How
to Profit from the Author Inside You
Learn why anyone can write a book
-- but only Roger can tell you how to increase your profits by up to
497%.
The step-by-step guide that tells
you how you can easily publish a book, and multiply your profits.
Click
here to learn more about How to Profit from the Author Inside You
"10 Ways
to Use the Internet to Support Your Book"
by Roger
C. Parker
A great deal of your book's success
depends on your ability to
promote it yourself. Publishers
are likely to be too busy to be
able to devote sufficient resources
to your book's promotion.
But help is at hand. If you've
written a book, you can easily and
inexpensively use e-mail and your
web site to promote it. Here
are 10 proven ways you can successfully
promote your book on
the Internet.
"Quickly
and Easily Turn Your Words Into Profits by Following
These Guidelines"
Get the
step-by-step guide that tells you how you can easily
publish
a book -- and multiply your profits by up to 497%.
Click here
for immediate access:
http://www.ProfitFromTheAuthorInsideYou.com/g.o/21247
1. Create a separate web site
for your book
Books tend to get "lost" when grafted
onto existing web sites.
For best results, create a web site
specifically intended to
promote and support your book.
This permits you to focus all of
the site's resources on promoting
your book and leveraging off
of its success.
Choose a web site address based on
your book's title, rather
than your name. If you have
done a good job of choosing your
title, your title will be easier
to remember than your name. You
can easily cross-link your existing
web site to your book's
highly-focused web site.
2. Distribute sample chapters
One of the best ways you can promote
your book is by allowing
readers to download a table of contents
plus one, or more,
sample chapters from your web site.
Sample chapters "tease"
readers into wanting more.
To the extent that your sample
chapter communicates competence
and easy reading style, readers
will be motivated to buy your book.
Remember that uncertainty is the
biggest obstacle you must
overcome when making a sale to a
stranger. In a bookstore,
prospective buyers can thumb through
your book. Online, readers
can't thumb-through your book, so
they must depend on sample
chapters. Use a desktop publishing
software program to format
your sample chapters for easy reading.
Use Adobe Acrobat to
create PDF files that will be sent
to readers as e-mail
attachments.
3. Build your web site address
into your book
When writing your book, include as
many reasons as possible for
visitors to visit your web site.
Success requires more than
simply listing your web site address
in your biography or on the
last page of the book.
Give readers valid reasons to visit
your web site. Offer
downloadable versions of reader
engagement tools like checklists
and worksheets. Promise updated
content and new information,
such as ideas and topics that occurred
to you after you
completed your book. If your
book is in black and white, but
includes photographs or charts,
post color versions of the
visuals on your web site.
Don't view your web site as a strictly
promotional tool.
Instead, view it as a "service"
or resource intended to help
readers make the most of your book.
4. Encourage reader comments
and questions
Use your web site to create an interactive
relationship with
your readers. Solicit their
comments and questions. Offer a
prize for the best question of the
month and answer the question
on your web site's home page.
Respond to reader e-mail as
quickly as possible. If their
comments are critical, create a
dialog and try to understand the
criticism from your reader's
point of view. You'll likely
gain new information and ideas that
you would otherwise never encounter.
5. Include testimonials and
reader reviews
Whenever a reader writes a particularly
favorable comment,
immediately ask them for permission
to quote the comment and
either their name, or their initials
and their city. Many
readers will welcome the opportunity
to share their enthusiasm
for your book with others.
Most people like seeing their words
and their names in print.
6. Offer media resources
Create a "press room" where members
of the media can download
files containing scanned images
of you as well as the front
cover of your book. Scanned
images which can be immediately
downloaded make your book more attractive
to reviewers and other
writers.
Include a "backgrounder" describing
you and your firm's
background as well as your personal
side. Include information
that emphasizes the timeliness of
your book and its importance
to your readers. Provide answers
to frequently asked questions.
7. Offer products and services
based on your book
E-mail and your web site permit you
to offer readers personalized
assistance that offers opportunities
for on-going relationships.
These relationships represent win-win
situations for both of
you. Readers get access to
your knowledge and expertise, while
you get to develop additional sources
of profit. Opportunities
include telecoaching -- where you
offer one-to-one assistance
based on weekly one-on-one telephone
calls.
You could also develop four, eight
of 12-week training
programs based on your book delivered
via e-mail and weekly
telephone calls. Ech week,
participants call a single number,
called a "bridge," and discuss the
reading and assignments which
you sent out as e-mail attachments.
A list serve permits
participants in a telecourse to
send e-mail to all other
participants, exchanging ideas and
promoting a sense of
community.
You can also use the web to serve
your readers by developing
e-books, short electronic books,
that you sell directly from
your web site. These can consist
of in-depth treatment of
specialized topics that are appropriate
for book-length
treatment.
8. Use Premium Content to obtain
reader e-mail addresses
Premium Content is limited-distribution,
high-octane information
that you send readers in exchange
for providing their e-mail
address and permission to contact
them again in the future.
Examples of Premium Content include
articles that focus on
particular problems that have been
brought to your attention
since your book appeared or in-depth
treatment of topics too
specialized to be included in your
book. Premium Content can
also consist of your "reflections"
on your book in the light of
current economic and social trends.
9. Publish an e-mail newsletter
You can do your readers a favor,
as well as maintain your
awareness and pre-sell your next
book, by publishing an e-mail
newsletter. Make your e-mail
newsletter as genuinely helpful as
possible. Instead of a long,
infrequently-published newsletter,
offer a short nuggets of information
that appear at a regular
basis. Readers are busy and
will respond favorably to concise,
easily-digested information.
When soliciting reader e-mail addresses,
always include your
privacy statement, which should
state that you will never rent,
sell or share your readers' e-mail
addresses. And make sure
you live up to your promise!
10. Promote your book's URL in your
e-mail signature
Give your e-mail recipients a reason
to visit your book's web
site. Don't just list its
address, but provide an incentive for
them to visit. Arouse their
curiosity or offer them a valuable
information premium they can download
when they visit. This is
especially true when you participate
in online discussion groups
or contribute a comment to an article
that invites reader
response.
--------------------
Roger C. Parker is the author of
more than 30 books that have
generated more than $32,000,000
in sales -- and have been
translated into 37 languages.
We recommend his new book, "How
to Profit from the Author Inside
You."
Click here for immediate access:
http://www.ProfitFromTheAuthorInsideYou.com/g.o/21247
Build Your Business
with Strong Brands - not a Mountain of
Cash
By Daniel
Janal
Course teaches you branding strategies
for the web. Click to buy !
http://www.BrandingTheNet.com/g.o/21247
You're having the gang over on Sunday
to watch the football game
on TV. Which pizza parlor do you
call?
Your child needs braces. Which orthodontist
does everyone in
town go to?
You want to sell your house. Which
Realtor do you call?
The answer is the same in each case:
the one that has the best
brand. Branding is important because
it makes sales easier!
Realtors, dentists and restaurants
all have brands. So does
every small business in the world.
Sure, we think that only
Fortune 500 companies, like Coca
Cola and Procter and Gamble
have brands. But that's not true.
Every company has a brand
image. Whether the brand image is
good or bad, or if it is well
known or invisible is up to you.
If you're involved in marketing in
any way, shape of form,
you've heard the term "branding"
but you probably couldn't
define it. And if Regis asked you
"Is that your final answer?"
you'd probably take your money and
run rather than risk losing
your cash.
That's because if you asked 50 marketers
to define "branding,"
you'd get 50 different answers.
Very few people agree on what
branding is, but they do agree that
is important in building
sales and profits.
So what are brands and why are they
important to you?
Brands make selling easier!
Plain and simple.
To understand branding, we need to
understand what branding
isn't.
From my studies and research that
includes hundreds of
interviews with top marketing managers
at large and small
companies, I've come away with several
conclusions:
1. A brand is not a logo, slogan,
catchy saying, mission
statement or publicity campaign.
2. A brand is about trust. You select
a company because you
trust them and the companies have
credibility. These are two
issues that are important to every
company of every size.
When you travel along the highway
and need a quick meal, do you
stop at the local diner for a meal
featuring the local cuisine-
or do you pull in to McDonald's
because you know the fries are
always going to be the same?
People trust McDonalds. They will
give up the chance for an
innovative meal in favor of the
trusted resource every time!
That's because people buy on emotion
and justify with logic.
"Gee the local diner might be good,
but it might take a long
time and we're in a rush."
Is it any wonder why McDonald's is
a multibillion-dollar
enterprise?
Look at the best brands on the Internet:
Yahoo, eBay and Amazon.
What do they all have in common?
People trust them!
In my seminars at Stanford and Berkeley,
I always ask if people
have bought books from Amazon. Most
people raise their hands. I
then ask if anyone has ever had
a problem with Amazon. In one
out of three seminars, one person
out of hundreds will raise a
hand. But they quickly say that
Amazon resolved the problem in
their favor, quickly and courteously.
I then ask if people have telephones.
Everyone raises their
hands. I ask if people have ever
had a problem with their phone
company. Most people keep their
hands up! You probably have the
same experience. Phone companies
have bad reputations for
customer service.
Good companies create good brands
by creating trust.
Do you need a lot of money to create
trust?
No way!
Yet hundreds of companies have blown
through more than a billion
dollars on TV ads during the Super
Bowl and other major events
trying to build a brand image.
I attended a top-level seminar on
branding and a venture
capitalist on the panel said a consumer
company must spend $50
million dollars to build a brand
identity today.
However, in my seminar on branding
at Stanford, I asked the
participants - all brand managers
at major companies, to name 10
search engines, 10 consumer web
sites, 3 pet supplies sites and
10 business-to-business web sites.
No one could!
And these are the very people who
are in the industry, and are
exposed to the millions of dollars
of advertising to create
brands!
What does this mean?
Buying your way to brand awareness
does not work!
The net is littered with those failures:
Dr. Koop, Priceline's
grocery service and Boo.com stand
out as highly publicized
failures.
So, as a small company, you don't
have to worry about not have a
treasure chest full of cash to buy
a reputation - because it
doesn't work!
How do you create a great brand?
That's where brand assets come
in to play. Brand assets are your
slogans, advertising,
publicity, promotions, characters,
spokes people, as well as
your customer service and sales
people! These tools help create
a meaningful identity that creates
an emotional bond with your
audience that compels them to take
action - and provides the
logic that justifies their choices.
The Internet has a treasure chest
of tools to create brand
awareness, brand identity and brand
loyalty including your
e-mail address, website name, signature
file. You also need to
transmit your own personality and
identity to create trust.
When you build trust, you build a
great brand. If you can do
that, then you will build sales
and create customers for life!
Daniel Janal is an internationally-recognized
speaker, Internet
marketer and best-selling author
of Branding on the Internet.
http://www.BrandingTheNet.com/g.o/21247
Pets.com: Branding Goes
to the Dogs
By Dan
Janal
The recent demise of Pets.com offers
important points about
building a brand on the Internet
for businesses of all sizes.
Let's recap their story.
Pet.com entered a crowded playing
field of startups that wanted
to sell pet food, supplies and toys
to price-conscious pet
owners. The field also included
bricks and mortar stores, like
Petsmart.
Pets.com needed to stand out from
the crowd. They did an
admirable job by creating a lovable
character, the sock puppet
and a catchy slogan to answer the
question of why shop at an
online pet store: "Because pets
can't drive."
They spun a good PR story about the
creation of the sock puppet.
They said their marketing team created
a six-page bio of the
character that included gender,
age, personality and other
traits.
They spent a fortune on TV ads that
featured the sock puppet,
whose sassy style did a great job
in differentiating the company
from others.
That's good branding.
As a result, pets.com was:
-The leader in the online pet category
-An award winning site, as rated
by Gomez.com
-Highest number of unique visitors
in the category according to
Media Metrix, Nielsen/Net
Ratings and PC Data Online
-Counted 570,000 people as customers
Yet, as the company noted in its
press release "we are unable to
continue operations."
But it obviously wasn't enough.
What went wrong?
You can't build a brand on a bad
business plan. Sure, a lot of
people own pets and they want to
spend less money on pet food.
But can any market support dozens
of companies with the same
business plan? The story of Pets.com
tells us a resounding,
"no!"
Pets.com lost because they failed
to learn an important rule:
In a product area where the retailer
adds no extra value,
Pets.com was doomed to disaster
the day the first wave of
competitors came along.
That's because if you plan to build
a company by offering
discounts, you will lose to the
next company that comes along
and offers a bigger discount. If
the field is crowded, go
elsewhere! Your chances of winning
are slim.
The cost per customer acquisition
by companies like Pets.com is
about $80. There's no way you make
that back when you sell a
product with a paper-thin margin
- and have 10 other competitors
doing the same.
It's no wonder why Wall Street has
punished dot-com look-alikes
this year.
Pets.com teaches us that strong brand
assets can help a company
gain visibility and awareness in
a crowded field. But Pets.com
also teaches us that if you build
a brand on a shaky foundation
(i.e. business plan), you are doomed.
That's why I predict that
some toy company will buy the sock
puppet assets and turn him
into a major cartoon character.
Move over Barney!
The real lesson: You can only win
if you add real value that
customers can't get anywhere else.
That's the essence of building a
good brand on the Internet. The
clever logo, the sassy character,
the cute slogan are merely
brand assets that help to build
the brand. But so are the
business plan, the competition and
the realities of the
marketplace.
Daniel Janal is an internationally-recognized
speaker, Internet
marketer and best-selling author
of Branding on the Internet.
http://www.BrandingTheNet.com/g.o/21247
Confidential
Internet Intelligence Manuscript
Dear Friend,
I just received this from Mark Joyner.
Everyone on the Internet
needs to read this, and you should
forward this to your friends,
as well.
I tried this "Manuscript" he refers
to myself and it was, without
a doubt, the most profound experience
of my business life. I'm
still shaking from reading it.
I feel like a fog has been lifted
from my eyes!
Anyway, here's the letter he sent
me about it:
===============
Dear Subscriber,
If I could show you one simple technique
that in 5 minutes would
increase your Internet sales by
32% would you do it?
What if I had a collection of these
techniques that took me
years to test and perfect, would
you want to use them?
Of course, and that's why people
are going crazy about this.
No other marketer has ever revealed
information this sensitive.
For years I've kept this information
quiet.
You have probably heard the buzz
that I finally released my
"Confidential Internet Intelligence
Manuscript" to the public.
Jay Conrad Levinson said he'd easily
pay $2,000 or more for
this document. He said "every
page was a true revelation."
Joe Vitale said everyone selling
*anything* on the Net should
keep a copy of this on their desk.
This simple document is probably
the most powerful thing I've
ever written. I'm so certain
of this that it comes with a
TRIPLE-your-money-back guarantee
if it doesn't increase your
sales by at least 35%.
Read that again. These simple
techniques will increase your
sales by 35% (at least) or I'll
give you triple your money
back.
"Increase
Your Sales by 35% or You Get Triple
Your Money
Back"
This collection
includes techniques that Mark Joyner
has tested
and perfected. Just one of them can
increase
your Internet sales by 32%.
Click here
for immediate access:
http://www.MarketingManuscript.com/g.o/21247
How can I do this?
Well, it's quite easy to use, and
purely scientific.
These aren't just theories and guesses
- these are *specific*
things you can do right now that
will increase your sales.
And each of these techniques have
been *scientifically* proven.
It reveals the results of years of
research conducted here
at Aesop showing *exactly* the simple
techniques I use that
dramatically increase Internet sales.
One of these techniques
increased our sales by a clearly
measurable 412%.
If I could reach out and grab you
through this monitor I'd
shake you to make you realize how
important what I'm about to
show you is.
Get the "Confidential Internet Intelligence
Manuscript" with
the triple your money-back guarantee
for:
Only $197
Just think about it, you could order
the Manuscript, ask for
a refund, and you'd have this tool
for free. There's nothing
I could do to stop you.
What if this document is exactly
what you need to turn your
sales around? Just try it
out risk free:
http://www.MarketingManuscript.com/g.o/21247
Remember, I'm giving you *two* guarantees:
1. Show me you've faithfully
applied these techniques and if
it doesn't increase your sales by
a measurable 35%, I'll give
you triple your money back.
2. Or, if you're not happy
for any reason, just ask for a
refund and we'll issue you one -
no questions asked.
Click here for immediate access:
http://www.MarketingManuscript.com/g.o/21247
There's a reason people are going
crazy for this document. Don't
you want to know why?
All the best,
Mark
Mark Joyner
CEO, Aesop.com
Author, "Mind Control Marketing"
The
Golden Mailbox
Learn how to start and prosper
in your very own direct marketing business.
Ted Nicholas tells you step-by-step
how to start and prosper in your very own direct marketing business. These
are the techniques that helped Ted earn $1,000,000 in just six months.
Click here to learn more about The
Golden Mailbox.
"AFTER
DISCOVERING THE WORLD'S MOST IDEAL BUSINESS, WITHIN JUST SIX MONTHS I EARNED
$1,000,000!"
What is
the world's most ideal business? Ted Nicholas' answer may surprise you.
Click here
for immediate access:
http://www.YourGoldenMailbox.com/g.o/21247
Course
on free money sources available to entrepreneurs
Free Money for Entrepreneurs on
the Internet has completely brand new sources of free cash specifically
tailored for Internet entrepreneurs. Additionally, this is a digital
book, meaning you can read it online - and all the million free money sources
are just a mouse click away! Click
here to learn more about Free Money For Entrepreneurs On The Internet.
How to Use Other People's Money for
Your Business
By Matthew Lesko
"Money is a terrible master but an
excellent servant."
- P.T. Barnum
John Ray, the famous 17th century
author, was known to have
written the aphorism, "Money begets
money." In the business
world, I'm sure you've also heard
the saying, "You've got to
have money to make money."
There are countless sources of cash,
but by far, the best one to
utilize for your business is ...
other people's money.
Perhaps one of the greatest "secrets"
of the richest people in
the world is summed up in those
3 words: Other People's Money -
OPM for short.
If you took a cross-section of the most
affluent business people, you'll
find that the majority of them
launched their fortunes using OPM.
In the next few minutes, I
will show you how you can obtain
other people's money for your
business. What you do with
the money, however, is up to you -
but if I were you, I'd take P.T.
Barnum's advice, and make money
your servant so that you, too, you
can make your own fortune.
The use of other people's money has
become such an ethical and
acceptable mainstay in business
because one can leverage other
people's money to your benefit.
For example, you can leverage borrowed
money into high-yield
investment programs that could generate
a return that would then
pay back your lender and line your
pockets as well. Or you can
leverage borrowed money into asset-producing
or
income-generating real property.
Or you can simply borrow money
to start or grow your business.
The benefits to using OPM are obvious:
1) When you use other
people's money, especially within
the parameters of a
corporation, your debt is assigned
to your business, and your
debtors can make no claims against
your personal finances; and
2) the infusion of cash allows
you to have money to make money
for your business.
Of course, even with the proliferation
of lending institutions
and venture capitalists, it is often
difficult to obtain other
people's money.
Well, since Wall Street Journal has
kindly called me a man who
"finds answers in unlikely places,"
I'm going to reveal an
unlikely place where you can obtain
other people's money. This
one is available to all, and yet
very few ever take advantage of
it. It's the federal government.
I've coined a phrase for this source
of money: I call it "other
taxpayers' money" - OTM for short.
The federal government has
millions of dollars of taxpayers'
money allocated to funding
businesses like yours.
Here are a few great sources of OTM:
1) If you want to get training
and/or money to start your own
business, millions of dollars are
available at www.sba.com.
They'll also show you how to find
alternative sources of
financing, how to protect your invention,
how to sell your idea,
how to license your product, how
to write legal contracts, how
to sell overseas, and how to buy
business equipment.
2) If you want money to export
and sell products to foreign
countries, you can obtain it from
the Export-Import Bank of the
United States at www.exim.gov.
Or you can go to The Overseas
Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
at www.opic.gov.
3) If you want to obtain government
contracts, then access the
Procurement Assistance Offices online.
Here, you'll learn how
to draw up a business plan that'll
get your business noticed.
They can match the product or service
you're selling with the
appropriate agency, and then help
you market to them more
effectively. You can find
these programs at www.dla.mil.
4) If you need venture capital
for a new or existing business,
then you need to go online and access
the Small Business
Investment Company (SBIC).
These are privately-organized and
privately-managed investment firms
that are licensed by the
Small Business Administration (SBA).
With their own capital and
with funds borrowed at favorable
rates through the federal
government, SBICs provide venture
capital to small independent
businesses, both new and established.
You can access them at
www.sba.gov/INV.
5) If you need free help or
want to learn how to do your own
personal or business taxes?
All you have to do is access
www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/bus_info-bus_help.html.
You can also obtain a free 26-page
book on the Internet called
The Credit Process: A Guide for
Small Business Owners. It's
written for small business owners
seeking financing for the
first time. It covers sources
and types of financing; funding
resources; preparation of a business
plan; preparation of loan
applications; and action to take
if a loan is denied. It also
contains an especially useful and
comprehensive glossary of
finance terms, agencies, and fair
lending regulations.
========================================
Matthew Lesko is a New York times
syndicated columnist, and author
of 2 New York Times best-sellers.
He is regularly featured as the
nation's top expert on government
freebies on TV programs such as
Larry King, Oprah, David Letterman,
Jay Leno, the Today Show and
Good Morning America. His
latest book, "Free Money for Entrepreneurs
on the Internet" identifies hundreds
of little-known sources of
free government money for "net-repreneurs"
and reveals the
secret formula for easily obtaining
the money for your business.
http://www.FreeStuffForEntrepreneursOnTheInternet.com/g.o/21247
=========================================
"Nothing is Secret Anymore!"
-- The Confessions of a Millionaire
Information Broker
By Matthew Lesko
Information is the currency of today's
world. Those who
control information are the most
powerful people on the planet --
and the ones with the most bulging
bank accounts.
The timely delivery of vital information
is one of the most
lucrative businesses you can have
in this new millennium. I
should know. I started one of the
most successful information
brokerage businesses in the country.
I'm also perhaps the
world's most well known information
broker, and I've made
millions of dollars from doing it,
and I'm going to show you how
to easily do the same.
Let me backtrack a little bit.
All my life I wanted to start my
own business. I didn't care
what it was -- I just wanted to
learn how to feed myself and not
work for someone else. I even considered
selling hot dogs on
the mall near the Washington Monument.
I just wanted to be my
own boss. Sound familiar?
I had a string of failed businesses
before I hit the big time.
It was while working as a computer
administrator of a travel
company that I learned something
that changed my whole life.
The hot shots that ran the company
fascinated me. They were
powerful individuals who discussed,
negotiated and executed big
deals all the time. In order to
get in on some of that wheeling
and dealing, I'd hang around late
at night when they had their
meetings, and volunteer to get coffee
and doughnuts, do the
Xeroxing -- do anything to try to
learn how to be like them.
One day, they came into my office
and asked me -- not to get
coffee -- but to get information
on how good or bad the rental
car business was. It seems they
were considering making a bid
to acquire Avis Rent-A-Car, and
needed some good market
information to go along with the
financial statements they were
poring over. I, of course, said
"Yes, yes, yes!" I was their
"yes man," even though I knew nothing
about the rental car
business and had no idea where I
was going to get this
information.
Well, I wanted to do this so badly
I could almost taste it.
This was one giant step up from
coffee and Xeroxing that lucky
people are offered once in a lifetime,
and I didn't want to blow
it. I saw myself as a young turk
on the way up the ladder of
success. But I didn't have a clue
where to go for the
information.
I sat in my little office wondering
if I could make the grade.
I sat there staring at my desk hoping
something would pop into
my head and give me the magic answer.
I stared at the telephone
and then picked it up thinking:
"Here I am in Washington D.C. needing
to know about the rental
car business. Who can I call? Why
not the government? I pass
all those big buildings everyday
on the way to work. Maybe
someone there can help me."
Well, it worked! By starting with
the government information
operator, I was able to work my
way through a dozen more calls
and referrals until I finally found
an expert in the rental car
business. It turned out to be a
man who used to be the
president of Hertz and was now in
Washington -- and bored out of
his mind with his government job.
He actually invited me to
lunch so he could tell me everything
he knew.
I was shocked!
I couldn't believe that in 45 minutes
on the telephone, I could
locate a real expert who was willing
to tell me everything I
needed to know about the rental
car business. And, he even
wanted to take me to lunch!
Afterwards, I was so excited about
the information I had just
received that I burst into a meeting
my boss was having with his
hotshot merger and acquisition buddies.
He was eager to hear
everything I learned from my lunch
right then and there.
They were blown away.
They couldn't believe that a young turk
like me, who didn't know anyone,
could get such information that
we had all assumed was privileged
and confidential.
I got more excited about the information
I dug up on the rental
car business than with any program
I ever wrote for the company.
I knew then that information was
power. I also knew then that
there was immense value in delivering
timely information on
demand.
I was hooked. I started a new business
obtaining information
for people on anything they needed.
I became a consultant to
people in the merger and acquisition
business, and I got all the
information they needed to make
their business a success --
information they were unable to
find themselves.
This time, success finally happened.
The business grew from
just me, a telephone, and a desk
in my one-bedroom apartment to
over 30 employees and a million
and a half dollars in sales in a
little more than 3 years. Even after
a string of failing
businesses, I finally realized my
first success, and I'll show
how you can do it, too.
How to Create Money Out of Thin Air
What I learned early on is that you
can literally take
information that is free to obtain,
but oftentimes hard for the
average person to find -- turn around
and sell it for big bucks.
All it requires is a little resourcefulness,
and the knowledge
of where to find the information
that is sellable.
There's nothing to it. These are
the only things you need:
1) Believe the notion that we live
in an information society,
and if you're willing to make a
few necessary calls (or
e-mails), you can gather information
on almost anything -- and
make that information sellable.
2) You need to know where to look
for the information.
Although there are countless sources
of information, if you do
nothing else but tap into the world's
largest source of free
information, you can find virtually
everything that you need.
That source is the U.S. Government.
[I've spent 25 years of my
life as an information broker, and
I have yet to find a source
of information more comprehensive
than the U.S. Government.]
Do you want to get an idea of just
how vast the government's
information reserve is?
If you took all the major commercial
publishers in the United
States, they collectively produce
50,000 new titles in all the
libraries and bookstores around
the country in a single year.
In contrast, one single publisher
in the government (the
National Technical Information Service)
publishes over 100,000
titles a year. Multiply that by
the number of government
agencies that produce information,
and the amount of information
becomes absolutely staggering!
The range of subjects on which you
can find information is also
mind-boggling: The government not
only counts people, the
number of jelly beans manufactured
in the country, toilets
installed, and how many potatoes
grown; but also gives
investment trends and opportunities
likely to show up in the
Wall Street Journal in weeks; it
also answers any legal question
better than the highest paid lawyer.
There are 700,000
government experts in any field
you can imagine, who will give
you free information simply because
you asked.
How to Use the Information You Gather:
1) Find customers who need, and are
willing to pay for,
specialized information. Position
yourself as someone who knows
how to find information on practically
everything, but do narrow
down the types of information you
can get for your customers'
specific needs. That way, you zero
in with the precision of a
sharpshooter, instead of just firing
a shotgun that goes in all
directions.
As an information broker, always
remember what Willy Sutton said
when asked why he robbed banks.
He said, "Because that's where
the money is." You need to live
by the same slogan if you want
to stay in business. Choose the
path of least resistance.
Choose a customer base that consists
of rich people or big
companies that have money to spend
on finding out how they can
get richer -- and are willing and
able to spend it.
2) Gather specialized information
that would be of great
interest to a specific business
sector (example: Internet
marketers). Position yourself as
an expert on a particular
subject, then write in-depth special
reports that feature the
specialized information you found,
package them in an e-book,
and make them available to Internet
marketers for a fee. As an
alternative, you may also create
a newsletter that regularly
updates the specialized information
-- and make money on the paid
subscriptions.
More and more businesses are realizing
the value of having good
information for good decision-making.
Whether big or small, a
business can't succeed today unless
it keeps up on the latest
information.
What kind of information do businesses
need? They need
information on their markets, their
competition, technology,
money sources and regulations, for
starters. Develop a
sensitivity to the needs of your
prospects by asking them
directly what they need. From that,
you can determine the kind
of information that would best satisfy
their needs.
Here's a useful tip: You'd do well
to develop a "hook." A
"hook" is a marketing term that
makes it easier for people to
purchase your services. It's taking
the situation I mentioned
earlier about "knowing how to find
information about practically
anything" and refining it down to
a specialty. If you
specialize is some interesting aspect
of the information
brokerage industry, it's easier
to attract your prospects'
attention.
Define your niche by identifying
the customer group that you
specialize in helping: small businesses,
or non-profit
organizations. Or, you can define
it by the area of information
you want to deal with, such as health
information, company
information, or international information.
Another way you can
describe your business is by the
medium of the information you
want to provide, such as: only database
searches, only document
retrieval, or only interviewing
industry experts.
I was fortunate enough to have started
in Washington D.C., where
I developed the hook of government
information. It gave me an
instant edge over my competitors,
even though I had no more
experience gathering information
then they did. To make a long
story short, the government information
I've amassed over the
years have earned me a coveted position
of being a New York
Times syndicated columnist, and
I've even authored two New York
Times best-sellers featuring information
that I've obtained for
free. I have also been privileged
to be regularly featured as
the nation's top expert on government
information on TV programs
such as Larry King, Oprah, David
Letterman, Jay Leno, the Today
Show and Good Morning America.
The key to becoming a successful
information broker is be the
first to find the information, and
deliver it on a timely basis
to those who want it. Then sit back
and watch the money appear
out of thin air!
http://www.FreeStuffForEntrepreneursOnTheInternet.com/g.o/21247
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