How to make money if you're dead butt broke

Many of you guys have written in, asking how you can make money if you are stone cold broke, out of work, in ill health, etc., etc.
Having been in a situation a few years ago where I'd piled up over $20,000.00 in credit card debt, and was living in the office space of a warehouse with no shower and no hot water, I'm uniquely qualified to answer this question.
Why? Because I went from "broke" to "flush" in a short amount of time, paying off all my credit card debt, and moving into a nice place with several showers, and lots of hot water.
Here's what I discovered about being "broke." First off, people have more resources than they think they have, and tend to find ways to come up with the money for things they want. The proof of that is any trailer park you walk into is filled with satellite dishes, big screen TV's, etc., even though most of these people can't "pay their rent." When I worked in the oil field in Michigan, all of the out of work, "broke" people could be found at the local Indian Casino, happily gambling away money they didn't have.
I discovered I had resources, especially my time. I spent every waking moment in the library, or trying new things I'd learned to sell my product. If you don't have money, you have time and you have "shoe leather." I was trying to sell a form of artwork at the time, so I simply went around to every gift shop, art gallery, etc. in town and asked them if I could put my product in their shop on consignment. I hated doing it, and I was a horrible salesman, but I soon had seven or eight shops that sold a little bit of my art each month, giving me enough money to survive, and more importantly, invest in my education. It also, more importantly, gave me proof that my product sold.
What I was doing is a "joint venture"--looking for people with resources who wanted or needed what I had, and then simply making a "no risk" deal with them. They only paid me when my artwork sold, so they had no out of pocket investment which they liked. Once I got to know some of these people, I asked them if they knew other shop owners like themselves, and surprisingly they did--and were happy to refer me to them, with their endorsement.
Although I made enough money from these shop owners each month to survive, there wasn't much left over, and I was still in debt big time. So, I started doing a few more "make money with no money strategies."
I went back to the library and looked in the SRDS for a list of trade publications that art gallery and frame shop owners might read. Surprisingly, I found a lot of them (Framing, Décor, Art Business News, etc.) So, I simply faxed them a relevant press release about my product, letting them know how writing a story about me would benefit their readers. It cost me 25 cents to fax to them all, and I paid for this by drinking water instead of iced tea at lunch.
Well, I did get a call back from one of these publications, and they ran a small story about me in their publication that included my contact information. I got calls from art galleries all across the country, wanting to order my art. I told them they had to send in "cash with order" if they wanted it, and they did--because they saw my name in print, they thought I was a very important guy.
So now I was starting to make more money, and I spent every spare nickel on information products. One of them (a Ted Nicholas
product) mentioned the fact that there are lots and lots of mail order catalogs who are always hungry for new products to sell their customers. So, off I went to the library to look up the Oxbridge Directory of Catalogs (following the advice in the information product I got from Ted). I found all kinds of catalogs that might be interested in my product, so I called them up and got on their catalog mailing list.
After looking through all the catalogs that showed up, I decided to send a "business proposal" to two of them. So I typed up a very "professional looking letter" that said, "Hey I have a product people like to buy that I think would do well in your catalog. Here are a few samples. Have a look and call me." And off I sent them.
Two weeks later I got a call from Robert Redford's Sundance Catalog. They were interested in testing one of my pieces of art.
I asked them how many catalogs they were going to mail in this "test." It was going to be a small test, they said, so they were only going to mail "about one million this time."
Well, to make a long story short, they mailed the test, my product pulled 2 ½ times cost (meaning for every dollar they spent advertising it, they got back $2.50), and it stayed in the catalog for over two years. They sold over 5,000 units and I made over $200,000.00 of which I re-invested a significant portion of in books, tapes, and seminars, always learning more--which has led me to where I am today.
Now, here's the funny thing: I still make money without money. A few months ago I started an online business, and put no money into it whatsoever, only my knowledge. It was profitable the very first day (I got traffic using Google Ad Words), and has been profitable since, now putting on average about $12,000.00 extra per month in my pocket. In a few years it will be a multi-million dollar business, yet I started it with no money whatsoever, only my knowledge I'd gained over the years.
The lesson for today is this: you have more resources than you think you do, all you have to do is put them to work. If you don't have money, you have lots of time, and how you spend that time will dictate whether you make money or not. Go back through this email and read it carefully, noting all the things I did to make money that cost no money. Apply this type of thinking to your current business or situation.
The other lesson is this: the most profitable investment you can make is in your education. Every spare dime you have should be spent on improving your marketing knowledge, and you should continue to invest in it no matter how much money you're making.
The one thing all successful people I know have in common is their willingness to continue their education, investing vast sums each year in learning more. The funny thing is, they did this, even when they were dead butt broke, and in terrible debt. Knowledge coupled with action is what will make you successful, "having money" has little to do with it.
Let's get to it...

Mr. X.
Group M Marketing
Kimble and Kennedy Publishing

It's all about the customers

Do know how "mail order" and "internet marketing" is sold to people? It usually goes like this: you write, lease, or license a sales letter (nowadays a sales-letter style website) that pitches a "how to product" (like how to make money, meet women, lose weight, etc.), mail the letter (or simply "activate the website" and send out a few emails) and in a few weeks you're rich.
Or, you take the money you made from a small "test" and reinvest it in more mailings or more website traffic, and you keep "pyramiding up" until you're filthy rich. But does it really work this way in the "real world?" Or is it just a bunch of sales hype?
The answer is... YES, it does work that way in the real world IF... you're mailing your sales letter, or sending your email to people you have a relationship with, i.e. your customers.
If you think you're going to go out, mail a letter, buy some traffic and then be done with it, you'll be out of the information marketing business (or any business for that matter) so fast your head will spin. Yet, that's most people's focus--and it is absolutely, dead wrong. Let me tell you why, and show the right way to think about the information marketing business.
Let's say Joe Opportunity writes a letter, gets a list, and mails to the list. He mails 5,000 names, at a total cost of $.70 per name. That costs him $3,500.00. Let's say he's selling a $55 product (that costs him $5 to make and ship) and he gets a .5% response to the mailing. Ouch--he's brought in $1,250.00 (when you take out product cost), and he's in the hole $2,250.00. He's mad.
He's pissed. He's been cheated! Mail order doesn't work, it's just a big scam. So, he quits.
Now, let's say he has a brother, Jim Businessman. Jim's a bright guy. He buys lots of information products, and spends his time studying them intently. He goes to seminars. He talks to successful people. While his brother's at the bar drinking beer, Jim's home reading.
So, let's say Jim writes a sales letter, gets a list and mails to it. He gets the exact same results as his beer-swilling brother--in the hole $2,250.00. But Jim's ecstatic. He's happy as heck? Why? Because he just acquired 25 customers. And he has a $1,500.00 product to sell them. Since his $55 product "over-delivered" he knows his customers are hungry for more. And because he read and studied he knows it's just as easy to sell $1,500.00 products as it is to sell $55 ones.
So, Jim spends $2 apiece on a mailing package to mail to his 25 customers, which costs him $50. Two of them order. That's $3,000.00 worth of orders. But Jim doesn't stop there--he hires his ne-er do well brother to call the 23 who don't order, pays him a 10% commission (good for beer money) on what he sells, and gets two more orders--and additional $3,000.00. So, at the end of the campaign, here are Jim's numbers:
Costs: $3550 in mailing costs
Revenue: $1,250.00 in immediate sales, $3,000 in follow up sales to those who bought from the direct mail package, and $3,000 in sales due to his brother's telemarketing efforts (his brother gets $300.00 of that).
So what's left over? $3,400.00 (less any product costs, returns, etc.). And this doesn't even factor in what the 25 customers will buy from Jim in the future. Maybe they'll buy a $3,000 product from him. Maybe a $5,000 seminar. Maybe Jim recommends other people's products to them, and gets a fat cut for simply referring them.
Here's what I want you to understand from today's episode: it's not about the initial money. It's about the acquisition of customers, and the building of a relationship with them. Think about it as "buying customers"--in this case, Jim spent $90 per customer, but they turned around and spent a lot more money with him. Since his focus is on building a list of customers who give him money every time he asks, he is very, very happy to "lose" $2,250.00 on a mailing, while his brother Joe quits in a huff, and claims he's been scammed. That's why Jim's rich and Joe's broke (and drunk).
That's the difference between success and failure--how you think about your business. It's all about the customers.
Let's get to it...

Mr. X.
Group M Marketing
Kimble and Kennedy Publishing