What Makes A Mail Order Catalog Successful?

Does the job sound prestigious to you? If so - you have never been a Publisher; especially a mail order Publisher. Overhead expenses for printing and mailing are financially draining and every month you are held to stringent deadlines. You also must know what you're doing to generate enough paid advertising to meet expenses for every single issue. Sometimes, you have to take a big loss and end up spending your own money just to get the issue out. Yes - there is a bad side to being a Publisher!

But if you are just starting out and you want to become a Publisher, you should start small and get your "feet wet." One easy and excellent way to start your publishing career is to start your own short and simple 3x6" or 5x8" unclassified ad column.

Choose a publication that you wish to run your small unclassified ad column in. Try and start with a minimum 20,000 circulation. Select some well-known publishers who advertise in adsheets and tabloids and print their ads instead. Make sure they get a copy of your unclassified ad column with a note explaining that you ran their ad free of charge so they could give your publication a try. Most of these advertisers will send you a paid order back because they will appreciate your generosity.

However, they will also tell others about you and generate free word-of-mouth advertising. Word soon gets out about people who try to help others and your business booms! Publishing any type of publication that is dominated by your own ads certainly shows that you are a new publication without any advertisers. This is bad publicity - especially since this is your first issue and you're trying buying something is satisfied and makes a repeat purchase. In fact, newcomers are eager to learn and will buy anything to get started learning. By taking advantage of them only means that you will make one sale in that person's lifetime. But if the product is good and worthwhile they will order from you again and again. Many newcomers today will be big businesses tomorrow. If a newcomer found a honest company that really helped them break into the mail order field they would continue to do business with them when they really did make millions of dollars. See what is meant? The back-end sales for a lifetime would be worth the investment.

Not saying that you can take a piece of "junk mail" claiming to make the person $1 million in 30 days or less and turn it into a valuable and worthwhile product. Since this is a downright lie, there is no way to market this honestly. However - you can study the piece of "junk mail" to determine what words and phrases were used and how the ad is written so you can understand how to present a REAL product that people will be eager to buy.

Then, pass the word and tell every new person you come into contact with about these pie-in-the-sky-schemes. You might even want to try writing to some of the people listed on the chain letters. Explain how all this "junk mail" only appeals to their emotional needs and how the company who originally wrote these materials are USING them to only get their money. If everyone passed along this information - it wouldn't take very many years for chain letters to disappear.

DeAnna Spencer is a virtual assistant that helps entrepreneurs run a successful business by providing affordable administrative help. She also publishes a blog for small business owners. Visit this small business resource today.