I’ve long felt that a marketer/salesperson performs a valuable service for society.

If you have a problem, they’ll connect you with a solution. Suffer from headaches? Here, take this and it’ll go away. Cat got fleas? Try this and the fleas will be gone! And so on.

When I was a kid, for a while my parents were distributors for a line of products. There was one product demonstration that I liked to do. It was for a stain remover. To demonstrate, you’d have a bowl with water. Then, you’d stain the water. You’d show how it was stained. It was a clear glass bowl or maybe just a glass jar. At any rate, you could clearly see that the water was stained. Then, you would stir in this stain remover, and the water turned clear.

It was like magic!

But, there were no tricks to the demonstration. I wasn’t sneaking anything else in or using sleight of hand to switch glasses or anything. It was a simple, straightforward demonstration.

And people would see how it works and buy the stuff.

You showed people how you had a solution to their problems which, in this case, was stains. Certainly, that’s a valuable service, no?

The problem is when you have a dishonest salesperson–someone who is simply after a sale without regard for whether they solve your problem or not. They just want to convince you they have the solution long enough to separate you from your money and be in the next town, conning the next group of prospects.

It’s people like that that give marketers a bad name.

I think this is true for online marketing–perhaps especially true. I’m on several online marketing forums and, in a couple of these, “marketers” will talk about how they quickly put a “product” together and offer it for sale. Sometimes in as little as an afternoon.

One of the tricks is to use PLR articles. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, PLR stands for Private Label Rights. These are typically articles (but sometimes also books, graphics, etc.) that you can resell as your own. Kind of like a store brand. Your local grocery store may have their own brand of canned green beans or whatever, but, in many cases, these are canned by someone else who simply brands the cans with the store’s brand name and packaging. That’s private labeling. And that’s what PLR is.

The problem is that sometimes these articles are thrown together with little editing and little cohesion. If writing styles between articles vary slightly, you can sometimes tell and it may break your concentration from the reading material. Also, some people put these together rather quickly, so they use whatever articles they can find, rather than creating an outline and an orderly plan for how the book should go together.

Sometimes, especially in cases where a whole book is offered as PLR, that can result in a buyer purchasing multiple eBooks, looking for a solution, only to discover that the book they just bought from Jane Smith is eerily similar to the book they bought from John Doe.

And that can leave a bad impression of “eBooks” in the buyer’s mind.

A couple years ago, I bought resale rights to an eBook. Something like only 10 packages were sold, so there would only be 9 other people selling the same eBook I was. Ultimately, I never put it up for sale. I never felt comfortable with the included sales letter. The sales letter talked about how I went to lunch with this group of experts and picked their brains in order to put the book together.

Well, that never happened. It may have happened to the original author of the book–the one who was selling the rights (hopefully!)–but it didn’t happen to me. So, it just didn’t feel right. I could have changed the sales letter, of course, but I never got around to it and moved on to other things.

A week or two ago, I was looking for some information on a certain thing. Then, I remembered that I had purchased resale rights to a book on that topic! So, I dug out that eBook from my electronic files and took a look.

Now, mind you, at this point I am basically coming at the book from a buyer’s perspective. That is, I am looking for information. I am turning to that book because I remembered the sales letter talking about how much information was packed into that book.

So, I look to the book. This great book. This book that had a suggested retail price of $27-$37 or something.

Guess what?

This book is next to useless. It just rehashes the basics, but never addresses the how which is what I’m really looking for. I know the other information, or at least some of it, but what I really want to know is the how of it. I don’t know that. The book doesn’t address that.

I’m glad I never tried to sell it, because people would not have found what they are looking for in the book.

It’s true that you can’t please everyone and you will have disappointed buyers no matter how good your book is, but at the very least, the book should cover what the book is supposed to be about. If I’m looking for how to do something, I want to know how to do it! I don’t want to buy a book telling me all about it, but leaving out the how that I am looking for.

The book also included free bonuses. You can probably guess how wonderful those bonuses were.

I have access to a number of books and materials I could resell. (I don’t resell them, in case you’re wondering.) I looked at one today. It looked promising. Again, I’m looking at this from a buyer perspective. I am looking at it from the perspective of wanting a solution. I’m not looking at the book thinking, hey, can I sell this? Rather, I am looking at it from the perspective of Will this solve this problem?

Again, I am disappointed.

There is another truth and that is that not everyone knows as much as you about a given topic. So, you might be disappointed in the content of a book, because you already know most of the content. As such, you might think it’s garbage whereas someone who knows less than you will think it’s gold. Thus, it is important that your sales copy reach the right audience.

But, at the same time, a book that doesn’t provide the information that you expect is not good. I mean, if the book says it’s about X, it should be about X. It shouldn’t merely introduce you to X and wish you good luck figuring out what X really is. It’s like paying thirty-seven bucks to go out on a blind date, only to discover that she’s not there. Instead, you’re eating alone at a table with a copy of her resume, and you’ll have to pay for another date at another place and time if you want to meet her.

That’s a bad date, and that’s a bad book.

Traditional book publishing has a number of gatekeepers. This doesn’t assure that every book is great, but it does help to cut back on the junk.

Now, some good works may get rejected. It’s not because they’re bad, but maybe because there is too few people interested in that niche to make it profitable for the publisher. Or, perhaps because it’s too similar to another book being released by the publisher. Or for any number of other reasons that aren’t related to the quality of the book itself.

So, that author could make an eBook and sell it himself. And it could be a very good eBook.

On the flip side, someone else who got rejected might think they have a pile of gold in their stack of papers when really what they have is a whole lot of dead trees killed for nothing because their content is garbage.

The sad thing is that there are too many people that don’t know good content from a whole in the wall and think that just because they can sucker a number of people into buying it that they actually have something good.

I can’t do that. I can’t sell something I think is bad, especially if it’s got my name on it. That doesn’t mean that everyone is going to agree with me. But, I just can’t take something that I think is a piece of garbage and try to pawn it off on someone as the greatest thing since sliced bacon.

Who knows? Maybe I’d be rich if I could bring myself to sell eCrud-on-a-Stick. But, I have a hard time trying to sell something I just don’t believe in.

If it doesn’t turn the water clear, I can’t stand there saying, Look! It’s not as dirty as it was before!

In order to meet your goal of making $1,000,000 in thirty days, you’re going to need a plan.

A good plan is to promote something.

Or sell something.

Of course, once you’ve worked that out, you need to figure out something to promote or sell.

I have decided on creating an eBook (another one…).

I will create it, then sell it. If I price it at ten bucks, I only need to sell 100,000 copies to meet the million dollar mark. Actually, a few more than that considering suppliers and such will take their cut. So, at ten bucks, I may only make $8.50 or so a book.

I’ve already begun research, so I best get back to it.

The other day, I did a post on “How Would You Make $1,000,000 in 30 Days?” where the challenge was to come up with ideas for making a million dollars in 30 days.

So, how about we give it a go?

Actually, it will have to be in under 30 days, because today is the first day of September and this will be signup day. So, leave your comment in the, um, comments and get ready to rumble, er, make some money!

Don’t worry. I’m not selling anything here. Feel free to buy any of my eBooks listed in the sidebar though (there are two of them–the squares at the top of the sidebar). But, no purchase is necessary.

Just sign up by leaving a comment if you want to participate. You don’t need to buy anything. It will be helpful if you already have a website or blog. If you don’t, you may need to buy a domain name and hosting, but this is a challenge not a guarantee. So, don’t spend your last twenty bucks in the hopes that you’ll be a millionaire by the end of the month. Okay?

While you sign up, I’ll figure out a plan. Yeah, we’re really starting from scratch here. No plan yet.

Anyway, perhaps none of us will make a million bucks. (Maybe collectively we can?) The idea here is to get the creative juices flowing and earn some extra money above and beyond anything you may already make online.

I like retro. I think many of you regulars know that. 1950s’ retro.

I like steampunk too, because it’s a good way of making something look retro, particularly when dealing with objects that didn’t exist way back when.

Of course, 1950s’ retro isn’t quite the same as steampunk, but if something was made in the 19th century, it could still be in use in the 1950’s, so it fits. Better than something from 2010 would, anyway.

So, for my office, I want a retro look. I plan on getting a new phone soon, since I hope to do more local advertising. I have had a phone line for years, but rarely get any calls because most of my business is done online. Anyway, some local competitors have been merging and/or dropping like flies, so now is a good time to start boosting my local footprint.

So, naturally, I am looking for an older style phone. Something rotary but with push buttons. I’ve narrowed down my options, but haven’t decided on a model yet.

In the meantime, none of them have caller ID. I remedied that by buying a caller ID box. I got the cheapest one I could find.

My plan was to take it apart and make a steampunk-ish caller ID box. Maybe steampunk/1950s–who knows.

Anyway, it came in last week, and today, while the technician was re-installing the phone line (switched from the local telephone company to the local cable company), I decided to take the thing apart and see what I was up against.

The downside is that the innards are basically one piece, which is somewhat disappointing because I had wanted to make some modifications which I cannot do because of the way the thing is made. That is, I cannot separate the buttons from the screen. I wanted the screen separate so I could angle it to make it easier to view yet keep the buttons pretty much where they are.

But, there are no wires connecting the LCD screen to the motherboard. Instead, it is a special thingamabob that I don’t know what it’s called and that prevents me from doing what I wanted to do. Unless, of course, I modify the buttons, which is a possibility but means completely replacing the buttons rather than just utilizing what is already there and reworking it.

At any rate, I put the whole thing back together, whereupon I discovered that I had messed up the thingamabob and the LCD screen no longer displayed properly.

So, I took it all apart again. And fiddled with it. And reassembled the unit.

Now, it works again.

But it’s not retro. Or steampunk.

Yet.

Wow. It’s been over two years since I last updated The Thrifty Entrepreneur. I had plans for that one, but it pretty much only lasted two months.

My gardening blog hasn’t been updated in over a year and a half.

Geez. I don’t even have Blogger Memes pointing to the site anymore.

The pig pencil sock helmet still lives!

And let’s not forget about the dancing monkeys wearing shirts that are orange!

I also have a site on Business Card Advice, but Google doesn’t even think it exists.

Redhead Strips, Poses on Bed is still good, but The Stamp Report hasn’t been updated in over two years.

Little Too has been lax in updating her blog too.

Well, August is poised to be the worst month of the year so far in terms of traffic.

Unless a whole lot of people suddenly visit this blog today, August will definitely be the worst month of the year so far.

Last year, traffic picked up in the summer. July had more traffic than June and August had more traffic than July.

This year, it’s been a steady decline. July was worse than June and August is way worse than July.

Of course, it’s not like I’ve posted anything useful here as of late, but that trend began last year, and traffic had still continued to rise.

Oh well. 122 days to go.

First, of course, you need a dime.

Then you need a table shorter than a mime,
but tall enough for you to do your rhyme
while standing on the dime.

Next, you’ll want a glass of water with a slice of lime,
Without that, doing your rhymes could be a crime.
Or not, but do you want to be in jail wasting your prime?

Once all that is in place and on time,
place upon the floor your dime.
Then, stand on it and get ready to rhyme.

Remember, not every word needs to rhyme,
Not rhyming your verses is not a crime,
But give it some time
Because politicians are as wacky as a drunken mime.
So, be careful when you are writing a rhyme,
Big Sister is watching you all of the time.

But, for now, you needn’t worry if you can’t pull off a decent rhyme,
As you can just make the lines as long as you can to end them with a chipper chime.

When ending your rhyme,
Don’t worry about the time,
Just throw in a dash of thyme,
But maybe not on your lime.

Because that could very well be a crime.

Oh, and now you can get off your dime.

But don’t spend it all in one place, except for a pinch of thyme.
But that may not look right to some watchful stopper of crime.
And you could get busted, and thrown to the ground in grime,
And get yourself covered in an oily slime,
Before being tossed in a slammer, which would not be sublime.

And you’d wait until the test results came back and showed it was only thyme.
Oops, they’ll say and send you on your way, with your original clothes, still covered in slime.

Maybe you should have just found a rock to climb.

What do I see with my little eye but a can?

A can that is not currently in a van.

It’s not being cooled by a fan.

It’s just a plain ol’ empty can.

If it was scared, it could not have ran.

For no legs at all doth have a can.

If you were desperate, you could use it as a pan.

Cut it up all careful ’cause sharp edges doth have a cut can.

But I wouldn’t do that, not to this can.

It’s a grand ol’ can.

Oh, man.

So, I look for a word and I spot “link”.

So, I’ll need to rhyme that before I get a drink.

I may have to wash a glass from the sink.

Oh, let me think…

You could head off to a skating rink.

And wear some skates with blades of zinc.

I’d prefer they not come in pink.

What would you think of a skating mink?

Is that an idea that would swim or sink?

What do you think?

Be sure to say your thought with a wink.

Who wouldn’t want to be a millionaire, except perhaps a billionaire?

Mind you, I don’t expect that many people will actually have an answer for earning $1,000,000 in thirty days, especially starting from scratch, but the purpose of this exercise will be to get the creative juices flowing.

Some ideas are obviously going to be out. There are some things you cannot scale up. For example, if you write articles for $50 a pop, you’re going to need to be able to write 667 articles a day to earn a million bucks in a month. That’s probably not humanly possible. The record for typing is 216 words a minute. If you were being paid $50 for a 500 word article, worked a 16 hour day, and didn’t need any time for research or thinking, and could match that typing speed record, the most articles you could churn out in a day would be 415.

But that’s not very likely, is it? Of course, you could outsource, so, with outsourcing, it becomes a possibility. But, is it reasonable? You’re starting from scratch, remember, so you’d need to recruit writers and clients. And, you may need to recruit someone to oversee the writers or find clients. So, could you do it? Well, that’s a question you’ll need to answer for yourself and, if you think you can, why aren’t you doing it?

Another option is to find high-profit items. The downside is that, starting from nothing, it’s going to be difficult to get the high-ticket merchandise you would need. However, commission-based or affiliate marketing could be a possibility here.

But, let’s say you’re working on a 10% commission. You would have to sell $10,000,000 worth of product in order to earn your million dollars. If you promote a product that sells for $100, you’ll need to get 1,000,000 people to buy it in order to get your $1,000,000 in commissions.

Instead of promoting a physical product, you could promote a digital product. Some of these may offer commissions of 75%. So, let’s say you find a digital product that sells for $100 and gives you a 75% commission. Now, you only need to find 13,334 buyers by month’s end in order to earn your cool million.

Still sound too hard? Well, how about trying high ticket items that give you a large commission. For example, I think I’ve seen something that paid $5,000 in commissions upon a sale. I think it was jewelry or something. At that commission rate, you’d only need 200 buyers to make a purchase in order to earn a million dollars. That sounds easier than 13,334, doesn’t it? Two hundred is just seven people a day. That sounds more achievable than 445 sales a day, no?

That one’s going from memory, but here’s one I can verify. I am looking at a product right now that pays a $1,500 commission. That’s just 667 sales in a month that you would need in order to make $1,000,000. That’s 23 people per day. Another product has a $425 commission. That’s 79 sales per day, which is tougher, but not out of the question.

It’s all a matter of reaching the right audience. Instead of pushing low ticket items, consider going for the big ticket items. Either way, it’s a matter of finding an audience and providing something they want or need. People tend to gravitate toward pushing cheaper items, thinking they are easier to sell. But, if you’re connecting people with a solution to their needs, is it really more difficult to sell an expensive item than a cheap item? If people can afford it, they don’t mind spending money in order to get what they want or need. That’s the point of money, right, to get what you need? And we all want to make more money in order to get the things we need.

The thing is, when you shoot for the roof, you’re probably not going to much farther than that. If you shoot for the moon, you’ll be among the stars even if you miss.

So, let’s say you try to sell high ticket items in order to earn $1,000,000 in a month. Let’s say you promote something with a $1,500 commission. Are you going to be disappointed in yourself if you only make 5 sales in a month? Compare that with pushing something that gets you a $10 commission. If the amount of work and effort is about the same, are you going to be equally as disappointed if you only hit 5 sales?

Anyway, those are some ideas for making $1,000,000 in thirty days. What methods would you try?