Vikuna2009+

I If you look for my name in the wso thread, I'm mentioning several free versions.

Update: I'm starting to feel the pressure as several members of our private forum now have filled their cards, are half way through and even starting on their second one. Personally have not sold anything yet. I'm building this for the future and setting up my infra-structure. AND, I have to admit, Skyping and participating in the forum has wasted a lot of time.

But, this is an awesome opportunity even though it does require a lot of legwork upfront. With all the info available int this thread, put your mind to it and you will succeed, Eva

r2997790

Seebol, email me warrior at xmpapps.com. Thank you.

Neodism

Scottish

Great job getting out there! You can market to stores like Subway and Starbucks if they are privately owned. If they are corporately owned then they don't make marketing decisions in store, but if there is a private owner who paid for the franchise rights then you can easily find them and pitch to them just like any other privately owned business.

Free Web Design from Neodism.

Neodism

Does anyone think it would hurt to make the flyer with all matching-sized ad spaces?

Free Web Design from Neodism.

coalminer

Larches
That is what I am going with.. either a 3 x 3 set up so 18 ads in total with logo/details at 1 end.. or 3 x 3 again but leaving 1 space in the centre or centre top for logo/details, meaning a set up for 16 or 17 ads.. will let you know how it looks when I get my mock done

hademade

I am not familiar with how to search the wso thread on here yet.

hademade

I know gimp is the best open source image editor out there. But i just need to find a mock up template for this. I am trying to find a tutorial on how to make advertisements on gimp.

Vikuna2009+

Gimp Free
Inkscape.org Free
Paint.net Free photo editor
Splashup.com Free photo editor
befunky.com Free photo editor
fotoflexer.com
sumopaint.com

When you like to find something, use the search button on the upper red
line, just type in "bob ross" and you will find threads that bob has participated in.

In regards to software, do some research on if it is raster or vector based so you understand the difference. Talking to a printer in regards to the type of file they would need for best output would also be a good idea, Eva

mbit

I use Scribus for designing, scribus.net
It's open source and for all platforms. Designing there is kinda difficult for me, so i used OpenOffice Draw first and then imported it into Scribus. Scribus can handle the OpenOffice extensions and many more.

Then save the file in scribus using the scribus format and let Postscript verify the created template. This will tell you if it is correct for the printer to use when developing your card. It's called the Preflight Verifier

You can enter the page bleed, page margins and exact sizes of your document.
Also the supported CMYK colors and outlining the font for the printer is available. (This is what i found at most online printers telling me that, to have a good document sent over before printing so they don't have to check all this).

Good stuff i must say, hope this helps others.

hademade

Thanks for the help, i should be able to get started now

hademade

I tried downloading scribus before, but i couldn't get it to work before. I think i didn't install it right. But i will download scribus to see if i can get it working. I will look for some good tutorials using scribus, i am not good at graphic designing.

thomas73

Would you be kind enough to upload the 2nd side of your 11/11 postcard
Seeing the first side was very helpful ---- seeing the box for the post office info etc...
Thank you for your anticipated cooperation

bob ross

Email me at itsbobross [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll do it once I've got some time to spare. Been super busy!

mobread

Hey I first want to start off by saying AWESOME THREAD! And thank you SO much for sharing this! Bookmarked this thread immediately!

I had some questions though about some details of your method if you don’t mind.

I see here in your uploaded postcard that you only have 7 ads, is there another 7 or 8 on the other side with different business from this side?

Do you wait until you have all the money from 16 people before purchasing postage, printing etc? And I am guessing you want to close the deal right then and there, but do you tell the biz that it will be like 2-3 weeks before your mailing to give you enough time to sell the rest of the ads to the other businesses?

Do you cold call any business first to see when a good chance to talk to the owner would be or just do cold walk ins?

Do you ever put an EXP date on the business ad to try and bring them customers more quickly?

Thank you again for this thread it has really got me thinking.

coalminer

Mobread
you say awesome thread, but then you ask questions that have been answered a dozen times... if you have read the thread?
soz... just tired of seeing this time and time again...
go get a nice cuppa, then read thro the whole awesome thread... then you will have your questions answered... and have an awesome biz model
nice

ascot01

agreed.

Hey coalminer how are things progressing for you?

ascot01

Sorry that sounds very sarcastic. Its not ment to

bevrichh

Awesome thread..looking into it

coalminer

Ascot (sarcy)
Owzit mate.. still waiting on my mock up basically, had a bit of confusion with my emails getting lost in cyberspace, getting there though.
Apart from that, I am all ready to go out and get some sign ups, my better half is still up for doing it for me but I think I'm gonna get a feel for it first.
Some others will probably chirp in with a disagreement to this but I am going to go in with a super low fee for the first month. I know what my area is like from experience with other business I have done in the past.
I think this will stop a big stumbling block of a hefty fee for them straight off. Just get them into it gently, let them see how profitable it is then away we go with the second month signings at full price.
18 signed up at £120 or £150 for the 1st month is still a nice bit in my sky rocket. Then 18 at £350 for the following month will be really nice profit.
How you getting on mate, any luck?

hademade

I know the op states that he did 16 ads on his postcard. Are you making smaller ads on your postcards because you are adding 18 ads to it. Your price is a little lower also when you compared your price in us dollars. Do you think you should get around £389 per ad. It would be nice if i could make around 495 dollars per ad. But i am still working on my mock up.

stlcardsfan

That's a 9x12? That looks a lot bigger than a 9x12.

coalminer

Hademade
Hi mate
The details mentioned are not final as yet, as mock up is still not done..
My mock will prob be 3x3 exact same size ads with space at top for my logo/details.. or I may still go with 3x3 but have my details in the centre piece or top/middle.. meaning 17ads, if you can understand that.
My prices, I will probably go with £360 for final price after the introductory offer which will be a third of that.
Looks like we got loads doing this now..
Nick

hademade

Can this idea be applied to a 9x12 flyer. You can still put all the ads on the flyer, and the good thing is that prices for fliers are much cheaper than postcards. So you would make a bigger profit. I was just wandering if this would work out.

Njenyus

That's a 9x12. Remember, it's not a full-grown adult handling the postcard. I had my people use a pic similar to this to send to prospects after they wanted proof. It puts things in perspective.

Njenyus

If you are talking about mailing a flyer, I would recommend against it primarily because the thickness of the postcard is a key factor.

If you are speaking of just passing out flyers, go ahead. It should work.

However, I don't understand why you need to complicate this thing. It literally takes no money to get started. You contact the decision makers, and persuade them to improve their business by getting involved with you.

No offense, but people will ask 50 million questions before taking one step in the right direction...and that direction is just TAKING ACTION!!!

I used to ask those same questions in my head. "Fear" is asking those questions. Tell "fear" to shut up and just follow the system that has been laid out. BELIEVE ME, it works!

Now, TAKE ACTION NOW!!

hademade

I understand what you are saying, the postcard does sound like a better option. It's just that i am still trying to figure out a good source for this. I don't know if i should risk ordering 10,000 postcards online for this. I don't know a reliable website. Plus i see some bad reviews for these online printing companies which discourages me.

I'll just go to a local print shop and see what prices they have. I will take action on this opportunity, i just want to make sure everything goes by smoothly.

bob ross

Just wanted to let everyone know that I think we have five warriors now that have already filled their first cards up just within the last few weeks.

jhonybravo222

hmm this is really very nice idea for you i like it so very much thanks for providing this great information to us

nownzen

Bob, thanks this is helpful, kinda clarifies what I was trying to visualize in my tiny, puny brain. Very helpful information all the way, thanks for sharing.

ascot01

TODAY IS THE DAY!

so literally as im typeing now im gathering my notes and getting ready to get out there and hit the streets.

I will report back later on how it went

hademade

I found a local print shop with a good price recently, it should cost me around 2950 total in shipping and printing the cards. The usps every direct program will be around 1450 and to print the cards will be around 1450. I plan on charging 500 dollars per ad. So i will make around 5,000 when i start out.

I am working on my mock up, and i plan on talking to business owners once i get my mock up finish. I am little anxious about this, i hope it turns out well.

uniquecontentclub

Can you give more details on exactly what you are proposing?

dj0471

Good luck ascot01, look forward to your experience - whereabouts are you hawking the wares? (you are UK as well I think) ?

Vikuna2009+

Bob was smart enough to realize that here was a hungry crowd begging for more. This is not some pie in the sky theory, this stuff actually works and for bob to spill it all without getting any kind of compensation would be kind of silly, don't you think? After all, this is a forum where we share and a forum to make money.

Since you seem to have an interest in this, the wso was re-opened due to high demand so go get yours! With some initial ground-laying work, you'll now will have a functioning biz model. Best of luck, Eva

RedShifted

The events that transpired in my life after buying Bobs wso were some of the freakest events I've ever witnessed before in my life.

Bob managed to do so much for my life that I had to break tons of promises on this forum just to preserve my own success and what happened over the past 2 weeks was actually beyond the scope of this WSO.

But let me tell people. I've seen quite a few WSO's. I've seen Bob's WSO. I think just by it being called a "WSO" does this system a major disservice and I'm serious about that.

I've had to break tons of promises to people on this forum and those were not my initial intentions, but my gut instinct told me not to speak about what I was doing. I will give 2 tips however. The rest is really filling in the gaps and making it work for you specifically. First is POBOX's. Set them up at wealthy towns, find all the business's advertising in those towns. A POBOX costs about $30 for 6 months. Thats 6 valpak booklets full of potential leads, 6 community coupon books, then like 4 of this other local company which mails every 6 weeks.

Point is you can open up as many as you need. I was able to collect about 2,000 potential leads and just made a list and cherry picked companies I thought would benefit most. Second thing was graphing valpak ROI's and graphing post card ROI's on a simple piece of graph paper. Then is the warming the lead process. I'm not going into depth but I figured if I could qualify leads through email, I could close 75% of places I went into. Which is almost how it went but sometimes it was closer to 50%. Either way the concept is simple. DO NOT just walk in to these companies. Email them a PERSONAL email. Say your a direct mail advertising consultant or whatever you want that sounds professional. Say "hey I noticed you advertised in valpak last month and I was curious what your numbers looked like". Although what I actually send is about 2 paragraphs long.

The purpose is simple. Get them to respond personally through email. Get them to tell you what their ROI was. If they do NOT know tell them if they tracked response rates they could immediately double them just by knowing whats not working. Tell them anything. All I know was this was such an easy process for me to do, I just put a bit of work into legitimazing everything was all. Once you get these places telling you their ROIs, or you figure them out for them. Send the 2 graphs back. Make them directly compare valpak ROI's to ROI's of your system. Feel free to exagerate your ROI's just a tiny bit for urgency sake. Just don't make it a completely unattainable number like 30% obviously. And damn I just gave most my strategy away. But still I put a ton of work into working out the specifics and thats what you need to do to make this simple strategy work.

Long story short I'm not living off this WSO anymore. Ok well I am, just in a seriously different way.

One thing that Bob mentioned that I told myself would NEVER happen was getting a personalized account, a BIG account, that actually rendered selling any more spots on these cards completely useless for me.

I have to almost avoid this forum but I DO want guys to know if you want this stuff to work OMFG will it work for you. Bob single handedly changed my life and thats a fact. He opened a massive door for me and now let me explain what I'm doing.

A business owner that knew my brother wound up contacting me and telling me about how he sends out 250,000 valpaks a month. I knew this was big money from the second I picked up the phone.

HOWEVER he was only getting 5-10 leads a month which he hated, as if you do the math thats A LOT of money per lead.

The guy asked me 2 weeks ago if I wanted to work on his team. By becoming the manager of all his current marketing campaigns. I was in AWE when I got this phone call. All his valpak, all his facebook, an additional 30,000 postcards that I'm doing for him personally, and some other stuff I won't really mention here.

The point is I don't actually have to sell spots anymore. Bob gave me such a relevant skill that just attracted a lot of attention when I went into the world doing it. I am now in with this company, I LOVE the job. I work my own hours, my own days, I am my own boss basically.

Remember before coming to this forum I just got fired from a freaking cashier job for christsake. So this is major major improvements for my life.
I still am learning a ton however but since coming aboard to this company I've already managed to double this guys ROI with his valpaks. With my postcards those ROI's **** on his valpaks ROI as usual. He's find more work for me, expanding his company, and although this guy thanks me, I can really only thank Bob. Bob was that trigger that really lit a massive fire under my ass.

The thing is though and this is why I know people on here likely despise me to some degree but I simply would appreciate if people just let the lead technique thing go. I just can't give an exact copy of the steps I do and what I mail out. But its not like its topsecret information people anyone can devise a very effective platform if they so wish. Maybe one day I'll give the precise method out but chances are if I did give it out I wouldn't be in the position I am right now. You do definitely need to learn how to weapons of mass destruction a secret, for me that was how I was getting my leads.

And now I just see my future being mainly in lead generation. I love it. Business's crave it. And the feeling I get when I actually get a business leads is really like nothing else I can describe. Its a feeling of power and I love it. But there is still tons of competition in this field, I'm still new, and I still have a lot of work to do before I can really sit back and be comfortable in anyway. I don't hang out on these forums like I use to anymore so if you pm me theres a good chance I won't get it for weeks. But I did want to give this one last huge thanks to Bob as I noticed he opened his WSO again.

Glad to say I don't really need it anymore, but Bob really is a brilliant guy imo and knows his stuff. I don't have respect for anyone else on this forum as much as I have for Bob, and he will shut down the WSO which is another thing I value about him. He doesn't exploit his secrets too much. This is WHY they work imo. Same reason I wound up deciding not to talk about my lead strategies too much in depth. Its just not in my best interest.

later folks

thomas73

What application are you using for your mockup

coalminer

Ascot
hope it went well for you mate..
i took the plunge and got the wso..
so away for the night to read it..
nice
Nick

RedShifted

Photoshop. Very simple to do just find a mock up template (tons in this thread or use the one from the WSO), change colors and what not but I personally liked a deeper red tone like Bob did. Go online to google images. What I did was create a folder for each restaraunt/business, a graphics folder or library whatever you want to call it. This took more time than anything but paid off. Made a plumbers folder (pictures of pipes, clip art plumbers, etc), electrician folders, dentist folder, doctor, chriopractor folder, pizza, italian, chinese, greek, then a few others just so I was prepared really for making the coupons. One of the more important folders was the one where I just put in little icons I looked for all over the web. Icons like percent signs, dollar signs, dollar bills, anything you could potentially use for mixing graphics around.

I made 1 mockup to start. 1 very quality mockup. Then as spots sold (qualifying through email first) I'd dig into my library and go to work with all the graphics I downloaded off the web. Did not like wasting time getting proofs back to the people the faster you work in the begining the easier you make things for yourself towards the end once you have the accounts. Just try to get graphics that are solo pictures of things vs things you need to seperate with photoshops crappy magic wand. It makes the process much quicker in the end imo.

But thats how I did the mockups.

ascot01

Cool so bit of an update i visited 30 establishments today, due to the nature of the visit i needed to speak with the owner/manager
13 establishments the bosses/ manager weren't there but i left my card
8 said no they have spent their budget on advertising!
3 said that they would have to speak to partner but very interested.
6 spaces sold!

just for your information i didn't bother taking a script out with me or anything like that. i have found from personal experience introducing your self as a business owner and just talking to people will get you where you need to be, find out where they are advertising how much it costs and if its working out for them.
Just be yourself and take time to listen to what people are saying.. oh and SMILE,

To be honest with you i was abit shaky for the first couple ( not sure whether that was the coffee or nerves). All i can say is Get out there put your doubts in the back of your mind at hit the streets. There is a fortune to be made from this.

@dj0471 im based in the south west.

Happy prospecting!

mobread

Hey Coalminer thanks for the suggestions. I have not been on this thread for a couple days because I purchased Bob's premium WSO and have been devouring it and taking some steps to take the plunge. Bob is a remarkable man and a genius! I just read the first two pages at first after posting that MSG. I should have read the entire thread before posting, but don’t have a lot of time in the day.

Damn ascot 30 a day nice work!

BUFFALOBT

Kudos to all of you making this happen...very exciting!

Question- has anyone been able to sell an ad over the phone/email without visiting in person?

The golden goose would be a mix of pricing and product that allows you to become an "order taker" vs. having to actually sell something.

As you can see, I'm more of a shortcut guy- a shortcut using this product would be an amazing business!

bob ross

REDSHIFTED,

I can't thank you enough for your kind words and I'm truly appreciative of everything you've said.

It's great to see you succeed so well in such a short amount of time.

Awesome Job!

SirThomas

Thank you for your post. Really appreciated.

I had a problem understanding the above sentence. Was that regarding getting a job at some big company to run their marketing?


Thomas

Kelvin AIP

ya, i was a li'l confused myself... but then again, it's late and i'm tired. sounds like he no longer had to fill the card since he got a nice gig with some company tho.

well, it's good he acknowledges bob's share of the idea and how to implement the basics. i can respect that!

Tiduslite8

i haven't seen anyone else address this issue (or maybe they did and I missed the post), but this is in regards to pricing.

In trying to figure out what to price the ad spots for my card, I went the old fashioned route.

First, I calc'd the square inches for each ad (example: a 3X4 ad is 12 square inches). Then I added up the square inches for all of the ads.

Next, added up all of the costs for printing, shipping, and postal costs. Divided this amount by my total square inches. The result is the at cost per square inch amount.

Very simple to also just figure out a total profit cost for the whole card and divide b y the square inch total.

Basically, by knowing my base cost for each ad space and my profit price, I can go in and be "generous" in discounting a ad space.

coalminer

tiduslite8
old fashioned...?? futuristic to me

ascot
awesome mate.. well done.. what price are you closing them on?
nick

RedShifted

Sure thing and yes that's basically exactly what happened.

As I was selling spots for the post card business I was also doing some offline affiliate marketing/forum marketing on the side. The spots were selling very well for me although with the affiliate stuff I was only making a couple hundred a week from the stuff I was doing.

Anyway my brother had been contracting jobs for a fairly large waterproofing/energy audit company and started talking to his boss about what I was doing.

The boss started asking more and more over the weeks about my results and more precisely what it was I was doing.

I wound up talking to the boss one day when I went to see my brother and asked him a few questions about his business. Basically stating that he was losing a lot of money and when I started pestering him for specifics he had no idea what I was talking about. This is a guy who can afford to pay out on his pay roll like $80,000-$90,000 a month but he doesn't know anything about marketing? I couldn't believe it. It quickly became apparent this business owner had no knowledge, was spending about $60,000 a month just for a couple campaigns, and getting very little returns from it. Just enough to survive.

I started explaining how he should have a facebook fan page, google place listings, should be posting on CL, should use post cards to advertise with SMS numbers instead of valpak, etc etc. Just went on and on but that day he seemd more confused than interested.

A couple weeks passed by which was when I got the call. And the way this company is paying me now it just doesn't make sense to waste anymore time selling spots really. I get commissioned for every job they sell $300. Then I get my own check aside from that. This week alone the check was $1200 and he gave me a $100 cash bonus just out of thanks which was really cool of him. The boss is an incredibly generous guy so I really want to help his company get leads in every way I can. I'm also working much less overall as I'm able to focus on just 1 company, rather than a whole bunch of them (although my focus is larger its still easily half the work of what I was doing previously).

So now I'm doing everything for the guy. Personalized mail, running promotions, postcards, getting sms codes on his valpak and actually using unique sales propositions intead of the same thing he had been doing every single month for the last 2 years. I mean for 2 years straight this guys USP was a $500 coupon of a large waterproofing job. But I explained to him how the avg person has no idea how much a waterproofing job even costs so what does that coupon even mean to them? Likely very little. And he'd never even tried changing graphics or the layout of his ads. I mean the guy just didn't know I guess how important testing is.

I'm begining to realize if you even know just a little bit about marketing there are SO MANY companies other people can likely get in with and do the same thing. Just take over all their marketing. I never realized this before I started doing the postcards but it seems like 80% of small biz owners don't know ANYTHING about marketing. That should be a huge sign that there's a market for this stuff. And he likes the fact that I will also go out and cold approach new homeowners. Like last week just went down the block knocking on doors by his office and was able to close 2 large jobs from it.

Theres SO MANY things this guy wasn't even considering doing. He was dumping ALL his money into PPC and I told him theres other smarter way's he can be marketing. So thats basically what I'm doing right now.

The only thing I don't really know how to do is PPC but currently Im talking to his PPC guy, am absorbing all his knowledge like a sponge. And soon I think I may be able to take over his PPC campaigns too. I see everything the guy does and how he gets leads. I know what times of day he posts, what keywords he targets, what types of ads he does. I don't want to just steal the guys job and I won't unless I know I can perform better than him. But god theres just so much potential working for this company and I would NOT have this job right now if it wasn't for this thread. Thats just the honest truth.

localhero

Hi Bob!

Just joined the Warrior Forum today! Poking around a bit this morning and came across your Profile picture and name!
(Are you THE Bob Ross of PBS fame?... Love that easy painting style!)

Anyway....

I'm trying to figure out all this information here on the Warrior Forum; i.e.,
Just how do I, or even, SHOULD I offer my offline product as a JV? (Well,
my offline "product" is actually a business model and what I have used to become the local hero doing simple little historical books)

Anyone with any advice for this newbie??

All comments are greatly appreciated!

PS: You may PM me if you like.

hademade

I really like this idea you have, where do you buy the metal racks at. I want to incorporate this idea to my town. I think it will do good here. I can do the postcard and this. It's a win win situation if you do both.

want2knowhow

__________________________________________________ ____

Better to be OBAMANIZED than to be BUSHWACKED and REAGANIZED!