A good template

[TheCollector]

Hi blitzkreig,

Hi Ian,

My actual name is Jayven but you can call me Jay.

Right then for question...

1. A group of people including me are planning (for 4 months now) to arrange a fundraising event this summer holidays. You may have read the news that it has now been 6 months on from when the tsunami disaster happened. We would like to give them a helping hand by raising some cash for those people who are still in need of help.

2. I think I answered it on question 1

3. A celeb donation will ensure a huge turnout of people. An admission fee for entering each competition will be charged (dont know yet) and the autographs will serve as a prize for winning.

Hope this helps Ian- and again thanks for your full support on this idea

Hi Jay,

Cool. I totally understand what you are doing now!

It sounds a great idea, and with the info you gave I will draft you a letter which you can try and see if you have any increase in results.

I am actually about to go out now, but I will be back in this evening, and I will PM you something later!

(For anyone who's interested - I will add a new Thread to the forum also in the next couple of days giving some example letters!!!!!)

Cheers,
Ian

[blitzkreig]

Thanks so much Ian.

[TheCollector]

Jay ,

Hi,

Hope you got my revised dummy letter OK by email.

Let me what you think!

Ian

[blitzkreig]

hi ian,

thanks again for your help

I think that your letter is better than mine because of the following reasons:

1. I thought that I should praise their work, etc.

2. I thought that the letter should be at MOST, 2 paragraphs

hey btw Ian, I know your SASE is an A4 size one, but what size is your main letter? I seem to go to the post office (which is 2 miles away) a lot since the envelopes that I use is bigger than the post box which is just located at the end of our street.

Jay

[TheCollector]

hi ian,

thanks again for your help

I think that your letter is better than mine because of the following reasons:

1. I thought that I should praise their work, etc.

2. I thought that the letter should be at MOST, 2 paragraphs

hey btw Ian, I know your SASE is an A4 size one, but what size is your main letter? I seem to go to the post office (which is 2 miles away) a lot since the envelopes that I use is bigger than the post box which is just located at the end of our street.

Jay

Hi Jay

What I tend to do, is if I have something particular to say, I put a little handwritten note on a blank area of the letter, saying for example about their work etc, otherwise I try to keep the letter plain.

I find it is important to bold the line which say about what you would like from them, as this draws the eye to it, in case they can't be bothered to read the whole letter!

I would try to keep the letter as brief as possible (if you can shorten it, even better). I just found in order to explain what you are collecting for it needed a bit more writing!

As long as the letter doesn't go over a page, I think that is OK!

My SASE is always A4 in size, but I fold it in half and put it with my letter in an A5 envelope as this is easier to handle/post.

Hope this helps!
Ian

[blitzkreig]

hi ian,

thanks again for your help

I think that your letter is better than mine because of the following reasons:

1. I thought that I should praise their work, etc.

2. I thought that the letter should be at MOST, 2 paragraphs

hey btw Ian, I know your SASE is an A4 size one, but what size is your main letter? I seem to go to the post office (which is 2 miles away) a lot since the envelopes that I use is bigger than the post box which is just located at the end of our street.

Jay

Hi Jay

What I tend to do, is if I have something particular to say, I put a little handwritten note on a blank area of the letter, saying for example about their work etc, otherwise I try to keep the letter plain.

I find it is important to bold the line which say about what you would like from them, as this draws the eye to it, in case they can't be bothered to read the whole letter!

I would try to keep the letter as brief as possible (if you can shorten it, even better). I just found in order to explain what you are collecting for it needed a bit more writing!

As long as the letter doesn't go over a page, I think that is OK!

My SASE is always A4 in size, but I fold it in half and put it with my letter in an A5 envelope as this is easier to handle/post.

Hope this helps!
Ian

Hey Ian,

Would you like to look at my letter and check if I have any 'glitches' with it?

About the A4 letter thing...
Ooopppsss! Why didnt I think of that?- but I can see on some of your feedbacks that it is not folded.

[TheCollector]

Hey Ian,

Would you like to look at my letter and check if I have any 'glitches' with it?

About the A4 letter thing...
Ooopppsss! Why didnt I think of that?- but I can see on some of your feedbacks that it is not folded.

Hi Jay,

I do always fold my A4 envelopes to go in the A5 ones, but the ones you can see on feedback which are not folded are usually supplied by the celeb.

Quite often they will send out one of those more rigid cardboard envelopes, or a padded (jiffy) bag.

I would love to have a look at your letter, I will PM you my email address!

Cheers,

Ian

[TheCollector]

Hi Ian, heres the letter that i would like for you to have a look at:

(recently, Ive sent the manager of Liverpool FC a letter)

Hi Jay,

Thanks for sending me a copy of your letter!

It was really good and very well written. All I would say is that it was great for collecting personal autographs, but for collecting for charity you need to just ask outright earlier on in your letter for what you want!

When you collect for a charitable cause, the celeb (or their agent) do not expect you to say a lot about them. They understand you are writing to many people and most expect to donate a certain amount to charity every year.

If you want to use your own letter, I would suggest you move the end bit forward to ask for a donation earlier on, and then go onto say what you think about them. You might think it sounds a bit rude to go ahead and ask for what you want outright, but if you don't you simply won't succeed as well!

In reality, only about one in ten of your letters will actually be read by the celebrity, the other nine will be read by administrators and agents - on the whole it will be them who send you an autograph. They are businessmen running a business, so just go ahead and ask for a donation.

If you don't believe me, just try sending out a few my way and see how you get on!

Keep in touch.

Ian

[blitzkreig]

one more question btw, can you give me a suggustion, as a person who gets some mail too, (as a percentage) if it would give me a success

thx, Jay

[TheCollector]

one more question btw, can you give me a suggustion, as a person who gets some mail too, (as a percentage) if it would give me a success

thx, Jay

Hi Jay ,

I'm not totally sure of your question, but if you are asking what percentage of the letters you send out will result in an autograph, then I would probably say for me it has been about 50% so far.

However, some celebs have needed several letters before getting a reply, and I am still waiting for quite a few to get back to me. But on the whole I have got back about 1/2 of the people on my own personal database.

Hope this helps!
Ian {thumb2}