Fill Up Your Mental Inbox With Things You Want To Know

When I was a lad in rural Ireland, long, long ago, I went through a phase of signing up for Free Gifts by mail. You know the ones: "Cut out, complete and post this coupon with your name and address and we will send you our Fabulous Brochure".

I recall lusting after Stars Wars reel-to-reel 8mm films, which I would fantasise about playing on a Bell And Howell  8mm projector and Experience The Magic, in my own home, of the first science fiction film that actually looked real.

I ended up buying some nice German army moleskin trousers instead.

Happy days, waiting for the postman to bring glittering lists of exotic gifts from far away. That's what mail should be: something you look forward to receiving.

We discussed previously in this blog how to filter out junk mail: https://www.registeredaddress.co.uk/blog/5-ways-to-stop-junk-mail/
We at Registered Address Limited do not knowingly forward junk mail. It wastes your money and our time. When you get a letter from us, we want you to be eager to receive it. Surprisingly, at least one competitor of ours will forward obvious spam [shrugs].

So, how to get stuff you do want?

Well, the obvious answer is to be discriminating. Which do you think is more valuable: a mailing list of 1,000 senior businessmen who are very interested in the latest gen on a very specific niche OR a list of 100,000 small businessmen who signed up to Thomson's Local and now are getting calls, asking for them by name, enquiring about who does their telecoms?

Yet hyper call centre staff still call angry small businessmen at the behest of sweaty managers, ruining everyone's day. You don't want to be on their call sheet.

I think, now, that there is no list you can subscribe to, no club that you can belong to, that is going to give you The Keys To The Kingdom. Knowledge is power. Businessmen tend to be more savvy than your average Millwall fan. They keep their secrets close. Only an idiot would spill his guts on a technique the could still make him serious money.

So what you get is something that worked six months ago, is tapped out and is now pushed to the rubes in a last attempt to wring some money or status from it. Banks spam you, utilities spam you, religious orders spam you: they ... want ... your ... money!

So bookmark niche blogs. Join a specialist forum and lurk, only. You can work out from the general trend what's working and what's not. Join your local Business Bureau and Conservative association. Get in with the In crowd: we help our nearest, not Joe Blow in the next village.  Make sure 'unsubscribe' is ticked for just about everything, as:

1. If they start out good they'll end up flogging junk. Greed gets 'em all.
2. NO ONE can offer constant quality, long term. They get tired and end up repeating themselves. Take what you can and move on.

The good news is that you will be an expert in the end. Even if you're not smart, you'll remember what works and what doesn't, and that may be enough. No one will be able to duplicate what you have learned, as you can't get it from books. This is what apprenticeships used to be about: an old codger would show a stripling a tip on how to bodge a valve on a copper pipe when he didn't have the proper kit to hand.

Now we have kids with a two-year cert taking three visits to swop out a radiator. And you have to stay in all day to receive them. Progress!