Elegant Solutions

Other times, an "Elegant Solution" can
be short, simple and to the point. Follow along closely to yet another true-life
story. I recently received a letter from one of my subscribers. Due to my
misplaced sense of couth and kindness, I am going to eliminate his name but,
here's his letter, word-for-word:

Dear Mr. Halbert,

Wow! You are one passionate guy who has found his
calling and is living it! I don't know how I found you but I've read your
newsletter archives and I see one thing: There are people who have a job or a
career or a calling. You live, eat, and sleep and exude passion for headlines
and copy. So, of course, you are the person to ask.

I am a residential architect. I have the idea to sell my
house plans via the web. My wife says, "You want to sell plans and there
are a million other sites out there? How are they going to find us? How are you
going to drive people to our site? How are you going to compete with the
well-established ones? How are you going to find out what house plans sell the
best? We only have 200 house plans. It's a lot of work and too big of a risk.
Your houses are regional (Northeast) and they are not great designs."

In the scope of it, she raises a lot of good points
which I was aware of but, excitement overtook me. So, I switched to "How To
Design Your Own Home CD". Then my wife says, "Fine, that's ok, but you
can only sell it for $15.95. Do you know how many you have to sell for us to
make money?"

As you can see, I am an expert on homes in the
Northeast. But I need an expert like yourself. I don't mind hard work, I
just want to go in the right direction.

So how do I ask for help?

Thank you very much,