"It matters not how straight the gate,
how charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

The basics of the magic floppy are simple . . . you take a file you have written (text, program, graphic, whatever) . . . encrypt the file so it can't be read or used without knowing the password to unlock it . . . put the now encrypted file on to a floppy disk . . . send this encrypted floppy disk to prospects . . . receive money in exchange for the password to unlock the disk.

Sounds pretty simple and easy doesn't it? Well it is! And the best part is that you get paid a lot of money for a cheap little floppy disk.

Does this method work? You bet it does!!! I ran my promotion during the height of the Clinton scandal and I was getting a 16% response rate (it was actually more like 15.625% but 16% will do). That meant that for every 100 letters I sent out I was getting 16 people to give me money. I was selling my passwords for $39. So for every 100 letters I sent out I was getting back $624.00 on average (I say average because sometimes the response would be as high as 27% and sometimes lower. It averaged out at around 16%).

Okay . . . by now you are surely wondering how I did it. And you most definitely would like me to spill the beans wouldn't you? Well, Okay, since you asked so nicely I will tell you what you need to know to make your own magic floppy. And it's only going to cost you $200 . . . no, I'm only kidding. Had you going there for a sec though didn't I?

Onwards.

The ingredients you need to make your own magic floppy are . . . 1: A file of some kind which you want to sell (this can be a printed report which you convert to a text file, electronic building plans, programs you've written, and so on) . . . 2: An encryption program to lock up the file/s you want to sell . . . 3: A sales letter and other marketing devices . . . 4: A way to get the names and addresses of people who may be interested in your product . . . 5: The ability to process credit cards would be handy but not entirely necessary . . . and 6: Some money to get started.

Putting it all together:

Okay, first I'm going to assume you already have a file of some kind you'd like to sell. Now you need to encrypt it. The best program to use to encrypt your file is something called Norton Secret Stuff. To get this program go to http://www.download.com/ and search for Norton Secret Stuff. There will be only one listing. And you will see that it will run on all platforms and doesn't require the recipient of your disk to have it installed - that's what's so good about it.

Next, write your sales materials. In your sales letter make sure you tell the reader that they already have the product - it's in the floppy disk they are holding. And all they need to do to get access to it is pay you for it. This is very important. They MUST know the product they enquired about is already in their hands!!!

Next, run your ad/s or send your postcards to generate a list of people to send your sales letter to.

Send your sales letter AND an encrypted floppy disk to the people who responded to your ad.

Wait for the orders to start coming in. When they do, process them.

And that's it. You are now in the magic floppy business. Simple isn't it?

Some notes about this from MY experience . . .

• I have never received an order from someone who gave their name as Mr Citizen or Mrs Citizen (where Citizen represents the surname they gave me). So I have never received an order from someone who didn't want to give me their first name.
• My 16% response was on the first mailing. I never did a second follow-up mailing even though I should have. Had I done follow-up mailings it is more than likely the overall response would have been much higher.
• I only had a few people re-request my letter for reasons of not having received it. This hasn't happened under normal letter mailings where nothing was included. I deduced that these people did in fact receive my letter and were just after another free floppy disk.
• When people called me for the passwords I gave it to them right there and then over the phone, after they gave me their credit card number. I didn't authorize the card first. I trusted people's honesty and I never had a card declined.
• As well as encrypted files on the floppy I also had a readable file that restated that the product they wanted was on the floppy disk but was encrypted. I directed them to read the letter and then call me to get the passwords.
• I took all calls myself even though I do have a service that can do this. This gave me an incite into the people who were calling. I was able to know if kids were calling or adults. If kids called they were informed that there was a price/fee involved and asked if they were able to pay for things themselves. 'Yes' responses to this question were sent the material and all bought.
• All files on the disk were either in a text format or a windows write format. This meant no-one needed any special software to read the files.
• All the orders I received came WITHIN 48 hours of the person receiving the letter. I gave incentives to respond within 48 hours - a price reduction (I raised the price so I could reduce it - sneaky aren't I?) AND some extra stuff that I had placed on the floppy which was also encrypted. The extra items were reports I selected from a CD ROM I had with a bunch of reports on them. But these types of reports, and the rights to re-use them can now be found online for free - if you search hard enough.

All in all, marketing using the magic floppy technique works, and works well! The only other thing left to say is...

Try this, it works!

May the success you achieve be a direct result of the effort you put in!!

Michael Ross
Miros Designs Marketing.
 
 

About this author

Michael Ross is an australian based author, product developer, direct marketer and consultant.

Michael Ross is known for his detailed and helpful advice on how to succeed in marketing.

Note:
Michael Ross' original web site is closed. I don't know if it's permanently or temporily. Michael Ross recently told me that he has more or less retired from the Internet. I'm sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you.

You can, however, still buy a copy of Micael's book, "The Art of Leverage" by going to this web site: http://artofleverage.cjb.net/