Vinnie James

Vincent "Vinnie" James is probably the direct marketer that influenced me the most (indirectly) when I got started. Most people usually say "Who?" when I bring up his name.

The reason a lot of people don't know about Vinnie James is the fact that Vinnie mailed about 1,000,000 letters over a two year period back in '95 and fell off the face of the earth (marketing wise) 'till late '99.

I ordered his book on direct marketing and was hooked ever since. What was so great about him? The way that he wrote. He actually wrote the way that somebody would talk. You would think that somebody like Stephen King or Tom Clancy would influence my writing style but no, it was a guy from the East coast that lived and marketed from his small office in Phoenix.

One of my favorite things about Vinnie James is the fact that he would just talk and talk and talk on some of the tapes that he would send out. He would talk so unrehearsed that he would actually curse during much of the tape. I found this not only funny but extremely down to earth.

There were things that in retrospect I don't think Vinnie knew a lot about. He didn't take credit cards and he didn't think they were worth the trouble. I know (from experience) that credit cards account for about 90% of my sales. Now granted, if I didn't take credit cards there would still be a lot of people that would go and get a money order but I would also lose people that would say "Oh, forget it, I won't bother".I almost didn't order his stuff because I thought the same thing.

About a year, almost two, after I ordered his material he stopped taking out ads and doing all his mailings... Maybe he made millions. Maybe he gave up. But about two months ago I saw an ad in a business opportunity magazine talking about internet marketing.

I guess Vincent James has finally entered the information age. Way to go Vinnie.

Update: Vinnie James called me the other day to say that he really enjoys my site and my reviews. YES. :)

Matt Gagnon