How NOT to Start Out like Me!

My Internet Business Horror Show - After three nightmarish years, it's finally turning it around.

Premise:

I had been trying to make some extra money on the internet and eventually turn it into a full time income, quit my job and have the financial security to spend more time with my family. Sounds great doesn't it?

But what I didn't know is the length and breath of the complexities involved in creating and marketing anything successfully on the net.

I had no idea that the internet, while it is fantastic for gathering and dispersing information, is also this ravenous mythological beast inserted into our real lives that will smile at you with a movie star grin and chew your face off with one of its million sets of jaws. I'm not trying to cause anyone to pitch their computer in the trash as a security measure. I just think that many of us need a wakeup call. Hopefully not one the likes of which I had received.

I had hit veritable financial ruin because I was ignorant, careless and uninformed. I was ripe for any immoral and dishonest sole to fleece me of all I was worth. And that's exactly what they did.

Idiot:

P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute". I am (by my record of events) one of those suckers. I am a salesperson's erotic dream. If there was an infomercial on the TV, I'd buy it. If there was a flashy car ad, I'd buy it. If there was a slick display in the store, I'd buy it. Product on an internet site, Email ad, radio ad, Yes, Yes, and Yes, I'd find a way to buy those too!

My Humiliating track record:

After rewriting this paragraph numerous times and nearly pitching my computer into a compactor in a fit of rage, and then nearly shorting out my keyboard in a sea of tears from depression, I decided on one sobering, and painfully embarrassing statement, but a statement of fact none the same.

Over the last three years I have been milked for money in the neighborhood of $150 thousand dollars, through numerous internet programs, investment scams, and careless purchases. This is not a joke, this is my reality. And my reason to find what works and figure out how to get the job done.

Turning things around:

I refinanced my house in order to stay in it a little longer, and I toured the car dealerships and traded my big flashy truck for something I could sustain without repossession. I have stopped using credit for every purchase and I have reinsulated my home to save on utility bills.

Through it all, however, I have not given up my dream of making my income on the net. I was either too stupid to stop or too determined to quit. As the famous coach Vince Lombardi once said, "It doesn't matter how often you get knocked down; what matters is how often you get back up."

Anyway, Now I am not so ignorant, or so foolish or full of myself anymore, and it is paying off. I am MAKING MONEY ON THE NET. I had no other choice, to be honest. I am at the top of the pay scale for my profession, my wife can't log anymore hours into her job, and my children are too young to work, thou that was a momentary thought during a deluded rampage while contemplating impending poverty.

How I am doing it:

I began to use the net, really use it for what it is designed for: INFORMATION and EDUCATION. I actually hopped of my high horse of thinking I was so intelligent that I can do it myself without expert help, which was what landed me in the state of searching to gaps in my seats to buy gas just to get home.

I began to READ, not the flash presentations, but the news articles and business columns. I started to take ADVICE from marketing experts, and began to try out SOLID COMPANIES with SOLID MISSION STATEMENTS.

Integrity:

To preserve my own sense of personal integrity I needed to find a suitable product to market, a product I could BELIEVE IN, but also a product that WORKED. I soon found a product that sounded great, yes like all the others I lost money on. But this time I researched to company, the news about the company, statements of the testimonials and sponsors, and the structure of the opportunity associated with it. I gathered enough information that I felt comfortable enough to give it a try: But, being now so cynical, I intended to disprove this product and move on.

Now I'm happy to report that I am a firm user of this product and a distributor of the same. I can say in all honesty that behind the hype, and I know this sounds corny; it has LITERALLY CHANGED MY LIFE. (This is not where the sales pitch is inserted, that is not the reason for me writing this. I'm not even going to tell you what this product is here.)

Making money:

I am now making money selling on the net with the assistance of:

Informational NEWSLETTERS
RSS FEEDS
EMAIL MARKETING
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
INTERNET MARKETING SEMINARS
MARKETING SOFTWARE
LEAD GENERATION techniques and services

None of which I knew existed until not too long ago. These I elude to are the ones that I personally use; they work and I have based my business on the results they give me.

There is one bit of common sense commentary that I will never forget. It is a simple idea that has changed my paradigm of thinking. The great Perry Marshall once said, "Nobody who bought a drill actually wanted a drill. They wanted a hole. Therefore, if you want to sell drills, you should advertise information about making holes - NOT information about drills!"

My take on this is the idea that if we can share information about how to make a hole without going broke then maybe we can compete with the get-rich-quick scammers that overpopulate the web and empty our wallets.

Christopher is an independent internet marketer who has admittedly made all the classic and not so classic mistakes. He has a range of writing credits from trade journal articles, to advertisements for major financial institutions, and all the way to fiction and poetry of all things. He now shares advice from internet marketing greats through his site http://cjwave.com/profitmethod.html or email: support@cjwave.com