There are many mailorder publications that will list your name
under this directory… « Commission Circulars Wanted »…
List your name under this classification and dealers will mail
bundles of circulars to you with a blank space at the bottom of
the ad in which you stamp your name. You mail these out and the
ads « appear » to be your own. You receive money for whatever is
advertised on the circular. You keep 50% and the dealer who
sent you the circulars will fill the order for you for the other
half.
Never mail out a single circular by itself. Mail as many of the
different circulars as you can, in the same envelope. Stuff your
envelopes full. The more you mail to one customer, the more
likely you’ll make a sale and the less will be the per unit
mailing cost. Mail order enthusiasts do read these circulars!
Next, run ads in different magazines saying that you mail
circulars for others. Charge whatever you determine is fair.
Use the standard rate charged by others in the business. You
can get this information easily by checking several dealers
offering this service in the various mailorder publications and
adsheets. Then determine a fair charge based on the variations
of your services from the normal operations.
Always mention in your ads that « WE MAIL COMMISSION CIRCULARS
FREE! » Whichever part of the ad the reader responds to, you can
make money. It is possible to run this business into a full
time job and make good money well worth the effort you put into
it.
The best plan to follow is to keep growing. Run an ad every
chance you get. Take on new commission circulars, test them,
keep the ones that pull, omit the ones that do not pull. Before
you realize it, you will graduate from a part-time mailer to a
full time money-maker!
Nine Steps That Put You in the Commission Mailing Business:
1. Order a good rubber stamp with your name and address on it.
2. Send for some free imprints (Commission Circulars). You pay
only the postage for these. They are available from prime
source mailorder firms.
3. Buy a supply of envelopes and stamps.
4. Address the envelopes to the names wanting big mail.
5. When you receive your circulars, stamp your name and address in
the blank space on the commission side of the imprint.
6. Put one of each type of circular in each envelope, filling to
the maximum weight for each level of postage rate.
7. Mail them.
8. When you receive orders, take out your commission.
9. Forward everything else to the source. (The firm or
individual) who sent you the circulars… and you are in
business!
If you are serious about commission mailing, you will take the
time to look over each offer in the Big Mails you receive. Most
everything one needs to follow the nine steps above is offered
in the various Big Mail Packets, most of it free.
There is money in mailing, but it is not as some advertise it
You won’t make $50,000 a year by working one hour a week from
your kitchen table. NO! It doesn’t work that way.
If you will follow instructions, be happy with from $100 to $400
a week, spending a few hours every night, five nights a week,
then you too can make money in mailing the various offers
available to you.
The nine steps listed above give you everything you need to get
started. It is now up to you. You invest only what you wish,
you grow as big as you want. Just one note of advice… When
you send your commission circulars, send more than one of a
kind… You will pay the same postage to mail one as you will to
mail several. The more you mail at one time, the better the
odds of receiving orders. It’s also a good policy to never get
your circulars and your name lists to mail to from the same
dealer.
Yes! Using these nine steps can put you in the commission
mailing business!
Making Money With Your Own Adsheet!
When you are in a position to publish your own adsheet you will
be able to expand your basic commission mailing business for
additional profits.
Adsheets are usually started by the publisher cutting ads from
other magazines and making paste-ups with these « Freebies ». The
publisher then mails his adsheets to these various dealers and
asks them to re-run their ads with him at $$ per column inch.
This is a risky beginning because many dealers are not in a
position to buy, or do not want to purchase additional ad space
for one reason or another.
There are a number of publishers who have a method for starting
adsheets that is almost 100% risk free. They send you partial
page, or full page ads, that pay from 50% to 100% commission and
you may run these ads over our name in your first edition of
your adsheet. As paid ads come in, you simply replace these
free ads with the paid ads.
Until you get paid ads for your publication, you have a chance
to make money whether you have paid advertisers or not.
Moreover some companies will give you substantial discounts on
their various mailorder programs if you run their 3×6 ad in the
first edition. Thus you can make money off of their ads and you
get professionally designed mailorder programs at very little
cost.
Also, there are a number of mailorder companies that have full
line printing plants and they will print your adsheet for you at
very competitive prices, in the event you don’t have your own
printer.
As you dig deeper and deeper into the world of mailorder, you
will be able to locate and contact many firms and individuals
who will offer many and varied programs and services.
How to Get Your Circulars Mailed Free!
There is another way to get your circulars mailed free. As soon
as you can afford it, become a supplier of commission circulars.
The easiest way to do this is to take « all-profit » offers and
have circulars printed on two sides. On one side have your own
name and address printed. On the other side leave space for a
rubber stamp imprint.
Offer these circulars to circular mailers on a commission basis.
They keep a commission from 50% to 100% on the one side, and
you make your profit on the other. Use the same method for any
offers that you develop for yourself.
You can reach these mailers by advertising in, or subscribing to
several mailorder trade magazines and adsheets. Another way to
locate mailers for your literature is to notice the ads by
mailers; usually at the bottom of their ads they state
« Commission Circulars Mailed Free », which means they get one
side and you get the other, as above.
If you really want to get rolling using this method, take two
« all Profit » offers, one on each side, and give the mailer 100%
on one side. You still make yours on the other offer.
Also, if you are interested in obtaining additional commission
circulars for yourself, include « Commission Circulars Mailed
Free », in your own ads.
Still another way to get your literature mailed free is to
include this little note in all your advertising… at the end
of the copy… « Stamp appreciated ». It only costs you two
words, but it could save you a great deal in postage. If you
are advertising in trade publications or adsheets use « SASE »
which means « Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope ». The savings
from envelopes, addressing labor and postage can add up fast.
Many small dealers use this method exclusively, even in the
large circulation magazines. They have been using it for years
and it still works!
How to Make $100 mailing 100 Envelopes
By Using the Exchange Mailing Plan!
Regarding this plan they have been telling you to have 5,000 3×6
commission circulars printed, the circulars offering $1.00 items
and paying 50% commission on every order received. Then mail
100 each to 50 « Exchange Mailers » in 50 envelopes marked X-100SY
(which means Exchange 100-Send yours). When you receive 100
circulars from each of the exchange mailers, mail out one each
in 50 envelopes. This way 100 envelopes mails your 5,000
circulars. If you have a good circular offering a popular
seller, and the exchange mailers you sent yours to, are honest
and dependable, you should receive at least a 2% return. Then
they state that this plan will bring $50 profit.
This is the complete plan and they say it works. That it is
working every day for many mailers and that it will work for you!
I have no doubt that it works; however the $50 profit they
mention is Gross Profit before any expenses. Figure it up. By
the time you purchase the printing, the envelopes and the
stamps, your expenses will leave you little if any Net Profit.
Of course, if the exchange mailers send you top pulling
circulars for their « fast selling products » and you receive 50%
or more commission on orders from these, you can make a
substantial Net Profit, perhaps enough to pay for your time and
effort.
If you are serious about making money at home, commission
mailing is one way to do it, but you must have circulars that
offer top selling items. In this day and age of inflation and
high postage costs it is difficult to make a buck by mailing
circulars selling only $1.00 products. You should have a very
minimum selling price of from $5.00 to $8.00 in order to pay you
a reasonable amount!
For just the postage and handling, many mail order firms will
send you commission circulars and the names of other mail order
dealers who will send you all the names you want, FREE! There
are other dealers who are happy to send you their circulars
without the cost in order to defray their mailing expenses. All
you have to do is write and request their circulars or place a
small display ad in various mailorder advertisers and ad sheets
indicating that you mail good commission circulars free!
You can get the names of a number of printers in the mailorder
business who print commission circulars for a very reasonable
fee. I would suggest that you order 6,000 3×6 circulars rather
than 5,000 as suggested on the prior page for the simple reason
most printers like to keep their printing formats and price
schedules in round figures and 6,000 3×6’s (approximately 2-3/4
x 5-1/2, not actually 3×6) will fit on 1,000 sheets of the
standard size 8-1/2×11 paper.
If you handle your commission programs on a conservative basis
until you have tested and proven the value of each program, you
can very well make $100+ by mailing 200 envelopes with an
exchange mailing plan!
Postage Saving Tips
As with all your mailorder programs, just like any other
business, you must operate efficiently and save dollars whenever
and wherever possible. In your commission mailing programs it
is especially important to get the most use out of every dollar
you spend on postage and mailing costs. Errors and lack of
planning when preparing mailing programs costs untold millions.
Incorrect scales and mistaken rate calculations account for many
more millions. The use of machines for folding and inserting,
etc., can save substantially when your mailings get large enough
to warrant their use.
Most letters mailed at one ounce rates weigh much less than one
ounce. Save money by stuffing your mailings with other
circulars and inserts unless your mailing involves a special
offer that is best promoted separately. Most people do not
realize that a #10 envelope plus five standard 8-1/2×11 sheets
will go at the ounce rate. It also is a saving idea to print on
both sides of your documents.
With a small battery operated mail opener that costs less than
$20, you can open most envelopes quickly and easily without
damage to the inserts.
To maintain your mailing list on a current basis it will pay to
specify « Forwarding and Return Postage Guaranteed », and « Address
Correction requested ».
See your postmaster for third class bulk rate information. If
you are mailing over 200 pieces you can mail for approximate
1/2 the usual cost. It’s a simple procedure to get set up for
Bulk mailing. After an initial charge you can renew for an
annual fee. You will get back the cost of the fees just in the
first few hundred mailings, and ride at the bulk rate for the
rest of the year. However, it can take from a week to two weeks
for delivery. Paste on color stickers are used to indicate the
destination, making it easy to sort and bundle by zip areas, etc.
Make sure everything is labelled properly and packaged well to
minimize loss or damage.