Making "Rock Star" Internet Profits

In This Issue:

* Start An Internet Business? - Are You Crazy??

* How To Make Money Online Like A Rock Star

* The Secret: How I Made "5 Figures A Month" While Most Web Designers starved

* Boot-Strapping Your Business Starting With Nothing

Hello Friends;

This is a very special newsletter issue, because I'm going to focusing on the crucial step to success that most people ignore - THE FIRST ONE. Here's why:

1) Sometimes "regular folks" may not feel inspired by the claims of "super achievers" because they don't think it could ever happen for them. (wrong!)

2) When you're just starting off in a business without much success, all this talk of "million dollar deals" can be overwhelming. You may be thinking, "Great, but all I want starting out is a few hundred extra dollars a week to supplement my income - where does that leave me??"

3) Everyone talks about establishing credibility - using testimonials - proving that your product/service is reliable, in demand, well received, etc... But if you're just getting started with a brand new product, it becomes the old "chicken and the egg" dilemma: It's hard to sell a new product or service without testimonials and proven results, but you can't get that kind of feedback without selling some!

Well, guess what - Not so long ago, I was in that exact situation... I started my own "web design" business, with no contacts, no leads, and no experience. (Does this sound familiar?)

I'm going to tell you exactly how I went from not being able to convince someone to pay me $100 to build them a website, to charging up to $4,000 or more apiece, and actually having to TURN DOWN business.

First, let's look at the realities that we are facing here with "internet commerce"...

IMAGINE IF A FRIEND CALLED YOU UP AND SAID:

Friend: "Hey, I've got this great idea for a new business and I want you to be partners with me!"

You: "Give me some details."

Friend: "Check this out... it's in a market where the vast majority of people fail, and there are untold thousands of other products that will be in direct competition with ours. Our competition will always be able to know exactly what we do at all times and copy us at will. They'll be able to undercut our price, and there's nothing we can do about it."

You: "Geez, any more good news?"

Friend: "Well, there are virtually no barriers to entry, and people from practically every country in the world can compete with us on an even level, even if the currency exchange makes it worthwhile for them to sell their products and services for a fraction of what we'll be charging."

You: "I think I've heard enough, I'm not going to..."

Friend: "Hold on, it gets better! Not only will we be competing with some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds on the planet for every dollar we try to earn, but there are huge corporations with enormous funding who will do their best to pick us bone-dry. They'll be running television ads for their products, while we won't hardly be able to afford to advertise at all!

You: "If you think I'm going to waste time and money on this ridiculous plan of yours, you've got another thing coming! I'd never..."

Friend: "Wait, wait, you didn't let me finish! This is an INTERNET BUSINESS I'm talking about, we're going to put up a WEBSITE!"

You: "Oh, why didn't you say so before?? Sounds great !!!!!"

<smile>

When you look at it in those terms, it doesn't sound like too much fun, does it? But listen: It can be done, and if you keep your eye on the ball and follow the proper course of action, NONE OF THE ABOVE MATTERS. Here's why...

How To Make Money Online Like A Rock Star

Let me back up a step:

I'm a musician by trade. I invested the bulk of my '20s in working at getting a record deal with my band in Los Angeles, California. (Even then I was studying direct mail on the side, developing info products, testing ads, etc., to earn extra money.)

The same hypothetical "conversation with a friend" from above can be applied to wanting to become successful as a musician as well, because the same principles and economics apply. (The odds are against you, lots of competition, corporations would prefer to develop talent from the "inside", etc.)

Let me ask you something: Do you think that music companies WANT to have to give record deals to unpredictable, idiosyncratic rock bands that they don't have much control over?

No Way!

The music industry would like NOTHING BETTER than to be able to develop all their own talent in-house, and develop their own "corporate acts" that they can control. They only have one problem... THEY CAN'T DO IT!

- Because what consumers want is "flashes of genius", individuality, something different, something "cool". -And the music industry is notoriously BAD at predicting new music trends. To find new talent, they MUST DEPEND on individual bands, singers, and songwriters.

Guess What - Marketing On The Internet Is Exactly The Same!

If corporations were good at innovation, start-up entrepreneurs online wouldn't stand a chance. However, most "big business" on the internet doesn't know what they're doing, they're not even profitable! Can you imagine a typical dot-com corporation trying to sell a "How to make money on the internet" book?

What would the chapters look like?

* How to spend $1,500,000 on a Superbowl ad to increase "brand awareness". * How to lose money on every product you sell. * How to burn through your start-up capital by buying unnecessary luxuries. * How to pay $80,000 for a website that could have been built for $5,000

...You get the point. So if blowing tons of cash won't guarantee a web site's profitability, and having a board of directors won't help, and spending $80,000 on a website won't help, what will help??!!

ANSWER: Developing a niche product, and having the mind of an entrepreneur, not a corporation.

Through my business dealings with Internet clients and friends running online businesses, I can tell you for a fact that there really are a lot of seemingly "regular" people earning a very successful living on the 'net.

-That doesn't mean it's a piece of cake. -That doesn't mean you can't fail. But it DOES mean that you PERSONALLY have an edge over those corporations blowing money right and left on worthless television ads and ineffective banner ads. - Just like a future "rock star", you've got the power to have those flashes of inspiration, you can come up with unique angles and approaches to make your product/service appealing... and that "big business" would never think of!

Starting With Nothing To Build Your Business

So there I was starting out, a competent web designer with a background in direct mail and copywriting, not even able to get people to pay me $100 to build a website in the beginning.

I could have given up. I could have just said, "The market's saturated, it wasn't my fault." But that's a cop-out. So, what would you do? Here's what I did:

I worked on web sites for free!

-Or I told potential clients that it was free unless the work I did increased their sales, in which case they could pay me an optional $100 (or whatever).

Does that sound stupid? Crazy? Well, I want you to know I didn't just work on ANY web site... I did everything for a reason. My requirements "checklist" to do this were:

1) Their existing website was obviously flawed, and I had ideas on how to easily fix it 2) The product looked good, but there were obvious problems with the sales letter. (I.E., no headline, bad guarantee, lacking basic sales letter techniques, etc.) 3) There was substantial traffic to the site. 4) They already had hits-to-sales ratios determined, so it was simple to judge whether sales went up after I worked on it 5) They agreed to give me a testimonial if their sales increased after I worked on it.

When a website matched the above criteria (which was often), it was a "no-brainer". In fact, I don't think I EVER didn't get a testimonial! At that point, getting a testimonial about the increase in profits I created for them was worth more than charging them a few bucks anyway, AND I was automatically getting more experience as I went.

The Bad New: It was a lot of "work" - but I enjoyed it! (I only did a few "free" websites, but the testimonials I got from them were INSTRUMENTAL in building my success. Without them, the later "good paying" jobs would probably never have come.)

The Good News: Before I knew it, I had some VERY IMPRESSIVE testimonials from these "freebies" stating actual dollar amounts and % increase in sales directly attributable to me. -If you know anything about stereotypical "web designers", most don't have testimonials about how much money their clients earned because of them, because they're not copywriters and wouldn't know how to do it!

Then a funny thing happened:

With my new string of testimonials, it seemed like people couldn't wait to give me their money! I'd built up my credibility so much that I was getting email from potential clients saying they'd shopped around and I was the ONLY PERSON they wanted to have work on their website.

Once you've got people saying that, what you charge really isn't an issue, because you're MAKING them money.

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO YOU?

If you don't have any testimonials for your product and aren't really selling much yet, give it away in exchange for a potential testimonial! Give it away and ask for payment only if they're happy with it after they try it out.

Lessons I've Learned

I've learned a LOT working on the Internet over the past years. And one of the most important things is this: JUST DO IT. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and if it was up to me I'd "tinker" endlessly with things trying to get everything just right, even things that don't really matter much.

Well, I was "cured" of that. Here's how:

While I was still in the process of building my first e-commerce subscription site (there were still bad links, unfinished sections, etc), we started taking membership signups! To be honest, I was a little panic-stricken. (smile)

Here was the reasoning:

I could spend weeks fine-tuning and troubleshooting everything by yourself, or we could start letting people in and get some instant feedback."

So, calling them "beta testers", we started signing people up, but with this no-risk twist: We took their credit card information up- front, but promised not to charge their credit card for a full 3 days. That's right, if at ANY time within 72 hours they changed their mind for any reason, we simply wouldn't charge them.

The result? The website got done MUCH faster than it would have because it "forced the issue", I got some very useful feedback from our beta testers who let me know what links weren't working, and we were in business! (If you're curious: If you're worried people might "rip you off" if you let them have your product before they pay you, out of all the beta testers we signed up, only one or two cancelled instead of having their credit card charged, even though they could have easily.)

===============+====
The $100,000 Letter Book
============+=======

Even after reading this newsletter, you may still feel "in the dark" about how to approach potential customers, clients, or partners about building YOUR business. Well, I've got good news! I've actually gone back into my "email archives" and put the actual contact letters that are responsible for generating well over $100,000 in business for me, and put them together into a complete resource book.

That's right, the actual letters and correspondence I've had with potential clients and customers that created the interest to get them to pay me.

It includes:

* "Cold Calls" -Completely unsolicited letters I've sent out to potential clients that has resulted in many tens of thousands of dollars in business.

* Complete Web Site Reviews - Learn how I establish trust and "prove my worth" by critiquing potential clients' sites in such a way that they're almost compelled to hire me.

* Follow-up emails - Continued correspondence to "seal the deal"

* My complete lead-generating strategy - Why I had to actually start turning down business while other web designers couldn't get work

If you're a web designer and want more business or want to be able to charge more, this book of letters should put you on your way. It's the culmination of years of perfecting my sales process. If you're looking to market a product, these letters will STILL be of enormous benefit.

NO MATTER WHAT BUSINESS YOU'RE IN, knowing how to approach people to make contacts and establish alliances will make or break your business.

Click Here To Get The $100,000 Book Now

To your success, Tim Gross - President, Internet Profit Systems

P.S. - I strongly urge you to check out the above link - This could be the "key to the puzzle" you've been missing.