|
|
|
Now, get
Totally free $15
|
PUBLISHING CATALOG ON A DISK OR CD-ROM and *If you're involved in any type of business where you sell products or *services, you should know that you need to sell more than one product to *be successful. Of course, there have been exceptions, like the Pet Rock, *but those are few and far between. You see, if you only sell one product, *you need to find those prospective customers that want that one product. *Add a second product, and you've opened the door to customers who want it, *but not your first product. Add a third, and you have more prospects, and *so on. and *You can present your products or services through separate ads or flyers, *but it's really more efficient and professional to have a CATALOG. *That way, your customer can see all you have to offer in one place, instead *of one ad here, another there. and *Having a catalog will increase the orders you receive, since your customers *have more choices and you can show them everything in one mailing. and *If you're thinking of putting together even an eight page catalog, call your *local printer and ask for a price. Get a quote on 1,000, since you'll want *to have enough. My best printer would charge $150, which would be 15 cents *per catalog. Then, you have the mailing cost, which would be 52 cents. *You're now up to 67 cents per catalog. Add in the cost of getting the name *to send the catalog to, and you could be over a dollar per catalog. That *means over $1,000 to print and send out all your catalogs! and *Worse news to come... you won't get rich from an eight page catalog. If you *really intend on making it in your own business, you'd better offer at least *20 related products or services (or a combination). That way, you can hit a *specific group of people and have a good chance of getting a decent return. *But if an eight page catalog would cost over $1,000 to print and mail, think *about a 20 page catalog! Printing alone would be $375 or more! and *You can reduce your printing and postage costs significantly by having your *catalog printed on a web press on newsprint. The only problem with that is, *you need to print a higher quantity to make it worthwhile. Figure on at *least 10,000. There's an easier, less expensive way to do this... *PUT YOUR CATALOG ON A DISK or CD-ROM. * *A 5 1/4" 360K IBM-compatible disk will hold around a 70 page catalog, if you *do it right! 70 PAGES!!! The higher storage disks will, of course, hold *more! Your customer will receive your disk catalog, put it into their *computer, and will be able to view full descriptions of your products and *services on their screen. They'll even be able to print out an order form! and *Right away, let's look at costs. For a 360K 5 1/4" disk catalog, the disk *will cost 10 cents. Look at Computer Shopper for disk sources that run *clearance sale on low-density disk. Although with today's computers a 360K *5 1/4" disk may seem like a dinosaur, at 10 Cents, the bargain may still *serve its purpose. and *One cost that was not figured in is storage. If you have a lot of catalogs *printed (especially if you had 10,000 or more newsprint catalogs), you're *going to have to put them somewhere. With a disk catalog, you can copy them *as you need them. No need to have 1,000 made up in advance, unless you *really want to! and *Also, keep in mind the storage capacity of the disk. If you wanted a 68 page *printed catalog, whew, it would break you, unless you have pretty deep *pockets. A dime will get you one on disk. and *Finally, consider this... you have 10,000 of your fantastic catalog printed. *You start mailing them. All of a sudden, you discover you have to change the *price of one of your products. Or, the source for a product dries up. *Or, you want to add a new product or service. TOO BAD! You're stuck with *the catalogs the way they are. With a disk catalog, NO PROBLEM! You make *the change on your master copy, and all subsequent catalogs are instantly *up-to-date. and *See the advantages? You can sell your products just as well with a disk *catalog as with a printed one. In fact, people will keep your catalog around longer, due to it's uniqueness (disk catalogs are *just starting to be used). *So, how can you get your own high-powered order-pulling disk catalog? *Well, two ways... you can make one yourself, or you can have an expert *put one together for you, saving you the time and effort. I'll explain *how it's done, and then you can make the choice. and *First, you need to write your product/service descriptions. Use any word *processor that can save documents as "ASCII" files. These are plain text *files that can be written and read by most word processors, or directly from *DOS (by typing "TYPE (ASCII filename)"). You'll want to apply all the *principles of successful marketing copy writing in your descriptions. *Center them around the benefits the customer will receive from your product *or service. Don't list features, list how the customer's life will be *better because of the features. Don't worry about length, you have plenty *of room on your disk! Also, you aren't constrained by how many words will *fit on the page, because your catalog will be viewed on the screen, and will *only be printed if the customer desires to do so. Save each of your *descriptions as a separate ASCII file. and *After you have your descriptions typed and saved, you can assemble your *catalog on disk. You will need some sort of program to let your customers *choose which product they want to read about, and to display and print it. *The best programs I have found, which I use on my disk catalog (and on this *report disk) are "MooMenu" (a menuing program) and "See" (a text file viewing *and printing program). These programs are public domain (they are free to *copy and use), and they work together extremely well. Another option is to *use the program "Writer's Dream," a shareware program designed for producing *books on disk. I'll use the MooMenu and See programs for the example to *follow. and *First, you need to make a menu of your products and services. This is the *"table of contents" the reader uses. With MooMenu, you construct your menu *with your word processor. For each menu selection, you start with a letter, *then the name. For example, "A. The Super Widget." Then, on the next line, you would type an execution command that would dir *ect your text viewer program to display the appropriate text file. For example, "SEE WIDGET.TXT". This command will not appear
*Now, create your order form in the same fashion. Type it on the screen in *your word processor and save it as an ASCII file. Don't forget to put your *name and address, as well as any ordering and shipping information you'll *need from your customer, on the form. and *If you have more products or services than will fit on a single screen, you *will need to create a second sub-menu that will be called from your first *menu. For example, your second menu screen might be called "MENU2.MOO". *You would put a selection on your menu, such as "More Products & Services". *The next menu command line you'd type would be "MOO MENU2.MOO". *The MOO at the start of that command tells the MooMenu program that you *want it to display a new menu. The second menu functions like the first. and *The customer inserts the disk, types "go" and presses return (like you did, *with this disk). The menu then appears. The reader can either press the *letter corresponding to the item they wish to read, or they can move the *onscreen cursor with the arrow keys to the item they are interested in. *If they would like to print the description, they can press "p" while the *description is loaded and it will print. To leave the description and return *to the menu, they would press the escape key. It's fairly simple and *requires little or no instructions to the reader. and *Assembling your catalog on disk doesn't require a bunch of glue, cutting, *pasting, typesetting, printing, or any other of the hard-work jobs that *traditional publishing requires. All you have to do is copy your description *files onto a disk, as well as your menu file(s), an dyour menuing and display *ing/printing programs. I'm able to fit the MooMenu and See programs on a *360K disk and still have room for around 70 pages of text, so you shouldn't *run into any space limitations. Then, produce a label for the disk, either *from a professional printer or a laser or dot matrix printer (I do mine on a *laser printer and they come out beautifully!). That's it! and *You've now reached the production/distribution stage. Copy your disks, *label them, and send them out! Here are some money-saving ideas that will *help your cash flow: and *+ Try with all your might to keep your shipping weight under one ounce.
*+ Don't use disk mailers. They're heavy and expensive. You can send your
|
