Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money - Harold Morse Dunphy - Страница 45
PLAN No. 36. LISTS OF NAMES FOR ADVERTISERS
ОглавлениеSupplying reliable lists of names to magazine advertisers and others would not at first be regarded as a very profitable business, but here is the experience of an Illinois man who made it pay well:
Studying the advertisements in the magazines, he thought of how much these advertisers could save if they were only brought into direct contact with the class of people each one was trying to reach at so great an outlay as magazine space involves.
He thought of a way in which it could be done. He had learned that he could buy the 400-page edition of Webster’s dictionary for 11 cents each with postage of 4 cents each, or a total of 15 cents, in quantities. Then he inserted, through an agency, an ad. in all the country papers for quite a distance around, offering to send a handsome dictionary free in return for a little information which anyone could easily give.
The answers came so fast that he was obliged to send mimeographed letters to those who replied, in which he asked for the names and addresses of all those in the community who were suffering from rheumatism, deafness, or any chronic ailment; also the names of property owners, horse and cattle owners, people with lawns, fruit trees, porches; the names of mothers, prospective mothers, newly married couples, etc., and stated if the information so given proved authentic, he would later arrange to pay them on a cash basis for other names, though the dictionary would be sent for the first lists.
Thousands of names were obtained in this way, and he proceeded to typewrite them, making ten carbon copies of each list, fifty names to the sheet.
He then wrote to each of the advertisers to whom the lists would be valuable, stating that he had obtained the names through his own correspondents in various communities, and offering to send them 1,000 names of those who would be interested in the advertiser’s line, for $5, or 500 names for $3.50.
He invited a trial order first, in order that they might test his service, and nearly all of them responded. In fact, he received more orders than he could well take care of, and the usual result of one day’s work was a net profit of $70. He then branched out on a larger scale, using various articles as premiums.
And this man who had been a clerk on a small salary for years, had only enough money when he started to pay for his advertisement, buy postage stamps, and purchase a typewriter on the instalment plan. He “used his plan”—and won. He never sold the same list to two concerns in the same line.
Plan No. 37. Auto Inspector at Work