How to Profit From Highly Targeted Local Email Newsletters
This concept is simple:
Pick a topic that generates a lot of interest in your area then create a
free emailed newsletter that focuses on that topic. Make money by
selling advertising in the newsletter to individuals and businesses.
One topic you might consider is the Restaurant Sanitation Inspection
Reports.
Don't laugh -- when presented in a tabloid journalist style these
things can be really interesting and controversial. People have both a
morbid curiosity and a genuine interest in knowing what kind of
things were found in the food at their favorite restaurants.
Restaurant Sanitation Inspection Reports are public record and
should be freely available in your area.
Another topic you might focus on is Yard Sales. Currently the only
place people having yard sales can advertise in is the newspaper or
in "take one" shoppers. Create a free weekly emailed newsletter that
lists all the area yard sales and provides more information than a
small classified ad in the newspaper.
At first you'll have to get your listings from the newspapers but as
you grow you can begin charging people to list with you.
Here is one that I think has a lot of potential: Lunch Special Email
Contact (by telephone) 5 NICE but casual restaurants and tell the
manager that you have a newsletter that features the lunch specials
of different restaurants in town and that the readers have chosen his
restaurant as one of the best in the area. (hey you are not fibbing
about this... just don't tell them that your newsletter only has one
reader -- you! And your list of restaurants constitutes your first
issue.)
Now, tell the manager that you are running a promotion with the first
prize being lunch for 2 for a week at the best restaurants in the area.
Ask him if he would donate a Gift Certificate redeemable for lunch for
2 people. Tell him he will get free advertising for a week in return.
Keep doing this until you have 5 gift certificates from 5 different
restaurants.
Next, go to retail or service type stores in your area and tell them
that you are running a contest giving away lunch for a week at 5
different restaurants. Tell them if they will allow you to place a
fishbowl (to collect signups) on their counter that you will give them
free advertising in your newsletter. Look for places like dry cleaners,
Mail Box Etc., coffee shops, hair dressers, tanning centers, nail salons
(concentrate on businesses that have a lot of walk in traffic and cater
to women)
Try to get 5 or 6 in the same general area. Have non-competing
stores (only one in each category)
You will need to have some entry forms printed up. Any printer can
do this for you or you can do it yourself on your computer. You will
need the following information:
Name
Work Email address
Zip Code
Leave a fish bowl, a sign with details of the contest, a pen (attached
to a string that is attached to the fishbowl) and the entry forms on
the counters of the stores that agree to your offer.
You may have to haggle to get the store managers to agree. Stress
that you will be emailing 2000 people and you will include his offer
for free. Be sure to tell him that you will only accept one store from
each category so he will not have any competition.
You can also take entry forms to office parks and hand them out to
the receptionists in the different offices. Ask if they will pass them
out to the workers there. You can collect them later.
Once you have 2000 names, pick a winner and send them an email
letting them know they won. Send everybody that didn't win an
emailing telling them that although they didn't win first prize they did
win second prize which is one year's subscription to the Lunch Bunch
Letter which contains lunch specials and discounts from area
restaurants and other businesses.
At first, publish the restaurants specials for free. You want the
newsletter to have 10 -- 15 restaurants included. Then approach
each restaurant and ask if they would pay $25.00 a week for the
service. Get a 3 month commitment (along with a check!) Stress
exclusivity! ("We only want to feature one Italian restaurant and
since YOU are the best I thought I would offer you first shot at it
before I take it over to Caruso's...")
Publish one newsletter with 10 -- 15 restaurants for every 2000
subscribers. So if you have 4000 subscribers publish 2 newsletters
with 2000 subscribers each, etc, etc, etc.
Excerpted from Secret Underground Business Ideas. For
More Unusual but Profitable Money Making Ideas see:
www·UndergroundBusinessIdeas·com