Newspapers Are The Thing...Again

By worldwide they mean they're all retired & living in Boca Raton or living in 3rd worlds without a smartphone.

Why do you think 85 year old Warren Buffett bought so many newspaper businesses? I'll tell you why, to sell insurance to aging adults.

Focus on Demographics. You're not going to sell newspapers to 23 year olds with smartphones. Impossible!

In their webinar they clearly state the best market is over 45, and I'll bump that to 50. If they get AARP or are eligible, and your product is a match for this audience, then newspapers and magazines offer a great ROI with very fast results if one knows what he/she is doing.

Thanks Jill. That link provides a lot of good info.

This for one thing:

Even if the percentage of households buying a newspaper has dropped to almost half, that still makes the lone newspaper in town the most wide-reaching single buy for advertisers.

The O'Dowd bros showed products for this demographic and why they are big into supplements. The diet ad they showed was a huge winner, and as the baby boomers age, our bodies start giving out, making joint and pain supplements very popular.

The webinar may have sucked for IM wannabees, but, Jon Benson gladly spent 25 k for it.

My OPINION is an Entrepreneur with 25k to spend on tested and proven ads, can easily make the 6 figure mark the first year with newspapers and magazines.

Although it was focused on newspapers, during the Q and A, they talked about niche magazines too.

gjabiz

Thank you for the info. This sounds like the big ugly yellow sign Meo (or someone else) used years ago in the real estate field. Calling a prerecorded number and leaving contact information was pure gold for the sign poster. Of course having a live being works wonders as well.

Yep, 4 to 1 is a great return. Even Warren Buffet wouldn't kick it out of bed.

Another superb post by the wicked doctor!

Ewen, that's not your fault. Those guys simply sucked. We had a group of people from another forum who all dialed in to learn something new and everyone was absolutely frustrated and laughing at each other, at the same time! lol

but instead I will THANK YOU Ewen. Because I have a different take, which I'll share.

But first, I can't argue that as a webinar training session, it did suck. However, there were valuable lessons there.

Probably gave themselves a lot of Credibility when they exclaim they are OFF LINE and not Internet MARKETERS. The fact they put on a lousy show for most IM people, only proves their point.

The Halbert story, showed determination and desire and a willingness to do whatever it takes, traits sorely lacking in IM and especially here at WF.

Don't think many Warriors would re-mortgage their house for their uncertain education. The kind of success they have, well, it doesn't come from building a sales funnel for your ebook.

Also, they rang very true about the amount of work the IM Guru has to do, the whole 4 hour a week Tim Ferris promoted "Lifestyle" business, is mostly a myth.

Seriously doubt IM gurus are pulling in a million a month while surfing away their days and sipping cold ones at the beach. Didn't Frank Kern just write something about a 6 million dollar mark, or another way to think of it, what these guys did in 6 MONTHS.

They operate a 4 person business, and manage a call center, all by REMOTE means from wherever they want to be.

So, yea, the first hour was used to build some cred, because most IM people have never heard of them...and I doubt their intent (although I don't know) was to get 20 people to send them the 3k, because that would be a true waste of their time.

I'm guessing the target was a few ENTREPRENEURS, and not IMers. They clearly showed, and you can tell from the couple of responses here, they don't know how to market to IM crowd, but again, I think they are smarter than that, and have a back end worth 100 times to them to find a couple of DOERS.

As for thin TRAINING, well, perhaps it was.

That 8 word headline formula they gave has been a part of BILLIONS of dollars in sales, a copywriter, especially a new one...would do well if he practiced writing as if his target were Newspaper readers, because...

both Off Line and On line readers...

SKIM READ, and the headline in both channels is CRITICAL.

The 3 points they offered up:
1) Identify
2) Frame (Social Proof)
3) Curiosity (open Loop)

Could be worth tons of gold in the hands of a copywriter. Again, they pointed to examples which have sold Billions of dollars of product.

Also, the 10 tips about the call, they did go over all 10 in the review, and if you screen captured the page, they gave a TESTED AND PROVEN blueprint which increases ROI dramatically, when directions are followed.

They talked about building rapport with the caller, making it a personalized solution for that caller's problem.

They capture email, so they do online stuff, that list alone could be worth as much as most IMers make in a year of work.

Now about the comments:

From Marvin Show, and his first WF post:
No way guys. This seems like a myth. The cost of print is becoming more and more prohibitive everyday. There are less places to advertise. Individuals are much more likely to find my services on any site than they are in print adverts. I haven't run a successful print campaign since 2008.

It is NOT a myth Marvin, and using ROP keeps the costs affordable, and there are still plenty of places to advertise, I have no idea what your services are, and the fact you haven't run a successful print campaign in 7 years, probably says more about your marketing than the concept. You may have a unique experience or services which fit more with IM...and these guys clearly stated that it wasn't suited for everything.

And John Lloyd said:
*********
Yea, I think the idea is solid...

But they kept the actionable info very thin...too little to call it a "training seminar".

The other thing is I haven't heard about the O'Dowds since Gary Halbert mentioned them in his 2005 newsletter.

Where the **** have they been?

It's like they dropped out of the clouds and thought they were going to get a bunch of checks for $3K because of their Halbert affiliation.

Who knows - a few chumps might have signed up for it.
*********
You haven't heard of or about them because they are OFF LINE marketers, they have been busy making money and perfecting their system, as for you thinking it is a "solid idea", your thinking has nothing to do with it.

Newspaper ads are a proven idea, solid enough to have created scores of millionaires over the yeas, people who learned how to use it.

Chumps? Why? 3 X 20 = 60,000 dollars, which is chump change to them if they make over a million a month right?

But, the lifetime value of just 2 or 3 of the people you call "chumps" could be worth millions to them, because they will get a piece of the pie when other people spend their money to place ads for their products.

I don't think they are spacemen falling from the clouds for a measly 60k, I think they know what they are doing...and perhaps their lousy webinar was also used as a winnowing device, separating the wheat from the chaff.

So, Ewen, you don't owe anyone an apology, you could refer people to a 5 star restaurant for a FREE steak dinner, and you would get some negative blowback from someone, the vegan in the crowd, perhaps?

IF anyone were to apply the 8 word headline to their IM efforts, it could help or maybe even be the thing that gets them over the hump.

Thanks,

gjabiz

Ewen,

1st - nothing to be sorry for. You didn't host or present the seminar. Your intent was to help.

2nd - Your attempt to help certainly drew a crowd.

3rd - Of course people will criticize but read post #20 by gjabiz and you'll see the real value in their presentation. He at least listened to it with an open mind.

4th - unfortunately I could never get past the first page in the registration process. Oh well, would have enjoyed hearing their thoughts. Might have helped me in an offline gig I'm involved with. It is a toll position and not IM oriented at all.

5th - For those interested in great headlines read Bottom Line Personal. These guys know how to write eyeball catching words.

Regardless, appreciate your efforts.

I think the spammers from the SEO sub-forum who keep saying that nofollow links carry weight are getting to you

As someone cited above, over half of our country reads newspapers. Every store that sells coffee in the morning has stacks of newspapers that they sell. Every block I drive down has newspapers all over the front lawns. I go into Manhattan ever couple of weeks and find numerous newspaper stands on every block.

Newspapers are NOT dead and not just for old people either. Even if they were, old people still buy products and services!

I have found that a lot of the old timers in my trade, the last hold-outs, have changed over to digital advertising because they finally got tired of everyone telling them to. That tells me that there might be a hole for me to fill in print media. Less competition is good, so it's definitely something I will try.