Websites. Cash Online. Business. Truth!

From:  Alan Forrest Smith
Date?: 18/11/2009

Man

You guys are nuts. After last weeks email I got bombarded with thanks. And I mean... dozens of thanks you emails for my last newsletter. Nooooo problemo, Luv it!

Okay, just back from a weekend in London. It was another seminar about the web and making money online. Mmmm, interesting.

You see here's what I think. Why I think it. What you should believe.

Two years ago I met a guy at a seminar (of course ;-). Now this guy was called Johnny big ears (it wasn't really the alias is to protect him).

So Johnny tells me this pretty cool story. It was how he is making nearly $50k a month as an affiliate. Nuts, that was pretty cool so we talked.

Anyway although Johnny didn't have big ears but his story was compelling. You see he told me how he was doing this 50k. It went like this.

Tell me Johnny "how are you doing 50k a month in affiliate sales?"

Johnny replied... "no idea but its amazing"

But "how do you get the money" I asked.

Johnny said... "I signed up ages ago as an affiliate. Got good search engine rankings and the rest... just happens"

Now Johnny big ears story didn't stop there. I'll tell you more in a second. Alarm bells began to ring in my head. You see...

A Business Built On Sand Will At Some Point SINK!

What do I mean?

Okay here's the mentality of web business I see all the time.

People ask me this...

"How Do I Make Money Online?"

I answer what kind of business are you interested in? They reply ... "making money".

I repeat... "what kind of business are you interested in?" They cheekily respond... "I just want to make some money using the web I hear it's dead easy"

Now when you have just done 7 days at 15 hours each in front of your P.C building your business, plus travelling, talking, consulting, telephoning, emailing and smoke signals... it's not funny right? So...

.. c'mon we all want someone to throw a pile of cash at us but IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN! So before I tell you more about Johnny big ears above...

Here's lesson one.

Websites don't make money. Web businesses do.

Last year I met a guy in Melbourne that had done this. He had spent over $30k developing his WEBSITE. Over a two year period he hadnt made a bean. Not one red-cent or Asian ringit... zilch.

I consulted with him over 2-days. While I was sitting in the business lounge at Melbourne airport waiting for my Emirates flight with a glass of wine in my hand he called me.

He has just got his very first sale online hours after I had left him. At our last conversation John was turning over around $10,000 per month from his WEB BUSINESS I personally worked on with him.

How and Why? Dead simple I've told you already...

Websites don't make money. Web businesses do.

Here's lesson two.

You can make huge amounts of cash with a web business. However... to make it LAST LONGER it should be a solid web business. What am I going on about.

Okay you've seen the hype around selling ebooks. Goes like this...

Find a niche, sell an ebook on that niche. So you do some research on fly fishing on the River Amazon. You realize the demand is pretty big but the supply of info is pretty low.

So you go and spend time writing about a subject that bores you to death hoping, really hoping, super hoping that there will be gold at the end of the tunnel. NUTS!

Just do the math. It's hype. It's farcical. It's mostly a lie (there are exceptions out there I have personally seen them, been part of them).

For example I make money from this web business. It's called www.StartingaPizzaBusiness.com . I sell ebooks from it. They sell steadily. I do nothing.

Would I walk away from my office, my job, my career and order a new Bentley based on those sales? No way. In fact that little business scares me. Why? I have never touched it. It's at the mercy of search engines and could vanish overnight.

But Alan... I am going to buy a ton of Adwords and I'll make a fortune! Huh ... this is sad, real sad. Look listen to this.

I hear this all the time. It goes like this.

"I did my research, hired a ghost-writer to write my ebook, paid a copywriter to write my sales letter, and then... spent hundreds upon hundreds every single month on Adwords. I still haven't sold anything... HELP!"

In fact I met a guy very recently. His wife had left him. Why? He sold her car to support his Adwords campaign. He believed what so many fakers were telling him so they could line their own pockets. SAD!

Now c'mon... you really going to make millions of fly fishing ebook?  Its about business online, running a business with structure and foundation.

Here's lesson three.

The web is a net of lies and hype. Look for facts and proof when looking at good business models to follow.

So, so many out there now. We can all hide behind a facade of cool webpage's, strong copy, neat bells and whistles. We can talk with soooo much passion that hey... "he's the real deal"

Forget it, don't waste cash on trash like that. You want proof. You want evidence. You want facts.

Listen up.

Do I say I am the greatest copywriter on the planet? No but here is some proof of being good at what I do...

189% INCREASE in 24 hours: One client (Andy S.) recently (Winter 2005) asked for urgent help to put more people into his event. They had sold just 44 tickets over a six week period of massive advertising and campaigning. Within 24 hours of being asked to help I'd increased his attendees by a monster 189% (from 44 to 126)

I could write that with no-proof. Stacks do. Here is what I have just  pasted from one well known copywriters website.

Some write that kind of fluff with no evidence. No substance. No foundation. You should question these guys. Question me. Look for facts and PROOF! If they can't deliver forget them.

So you look for role models that can be relied on. Like who? Guys like...

Marlon Sanders. Stephen Pierce. Ken Evoy. Allan Gardyne. Danny Wilson. Armand Morin. Mike Stewart. Jim Edwards and many, many more. In fact one week I'll give you a list of FOUNDATION based online businesses you can check out and learn from.

Bottom-line for me... stick with the solid guys and invest into your online business when you need advice. Avoid new flash-in-the-pan *gurus* like the plague until they can prove to you they are the real deal.

So What Happened To Johnny Big Ears?

His income fell when Google had a shake up. He went from 50k to 30k. It dropped from 30k to 10k. In the end it virtually dried up. He went and did that horrible thing again... got a job, urghhh.

Why? He built his business on sand.

And that's the real lesson here.

The web is a truly dynamite tool for expanding your business or creating a hugely powerful business. It's not and has never been a magic one click pill!

Build your website and turn, treat it, work it, into a foundation based WEB BUSINESS!

Some Important and Cool Stuff I Want To Share With You

I met two hugely successful property investors over the weekend (actually these guys are clients of mine). Andy and Greg told me the story of how they sold their Window factory to create a multi-million property empire using the passive investment skills. Now how does this sound? If you currently have a mortgage and a house these guys will show you how to turn it into a tax-free cash cow. Does what they do really work? Put it this way I am about to start my own investing after consulting with these guys.

The sign shows I have fully investigated any live link or product I talk about. It has my backing... 100%

Really finally... you like Star Wars? Check this out... outrageously funny! www.StoreWars.org

And... watch out very soon for www.OrangeBeetleTVShow.com.

Ok, I'm Outta here, catch you all soon.

Alan Forrest Smith

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