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Ideas/Section-7
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.
