Alan R. Bechtold’s E-Wealth Report

by Alan R. Bechtold

No — I haven’t been hiking the Appalachian trail. And I wasn’t in Argentina.
That was another guy.

But I HAVE turned up “missing” here on the E-Wealth Report for a few weeks now
… and I wanted to apologize and tell you why.

I’ve been working round-the-clock with my good friends “Million Dollar” Mike
Morgan, Erik Stafford and Lee and Robin Collins, putting together the most
important new training system to hit Internet marketing since Internet
marketing first reared its head.

It literally puts things on a fast track and makes your Internet Marketing work
like it used to, in the “good old days,” when you could just click a button and
pull in thousands of dollars in orders with a simple email.

We designed this system to show you how to do it, step-by-step.

It’s not some whiz-bang new PPC or SEO trick. Very little technical expertise
is required at all. And it will KEEP working year after year because it’s
PROVEN.

The methods we’ve tied to the Web with this system have been working like a
Rolex since Benjamin Franklin’s day.

If Ben had access to the Internet back then — he might have created this
system. Since he’s sadly long gone, the task fell upon me and my friends.

The course is online. It’s done and rolling. And we’re introducing it to a very
limited number of people in a merketing test designed to create tremendous
success stories by working closely with the members who sign up through this
special promotion.

And it’s literally FREE. All you do is pay a small $6.95 shipping and handling
charge and you get the entire innovative online training, a FREE DVD mailed to
your door, and bonuses worth hundreds of times more than the tiny shipping and
handling fee involved.

You owe it to yourself to check it out.

http://www.sysop.com/alan_recommends/35.php

There are a LOT of promotions flying around right now. They’re almost all of
them superb products from proven experts. THIS one makes THEM work better.
Period.

Not only are you getting it for a price you’ll NEVER get it for again — you’ll
also get personal close-up attention we will never ever be able to provide
again — because we’re devoted to creating as many success stories with this
training as we can.

That’s why the special offer is there. Take it!

— Alan R. Bechtold

by Alan R. Bechtold

If you do any Internet marketing at all, you’re probably well aware of the concept of joint venturing with partners. It’s what affiliate marketing is all about.

It’s the simplest, purest form of joint venture on the planet.

But do you realize there are multitudes of ways that joint venturing can be used to build your business risk-free? And even more ways to make business happen that never would have otherwise?

Most folks (especially online) have an extremely limited view of joint ventures and never, as a result, get to experience their full power.

Look — any time you join forces with another business or person for mutual benefit, it’s a joint venture. This includes co-creation of products, co-generation of lists, swapping outsourced assistants, sharing promotional expenses and leads…the list goes on and on.

It’s really limited only by your imagination.

For example: a project I’m working on right now — one that promises to be the biggest major home run I’ve hit in years — couldn’t even have happened without the excellent partners working with me to make it happen.

I’m working right now with “Million Dollar” Mike Morgan, masters of “hybrid marketing” Lee and Robin Collins, and Erik “The Faster Webmaster” Stafford on a project we’ve dubbed “DRM 2.0,” — Direct Response Marketing 2.0.

I’m not at liberty — yet — to tell you anything else about this, but it opens officially June 9 and you’ll start seeing some pre-launch videos and lots of buzz soon…as early as next week.

Small-thinking people would think four partners sounds like too many different personalities and personal styles to try and coordinate and work around. And splitting the profits four ways? Few would think that sounds like a good plan any time.

But — these partners of mine bring so much to the table it’s a no-brainer!

Lee and Robin Collins are now famous throughout the Internet marketing community for their trainings and success tying offline marketing to online marketing in innovative ways. Mike Morgan and Erik Stafford were responsible for the killer sales copy and design work that made the recent launches of PPC Classroom 2.0 and Launch Tree such gigantic successes.

Adding all of my knowledge and experience to this pool of seasoned proven professionals is churning up a gigantic product that’s going to literally change the marketing world forever. And, our collective contacts and relationships multiplies the number of affiliates and sources that we can pull into the product and promotion for results from our launch that I know with certainty will be many times greater four times what any of us could have pulled working on our own.

We’re all benefitting from each of our individual talents and knowledge, contacts and resources. The profits, though split four ways, will surely be ten times what they could have been had either of us tried to do all this on our own.

1/4th of ten times what you could make on your own always adds up to more money than you could have made without partners.

That’s the power of joint ventures in action!

Now — look around you. Who do you know who can help you that you could help back? That’s joint venturing, too. Who do you know who has what you need…and could help you make more money in return for your help? They’re everywhere — on the marketing forums, on the marketing social networking sites and sitting in seats right next to you at the next live seminar you attend.

Make it a point in all your social networking to offer your help with a mutually profitable relationship…and you’ll see results happening. Pull together your friends and acquaintences in business and you’ll start making more money easier than you ever thought possible.

In fact — let’s just get the notion of “JV” out of your head entirely and start with partner. Find partners and be a good partner yourself…and you’ll never see the end of the possibilities you can achieve.

See you next week — with more details about that major launch we’re putting together. You’re gonna love it!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-Selling Author: Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning ANY Hobby or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley and Sons Books)
Co-Producer and Star: The FUNdamental You — a full-length movie based on Will Work For Fun.

FOLLOW ALAN ON TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/bbspress

by Alan R. Bechtold

Does your marketing make a statement? Does it take a stand? Is that stand brave? Does it educate and help the reader while it sells?

It should. Take a brave stand, make a statement with your marketing, make that statement bold – and, if it’s also fun and/or a bit controversial in nature, you could just wind up with a viral monster on your hands.

It’s a wonderful thing when a promotion goes viral. Suddenly, you no longer need to beg people to promote for you. Suddenly, you’re flooded with growing hoards of visitors, making your sales rate climb dramatically as each day passes.

I think I’m getting close to that right now with a new promotion I just put together for the re-launch of my Ticket To Wealth Toolkit printed newsletter.

I wrote my arse off putting together a great sales letter that makes the case for subscribing now, before the first new issue is printed and mailed, to save hundreds of dollars over the usual $27.95 monthly subscription fee, getting everything plus up to more than $2,000.00 in valuable bonuses — for just $97.

It’s a compelling offer. It’s a newsletter like no other on this planet. It’s an insider’s view on what I’m doing and how…and how to duplicate what I do. Stuff I never reveal online.

But sales weren’t anywhere near what I wanted to see. So I went back to work.

Over the next week, I created a wild parody of the rip-off make-money-overnight sites you see all the time. Then, I set it up so people getting “more info” on the site were told it’s a fake and why I did it — to illustrate the kinds of horrible frauds there are all over and the fact that my experience, through my letter, can guide readers through the minefield, to what’s real.

Sales shot up immediately.

Now I’m re-vamping the newsletter sales page itself (the last page in the new process I built), to better tie it to the new lead-in I’d created.

I’m certain sales will shoot even higher.

I urge you to check out the site. Study what’s going on at every step. Especially notice the storytelling techniques I incorporated into the process.

Now I’m getting emails concerned that I’m ripping people off and even working with the devil! It’s working! Leads are pouring in and it’s starting to feel like this baby could just go viral.

By the way — you can make money by helping me spread the word about it. Look for details of that when you’re studying the pages. Subscribe to the newsletter and you’re in!

Hey — if you like my E-Wealth Report, you’ll love my Ticket To Wealth Toolkit. Besides — the offer comes with an unconditional 100% money-back guarantee.

See if you can’t come up with something along these lines yourself. Be a bit outrageous. Have fun. Make a bold statement. Add a related product into the mix and you could start seeing viral free traffic, backlinks and buzz leading to potentially massive sales.

Here’s the link:

http://www.TheTicket2Wealth.com/shaman.html

Because of all the great feedback and concerned emails I’m getting, I also decided to fire up a blog I already had that was perfect for this promotion, so folks could discuss the points I made and the promotion itself publicly.

Check out the blog. Join the conversation. Notice how I’m encouraging people to participate by making them a legitimate bribe I’m hoping they can’t refuse. You’ll discover that when you get to the blog.

The blog is at:

http://www.UglyFacts.com

Finally, I decided to bring the money manifesting Shaman I’m “working with” to life, to add even more fun into the mix. You can now follow him by visiting Twitter:

http://www.Twitter.com/moneyshaman

Join Twitter if you haven’t already. It’s free. Then follow me, too:

http://www.Twitter.com/bbspress

Keep up the great work! I’ll see you next week!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-Selling author: Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby Or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley and Sons Books)
Co-producer and star: The FUNdamental You, a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun (http://www.FUNdamentalYou.tv)

PS: Like this blog? Get emailed notifications every time there’s a new post by signing up at: http://mastermind.sysop.com/ewealth_form.php

by Alan R. Bechtold

I’m a raging fan of the Internet and everything it can do. But, I also love print media. I love the instant interactivity and unfettered immediate access to vast stores of information that the Internet offers — not to mention the power to quickly reach millions of people and inexpensively build highly profitable businesses.

But I also love print media! I love to hold a printed newsletter, magazine, book or sales letter in my hands where I can read it, touch it — even smell the ink on the paper.

Sadly, one of my loves is having a dramatic negative effect on the other. The Internet is currently threatening the stability and possibly the very existence of print media in major ways and there seems to be very little we can do to stop it.

I’m not even sure we WANT to stop it. But, first we need to consider the ramifications of the outcome of the daily devastation that’s going on right now.

The impact the Internet has had on printed newspapers in this country has been so dramatic that many experts are forecasting the death of the local printed newspaper as we know it.

Other experts predict that, following the collapse of local printed newspapers, we’ll then see a similar collapse of radio and television.

All I can say is, let’s get a grip on our emotions for a moment and examine this situation from a knowledge- and experience-based perspective.

I’ve become pretty adept, over my 35+ years as a successful direct marketer, at spotting trends and extrapolating the future from current events. As I see it, print media and even broadcast media as we know it will indeed eventually be forced to change dramatically as a direct result of the impact of the Internet.

But, there’s no way any of them will be going away any time soon. I doubt seriously we’ll ever completely lose them at all.

They might not be recognizable when all that changing is over– but there will still be printed ink on paper you can hold in your hands, in one form or another, for many decades to come.

The best example of this is radio — especially AM radio. The death of AM radio was first predicted when motion pictures hit the scene. Then television was the culprit that would bring it down. FM radio, an innovation built by the broadcasting industry to keep the radio industry alive and thriving, turned out to be the next predicted threat to the existence of AM radio.

None of them have managed to kill off AM radio yet.

Yes, AM radio today is nothing like the AM radio I grew up with. But, the AM radio I grew up with was nothing like the AM radio that my parents used to garther around for entertainment in the evenings.

It’s been forced to shift and change, to find a proper fit and continue, just as I predict we’ll see printed newspapers, books, magazines and sales letters change in response to the impact posed by the Internet’s amazing growth and influence.

We have no idea where print media might take this. I guarantee it’ll be fun finding out.

Printed newspapers have already done a LOT of adjusting. Most have already moved to the Internet where you can basically find almost everything there is in the printed publication also online, instantly, and usually for free.

This kind of reminds me of the radio industry’s introduction of FM radio — which was supposed to save the industry and wound up also influencing AM radio to change even more dramatically or go away. Now that most local papers are online and readily available for free, subscription numbers are dropping even more dramatically.

According to a recent article appearing in the online edition of CNN, a minimum of 120 newspapers in the U.S. have shut down since January 2008. And most online editions of newspapers are still trying to figure out how to bring in more revenue than what is possible with ads appearing on their sites alone, as that isn’t enough to cover the expense of producing the news that they publish.

To combat this, online newspapers will either need to change the way they gather their news, their focus on the content they present, or the way the generate revenue.

Newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch thinks he’s got a solution. He plans to begin charging for online access to all of the online editions of the newspapers his News Corp companies publish internationally. He readily admits there are still a lot of factors to consider, but he’s moving forward with his plans to start charging online readers for access to information that his companies are currently giving away for free.

In a recent CNN interview, Murdoch explained, “We are now in the midst of an epochal debate over the value of content and it is clear to many newspapers that the current model is malfunctioning.”

But — will charging readers for access to online newspapers work? According to many experts, only about 3% of current readers of online newspaper editions would be willing to pay for access to the content. In other words, the vast majority of online readers that newspapers now reach are there precisely because the access is free. Put a tollgate on the door and readership online will plummet, too.

This means newspapers who wish to charge for access to their information must decide which information to keep free and which to charge for.

It’s clear to me the changes will continue. We’ll see radio, television and print media continue to evolve and find their place. They might never return to their glory days, but they will most certainly find a model, eventually, that’s comfortable for their operators.

Terrestrial broadcasting of radio and television might even one day be replaced by direct fiber optics into our homes. Or all the current terrestrial broadcasters could just move all their content to the Web, too.

Unfortunately for Rupert Murdoch, I’ve seen Websites try to charge for their content in the past. Many of them. We marketers know how to make a lot of money with membership sites — but this isn’t the same thing. This is information we’re now used to getting for free. Information that’s been available free for years.

It’s always tough to begin charging for access to something you’ve been giving away for free — but this seems to be the road Murdoch plans to take. More power to him.

I think newspapers should instead consider charging their online advertisers more money. Right now, many give their online ads away for free — or charge prices so low as to be inconsequential, to lure advertisers who buy ads in the print edition. They often treat their online ads like a bonus. How about turning that around? Charge more to advertisers online — especially if the print edition is no longer being published.

Whatever they decide, however the Internet continues to wreak havoc on existing media models — how do YOU profit from this?

I recommend you think about setting up a community Website TODAY. Put up a blog. Offer local news and opinion. Then get some Search Engine Optimization going so you rank on your city, to drive traffic.

Build an audience and local businesses will happily pay you to advertise — but don’t try to charge them a monthly fee for their ads. Charge them for every sale you make for them.

Becoming an “affiliate” of your local businesses that advertise on your local blog removes their perceived risk. It also removes their need to ask you to prove how many readers you have or to show them what your readership growth rate is, because they only pay you when a customer buys.

Give advertisers an option to pay monthly — and make it fairly expensive. Then, when they’re pulling in enough sales to warrant it, they’ll switch over to paying you a nice, recurring fee, month after month.

I’ll bet you could build this into a full-time business within six months — if not sooner. You’ll certainly begin to get the attention of the local businesses you’re talking to and, when they find out you understand online marketing, you’ll pick up plenty of them who also want to pay you for your expertise outside of your own blog.

That makes it the PERFECT revenue model.

I’ll be going even more in-depth on this subject in the first issue of my newly re-launched Ticket To Wealth Toolkit newsletter. It’s printed and mailed monthly to your door because I cover specifics and details in my Toolkit that I simply can’t put on the Web for any competitor to easily find.

Despite what the Internet is doing to print media these days, this is ONE print publication you simply MUST get, because it has EVERY REASON to exist in print — and that’s the ONLY place you’ll find the information I include in each jam-packed monthly issue.

I’ve got a special pre-publication sale going on right now that will SAVE you $238.40 on a one-year subscription. Act quickly and you can also qualify for up to $1,338.85 in ADDITIONAL powerful bonuses far too good to consider passing up.

Act VERY quickly and you COULD qualify for an extremely limited “hidden” bonuses — online access to my complete E-Publishing Business System course including 25 audios, 12 videos and more than 400 pages of extensive notes, examples and resources.

This course was built from all the recordings made during my six-month E-Publishing Marketing Mastermind that members paid up to $3,997 to join. The course itself was sold for $997. It’s not mentioned anywhere on the sales page, but I’m giving the first 100 people who sign up free access to the entire course, including the ability to download it and print out what you like.

But — it’s a “hidden” bonus. There is NOTHING on the sales site about this bonus at all. It comes from me. Consider it your extra reward, IF you act quickly enough. You’ll only know if you got this one after you’ve ordered, if the “Thank You” page tells you where to access it.

And everything is backed by a full unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee.

Check Out My New Ticket To Wealth Toolkit And Subscribe NOW!

I’ll see you next week!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-selling author: Will Work For Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley Books)
Co-producer and star: The FUNdamental You — a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun

Follow Alan on Twitter: http://wwww.twitter.com/bbspress

Subscribe to get email notification whenever a new issue of The E-Wealth Report is posted:

http://mastermind.sysop.com/ewealth_form.php

by Alan R. Bechtold

Last time, before I interrupted the flow with my good news about the economy, I started a discussion about ride-along promotions.

Inserts are another form of ride-along. They go into billing statements, magazines and catalogs, product shipments and more. And they cost you very little money to mail out.

For example, I was checking out http://www.stantondirect.com/, home of Stanton Direct. Stanton Direct is a company that sells insert services. I’m not sure of this specific company’s record or the clients they have, or how they might relate to the markets you’re trying to reach — but they’re fairly typical of the industry overall. There are dozens of other similar agencies with a vast array of clients you can pick from, too, to best match your insert to the recipients who will receive them.

In fact, insert and ride-along marketing can be extremely targeted.

Inserts bring additional pulling power to the table because they generally fall out into the recipient’s lap. I’m sure you’ve opened a magazine or pulled a billing statement out of an envelope and had an inserted offer land in your lap in the process.

Inserts are everywhere — even in the local newspaper.

They literally present themselves to your prospects. If they’re at all interested in what you’re offering, they’re going to see your offer and at least have the opportunity to consider it.

I noticed rates for sending inserts run around $30-50 per thousand. It takes a little money because most ride-along carriers also have minimums that tend to lean toward 25,000 units.

Still, even at $50 per thousand, that’s just $1,250 to reach 25,000 solid prospects. As long as you match your offer to the vehicle you select, and price your offer to generate solid leads and help defray your costs, insert marketing can be incredibly inexpensive — or even free.

If you sent a postcard to a targeted list of 25,000, it would cost a minimum of $6,750 for the postage and another $2500 to buy the names — a total of $9,250. There isn’t any postage with inserts and ride-alongs. And no need to buy names to mail to.

Can you put together something easily valued at $100 or more and provide it for $9.97 or $14.97? What about $4.97? The key is to price your initial offer low enough to get a LOT of sales from less people but high enough to cover your cost of providing the first product plus your expense to get the message to your prospects.

Put the offer and order form online as you normally would. Then design a simple postcard-sized insert that drives people to your online offer and order form.

Make it snazzy. Tease the reader. Twist their curiosity so they simply HAVE to visit the site to get the answer to the question you’ve placed in their mind.

Example: You sell financial information. You put together a book of financial facts — 10 Steps to Building Your Retirement In Ten Years. You’re offering it online for $4.97 as a lead generation offer.

Print the online report. Just a few. Maybe 100 of them. More if you have the money. then offer it, mailed to the recipient’s doorstep, for a very small price. Adjust the price to cover your additional cost of mailing and envelopes, etc.

The idea is to create an offer that teases and is too low-priced to say no to, but that also eliminates your marketing cost.

Your postcard-sized offer could go something like this:

“Skip Just One Latte A Month And Turn It Into $97,000. Find Out How.”

That’s really all the message you would need on your ride-along. More if you wish. Plus the Web address. Just remember — avoid the tendency to JAM your card or slip of paper with tons of text. You want your ride-along to be eye-catching with a strong, simple curiosity-bending headline and, at most, a subhead or two plus the Web address where the recipient can go to take advantage of your offer and satisfy their curiosity.

Then do a bit of online research. Find companies related to the financial information business that obviously mail things to their customers. Contact them directly and ask them if they do inserts or ride-alongs. If they do, find out their pricing and see if it fits your budget.

If they haven’t ever thought about it — let them know you’d like to try a promotion with their outgoing mail. To mitigate the risk — offer to pay them a percentage of your sales.

This is like getting pay-per-lead sales cheap.

As you build a mailing list of your own and start acquiring addresses, you can then offer to swap ride-alongs.

And it just keeps growing from there.

See you next week!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-selling author: Will Work For Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley Books)
Co-producer and star: The FUNdamental You — a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun

Follow Alan on Twitter: http://wwww.twitter.com/bbspress

Subscribe to get email notification when a new issue is posted:

http://mastermind.sysop.com/ewealth_form.php

by Alan R. Bechtold

I planned a piece digging deeper into using ride-alongs and cross-promotions to drive traffic to your business, but I’ve come across some news that’s simply too good to hold any longer. I’ll get back to my direct marketing discussion next week.

I’m sure you’re as sick and tired of hearing about the economic downturn as I am. I’ve about had enough, personally.

Then I found a news item the other day. It’s about some leading economists who are starting to see some dramatic signs in the economy. They point to the possibility that we could be a lot closer to turning this economy around than most other economists have predicted so far.

Yes — most other economists are still predicting continued gloom for the near future, stretching possibly through 2010. But a large group of very respected economists have announced publicly they see signs that things are starting to look much better.

One has predicted we could see a turn-around in as little as four months. Most agree we stand a good chance that we’ll be out of the worst of the downturn by the end of this summer.

That was certainly welcome news.

It also fits exactly what I’ve been feeling lately. I have a theory about what will happen next that you’ll find is also excellent news, if it plays out the way I see it.

You’ll want to make some preparations if what I’m feeling is true. I’m no economist — but the economists I read about in that article are pointing to the same things I’ve been seeing, and drawing much the same conclusions, so it’s bolstered my sense that I’m onto something here.

I’ve noticed the jobless reports haven’t dropped dramatically lately — but they haven’t risen, either. And they’ve been declining slightly. The economists in the story pointed to this sign, too.

I’ve seen reports lately of home prices stabalizing slightly, with sales actually up in a few areas hardest-hit by the mortgage crises. California recently reported an inventory of existing homes of only 6-9 months — about average for the U.S. prior to the crises, and investors starting to snap up homes in handsful. Similar reports are coming from other areas, including Southwest Florida.

The economists in that news story pointed this out as well.

The stock market saw a nice rally recently and, with just a few bumps along the way, seems to be happy around the 8,000 mark, testing higher levels routinely. It got there with one of the biggest surges in the market since after the Great Depression.

The noted economists quoted in that news story thought this was an important development, too.

I just learned as I write this that the major banks who participated in receiving bailout money are reporting surprising profits for the last quarter — profits that indicate they’re getting healthy again.

A lot of the banks are prepared to hand the money they received back to the government already. It seems they don’t care for the government telling them how they can run their banks in return for the cash infusion and they’d like to free themselves of the regulations that go along with accepting it.

Completely understandable. And a clear sign to me that things are at least starting to approach a turn-around point.

In the news story I read, the economists went on to point out all of this is happening before most of the $700 billion economic stimulus has had a chance to enter the economy. They added that most stimulus packages have a much better chance of working well going into an economy at the bottom or already entering an upturn than they do when they must first bring a crashing economy to a halt.

More than one of these economists has also predicted, when the turn-around hits and the stimulus money starts working, we could see a major jump in the economy that rivals the intensity of the dip that preceded it.

And I agree.

In fact, I think there’s a lot of solid evidence behind this notion that we could be sitting at the edge of a tremendous economic boom. Consider the signs I’ve just outlined. Consider the anemic recoveries we saw after the last two rather anemic recessions.

Then consider the depth and breadth of this recession — truly the worst we’ve seen since the Great Depression.

What kind of recovery do you think we’ll see this time?

I think it stands a great chance of being a gigantic recovery — for the reasons those economists pointed out, but also because of human nature.

Whatever happens in the future, near or far, we won’t easily forget the pain of this recession when it passes. No one will. It’s going to affect people’s buying habits for a long time to come.

But — we’re also creatures who love to spend money. It makes us feel good. Most of us are addicted to buying things. Yet, in the current economic situation, we’ve been holding back, treading with caution. Because it’s been difficult to see where things are going — how bad they’re actually going to get — we’re generally more than willing to give up the momentary rush of treating ourselves to something new and interesting in the name of conserving cash.

But we don’t like it — and we can’t wait for it to be over.

That’s why, as soon as we see a real bottom to this trend, as soon as a number of pointers are moving up, we could see an explosion of pent up buying desire unloaded on the market.

I predict we’re very near that point. And we’d all better prepare now, or we’ll miss the oppotunity of a lifetime to achieve the financial gains that await us.

If you’re already in business, start postitioning yourself now. Consider updating some of your current products and re-positioning them. And adding a couple more. Build up your catalog of offers, regardless of what business you’re in, and get ready for a flood of new business.

Some of you might think I’m being unreasonably optimistic here. I assure you, I’m not. I do look for the upside in any situation. I do know that, given the severity of this economic downturn, there will most likely be an equal or greater reaction in the other direction as soon as it starts to turn around.

And I’m going to be ready…sooner rather than later.

Next week, I’ll return to my discussion of direct marketing techniques that work offline or online and best when combined!

See you next week!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-selling author: Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley Books)
Co-producer and star: The FUNdamental You — a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun (http://www.FUNdamentalYou.com)
Follow Alan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bbspress

by Alan R. Bechtold

I’ve begun a series of articles here designed to show you the incredible sales leverage you gain when you properly combine offline marketing with your current online marketing. You honestly are passing up more than 75% of the potential income you could be generating with your business if you don’t fully tap both online and offline strategies, tying them together in ways that enable them to each compliment and multiply the others’ earnings.

It’s surprisingly low-cost. If you currently do any pay per click, it’s actually cheaper than most clicks. And it doesn’t have to cost you anything.

This week, I promised to tell you about a neat trick. Something very simple you can do to add offline power to your online presence and scoop in up to 38% more sales when you do it.

This one doesn’t cost you anything.

First — take any sales page and order form associated with your Website and turn it into a PDF.

This is simple and free. Just use your favorite word processor or even your favorite graphics program to lay out a single-page order form. Duplicate the information about your offer, briefly, at the top. Tell the buyer what she will receive. Include all the fields you ask online buyers to fill out, to place an order on your site.

Make certain you request and obtain a full name, billing address, billing telephone number and email on your form. Also include a checkbox for your buyer to use, to indicate whether she’s paying by credit card or check. Then make sure there is a line for the credit card number, expiration date, CVV three-digit security code from the back of the card, and a signature.

If you don’t have any way to turn your favorite word processing or graphics files into PDFs, no problem. Just grab Cute PDF Writer from http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp, or search with your favorite search engine for “Free PDF Converter.” There are a lot of these you can work with and all are reasonably good.

Install your converter. You should now notice, when you choose to print any document on your computer, that you have a new printer you can print to: the pdf creator. If you’re using Cute PDF Writer, you’ll see a printer named Cute PDF Writer in your list of available printers.

When you have your form looking exactly like you want it to, “print” it with your PDF creator and note where you saved the PDF. After you elect to print to the PDF coverter printer, you’ll be asked where you want to save your PDF. You’ll also be given the option to rename or name the PDF you’re “printing.”

Now — make the PDF you just created available as a download from your sales page. Put it right below the link to your online order form. Add the following text below the link:

“Prefer to pay by credit card or check offline? No problem! Just download the order form and FAX it (if paying by credit card) or mail it (if paying by check or by credit card).”

Then add your mailing address, for mailing forms, and your FAX number, for FAXING them.

No fax machine or separate telephone line for receiving FAXes? Set up a low-cost or free FAX-by-email service, such as E-faxt (http://www.fecg.net/fax.asp) and you’ll be notified via email when faxes come in, so you can pull them up and view them or print them on your PC.

Boom! You just increased the percentage of sales you’ll see from any online offer.

Too often, we become blinded by the Internet and feel it’s the only way to make sales and keep costs low. Because we feel this way, we assume our prospects do, too.

This simple trick will surprise you. You’ll quickly discover how many prospects visit your Websites who would order from you — but they don’t want to order online. Maybe they’re worried about security issues. They might have credit cards, but prefer not using them online.

Or — they might not have any credit cards at all!

Given the current economic downturn, a lot of people have stopped using their credit cards. For some, the decision is intentional. They prefer not to rack up any more balances on their credit cards if they can pay some other way instead. For others, they’ve already filled up all their cards, or they’re late with payments and can’t use them. Some have filed for bankruptcy and simply don’t have any credit cards to buy online with.

Add the option to download a PDF order form, print it out and mail or FAX it in and you’ll see 10%, 15%, 20% or even up to 38% more orders coming in right away. The results could shock you, especially when you realize how many sales you’ve been missing by not taking this one simple step.

This simple move will result in even more dramatic sales increases when you use it on high-ticket items selling for $497 and above. The higher the price-tag, the more you’ll hit people who, even though they have credit cards and don’t mind ordering online, might not have enough available balance on any single card to pay.

This method will get them on board anyway — sales you would have otherwise lost.

If you sell a higher-ticket item that you’ve also allowed people to pay for in two or three or more installments — this method still works. But, now you’ll need to do a bit more work on your end, to collect the additional payments from anyone paying you by check.

Just mark your database to remind you each month when the next payment is due and mail your offline customers an invoice for each payment when it’s due.

Yes — this will add a little bit of extra work, but it’s work any hired employee can handle — even a beginning part-timer working for minimum wage. It also costs a little bit, when you figure in time, printing, envelopes and postage.

For people paying by credit card, just make it clear on your form that they are authorizing you to charge their credit card X dollars now and X dollars once each month for X months — and run each payment when due or set up your credit card payment system to automatically charge their cards the total number of payments due once each month.

It’s only slightly more trouble to do this, and you only need to worry about it in cases where you have high-ticket items and offer split payments. But — if this method pulls in 20% more sales you otherwise would never have seen (which it easily can), it’s priceless.

Next week I’m going to into ride-alongs and cross-promotions, the most amazing way to get into direct mail marketing you could ever employ. Once again, it can either be dirt cheap — or free.

I’ll show you next week. See you then!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-selling author: Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley Books)
Co-producer and Star: The FUNdamental You — a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun (http://www.fundamentalyou.tv)

by Alan R. Bechtold

A couple of issues ago, I pointed out the power of using postcards to market your online business. So many Internet marketers look down their noses at direct mail, I just had to discuss post cards and reveal their power once and for all.

I find it interesting that the same people spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars today on pay-per-click advertising routinely eschew post cards as being “too much trouble” or “too expensive” or “too risky” to include in their marketing mix.

The simple truth:

As I write this, you can still mail a post card via first-class mail for 27 cents. You can print a post card for less than a penny. Five cents max. And you can buy mailing list names on labels for around ten cents each. Let’s say you went crazy and spent three cents per card to print the cards. With postage and a name, that still brings your total cost to a massive 40 cents per card.

I don’t know about you, but I’m having a tough time these days finding key words I can buy to drive traffic to my sites for under 50 cents per click. You can save money by going long-tail … but the least-expensive long-tail keywords don’t pull the kind of traffic I like to see coming in, unless you research deeply and dig up 100s of them.

Then you have to manage them, to keep them from getting shut off for lack of performance.

Mailing post cards is so much easier than pay-per-click it’s ridiculous to try and compare the two. For 75 cents per card, you can even hire companies more than willing to put the names and postage on your cards for you, so you don’t even have to touch them. Or, if you’re smaller and just starting out, you can also totally manage your expenses and mail just a few cards a day yourself.

And you can sort and sift demographics on mailing lists, to focus on far more tightly-targeted prospects via direct mail than you ever can with pay per click or almost any other online medium.

But — there’s also a way to reach targeted prospects and spend no more than what it costs to print the card. It’s called a ride-along piece — and it works a lot like the usual online joint ventures or affiliate marketing deals you might now be utilizing.

Here’s what you do:

Take your postcard to other companies selling sideways-compatible, but not directly competitive, products and services that they ship to their customers by mail. It doesn’t matter what niche you serve, a little bit of simple research (far simpler than trying to come up with hundreds of long-tail keywords that will work) will uncover numerous companies offering products to your target audience that don’t compete directly with you.

Tell them — if they’ll agree to insert your post card offer in their mailings going out, whether it’s a printed newsletter, a catalog, or products people have purchased (the latter is excellent, since the repients will all be verifiable buyers), you’ll be more than happy to pay X% on every sale those cards brings to you.

A simple postcard inside another mailing can have the same impact — sometimes more impact — than a postcard mailed directly to someone through the mail. It usually doesn’t add enough weight to a letter or package to increase the postage they were going to have to pay anyway — and the profits coming back to them can more than cover all their expenses to mail what they had to mail any way.

It’s a true win/win situation you can capitalize on over and over, paying just what it costs to print the cards and only paying commissions when a sale is made.

Another option:

Don’t want to talk to anyone? Don’t know anyone you can make a ride-along deal with? No problem. Thousands of companies will gladly accept your payment to include a ride-along piece with their mailings. This includes magazine subscription services, catalog companies, billing services, product fulfillment companies and countless others.

Even the U.S. Postal service sells magazine ride-along marketing spaces!

This would explain the number of cards and slips of paper that currently fall out of the envelope whenever you open your phone bill, light bill, subscription renewal or even credit card bill these days.

One final way to mail your postcards without paying for postage: card decks.

Card decks are stacks of postcards put together into single packages that are then mailed out to targeted mailing lists. You pay a fraction of what it would cost to mail a single postcard to have your card included in the pack.

You can find card decks in a number of niches, from professionals to home business opportunity seekers, crafters to investment bankers. The variety of available decks is insanely huge and the cost to get into them can be surprisingly low … always considerably lower than postage would cost you to send your card by themselves.

The bottom line: I’ve focused on post cards to start off my ongoing discussion about all direct marketing methods that are available because post cards are the least expensive way to test out direct mail.

The cost is actually so low you could just find they’re less expensive than advertising online.

Until just a few short years ago, the lowly postcard was looked down upon as the poor man’s sales letter. They’ve always been considerably cheaper than mailing sales letters but, before the Web came along, there was little you could do to jazz up the marketing message that would fit on a post card that would effectively drive home sales.

The most you could hope for, back then, was someone who called you, to request something free or for very low cost.

Today, with the Web at your disposal, all you have to do is make a compelling statement or stir up a little controversy with your post card. Make it imperative that the recipient visit your Website to satisfy her curiosity, then sit back and watch as the traffic comes pouring in, where your sales message on your Website can close the sale for you.

Next week: a simple no-cost technique that will add offline power to your Websites in a way you never imagined, resulting in an increase in sales of 35% or even more!

See you next week!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-selling author: Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley Books)
Co-producer and star: The FUNdamental You — a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun (http://www.FUNdamentalYou.tv)

by Alan R. Bechtold

I was going to tell you the next direct marketing step this week — but it can wait. I’ll get back on track NEXT week.

I spent the weekend in Las Vegas at Lee and Robin Collins’ and Simon Leung’s first-ever Rockstar Platinum seminar event. It was…how do I put this and not sound like a blubbering newbie…spectacular. An incredible line-up of speakers. A unique theme that made everything truly fun. And located in Las Vegas — always a fun place to hang out.

While I was there, I met someone really special and I couldn’t wait to tell you about him. His name is Ronnie. He’s a chauffeur in Vegas who came to the Rockstar Platinum event. It was his first time attending a marketing seminar of any kind and I could tell he was bubbling over with excitement.

I wish I’d met him the first or second day … but it was day three of the event before he approached me and asked for a moment of my time.

I love getting to know the attendees at these events so, of course, I agreed.

That’s when Ronnie went straight for my soul. He told me how he’d struggled the first day, nervous and unsure what to do. A little overwhelmed by all the information he was being presented. After the first day, he said, he thought long and hard and realized he’d been selfish and stayed to himself.

Determined to change the situation on day two, he started thinking, trying to come up with a simple way to make himself stand out. He wanted to not only be able to meet some of the experts in the room that weekend — he also wanted to leave a lasting impression when he did.

So — he turned to the bag of tricks he’s been using for years to climb to the top of his profession. And he presented me with a simple gift. Something that cost him very little money, but that could be worth literally millions to me.

Ronnie went on to tell me how he presented the same gift to one of his high-end customers — celebrity types. You’d know the name if I told you, but it really doesn’t matter here. The man’s an accomplished filmmaker, producer and screenwriter.

Ronnie wanted to leave an impression — so he gabe this guy the same gift he’d just handed to me.

After giving him the gift, Ronnie told me this gentlemen smiled like a kid. Then, from that point foward, he always specifically asked for Ronnie whenever he came into town.

Ronnie tried it again with a different gift. This one cost him $15. The result? He got an invitation to submit a screenplay he’d written.

Unfortunately, that screenplay was ultimately — but Ronnie also showed me the NICE PERSONAL letter, signed by the guy himself, thanking him for submitting it and informing him gently that, unfortunately, it didn’t fit his company’s needs at this time.

You think Ronnie’s enthusiasm was dampened? Not one bit!

At the Rockstar Platinum event, Ronnie made a point of giving every presenter he admired there the gift he’d brought. Then, he asked most of them if they could give him a testimonial with our reactions.

It seems Ronnie is now at work setting up a Website and testing the Internet marketing waters — and he was smart enough to know that some video testimonials from leading experts in the field would make PERFECT oars to help him slice through those marketing waters with haste.

I was more than happy to help him out. I’m sure he came away from the event with a minimum of half a dozen testimonials from major players in the Internet marketing industry. When he gets the site he’s working on up, it’ll start out with raves from leaders starting day one.

But it didn’t stop there.

I told Ronnie about the round-trip ticket I bought for transportation from the airport to the event hotel and back. I told him how lucky I felt that I was the first stop as the bus the airport. It wound up the “round-trip” travel I’d purchased included riding in a huge bus full of people going to at least six hotels on one run.

I told him, even though I’d paid for a round trip, I was thinking of just grabbing a taxi, as it would be faster and I better conrol the time I would be picked up and still make it to the airport on time. Then I could sleep in a bit longer before I had to leave — always a nice thing after a strenuous weekend in Las Vegas.

Ronnie immediately offered to drive me to the airport the next day. He said he would have to check his work schedule but he was certain he was off in the morning and it would be no problem.

True to his word, Ronnie was in the lobby Monday morning at our pre-arranged time, waiting to pick me up, a broad infectious grin on his face.

It’s a very short trip from the event hotel to the airport, but we had a great time chatting. He refused to let me touch my bags and treated me like one of his premier limousine clients the whole way.

I wish it had been a longer drive.

Let me ask you — do you think Ronnie’s going places? Pardon the pun, but I’d make book on it. Not only does Ronnie have spirit and tenacity, he’s a talented connector to a degree of which I’m pretty sure even he isn’t certain.

And he took action, came to that event, and figured out a way to connect memorably with pretty much everyone he came in contact with.

I sincerely hope I’ll see him again again soon. Even if I don’t, I doubt seriously I’ll ever forget him.

But, I’m fairly certain it won’t be all that long before I start running into Ronnie at events all over the country. This time, we’ll hang out as fellow presenters.

Ask yourself — could you do what Ronnie did? Your answer had better be “Absolutely!”

Ronnie did nothing special whatsoever — unless you call making OTHER people feel special a special thing to do. It made a near-billionaire grin like a kid and took him — in my eyes — from an acquaintance to a friend in one short 24-hour span.

There are few guarantees in life and almost none in business. But here’s one for you I hope you write down. Stick it in your wallet and carry it with you always.

I guarantee — just attending one marketing event like Rockstar Platinum is the ONE thing you can do that’s capable of getting your dream of online profits beyond where you ever thought it would be in record time — IF you follow Ronnie’s example.

It works every time. It can be as simple as listening carefully, overhearing a need or anticipating one, and filling it. It could be buying a speaker lunch. Bringing her a cup of coffee or a juice when she’s unable to get one on her own.

I know it sounds self-serving. I often speak at these events. Perhaps I’m just pushing for free goodies.

That’s not what it’s about at all. But, if you doubt it, just watch for Ronnie the Las Vegas chauffeur’s Website debut. We’ll see how fast he climbs to success.

I’m home in Florida now — but I’ll bet he’s going to make it soon!

Here are two events YOU can plan to attend and put Ronnie’s example into action right away:

Ross Goldberg’s LAST Live Master’s Seminar, in Tampa, Florida, April 16 - 19, 2009.

There is a simply amazing lineup of super-star marketing experts slated to appear and it’s NOT too late to book a flight and get there but the seats are going FAST! If you live anywhere near the area, grab a room and plan to be there.

Hook up with just ONE or TWO and you’re possibly off and running!

Click HERE To Check Out Ross Goldberg’s LAST-EVER Masters Seminar

Then — in June, it’s the Music City Internet Marketing Seminar in Nashville, TN, June 19-21, 2009.

You’ve got a bit more time to plan for this one. DON’T MISS IT! If there is any way possible…make plans to attend. Put Ronnie’s plan into action and you’ll be on your way, too.

I’ll tell you how to get to THAT one next week!

Either way, I hope to see YOU in Tampa or in Nashville or BOTH soon! You don’t HAVE to buy me a coffee or lunch…but I WILL expect you to surprise me with what you cook up to captivate my attention!

See you here — next week!

— Alan R. Bechtold

Best-selling author: Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple  Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Intererst Into Cash (John Wiley Books)
Co-producer and star: The FUNdamental You — a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun (http://www.fundamentalyou.tv)

by Alan R. Bechtold

I promised last week to share some direct marketing ideas with you. Here’s a great way to hit 98.2% deliverability and make a bunch of money with very little cash involved.

Postcards.

I know. We’re Internet marketers, right? Direct mail is past its prime.

Wrong.

Postcards are just one very simple form of direct marketing. A tiny slice of the direct mail spectrum, which is itself just a tiny slice of the overall direct marketing picture. However, because you’re an Internet marketer, you’re in the enviable position of being able to capitalize on the power of direct mail using nothing more than postcards, and enjoy their amazing affordability.

A good postcard, properly designed to drive the recipient to a well-written sales Website, can reach ideal prospects in an uncluttered setting for very low cost. It can catch the attention of a high percentage of those recipients and attract new buyers capable of doubling or tripling your business.

I’ve been actively involved in direct marketing for 35 years now. I’ve had incredible success on the Internet. But I’ve had even greater success with direct mail.

Direct mail drove more than $12 million in sales through my business between 1997 and 2002. Oddly enough, most of the direct mail that brought in all that money was responsible for the sale of more than 18,000 Website businesses. It was an OFFLINE offer that drove sales ONLINE.

I’ve moved from direct mail to print ads to the Web over the years, and I’ve made great money with all of them, because they’re all forms of direct marketing and direct marketing is the most effective marketing on earth. I can tell you from experience there’s nothing like the power of tying your Web presence to offline direct marketing strategies, combining the two.

Magic happens. A synergy builds between you and your prospects and clients that’s impossible to achieve with any direct marketing method by itself. It delivers your message in a more personal way that’s not seen as intrusive, the way email often is.

If you’ve neglected direct mail as a marketing tool to build your online business because you’re worried about the expense, think again. Your Website sales letter and online presence replaces the need for printing and mailing expensive direct mail sales letters. A postcard is all you need to reach out and attract new prospects who will buy from you and stick to you like they’re glued — attached firmly by the special connection you’ve made from that first impression in the mail box.

You can go dirt-cheap, if cash is tight. My hat’s off to the folks at Nitro Marketing for their ingenious use of low-cost postcard marketing to promote offers that are presented in-depth and closed online.

One of Nitro’s cards in particular stands out long after I received it in the mail. It was a simple standard-sized postcard with large, bold black letters printed on canary yellow stock. The message on both sides was the same: “You Are NOT Authorized To Visit This Website:” — and a URL.

I couldn’t miss the message, even if I was in the middle of the act of throwing the card away. And I couldn’t resist the urge to see what site I wasn’t supposed to access — even though I knew this was just a clever ploy to make visiting the site irresistible.

Extremely low-cost. Extremely effective.

Focus on an eye-catching design or just use bright stock. Yellow consistently tests with better response rates. But, always stick with a simple curiosity-tweaking statement or comment on the open side. And your Web address. On the address side, you can put some benefit-driven copy and your Web address. Or simply repeat the statement you made on the other side.

Here’s a sample open side statement I just put together: “You’re going to KICK yourself when you see THIS:” then the Web address.

Another: “Why do people who see this always smile?” then the Web address.

Ask a question that makes the reader demand to know the answer … and make it clear that the only way to get the answer is to visit your Website, where your offer resides, awaiting their arrival.

Use the cards to drive recipients to your Website offer for a low-cost introductory product that’s packed with tremendous value.

You can rent fresh lists of proven buyers in literally hundreds of categories, sorted down to age, income level, hobbies, zip codes — almost any demographic imagineable. They can be ordered from the better name brokers for as little as ten cents per name, printed on mailing labels.

Just search Google for “mailing list broker” and you’ll find a bunch.

You can get 100 full-color 4 X 6 postcards (both sides) for as little as $19.95. Let’s go with 1,000. That’s around $65, or 6.5 cents each.

Try http://www.overnightprints.com. That’s where I got the prices above.

Now you’re looking at a total cost of $65 for 1,000 cards plus $100 for 1,000 names of fresh buyers. Postage will run you $290.00. The total: $455.00.

If you’re selling a $9.95 digital introductory product, you only need 46 sales to break even. A 4.5 percent return. Add a $27.95 one-time offer upsell and you’ll surely make some money on the front-end.

Even better — the rented names you sign up are now your customers. You can reach out to them again and again whenever you want.

Always put your offer together so there is a very low-cost introductory offer that delivers extremely high value. And lure them with the postcards.

It works like a champ.

Next week, I’ll show you a way to get those postcards delivered for less than one cent each. And a way to get them delivered into the hands of recent buyers, paying only when you make a sale (sounds a lot like online marketing numbers, right?).

See you then!

— Alan R. Bechtold
Best-selling author, Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash (John Wiley Books)
Co-producer and star, The FUNdamental You, a feature-length movie based on Will Work for Fun (http://www.FUNdamentalYou.tv)