"21 Ways to Increase Your Sales Inquiries by Improving Your Advertisement."
By Andrew S. Linick, Ph.D.

Sometimes in advertising it becomes advisable to secure as many inquiries as possible.
For the sake of easy reference and at the risk of repetition, 21 effective methods for increasing replies are listed below. These methods may be divided into two general classes:

1- The methods that increases inquiries by increasing the total effectiveness of your advertising. For example, the use of long copy plus an interesting headline increases the total effectiveness of an advertisement, and the increase in replies is merely a by-product of a better advertisement.

2- The methods that increase ad replies but do not increase the total effectiveness of your advertising. For example, a picture of a free booklet with a sub-caption "get this book free" will get more inquiries, but it does not make your advertisement any better.

1-Mention the offer in the headline.

Suppose your headline is "How to retire on an Income". You can increase the response by changing it to read "Free booklet tells how to retire on an income!" Suppose your headline is "Stout Women" You can increase response by changing it to read "free to Stout Women"

Here are other examples:

Yours for only 1c-this lovely box of greeting cards
Free sales kit make up to $50 a day
Given to you-the Oxford Dictionary
Free Ski Guide
Home Repair Book-read it 7 days free

2- Emphasize the word "FREE"

You can increase replies by putting the word "FREEE" in big print or in capital letters. In broadcast advertising and in print advertising, you can repeat the word "free" several times. Or, you can frequently repeat phrases that mean essentially the same thing, such as "Send not money", "Don't pay a penny" or "Yours without cost". However, the FTC requires that the "terms of conditions imposed are conspicuously disclosed in immediate conjunction with the offer."

3-Mention the offer in a subhead

Then subhead may follow immediately after the main headline like this:

(Main headline) New electronic calculator

(Subhead) Free ten day trial

Or, the subhead may be placed in the middle of the as or near the end. Here are typical subheads:

Send for liberal supply
The facts are free
Write for booklet
Special $1 offer
Free talent test

4-Show a picture of the booklet or sample

If you have lots of room, you can show the booklet or sample package in large size. Your layout can include eye-catching devices such as an arrow or a hand pointing at the booklet.

The speed with which an offer registers on the eye if the reader is important. Therefore, one of the best inquiry-getting layouts is picture of the booklet with the word "free" printed alongside of it or under it.

In small ads you can save space by reducing the picture of the booklet down to the size of a postage stamp. You can even cut it in half and show only the half of the booklet. If your booklet title is hard to read in reduces size, you can reset the title on the ad artwork in readable type before you make your reduced size cut.

In TV commercials you can have the announcer hold up the booklet or gift all wrapped and ready to mail. He can point to the address label and say "Send me your name and address so I can put it right here and mail this free gift to you."

Incidentally, the phrase "free gift" is especially good in both printed and broadcast advertising because this phrase says free twice in just two short words.

5-Include Testimonials

An ad for an income tax guide included testimonials for a homeowner, a salesman, a professional man, a housewife, etc. For example:

Salesman: "I use my car for selling and do a lot of entertaining. I thought I had deducted everything until your Income tax guide showed me 16 deductions I never thought were allowable."
Housewife: "Saving on my husband's salary isn't easy. I thought tax returns were a man's job until your income tax guide showed me how many of our expenses are deductible---like the clothes I donate to the Salvation Army."

6-Sweeten the offer

The ad for the Income Tax Guide mentioned above contained this paragraph:

Special Free bonus: Filled on Tax forms…To give you every possible tax savings- and to save you time and trouble you will also receive a 16 page booklet of sample tax forms, completely filled in for your guidance. This is yours to keep, even if you return the Income Tax Guide for refund.

A series of ads for General Electric light bulbs offered "a booklet about light and seeing." It was desired to increase replies and so a free gift was offered in addition to the free booklet.

An airline wanted to increase replies from ads about flights to Bermuda so that sales literature could be mailed to as many prospects as possible. A free booklet offer did not pull sufficient replies, and so the following offer was used and brought excellent results.

Absolutely free---A Bermuda Vacation Kit. The Kit contains detailed map of Bermuda and photographs and descriptions of the big, luxury Air Liners. Included I the free Kit are a pair of Bermuda sunglasses.

If you have been charging 25c for your booklet, you can, of course, increase replies by reducing the price to 10c. If you want to get the 10c for your booklet and at the same time feature the word, "free," you can use the following wording: "Free booklet. Enclose 10C to help cover cost of handling and mailing."

[Editor's Note: Dr. Andrew Linick, Ph.D., The Copyologist©, states that he has sold 750+ million dollars worth of products & services for clients and himself by direct mail/mail order since 1968. For more details about his classified ad writing services, contact him at The Linick Group, Inc., Linick Building, 7 Putter Lane, P.O. Box 102, Middle Island, NY 11953-0102. Or call 631.924.3888. email

"Choosing the Right Home Business For You " © 2000 Elena Fawkner

Pay any attention at all to your email inbox and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the only way to run a business from home is on the Internet. Sure, many people are running spectacularly successful Internet-based home businesses. Many, many more are doing so even more spectacularly unsuccessfully.

But what if you're not interested in running an Internet business? What if you want to start and run a home business the old-fashioned way? Where do you start?

Actually starting any home business is the easy part. The hard part's deciding what that business should be.

So how do you even start the process of deciding on the right home business for you? The key is to be methodical, realistic, objective and patient.

Step 1 : Personal Inventory

The first place to start is to inventory your skills, experience, interests, and personality characteristics. These are what you have to work with - your raw ingredients, so to speak.

Make a list of personal qualities and factors that you can throw into the mix. Include things like:

=> your personal background;
=> training and education;
=> work and volunteer experience;
=> special interests and hobbies;
=> leisure activities;
=> your personality and temperament.

All of these qualities and factors make up what you know and what you're good at.

Step 2 : Identify What You Like

It's one thing to know a lot about something or be good at it. It's quite another to enjoy it enough to want to make it your life's work. So, remove from the list you created in Step 1 anything that you don't really, really like doing or which plain doesn't interest you. No matter how good you are at it. If you're lucky enough to like what you're good at, as a general rule, stick with what you know.

Step 3 : Match Your Likes With Marketable Activities

If Steps 1 and 2 still haven't suggested feasible home business ideas, review the following activities that have proven marketable for others and weigh them against your "likes" from Step 2:

Crafts - pottery, ceramics, leadlighting
Health and Fitness - aerobics instructor, network marketing
for a health products company, home health care
Household Services - cleaning, gardening, shopping
Professional Services - attorney, architect, interior designer
Personal Services - make-up artist, hairdresser
Business Services - business plan writer, meeting planner
Wholesale Sales - antique dealer, dropshipper
Retail Sales - children's clothing, widgets
Computers - web design, internet training.

You get the idea. This is not an exhaustive list, obviously. You can visit the AHBBO Ideas Page for a list of over 500 home business ideas at http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html .

Step 4 : Make a List of Business Ideas That Fit With Your Likes From Step 2

By the time you're done, you'll have a hitlist of possible matches between your skills and interests on the one hand and home business ideas utilizing those skills and interests on the other.

Step 5 : Research

Armed with your list from Step 4, identify those ideas that you think have marketable potential and then research whether that belief is accurate. In order to have marketable potential, the idea must satisfy the following criteria:

=> It must satisfy or create a need in the market. The golden rule for any business is to either find or create a need and then fill it.

=> It must have longevity. If your idea is trendy or faddish, it doesn't have longevity. Go for substance over form in all things.

=> It must be unique. This doesn't mean you have to invent something completely new but it does mean that there has to be some *aspect* of your product or service that sets it apart from the competition. This is easy if you go for the niche, rather than mass, market. Don't try to be all things to all people. You'll only end up being too little to too many.

=> It must not be an oversaturated market. The more competition you have, the harder it will be to make your mark. It's unrealistic to expect no competition, of course. In fact, too little competition is a warning sign either that your business idea has no market or that the market is controlled by a few big players. What you want is healthy competition where it's possible to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

This all gets back to uniqueness. If you can't compete on uniqueness, you must compete on price (or convenience). If you're forced to compete on price alone, that just drives down your profit margin. Not smart business.

=> You must be able to price competitively yet profitably. The price you set for your product or service must allow you to compete effectively with other businesses in your market, it must be acceptable to consumers and it must return you a fair profit. If any one of these three is off, move on.

=> Your business must fit with your lifestyle. If you're a parent of young children and you primarily want to start a business from home so you can stay home with them, a real estate brokerage business that requires you to be out and about meeting with rospective clients is obviously not going to work.

You'll instead need to choose a business that can be conducted entirely (or near enough entirely) from within the four walls of your home office. Similarly, if your business idea would involve having clients come to your home, you're not going to want an unruly 3 year old underfoot as you're trying to conduct business.

=> Your financial resources must be sufficient to launch and carry the business until it becomes profitable. No business is profitable from day one, of course. But some are quicker to break even than others. If your business requires a considerable initial capital outlay to start - computer, printer and software for a web design business, for example - it will take you longer to break even than if the only prerequisite was the knowledge inside your own head, such as working from home as an attorney.

If your financial situation is such that you can't afford to quit your day job until your business is paying its way, this, too, will mean it will take longer to break even than if you're able to devote every waking hour to your business. Just do what you have to do. That's all any of us can do.

Step 6 : Business Plan

Once you've gone through the above process and identified what appears to be the right business for you, the final "gut check" is to write a business plan for your business, much as you would for a presentation to a bank for financing. Include sections for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and set goals for what your business needs to achieve for you, by when, and how you are going to get there.

There are plenty of good resources online about how to prepare a thorough business plan. A great place to start is at About.com (http://www.about.com). Just type "business plans" into the search box.

Although it may seem like a waste of time and effort to complete a business plan if you don't intend to seek outside financing, taking the time and exercising the discipline needed to really focus your mind on the important issues facing your business, you will be forced to take a long hard look at your idea through very objective and realistic eyes.

If your idea passes the business plan test, then you can be reasonably confident that this is the right business for you. If you come away from this exercise feeling hesitant, uncertain and unsure, either do more research (if the reason for your hesitancy and uncertainty is lack of information) or discard the idea (if it's because you don't think your idea is going to fly). If this happens, just keep repeating Steps 5 and 6 until you end up with an idea and a business plan that you're confident is going to work!

Although it's frustrating to wait once you've made up your mind to start a business from home, this really is one situation where the tortoise wins the race. By taking a ethodical, systematic and disciplined approach to identifying the right home business for you, you give your business the best possible chance for long-term survival, hopefully avoiding some very expensive mistakes along the way.

Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical ideas, resources and strategies for your home-based or online business. AHBBO

"A Web Site: To Have or Have Not " by Tim Minnick

Maybe you own an established business, or maybe you own a "new" business, or are thinking of buying a business, or starting a business for yourself. If you are any of these people, this question may or may not have crossed your mind, "Do I need a web site for my business?".

This article seeks to help you make that decision, notice I didn't say, this article seeks to answer that question for you. If you own a business or are thinking of buying or starting a business, you're an intelligent individual, perfectly capable of making that decision for yourself. I'll just present you with some information, objections and opinion and let you draw your own conclusion.

First, let's look at a couple of the most common reasons business owners think they may not need a web site, these are real objections from business owners with whom I have spoken concerning a web site for their business. For your business' sake… I certainly hope not, but maybe you think the same thing:

1.We don't have a computer and don't have Internet access at my business, so we don't need a web site. Please don't take offense, but a web site isn't for you to sit in your office and look at, thinking, "my, isn't that pretty". A web site is for your customers or potential customers to learn about you, your business and what products and/or services you provide. It's an opportunity for you to inform your customers, bring in new customers and most importantly an opportunity for you to increase your business' bottom line. After all, isn't your business bottom line what makes you money?

2.We've been in business for 30 years and have never advertised. We've always depended on "word of mouth". My hat is off to you, if you can say this… and I only hope your good fortune continues. But let's face facts. We live in a rapidly changing world. Due to an ever growing increase in population, a population that moves from one end of the country to the other, at any given time, for a multitude of reasons. While word of mouth has always been, and I'm sure will always be the best form of advertising, how about the families that just moved into your neighborhood and haven't made any friends yet, but they have Internet access. They don't have the resource that people that have lived there for 30 years do. Isn't that a missed opportunity?

You've read the objections and opinion. Here's the information:

According to the US Department of Commerce, Internet traffic doubles every 100 days. In the year 2000, there were approximately 102 million Internet users in the US alone. Today, 70% of America is on the Internet. In 1994 the entire Internet economy was $5 Billion, in 1998 that same figure was $301 Billion, and Forrester Research predicted that that figure would be $3.1 Trillion by 2003. Well 2003 is almost over, and the latest statistics available at the time of writing show this to be a reasonable expectation. 65% of people in America that are on the Internet make their buying decisions online… there are more people that access the Internet when they're looking to buy products and services than there are that pick up the yellow pages.

Now, I ask you, does your business need a web site?

There are many qualified web designers that are quite capable of developing a cost effective, aesthetically appealing and functional web site for your business. You can find them on the web or in the phone book. Good luck with your business!

About the author: Tim Minnick is the Director of Intertec Web Solutions. He has been developing Aesthetically appealing, functional web sites for businesses ranging from Banks to Trucking Companies for nearly 6 years. He thrives on the challenge of developing an exciting and interesting web sites. www.intertecweb.com

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"Choosing the Right Business Structure"
By Eliatt Di Lieto, CPA, CVA

Many people, when they start up a new business, automatically assume that they should incorporate. But this is not necessarily the right choice for everyone. Currently there are many options that a new business can choose, with no single global formula that can be used to decide which is best. Realistically, each company's facts and circumstances needs to be individually evaluated to determine the most appropriate structure.

So what options are available and which is best for you?

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