Confession of an Internet Marketing Expert!
Copyright © 2004, Willie Crawford
Do you really believe that there are people making VERY
comfortable livings selling stuff over the Internet? Or do you
believe that they're just a bunch of fakes who'll tell you
ANYTHING just to get your money?
Like many of you, when I first came online I believed that it
WAS possible. Then, meeting with marginal success for a
while... as I marketed many different products, I began to
doubt. It was during this time that I watched many friends
who've come online at the same time that I did, simply
give up and go back to their regular jobs. I never seriously
considered doing that despite my wife's "suggestions."
Eventually, I was exposed to those actually doing what I
dreamed of doing. I met them at conference and workshops.
I talked to them on networking calls and teleseminars.
Slowly, I began to believe again. I saw people offering
irrefutable proof that they were really making the big bucks.
Like many people, I reasoned that if they could do it then so
could I.
When I say big bucks, I mean over $200,000 a year. To
someone from my background that is a significant annual
income. My annual goals are now seven-figure, but I still
keep grounded and acknowledge that a six-figure income is
above average. So it's the six figure income that I sought the
secret to earning.
Then, one day, I woke up and it was happening to me. At
that point, I asked myself, "How did it happen?" I actually
sat in bewilderment as I asked, What happened?" I needed
that answer because I wanted to show others.
Here was my biggest challenge! Every week I was
approached by people with very big dreams. They wanted
to build a business on the internet to supplement their
incomes or maybe even completely quit their day jobs.
Long after I was able to leave my day job and earn a
full-time living on the internet, I really couldn't explain to
others WHY they couldn't do it too.
I knew what I was doing and what was working for me, but
there seemed to be a missing piece of the puzzle.
I needed that missing piece of the puzzle because by this
time I had become a trusted advisor and role model to
many. I viewed their trust in me as almost sacred and I
desperately didn't want to mislead them. What a
tremendous burden!
I knew that the answer had to be in something that I had
done. It had to be in something that my role models and
mentors had done.
As the pressures of desperately needing to make money
just to pay the bills lifted, this allow me to view things from
a more detached view. What I began to see and understand
was mind-boggling.
The first thing that became apparent was... what all of the
experts had been telling me was actually THE WAY. The
problem was that I couldn't hear what they were saying
over all the noise in my head... the noise born of desperation
to find a way to earn a living online... that struggle to succeed
that so many do experience.
When that noise quieted down, I could see that first of all
there are only a handful of "Internet marketing experts"
making the big bucks online in "Internet marketing." Many
of these are actually making most of their money in niche
markets. Many of them are also making much of their money
in the offline world... often in mail order.
This is what they were telling me from the very beginning
though. However, for some reason, I couldn't hear what
they were saying. I could not hear their message. It was
like I was deeply submerged under water and could barely
see or hear them just above the water's surface.
What were they yelling? "Find a niche and fill it!" Some
even taught, "Find a niche and totally dominate it, ethically
exploiting it in every way possible."
Recently, I found these teachings reinforced even more.
One of my friends shared a script with me that told the
stories of people earning from $100,000 to $18 million per
year... all selling very niche products over the internet. One
of these was an affiliate marketer, but he was targeting very
specific niches.
My friend had actually tracked down and interviewed over 60
people who were making the big bucks. He had asked each
of them over 75 probing questions to get at the very essence
of what they did and why it worked for them. As I read the
answers to the interviews he conducted, they firmly confirmed
all that I'd slowly learned over the past 7 years. They
confirmed that all of the things the experts had been teaching
me were true.
Had I gone full circle? I now believed the possibilities were
as limitless as I perceived them to be when I first came
online. When I first came online I saw the possibilities of
earning a living on the Internet as totally limitless. I even
named a site and an ezine "Limitless." Now you know the
rest of that story :-)
Internet Marketing (marketing products and services over the
Internet) is truly the greatest opportunity that most of us have
available to us. The barriers to entry into your own business
are so low. The only element really missing for many is the
how-to.
My friend compiled his interviews into an ebook which he
called Success Alert - Conversation With Successful Internet
Entrepreneurs. This ebook is actually just 9 of the best
interviews that he conducted. That fills a 281 page ebook.
I encourage you to check out this ebook at:
http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=79505
I've just shared with you a cycle that I think many internet
marketers go through as they gradually figure out the puzzle.
The baffling part is how difficult it can be to see what people
are telling you. We seek answers and are given them, yet we
often don't hear them.
Yours in service and gratitude.
Willie Crawford
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