Mags to Riches

   Readers will know that I enjoy anything put out there by Avril Harper. From what I can gather Avril Harper is a long time player in the Home Biz game. She regularly releases interesting titbits about what she has been up to (some with a "handy" affiliate link embdedded within). At the moment there are roughly 22 Avril Harper publications for sale on Amazon, from a pub year of 1991 onwards. A few months back I treated myself to "Mags to Riches".

   I bought Mags to Riches as I have always been a newspaper clipper. As a Teenager I used to cut up the paper into smithereens and file all the clips under various titles. Unfortunately all that content bit the dust as I made 10 house moves during my 20s. I was interested to see how Avril hoped to monetise this harmless little activity.

   I found the book to be slightly dated and from a pre-internet age. For example, why would a newbie MP employ a clipper nowadays when they could set up their own Google alert for news on what the world thinks of them?

   On the other hand there was some interesting stuff in there which could stand the test of time. If nothing else the whole premise of the book fits in well with my System - get something for nothing and turn it into a small profit; rinse and repeat. It doesn't matter if we are talking about junk from freecycle, junk from local bargain finder, 5p book joblots from Ebay, pallets from a skip or WHATEVER! Avril says you can take a newspaper or magazine which would have been going into the bin and turn that piece of would-be rubbish into cash opportunities. That's my philosophy all over.

   Here is my notes on the opps she puts forward:

1) Clip for specific subjects and advertise your cache for sale. 4 Stars Wars News Clipping Scrapbooks recently sold for £76 on Ebay (with 14 bids).
2) Clip copyright free patterns or designs and either resell or use as inspiration.
3) Use stories from "real life" magazines to build plotlines. Sell these plotlines via Writers Handbook.
4) Clip wanted ads and try to match with sellers. Set yourself up in a broker capacity.
5) Try to find the Ads which have stood the test of time. If the same ad has ran monthly for over a year then you know that ad must be drawing in business successfully. Can you muscle in? (This is essentially the starting point for the business plan in Tim Ferriss' 4HWW)
6) Use Newspaper cartoons for inspiration for Sketch show ideas. You could use these to set up your own Youtube channel or try sending them to like of Paul Whitehouse or Vic Reeves' agents.
7) Clip news which may be of interest to trade or specialist publications. Have you ever read the Fortean Times? That whole magazine is basically built on snippets which have been sent in from Joe Public.
8) Clip specifically for book creation. Google "Chas Newkey-Burden". I'm sure I've mentioned him on here before. This guy has knocked out no less than 29 published books in the last few years. They are all based around the same formula - light celebrity biographies. I can guarantee that this guy will be trawling The Sun, The Daily Star and The Daily Mirror every day clipping any gossip on his next target.
9) Clip "filler material" like hints and tips etc. You can then recycle these by rewording them and sending them to alternative publication. For example, find it in Woman's Weekly, scramble it up a bit and send to Full House magazine.
10) Clip the jokes and send to Comedians.
11) Clip facts about a person. Papers love the old "20 Questions" features where they ask Billie Faiers (pictured) or some other such wannabee banal questions like "Who is your favourite Spice Girl?" If you clip these and save them up you could eventually build a file on someone which could easily be swirled around into an Ebook output for sale via disc on Ebay or as a Kindle product. I note that there is a guy currently churning out these for the Kindle on American Sport Stars. Now this guy might get less than 10 sales ever but on the other hand the book will cost him nothing to create and I'm sure he's enjoying himself as he builds them.
12) Clip recipes. Never forget that Cookery is the biggest selling Adult subject matter (dieting is second).
13) On January 1st get a big cardboard box and put it in the bottom of a cupboard. Every time you get a souvenir pullout from a newspaper put it carfeully in the box. At the end of the year label your box and put it up into the loft. Start a new box and repeat. After 25 years, get the box down from the loft and start listing the pullouts individually for sale. You'll make a bomb!
14) Clip puzzles, word games etc. I'm surprised people ever buy expensive puzzle books when the Newspapers  print so many of them every week. Take the Daily Mail, it has a 4 page puzzle pull out every day.