HOW TO START & SUCCESSFULLY OPERATE A CORRESPONDENCE CLUB

All over the country, in fact--all over the world, there are
lonely men and women eagerly seeking confidential introductions
to other people--for friendship, companionship, even marriage.
They're in every village and hamlet, in every town and city, at
every crossroads and every rural route; up in the mountains and
down in the valleys, on ranches, in factories, mills, stores,
offices, churches--They're everywhere!

You can help these people ease their loneliness, and make a very
good income for yourself as well, with a Correspondence Club. If
you enjoy people, and have an imagination for the world of
business, then this is for you.

The first step is to find out what the other correspondence clubs
are doing. Your purpose will be to design your own format, and
look for ways to improve upon what they are doing. So, check out
the tabloids on sale at your supermarket and write a letter to as
many of the advertising correspondence clubs as you can afford.
Simply state that you're thinking of joining a correspondence
club--but you don't want to get "ripped off," so you would
appreciate a sample copy of their latest club bulletin/newsletter
and a listing of everything the club endeavors to do for its
members. It isn't an absolute necessity--but it wouldn't hurt to
include a loose stamp with your letter inquiry.

Most of the established clubs will respond quickly, because the
very least it means to them is another address they can sell.
Don't use business letterhead paper, or a business name. Just
inquire as an ordinary interested person.

Once you have your game plan organized--what you will offer your
members, the fees you'll charge, and the related services or
items you want to offer as sources of added income--your next
move will to begin advertising. Start small, go slowly...This is
mainly to allow you to handle the ever-increasing number of
members while still maintaining firm control over the time
required to keep up with the business.

Your first advertisements should be in the "nickle or
classifieds" newspapers in your area. An advertisements such as
the following, inserted once a week for a month, shouldn't cost
you more than $25 while filling your mailbox...

Young woman, just divorced, wants to meet eligible men thru
correspondence. Tell me about yourself with SASE to: Box number,
and Your name or nickname. (Most people just use a tag-line such
as: Judy, Box 123, Anywhere (USA).

At the same time this ad is running for men to inquire about the
available girls, run an ad such as the following in about five or
six of the national mail order sheets...

Young business executive--Little Shy--wants to meet right women
thru correspondence. Will answer all letters. Sherm, Box 123,
Everywhere USA.

Certainly you should vary the ads--study the ads the other clubs
are running, and adapt what and how they're doing it to your own
needs.

Hopefully before you began, as a result of the "sample
bulletins/newsletter" you received from all the correspondence
clubs you wrote to, You've prepared your own bulletin and can
send it off in reply to all of your inquires, with an invitation
to pay for a membership in your club. Another important "rung up
the ladder" you're going to get from these samples is a list of
names and addresses of both men and women seeking correspondence.
Some do include names and addresses with their bulletins, and
some don't either way, they all sell names to each other so you
can send a sprinkling of those names and addresses with your own,
until you become well established and with a mailing list of your
own.

Important to remember--Do not begin advertising until you have
your first club bulletin/newsletter prepared, along with your
membership application. Then, just as soon as you receive each
inquiry, you can send out your answer--the faster your service
the more credibility you'll impart to your prospects. Also,
always watch what the older, more established correspondence
clubs are doing--You'll want to duplicate their methods, but with
more flair and better service for your members.

After about three months in business, you should be pretty well
established and showing a good monthly profit. Then you can begin
running advertising on your own in the "check-out counter"
tabloids, and several of the monthly subscription magazines such
as True Story, True Confessions, Modern Romances, etc.

One way of getting started with a built-in supply of names is by
contacting Metrapala--Box 4091, Sunnyside Station, Long Island
City, New York 11104... They have several sources of good names
of people wanting introductions to members of the opposite sex,
and will gladly supply you with price lists for 25 to 500 names
of lonely people in every state in the union, plus most countries
around the world.

Another important organization that can be of tremendous help to
you is Destiny Syndicate--P.O. Box 5637, Reno, Nevada
89513...Headed by R.J. Williams who directs the office of the
World Federation of Correspondence Clubs, they can set you up
with a quarterly newspaper that has built-in membership forms,
and advertising possibilities as well. In fact, with destiny
Syndicate affiliation, you need do nothing more than a little bit
of advertising, and then mail out club news bulletins every three
months or whatever you enlist a new member. It would be well
worth your effort to investigate.

SUCCESS AS A CIRCULAR MAILER

Don't be taken in by those headline advertisements promising you
instant riches as a Circular Mailer! It just doesn't work that
way.

Full page, 8 1/2 x 11 circulars are meant to call attention to a
special offer, and are best used as a "follow-up ride along" when
you acknowledge or send out an order. When used in this manner,
and with just a "smattering of marketing imagination", circulars
will really bring in the profits for you. However, don't expect
to make any real money by sending out circulars per say, either
one to an envelope or half dozen or more at a time.

If you've got a number of good circulars and you're into direct
mail, arrange them into a "catalog of offers" and go full bore as
a catalog mailer. I must caution you, however, to be sure that
everyone else in mail order isn't doing the same thing with the
same circulars.

Here again, are the basic rules of success: Offer something that
came out of YOUR brain. Make it something that's just a little
bit different and more appealing than what everybody else is
offering. Draw up your own advertising circulars and send them
out to a list of people proven to be" buyers" of your kind of
offer.

We should perhaps go over that last line in different words
because it has to do with the most common mistake of all. DON'T
WASTE YOUR TIME AND POTENTIAL PROFITS TRYING TO SELL TO SELLERS.
Concentrate instead on the BUYERS! This is where the "chain
letter schemers" dupe the novices. They advise you to send
for a "mail order" mailing list, or to compile your own from
incoming mail. This ridiculous. If you do as they suggest you'll
be trying to sell to sellers, and these people either want
absolutely no part of your "big deal," or else they're into it
and have their own thing going. (For the "absolutely last word"
on chain letters, send for report #3618, "Success of Success with
Chain Letters" and book #1788 THE TRUTH ABOUT CHAIN LETTERS).

When you get an order, how do you follow-up on the sale? How
do you keep that "buyer" buying from you? Do you acknowledge your
orders with a simple postcard noting that his order has been
received and is being shipped under separate cover, or do you use
a letter that also lists some of the other products or services
and includes an 8 1/2 x 11 circular as an "extra buy of the
month?"

Stated in the preceding paragraph is enough money-making
information to make you rich, but are you listening? This is one
of the most successful, intelligent, and real money-making
methods of using circulars to build wealth. Expensive? Compared
to what? It would seem to me that if you aren't including a
circular with your acknowledgements, you're trying to save
pennies when you could be putting real profits in your bank
account!

It works with all of us. We send for something that has aroused
our interest. A couple of days later, we get a letter telling us
the order has been received and is on the way. And in that same
letter is an advertising circular telling us about something
else-- something akin to our original order, and very definitely
something else we'd like to have. We're in a good mood because
the seller has accrued us our first order is on its way, and he's
telling us about something else we want and can have as one of
his "preferred" customers. So, we reach for our checkbooks and
send in another order.

What better time is there for selling? When is the buyer going to
be in a more receptive mood? And finally, do you honestly know of
an easier way to sell? remember the old Sears and Roebuck maxim:
"When you sell a suit to a man, don't let him out the door until
you've sold him the shirt, tie and shoes to go with it." And then
there's the new car salesman who meticulously goes over each
dial, switch, and knob with his new customer, explaining what
each is for and how each one works. He even opens the truck,
points out the spare tire, and then pulls out the jack and
explains exactly how it works. Indeed, he's the leading
money-maker in that agency!

Another way to use circulars properly is as a "ride alongs" with
the order itself. You place the "ordered merchandise" in a
shipping envelope or container, and then, on top of the order, a
simple thank you note plus an advertising circular describing
something else you're offering> Even better than a simple
circular with the order is a special "preferred customer"
catalog, but that's another topic in and of itself. Circulars are
most effectively used to pull in follow-up sales. And with these
methods they'll provide you with the least expensive method of
advertising and produce the most profits of any of your selling
efforts.

Your continued success in any business endeavor depends on your
follow-up to the initial sale. Everyone knows how hard it is to
find and land new customers. Most people do a pretty good job
beating the bushes to find new customers, but after they've got
them, the sellers tend to drop the ball and let the customers
pass into obscurity. The reason is simply that they don't follow
through after the initial sale!

The new car dealer follows up his sale with a routine servicing
reminders. An advertising circular is made up and included with
each of those "reminders" the dealership sends out. Thus, the
dealership not only positions itself to maintain closer
relationships with it's buyers, it develops outstanding community
good will, and best of all, brings in new customers.

There are many effective and profitable ways to use advertising
circulars. In this report we are discussing some of the proven
methods others have used to increase their profits with
advertising, selling, plus imagination. Develop and use your own
creative talents.

Take the example of the neighborhood finance company faced with a
rising number of defaults. They decide to sponsor an on going
series of money and debt management seminars or workshops. An
advertising circular is made up and inserted as a ride along with
each monthly payment notification. The end result is a new
reputation of community awareness and willingness on the part of
the finance company to go "that extra mile" to help the citizens
in the community in which they're located. And the bottom line is
closer relationships with their customers, fewer loan defaults,
and lots of new customers because they have the reputation of
outstanding the needs of the citizens and a willingness to help!

Sales are down at your town's leading clothing store. A warehouse
or vacant store is rented for a recycled clothing outlet, and an
ad is run in the local paper asking for recycled clothing to sell
on consignment. When everything is ready an advertising circular
is made up and included in everyone's monthly statement or sent
out through the postal service via carrier route delivery. The
store in question ends up with closer customer relations, new
profits, and a lot of new customers.

Probably the best, easiest and most effective way to make money
with circulars is through a co-op mailing program. You make
arrangements with a leading department store in your area. You
supply the circulars imprinted with the store's name and on te
order coupons and you arrange for the store to process te orders
through its credit card system. A certain percentage is allowed
the store on each sale. The store includes one of your circulars
with each monthly statement it sends out, and your profits
quickly surpass your wildest dreams.

You can also make the same kind of "ride-along" arrangements for
your circulars with many of the big national mail order houses,
book clubs, and credit card companies. Remember: when you go for
"super results" you have to spend te money necessary to make them
happen.

Co-op mailers will generally not accept your circulars if they
are in direct competition with something in the mailing package
that's already being offered. They will also require that your
circulars be professionally deigned, typeset, and printed. Many
require that they be printed on coated paper and in multi-colors.
These requirements have to do with the image the co-op mailer is
trying to project and maintain, as well as the kind of response
you can expect. To make a co-op mailing with one of the larger
mailers profitable you should set 50,000 circulars as your
minimum. Try to make it 100,000 and keep at it until you're able
to go with 250,000 per mailing.

Expensive? You bet! But look at it this way: A one percent return
on a $25 offer 250,000 prospects will give you $62,5000.

Keep in mind that to succeed  in business you have to advertise
in some form or fashion, and advertising circulars are one of the
least expensive forms of advertising if done properly. So use
your imagination! make your advertising circulars real
order-pulling and get them out to the people who are buyers.

Doing things properly from the start is always the first step to
real profits in any business endeavor. Getting involved in mail
order and sending out advertising circulars is no different. Step
one: Always to make sure you have something the people "want to
buy." Do some testing by running "prospect-seeking" ads in a
worldwide publication. Offer a free one or two page synopsis
about your subject, and within this report invite your prospects
to send for your primary product. You can judge from you
responses to your ads and the number of prospects you convert to
buyers whether or not the interest is great enough to go to the
expense of having circulars made. With the results of this simple
marketing research in hand you can then decide which is the more
profitable way to proceed with your circulars; whether as
"ride-along" offers with the orders you send out, or as a primary
offer in a co-op mailing program.

There are many different avenues to take and methods you can use
in order to invite at the destination of your dreams. The
important thing is to move only one step at a time, using only
your profits form the current step to progress into the next.
Read, listen, and "shake the bushes" before going into
production or signing up for anything that's going to cost you
money!

Test and check the interest in and the demand for your product.
If the interest doesn't pan out as you had hoped, re-design your
offer from a different angle. If it still doesn't spur a promise
of profits for you then discard this product idea and start
working on a new one that has more promise of success. If you'll
follow this stairway to success, you'll never get in over your
head or lose more than you can afford.

The most important "insider's secrets" to selling a product or
service is " an honest appraisal" of you prospective customers.
Discover who they are, where they are located, how large, how
badly do they want what you have to give to them, and how much
are they willing to pay for it. With the answers to these
questions in hand the risk factor to any venture you think about
launching is practically eliminated.

Remember, circulars can and should be used in your overall
business plan. Used properly, circulars can make you fabulously
rich. But by themselves or as your total selling effort, circular
mailing cost you much more than you'll ever make. Advertising
circulars should be used to generate prospects for other related
items of interest you offer, and should not generally be used as
a stand alone promotion.

Circulars can also be used to picture your product or service, to
list testimonials and endorsements form satisfied customers, and
carry your order coupon. With this method, however, your circular
becomes a "brochure" and is thought of as a basic part of your
mailing package along with a sales letter. Sales letters complete
with product brochures are special offerings in themselves; quite
expensive and always directed to specific mailing lists.

So, we more or less are back to the beginning with this
discussion. Sending out envelopes bulging with loose circulars
will not result in profits you can use for a trip around the
world or even for a night on the town! About the only thing
efforts of this kind result in is to exasperate the recipient and
cause him to throw the whole package in the trash as junk mail.
Too much paper, too many things to read about, and too many
decisions to make overwhelm and confuse the prospect. And,
sending out only one circular to an envelope will put you in the
"poor house" from postage expenditures before you get started.
Don't even give a second thought to that idea.

Finally, those people proclaiming that they have the offer to end
all offers, and inviting you to share the profits with them
simply by sending a certain amount of money for 500, 1,000, or
5,000 circulars are in reality offering you printing services.
True, you can get the circulars form them for less than it would
cost you to have them produced locally, but you still have to
stuff them into envelopes, address them to prospects, put stamps
on them, and get them in the mail. At the bottom line, after all
of this work and expense, who's making all the money? Why, the
printer of course! You do all the work of finding the buyers,
processing the orders, and then end up with only half the profits
form the sale because the printer fills the order and adds your
customer's name to his mailing list. There's
no real profit in any of these kinds of deals, and some of them
are downright rip-offs bordering on the illegal.

Attaining success takes common sense as much as anything else.
Analyze and evaluate each offer that arouses your interest. Check
it out on a small scale to see how well it actually works for
you. Determine how great the demand actually is for the offered
product. Compare the printing costs and your time/work
involvement with the probable results. And, never, ever believe
those wild claims of this or that circular pulling even a 5%
responses. It just doesn't happen that way, especially for a
newcomer to mail order.

Whenever you receive an opportunity to get on a new money-making
opportunity, particularly involving the sending out of circulars,
look over. Do some basic market research, and then test it as a
"ride-along" with your current offers. Be certain that the seller
isn't attempting to "use you" to promote his own ambitions.

Unless all your marketing questions can be answered in your
favor--unless you can really and truly believe in the product
you're offering and you can see the opportunity for a real profit
margin--and unless you really feel good and proud of the
opportunity being offered you--then DO NOT invest your money or
time!

Exercise your options of free choice. Check out the "profits
secrets" to selling anything and with everything you decide to
sell. And the, once you decide on the product or service you want
to sell, go "all out" with a step-by-step effort to achieve the
full potential of that particular opportunity. Advertising
circulars can and will help you, but they'll only do for you in
proportion on the "basics" that you exercise in using them.

Be sure of your customer's desire for your product. Make up your
advertising circulars with an appeal that answers the wants and
needs of your prospective clients. Use common sense and proven
methods of reaching those customers with your advertising
circulars. And once you have a customer on the line, stroke him
and make him your customer for life!

We know it works. It works for us and it'll work for you. Hang in
there and keep alert to what's really turning people's heads. Our
best wishes for your continued success.