Friend A was a very competent copywriter who wrote an exceptional full-page ad that he ran in a large daily newspaper. It cost about $25,000 to run and he barely broke even. Since Friend A was only focused on the front end, when the ad failed to produce a massive profit for him, he gave up instantly on the concept and closed the business down and moved on.

Friend B was much wiser. He wrote a good ad--though not quite as powerful as friend A's ad. And when Friend B ran his full-page ad in the same newspaper, the loss was actually about 5% of the cost ($1,000). But instead of giving up on the concept, as Friend A had done, Friend B looked at the situation differently. He decided to make selling loose synthetic diamonds only the front end of his business. So when he sent people their loose stones, he offered to let them trade them in for larger present stones done in rings, pendants and earrings.

Boy, did that difference in strategy pay off!

Instead of continuing to lose money on the ad, every time Friend B ran an ad, nearly 50 percent of the people buying a loose stone for $39 traded it in for an average piece of jewelry for $400, on which he made $300. In the first year of applying his back-end philosophy, Friend B made more than $25,000,000 on the back end.

See the difference how looking at your business as a back-end proposition can make to your success and your bank account?

I want you to stop for a moment, get out a paper and pad and make a lit of all the additional purchases your customer or client should be making for their best interest in using your existing products and services. Call this List A. Next, make a list (B) of all the products or services that precede, correspond to or add to your primary products and services.

This is your back-end list of possibilities. Look up (in the Yellow Pages) people or companies selling the various products or services on those two lists and approach them and ask them to let you offer their product or service to your customers and prospects on a fair, profit-sharing basis.

What is a fair share? That depends a lot on whether or not the people you approach have a back end themselves. If they do--and it's potentially significant--you should keep perhaps 60%-80% of the profits for yourself. If they don't have much, or any, back end, you should share 50-50--after a consideration to you to help defray selling costs.

"Back Ends" That Work Well

* Car dealerships sell you service and oil changes.
* Magazines sell you books and tapes.
* Theaters sell you food and beverages.
* Electronics dealers sell you warranties.

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