THE INNER AND OUTER CIRCLES OF MAIL ORDER - 2 DIFFERENT WORLDS WHERE DOES THE INNER CIRCLE COME FROM?

Another way to end up in the inner circle (if not as a participant, then at least on the receiving end) is to advertise anything for sale by mail, especially in a small circulation publication. A mailing list broker will put your address on his list and before you know it, you'll be bombarded with inner circle offers.

The real world of marketing is scary. It's a cold and lonely world where you spend $1000's on advertising that nobody responds to. It's a world where you can ask a hundred different catalog houses to stock your better mousetrap, but none of them want it. It's a world where you look for an investor for your invention and can't find one. This, too, is part of the reason why the inner circle exists. People like to believe that there must be some way that they can get what they want. So they delude themselves into believing that the inner circle, with it's almost free advertising, it's larger than life sales pitches, it's instant-marketing print&mail and mailing lists, is where they will finally make their first million dollars and retire in bliss, marketing realities be damned. This is why people often stay in the inner circle for years even though they continually lose money. It is, if nothing else, interesting - something like state lotteries.

And it's never lonely - there are too many people constantly trying to sell things to you. Having said that, I believe there is an even more important reason why the inner circle exists. If human behaviour were rational there could be no inner circle since 1) rational thought precludes the possibility of believing in something for nothing, and 2) people, if they were rational, would not continue to do things which obviously cost a lot and give nothing back in return.

But much more human behaviour is AUTOMATIC and ADDICTIVE than rational. The essence of addiction is the continual use of something the person knows is hurting them but which they can't seem to stop doing. I speak from my own experience and I know a lot of people who will back me up when I say that inner circle mail order participation can be a bona-fide addiction. Consider, for example, the very earliest days of my publishing a newsletter. The techniques I used were irrational. Simple math would have told me that even with a 5% response and an average $30 purchase (neither of which I could have possibly attained) I would still have been slightly losing money. But month after month the unshakeable fantasy continued: that this time I would sell enough stuff to make money. It was nothing less than an addictive fantasy, unfounded in reality.

WHY THE INNER CIRCLE IS A MONEY PIT

• the prime sources make money (sometimes) at the expense of all those people that are doing the marketing for them
• the printers, typesetters and publishers, mailing list renters, print&mailers make money providing "essential" services
• the hard-working people trying to sell the money games lose a lot of money

If you want proof that the inner circle of mail order is no place to get rich and that most of the really popular advertisers (the ones with all the 1" ads) are just hobbyists, call one of them during a week day. Assuming you've called a man, you'll sometimes be answered by his wife, who will tell you that he is at work. That is, he works for a living (assuming he is not retired) and does mail order as a hobby.

Now, if these veteran dealers have not found a get-rich quick plan (or even one that makes at least enough money per year to live on, so that they don't need a day job!) after years or decades in the inner circle, what does that tell you? Go ahead and try this for yourself if you must - it will help you to believe, really believe, that there is no easy money in this world and that you might as well stop looking for it right now.

Another way to prove to yourself that nobody's getting wealthy in the inner circle is to consider the furor raised over postal increases. If the people involved in promoting get-rich plans were making the money that their ludicrous sales documents claim, then a raise of 1 cent or even 10 cents in postage would make no difference.

Some of the advice you read about mail order talks about the percentage of mail that gets thrown in the trash without being examined. Be careful when reading this material, for what's really being discussed is outer circle "junk mail". If you are marketing in the inner-middle circle, have no fear - your ads and salesletters and circulars will be noticed and read. Everybody examines everything, although sometimes the examination can be awful quick - the first thing I do when I go through my mail each day is throw out the chain letters and everything else I've seen before. But no opportunity seeker or dealer will just throw an entire envelope in the garbage, unopened. As an inner circle dealer, you will have many worries. This is not one of them.

THE HOBBYISTS AND THE BUSINESS PEOPLE

The BUSINESSPERSON in mail order is often young to middle aged, and the focus is on making money - as much, and as quickly, as possible. She will eventually learn the limitations of the inner circle and use the friendships, knowledge and "streetwise-ness" (streetwisdom?) she has acquired and apply them in the outer circle (either that or just quit).

One more important distinction - the mail order hobbyist does not need a computer (although she would be better off having one), while the serious mail order businessperson MUST have one, eventually.

It is common for advocates of the inner circle to insist that there are millions of dollars to be made in it. Dream-peddlers need not exaggerate the income side of mail order (although they usually do). What they usually ignore, however, is the fact that this income is usually diluted down to nothing or less-than-nothing by marketing expenses, production and postage costs, and commissions paid to prime sources. The dynamics of the inner circle are such that it just isn't possible to "get rich". There's too many salesmen, not enough buyers. I will remind you, however, that to live in this country, it is not necessary to possess $1,000,000. For those who merely want to avoid being tied down working for other people, a nice clear profit of $20-30,000 a year is sufficient to live off of, unless you have heavy financial commitments. For now, let me relieve your anxiety by stating that yes, there is money to be made in mail order and no, it won't cost you a fortune to conduct business outside of the inner circle. The typical inner circle advice giver will tell you to buy reports with reprint rights, sell other people's books, mail commission circulars, market through print&mail and mailing lists of opportunity seekers, and join MLM plans. What they're not admitting is that by doing so, you would merely be joining a collection of people all doing the same thing, all trying to sell the same stuff to the same people (to each other, as well as to lists of largely uninterested people). All wasting their time. The reason he wants you to join this pack is that (surprise, surprise) he sells mailing lists, reports with reprint rights, MLM plans, etc.

THE MIDDLE CIRCLE - CLOSE, BUT STILL TOO FEW CIGARS

THE OUTER CIRCLE

The inner and middle circle exist because people are addicted to the idea of getting their hands on lots of money. The outer circle of mail order has this side to it, too, but also involves the sale of plans for making moonshine in your basement, shoes, candy, and just about anything else that can be mailed (including lobsters, believe it or not). The outer circle is, in short, the business arena of the serious direct marketer and/or mail order marketer.

If someone asks you what sort of business you run and you say "mail order" and they ask "Great, but what do you sell?" and you respond by staring stupidly at the floor, then chances are you are in the inner circle. Outer circle marketers know what they're selling, because the product, and the needs of the market, come first. The money, if you do everything right, comes second.