HOW TO MAKE MONEY, MONEY, MONEY! SCADS OF THE BIG BUX!
That is what we at DAX have been primarily known for since Valentine’s Day 1962 when we started this endeavor which since, has become a global love-fest capturing the attention and imagination of millions of industrious and ambitious men and women from virtually every free country in the world.
Our focus has always been directed on so-called ‘’home-based'’ businesses which is a misnomer, because many such quickly develop into much larger enterprises and as such, whilst it may have started from someone’s humble abode - even at the fabled ‘’kitchen table,'’ in time, many a business will grow significantly and must be relocated to a fancy-schmancy office building somewhere. That of course, is precisely what happened to DAX.
As an aside: Should you find yourself in a ‘’grew like Topsy'’ enviable posture, I strongly suggest that you make it a priority to buy your own property in which to house your growing venture. I always have - and as a result, have added mightily to the bottom-line.
I know a fellow who owns a growing chain of successful tax preparation offices. He regrets that he didn’t grow a bit slower and acquire the real estate under each of his branch offices because now, he has many outlets - each successful where they are located - but he fears buying other property to relocate them would hurt revenue as (apparently) people who frequent such places cannot seem to follow instructions to a new location!
But I digress . . . (that happens a lot - not just ’cause I’m in my seventh decade - I’ve been a-digressin’ since I was born!):
Almost all of our four and a half decades in the field of publishing have been spent in the traditional arena of print publishing - hard copy items - books, reports, courses, cassette tape programs - monthly newsletters - that sort of thing.
And as stated, even though it’s what we’re ‘famous for,’ our rather prodigious output has always incorporated a much broader range of information than JUST ‘’money-making'’ concepts. It has always be our contention that Personal Success™ and ‘’Wealth-Building,'’ when truly defined, means so much more than merely being able to say, ‘’I worked hard and smart and got rich.'’
In our mind, a person is very one-dimensional if money is the only means by which success is measured. Thus, whilst I happily present for your perusal herewith a few of the many thousands of ‘’DAX Money-Makers®'’ - as they have always been called - please be sure to explore each of the other categories of DAX good stuff that you’ll find dispersed throughout this entire website.
-Dean
P.S. BE SURE TO READ & HEED THE VITAL INFORMATION WHICH APPEARS AT THE VERY END OF THIS SERIES OF ARTICLES!
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11.26.07
He Who Can, Does . . . He Who Cannot, Teaches
That axiom, from George Bernard Shaw’s (1903) ‘’Maxims For Revolutionists'’ may not be familiar to the younger reader. It simply means that, in a given field of endeavor, the superior types can generally be found functioning at the top of their game, whilst lesser individuals, who have similar interests, but lack skills, stamina, guts or whatever, may well ‘just’ teach.
A really great coach in football, basketball or other sport may be revered for what he or she does, but may not be able to ‘cut it,’ if called upon to act in the capacity of one of the team’s players. Or in some cases, a former star athlete may retire following his ‘prime,’ and then go on to coach others who are just coming along.
In the field of business there are similar players in both categories: Those who can get out there and get the job done, whether building a successful business from scratch or infusing new vigor into a failing one or, in some other way, acting in a hands-on fashion to ensure that the enterprise thrives.
Conversely, there are those gifted people who are sometimes seen as dreamers, as they seem to function best in devising plans, concepts, marketing plans and such - all of which are needed to form the basis for any successful endeavor.
Yours truly here has always tried to be both - in the early years out of necessity: I simply could not afford to hire others to handle separate chores so I had to do it all myself. Later, as various operations thrived I still could not really find a single niche, i.e. ‘’shall I be the idea man or the person who actually implements those ideas?'’ Consequently, I’ve ended up with darn near a half century of doing BOTH!
So what, you say?
A few years ago we introduced what has since become our most successful ‘’high ticket'’ system, the ‘’DAX Superior Cyber Cash Generator.'’ That extraordinary program resulted from my multi interests of research/ development/implementation/operating (the ‘’can-do/will-do'’ approach) coupled with the ‘’let’s show others how to do it'’ aspect.
With the ‘’Cyber,'’ I personally devoted about two years to actually working with our unique program on a daily basis, honing and polishing the concept to perfection, and that came only after several prior years of intense study of the subject.
The next logical step was, of course, to produce a program that could be duplicated by others with a sincere desire to succeed in this brave new world of the web, net and cyber space.
Again . . . SO WHAT?!
This: The ‘’Cyber'’ is in fact, unique. Nowadays, people tend to use that word, ‘unique,’ loosely, because they believe that it grabs attention. Seldom does the term accurately describe whatever they’re pushing, however.
In this case, our own ‘’DAX Superior Cyber Cash Generator'’ deserves the descriptor because, unlike ANY other program that is universally available - even on the limited basis, as is our system - it does NOT require the auspices of a website!
Nevertheless, a number of people good-naturedly challenged me on the unique DAX precept for the ‘’Cyber'’ believing (because they have been told by others) ‘’the only way to get rich in cyber space is to build an expensive website and shell out enormous sums to others to attract visitors to the site, etc.'’
As with most elements of modern life, the average person has become brainwashed into believing that to do most anything, one must buy into and join with ‘’the crowd.'’ Caution:
When someone tells you that you must own your own website or rent one - take note of what that person is ultimately selling! It may not appear obvious at first, but sooner or later they’ll try to suck you into some co-op deal or flat-out purchase of . . . (surprise!) . . . a website!
DAX = RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM
Anyway, despite the fact that we had managed to cut through all the crap and invent a viable, exciting, net-based, wealth-generator without the expensive folderol that others seem to feel necessary - and despite the fact that we had proved this to be true ourselves and then assisted others in duplicating our success, I decided to set all that aside and mimic the usual and frankly staid approach - just to see what would happen.
That thinking comes under my lifelong theory that one is not in an honest position to either knock or promote (anything) until or unless they’ve tried it! Yes! Once, years ago I smoked some ‘’weed!'’ Yes! I inhaled! Several employees gathered around my desk, as Holly - our resident junky at the time (HA!) stuffed some hashish into a little pipe fashioned from chrome plumbing fittings. (No kidding - why she didn’t just use one of my many tobacco pipes laying around, I don’t know).
Anyway, we passed the thing back and forth a few times - I watched her eyes glaze over but personally, the stuff had no effect whatsoever on me and I decided like, golf and bowling - other pastimes I had tried once - ’twas worthless - and have said so ever since. Now, you wanna talk about the merits of a hearty Manhattan, a DAX Perfect Martini or a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon - well, that’s a far different story . . .
Thus, a couple summers ago and for a period of about two months, I pretended that I knew naught about how $$ can best be made via the Internet (which would be to implement our ‘’Cyber'’ program) and instead, designed and launched a professional-appearing webSITE which of course, required one to somehow drag beaucoup visitors through the portal.
Now, you may think that because I already knew that the DAX ‘’Cyber'’ approach was far superior to the SITE approach that I would be inclined to deliberately try and fail - and your thinking would be fair . . . but wholly wrong! I am always open to new ideas - and/or fresh takes on old ones.
In the case at hand, I spent some early mornings ‘’cogitating'’ on the back deck at BLUE HERON POINTE, enjoying my coffee, blueberries, peaches or cantaloupe and watching the sun rise over the island . . . all the time convincing myself it was a ‘’Martha Stewart'’ (translation: ‘’that’s a GOOD THING!'’) - spending a whole lot of money on something that I knew was dumb by comparison to my own proven method.
Similarly, really young (and stupid) happily married men will, on occasion, go out and waste a bunch of $$ on a prostitute, albeit, knowing full well the folly of their actions - and the inherent risk of destroying their home-based relationship. Fortunately, most eventually outgrow that nonsense, eh wot?
I spared no expense in my test endeavor. For instance, once the site was built - replete with currency graphics, green background, active hyperlinks to other pages, order forms and even to other websites, it was (obviously) necessary to drum up a bunch of ‘’traffic,'’ as it is called.
I knew from past tests for other projects that those ‘’traffic swarm'’ deals everybody and their brother tout are 100% worthless, so we did not even waste our time with that. Ditto for the once-popular ‘’banners'’ and ‘’pop-ups.'’ Surfers hate and ignore those things so much that major ISP (Internet Service Providers) such as AOL and MSN have elective software that prohibits the things from interfacing.
Instead, we opted to spend some real dough on various Search Engine PAID advertising as provided by the likes of GOOGLE, ADBrite, Yahoo and others. If unfamiliar with the options, you can, in most cases, structure a marketing campaign whereby you decide how much you are willing to pay ‘’per click through'’ as well as the maximum monthly budget you wish to authorize. Examples:
You could decide to pay as little as 10 cents for each click and set a daily cap of $10.00. Translated, you would be willing for the search engine to cause 100 people to click through to your website during the course of one day: 100 X .10 = $10.00. Okay, got the premise?
Whether ‘’prospects'’ are actually exposed to your message is another factor, because the more you agree to spend PER CLICK coupled with the attractiveness of your advertisement - the higher on the search engine pages your ad will appear.
In the case at hand - just for clarification - we’re referring to the narrow ‘’tree'’ of ads that on most search engines appear on the right side - sometimes, in a clearly defined column. There are also ‘’content'’ ads whereby the message generally appears in the center area along with
unpaid listings but again, usually in a preferred (read, near-the-top) position.
Taking GOOGLE as just one example, if your ad is ‘’sexy'’ enough and you are willing to pay enough, your ad may well end up being in the number one position of every page in the categories you select.
With GOOGLE that is especially vital, because they offer BILLIONS of pages . . . PLUS they have hundreds of millions in hits (to their site) every day!
So . . . we spent the bucks: Instead of the minimum allowed of ten cents per click, we structured our (various - and many) campaigns on the basis of parody: We would pay say, 75 cents for each click with a maximum daily of $750.00. Or $1.00 each with a max of $1000.00. You get the picture: It made it easier to structure each campaign as well as manage it as time went by.
The only other parameter that we ‘’fixed'’ was to allow each campaign to run 24/7 for a full month.
Oh . . . and in addition to the new website mentioned, we also designed a net-sourced prospects campaign (on a wholly separate basis) for our time-honored, decade-old site WWW.DAXFAX.COM site - the same one which is in place for the exclusive use of DAX Dealers profiting from the famous ‘’DAX-FAX {Or Email} Your Way To Great Riches!'’ postcard distribution program inaugurated (sans web support) in 1993.
Now, when it comes to writing ads, headlines and other ‘’attention grabbers'’ I will tell you with no modesty that I have no equal. Even my critics will admit that - and at last count, I believe I had at least 3 or 4 of those . . .
From a great deal of experience - having written literally MILLIONS of words in advertising copy - I have learned what will best punch a person’s money button. How to get them instantly thinking in terms of eye-popping, wallet-fattening concepts that cause them to rush gobs of bux to me.
With that in mind, here are some of the test ads. The first batch was designed solely for the test site:
STAY AT HOME - GET RICH
Build a solid cash-generator
from two feet of desk space!
INTERNET MILLIONS
Probably not. Internet
thousands? Very likely!
PROFITS FROM KITCHEN TABLE
{If that’s where you
keep your computer!}
EARN GOOD CASH PROFITS
From home or office with
only a tiny outlay!
This one was used only to direct traffic to our ‘’old'’ site. It pulled so exceptionally well there was no need to even bother testing other ads.
$333.00 FROM HOME
Legal, ethical, exciting, fun!
45 year record. Remember 333333.
I WON’T KEEP YOU IN ‘’SUSPENDERS'’ . . .
. . . as my mother used to say!
The results: Despite an outlay of a lot of money . . . even though our efforts produced an enormous ‘’click thru'’ response (a solid 500 per day in the case of the DAXFAX ad!) . . .
. . . and in spite of our ads appearing in either the #1, #2 or #3 position for virtually the length of each campaign - in the most desirable and hardest-hitting categories such as, Money-Making, Money-Making Opportunities, Money From Home, Home Made Money, Internet Money, Online Money (and others) . . .
. . . the whole experiment bombed. At least it never approached the high DAX-Standard that we demand for any campaign that we mount.
Why? ’tis simple in my mind: The reason that our basic web site (WWW.DAXFAX.COM ) does work so well - when used in conjunction with MULTIPLE MEDIA including print marketing campaigns - postcards, display and classified ads, internet blogs, opt-in email campaigns, etc. - is because people responding thusly are a totally different breed of animal!
Our large, core group of longtime DAX supporters have overall behavior patterns that differ greatly from those who are geared only towards the web. After all, there is an entire generation of people who are accustomed only to the electronic media - of all kinds.
And more to the point, that group also assumes that they can get most everything for free - to the extent where they cannot really comprehend the big fuss by record companies wanting to retain their proprietary rights to the music they produce and actually believe that someone should pay for the privilege of listening to their wares - what a concept!
So ’tis with those who aimlessly surf the net - even those who get it in the fuzzy cyber space between their ears that perhaps, they should check out some ways to MAKE MONEY. They will sit there for hours clicking from one site to the next - never bothering to actually fully absorb content, or if they do, failing to act upon it.
They just sort of channel-surf as many do when watching the teevee. Never being able to make a decision about much of anything. Do you see my point? It comes down to the quality of prospect you market to in ANY campaign. Put another way, you need that specific targeted audience we have all preached about for decades.
To clarify an earlier observation: It is my contention that DAXERS and I differ greatly from the preponderance of those who log on without exterior prodding (by a TV or radio commercial listing a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), or after seeing a classified or display advertisement or the popular DAX postcards, etc.)
DAXERS presumably have a broader understanding (and interest) in our culture in that we READ - books, newspapers, magazines, on-line specialty publications such as this one, and so forth - aside from whatever else we might access on the net.
It’s a far different cultural experience - and we collectively have proven early pundits dead wrong: The printed word has not and probably will not totally disappear in favor of electronic media - whether for entertainment or enlightenment.
I believe therefor, that for your prospects to actually materialize as buyers, they must come to your offering (on the internet) as the result of outside stimuli - preferably, via the written word. Indeed, I am certain of that statement.
One of the reasons that I knew the foregoing was true well in advance of our recent two month adventure - heck, well in advance of ever developing the ‘’Cyber'’ itself, frankly - was because of certain other ‘’heavy-hitters'’ I’ve known for years - decades in a couple cases - who were bent on pursuing the SITE approach on their own. If you look at their sites, in most cases the things haven’t been updated for a long time - mostly because they do not care any more. Why should they - the things are not working for them.
Further, you will frequently receive frantic e-mails - generally tricked out to look like ‘’someone made a mistake'’ (that’s to get around the scourge of SPAM) - all to get you to visit their tired-old site and hopefully, generate some fresh orders. Just does not work. That approach may have worked very early on - years ago - but then, so did pop-ups and banners which are now universally passé.
In summation: If you have even a glimmer of hope of ever ‘’making it in cyber space'’ you’d better glom onto the DAX concept which again - IS UNIQUE. Otherwise, you should plan on failing.
Does that mean that the ‘’DAX Superior Cyber Cash Generator!'’ is the final word in the matter - the only way to succeed on the net? Probably not - but for now, at least, it certainly stands head and shoulders above every other approach for some important basic reasons:
It costs nil to start . . . it costs the same to operate daily (nothing) . . . it is so simple that anyone who can read can do it well . . . it does NOT require a website of any kind - yours or anyone else’s . . . and it is structured to create an enormous cash flow within a nominal time frame.
You probably think I’m now going to try to get you to buy the system - maybe, even make you a special, highly attractive, discounted offer, right? Nope. You’ve already had your opportunity to do that - several times since its spectacular introduction. You should have grabbed it whilst you had the chance to do so at a reduced price. For now, it’s tight at its regular ten grand per price (unless you are a qualified DAX Dealer.)
If you now have or intend to have any sort of marketing campaign that involves using the Internet to your advantage, I strongly urge you to pay heed to the data we’ve presented in this article, as it was very costly and time-consuming to assemble and it was done totally for your benefit - not mine!
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11.19.07 MONEY-MAKING: Whilst We’re On The Subject . . .
Since we were discussing ‘religion’ in this edition anyway, we may as well direct this week’s MONEY-MAKING segment towards the available wealth-drenched aspect of the topic, as well. To that end, I’ve got another in what appears to be a continuing series of great ‘freebies’ for you. It’s a chapter from our huge ‘n’ hugely popular ‘’DAX Ultimate Millionaire Wealth-Builders!’’ system.
The overall system (not the one segment) is the core vehicle of our extraordinary 100% FREE DAX Dealership program which pays DAX-DOERS $50.00 for EACH sale that DAX makes (not the dealer!) from prospects that the dealer generates for us via any number of methods - many of which are carried out at absolutely NO COST whatsoever to the dealer.
If that dealer is YOU, there’s a whole bunch of potential profits awaiting your participation - upwards of $10,000 a month.
If you have a blog - you’re already light years ahead in the progress: Just go to: http://www.daxrich.com/big-beautiful-blogger-bux/
Bear in mind however, this deal does NOT require that you have a blog, a website or even a presence on the web of ANY kind. Indeed, as of this writing, only a small percentage of our successful DAX Dealers are involved with on-line activities in any way!
Our program is unique - often imitated but never duplicated. It was originally launched in 1993 and second only to our Internationally famous, ‘’Be Your Own Boss!’’ opportunity - our most successful and impressive participatory marketing program in our 45+ year history!
For more info on the extraordinary merits of owning your very own, thriving, home-based business based on our ‘’Be Your Own Boss!’’ concept, go to: http://daxrich.daxfax.com/store/index.php?productID=138
We have had many seasoned marketing veterans exclaim that it is the best of its kind in the world - bar none. (As I’ve said countless times over the decades, ‘’I don’t think that I’m all that great - but what’s MY humble opinion compared to millions of others - HA!’’)
If you need further info, I strongly urge you to start where it’s always best to start ANYTHING - at ’square one’ - by going to our DAX Master Website at: http://www.DAXFAX.com
Now for the hyperlink to that free sample chapter from the ‘’DAX Ultimate Millionaire Wealth-Builders!’’ system:
http://www.daxrich.com/free-sample-chapter-from/
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MONEY-MAKING: Even MORE DAX Big Blogger Bux!
Recently, I GOOGLED ‘Small Business Blogs’ and there were one BILLION, 300 MILLION websites under that classification! ‘’Holy, humongous batch of reading, Batman!’’ And, there are numerous OTHER specific classifications for ‘blogs.’ It seems obvious that blogs are a mainstay of the Internet nowadays. There are so many different kinds of blogs, that if just ONE classification yields well over a BILLION - there must be upwards of a trillion blogs altogether. Maybe not - but there are certainly a large truckload of ‘em!We’ve told you in recent weeks how YOU may create a substantial monthly income from your own blog. Indeed, our basic (own) opening salvo to prospective bloggers is the email subject line, is ‘’Monetize Your Blog GRANDLY - At No Cost To You - Ever!’’
If you have yet to learn all you need to know to get $$ coming your way ‘instantly’ - simply go to:
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Write Your Way To Riches! I’m going to reveal to you - right here and right now - the essence of one of our popular reports that sells every day for $18.00 plus $7.00 s/h via our DAX STORE. In other words, I’m telling you to NOT order that report ('’A Quick & Easy Way to Become a Writer AND a Publisher!'’) or spend the 25 bux - because all you really need to know from the report is right here! (People ask sometimes, ‘’So Dean . . . HOW did you get rich anyway - it seems like you give away an awful lot of stuff?!'’ Yes, I do - which is better, after all, than giving away a lot of awful stuff . . . )Do you really want to know the answer to that question? ’tis simple: We lose money on every transaction - but we make it up on volume . . .The real truth? Thanksgiving is a week from this Thursday and believe me, I have MUCH to be extremely thankful for - so I’m pleased to share this DAX ‘’hot-seller'’ with you gratis. (If you think THAT’s nice - you should see what regular subscribers to our monthly print publication, PERSONAL SUCCESS - The Newsletter, get for naught-itty-naught! Especially, the last week of January 2007 . . . )IT MAY COST YOU NOTHING TO BECOME RICH & FAMOUS!
Many of the money-making concepts I’ve brought to your attention over the past four+ decades have been businesses that I personally have been involved in one way or another.
The one I want to discuss with you now is one such. My participation in this particular business goes back many years, and was also one of only two occasions when I was involved with a partner - a bad move both times!
Simply stated, you, as the driving force behind this DAX Money-Maker would launch a local shopping guide of sorts (don’t turn away, yet - it gets good!) but the current concept is much easier and requires very little (comparative) effort and only a tiny up-front investment. In fact, there are ways where it could cost zilch to get off the ground.
I’ll quickly tell you about the one I did many moons ago. It was called the ‘’Tip-Off'’ and was a fairly substantial multi-page newspaper - about the size of the supermarket tabloids (as opposed to a standard daily newspaper). The ‘’Tip-Off'’ contained only advertising and was published every week. The thing had to be typeset and taken to a regional printer specializing in tabloid and newspaper printing.
The basic costs were very high, but it was on its way to becoming profitable and would have except for that old bane of most partnerships:
One is always feeling like they’re doing more work than the other and soon, the whole deal dissolves. (For the record, I darn well WAS doing most of the work - that’s my story and I’m sticking to it . . . )
Now for the more modern concept - one that I had been mulling over for awhile - with the thought of setting someone up around here to do it. Then, coincidentally, after moving to BLUE HERON POINTE, one day whilst S.E and I were repasting at an Italian eatery I came across a little flier - or so I thought, until I started looking it over.
It turned out to be a mini-shopping guide of sorts - nothing more than an 11′’ X 17′’ standard 20lb white sheet, printed (poorly) with blue ink, then folded once to an 8 1/2′’ X 11′’ size. This one is called ‘’TIDBITS'’ and contains mostly advertising, but also a few more or less interesting, or at least diversionary copy: Some humor, a quiz, a few interesting facts, etc.
Now, let’s give these folks due credit: There is a parent organization behind this (local) paper and all others with its name. They license rather than franchise and apparently, as best we can determine, also do the layout and printing. If you want more information from them go to: www.tidbitsthepaper.com They claim one can earn $50,000.00 a year with the deal - and I dare say that’s true.
But I cannot help wonder why someone would bother with paying even a license fee (the amount of which is based on territory, population, etc.) when all you’d need to do is draft up a similar (and much improved, frankly) deal of your own!
It’s really very simple: Take a sheet of paper the size mentioned or if not available, just tape two ordinary sheets together to form the basis for your ‘’dummy.'’ (That’s what a printing mock-up is called). Next, take a ruler and divide each of the four pages into say, three vertical columns: Perhaps, a two inch width on the left side, another two inch width on the right side with the remaining space in the middle being about 3″.
For variety, each page could have a different configuration: One page might be three columns of equal width. Another page with a wide column on one side, two lesser widths adjoining or a page might have just two wide columns. The idea is to provide some visual contrast.
That can also be well accomplished by using different type fonts or type sizes: Maybe, an italics in one column, with a more ‘’business-like'’ appearance in nearby ad copy. It’s fun to experiment with this sort of thing and of course, the best way to do all this is with your computer. There are many different software programs that will all but instantly set you up with a publishing format where you need only plug in the text. Even then, you can make endless changes to arrive at a finished appearance to your liking.
Depending on the type and extent of your own computer equipment, printers and such, you may well be able to print your own output needs every week. (The local one I mentioned publishes and distributes a mere 3,500 each week - my old ‘’Tip-Off'’ used to be 10,000 and up).
Aside from doing the printing yourself, you could get any ‘’instant printer'’ to do the job - and most anyone could do it better than the local example I’ve seen. Modern-day printing presses, when run properly, can do a pretty darn good job - without ‘’ink washouts'’ that were so common years ago -or missing parts of copy, etc.
THE BASIC PROGRAM - SIMPLIFIED
Here’s what you’d need and need to do to make this successful.
Decide how much money you want to gross each year. That’s important to do early-on, as most all else will depend on that. Let’s shoot for fifty TWO thousand per year - a thousand per week.
Start with those basic four pages - and I would, in fact, suggest staying with that four-page concept indefinitely - unless you can get collating and other processing charges pared way down. That process is costly compared to the simple approach we’ve outlined, and there is really no sound reason for splurging on the extra treatment.
I interrupted myself: Divide those four pages of your ‘’dummy'’ into $1,000,00 and obviously, each page must produce a minimum of $250.00 in weekly revenue.
To accomplish THAT, you need to divide each page into various-sized ‘’blocks'’ - a one inch by (whatever) column width. Plus a two inch, three inch and so on variety of sizes so, that when a page of ads is sold, you have at least the $250.00 that you require to meet your original goal. Now, here’s a secret: All periodical publishers (even those ‘’BIG GUYS'’) do, in fact, love to sell full pages or half pages at a time. It’s a quick way to ‘’fill the book.'’
However, the real $$ is made from all those much smaller individual ads, because the cost per inch is so much more - vastly more. Indeed, with this four-pager concept I would absolutely NOT even make available a full page to one advertiser unless a huge sum were paid.
First, the money thing: You can make more, as I say, by selling a whole bunch of smaller ads. Secondly, the appearance of your little paper would be compromised: It should provide a nice mix of different ads plus, some non-paid copy of other items as outlined earlier.
About that: If you work it right, you should be able to get someone to sponsor those otherwise non-paid-for segments - and not lose a dime! For instance, perhaps your local funeral director would like to have his name ‘’nicely'’ presented on a regular basis but really doesn’t want to just say, ‘’Hey! When someone dies and you gotta figure out what to do - come to us!'’
Instead, he may underwrite the cost of your putting say, a small column listing health hints or even some philosophical fluff - with his company’s name and contact data discreetly appearing underneath (six feet underneath?!)
You might have some local screwball type (like me) who would be glad to pay for your weekly jokes segment. A drug store might want to see their name as the sponsor for a ‘’Fun Facts'’ column, etc. Think about it - ’tis all quite elementary, after all.
The amount that you charge for the space in your publication is somewhat predicated on a mix between CPM (cost per thousand of circulation) and whatever the market will bear, frankly. Maybe, you don’t have any nearby competition. Maybe, there’s quite a lot.
Regardless, find out what your competitors are charging per inch, per number of copies actually distributed and base your rates accordingly - higher or lower - it does not matter as long as you do a really great job of:
Selling the heck out of your concept! Physically visit each and every prospective advertiser in your immediate area. Mail them flyers extolling the virtues of your new media. E-mail and/or fax them other messages, when possible. Most of all, convince several of the well-known eateries, discount stores and such to place some sort of ad with you - preferably, each and every week.
Figure ahead of time how you can still get your required per-page gross revenue even if you offer discounts for repeated insertions. Just add on a bit more up front when you plan your plan!
When necessary (and it probably will be) for those who balk or just want to see how the deal goes before committing - make them a ‘’special deal.'’ Be prepared ahead of time, so you won’t sound desperate:
Offer to place a decent-sized ad for free - for one week or even longer - provided that the potential advertiser makes some bonafide concession to his potential customers in the form of say, a certificate that must be redeemed at his store . . .
. . . maybe, a free beverage with the purchase of a particular sandwich, or other similar freebie that will enable the store owner (and you) to physically track results obtained solely from YOUR publication.
The whole trick to making it easy and profitable to get repeat advertisers: Simply provide results! If your little paper is generating more sales for someone, he or she will be back for more - regularly - you won’t need to ask or hound them!
To accomplish the foregoing, two things: First up you need to ensure really great written copy - and where possible, good graphics. Maybe your advertisers will come up with that - but do not count on it. Train yourself, if need be, to be capable of whipping out sizzling and eye-catching ads - and then, at least you can suggest ideas to your advertisers if not actually doing the composition yourself.
Next, as I stressed before, you need to produce a finished product (your printed newspaper) as professionally as possible. In the beginning, I would suggest one or both of these: Use two bright and contrasting colors of ink. Blue and red. Maybe, red and green. Use your own judgment - experiment a bit. One thing: Better to always use a white paper stock rather than a color. Ink colors are good - paper colors, bad.
NOW, THE BIGGIE!
You MUST ensure - without fail - adequate and proper distribution of your weekly newspaper. Now in case I didn’t clearly state it earlier, your paper is 100% free to the consumer. You earn $$ only from your advertisers. Likewise, the folks who will be the ultimate distributors of batches of your paper receive nothing.
Okay, if it comes to that, you may give a really good distributor a free ad now and then - or better still, simply discount his ad a bit. (Remember: Factor THAT into your original pricing schedule, as well - gotta always keep your eye on that bottom-line!)
You’re mostly shooting for distribution points such as bowling alleys, fast-food outlets (the huge chain operations may not co-operate - but the smaller, sole proprietors usually will), service stations, laundromats, grocery stores - even busy doctor or dentist offices. Wherever, folks gather. It will take some adjusting, but try to determine a number of copies to leave at each place commensurate with the perceived ‘’traffic.'’
If only 100 people frequent a store once a week - why leave 500 copies? Conversely, you might want to revisit highly trafficked spots more than once each week to ensure they have enough to hand out. Actually, in almost all cases the store personnel does naught - there’s your stack of papers handy to the checkout area and those who want it will grab it.
Going may be slow at first - so try for a really good-looking eye-catching design - have a nice masthead on the front page - a simple name for the thing - easy to read type style (no fancy-schmancy Olde English style for this deal!) - and make the ancillary content (the jokes, puzzles, quizzes, fun facts, etc.) just as fascinating as possible: Many will look forward to that single aspect of the paper - and of course, be exposed to all those paid ads in the process.
$50,000.00 per year? Oh yeah - easily, methinks! I also believe that rather than expand the original paper in any way - as to the number of pages and/or the number of copies printed and distri-buted, I would opt for starting other, separate papers - using the same name - in other nearby locales. This is a great husband/wife business or you could put your kid or grand kid to work.
Whatever - or however - this is truly a simple method to get you to do some writing, some research and general thinking-cap sort of activity - plus there’s a genuine chance that you’ll profit handsomely for your efforts.
I mentioned earlier that you might be able to get this thing off the ground without any up-front money: If you are already set up computer-wise (and you may have well done THAT for free if you have been a DAX-DOER for any length of time) then, you need only create your dummy, print off a few copies yourself (or for pennies at a copy machine outlet) and then sell some advanced advertising.
With that $$ in hand, you can go on to produce your first issue, (and pay the printer), distribute it (at no cost to you) and then start on your second issue. Actually, and we are now getting far into the specifics of this thing - once truly underway, you would always be working on future issues fairly well in advance of the publishing date - maybe, as many as three to four issues ahead of the current date.
In closing:
I know of NO other business enterprise that is more rewarding than one which allows you to write creatively and to publish your output free of editorial input or downright criticism as is so often the case. With this little ‘’shopping guide'’ concept, you can truly become a writer as well as a publisher ‘’overnight'’ - maintain 100% control over your own activities and to boot, stand a chance of earning some ‘’serious'’ money!
If you decide to go with this deal, be sure to let ME know - and keep me apprised of your progress. I am really very interested in your experience!
-Dean
(Enjoying a delightful autumn afternoon on the DAX ‘’Yacht,'’ on the lake at Blue Heron Pointe - thanks to the ‘’words.'’)
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A Computer Nerd’s Nirvana! (10.30.06) Yet another brilliant idea for computer programming experts seeking to get rich! I say ‘’another'’ as there have been several such over the years from this source - although, the most notable was the one suggesting the growing need for a system which could sort out websites, categorize ‘em and make the results available to web-surfers.That concept is now well-known as a ‘’search engine'’ and it came to be a few months after we published the idea - thanks to pioneer Larry Page and his buddy (whose name escapes me at the moment). Coincidentally, Larry lived nearby to yours truly in East Lansing, Michigan at the time. As you know, the boys ended up calling their service GOOGLE.Now however - this: No doubt you are familiar with the ‘’crawl'’ that all news broadcasters show at the bottom of the screen. It appears during programming only and disappears whilst the (many) commercials are running - which is irritating - but as Letterman would say, ‘’That’s not why you called!'’There are two other functions of the crawl that are notable:1. Some of the more interesting stories are presented there! Often, obscure data that does not merit full coverage by the talking heads during the regular newscast are placed on the crawl. I see it as similar to our own category HERE called ‘’Short takes.'’ Good stuff - but not lengthy enough to warrant the ‘’full treatment.'’2. A most irritating fact of one’s reading the crawl - aside from it’s often capturing one’s attention to the extent of diverting away from the principal story being presented - is summed up in the old phrase, ‘’This is where I came in!'’
Folks used to go to the movies and enter the theatre as they felt like it - often after the feature had started. They would simply sit there until the thing was run again - until they had seen the entire picture. Hence, the phrase ‘’This is where I came in'’ and they’d get up and leave. (In my youth, I ran four motion picture theatres, in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana, by the way.)
Anyway . . . to see what you have missed in the teevee crawl, you need to sit there an interminable length of time, waiting for the darn thing to loop back so you can find out the full details. I just had that happen again: Flipped to MSNBC and on the crawl saw the tail end of a report that said ‘’and the famed actress died in her sleep according to her publicist.'’
Well now, WHO was it who died?! Sandra Bullock? Julia Roberts? I hope not Amanda Peet - she’s my current ‘’can’t have'’ fantasy - pregnant and all!
Nope, turns out after I sat there for a LONG time - I learned that Jane Wyatt, who played the mother on the old teevee show, ‘’Father Knows Best'’ had passed away - at 96.
THE SOLUTION THAT ‘’MAKES YOU RICH!'’
You know the problem - here’s the solve: Develop the mechanics to enable the viewer to hit a button on the remote to regain the crawl function after the fact of its run, and/or during the same. Yes, technically this can be done via TiVO but most viewers do not have that apparatus nor would they want or need it.
News junkies (and there are tens of millions of ‘em) do not care much for other programming - only the news coverage by the networks as well as the cable 24/7 presentations.
Regardless, I predict that within 4 - 5 years my ‘’Crawl Capture Caper'’ will be a standard option in the industry and whoever develops it will be filthy rich as in GOOGLE-Rich or YouTube-Rich. Just remember where you got the idea - right here at DAXRICH.COM
So be decent and at the least recommend this weekly effort to a few of your nerdy friends, okay? Also, I’ve got my eye on an all-wheel-drive silver-blue Porsche Cabriolet, if you’d care to contribute to the cause!
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How to Get Rich From Channel Surfers (10.23.06)
TV CHIC - ON THE CHEAP
No doubt you’ve heard of QVC, the Home Shopping Network or one of the many other major players in the ’shop by television’ phenomenon that has totally altered the landscape of American marketing: It is a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR enterprise!
There is a way that YOU can partake of these fantastic profits!
I first became aware of just how pervasive it’s become a couple years back as S.E. and I were moseying on back home from Key West by car. As I was waiting at a Hilton check-in desk in Georgia, I struck up a conversation with another person waiting - a middle aged woman. She related how she and her husband had been going to Florida every winter regularly for many years. Their pattern was to stay there from November to the end of April. As this was mid February, I inquired as to why they were returning home so early this year.
This otherwise sane looking person told me, quite seriously, that where she stayed in Florida was a very remote area and not serviced by U.P.S. It seems that her favorite (and apparently ONLY) pastime was watching the TV shopping channels, ordering all sorts of ‘junk’ and eagerly awaiting delivery of same by U.P.S.! She was literally ‘in need of a fix’ and had to get back up north where U.P.S. offered daily delivery - and thus satisfy her craving!
Later, in looking a bit further, we discovered there are many, many other people across the land who are equally bonkers: They will buy virtually anything advertised on TV - especially, if the ordering process can be made very simple.
I suppose this shouldn’t have surprised me: Over the 4+ decades I’ve been in direct marketing, I’ve seen a similar phenomenon in this field. Each time we develop a new product and ‘test the waters’ with ads in various control media we use, we will get an immediate large batch of orders from certain familiar names from around the globe - folks who will buy any new ‘how-to’ product, whether they are interested in making use of it or not. Indeed, in most cases we can all but be assured of instantly recovering most of our R & D costs - just from those ‘how-to junkies,’ as I call ‘em! But of course, we love each and every one!
Anyway . . . I recently became curious about the mechanics of the various teevee shopping networks and conducted a more or less formal study of the several that are currently running in most parts of North America - generally, on the low-cost cable channels.
Whilst scanning the various shows I noticed a potentially great opportunity for most any DAX-DOER who would be interested, to wit:
There are many local channels - just a notch above so-called ‘public access’ which have a limited audience - in the tens of thousands rather than tens of millions - therefore, offer very inexpensive advertising. One actual example:
For $6.25 one can have 28 different spots per week - in full color - with back-ground music to feature all sorts of wares. Now, do bear in mind that $6.25 is for ALL 28 spots - NOT for just a single one!
So here’s what I envision as a great money-making idea:
You assemble a bunch of different products - make up a rather eclectic assortment, including men’s and women’s cologne, small hand and electric tools, jewelry, cosmetics, pen/pencil sets - the usual stuff you’d find either on TV or, in discount stores, etc.
There are many sources for this merchandise, including several that advertise in every issue of the biz opp pubs (Income Opportunity, Money-Making Opportunity, Spare Time, etc.) Just scan the things at your newsstand and write down the contact data. There are also flea market wholesale suppliers galore. Easier still, just GOOGLE whatever products you seek, and no doubt tens of thousands of sources will pop up within seconds.
Anyway, you set up your own little TV shopping network and advertise various products. One such who is doing this (and man, is he hokey!) is doing very well, and here is his gimmick:
He’ll flash about three different-angle pictures of a product on the screen - one after the other, rather slowly and methodically, all the while talking about the product’s virtues. A Black and Decker cordless screw driver set will get the full descriptive treatment and then flashed on the screen as well as a voice-over is the news that ‘’It regularly sells for $49.95, but today’s special is only $29.95!'’ And so on. His cost on that particular item is just $6.95, by the way!
Another hot-seller: L’hombre men’s cologne, sticker price $19.95 - sells it for $9.95. He pays less than 50 cents a bottle in hundred unit quantity.
Many products such as jewelry and cosmetics, like cologne, have enormous mark-ups - several thousand percent in some cases! You can sell that stuff all day long and make a profit no matter what your asking price! Plus, especially with jewelry (long ago and far away I myself was in that business) there is an endless array of choices: Pens, pendants, bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings, cuff links, tie clasps and pins and of course, watches of all varieties.
Another way to make $$ with TV would be to simply start a video shopping mall whereby you offer space on your ‘crawl’ (that’s where the ads move vertically, slowly enough for a person to read the message) and charge whatever the market will bear. By the way, if you implement either idea - don’t forget to put a blurb or two for your DAX-FAX cards (or other DAX products) as you’ll make a whole bunch more bux just from that!
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ONE MAN’S TRASH TRULY IS ANOTHER’S TREASURE!
This is a really great idea - potentially very profitable, but also one that can be a whole lot of fun, as well! This one is so good, that we are consideirng an expansion of this article and may publish a complete report - a report that others must buy - but you will get the essence of the thing at no cost - right here and right now!
One of our one-time most popular low-cost reports covers the surprisingly large amount of weekly income (about $1,000.00) to be realized from certain twists to the otherwise plebeian garage or yard sale concept. We sold beaucoup copies of ‘’How To Earn $1,000.00 A Week,'’ (now, discontinued) and many, many people continue to prosper from the somewhat unusual technique detailed therein.
Now, we have come up with something far better! In fact, we are about to show you how to make executive level money, not by conducting garage sales, but by ATTENDING them! Bear with me on this, I DO know whereof I speaketh!
In the past, we’ve discussed the extraordinary profits to be enjoyed from the popular PEZ® candy dispensers. When we first became involved in that particular hobby/investment, SuEllen and I found ourselves regularly scrounging around antique shows, garage and yard sales, Salvation Army retail stores, barnyard sales, church bazaars, toy conventions, etc.
We also attended numerous conventions staged across the U.S., including (best of all!) in Las Vegas. One of the things that I liked about those weekly soirees was that I would usually get a nice, big, wholly decadent breakfast on Saturday or Sunday morning whilst we were on our way to some distant city for one of those events! Also, I gained a whole lot of good exercise as we walked the exhibits: One event had us covering a full 80 ACRES during a six hour period!
The upshot of all this - is THIS: Whilst helping SuEllen find some PEZ® (which, by the way, sometimes means I’d crawl under tables on my hands and knees, digging through dirty old boxes of kid-encrusted plastic toys and such . . . Yuck!), I developed a fair amount of intelligence on a potentially highly lucrative business that virtually anyone could enter - at very small cost: But the monetary reward potential is stupendous!
Simply stated, you could become a broker for a SPECIALIZED variety of collectibles that are eagerly sought-after by tens of thousands of collectors/investors throughout the world. Actually, this concept takes the job of what is known in the trade as a ‘picker’ to all new heights: Exciting and hugely profitable heights, to wit:
A ‘picker’ is the industry vernacular for a person who is the first to arrive at a garage or yard sale, looks over the booty and sometimes offers to buy the whole mess for $50 - $100. Then, he or she loads up a truck or van and either takes it to a flea market and offers the stuff for sale at prices higher than paid, or more often, calls up various contacts and resells to other retailers at a small profit.
‘Small profit’ is indeed, the reality for most professional pickers. One such picker we ran into at an antique store revealed to us that the PEZ® we had just bought for $70.00 was the identical one which he had earlier that day bought for 25 CENTS and in turn, sold to the retailer for $1.00! Wait . . . it gets better:
Although we paid $70.00, the thing is actually worth nearly $500.00! Wait a minute: Do you realize that four different people were involved in transactions involving one little item during the course of one day and that technically, each of the four made some sort of profit?
Yes, but who made the largest profit? Well, in actuality, at this juncture it was the antique guy who sold us the item for $70.00 - a $69.00 profit. Isn’t that odd, since in reality it was he who put forth the least effort and also expended such a small amount of ‘risk’ capital. Of course, if we wanted to sell, we would earn a hefty $430.00 profit.
Next consideration: Of the four people involved, who did the most work? The woman who held the original garage sale from whence the PEZ® was plucked merely threw a bunch of stuff out on a table. The guy who sold us the piece for $70.00 easily reached into the till and produced a single dollar bill to give to the picker. S.E. and I simply spotted the thing whilst passing through the store. But the PICKER had to venture from garage sale to garage sale, scrounge through mountains of stuff, put his money on the line for a van load of junk and then hope he can turn a buck by day’s end.
And as far as the PEZ® in question - that’s precisely ALL that he GROSSED - a buck! Deduct his 25 cent cost and yes, percentage-wise, he seemingly did okay: He quadrupled his money - buy hey, a 75 cent profit is still just 75 CENTS!
However, if the picker, or as we shall henceforth refer to (this person) as a ‘broker,’ were to simply act a bit smarter, do some research, and go about his or her business in a more professional manner, an enormous amount of money could be made - as well as a whole lot more enjoyable experience realized, as well.
Consider this: As a broker, you get up in the morning, don some comfortable attire, get in your car and head for some garage and yard sales. The night before you scanned the newspaper for listings and plotted your itinerary so as not to waste time or mileage.
You take with you either a mental or actual list of certain items to seek out. Perhaps, your list is relatively short or it may be long, but it is precise and you know exactly what you are looking for, and you waste precious little time on anything else. In short, you specialize. As the morning progresses, you find, bargain and purchase those certain items on your list.
You stop for lunch, perhaps, and then head for area antique stores, flea markets, Salvation Army and or Volunteer of America retail outlets. Again, you seek out, bargain for and purchase your certain items.
That night, at home with your booty, you start making certain contacts by phone, FAX or mail. Before the day comes to an end, the chances are, you will have earned hundreds - quite possibly, THOUSANDS of dollars - doing little more than the ‘picker’ that we mentioned earlier - but doing what you do SMARTER and more professionally.
Think this is merely a pipe dream? Don’t fool yourself (besides, yours truly gave up the pipe some 10 years ago!): There is a plethora of collectible items languishing in all of the types of venues I mentioned - stuff just waiting to be picked up for PENNIES - that you can turn around and sell for small fortunes.
It is truly amazing, once you ‘get out there’ - the stuff that people desperately want and will pay extraordinary amounts for: You must see it to believe it! Once, by accident, we attended a huge (and I do mean HUGE) doll show.
The thing was misrepresented and advertised as an antiques and collectibles show, so we ventured to the place, paid our 6 bux entry fee, got our hands stamped with indelible red ink and entered a huge arena filled with thousands of DOLLS - nothing else! Otherwise sane looking people (both women AND men) were dealing in dolls - sometimes, for prices that make PEZ®-Heads look like pikers!
Here is a list of stuff that I alone have seen offered for either a few cents or a few dollars which will cost the serious collector some serious money: Dolls, as mentioned, include ICY, AUKS, CHATTY-KATHY, HOLLY HOBBY and many others. So-called ‘Depression (era) glass.’ All Mickey Mouse characters and related paraphernalia. Children’s pedal cars. Comic books (some single issues bringing . . . hold on TIGHT . . . $80,000.00 each!)
McDonalds Value-Meal toys (5 to 10 cents each at garage sales - bringing up to $5.00 each elsewhere: YOU figure out the percentage of profit!) Simpson family figures . . . Pee Wee Herman dolls & Chairy Chair . . . and of course, the venerable PEZ® candy dispensers that we’ve already mentioned, but additionally, various advertising literature for PEZ® as well as other popular products, such as Coca-Cola™, many cigarette and cigar products, etc., are also hot collectibles.
Naturally, many people collect relatively common items such as sports cards, magazines, automobile advertising literature, certain old toys such as cars, trucks, banks, and so forth.
What is really surprising (to me, anyway) are the sort of ’strange’ things that people will pay big bux for, such as, eye cups, egg cups, painted waste baskets, pipe tobacco cans, old dirty used pipes, drink coasters, old toasters and irons, and even tennis ball containers.
Recently, you may have heard David Letterman, Jay Leno and others joking about an old condom that was auctioned off for $6,000.00 - so obviously, there is no accounting for taste - and virtually NOTHING that ’someone out there’ won’t collect. And therefore, PAY FOR!
Again, that’s where YOU could enter the picture and create a highly successful brokerage business for yourself. If interested, the first thing I’d suggest is to do some research: Go to a bunch of antique stores and discover the various items that seem to be in demand. Look at the prices. Try to make a list of items that command fairly large amounts.
Then, go to the library and check out some books on the various items that you listed. Do some studying. Also, get copies of various antique and collectible periodicals, such as Inside Collector, Toy Collector, Toy Shop, Antiques & Collectibles, etc.
You may want to start building a library of your own consisting of reference books. (Our own ‘’PROFITS FROM PEZ'’ is a must, because if you find yourself engaged in this particular DAX MONEY-MAKER® you will definitely come across many valuable PEZ® and will want to profit from the same!)
In these various periodicals, you will find all sorts of people advertising their ‘’Want List.'’ Here is where you will start making your best contacts - people who will pay YOU top dollar for the various collectible items that you find along the way. In short, you will want to BY-PASS the retailer (such as the antique shop owners) and go directly to the ultimate consumer - the collector - the person ready, willing, able and EAGER to give you a whole lot of money for your treasures which are, as indicated in our headline, another person’s castoffs!
I’m going to go out on a limb, so to speak. and predict one of the next ‘hot’ collectibles: We’ve noticed, as we’ve ventured around these past few months, a fair number of old typewriters: Not dozens or hundreds, but most antique outlets have one or two. Despite the fact that most are very old - fifty to sixty years or more - the price tags are astonishingly low, from only $12.00 to $35.00 each!
Some of these old relics are engineering marvels and are in excellent condition. Sooner or later, after folks have exhausted all the other many collectibles, I will bet some will start a collection of old typewriters. When that happens, the prices will start to zoom, and within a year or two, these (now) dirt-cheap pieces of iron will bring hundreds - even thousands of dollars. Mark my words!
But even if you simply stick to the currently popular collectibles, I am quite certain, as will you be once you get involved in brokering, that you stand to earn at least $100,000 per year as a professional broker, and your cost in getting started need be very tiny. And as we eluded to earlier, you also can expect to have a great deal of fun and even excitement, and on occasion get away with having a really sinful breakfast on your way to the ‘’job site!'’
You may well find it worthwhile to give this thing a serious try, as it meets all basic DAX criteria for a Money-Maker, especially when one considers the ease of launching such a venture: No capital, no expensive training, no special equipment, no office facility, no employees, etc. And the bottom-line: It can be great fun!
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A DAX MONEY-MAKER THAT’S CRAZY . . . LIKE A FOX!
What follows may seem like a wild idea - maybe, even somewhat hair-brained. Maybe, it is but . . .
. . . bear in mind that over the past four decades we have presented any number of seemingly ‘’off-the-wall'’ concepts for making a buck - and some of those erstwhile ‘’crazy ideas'’ have proved exceptionally profitable for the DAX-DOER who picked up on it.
A couple such immediately come to mind: The (now) famous ‘’Mystery Weekend'’ that is very popular throughout the land - whereby, a promoter sets up a spooky-sort of venue, sells tickets and offers either a very simple program of attendees trying to solve a ‘’murder'’ (acted out by local performers) or in the case of more elaborate set-ups provide accommodations, meals, etc.
There are also ‘’Mystery Cruises'’ on ships which sounds especially fun. In any event, DAX originated that idea many, many years ago and whilst it did appear in our venerable old DAX Confidential Money-Maker Newsletter, I know that it also appeared in the original ‘’13 Sure-Fire Roads To Riches,'’ which is still available.
Another extraordinarily successful DAX concept -one we suggested in the early 1970’s, I believe, was that of capitalizing on the (then) emerging lottery ticket phenom that was starting to sweep the nation. We discovered that it was quite difficult to find out what the winning numbers WERE after each drawing (back then, there were no TV programs featuring the data - as it was downright illegal at the time to broadcast such information!)
We came up with a sponsored telephone lottery-number info deal and one of our Denver DAX-DOERS grabbed it and ran - all the way to the bank! PARADE magazine reported that in the first week of inauguration a couple jillion calls were logged in and a vast network of phones had to be added.
That DAX-DOER was very happy with our ‘’kooky idea'’ and to this day, each Christmas yours truly receives a very nice box of ‘’strangely-Cuban-looking (but certainly NOT such!) cigars as my special reward. Unfortunately, I quit smoking ten years ago this coming September 25th - dang it.
And, if you need any more reinforcement for the possibly ‘’dumb idea'’ I’m about to present, let’s not overlook the fact that ol’ DAX here sort of filled the hundred-year gap between self-publisher Mark Twain and all those DAX-DOERS who wanted to become self-publishers - commencing some four decades ago . . .
Well anyway, enough tooting of my own horn . . .
Shortly after moving to BLUE HERON POINTE, on a wonderfully lazy summer afternoon I plopped down under a big hickory tree into my favorite hammock (brought from WILLOWOOD via KAMP KWIRKY), with a potent potable positioned nearby on a little wooden table. The lake was calm, most everybody else was at work (wherever they work) and I was simply enjoying the moment. I person-ally prefer the string type of hammock rather than the old canvas sort - reasons to follow.
About 30 seconds into my reverie, all comfortably positioned, as I have inevitably done in the past, I think, ‘’Sure would be really nice if some 25 year-old blond in a bikini would come by and gently rock this hammock now and then.'’ Well, I suppose I could hire said assistant, but I suspect if I did, there might be ‘’trouble at home,'’ so my very NEXT thought is usually:
‘’Why isn’t there some sort of little machine - an electric device, perhaps, (it could be battery or even solar-powered) that would, on my command, (with a small remote, I suppose) gently (or vigorously, should the mood strtike) rock the hammock whenever I want?'’
Seems like a simple request, but as it turns out (I’ve looked into it) there is no such product on the market. Why? We currently have in our population the largest-ever group of more-or-less ‘’idle people'’ (58 million ‘’baby-boomers'’) and most all have an abundance of disposable income and probably (well, actually I know this for a fact!) many of ‘em, like myself, enjoy kicking back now and then and would love to have someone else ‘’rock their world!'’
Looks like a $100.00 - $200.00 or more product that would sell like crazy - especially in the many upscale ‘’home & garden'’ catalogs - or on QVC or heck, even in your own infommercial! Something to ponder . . . By the way, if you DO go and get all rich and successful from this (or anything else you ‘’get'’ from DAX) - forget the see-gars at Christmas - nowadays, I like good wine or chocolate or . . . no . . . those two are about it!
I mentioned the string-type hammock earlier. Sounds dumb, but I like to play melodies on the apparatus (until or unless I fall asleep, which is common). You see, I discovered that the eighteen separate thick strings that comprise the super-structure on each end are very similar to any actual stringed musical instrument - a guitar or a harp, for example.
The outer strings are low and base-like, but as you move closer to the center (and side by side if you’re ambidextrous - and lucky-you, if that’s the case!) each string produces a higher tone.
I referenced earlier some of the ‘’far-out'’ money-making concepts that we have presented in the past which have been seized upon by DAX-DOERS, but there are also several such that come to mind which we detailed that have NOT been developed by anyone - DAX-DOERS or anyone else. Methinks, I’ll make a point of digging out a few of those and maybe, as early as next month, tell you about them. A couple, for sure, should be grabbed by someone as they are, without a doubt, genuine ‘’million-dollar ideas!'’
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PROFIT HANDSOMELY FROM WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW!
Where are you currently in the grand scheme of your career/job/ business/profession? Just starting? Midway towards that proverbial ‘’gold watch?'’ Retired, perhaps? Horror of horrors: Have you recently been fired? (If so, you’re in the company of a large number of other such hapless folks, these days).
No matter. Here’s a suggestion for you that has worked extremely well for others to help them create an ever-growing and prosperous business of their own, based on knowledge and skills they’ve acquired over the years whilst (usually) in service to other employers.
Specifically, let’s say that you’ve had a job for a number of years where you’ve managed to fairly well hone your talents and feel quite confident with whatever ’tis you do to earn your daily bread. Maybe you’re a baker (Sorry - that was just TOO easy, there!) A school teacher. A computer technician. A plumber, carpenter, automobile mechanic - whatever.
Truly doesn’t matter - you are good at what you do. You’re paid (or WERE paid, if you’ve lost your job) a decent wage and that’s that. But now, maybe you’d like to capitalize on the store of knowledge you’ve accumulated over the decades, right?
Hokay! Why not consider becoming a highly paid CONSULTANT? Yes, a consultant!
It’s not all that far-fetched. After all, any time you tune on the teevee and see some smartass pontificating on (whatever) - where do you think he or she came from? How did they start - and how did they gain ‘’so much knowledge'’ and ‘’respect'’ that someone is willing to pay them several times their previous hourly wage just to get out there and tell what they know . . . to comment on events related to their particular field, and so on . . . hmmm?
Sure enough, most all come from the ranks of the everyday working stiff who eventually got tired of the daily grind or was turned out to pasture and instead of wailing about their plight, seized upon a fresh opportunity to benefit from all those years of being in harness - for someone else’s profit.
We’ve talked about this concept a couple times in the past, and today even more than ever the concept is extremely valid. Business and industry today seemingly cannot exist without highly-paid consultants in every field imaginable. Marketing, sales, copywriting, computer technology, Internet savvy and so on.
I once told you of how delighted my own father was when, shortly after retirement, his former employer, a small daily newspaper implored him to come back - during hours of his choosing - to help sort out various problems in the composing room that he knew cold, having devoted some 50 years to the craft.
He could not believe that they were willing - eager, even - to pay him ten times the hourly rate he had previously received. He promptly printed up some cards and a letterhead that read, ‘’M. F. Du Vall, Linotype Consultant'’ and had a great time with his new ‘’profession!'’
Recently, the widow of my late/great friend, Hameed, informed us that she had, at long last, retired from a lifelong career of teaching school only to be rehired as a consultant at a ludicrously high fee to (and get this - ’tis the ‘’good part!'’) to develop several programs which she had previously suggested when employed as a ‘’mere'’ teacher!
As Rita puts it, ‘’They’re now paying me big money to do what I would have gladly done for no extra charge back when I was simply a working teacher. For some reason, my forty years experience then were not impressive enough. Now, when they are behind me they serve as some sort of power base!'’
Therein lies the key to this whole notion of consulting as a viable business: You must establish yourself as an authority in whatever field you hope to profit. As an employee of a company where your job is to maintain the computers, you may be paid handsomely - upwards of $20.00 per hour (maybe).
If you take those same skills and experience and farm yourself out as a ‘’Computer Expert,'’ ‘’Computer Technician, ‘’ Computer Consultant, ‘’ (or whatever else strikes your keyboard-fancy) - you will be able to draw at least $90.00 per hour - probably much more!
The last time our computer network crashed (and it does every now and then - as does everyone else’s!) we bought a bunch of new equipment and such, BUT after we had done the basic set-up work we called in our trusty ‘’Computer Consultant'’ who worked for a good solid afternoon and evening to make certain all was well in DAX-land. Total for his efforts alone? Well over a thousand bux!
The purpose of this particular article is not to give you a whole bunch of ideas about any particular fields where a consulting biz might be viable as that would pretty much encompass all fields of endeavor.
Instead, I just would like to see you give some serious consideration to the possibility of taking what you already know and converting it into an entity that may well provide you with a great deal more money, genuine security and an overall sense of well-being (PERSONAL SUCCESS™, in other words!)
Now, if you were to decide to establish such a business, your costs (if any) would be nominal. No doubt you already have some sort of home office set-up: Desk, phone, fax machine, computer - the usual stuff. That’s really all you would need at the core of your new consulting business. You’d want to have printed some appropriate stationery, envelopes and business cards. Or better still, just print them yourself on your computer.
A few strategically placed phone calls perhaps, to associates and business friends that you’ve established over the years, should get you some initial jobs or at least, good referrals. Develop these as you go along and depending upon how needed your services are, you should very shortly have a viable, thriving and highly profitable business going for you and yours.
And remember, this time around YOU are in control of your destiny and not subject to getting fired without warning or being forced to retire when you reach a ‘’certain age.'’ Best of all, you will be able to charge whatever YOU think you’re worth - not what someone else decides and forces upon you!
HOW SWEET IT IS!
Just how good can the consulting business get, anyway? Well, in 1953, a small outfit called Anderson Consulting managed to solve the technology problems for General Electric by installing the first-ever computer designed for a business. In the ensuing years, the fledgling enterprise went on to consult for many other companies and enjoyed an average growth of 26% annual profit. Later, they changed their name to Accenture and today, rack up some $125 million in annual revenue.
So, if YOU are sort of a ‘’know-it-all,'’ maybe you’ll find your calling by selling your knowledge to others for a pretty penny! The great thing about this particular idea is that you could start very slowly - just a toe in the water at first - see what happens - develop your approach - even take on some projects that are non-threatening to your current, everyday employer.
That way, you’d not risk anything and before long may have a substantial client backlog that will enable you to (at long last!) sing that popular song, ‘’Take this job and shove it!'’ No, better not do THAT - because, as we’ve pointed out, one of your best and most lucrative contracts may well be with your former employer!
Furthermore . . . once you’ve gotten comfortable with the foregoing, the next big and hugely profitable step that enables you to really capitalize on your experience is that of conducting seminars and workshops for large numbers of people in each session. With that you get to travel all over the country - even to other parts of the world, in some cases. Great fun and wonderful experiences of all kinds. But then, as they say, that is yet another story . . .
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LET YOUR WRITING TRICKLE OUT & THE CASH MAY FLOOD IN!
You may well be one of the many DAX-DOERS who is either already a writer or would aspire to become one and certainly, from my personal vantage point there is no finer or enjoyable (or profitable) way to make a living - all your life. Indeed, one of the nicer things about writing. painting and related activities is that you never need to retire and lots of folks seem to become even better at their craft with age!
Non writing types seem to be fixated on how we come up with all our brilliant ideas, story-lines and such and when pressed, I usually say, ‘’Just by looking around and seeing what’s going on in the world.'’
An example: Every Sunday morning for as long as I can remember I jump in a car and drive a few miles to pick up the newspapers. I prefer that to having them delivered for a variety of reasons, but mostly, because I just like to get out by myself now and then and nose around the community a bit.
Each time I do I cannot help but notice the remanents of the varied goings-on from the previous (Saturday) night. Kids love to drive along country roads and purposely knock down rural mail boxes - lotsa fun, especially for the irate homeowner who must get out there and waste a half day and a hundred bux replacing the thing.
Sometimes, this small community out in the boon docks holds some ‘’fest'’ or B-B-Q dealie, dance or whatever, and the evidence of all that is flying around when I drive by. Anyway, there IS a point to this meandering: Just driving around and observing the human experience gives one all sorts of interesting ideas for writing, making money and so forth.
In THIS instance, I revived a concept I told you about a long, long time ago - way before computers commonly existed in our homes and offices and now, methinks, this concept would not only be (obviously) much easier to execute, but probably, far more profitable, as well, to wit:
CREATE A CYBER SOAP OPERA!
My original idea was to just whip up an on-going soap opera-type drama and sell a few pages of the thing to subscribers every week. In that instance, one had to print them up, mail ‘em, etc. Not a big deal but . . .
. . . consider that now, all you’d need to do is dream up the ideas, plot-lines, characters, etc., write them up on your computer and send them out via e-mails to your subscribers - every week -heck, every day if all involved preferred it that way!
Or . . you might establish a website and sell access to it and then put up your fresh soap-opera installments there each week (or whenever).
Obviously, ‘twould be the content that would get and keep subscribers and also the project’s NAME and how well you market it. Back to my Sunday newspaper drives: As I drove down the road last Sunday morning I noticed that two adjoining houses were up for sale.
The average person might think it odd that two houses next to each other were for sale at the same time. Nope. I know that the people who lived in those houses were swapping wives and someone in the quartet got ticked and . . . well, you write the results - it should be good for the major part of one or two installments.
On that same road (all this is true, by the way) my long ago former brother-in-law was driving his girl friend home one late Saturday night after both had consumed way too much alcohol. He went off the road, flipped his El Camino and both of them darned near got killed and were in the hospital for weeks. They almost weren’t even found at all, as they were both wedged under the dashboard with the vehicle hidden down in a ravine for nearly 48 hours.
Anyway, the REALLY interesting part of the story is that the girl friend sued him for a $100,000.00, his insurance company paid her off, and then he ended up marrying her for (his?) money! Ha! More story-line, eh wot?
A good friend of Suellen’s, a modern liberated young lady, shall we say, has a new boy friend - a prominent dentist who is very straight-laced, as ’twere. He took her to his mother’s house for some occasion where his best friend and his wife were also guests. S.E.’s friend thoughtfully took along a nice boneless turkey roast and when the women were all gathered in the kitchen . . .
. . . the other young woman said she would go get her husband and have him carve the thing, as he was good at that task. S.E.’s friend (wish I could put real NAMES here, but S.E. says I cannot!) said no, she could do it okay but, then the other woman really started to insist that she get her husband to handle the chore, to which, S.E.’s friend said, ‘’Oh I can handle this just fine - it’s not a job that requires a penis!'’
Well, I guess you can imagine that all you-know-what broke loose (a few days after the event) and now we’re all waiting to see if that was the death knoll to THAT relationship . . . (My observation: Even if it IS, at least S.E.’s friend got a whole bunch of dental work done for free!)
So, just look around in your own life and at the experiences of others you know or hear about and you’ll have a never-ending supply of interesting stuff to write about - and you probably will not even feel the need to embellish upon it to make it all nice ‘n juicy! Like, did I ever tell you about my one-time neighbor lady who got drunk, climbed over the fence and went swimming in the pool nekked? No? Well, I ‘’gots'’ the PICTURES!
How much money could you make with this sort of concept? Probably quite a lot if you really work on developing the whole deal first and then market the heck out of it. Best of all, I do not see where much of anything needed to make it work would cost very much - possibly, it could be done at virtually no expense whatsoever. Think about it -and let me know if you do it - sounds like fun.
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TELEVISION TREASURE:
How to Get Rich From Channel Surfers
No doubt you’ve heard of QVC, the Home Shopping Network or one of the many other major players in the ’shop by television’ phenomenon that has totally altered the landscape of American marketing: It is a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR enterprise!
I first became aware of just how pervasive it’s become a couple years back as SuEllen and I were moseying on back home from Key West by car. As I was waiting at a Hilton check-in desk in Georgia, I struck up a conversation with another person waiting - a middle aged woman.
She related how she and her husband had been going to Florida every winter regularly for many years. Their pattern was to stay there from November to the end of April. As this was mid February, I inquired as to why they were returning home so early this year.
This otherwise sane looking person told me, quite seriously, that where she stayed in Florida was a very remote area and not serviced by UPS. It seems that her favorite (and apparently ONLY) pastime was watching the TV shopping channels, ordering all sorts of ‘junk’ and eagerly awaiting delivery of same by UPS! She was literally ‘’in need of a fix'’ and had to get back up north where UPS offered daily delivery - and thus satisfy her craving!
Later, in looking a bit further we discovered there are many, many other people across the land who are equally bonkers: They will buy virtually anything advertised on TV - especially if the ordering process can be made very simple.
I suppose this shouldn’t have surprised me: Over the nearly 4 decades I’ve been in direct marketing, I’ve seen a similar phenomenon in this field. Each time we develop a new product and ‘’test the waters'’ with ads in various control media we use, we will get an immediate large batch of orders from certain familiar names from around the globe - folks who will buy any new ‘’how-to'’ product, whether they are interested in making use of it or not.
Indeed, in most cases we can all but be assured of instantly recovering most of our R & D costs - just from those ‘’how-to junkies,'’ as I call ‘em! But of course, we love each and every one!
Anyway . . . I decided to engage in a bit of research into the tee-vee shopping phenom and started to document the activities of all such channels in our viewing area. There are several and our cable systems are different at WILLOWOOD than at WINTERWOOD - which offered further variety.
Whilst scanning the various channels I noticed a potentially great opportunity for most any DAX-DOER who would be interested, to wit:
There are many local channels - just a notch above so-called ‘’public access'’ which have a limited audience - in the tens of thousands rather than tens of millions - and therefore, offer very inexpensive advertising.
One actual example:
For $6.25 one can have 28 different spots per week - in full color - with back-ground music to feature all sorts of wares. Now, do bear in mind that $6.25 is for ALL 28 spots - NOT for just a single one!
So here’s what I envision as a great money-making idea: You assemble a bunch of different products - make up a rather eclectic assortment, including men’s and women’s cologne, small hand and electric tools, jewelry, cosmetics, pen/pencil sets - the usual stuff you’d find either on TV, in discount stores, etc.
There are many sources for this merchandise, including several that advertise in every issue of the biz opp pubs. Just scan the magazines at your newsstand and write down the contact data. There are also flea market wholesale suppliers galore. Even better:
Quickly find a never-ending batch of wholesale sources (for just about anything!) on the Internet by using a good search engine such as GOOGLE and entering key words for whatever ’tis you need: Costume jewelry, cologne, hand tools, etc.
Anyway, you set up your own little TV shopping network and advertise various products. One such who is doing this (and man, is he hokey!) is doing very well, and here is his gimmick:
He’ll flash about three different-angle pictures of a product on the screen - one after the other, rather slowly and methodically, all the while talking about the product’s virtues. A Black and Decker cordless screw driver set will get the full descriptive treatment and then flashed on the screen as well as a voice-over is the news that ‘’It regularly sells for $49.95, but today’s special is only $29.95!'’ And so on. His cost on that particular item is just $6.95, by the way!
Another hot-seller: L’hombre men’s cologne, sticker price $19.95 - sells it for $9.95. He pays less than 50 cents a bottle in hundred unit quantity. Many products such as jewelry and cosmetics also have enormous mark-ups . . . several thousand percent in some cases! You can sell that stuff all day long and make a profit no matter what your asking price!
Plus, especially with jewelry (long ago and far away I myself was in that business) there is an endless array of choices: Pins, pendants, bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings, cuff links, tie clasps and tacks and watches of all varieties.
For extra $$, start a video shopping mall and offer space on your ‘crawl’ (where the ads move vert-ically, slowly enough to read the messages) and charge whatever the market will bear.
If you implement this idea - be sure to put a blurb or two for your DAX-FAX cards (or other DAX products) as you’ll make a whole bunch more bux just from that!
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CASH & CARRY?
We recently heard a story about a baby-boomer who lost his really good job after 31 years. His company simply went out of business and at the time he was making $80,000.00 per year PLUS the many customary perks. No doubt, the cost of all that to his employer - multiplied many times by other employees contributed to why his company went out of biz . . .
After spending a year unsuccessfully looking for employment he started taking part time jobs to make those proverbial ends meet. (Why do folks always insist on getting those ends to meet - why not just let ‘em dangle on their ownsome now and then . . . )
Anyway, besides a messenger job, tending a bar and other such filler jobs - five altogether - he also stands ready when called upon to be a paid pall bearer at stranger’s funerals. At each event, he and five other P.B.s carry the coffin from the church to the hearse, from the hearse to grave-side.
The funeral director then hands each an envelope with a crisp twenty-dollar bill plus a ten dollar bill. He calls this particular task his ‘’cash ‘n carry'’ job.
Cute, and whilst it’s all well and good to have a healthy sense of humor about such set-backs in life, this true tale begs the question of why this fellow failed to prepare better in advance - before losing his well-paying job. After all:
31 years X $80,000.00 is darn near two and a half MILLION dollars. Unless you are Michael Jackson - dragging in tens of millions and then putting out hundreds of millions - that kind of dough should hold one in better stead. Certainly, it’s enough to support a good-sized family AND invest for a ‘’rainy day.'’
Granted, the fellow in question (not the ‘’Gloved One'’) probably did not earn $80.000.000 for each of those 31 years of gainful employment, but presumably, he earned commensurate compensation based on a reversed pro-rata inflationary scale.
Wise investments would have made ANY part time job unnecessary when he lost his primary one.
Most important: Why not start a home-based business - in his spare time - long before getting the ax from his employer? It’s not like the possibility OF losing one’s job - even after many years of devoted service - is a surprise! We and many others have been warning of the fact (of mass dismal) for many decades and wholesale layoffs by ALL big name employers over the years have just served to underscore our admonitions.
By starting a nice little home-based biz - whilst still gainfully employed - you can enjoy a great many helpful benefits not shared by the person who was just canned yesterday and this morning gets up, in shock, and writes a letter like the one we recently, received:
‘’Dear Mr. Du Vall:
Although I have been a subscriber to your (various) publications for a number of years I have never actually gotten around to starting a business of any kind of my own nor have I really decided on which one would be best for me.
Two weeks ago I was let go from my job where I had been for 38 years. I made good money but always seemed to spend it all. Now I need to do something fast! What can you suggest that will help me make enough money to maintain my lifestyle? I am willing to do whatever but have no idea where to start.
Sincerely, DAX-less Dipstick'’ (MY name for him!)
C’mon! One does not wait until the spit hits the fan to THEN get religion and expect someone to hand them a key to Utopia! No one gets rich overnight - except for the rare bird who buys a winning lotto ticket (Good luck with that, Gertie!)
Any business endeavor requires study, planning and intelligent due diligence. I will say that, as always, the good ol’ Mail Order business - in all its many guises but especially, nowadays the ubiquitous Internet, continues to hold great promise for serious, industrious types who realize that ‘’overnight riches'’ may well take a few weeks or months!
Over the years (as well as during the past few months) we have presented countless ways TO make a pot of bux in that manner - and if you have not been around to take advantage of that data - that’s your fault not mine - isn’t it?!
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EXIT STAGE LEFT - AND HEAD FOR THE BANK!
A couple times we’ve presented articles on how best to prepare a property for sale, because marketing real estate is not all that unlike trying to sell anything else:
You must make your product (or service) as attractive as possible to prospective buyers. Our most recent piece on the subject concerned a genuine old log cabin we owned at a wonderful spot called Pleasant Lake.
We had redone the joint from the ground up - dumping oodles of bux into it as we had planned to use it for own personal get-away. Circum-stances alter cases (as my late mother was fond of saying) and we found what was to become BLUE HERON POINTE just about the time we finished ‘’Kamp Quirky.'’ Thus, we put the cabin up for sale.
Normally, good lake properties sell ‘’instantly,'’ but there was a serious flaw with this one: There were only two bedrooms and they were very tiny. Each was no larger than a good-size closet and frankly, the second bedroom had BEEN a closet when we bought the place!
Anyhow, in that instance we took a number of steps to show how the place could be success-fully utilized as a lake retreat - rather than a full-time residence and it did sell. One thing we did was buy a new bed with mattress, springs, full linen, pillows, etc., and set it all up in the smaller bedroom - proving that a bed COULD be installed in the space - and then we adding a few doo-dads on the walls, plus a five-drawer bureau behind the door, etc. Frankly, WE were surprised at how much stuff we got in there!
Now however, I’d like to address a somewhat related business that might interest you - that of acting as a professional ‘’real estate stager'’ which is an industry term meaning that you would go into a home, size it up, make recom-mendations on how best to rearrange, add or delete items to cause prospective buyers to write an offer rather than take a powder.
Your fee for such a service can range from the industry standard of $75.00 per hour - on up. A typical five-hour job would net you $375.00 or more.
YOUR TASK
The nice thing about the ‘’third-party aspect'’ of just about anything is that without a vested or personal interest it is fairly simple to give advice to others. For example, you see your sister’s kid acting up and you can just about instantly tell your sister how she should handle the kid. If it’s your own child, the solution may not seem so easy!
Same with any house that goes on the market. The owner is simply unable (in most cases) to see the clutter of a closet, room or even the entire house. A messy garage is accepted - everybody has a messy garage, right? Well no, not really!
The first job is to do a run-through - jotting down notes on changes you feel should be made to enhance the appearance of the property and thus, make it sell faster. Changes generally require some cost - but not always. You may suggest that a homeowner simply gather up all the accumu-lated junk in closets, move to a storage facility somewhere and fumigate the space. (Clothes tend to smell bad when stored).
A fresh coat of paint in major areas such as living and family rooms may well be in order. Some people (like yours truly) prefer brilliant, bold colors on the walls - but most people frankly, do not have the guts to make such a statement and prefer to at least start with a more boring decor - read that as off-white or beige walls.
A thorough cleaning of all door hardware is a must and ditto for bathroom tiles, kitchen cabinets and such. People unwittingly allow grime to build up and soon get to the point where they truly do not even see it! Yes, they would notice it in someone else’s house - but not their own! Ditto for the smell of pets.
If necessary, board the beasts until the property is sold. No one likes to go into a house, get mauled by a really happy, slobbery dog or pounced on by a vicious feline - yet it happens in just about every third house a prospect visits.
Often, just by rearranging the furniture in a room the total effect can be improved. Naturally, you’ll need a good eye for this - or you’ll need to learn. One trick from the professionals: Scale down the number of personal items in each room. Sure, a picture or two of the grand kiddies, but NOT an entire shrine! The mantra of all good stagers is ‘’Less is more.'’
Should go without saying that all cracks, burned out light bulbs, malfunctioning switches and so forth should be addressed. The yard should be cleaned, trees and shrubs trimmed. Peeling paint inside or out must be scraped and painted over.
One trick to make a house seem newer than it is would be to install some new carpet in at least one room or perhaps, place one or two carpet samples around. Either way, the unmistakable odor of new carpet permeates the structure. Ditto for even one wall of fresh paint.
The ever-popular ploy of introducing some pleasing smells into the house still holds true! It is simple to place a small pot of water with cinnamon on the kitchen range and let it simmer. The resulting fragrance wafts through the premises and makes one think there’s a great cook in residence - conjures up that homey feeling.
Or just light some good-smelling candles and/or spray air freshener. Avoid doing anything like that in damp or wet areas - it’s a dead give-away that you’re trying to mask water seepage or mold. Better to correct the actual problem.
Sometimes, you may come across a client who has an essentially terrific property but the furniture is old, outdated or otherwise unappealing to today’s prospects. In such an extreme situation, you may find it fruitful to have all furniture moved away and into storage and replaced with new items from a local outlet.
Naturally, you will make a deal with the supplier so that it costs nothing - indeed, you will be showcasing his wares to a number of qualified potential buyers and as such may charge him a fee. Regardless, there’s an excellent chance that the ultimate house buyer will want all the furniture to remain, in which case the furniture store gets a nice sale and you (if you work it right) get a piece of that action, as well!
Do note that as a stager you personally do little if any of the physical work: Furniture moving, paintings, fix-ups and the like are either handled by the homeowner (under your direction) or hired out to the appropriate trades people.
Once you have become an expert on staging, rather than continuing to do it on your own, you may prefer to offer classes to homeowners who in turn, will make all the assessments and necessary changes on their own. Of course, you may decide to do both and earn much more revenue on a monthly basis.
There is (not surprising) an accredited staging professional organization which you can visit at: www.stagedhome.com There you can get more inside tips on the profession.
Here are a few other informative sites: www.stageright.com www.propertyenhancement www.interior-redesign-directory.com www.marshalldesigngroup.com
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MY SON, THE MILLIONAIRE
I was pretty smart and selected good parents: Both my mother and father - and a whole lot of other close relatives are now long gone, of course. I hope you too, had parents who instilled in you a sense of solid values. Hardly a day passes when we must deal with an ever-growing number of idiots ‘’out there,'’ and it becomes ever more apparent how vital good parenting really is!
One thing though - no matter how great they were - don’t you secretly wish that they’d had the foresight to sock away a few token items forty, fifty, sixty or even seventy years ago? You know, like certain pennies, nickels or dimes that have since soared to astronomical values.
For less than a dollar your folks could have theo-retically, set you up for life! There are stamps that could have been bought for less than ten cents - as recently as thirty years ago that today are worth thousands of dollars. (In this instance, I was smart enough to a few, myself!)
My father paid $800 for a Cadillac in 1928 (I think ’twas) which he disposed of quickly, as it got only about 6 miles per gallon. After all, gasoline DID cost about eight cents a gallon back then! Anyway, today that vehicle is worth about $250,000.00. ‘course, think of all the petrol he’d have burned in that beast over the years . . .
Quite some time ago we ran a piece in these pages suggesting that readers make a point of husbanding (an old term that simply means conserving) various items that today’s children favor - McDonald’s toys, Beanie Babies, PEZ, Star Wars characters and other action figures.
Not that one should necessarily go out and buy, or hoard such items - although that’s fine, too if you know what you’re doing. But the kids always end up with a bunch of such stuff anyway and rather than toss it, as most parents do when the kids get tired of ‘em - just sock the items away in some safe place - in case down the road they become valuable. They probably will.
Stories abound about the enormous prices now commanded for all sorts of stuff from ‘’days of yore'’ including movie memorabilia, old comic books, various toy items and on and on. Indeed, as you may recall, S.E. acquired the ridiculously expensive one-of-a-kind 1982 World’s Fair PEZ which hobby experts claimed was valued at a cool hundred grand! The thing originally cost fifty cents and I wish I could say that’s what she paid for the darn thing, but nooooo . . .
Incidentally: We just learned that collectors everywhere are urgently searching for a poster from the 1927 German silent movie ‘’Metropolis'’ and I am assured that it will fetch one MILLION at the very least! (Why not climb up into your attic and have a look-see?!)
Again, this concept costs you nothing - and if none of the items ever become worth more than a nickel twenty-thirty years from now, you’ll have a great time just dragging out all the old junk and reminding your kids (and yourself) - and THEIR kids of all the good times once had playing with the items ‘’back when.'’
THEN, THERE’S ASSURED WEALTH, TOO!
All that socking away of the kid’s playthings aside, you might also want to make a concen-trated effort to ensure that your child or children truly do become wealthy someday - in spite of themselves! This will set you back some actual $$, but what a terrific legacy you may leave them -and presumably, think of all the nice things they’ll say about you long after you’re dust!
Lots of ways to proceed but here are a couple straight-forward ones:
Set up a Roth IRA for each of your children as soon as possible. This is much easier to do if you own a business of some kind but then, if you do not why would you be interested in subscribing to THIS newsletter?!
Establish specific duties for each child to perform in your business - chores which are reasonable for a person of their age to tackle. Stuffing envelopes, sweeping up, answering the phone, stocking shelves - whatever seems to fit. Each year, pay them as much as you can of the (2005) $4,000.00 limit.
Put at least $2,000.00 of their wages in an IRA every year. If you do that for even three years in a row, by retirement age the kid (some kid - 65 years old!) will have well over a MILLION DOLLARS IN TAX-FREE CASH!
Each and every year both you AND your spouse can gift each of your children up to $11,000.00 in tax-free money. That’s a fast twenty two grand per kid, kid-o! Think about it. Rather than have all the offspring fighting over your rapidly cooling corpse - why not give them the goodies ahead of time?
The tax consequences MAY (read that as a serious MAY) be less - and besides you’ll get all those nice kudos whist you can still sit up, hear them and maybe someone will even wipe the drool off your face . . .
Forget all I’ve ever taught you about day-trading stocks - for the moment, that is! Why not buy a few shares of either a known ‘Blue Chip’ (you pick it - IBM, Coca-Cola, McDonalds) or . . . perhaps, some shares in more speculative ventures (again - YOUR choice:
Yahoo!, AOL, AMAZON.COM - or here’s a wild one . . . Microsoft?) Set the shares aside for the long haul - the very long haul. Gotta wonder what ANY of those equities will be worth a half century from now! Numerous share splits, reinvestment of dividends, etc, etc.
I would not suggest a huge amount thusly invested - but a few hundred bux might, in time, become millions - or, of course, be worthless. That’s the chance you take on long-term holdings - but it CAN pay off big.
BUT THE KID’S A SELF-STARTER!
Yeah, okay. Maybe the notion of forcing the kid to make his or her own way in the world is just fine and dandy. Many of us started our adult life with nothing more than self-reliance. Perhaps, your kid is so ambitious and self-assured that your setting him/her up to automatically be a millionaire would be offensive. If so, tell them to give it away to charity or to someone who DOES appreciate it.
Yours truly first achieved major financial success about four years before my father died (on my birthday - Valentine’s Day!) My mother joined him some twenty years later. In all those years neither of them ever indicated to me that they were proud that I had achieved such a level of international recognition - especially, (in other people’s judgment - not mine), because I had dropped out of school after only the ninth grade.
I always thought that was a bit disingenuous, and aside from the fact my parents were of the Baptist dogma which really stresses that ‘’Money is the root of all evil'’ - seems like just from the standpoint OF a parent there would be some expression of pride.
By the way, here is my own philosophy vis-B-vis the above: Just stick the words LACK OF in front of that familiar phrase ('’Money is the root of all evil'’) and it makes far more sense! Or, if you prefer, here is an original DAX AXIOM from way back: ‘’Those who claim that money cannot buy happiness have, more than likely, never had any experience with either commodity.'’
THE MARVELS OF COMPOUNDING INTEREST!
If nothing else - if you don’t have a dime to sock away for your kids - or would rather not do so (for whatever reason) - at least make certain they have a clear understanding of what COMPOUNDING can do for any and all wealth they manage to accumulate on their own. Clue them in on exciting facts such as this:
Sock away just TEN BUX a month in ANY account that pays at least 8%, and in ten years you will have $1,851.66 - not bad!
Twenty years? $5,939.47.
Hey, big spender! Try $25.00 a month for the next decade: $4,629.14.
Yes, but in twenty years you’ll have $14,848.68.
Quit wasting that $50.00 a month on coffee, cola or (?) - and put it in a savings account and in ten years you’ll have $9,258.28.
Two decades from now that fifty a month will have grown to nearly THIRTY GRAND! ‘’Found Money!'’
No, these are not get rich quick ideas - but, they ARE get rich SLOWLY ideas! Sort of like the tortoise versus the hare concept: Slow and steady - but the job does get done!
WANT A MORE SPECTACULAR FACT?
A single penny - one lowly red cent - compounded at 100% interest every day for just a month - EXPLODES to a phenomenal $5,368,709.12 on the 30th day! 100% true - compute it, yourself!
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TONS O’ TERRIBLE TOXINS! {And How They May Make You Stinkin’ Rich!}
The above amount of pollution is no exaggeration: Currently, in America alone, we dump well over 3 BILLION pounds of pesticides into our mutual environment every year - and that is small potatoes compared to the full picture!
I first became interested in a myriad of nasty things that you and I are exposed to 24 hours a day - way back in 1967. We had just completed a big addition to our former offices in Williamston (Michigan), had moved in, gotten publicity and kudos for the project, eaten all the congratulatory cakes and cookies and sniffed the flowers that folks sent . . . when we suddenly realized that ‘’something was rotten in Denmark,'’ (as was once a common phrase).
Each of us who worked there found our noses running, eyes watering, chest congesting and so on. At first, we had no clue as to the cause, because back then not a lot was known about air pollution, toxic chemicals and other irritants or outright health hazards. Also ‘’in those days'’ we did not have the convenience of the Internet where, in a few minutes, we could find a jillion possible causes for our problems.
Long story short: We finally discovered that the problem(s) were the result of several things: The underlayment beneath the carpet which was impregnated with formaldehyde (the stuff that preserves corpses!) Both carpet and pad which were made from some smelly synthetic materials.
But the worst offender were the ‘’wood'’ panels that adorned every wall in the place. They were manufactured with some sort of caustic lacquer-ing process which included baking in ovens - causing the slow (and perpetual) release of fumes long after the dang things were installed.
It cost a lot of money to redo the whole joint, so started paying attention to things that may affect our health (and wallet) in subtle, as well as obvious ways. I admit though, other than a few basic steps vis-B-vis looking at product labels - trying to avoid as many with an ingredient list of items no one could pronounce - we did not do much until about, let’s see, three decades later!
Then, after an intial few years of critical and commercial success by my later ego, the abstract expressionist painter, du Vall, he started to develop some serious health problems. Hives, rashes, itching, swollen fingers, eye blurring and the capper - difficulty in breathing. A series of tests at the University Of Michigan allergy clinic disclosed ‘’he'’ was allergic to . . . PAINT! Virtually ALL paint. Sorta knocked the painting career in the noggin for a while.
WHERE’S ALL THIS GOING, DEAN?
To right about here: Little by little both SuEllen and I became increasingly interested in the whole incredible topic of what I call ‘’personal environment.'’ Sure, we all know about the endless problems, fights, controversy and such over little worms, and owls and other wildlife that is probably being done in by careless husbanding of the forests, wetlands and what-not throughout the country.
And yes, whilst far from being ‘’tree huggers,'’ we do support common sense when it comes to such things. What really has ticked US off is the fact that now . . . today . . . as we speaketh here . . . you and I and everyone we know are being sub-jected to very well-documented lethal substances every minute of every day. As the saying goes, ‘’don’t get me started,'’ but I promise to edit myself here as much as I can and still get the various necessary points across, to wit:
When people first start seriously thinking about all this - and then, commence a bit of actual investigation - the impetus may be different for each. In my case, as stated, it was chemicals in building products.
For others, it may be personal care products such as hair spray, deodorant, soaps, shampoo, etc. Still others may look up at those huge power lines on their property line and wonder if they may be causing harm to home and hearth . . . and the bodies that reside there.
We hear endlessly about smog and air pollution, of course, so that is factored in. But then, it intensifies - gets ratchetted up, as ol’ Emeril Lagasse would say, and ‘’BAM!'’- we are bombarded with news about all the unhealthy things that are part and parcel of our food supply. And the harm (including deaths) caused by some of our expensive prescriptions.
Occasionally, even our non prescription drugs such as ephedrine, phen-fen and old stand-bys like Ibuprofen, Aleve and Tylenol and even aspirin become potential killers.
As we look around, it becomes obvious that for whatever reason (by evil design, accidental happenstance or whatever) we have all allowed ourselves to be herded into a hostile environment from which there seems to be little escape:
To quote one of my favorite old timey comedians, Shelly Berman, when he was offered ‘’coffee tea or milk?'’ by a stewardess - right when he looks out and sees flames coming from an engine, ‘’There isn’t time for coffee, tea or milk! The plane is on fire! We are doomed!'’
And perhaps, we are now just that in a very real sense. There may be little more that will be done -
in time - on a national basis, to prevent continued erosion of our collective health. Steadily, we are, as a society, becoming out-of-control obese - the numbers go up with every report, the last one I believe, declared 60% of all Americans are dangerously overweight.
But - and here now, we’re starting to get to what this is all about(!) - there are many of us individuals who refuse to take one last wheezy breath, roll over and die! We take positive steps such as leaving a familiar and comfortable environment, replete with friends, relatives, ‘’contacts,'’ and such - and after 40 years, flee the big city in favor of the marvelous country life.
In our case, at the oft-mentioned BLUE HERON POINTE. The air is clean, the pace is slow, the food is organic (or one thinks - more on that shortly). Living in this spot just feels healthier.
But it’s not! Once the bloom was off the rose, we looked around and once again discovered an endless batch of environmentally nasty stuff. Yes, the fruits and vegetables that we buy every day during the season from the Amish folks are super delicious but, we discovered that not only do they use various pesticides in their growing process, but because they do not have the expertise that some of the ‘’English'’ farmers have, they often douse on way too much of the stuff!
Yes, we love all the birds around here - we’re amongst the few who neither shoot ‘em nor shoo ‘em. Upwards of two hundred Canada Geese at one time have been counted at our place. And now, as of this writing, we hear that some of them in Canada have been found to have Avian Flu and are known to be heading south for the Winter. Guess where they’ll decide they have a comfortable spot for their vacation?!
Those are actually minor items, though. Each of us needs to very carefully review and monitor more ‘’close to home'’ or I should say, close to our body, those things that most just ignore or take for granted as being inescapable. I recently counted well over a dozen personal care products that are in my bathroom - products that are made in large factories somewhere and laden with a long list of synthetic chemical ingredients:
Shampoo. Body soap. Anti-bacterial liquid soap. Hair Conditioner. Shaving cream. Even such mundane things as toilet and face tissue, paper napkins and towels must be scrutinized: Some contain formaldehyde just as those building materials in my long-ago office did. Do YOU feel comfortable with rubbing embalming fluid on your tender parts or naughty bits??!!
There’s toothpaste, mouth wash, hair spray, deodorant and deodorizers. The list goes on. Think about all the many things you use every day - getting up close and way too personal - applying directly to your body without a thought of danger, perhaps.
Heck, what about the detergent used to wash clothes? The fabric softener added - the bleach. Are there any plastic items nearby you? Are your pots and pans covered with a non-stick substance? A bird sitting too close to a hot pan with a non-stick surface may simply drop dead from the toxins. That happened to S.E.’s mom, Janet. To her bird, that is!
EATING OURSELVES INTO AN EARLY GRAVE
We Americans are not just eating too much food and risking all the diseases that emanate from being overweight - the foods that we consume, even in moderation - contain all sorts of poisons that are slowly doing us in even if we’re good little boys and girls and avoid fattening foods and just eat our fruits and veggies! Yes! ’tis true:
Virtually all ‘’regular'’ foodstuffs that you and I purchase today, take home and prepare for the family are laden up the ump stump with preservatives, taste enhancers, fats, salts, refined sugar (or even worse, sugar substitutes), cholesterol, dyes, and on and on. In our October issue we reported where the industrial chemical acrylamide is commonly used in chips and other starchy junk foods you buy for your kids. That same stuff is used in pesticides, plastics and sewage treatment!
There are foods that most everyone buys that are made up mostly of pseudo ingredients that masquerade as the ‘’real thing'’ but were created in a lab somewhere. I had an old fellow who worked for me years ago who, in another life, had been the chief chemist at one of the best-known cereal manufacturers in Battle Creek.
His specialty was developing food additives that would taste like anything the boss wanted. He was good at it and you could not tell the difference between fake and real. Except, the fake stuff was highly injurious to the human body and HE advised against anyone consuming it!
LET’S GO OUT FOR A BITE!
A ‘’bite'’ you may well get - because there is even a more dangerous mine field awaiting us when we decide to ‘’let’s not cook tonight'’ and go out to eat, instead. Whilst it’s a whole other lengthy story as regards the truly serious potential harm we may do to ourselves when we eat in a restaurant (any - upscale, modest or down ‘n dirty) it is very problematic:
Regardless of how careful we may be, despite the assurances of the wait staff - we still may very well end up getting a huge dose of MSG, for instance, which can actually be lethal. A few years ago we were scarfing down some Chinese and a lady at the adjoining table keeled over. The paramedics came, she was dead, they hauled her away and curious, we later learned that - yep - the MSG had done her in!
ENOUGH CHIT-CHAT!
We don’t need to discuss further the long list of negative stuff that surrounds us . . . and we didn’t even touch on ‘’Global Warming!'’ Nope, what I really want to do in this study is two-fold:
First, I hope to urge you to personally set about to educate yourself - as thoroughly as possible (and I have discovered ’tis a never-ending learning process) about the subject. If you do not, it’s unlikely anyone you care about will do it for you, because again, we all just take these things for granted in the era in which we live.
Just as those of us who are older once pulled into a gas station and told the attendant how much gas we wanted . . . waited whilst he also checked the oil, tires, washed the windows, etc. . . . whereas once our nation’s banks clamored for depositor’s money, offering all sorts of free incentives from toasters, radios, televisions and other appliances to outright cash ‘’bribes'’ . . .
. . . those ‘’good ol’ days'’ are long gone. And we also can no longer depend on our government (at any level), our politicians or the business people from whom we purchase our goods and services -to in ANY way care about our personal welfare or that of our family or even the community. We’re literally on our own.
So for starters, I hope you’ll learn all you can about the subject. The best way - the fastest way -is to go on-line. ANYTHING You want or need to know will be found there. Go to GOOGLE and type in any word or phrase you can think of - and up pops an untold number - often, many thousands - of separate websites filled with truly in-depth knowledge you could obtain nowhere else.
LET’S MAKE SOME $$ FROM ALL THIS!
Consider just how perplexed you probably are right about now - having read through the foregoing data. It can get scary - and trust me when I tell you that I did not even scratch the proverbial surface on this. I didn’t tell you about the time I was as close to death as one can get without ‘’crossing over'’ and having ol’ John-Boy Edward, the psychic, trying to talk at me:
An otherwise nice meal of Jambalaya at Red Lobster years ago literally poisoned me, and I am here to tell you so only because of a very determined lady doctor in the ER at Sparrow Emergency in Lansing, Michigan who kept working on my corpse until I yelled, ‘’Oh nuts - am I dead?!'’ She laughed, ‘’Apparently, not!'’
So. Any other people you know who have really not been genuinely exposed to the pervasive problems we’ve been discussing may really be bowled over once the subject is brought up. They will instinctively realize that all of this sort of thing is totally true - but will not have a clue as to what to do about it - or even if they should bother. They may have Shelly Berman’s attitude of ‘’We are doomed!'’ and not feel it’s worth bothering.
YOU TO THE RESCUE!
Once you have fully steeped yourself in know-ledge and hard facts - and the remedies - you would be in an enviable position to offer genuine assistance to the never-ending throng of pros-pects who really would like to live until retirement age and beyond, but probanly will not, unless they take some definitive positive steps now. Here are some strong possibilities I see for you:
1.Start a consulting service at the local level. Offer your services as an expert on the subject of how to re-engineer one’s lifestyle to embrace a totally healthy approach to well, just about everything.
2.In addition to - or more likely, in conjunction with the above - open a local shop that deals exclusively with ‘’green'’ products that will be bought by an eager public to replace the current harmful items they now use regularly.
3.Establish a website where you can do all of the above - and more. I would make every attempt to have a physical presence as outlined in step #2 - even if you end up (probably) making the bulk of your sales via the internet.
In all cases, I believe the key is to find the very best substitute products in each of the many categories - and there will be MANY! That, to avert confusion. When a prospective buyer has too many choices, he or she becomes very confused - especially, if several price ranges are offered.
It’s not uncommon for them to become discouraged and just turn away. From your products and worse - from the notion of taking some deliberate steps towards improving their health and those for whom they are responsible!
Here’s an example: I walked into a little Amish health store which is located way out in the middle of nowhere. Only the Amish (and S.E. and I) know it even exits. They have so many cotton-pickin’ different selections in every category you can imagine, that we spent a couple hours there on a recent Saturday just trying to make decisions - and we are very determined! Toothpaste: There were well over a dozen different ‘’all-natural'’ concoctions ranging in price from $5.00 to $16.25 per 3 ounce tube!
Yikes! Who knows which is best - what they taste like, and so forth. I passed on that (did buy a bunch of other stuff) and later at home, did some research and ended up filling an old ceramic English apothecary jar with some plain baking soda and now use that several times a day. No toothpaste - no harmful additives - and no big cost, either. Rinse with straight (and very cheap) hydrogen peroxide - my dentist’s suggestion.
Had my choices at the store been more limited - a bit more refined - I would have bought a tube or two, I’m sure, because I know how human nature works. By the way, one homemade formula calls for adding sea salt (it’s coarser than regular salt) but I avoid salt as much as I can in all ways - spikes the blood pressure, as you know.
You could also offer books - and there you will find a plethora of possibilities. Herbs are very popular as just one example - and there are hundreds of books on the topic. I know, because S.E. is hellbent on buying every one of ‘em, I am certain! At forty-fifty bux a pop, by the way.
There are huge profits in any and all of the type of products necessary to help others live a more healthy, relaxed and long life. You may as well profit from this emerging trend and in so doing, I’ll bet that you and yours will become healthier and happier - and wealthier - as well!
Here are a few quick things that I discovered that are quite intersting: All artificial man-made sweeteners are considered by most experts to be harmful. Aspertame, Nutrasweet, Sweet ‘n Low, etc. Even Splenda, which was first heralded as a good substitute, because supposedly, it is made from real sugar.
No more! Instead, there is an extremely concen-trated sweetener that is, in fact, all natural. It’s called Stevia and comes from a plant in South America. It’s expensive (about $22.00), but there are nearly 500 servings and there are absolutely no calories, no carbohydrates and no nasty chemicals of any kind.
Did you know that Chickweed or the sap from an Aloe plant are the most effective treatment for skin burns, rashes, itching and other skin disorders? They’re cheap and they leave no harmful residue behind when used. Until recently, the Chickweed container actually claimed it to be an effective treatment for skin cancer! FDA made ‘em remove that blurb . . .
I discovered a simple formula for making a hair spray that is effective yet, does not require you to hold your breath ’til you leave the room! Pour some lemon juice (freshly squeezed or concen-trated) plus distilled water into a plastic bottle with a spray head and you’re good to go.
It’s optional, but I add about a teaspoon of denatured (or plain ol’ rubbing) alcohol - as it causes the admixture to dry quickly. There are some major toxins in ‘’store-bought'’ hair spray that one can thus avoid - plus the dangerous flora carbons from aerosol.
Ditto for an easy room deodorizer: Distilled water with a few drops of your favorite essential oil - peppermint, lavender or whatever you prefer in a plastic spray bottle.
WE DIDN’T EVEN EXPLORE . . .
There’s just not enough space here to do more than touch upon what may well be THE major area of interest for Baby-Boomers today in the related field of medicine. Just about all of us are fed up with the pharmaceutical giants and put off by repeated reports of yet another over-priced drug that has been found to KILL patients!
Whilst the FDA does eventually seem to get around to discovering these things - wouldn’t it be better (and more logical) to find it out (and inform us) BEFORE people die needlessly?!
Anyway, this is an area where you can devote a great deal of time, and what you learn will be fascinating. Alternative natural treatments for . . . everything. Literally.
Whether one has arthritis, cancer, gallstones, kidney or bladder problems, acid reflux, sore feet, headaches, stomach ailments . . . well . . . anything that can go wrong with the human body . . . there is a safer, more effective, far less expensive natural method for treating or even curing the problem. Again, ya gotta study, study, study! And again, get thee to the Internet!
We could go on and on with this but we aren’t going to - at least not here. Perhaps, at a future time I’ll put ALL that we’ve learned to date in a report. Meanwhile, compile your own! Benefit from it on a personal basis and then, do give serious consideration to profiting from it as well!
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NEED MONEY? PRINT IT!
Recently, I sent off a big order for some of those fancy gold & black (traditional DAX colors) foil labels - announcing that (in 2000) we’ve been in this crazy business for some 38 years. 38 years! Unbelievable . . . it seems like it’s only been 37 years . . .
During those nearly four decades, I’ve been on both sides of the printer’s order counter - buying and selling many millions of dollars worth of printing of all kinds including top-of-the-art (also known as, ‘reach-deep-into-your-pockets’) four-color printing on rich enamel stock, etc.
My late father and mother met in the early part of the last century(!) in the composing room of the ‘’Monroe Evening News'’ (Monroe, Michigan), so I started life with ink in my veins. I had a fairly successful wholesale printing operation myself, many years ago, and of course, have been in publishing, like I said, some 38 years! Man, that sounds like a long time!
So, from my experience, let me tell you this: There is a great deal of money to be had from the ‘printing business,’ but you do not necessarily have to be IN the printing business to EARN those big bux! In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that you would be better off NOT being in the business, per se, that is, where you own actual printing presses and all the related equipment, a building, employees, etc., etc., etc.!
HOWEVER: A few years ago, in the late-great DAX MONEY-MAKER® CONFIDENTIAL NEWSLETTER -in a multi-part series, we did present an extremely comprehensive road map for starting and operating a highly successful printing business. The series was called, ‘’LIKE OWNING A KEY TO THE MINT.'’ (It’s just one of the many such reports and articles that appear in our popular old book, ‘’The Best of DAX.'’) But frankly, if you have an interest in the ‘printing biz,’ after reading this article you may not want to go to all that bother and expense.
Here’s the skinny: Today, there is a REALLY BIG PROBLEM that every business person and all other people who need commercial printing face: No matter where you go, you’re apt to get grossly overcharged for product that is inferior in any number of MANY ways.
As an example, it took us over three years and twice that many printers to finally find one who could produce THIS newsletter with anything NEAR 100% professional execution. Most people who set out only to get a few thousand of something printed haven’t the slightest idea of how to go about it or how much it should cost, or what level of quality is the norm. They are truly, babes in the woods. Many get ripped off and end up paying the long dollar for inferior quality work.
THERE’S YOUR CUE!
Enter . . . YOU . . . as the great white knight who solves all those nasty problems! Actually, all you need to do is establish yourself as a printing BROKER, whereby you make numerous and on-going contacts with all local, regional and national printers - to discover the best prices for specific products. Know this:
No printer is going to be THE answer or best source for ALL printing needs! Some will be good for cards . . . or flat printing . . . or envelopes . . . or those foil label things we were talking about earlier . . . but YOU, if you choose to do so, can represent ALL of these items and make a handsome profit in the process, yet (and BELIEVE THIS!) you can actually SAVE your clients money by doing the research and negotiations with many printers around the country!
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO THIS
Not much, but a good FAX machine (with a ‘dedicated line’) is a must. With that, you can draft up basic quotation request letters and dash them off to great numbers of printers. (Be sure to send these out after 6:00 P.M. when the cost is only about 17 cents each).
Naturally, these days email is an accepted means of transmitting such data as well, but you’ll find many ‘’old school'’ people especially, within the ranks of printers who would prefer the fax. That’s a ‘’new-fangled'’ invention that’s been around just long enough that most contemporary people trust it from a security standpoint.
Get your net-net prices for a variety of printing needs. If you have a computer - another very helpful ‘tool’ - enter all the data as gathered therein. If not, simply make up typed or even handwritten lists. (You can start this deal with almost NO equipment).
Next, tack on 20% - 25% (or more) to the prices and make up a price list. If you have really shopped around, you will have come up with source pricing that is so far below the norm that you should be able to claim in your own advertising literature that you are offering ‘WHOLESALE PRINTING.’
Next, contact various local businesses that obviously need your services and make your pitch. You may even want to go national via direct response marketing or space advertising. As long as you have many different sources, you need not fear being able to keep up with the tremendous volume that you’ll be receiving. And you WILL be getting beaucoup orders! This is a NEEDED service - there are so many schlocky printers ‘out there’ nowadays, and every business person you meet will have a horror story or two to relate.
Your service should include accepting the orders from your clients (and keep in mind, they are YOUR clients - not the printer’s: YOU are the printer’s client!) . . . then, you must shepherd each and every order through the printer and thence to the customer. Most every printer will be willing to dropship each order directly to your customer UNDER YOUR SHIPPING LABEL. You should also request that the printer send you several copies of the finished printed products to you for your records.
Will printers co-operate? Any intelligent one certainly will! All you are doing, after all, is increasing THEIR business volume (and profits) at NO COST to them!
Look . . . you can clear an honest high percentage of pure profit on this deal, with absolute MINIMUM expenditure, and best of all you will never need to get that nasty ink on your hands!
Last word(s): In case you wonder whether this actually works: Our DAXPRINT® service (nowadays) is openly nothing more than a printing brokerage: We have not gotten our hands inky for many years - and do not intend to! We shop diligently for the absolute best prices and pass them along to DAX-DOERS via our DAXPRINT® service.
True, we do not add a very large percentage to our wholesale prices, because we have an ulterior motive for making certain that DAX-DOERS get their printing very fast and very cheap: They will mail much more advertising literature featuring DAX stuff, that way!
It does work - so well, that I know for a fact someone could EASILY earn $100,000 a year or more without breaking a sweat - so if you want a ready-made, respectable, potentially high-profit business - this may be it. Get going!
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CHOOSE YOUR WORDS C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y!
Those of us engaged in marketing a product or service of any kind quickly come to realize the importance and power of ‘’words'’ - and the necessity of selecting just the right ones when encouraging a prospective buyer to actually make that all-important ‘’buy-decision.'’
The need is especially there if you are involved with ‘’contact marketing'’ which could be in one of thousands of forms - from door-to-door, party-plan, retail store sales, mail order or even when attempting to convince a prospect that your law firm is the best one to choose - or your medical clinic is where they should bring their ouches, and so forth.
Heck, forget commerce: If you plan to just ‘’get along'’ in this world, you’d best develop early-on some sort of scheme to get others to rally to your cause, agree with your point of view, go out on a date or marry your sorry self! Indeed, each and every one of us, whether we like it or not or choose to recognize the fact - all of us must learn the importance of - and then, go on to develop communication skills, if we are to have any hope at all of getting from womb to tomb in even a modicum of serenity.
WORDS ARE EVERYTHING!
As humans we differ from most all other animals (there is some disagreement there amongst scientists studying whales, porpoises and certain of our fellow primates including chimps and apes) in that we have the ability to speak and write words - and we have a very large vocabulary of some 400,000 - 800,000 words with the total being hotly debated by scholars, depending on the individual’s discipline.
Only a relatively few words ever make it into a standard dictionary - yet countless other words that are used extensively on a daily basis are ‘’words,’ after all. My first name is in most dictionaries, because Dean means something other than just a given name. My surname would not appear. But it is a word. Ditto for you and your name(s). DAX is a very important word to a lot of people around the world and has been for several decades. It does not appear in all dictionaries - some, because it is also the name of the German stock exchange.
Anyway, when you find yourself in a position where you want to convince someone of something - even a less-than-earth-shaking reason such as your wanting to go to the ball game tonight - but she prefers the limited engagement of ‘’Grease'’ - you’d better have already honed your ‘’word skills'’ or you’ll be show-tuning it for the next week or so.
Your ability to influence others by the spoken or written word will not just come in handy but may well form the solid basis for much or all of your continued or on-going success - personal, financial, social and every other word that ends in an ‘l!’
WORD POWER IS STAGGERING
Here are some words that I’ve gathered to illustrate how a few - in some cases, just a single word - can evoke emotional response.
I heard a story many years ago that I never forgot. It seems that a very poor, illiterate, young mother went to the grocery store with just a bit of money. She walked through the aisles hoping to find something to feed her children and came upon a brightly colored container with an illustration of a tasty-looking fried chicken. Excited, she bought the item with what little funds she had, went home, opened it up and discovered it was filled with nothing but lard.
Here’s another one - much more current. During the recent war in Kosovo there were numerous stories of the unspeakable atrocities that took place there. Thousands were massacred. But this tale really rattled my cage and incensed me to the point of wanting slap someone silly:
It centers on a little five-year old boy - just one of the untold number of other refugees who had been herded nonstop along the countryside day and night for over a week. All were totally exhausted - many perished along the way.
A reporter confronted a small group which included our little fellow and asked why the child was crying uncontrollably. Well, naturally anyone considering all this would assume it was due to his seeing others slaughtered - maybe, even his parents or siblings - or because he was exhausted, disoriented or God-knows what. Well, the child responded by crying, ‘’I lost my bowl.'’
Turns out that he had a little bowl which he used for his morning porridge, his soup later in the day, and other things he associated with sustenance . . . with survival. When his family was uprooted from their home, his treasured bowl was lost in the shuffle. Now, he was totally devastated - for a lot of ‘’more vital reasons,'’ to be sure - but to him, just that one thing - represented by one word - meant everything.
I defy you to read the words in those two stories and not experience some sort of emotion. Probably, not a pleasant one. But do note, the words easily ‘’moved you'’ one way or another. Let’s inject a bit of comic relief here - again, just words:
A door-to-door salesman knocks at a nice suburban home and a 12 year-old boy comes to the door. He has a big cigar in one hand - a martini in the other. He’s wearing high-heeled shoes, a bra and panties and fishnet stockings. The salesman asks, ‘’Are your parents home, little boy?'’ The kid pauses for only a moment and retorts, ‘’What the hell do you think?'’
JUST WORDS . . .
Ever notice how most of what society generally considers the ‘’better jokes'’ usually involve some sort of sexual innuendo and most often, a cuss word or two? Ever wondered why that is?
It is probably because the verbiage of such tales tends to stimulate strong human emotions - of a varied nature. Words that do not get the blood flowing or put the urge to laugh into motion - tend to be forgotten, ignored or intentionally set aside.
Let’s consider the oh-so familiar quote from the Bible: ‘’And they will beat their swords into plow shares.*'’ Pretty basic - but would it have the same effect if we were to replace the word ‘’sword'’ with ‘’ballbats'’ and ‘’plow shares'’ with ‘’toothpicks?'’
Words have long been known to be so potent that, under certain circumstances, there are laws against uttering them. If you use words in a way that is construed as a threat to your President, for example, you will be arrested and be in deep excrement.
You are certainly familiar with the Supreme court ruling that dictates you may NOT shout ‘’Fire!'’ in a crowded theatre - even though the issue that prompted that ruling was one concerning our right under the first Amendment to exercise free speech.
Indeed, there are so many restrictions on what we fondly call ‘’free speech'’ that when writing advertising copy, most professionals run the first draft under the noses of their legal beagles before signing off on it.
Well, enough of history and philosophy (although, both are good to consider now and then!) What we’re discussing here are the basics we must each grasp - especially, if you are involved in business one way or t’other - and if you’re not - what the hey are you doing here?!
In our long-ago and far-away all-day seminars which we used to conduct across the U.S. and Europe, we focused heavily on the subject of creating sizzling-hot advertising copy as a major element of our Writing/Publishing/Mail Order workshops.
Attendees (and you may well have been amongst that number - I hope you were!) would be asked for input vis-B-vis ‘’catch words'’ or ‘’buzz words,'’ as one example. I would jot those down on the blackboard. We would discuss the merits (as a group) of each word and spend a fair amount of time on that segment. Then, we’d start using the agreed-upon words to write copy.
The goal: To take something ordinary and ‘’gussy-it-up'’ to the point where it would really stand up and stand out! I wanted to show others in the biz how to go from a milquetoast sort-of statement like, ‘’Our Mailing Lists Are The Best In the Business!'’ (to:)
DAX ‘Big Spender’ Mailing Lists Draw Huge Cash Orders to . . . YOU -
Like Steel to a Magnet!
You do see where that’s a bit more expressive(!)
HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR WORD SKILLS
As with anything else that you wish to do better than most others, you’ll need to read, study, practice and above everything else: Actually Do It! Write, that is.
There’s a big myth about writing of any kind - and whilst just about everyone I’ve ever met seems to think they have an exciting full-length novel in their head - very few believe they could develop a talent for creating effective advertising copy - whether for their upcoming church social or to sell a product or service that may be the basis for their current or future business enterprise.
NOT EASY - BUT DOABLE!
There’s one of those words we mentioned earlier - ‘’doable'’ - it’s not in the dictionary but many people use it - like I just did! Let’s bring some order to our task at hand:
Get some paper and pen or your typewriter, computer - whatever you prefer to use.
Jot down some key words; Call ‘em buzz, hot, sizzling, catch or whatever - these will serve as a power base for what comes later. The particular words that we’re seeking at this time are ones that obviously stand alone as descriptors: FREE! NEW! NOW! ACT FAST! SEXY! RICH! HEALTHY! HARD BODY! GREAT FIGURE! TODAY! Expand the list with your own ideas.
Next, if you already have a product or service that you wish to market, use that as the focal point around which you will start to write copy - incorporating as many of your buzz words as you can. Note:
In the early stages of drafting ad copy it is best to load it with everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink. You can (and will) start editing out much of it later - but initially, it’s good to have every conceivable idea, word, message, stimulator, etc., that you can dream up.
‘’Dream up'’ was an apropos phrase there, as in many ways, this whole exercise gets down to a state of mind that is conducive to ‘’out of the box thinking.'’ I hate that term - not because it fails in its intent - but because it is so over-used . . . THAT because most plebeian copywriters today steal the best from the few great copywriters of our time and beat (whatever) to death!
As you ‘’dream'’ - maybe allow yourself into a Zen frame of mind - compare words against each other. To that end, it may well be helpful to drag out that dusty thesaurus your dad bought you when you started college - or better still, just pull up one on the web.
Whatever, determine if such and such a word tends to ‘’tell your story'’ better than a similar word. Are you personally more motivated to consider a weight-loss product or service that tells you, ‘’Here, at last, is that illusive secret to losing weight you’ve been looking for all your life!'’ (or) ‘’Your quest for a genuine, fast & lasting way to become thin and beautiful . . . ends now!'’
You could fine-tune that many different ways:
‘’ . . . ends here and now!'’
‘’ . . . real, safe and quick way to . . . ‘’
‘’ . . . starts here!'’ By changing ‘’ends'’ to ‘’starts'’ you totally alter the ‘’feeling'’ - and what the reader senses is ‘’about to come.'’ One way, they are told their ‘’quest'’ is over - they need do little more than buy the product. The other way, indicates that they are (now) on the threshold of something great that will come about near-term.
You may also just totally change the whole approach to something like:
‘’The ugly fat is gone - as a beautiful new you takes its place!'’
IT NEVER ENDS!
By now, you’ll see where this sort of endeavor can be, at once, fascinating and rather complicated. It’s a lot of fun and acts as a significant stimulant to one’s ‘’little gray cells'’ (as Hercule Perot used to say).
Many people get flustered and end up hiring ‘’experts'’ to write their copy. That can be VERY costly - with no assurance that whatever comes out of the copy-writers ‘puter will be effective enough to market ice water to someone stranded in the desert.
Even if you decide to hand over the job to someone else, you’d better first get a fairly good idea of ‘’what works and what does not.'’ You can get that only (as far as I know) from trial and error - ON YOUR OWN. Appropriating (or downright stealing) the believed-to-be-successful ad copy of another marketer is very dangerous.
I’ve actually seen a number of folks over the years use various of my own ad copy - in a couple cases, down to and including the actual type font and size - yet they failed miserably.
One fellow, so dumb his momma probably had to spoon-feed him until he was 21, actually had the audacity to use a major portion of an entire page ad of mine verbatim - and then, write to inquire why I thought it didn’t ‘’make him rich'’ when he ran the thing a few times at $5,000.00 each!
Speaking of full page ads, I’ll close with this thought: I mentioned how just a single word can be volatile and change many minds, depending upon how, where or when it’s used. Years ago, at the zenith of our worldwide campaign to market what most experts believe to be THE most successful how-to book in history (10 million copies sold world-wide) Peter Post office came acalling and decided that whilst, ‘’yes we see where someone putting your report to full use could earn the kind of money stated in the allotted 3-month time period - we’d like you to modify the copy a bit.'’
After weeks of discussion, thousands of dollars in attorney fees and a whole lot of nonsensical folderol we settled on a ‘’significant change'’ in the wording. Actually, it wasn’t even a word - but rather a punctuation mark. The change: (From) ‘’$100,000.00 In 90 DAYS!'’ (to) now, squint your eyes and peer carefully: ‘’$100,000.00 In 90+ DAYS!'’
Yes! The ONLY difference is the addition of the + sign! No kidding! Or as I really prefer to say in this particular instance, ‘’No S**t, Sherlock!
* The precise quote: ‘’They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.'’ Isaiah 2:4.
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SNIP-SNIP YOUR WAY TO $UCCE$$!
There is a rather unique way to make very good money via a business of your own - which very few would ever consider - let alone, believe ’twas something fairly easy to do, and that is to own and/or operate a thriving beauty salon.
Yes, I know the connotation that such an enterprise has - and if you’re a male with a fragile ego - or not yet certain about your own masculinity, then perhaps you’d best leave this fabulous cash cow for others who are not so fearful about what others may think or say!
We have a somewhat different approach to the cash-laden beauty business - one which until recently did not even exist. We’re just starting to see pop up around the country beauty shops that are specifically geared towards younger patrons -from babies getting their first ‘do’ to young people in their early teens.
Actually, many such salons will accept customers of any age, but most young folks choose to move on to a ‘regular’ salon once they reach 14 - 16 or so.
I’ll cover some basics of the industry as a whole, and then you’ll see how easy it would be to focus on the younger crowd - a very lucrative segment of the populace, as you may already know.
GETTING SET UP
First, you should know that you may own a professional beauty salon in most parts of the country without yourself being a certified beautician, cosmetologist or barber. You cannot however, personally operate in any of those or related capacities, but that’s okay because you can still rake in all the big bux without getting your hands in anyone else’s hair!
All you need is a decent location, the basic equipment of any modern day salon and . . . a good manager. He or she will be board-certified, state-licensed and hopefully, have not only a lot of experience but a nice, happy clientele which they will bring with them from day one when they start to manage your operation.
Also, they will have many, many colleagues whom they can select from to fill the other posts in the operation. People in this field are notorious for switching from one place to another. It goes with the territory.
You can generally lease virtually everything that you will need to get started - with little or no money down and monthly payments that are quite small. If you opt for used equipment throughout (or perhaps, reconditioned) over brand new - you can save hundreds more.
All supplies, laundry items, chemicals, etc., can be obtained with no investment, as well. You have no salaries to pay until and unless your operators actually produce, because in most all cases they work on a commission rather than a guaranteed wage.
In short, such an operation is a snap to start - especially if you are content with just the essentials of operation rather than all the fancy stuff. (Years ago when we created our first beauty saloon we went all out - invested a veritable fortune in brand new French Provincial furniture, a dozen or so of the best dryers, several stations, etc. Even then, the thing paid off big-time, because there are gobs of bux to be had!)
CATERING TO THE YOUNG-UNS
As indicated, it is rapidly becoming the custom for young mothers to take their toddlers - even babies - to a professional hair-dresser rather than trying to deal with the task of making the kid look good on their own.
In our neck of the woods the tab is about $14.00 for a wash, blow-dry, conditioner and minor cut - and depending upon how you set up your shop you would be getting anywhere from $7.00 to $9.00 of that . . . EACH time another baby butt warms one of your chairs!
Standard industry commission splits range from 35/65 to 50/50. Whatever the local traffic will bear is generally how the deal is structured.
What I would suggest (if you had a large enough space to do this) are two separate business entities - one catering to the children - the other for adults. As far as the kids are concerned, it would be easy and very inexpensive to decorate the place to appeal to youngsters: Cartoon characters, television and movie personality pictures, bright paint colors and so on. One area of the place could be set aside for various games and other amusements.
A popular variation on the theme of owner non participation is that of setting the entire place up - ready for business - then leasing out a ’station’ (which means all necessary facilities) on an individual basis to free-lance beauty operators. This approach can be highly lucrative, as well, and your personal involvement is virtually non existent.
Regardless of how you chose to do this deal, you could reasonably expect to make anywhere from $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 or more each year from just one location - and there is nothing but yourself stopping you from developing an entire chain of these fabulous ‘’beauteous'’ money-machines!
$ $ $ $
INSTANTLY, HAVE YOUR VERY OWN CORPS OF ‘SILENT SALESMEN’ WORKING AROUND THE CLOCK (FOR PENNIES) TO MAKE YOU WEALTHY!
Many years ago, my late friend Hameed stopped by the (Williamston) office around noon for our monthly luncheon and noticed a couple new employees in the front office. As we were driving towards the restaurant (and let me pause here and tell you how much FUN that generally was:
We would take one of my Rolls-Royces - the long one with a phone in front and another in the back {saves steps, you know!} - and take turns playing chauffeur. One of us would put on what looked like a professional driver’s hat - actually, it was an Air Force cap that Hameed sometimes sported at Air Shows - and the other would sit in the back seat barking orders. Yes, that does sound nuts - but then, ‘’creative people'’ generally ARE a bit weird - that’s part of our charm!)
Anyway . . .
. . . he inquired as to how many employees I now had with the addition of the two new girls. (Pause again: It used to be ‘’okay'’ to call females ‘’girls'’ - whereas nowadays, due to the flamin’ feminist movement, the only women who prefer to be called girls (now and then) are those who long ago, in reality, graduated from that particular sorority . . . )
I told him that we had 56 men and women on the payroll with approximately 850,000 more in the U.S. alone, who worked for us around the clock for little or nothing.
THAT intrigued him, of course, so I explained that in my mind, any time we sent out a big (or small) mailing the full force of the United States Postal Service would spring into action and make certain that each of our mail packages made its way through a circuitous route to the DAX prospects out there in the hinterlands.
In truth, I had come to think of these people in gray as my mostly unpaid Ambassadors of and for DAX! Even today, at 37 cents for first class mail (and far less than that for ‘’Standard'’ mail, which used to be called Bulk mail) ’tis a very huge bargain - making for an enormous and efficient sales force which virtually no one could otherwise afford.
Even better, with the world-famous DAX-FAX Postcard Promotion you and I pay far less than that - the most it can cost is a mere 24 cents each! It’s rater inspiring to realze that atround the clock day in and day out all those ‘’silent sales people'’ are slogging through snow and sleet or the heat of a scortching August afternoon - dilgently working to promote my interests and yours for mere pennies . . . Phenomenal!
$ $ $ $
A BUSINESS THAT’S LOOKING DOWN - BUT THAT’S HIGHLY PROFITABLE!
All of us in business seek ingenious new ways to advertise our wares - and at DAX, we’ve come up with some pretty intriguing ideas - most of which we’ve presented to DAXERS in one way or the other over the years:
Placing advertising in the back seats of taxi cabs . . . in hotel/motel rooms . . . on restaurant placemats . . . on the reverse side of register tapes at supermarkets . . . inserts with pizza deliveries and video tape rentals . . . even on shopping carts. Most all of those have become standard fare in America, today.
I must say though, as many brainstorms as we’ve had, I did NOT dream up this particular one! We heard about it from a firm in New England that has come up with yet another method of getting a client’s advertising message before the public:
The firm, called Floor Focus, Inc., is selling advertising space on the FLOORS of super-markets! For a fee of $50.00 per month, an advertiser gets his message or logo emblazoned on colorful, durable advertisements that are the size of individual tiles (12′’ X 12′’) and strategically placed.
A steak sauce manufacturer may have an ad placed near the meat counter, as an example. Certain bottlers may prefer to have their beverage featured either in the obvious drinks section or possibly in the potato chip/ popcorn/peanuts aisle.
Naturally, to make such a deal work, the fees collected must be split with the supermarket - after all, their medium is your clients message - and your business!. Probably, a 50/50 split would work best, although you might negotiate a bit more in your favor. Figure on 20 or more tiles per store - depending upon the store’s square footage.
You would not want more than a couple advertisers per aisle . . . multiply that by however many stores you can set up and before long, you could have a veritable fortune coming in every month. Month after month. Year after year. Wow! Let’s see: $25.00 times 20 times 12 months times 1,000 stores . . . yeah, that sounds about right!
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