How to profit from the smoking ban


Article by Charlie Wright

My postman hates me.

I the past few weeks, I’ve ordered a flurry of biz opp products to review for you.

(Yes, I don’t just make all this stuff up!)

They all seem to be in big boxes this week. And because I work from home, the postie can’t get away with ringing the bell, sneaking a slip of paper under my door, and running off.

Oh no siree… I’m there… WAITING FOR HIM!

So please, if you’ve been waiting me to look at something, it’s probably in my study at the moment.

There’s a pile of books as high as my hips, and Styrofoam chipping up to my neck.

I will plough through them, I promise!

I’ve got a book by John Harrison of Streetwise… a new trading product from Fleet Street Publications… a horse betting system… a nice little digital camera opportunity… a review newsletter… and a copywriting
course the size of a tombstone.

Egads.

The problem is, I haven’t got to the point yet where I can give you my verdict on any of them.

Could you profit from the smoking ban?

Browsing through my own site this week, I notice there’s a message on the forum that says:

‘I have an exclusive natural herbal formula which guarantees a smoker will quit within 7 days or I refund them every penny. With the ban on smoking in public places coming into effect on 1st July, anyone out there
got any ideas of how we can all earn from this?

He continues:

‘4 million smokers intend to quit this year. Surely we can sell this to a few of them?’

Well, that’s a mighty good idea. And here’s a suggestion from me – for what it’s worth…

You should knock up a simple website that serves as a sales page for your wonder product.

Pack it with testimonials, proof, and evidence, then offer a money-back trial to take away any objections.

For a basic guide to creating a website, check this out.

Okay, now you’ve got a sales page, you then need to use a variety of techniques to drive people to it.

You need to go to as many health websites and email newsletters as you can find and ask them to either endorse your product… or allow you to place an ad for your product on their site.

You can also try an adwords campaigns on google… get a press release about the product into a magazine or newspaper… or try old-fashioned classified ads.

If this works, go even further…

Turn the no-smoking craze into a newsletter

For everyone who views your sales page, have a pop- up box that offers ‘FREE INFORMATION TO HELP YOU STOP SMOKING FAST’.

You can then catch their names and begin sending them a weekly email newsletter with updates, reviews of books and other products… All related to giving up smoking.

As well as pushing your vitamin product, you could also introduce other products that you like on commission.

Self-help manuals… relaxation aids…fitness programmes… antioxidants… vitamin supplements…

All you do is seek out the various product and go to them saying, that you have 1,000 people signed up to a newsletter. Ask for 50% of the profits of the sale.

You can then get another website that offers reviews, testimonials, back issues of your newsletter and further information.

Hey presto! You have a very good business.

A more exotic email newsletter idea

I got an email from a reader who is going travelling in South America. He wanted to know if there was a biz opp he could do on his way.

One suggestion I had was that he could start a Latin American traveller’s email newsletter, offering tips, recommendations, stories and reviews.

It would be easy to build up an audience as he travelled, because he could leave an ad for his service in every hostel, hotel and restaurant… and tell every traveller he met about it.

He could then blag discounts and free tours, meals and hotel stays by offering to recommend them in his newsletter.

Once there’s decent list of readers, he could recommend products on commissions. Or put advertising on his site.

About 4 years ago I also went travelling in South America, and wrote a regular email newsletter.

Looking back on it now, it was actually the prototype for Adventures in the Biz Opp Jungle. Unfortunately, at that time I didn’t see the huge commercial potential.

So I just wrote it for free, with no ads, links or reviews.

That said, it was pretty funny. I’ll even finish today’s email with a story from one of them…

WARNING: PLEASE DO NOT READ IF EASILY OFFENDED BY BODILY FUNCTIONS.

The tale of Geoff’s bum

In Bolivia, I met a British couple called Clare and Geoff who told me a sorry tale.

They’d been struck down with severe diarrhoea for two whole months. When Clare got better, Geoff would become ill. When Geoff got better, Clare would become ill. And so it went on and on.

Bolivian buses crammed with passengers and bags – and NO toilets – are not the place to be in that condition.

So they were stuck, nursing each other back to health.

Then the day finally came when they both felt well enough to ride out.

A few hours into the overnight bus journey, and Geoff’s gut was gripped with pain.

The horrors had returned.

But he and Clare were right at the back of the bus. The aisle was crammed with sleeping Bolivians, swathed in rugs and surrounded by bags of babies, fabrics and foodstuffs.

To get out, Geoff would have had to clamber over them, hammer on the door of the driver’s cab and scream, ‘Stop the bus, I need to poo!’

(By the way, this is the kind of phrase you should be taught in ´Survival Spanish´ courses, rather than ‘Where is the town hall?’)

Geoff was too weak with pain to move and so Clare rose up and shrouded him in a poncho, while he fumbled at his belt. He had to relieve himself into a plastic carrier bag.

He then threw the bag and the sodden paper from the window.

Twenty minutes later, the stomach cramps returned. Geoff almost fainted. But this time they had no plastic bag.

Clare held up the poncho, while Geoff yanked his trousers down and attempted to push his bum out of the window.

Unfortunately, as he put it:

‘These tiny Bolivian bus windows… you get only enough space for one cheek.’

It wasn’t going to work. So they hunted around for anything that could take the load. That was when they discovered that the head-cushion on the back of seat could come off.

What´s more, it was torn!

Desperately, they pulled out all the stuffing and widened the tear before Geoff exploded into it.

With the seams leaking, they hurled the cushion out of the window and sat back, praying the worst was over.

‘It was the worst bus journey I have ever been on,’ said Clare.

‘The stench was terrible,’ nodded Geoff in agreement.

***************************************

True story!

Right. Now I have a pile of courses and books to read, so if you’ll excuse me…


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