Stock Trading and Other Things

Lets say I was rather good at picking stock options. How would I go about selling a monthly newsletter?

I had a subscription to a weekly options trading newsletter that costed over $1,000 per year for a subscription. That was 4 years ago since then I have studied, researched and have been able to pick stock options with just as good if not better returns that the ones in the newsletter were producing. How would I go about creating, marketing, and selling my own 4 page newsletter for subscribers?

Public Comments

1. "just do it". Start with something small just to see if you can get an audience, if it takes off and your service proves popular then you will have the cash to develop further and get bigger and better.

1. start letting people know about your service. Participate in forums and make friends with people and run it past them.

2. decide how often your newsletter will be sent and what format it will take, then create a sample copy / first issue. send it out via email to all your potential customers.

3. get a website. Wordpress is a good template to start with and is free (just got to pay for your domain name and hosting) and has great instructions which newbie to web development should be able to do. If you cannot do it you can find others online who will for under $200.

4. Offer free trial subscriptions via your website while you are working out the kinks and getting everything set up.

5. Implement payment processing via the web (paypal good to start with, maybe look at clickbank/plimus if you want others to help you with marketing, as these companies will handle commission payouts for you).

6. See what happens. Keep writing your newsletters, offer excellent support and keep cultivating new customers where possible. If/when you have the money develop your site further, implement SEO to enter search engines, and consider an advertising budget to get banners on popular forums advertising your service, or make contact with other businesses to see how you can help each other.

It really is as simple as just getting out there and doing it, and if you can't/won't learn about simple web development then set aside $200 to $1000 to get a programmer to assist. Marketing can be done for another $1000 to get you well on your way, or free if you work hard befriending people on the net and offering freebies. Check out sites like guru.com and elance.com for freelancers for parts of the project you can't do yourself.

2. Creating it:
a. Use Word or Publisher to create a nice layout.
b. Decide on some regular sections to include in it, such as top news, maybe industry columns (tech stock options, for example), maybe a Q & A column.
c. Write up your first one. Proofread it so the writing is professional.
d. You can email electronic copies or print and mail copies.

Marketing/selling it:
a. Make yourself known. No one will buy an expensive newsletter from just anyone. They have to feel that you're the real deal and that your advice and tips will be worth their money. If you aren't known in the industry (you didn't work at a brokerage house or weren't known at one as a power investor), you'll have to build up a reputation for yourself. The best way I can think of is to start your newsletter as a blog, where people get the advice for free for several months and can see a track record of your skill. Or you could write articles on established blogs (find them here: http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/business/finance/ ) which are already widely read. Develop a following, and then turn it into a newsletter.
b. Have a web presence whether you start via blog or not. It can be a small website, but it should be very professional looking and have at least some free advice. The website will serve as both a place where people can find you to subscribe to your newsletter and as an ongoing advertisement. You can write teaser stuff here to make people want more. The answer to the teaser stuff is always in the latest edition of your newsletter.
c. Advertise on web banner ads and in newspapers and magazines. Advertising in print media is expensive, though. You can advertise in a business/financial publication or in magazines targeted to people who go for ads that say "I got rich this way... you can, too."
d. You want to build a brand name, so choose a good name for your newsletter and a logo.

One thing to convince people to keep subscribing is to keep a running progress report. Create a portfolio of your picks and publish its progress over time. Show how much is made or lost every month or so, or from your recommendations. If you can show you consistently outperform the market, people will subscribe.