Million Dollar Sales Letters for Your Own Use and Profit

1/4/2014

Introduction

Selling by mail can be the easiest and least expensive method of selling your services or commodities. It can also be the most difficult and the most expensive method of doing the job. It all depends on the method you use in presenting your offering to your prospects; it depends on the kind of a letter you send to them.

To write such a letter, a message that explains concisely yet completely and in an action-compelling manner what you have to offer, is a job that demands the services of an expert versed in every one of the thousand phases of selling and one with many years of successful mail order experience at his command.

If you would choose the one man in the United States who could write for you a sales letter that would produce the results you desire, you would probably ask Robert Collier to do the job. Backed by many years of success in the field of selling by mail, selling every commodity from trench machinery to fertilizers, books and raincoats, stocks and bonds and services, he has placed hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of the clients for whom he has written his master sales letter. As a consequence, he is today, America's premier writer of successful selling letters.

We asked Mr. Collier to select from the many thousands of sales letters considered the best of them all. It was a difficult job to pick fifteen of the best from a list of ten thousand of the best. but the job is finished and here are the letters. These are the fifteen letters considered the best ever written by the man acknowledged to be the best writer of sales letters in America today. They have been actually tested, they have been actually used, they actually sold over one million dollars of services and merchandise.

These letters will sell for you. Choose those which are applicable to your own business. Alter them only to such an extent as to accord with the products and services you have to sell. But it will pay you, too, to study them all, for they all contain the essential elements that enter into every successful sales letter. They contain ideas that you may apply successfully in sales letters of your own dictation

Letter 1: The Lowly Penny Will Often Do the Trick

Here is a letter to which a new penny was pasted. In conjunction with the figures given, the penny aroused an amazing amount of attention.

The idea could readily be used by Insurance Companies, Savings Banks and the like. It was also used with unusual results by an association trying to build a membership for the purpose of cutting the cost of government.

IT IS A MARVELOUS THING - The Power of Money to Make More Money!

Just this little insignificant penny, saved each week since the start of the Loan and Saving Association, would today amount to $75.00 - and of that $75.00, $50.00 WOULD BE INTEREST DIVIDENDS.

$1.00 saved each week would today amount to $7,500.00! THAT IS THE WAY MONEY GROWS!

No matter what his beliefs, every man will agree that the Scriptures contain some of the oldest and greatest truths known to mankind. There is one truth that the Wise Men of old felt to be so important, that they repeated it no less than six times in the very first chapter of the Bible, and referred to it throughout both Old and New Testaments.

This age-old truth is that EVERYTHING INCREASES AFTER ITS KIND! Plant a seed of corn, and you reap ears of corn. Plant thistles, and you grow a profusion of thistles. Plant money, and your money comes back to you after many days, increased a hundred-fold!

What harvest do YOU want to reap ten or fifteen years from now? Money to put your children through college, or start them in a business of their own? Security for yourself? Financial Independence?

You have only to set your goal in order to win it. The price of $5,000.00 or of $50,000.00 is only so many seeds of savings. $5.00 saved each week at the Loan and Savings Association will in about 13 Years amount to $5,000.00 $25.00 each week will grow to $25,000.00.

And mind you, here is the part that counts. Of that $25,000.00 only $16,250.00 represents money paid in by you. The rest - $8,750.00 - is GROWTH INCREASE!

Do you know any other way you can buy $25,000 as surely, as safely - and pay so little for it? Do you know any way you can buy $25,000 or any other sum, and pay for it in little, convenient instalments each week that never depreciates in value, which are like seeds sown in good ground that keep growing and growing, year after year, always ready to give you more than you sow.

How much do you want to buy - $1,000.00 - $5,000.00 - $25,000.00? How much do you want to give to your youngster when he goes to college, or gets married, or starts in business? Here is the one sure and easy way of having that money when you want it. $1.00 a week now, means $1,000.00 thirteen years from now. $5.00 a week means $5,000.00.

What will you start with - $1.00 - $5.00 - $10.00? "To begin", says Ansonius, "it is to be half done".

Will you begin NOW - TODAY? Will you fill out the little form attached, pin your check, dollar bills or stamps to it covering your first remittance and mail it back in the enclosed envelope? Will you save the first $1.00 on your $1,000.00, or the first $25.00 on your $25,000.00 TODAY?

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 2: How Handkerchiefs Were Sold by Mail

A few years ago, a merchant in the clothing business in Buffalo failed. While he was waiting for the bankruptcy proceedings to be closed, he had no money and little credit. But he did have a family, and he had to do something to keep them from starving.

So he got a friend to advance him a few dollars and with that he bought some cheap knitted ties, and started mailing them - without orders of any kind to lists of likely buyers. With the ties, he sent a letter, offering the ties at 50 cents apiece, and enclosing postage for their return or for remittance.

Within a few months he is said to have cleared $200,000. In five years, it is reported that he made a couple of million. Similar offers were speedily made by dozens of other concerns. Here is the letter that successfully sold some hundreds of thousands of initialed handkerchiefs by this unique method.

Here's the most unusual offer you've ever received.

For years, it's been the custom among well-dressed men who were fastidious about their handkerchiefs to have BOTH their initials embroidered on them. But up to now, they've always had to order them specially at considerable expense. For there were so many combinations of initials (630 to be exact) that no store could possibly carry them all in stock.

The result has been that fine quality handkerchiefs individually monogrammed have cost from 75 cents to $1.00 each. (Your wife will quickly verify this.)

Now, we've conceived the idea of monogramming handkerchiefs without orders (in quantities that would keep the cost low) and sending them by mail to a carefully selected list of Business Men who would appreciate the wonderful opportunity afforded them.

You are one of the men we selected. Your handkerchiefs are enclosed - four of them monogrammed especially for you WITH BOTH YOUR OWN INITIALS.

These handkerchiefs are of fine quality, are fully-sized - 18 inches square and have a neatly hemstitched border. You will readily see that such handkerchiefs should cost 75 cents each when specially embroidered in silk with your initials.

If you'd like to keep these handkerchiefs, send us - not 75 cents each, not over 50 cents each - ONLY $1 FOR THE WHOLE FOUR. You can easily do it by slipping your check or money order in the enclosed envelope.

But, if you don't want to keep the handkerchiefs, just put them back in the envelope, paste the enclosed label and stamp over the address and shoot them back to us.

Isn't that a fair way to do business? It's the only way we know in which individually initialed handkerchiefs can be sold so reasonably.

When you send us the $1, in full payment for the handkerchiefs, please do not return the label with the stamp attached. Thank you! Every penny counts in selling handkerchiefs in this unusual way.

Yours for unusual handkerchief value,

P.S. There's a birthday or anniversary coming up soon for some man you know, and you'll be looking for just such an attractive gift as those individually monogrammed handkerchiefs. Why no double the amount of your remittance now, tell us his initials, and we'll get the handkerchiefs off at once - either to him or to you!

Letter 3: Can High Priced Articles be Sold by Mail?

YES... though it is necessary to first use the inquiry-bringing type of letter to winnow out the few interested people, and then keep after those few with a whole series of letters until you land their orders.

$25,000,000 worth of yachts were sold by mail this way. Inquiry-bringing letters and mailing pieces were mailed to them first, then to those interested, a series of letters and booklets were sent, and where possible personal calls were made.

Here is a letter which was most successful in bringing inquiries for a machine selling for about $2,500.00. It was mailed to a restricted field - Public Service Companies - and it brought interested inquiries in considerable volume.

When Millions Were Actually THROWN IN THE GUTTER!

"The most expensive gutters in the world" that is what they called the canals of 1830 which cost $200,000,000 to build and were doomed by the locomotive. What do you suppose they will call the trenches of today, where whole gangs of laborers, take days to dig up stretches of expensively paved streets, JUST TO LAY PIPES AND CABLES OR DRAINS UNDER THEM?"

"The most expensive ditches in the world" - probably. FOR THESE SAME HOLES COULD BE BORED AT A TENTH OF THE COST WITH A HYDRAUGER!

All the work of tearing up paving, all the expense of resurfacing, might just as well be thrown into the ditch, for all the need there is of it or all the good you get out of it.

You see, the HydrAuger bores UNDER the street. It can make any size hole from 2 1/4 inches to 10 1/2 inches. It can bore any length up to 120 ft. It works as fast as a foot a minute, AND IT COSTS ONLY 10 CENTS TO 30 CENTS A FOOT!

"In 1930, we made plans for installing water mains in a newly incorporated borough", writes the Richland Township Water Co. of Windber, PA, "through which passes three paved highways. Our permit was conditioned upon NOT BREAKING THE PAVED SURFACE OF THE HIGHWAY. Thirty or more crossings were necessary. The HydrAuger enabled us to do the work in 1931 at minimum expenditure. We know of no better or more economical machine for its purpose. We completed the job for less than half the estimated cost of tunneling."

We can save more than half for you, too. May we tell you how? Your name on the enclosed card will bring full information by mail, without obligation.

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 4: They Said It Couldn't be Done

Have you ever tried to sell fertilizer, shrubbery and the like to suburbanites? It is not easy at the best of times, but during the depression, when you couldn't get rid of real estate for love or money, and when the mortgage companies were taking over homes right and left, selling fertilizer and such for the lawns was a real problem. Yet it was done. And here is one letter that did it with amazing success.

How To End Worries Over Scraggly Lawns

Dear Neighbor:

With your permission, I am going to make an analysis of the soil of your lawn to determine - at my own risk and expense - what elements are lacking in it, what you need for stronger, healthier, more closely grown turf.

Mind you, this will not cost you a penny or obligate you in any way. I am going to make this analysis just to show you how little is needed to correct the texture of your soil and make possible the growing of rich, thick grass.

You see, soil gets acid or alkaline such as your body does. Let your body become too acid and the results are quickly apparent in sallow skin, eruptions, disease. Let the soil of your lawn become too acid and the grass on it will quickly grow sallow, faded, full of weeds and noxious growths. But that condition can be quickly corrected - the missing elements easily added - once you have determined what the trouble is.

Will you let us make a chemical analysis of the soil in your lawn - and send you a report of it - WITHOUT COST OR OBLIGATION TO YOU? John Smith of Jamestown, VA, wrote us:

"I should never have believed it possible that so slight a changing of the treatment of the soil could so quickly rebuild and re-establish a lawn. Your analysis showed us how to work wonders with our place."

Just your name on the enclosed card will bring you a FREE chemical analysis of your soil condition, with clear directions as to just what elements are needed to supply anything now lacking. A similar analysis from any chemist would cost several dollars.

Analysis will be made in the order in which requests are received, so if you would like to get your orders quickly, please mail your card NOW or telephone.

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 5: A 100,000 Mark Note

To show how readily you can adapt to your business an idea that has been used successfully in some other line, here is an adaptation of the "Dollar Letter".. (See Letter #10.)

Pinned to the top of this letter was a 100,000 mark German note. Its purpose, like that of the dollar, was to get the reader's immediate attention and arouse his interest in the message of letter.

It worked so well that the Wall Street Journal, for whom the letter was written, reported that it was the most successful subscription-getter they had ever used.

Will You Accept The Enclosed German Reichsbank Note For 100,000 Marks, With Out Compliments?

Dear Sir:

If the enclosed German Reichsbank Note for 100,000 Marks pays for one minute of your time, consider yourself engaged.

Yes, it's a real Reichsbank Note, put out by the German Government. Before the War, 100,000 marks were worth $23,820.00 in our money.

But when this particular issue of notes was retired, it took 10,000,000 notes like this to get a mark worth 24 cents in gold!

That is what uncontrolled inflation did to German money. As fast as new issues were brought out, the old ones dropped in value, until a man's only chance to get ahead lay in putting his money in common stocks, or into goods or real estate - or something that would go up in price just as fast as the value of his money went down.

In a small way, something of the kind may occur here. Even with inflation under perfect control, the value of the inflated money is bound to drop, while common stocks and goods and real estate will go up in value.

The question is - what type of stocks will depreciate most? And what effect will inflation have upon various lines of industry?

That is where the Blank Street Journal can be of genuine help to you. Its facts are not merely timely, but they are derived from original sources, and their accuracy can be depended upon. But that isn't all. The facts it brings to you each day are interpreted from the standpoint of the investor and of the business man, enabling you to invest your money or to plan your business with understanding and foresight.

The Blank Street Journal is the source of information for countless statisticians, newspapers and market services. Yet the information for which you pay the high fees is just as readily available to you in the pages of the daily Blank Street Journal, as it is to them.

The enclosed card entitles you to the next SIXTY ISSUES of the Blank Street Journal for $3. Not only that, but it brings you FREE EXAMINATION of the first five copies. If these five do not make clear to you the financial trend, if they do not show you every phase of business and financial activity, just tell us to cancel, and you will be out nothing.

Will you TRY it? Will you let us send you accurate news from the very heart of the financial center of the country NOW - when that news may be worth more to you than ever in your lifetime? Will you mail the enclosed form TODAY?

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 6: Close Outs

End of the Season Sales are the plague of every merchant. How to clean out the remnants of stock at a price that will appeal to the public and still leave a modicum of profit is something to make any advertising man rack his brain.

Here is a letter that we used first on books. When the Simond's War History sale was over, there were a couple of thousand returned or damaged sets on hand. The price was reduced to 25 cents and a letter along the lines of the attached was mailed. It pulled so well that the 2,000 sets were disposed of at once, and the order cost was found to be so low that it paid to deliver some 6,000 brand new sets on the orders that came in.

Adapted to Travelling Bags, the letter did just as well. Here it is, used to dispose of the odds and ends of a stock of Overcoats. It has been successful on every product on which we have used it.

Only 790 Coats Left

We have just 790 of these double-texture all-wool Greatcoats to sell at this low price. When they are gone, your chance to save on your Winter Ulster will go with them. But while these 790 last, you can get as perfect-fitting, as good-looking, as fine-quality a Winter Greatcoat as ever you would want to wear, at an almost unheard-of bargain.

If you will just write your name and three simple measures on the enclosed card and mail to us, we will send you a "Keep Warm" Ulster - that will exactly fit you - by prepaid Parcel Post.

You may keep the overcoat for a full week. Then, if for ANY REASON AT ALL you don't care to keep the coat, you can send it back AT OUR EXPENSE. But if you are so well-pleased with it that you don't want to part with it, just send us $27.65, the low price at which we are offering these last remaining 790 coats.

SEND NO MONEY - simply mail the post card. But do it at once, this opportunity to save money will not occur again.

Yours up to 790,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 7: Using a Premium

When you want to land a fish, you bait your hook with something that the fish likes. When you want to land a lot of orders, the same principle applies.

A client wanted to sell a new, small size travelling bag. He tried selling it on its merits alone, and got 3% to 4% of orders. Since the bag sold for $7.95, and 3% gave him an order cost of only $1, that was profitable. But he wanted volume.

So he tried using a bit of bait. To all who would send for this new bag, he offered a Fountain Pen with their name die-stamped on it in letters of gold. Instead of only 3% or 4%, that attractive bait brought the orders up to 10%, 12% and even on some lists, to 14%.

Will you accept one of the latest model, self-filling Fountain Pens with your name die-stamped in raised letters upon it - in return for a little favor I want you to do?

The courtesy is a small one, pleasant and easy to render.

For years, you know, the standard size Travelling Bag has been an 18 inch bag like the famous "Twentieth Century Bag", but lately many friends have been writing that they would like a bit smaller bag than this - something light and inexpensive, but with all the strength and fine appearance, all the unique conveniences of the "Twentieth Century".

Now we are trying one out - a bag so convenient that we don't believe its equal has ever been made before - certainly not anywhere near the price.

Every time you pack this Bag, you will be thankful for the TIME-SAVING convenience of its wonderful interior pockets. It has a place for everything you need on a trip - and it almost "packs itself".

Ever have toothpaste or shaving cream get all over your clean shirts and collars? Or the stopper come out of a bottle and the contents run over everything?

Then you'll appreciate the convenience of the moisture-proof pockets lined with the long-wearing, high grade hospital rubber. No moisture can leak through it.

These five moisture-proof pockets will hold shaving gel, talcum powder or toilet water - all your toilet needs.

On the opposite side of the bag are two full-length pockets with folders for carrying shirts, ties, underwear, socks, and any papers that you need when you go on a trip.

These handy pockets are collapsible and take up no room when not filled. They not only enable you to pack your bag in half the time it used to take, but they keep all your things shipshape, and leave the entire bottom part of the bag free to pack suits of clothes and other large articles. A wealth of packing space.

I am writing a few of our customers for their opinion of these new Travelling Bags. We call them "RedypaktBags" because they're handy for so many different uses.

I would like you to try one of them for a week - USE it on your next trip - see how convenient, how time saving, how handsome it is. Compare it with bags you have paid $12 or $15 for. And then tell me what you and your friends think of it.

It is a small favor, but it means a great deal to me. We are thinking of making a general offering of these "RedypaktBags" all over the country, but before doing it, I would like to have your opinion.

Just your name on the enclosed card will bring a "RedypaktBag" to you to try out for a week FREE. At the end of the week, if you should like the BAG so well that you want to keep it for your own, you can have it for only $7.95. If you don't want to keep it, please send it back at my expense, telling me what you think about it, and I'll be deeply grateful to you.

Naturally, this special price holds good only if your card comes in at once, while your advice will still be of value to us.

Won't you, therefore, put your name on the card and mail it now? I thank you for your courtesy.

Gratefully yours,

P.S. The new model, sell-filling fountain pen which I'll send along will have your name die-stamped upon it. And whether or not you keep the "RedypackBag", I want you to keep the pen as a present from me, entirely free of charge. It's a return for your courtesy in examining the "RedypaktBag" and giving me your opinion about it.

Letter 8: An Indirect Approach

The longest way around is frequently the shortest way home - when it comes to selling people an idea.

If we were to come to you, and tell you that we'd be glad to put your name in some "Who's Who" provided you would dig up $10 for a copy, you'd shy off at once. It would be too apparent that the only reason we were listing you was to get your $10.

But if we approach you tactfully and indirectly, there is a good chance we shall get both your listing and your $10. Here is an example of the indirect approach that worked well.

Dear Madam:

Would you be good enough to do me a favor? I promise not to ask too much.

You can help to solve a problem which is of significance to all officials of Women's clubs. You know that for 34 years, the leading Club Women of the United States have been recorded each year in the So & So of Women's Clubs.

This year, a symposium is being conducted among the leading officials of Women's Clubs, to determine whether it would add measurably to the So & So's value to include an entirely new section - a "Who's Who Among Club Women", - giving a short biographical sketch with the offices you have held and all the outstanding achievements of your Club life.

Your Club Activities entitles you to representation in this exclusive section. Will you be good enough to give me your opinion of the value of a section?

There will be no charge for the listing, but since each listing will mean considerable additional expense in the way of typesetting and the like, we shall ask each of those whose biographical sketches appear in this "Who's Who" to subscribe for one copy of So & So. To make up for this however, we shall send it to them - not at the regular price of $5.00, but at a special pre-publication discount of 15% - making the net price to them $4.25, and even from this figure we shall give them an additional discount for advance payment.

We shall greatly appreciate an expression of your opinion from you. If that opinion is favorable, please fill out the Record attached, giving your Club connection and all those little personal items that Society Editors and others ask for, when you own or your club's activities bring your name into the news.

The enclosed envelope needs no stamp. Won't you, therefore fill out the Record NOW - while it is in your hands and mail it right back in the enclosed envelope?

Thank you!

Appreciatively,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 9: Bargains

Everyone offers bargains - at least, everyone claims that if you take into consideration the quality and so on of his product, it is a bargain at this price.

But what everyone claims, no one believes. So you've got to do more than claim that your price is low or you offer an unusual bargain. You've got to show the reason why.

Here is a letter that was unusually successful in convincing readers that they were getting something unusual in the way of price reduction, and therefore brought back their orders in profitable quantities.

Mr. Business Man:

"Name your own price!" said the manufacturer.

And we did.

You know how most factories are - busy and working overtime eight or ten months of the year and idle the rest. And those idle months, like the famines of ancient Egypt, eat up most of the profits of the busy ones.

We offered to keep this factory busy making new Carozy Robes all during the idle season.

"Name your own price", was the answer.

We named a price. It was accepted without cavil or question, with the result that we can offer you, at $9.85, a Motor Rob that customers tell us could not be equaled in stores at anywhere near that price. The folder enclosed will give you some idea of the beauty and richness of this luxurious Robe.

Naturally, bargains like this won't last long. We got this one manufacturer's output for three months, but while three months' output is a lot of robes, they won't go far among our more than 300,000 customers.

The enclosed card will bring one of these beautiful new Carozy Robes to you for a week's examination - FREE! No money - no risk - no obligation. Just the postcard.

"A direct saving to me of at least $7.50," wrote John Smith of Clarksburg, WV, when he saw his robe.

The card will be worth good money to you, too, IF YOU WILL MAIL IT AT ONCE.

Yours for mutual cooperation,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 10: The Dollar Letter

Here is the most successful letter we have ever heard of - the famous "Dollar Letter". Pinned to its top was a crisp, new dollar bill - a real dollar bill.

This letter pulled better than a 90% response. The writer of this letter told us that from 175,000 mailed, he got back $270,000, plus more than 90% of the $1 bills mailed out with them.

But this was only the start. From the list of more than 150,000 people who gave that $270,000, further subscriptions were secured to the amount of nearly $14,000,000.

Dear Mr. Jones:

Here's a dollar: Yes, it's a REAL dollar - nice and clean and new.

Keep it if you want to, after you've read this letter - but I don't believe you will, then.

Here's what it's all about:

I've made an investment of a thousand dollars in human nature - human kindness. I've mailed a thousand dollars - in a thousand letters to a thousand people picked at random. I have done this because I believe that every one is really kind, way down inside - that no one is REALLY heartless and that the only reason why folks do not help where help is needed is just because these needs are not IMPRESSED upon them hard enough.

"And that's the mission of each of my thousand dollars - to impress the importance of a need. This thousand dollars is my subscription to the Blank Hospital - and I'm investing in the belief that every one will bring back several more - at least another - with it. So our subscription - which I'm starting in this way will be at least two thousand - maybe five - for there's going to be a lot of you who will send a five or a ten or more - when you mail my dollar back.

Remember - both my dollar and your dollars go to help crippled children.

Will EVERY ONE come back?

Will everyone bring something more?

Are people really kind - or REALLY heartless?

Have I made a good investment?

What is YOUR answer?

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 11: Selling Securities by Mail

How about selling stocks by mail? Millions of dollars of such sales have been made, and when properly done, it is one of the least expensive methods of selling known.

The easiest way, of course, is to send an inexpensive letter to your list first, to find out who can be interested in that particular type of investment. To those who answer that letter, you can afford to send a whole series of follow-ups, booklets or make a personal call.

Here is a type of letter which has met with marvelous success in offers of this kind.

Here Is The Industry That Started MANY OF THE GREAT FORTUNES OF TODAY!

Dear Sir:

Men made iron and steel for thousands of years. Along came a new process and a man named Carnegie to capitalize it, and made a thousand millionaires. When "in steel" while this magic change was in process, made fortunes almost overnight.

Men have been brewing beer for thousands of years. Along came Prohibition and practically closed the industry. Breweries were dismantled, their working crews scattered to the four winds.

BUT NOW, WITH A STROKE OF THE PEN, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT HAS CHANGED ALL THIS. NOW, ALMOST OVERNIGHT, COMES A DEMAND FOR BEER GREATER THAN THE COUNTRY HAS EVER BEFORE KNOWN!

The stocks of the few active, well-equipped breweries soared overnight. In two weeks, they increased 48% in value, while the average of all stocks went up only 6%. Yet if the record of earnings means anything, that is only the start. Men with good brewery stocks should see them rise to almost phenomenal heights as did those "in steel" back in Carnegie's day. Breweries today should make even more.

Yet there is one brewery which has been in continuous operation in the same family for 77 years, with a splendid plant and a fine old name, and which has so far escaped the notice of stock market investors. To us, it seems to offer greater possibilities of profit from small investment than anything you can put your money into today.

May we tell you more about it?

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 12: Securing Inquiries for a Booklet

How can you most easily find the people interested in new courses, new sets of books and the like?

By offering to the most likely lists of prospects, to send without cost a booklet of interest only to people desiring that particular type of knowledge. The encyclopedia Britannica, for instance offers a booklet containing sample pages and illustrations from its new Encyclopedia. Collier's offers a booklet telling in the words of Dr. Eliot of Harvard what he considers the essentials of a liberal education, and thus finds the people who can be interested in Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf of Books.

Here is such a letter, designed to winnow out from the other lists the names of all those interested in learning the art of Public Speaking. It is one of the most successful inquiry-bringing letters we have used.

Now For The First Time - THE SECRET OF EFFECTIVE SPEECH - FREE!

Dear Sir:

At your request, I shall be glad to send you one of the most talked-of little books ever written. It will cost you exactly one cent - the price of the stamp that will bring the enclosed card back to me.

The name of this booklet is - "The Secret of Effective Speech". The principal part of it was written by perhaps the most successful speaker of modern times, the man who made over $4,000,000.00 from his lectures, and then used it to send young men through College - Russell Conwell, author of "Acres of Diamonds".

The Secret of Effective Speech should be read by every executive who ever has to face a hostile audience, whether that audience consists of one man or a thousand.

It is not made up of rules and principles, but of the few common-sense essentials which Conwell found of most importance in his thousands of appearances on the public platform. It is radical. It is stimulating. AND IT IS FREE!

Your name and address on the enclosed card will bring you a copy of "The Secret of Effective Speech", with out compliments. You will like this little book. It is short, but there is a tremendous lot in it. Every time you read it, you will realize more clearing why Russell Conwell had so many thousand enthusiastic admirers, who audiences hung upon his every word.

Frankly, we are taking this means of bringing to the attention of a few alert business executives a new method of teaching Public Speaking - a method so striking and simple, yet so amazingly successful, that it is taking the country by storm.

Will you use the postcard NOW - TODAY?

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 13: Sports Appeal - Sales Appeal

Sports articles are notably successful in mail selling, where you can get lists of people interested in any particular sport. Fishing tackle, golf clubs and balls, tennis racquets and a host of other products have been successfully sold by mail. There is even a concern in Baltimore which sells fine saddlery by mail and has built a surprisingly profitable business.

Here is a letter that sold Field Glasses by mail, and sold them in goodly quantities. Its basic idea is just as applicable to dozens of other products that appeal to all sportsmen.

Now the Far Distances are Yours WITH MAGIC EYES THAT SEE FOR MILES!

Dear Friend:

Here is a wonderful way to add to the enjoyment of your trips, to give you "ring side" seats at every sporting event, to bring anything you want to see within a few feet of you MULTIPLYING YOUR OWN EYE-SIGHT BY THE POWER OF THESE EIGHT MAGIC LENSES!

Four-Mile Eyes - that is what they give you, spanning distances like the fabled seven-league boots of childhood. For the hunter, they are a necessity. For the tourist or traveler, they add a zest that doubles the enjoyment of sightseeing. For those who love sports, they make a nearby window or hilltop as desirable as the most expensive "ring side" seat.

Yet for a little while, they can be had FOR LESS THAN THE COST OF A SINGLE SEAT!

You see, the finest glasses in the world are made in Central Europe. And you know how conditions have been over there - many highly skilled artisans getting lenses for a month's toil than they would for a single day's work here. The result? Bargains as you will never get again. Bargains such as we never dreamed of being able to offer in Fine Field Glasses. Prices are higher over there now and are stiffening rapidly, but up to a few weeks ago, you could get the finest achromatic day and night lenses at figures so ridiculously low as to seem like a gift.

We had a lot of extra powerful Officer's Field Glasses shipped to us at those prices a month ago. They have just been unpacked and gone over, and they are beauties. Filled with specially large achromatic day and night lens, and equipped with compass and focusing scale. They are the most powerful glasses of the kind we have ever seen at anywhere near the price.

I have a pair on my desk before me as I write, and through them I can mount the high tension wires on a hill a couple of miles east of here, and through these glasses, I can watch every move of the builders. If they were football players, I could see them better than from the choicest seat.

And the reason? These glasses were made for the use of Army Officers, and they had to be good. They are the only 8-lens Galilean Field Glass with compass and leather case that sell for less than $30.00! But while they last, I am going to let you have a pair for $7.95!

Not only that, but if you mail the enclosed card right away, I will send them to you, postpaid, for a week's FREE EXAMINATION and TRIAL!

SEND NO MONEY! Just your name and address on the enclosed card will bring a pair of these extra-powerful, *-lens Officer's Field Glasses to you at our risk, our expense, TRY them! Test them against the finest glasses you can find selling at $30.00 to $40.00 a pair. If these are not clear, stronger, more satisfactory in every way, send them back. If you are willing to part with them for any reason, send them back. Otherwise, $7.95 makes them your own, an endless source of pleasure and usefulness. On that understanding, will you TRY a pair of these Magic Eyes? With that distinct agreement, will you put your name on the enclosed card, and mail it NOW? You will never have another such opportunity.

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 14: Using Pressure

Want to start a business of your own by mail? Here is a letter that brought in more than $1,000,000.00 worth of orders for a new concern in its first six months.

Every man wants to make money. Every man wants to see his money grow. When you start by asking your reader if he'd like to see one dollar grow to a hundred, you have his attention. when you prove to him that he can learn how to work such a miracle before he pays out a single penny, you are sure of his interest. After that, the bringing back of the actual order is mere detail.

This letter is high-pressure... to much so for many projects - but for those that can stand it, it embodies every feature of the successful selling letter.

My dear Sir:

Would you like to see $1.00 grow to $60.00 - $8.00 grow to $500.00 by next March?

Let me tell you how:

I am going to send you within the next few days a set of seven little books. These books are probably not like any you have ever seen before because:

They are about YOU!

They show you that you have been using but a small part of your real abilities - that back in your subliminal mind", as the scientists call it, is a sleeping Giant who. awakened, can carry you on to fame and fortune almost overnight! A Genie-of-your-Brain as powerful, as capable of satisfying your every wish, as was ever Aladdin's wonderful Genie-of-the-lamp of old.

They make your Day Dreams, your visions of wonderful achievement, of fortune, health and happiness COME TRUE - not five, ten, or fifteen years from now, but TODAY, A.D. 1925!

I am going to send these little books to you - with no obligations on your part - for you to read and ACTUALLY TRY OUT for a week at my risk and expense.

But - there's just one thing - I don't want to send these without first getting your permission. You can grant that in a moment on the enclosed special "Courtesy Card".

When I send the books, there's absolutely no obligation on your part to pay for them. You can return them for ANY reason, or for no reason at all.

BUT HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!

If you; find these little books are everything I say about them (and you're to be the sole judge), how much would you expect to pay for them? $30.00? $50.00? $100.00? That's what ordinary courses, which merely promise to show you how to do some special kind of work, cost you. Certainly, if this one will do the half of what I've promised you, it will be worth all of that - and more!

Well - if you decide to keep these books, you need send me - NOT $50.00 or $100.00, not even their regular price of $13.50 - but my SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE TO YOU, good only on this ADVANCE EDITION of $6.85! (If you prefer the more convenient monthly payments, send only $1.00 a month for eight months.)

And that isn't all!

If within 6 months your $1.00 hasn't grown to $60.00 - if you can't credit to the $6.85 you pay for this Course at least $500.00 of ADDITIONAL EARNINGS - send back the books and I'll refund to you cheerfully and in full every cent you have paid to me for them.

There are no conditions - no strings attached of any kind to this offer. If within 6 months these little books have not brought you the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow, then they are not for you. Send them back and get your money!

Sincerely,

(YOUR NAME)

Letter 15: Using the "You" Element

There is a concern in one of the Eastern states which built a business running into the millions on four letters. Those four letters were used over and over again, year after year. They finally wore out, but after several years' rest, they are again good for an occasional mailing.

All those letters were built around the most important and interesting subject you can write about to any reader - HIMSELF.

Here is the most successful of these four letters - "Will you give me a little information about YOURSELF?"

Dear Sir:

Will you give me a little information about yourself - just your height and weight?

I want to send you one of our famous "Rainproof" Coats (designed especially for substantial Business Men) for you to examine, free of charge; but I can't send one in your size without knowing your height and weight.

Over 36,000 Men-of-Affairs, in all parts of the country, wear these "Rainproof" Coats on rainy days. They are just the kind of coat EVERY well-dressed business man needs in the Spring and Fall, for they are really TWO COATS IN ONE - a perfect raincoat for stormy days and a well-appearing Topcoat for cold and windy days.

More than 36,000 keen business and professional men who have ordered "Rainproof" Coats during the past two years paid us prices varying from $17.85 to $23.50 for their coats.

NOW FOR ONE MONTH ONLY - WE ARE OFFERING THESE "RAINPROOF" COATS AT THE LOWEST PRICE AT WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN OFFERED IN THE TWO YEARS - $16.65!

From Ohio, Mr. John Jones, Vice-President and Treasurer of Blank Cement Co., writes:

"I never got as much comfort and satisfaction out of any coat as I have from the "Rainproof". I had been looking for such a garment for years - a coat I could wear on all occasions and be proud of."

And this is just one out of hundreds of letters and telegrams that have come from men who have ordered these "Rainproof" Coats and been delightedly surprised with their fine style, great usefulness and good value.

Won't you fill in your height and weight on the enclosed postcard, and mail it to me? Then I can send you one of these famous "Rainproof" Coats - in your exact size by Parcel Post for a week's FREE TRIAL. You can examine the coat at your leisure, with no insisting clerks at your side, and WEAR IT A FULL WEEK FREE. If you don't think it is just the kind of coat you've always wanted, just fire it back at MY EXPENSE, and accept my thanks for the privilege of sending it to you.

But remember - this is the only month in which we are going to offer "Rainproof" Coats a the special "lowest-in-years' price of $14.65!

Hadn't you better drop the postcard into the mail RIGHT NOW - while you can take advantage of this Special Offer?

Yours very truly,

(YOUR NAME)

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