Just the FAQs about your new subscription …
As you can imagine, we get a ton of e-mail from subscribers – especially now, with hoards of business-builders discovering us every day. And since many ask similar questions, I’m hoping this “FAQ” list will save us both a lot of time.
So here goes …
Q: “What’s The Total Package all about?”
A: It’s about you: Your career, your company’s growth and achieving your dreams.
I created The Total Package in 2005 as a way to share the business-building and response-boosting tools I’ve used to quadruple my clients’ companies.
Most of the services we offer – our e-letters and many tools on our website, for example — are yours without cost.
Q: “Why not just GIVE EVERYTHING away?”
A: We could do that — IF our vision ended at just publishing an online newsletter. We have greater ambitions for you.
Our goal is to offer you the Web’s #1 source of business-building tools, advice and information. That means we need a whole team of people to help create content, build web pages, proofread copy, set up our teleseminars, webinars and live events, duplicate our CDs and DVDs, pack and ship stuff, answer the phones, answer your e-mails and to let other direct response pros know we’re here.
Now, this shocks some folks – but employees, it turns out, tend to be addicted to eating. Most also prefer to wear clothes and to work and sleep indoors. And some actually have cars and insist on putting gas in them – high prices be damned.
Since all of this costs money, the people who do all this work for us have asked that we pay them. Frequently. In actual U.S. dollars.
Now, the Redhead (wife Wendy) likes it that I’m helping people. But she draws the line at depleting our own nest egg to do so.
I ask you: Have you ever seen a real redhead “draw the line?” Let me tell you: It’s scary stuff. Definitely not for the faint of heart!
No way do I have the cojones to announce we’re hocking the family jewels to build this thing. So in addition to all this great free stuff, we also offer an assortment of more advanced tools at reasonable prices.
Sure — every once-in-a-while, some yahoo is insulted that we have the unmitigated gall to ask for money in return for a service rendered or a product delivered.
They’re shocked – SHOCKED, I tell you – that we would dare to advertise and market a product in an e-letter on advertising and marketing(!).
My advice to these guys? “If you think it’s wrong to ask for money in return for bringing tremendous value to people … if you think advertising is evil … there is a very good chance that you could be … IN THE WRONG BUSINESS!
“Nevertheless,” I continue, “you can still enjoy The Total Package without getting your panties in a knot: Just resolve not to think of our ads as ads!
“Pretend they’re like a swipe file: Real-world samples of some pretty darned effective sales copy by a top writer that you get for FREE – in addition to your free subscription!”
Pretty diplomatic, huh? But hey — my last name IS “Makepeace.”
Q: “What’s your privacy policy?”
A: We’re as tight as a drum. You have my sacred vow that I will never, ever divulge your e-mail addy or any other personal factoid to a single soul.
If anyone on my staff or at our e-mail provider ever violates that trust, I promise to personally pull a “Rasputin” on them: They’ll be shot, stabbed, poisoned and drowned. Survivors will be prosecuted.
Q: “What’s your position on Spam?”
A: Never done it, never will.
Do I WISH I could blast subscription invitations to all 25 million small business owners in America — plus millions more marketers, copywriters and designers – just to let them know we’re here?
Heck yeah!
But that wouldn’t be right, and so we don’t. And won’t.
You can rest assured that everyone who hears from us has explicitly ASKED to receive our e-letters and Flash Alerts.
What’s more, everyone who clicks the “unsubscribe” link (it’s at the bottom of each e-mail … each issue … and on The Total Package home page) is instantly and permanently obliterated from our files.
Click that little bugger just once, and we couldn’t contact you if you held a gun to our heads.
Oh — and speaking of spam: If you do want to make sure our stuff gets through to you, make sure to add us to your “trusted sender” list or your Contacts list. Check your Help menu to find out how. You should be able to do it in just a few clicks.
Q: “How will issues of The Total Package be delivered to me?”
A: In your browser. We’ll drop an e-mail into your inbox six days a week as each new issue is posted online. That e-mail will tell you a little about what’s awaiting you and then seductively dangle the link before you. One click and you’ll be reading your issue in seconds.
Q: “Why don’t you just e-mail your actual issues to me?”
A: We tried that — it was a spectacular failure for three reasons:
First, The Total Package is about marketing and advertising. That means most issues contain actual headline and ad copy (good and bad) taken from real-world promotions.
That kind of language drives the ISPs spam filters stark, raving bonkers. First, they block the issue. Then, they flag us as spammers. Then, they begin blocking ALL of our e-mails to you. Next thing you know, I’ve got a Hotmail hitman on my front porch.
Second, that same content causes spam snoopers on some subscribers’ computers to relegate our issues to their junk e-mail files. Too ignominious an end for articles I’ve sweated blood over.
Third, some of our issues are long – up to 30 pages of concentrated response-boosting dynamite – and a lot of folks’ inboxes can’t tolerate documents that big. Plus, it wouldn’t do to tie up dial-up subscribers while the e-mail downloads.
Makes more sense just to give you a heads-up when each issue is posted, so that’s what we do.
Q: “Where can I find your back issues?”
A: In our archives. Yep, all 500-plus issues — a veritable goldmine of business and marketing information – are just a click or two away. And as a Total Package subscriber, you have access to them anytime you’d like.
Q: “Can I quote your e-zine or content from your products on my website or in my e-zine?”
A: Indubitably — we’d like nothing more! Just give us full attribution and include a link to our sign-up page – www.makepeacetotalpackage.com — and they’re yours for the plundering.
Q: “Where do babies come from?”
A: Sorry – wrong department. NEXT!
Q: “Can I be your next copy cub?”
A: Stranger things have happened. So far, I’ve hired a dozen or so subscribers for various copy jobs. And even full-time, in-house copywriters. And every so often we feature a copywriting contest to find the hottest new talent out there.
Watch coming issues of The Total Package for our next contest … rise to the challenge … and if you win, you’re IN!
Q: “Would you consider creating promotions for my company?”
A: It’s a long shot. See, I’m not really a marketing or copywriting guru. Gurus sit around contemplating their navels – and little else. I’m a working copywriter who just happens to like sharing my insights with others.
My direct response marketing agency – Response Ink™ — has a full schedule of work with our existing clients that extends from here to at least 2010.
Having said that, if you have an amazing product, an untapped market, plenty of capital to put behind your promotions — and don’t mind paying copywriters a commission (i.e. royalty) on each sale — drop me a line through the feedback box listed in each issue.
If we can’t take you on, we’ll be delighted to refer you to a top marketing strategist, writer, and/or designer who can.
Q: “This is great stuff. What other e-letters do you recommend for business-builders and direct marketers?”
A: Glad you asked!
You’ve probably heard of Rich Schefren, the "Guru’s Guru" and online business exploder. He’s a certifiable genius when it comes to web marketing strategy. You can sign up to receive his free, profit-boosting tips at http://www.strategicprofits.com.
If you’re not already reading Bencivenga’s Bullets, I strongly suggest that you get a subscription right away at http://www.bencivengabullets.com.
I also recommend the Bob Bly Direct Response Letter (subscribe free at http://www.bly.com/newsite/home.html)
Early to Rise is also a great source of business building wisdom: http://www.earlytorise.com/subscribe/index.php
I also love Jack Forde’s e-letter – Copywriter’s Roundtable — subscribe at: http://www.jackforde.com/
And John Carlton’s Marketing Rebel e-letter is a hoot: http://www.marketingrebel.com/
Q: “What else should I do to come up to speed on direct marketing and copywriting?”
A: There are tons of great books on the subject, but as a bare minimum, I recommend that anyone involved in advertising, direct marketing or ad copywriting begin by reading The Masters.
These 17 books have been passed down to us by the men who created and/or defined the foundational philosophies and techniques of the direct response marketing industry.
Most are still in print and are readily available at bookstores and online. However, The Robert Collier Letter Book, John E. Kennedy’s books and Rosser Reeves’ Reality in Advertising are harder to find. I got my copies of Reality in Advertising from a used book seller on Amazon (for $250 each!). Collier’s and Kennedy’s books are available from the publishers’ websites, listed below:
1. Breakthrough Advertising
Gene Schwartz
Boardroom, Inc.
(Available in The Total Package online store)
2. How to Write a Good Advertisement
Victor O. Schwab
Melvin Powers Wilshire Book Company
North Hollywood, CA
(Amazon.com)
3. My Life in Advertising
4. Scientific Advertising
Claude C. Hopkins
NTC Business Books
Chicago, IL
(Amazon.com)
5. Reality in Advertising
Rosser Reeves
Alfred A. Knopf
(Amazon.com)
6. The Robert Collier Letter Book
Robert Collier Publications, Inc.
Oak Harbor, Washington
(robertcollierletterbooks.com)
7. Ogilvy on Advertising
Vintage Books
New York, NY
(Amazon.com)
8. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Al Ries & Jack Trout
McGraw Hill
New York, NY
(Amazon.com)
9. Reason-Why Advertising
10. Intensive Advertising
11. How Shall We Know Good Copy?
John E. Kennedy
(101publicrelations.com)
12. Tested Advertising Methods
John Caples
Prentice Hall
Paramus, NJ
(Amazon.com)
13. Common Sense Direct & Digital Marketing
14. How to Write Sales Letters That Sell
Drayton Bird
Kogan Page
(Amazon.com)
For anyone looking for a solid grounding in the nuts and bolts side of direct response, I also recommend:
15. Successful Direct Marketing Methods
Bob Stone
McGraw-Hill
(Amazon.com)
And for tremendous insights on the inner workings of the human mind, I like:
16. Looking Out for #1
Robert J. Ringer
(Amazon.com)
17. PsychoCybernetics
Maxwell Maltz
Pocket Books
(Amazon.com)
Q: “People don’t really read long copy – do they?”
A: Of course not. You stopped reading pages ago – right?
And with that, you are fully up to speed.
