This is the second of three reports that will actually analyze “real” ads that I picked out of various adsheets, tabloids and magazines. Although my own personal analysis of them should not be regarded as “gospel,” I hope my words will leave you with something to think about.

“Real” Ad No. 5

Part time home business. Owned by God. Managed by me.

Personally, I don’t like to see the Creator of the Universe reduced in rank in order to sell any product. The only way I guess this ad could be half-way true is if the product is something related to nature. Nature is always considered “an act of God.” However, when the words “Managed by me” are tacked on the end, it’s offensive since the advertiser seems to be attempting to place himself higher in rank than most human beings. I personally would never answer an ad like this because it already smells of bad taste and selfish motives.

“Real” Ad No. 6

How to successfully erase bad credit. How to improve your
credit rating. Send for your copy today. Only $16.95.
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This is the first of three reports that will actually analyze “real” ads that I picked out of various adsheets, tabloids and magazines. Although my own personal analysis of them should not be regarded as “gospel,” I hope my words will leave you with something to think about.

“Real” Ad No. 1

How to get 1 million people to send you $2. Learn my
easy method, plus proof that this method works. Rush
$2 to . . .

This is one of those tricky “legitimate” scams. The ad is honest. They really will show you how to get one million people to send you $2. But the answer is obvious. You don’t have to send them $2 to learn the secret. What is the secret? To find one million people to send you $2 (just like you did by answering this ad). That’s proof that the “legitimate” scam works. (Note: A “legitimate” scam is my term for a sugar-coated lie in advertising.)

“Real” Ad No. 2

Your ad for this ad. Send your 1″ ad & 5 F/C stamps. I
will print and mail to 1,200 hot prospects and send you
a checking copy. 2″ ad for only 10 stamps.

Believe it or not — this one is honest! How do I know? Because the actual name of the publication (where your ad will appear) is mentioned. Secondly, there is no exchange of money (just a few postage stamps). What good does it do for Carl Frazier of 98-838 B Kaonohi Street, Aiea, Hawaii 96701 — the advertiser? Plenty. He gets to add lots and lots of names to his mailing list and turn around and sell them. Carl also gets the benefit of “name recognition” (which is an excellent marketing strategy) AND he also gets to test diferent publications for “pulling power” without spending any of his own money. With all those benefits for Carl, there is no doubt that this ad is entirely honest and worth responding to. I know, because I responded to it myself.
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If you read Victoria’s Reports No. 252 and 253, you pretty much understand the meaning of what “marketing psychology” is all about.

Now it’s time to understand WHY we need to know the skill we have acquired. Is there something in it to help us in our lives right now? How can it help us to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves?

Well — after you have mastered the skill of being able to look at the different possibilities of almost any subject, you will be able to market your product or service and make money with it. Is that reason enough?

All marketing experts agree that it takes skill to market properly. They also agree that the word “marketing” means “selling a product or service to the types of people that want to buy it.” The words sound easy (and they are easy to say), but acquiring the skill to do it takes time. Only performing exercises similar to the ones I have started you out with will help you acquire them.
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In the first part of this series of reports, we performed an exercise and answered some questions about what we experienced during our exercise. (For those who didn’t do it and just skipped over to this report — shame on you!)

But, the botom line is, “marketing psychology” is simply understanding “why people buy things.” There are billions of dollars being made by big authors and highly trained professionals about this very subject. Different authors submit different viewpoints about the subject. In fact, some of them use “big words” in an attempt to shield their meaning from normal, everyday people like us.
There are a lot of people out there who don’t want you to know how simple and easy it is to make money at home. What would happen if suddenly everyone left their job and started a business of their own at home? Wendy’s and McDonald’s wouldn’t have any cooks to fry hamburgers. The utility companies would collapse. Crime would run rampant since there would be no police department. The total economy would flop! The world would end! We’d all die! Oh no!

Or — is that a hypothetical conclusion? In other words, is that only what we THINK would happen? Could there be another possibility?
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WOW! What a prestigious title for a report! It must have made you stop and take notice because YOU are reading these words right now!

However, there are thousands of people that WON’T take the time to stop and read these words. Your mission (should you decide to accept it) is to find out WHY.

That’s all that the words “marketing psychology” mean. Plain and simple. Easy for anyone to understand. Right? Of course, it took me two paragraphs to tell you what “marketing psychology” meant. Therefore, the only difference is that the two words themselves (”marketing psychology) take up LESS ROOM in advertising.

Or — is it the fact that the words “marketing psychology” sound prestigious?
You decide! . . .
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After conducting several surveys, a lot of you out there said you wanted to see more reports written about increasing efficiency in your home office. Therefore, I present to you things that I have learned about the hard way. Perhaps I can save someone the time of learning it the hard way.

Continually Re-Check Yourself

No matter how hard we try — no matter how “good” a worker we are — you and I make 1,000s of mistakes every single day. Once you accept that fact, you can do something about it.

The mistakes that scare me are the ones I catch an hour or two later. Although I’m glad I finally caught them, it makes me wonder what other mistakes I may not have caught in between that time.

Does this sound like a perfectionist to you? For me personally, I have to be hard on myself because I am a writer — and writers sometimes exist in a fantasy world in order to explore a variety of possibilities for their topic. I have to do things to force myself to accept reality — and that’s demonstrated by me making myself be a perfectionist when it comes to looking for and catching mistakes.

You can discipline your own self in the way you deem most appropriate — but don’t lose the prime directive of doing whatever it takes to minimize or at least catch your mistakes immediately after they happen.
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I didn’t begin my business with any type of previous business knowledge. I had only worked in offices since I was very young, but I knew absolutely nothing about running a business.

The one person I give credit to for the success of my business — and the one person I acknowledge in every single workshop and seminar I do is the one who created me — God.

I can’t begin to tell you how many ideas he has put in my head. He and I have had many prayer sessions together. I talk to him like my friend and explain my business plans and ideas to him. Then (sometimes) he will permit an idea or other point of view to enter my mind. I analyze it and put it into action. And when I do — the new idea always works. I can’t thank him enough!

But recently I was having a problem not totally putting the whole situation in God’s hands. We all do this. We pray to God about a problem we are having, but when we get done praying — we still worry about the problem. It’s so hard to totally turn the whole problem over to him, forget it like it doesn’t exist and be happy inside that everything will work out.
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You’ve heard other writers warn you against giving out your social security number. But do you know exactly how easy it is to abuse?

Here’s what happened to my mom:
One day Mom received a call from someone pretending to be from the Social Security Administration. They wanted to verify her social security number, as well as her full name and birth date. She gave them the information. They acknowledged that their records were correct and the call ended.

The caller (who was NOT from the Social Security Administration) then picked up a MasterCard application at the local grocery store. They filled it out using my mother’s name, social security number and birth date. But instead of Mom’s address, the con artist used their own. A bogus employer name was used and a fake signature was signed.
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Regardless of how hard you work on your business, there will always be some bozo that comes along and writes you some wonderful, cheery “hate mail” one day. If it hasn’t happened to you yet — don’t be alarmed one day when you get your share of these beautiful letters.

And if you are one of the bozos who write these types of letters, you need to take notice. Just because you write an angry letter doesn’t mean you get results. Unfortunately, the opposite happens.

Suppose, for instance, that you send in an order for typesetting and a month later you haven’t received your order. A lot of you out there will write a hate note that says:

“I’m tired of waiting on you. Your business is too slow and I’m reporting
you to the Better Business Bureau. Send me back my money right now –
OR ELSE!”
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Now that more people are writing cover letters and correspondence (versus sticking a bunch of unrelated circulars in an envelope and mailing them to people they don’t know), they have only taken the first step. The next step is to learn HOW to write the letter properly for business.

Every day I personally receive letters in the office that are two or three pages long. These lengthy letters would be fine if they were just general correspondence and used for sharing ideas with another — but hidden somewhere in a paragraph on the third page is an order or request for information. This means that I have to stop, sit down and read every single word of these lengthy letters just to see “how” to process it if an order is placed. If I don’t, the customer’s order will be delayed and I’ll look bad.

It may be hard for you to believe, but normal mail order business operations receive from 100 to 2,000 pieces of mail every single day! Can you begin to imagine going to your post office every day and they hand you a BUCKET full of letters and packages to sort through? It’s not uncommon.
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