I'm too old to reinvent the wheel and, with a family to feed, I don't have time for much trial and error and need to start making money to support my family. 

Reinventing the wheel I understand this is a “cowboy” business filled with creative entrepreneurial Type A personalities who all think they know better; however, right now is NOT the time to try new ideas!

So far I have not taken the time to develop a real database system and to be honest I would rather not reinvent the wheel. 

No need to reinvent the wheel here!

Do not over think this, do not reinvent the wheel. 

In no way am I trying to reinvent the wheel here, just looking to see what smarter people did to make it roll. :)

You don't have to reinvent the wheel here, but if you are going to go to the effort of compiling and scrubbing this data, why not develop a marketing piece that is going to make them think twice before throwing it into the garbage (since that is where 95% of your effort is likely going, even on the best campaigns)?

I really have to take my hat off to you guys that have been in the business for so long that are so willing to share information and experiences to help new investors from having to "reinvent the wheel" and making blunders and mistakes.

I hand write the envelopes and letter, and have not tried to reinvent the wheel when it comes to effective marketing.I can tell you from my personal experience that any time I have tried to change that, hand written envelope printed letter or any variation my response has gone down.Set a goal each week on how many you want to send out, then divide that by days and you will know how many you need to do daily.Also, your letter does not need to be a long one.

And I agree with Frank Wong - a lot of the rich people I know also pay tens of thousands of dollars to get continually educated and short-cut their way to success (meaning, they don't have to spend a lot of time reinventing and making mistakes).