You will find many
such offers to train you in a newstand magazine called FATE.)
If you answer is Yes . . . this is where you should begin your
mailorder career.

The next magazine I analyzed was the November 1975 issue of
FIELD AND STREAM. Since this magazine is aimed at two mailorder
markets, hunters and fishermen, I analyzed only those ads
pertaining to Hunters.

HUNTERS (MERCHANDISE)

Men who hunt for wild game spend a lot of money on their hobby.
They buy top quality hunting clothes. (Who wants to go hunting
in a CHEAP pair of jungle boots?) They spend a lot of money on
their guns, their hunting knives, and on top quality binoculars.
There are several dozen well-established mail order companies
selling this kind of merchandise to hunters. If you ar planning
to establish a one man mail order operation, you would be well
advised not to try to compete with these companies. Instead,
look for something unique that a hunter can USE, and begin you
mailorder business there.

Here are a few merchandise offerings being made by enterprising
dealers:

"Deer Hunter's soap" (Bathe in soap scented with the aroma of a
female deer and you will attract a Buck. Only $1.50 per bay!)
Notice how a smart dealer ADAPTED a commonplace item to a
specialized market. Notice too, that he adapted it to ONLY ONE
KIND OF HUNTER. HE DIDN'T OFFER IT TO BEAR HUNTERS, TO COON
HUNTERS, TO QUAIL HUNTERS, OR TO GAME HUNTERS IN GENERAL. He
offered it to deer-hunters! If you are a deer-hunter, you would
notice that ad!"

"Curtain rods for HUNTING Vans - $3.95 a pair." (Sure, you can
buy curtain rods in any dime store, but not curtain rods for
HUNTING VANS! Another excellent example of taking a commonplace
item, adapting it to a specialized market, and creating a new
mailorder product.

Also offered:

- Gun cleaning cloths (10 for a dollar)

- Brass Nameplates for HUNTING DOGS (not for just any old dog!)

- ID Tags for Your Hunting Dogs

- Handwarmers and Bodywarmers (Boy, could you use these when
you get lost in the snow!)

- There was a small classified ad offering "Fish and Game
Rubber Stamps." I hope this dealer got a lot of orders, but if
he didn't, I suspect it was because his offer was too general.
First of all, it would have sold better with an illustrated
display ad. But even better . . . let us go back to the Virgo
and Scorpio concept above. How about rubber stamps for Coon
Hunters? Or for Pheasant Hunters? Or rubber stamps for
Taxidermists? You will always get more orders if you direct
your ad to specific people.

HUNTING (INFORMATION)

Frankly, I was amazed at the amount of Information Folios being
sold to Hunters. Here are some examples:

"How to Build Your Own Gun Cabinet"

"Duck Calling Instructions" (30 minutes on tape!) A lot of
information, in every field, is now being put on cassette tape
and sold by mail. If you would rather talk than write, this
could be an aspect of mailorder selling for you to consider.

"Chart showing Life-size Tracks of 38 Animals in the Adirondack
Mountains" (Incidently not all information is written. A lot
of people buy plans, diagrams, etc. To digress, recently a
dealer advertised plans to build your own flying saucer
detector!)

"How to Build Box Traps - $1.00"

"My Secret on Coon Trapping, after 50 years. Guaranteed, $1.00"

"Mount fish for Fun and Profit - Easy instructions - $1.00"

"Tan Your Own Hides - Hair on or off - Complete, easy to follow
instructions and Formulas - $1.00"

"Build (meat, fish, sausage) smoker! Inexpensive, protable..
.. easy plans, $1.00"

"Wild Game and Fish Recipes - Deer, Bear, Rabbit, Trout, Salmon
and dozens more - $1.00"

Can you write an information manual for hunters? Can you tell

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