| A Cautionary Tale for the Internet Marketing | | | | yes. The most expensive one. Way in the beginning |
| NewbieIn an attempt to set up our Internet | | | | when I was still trying to sell junk on my cookie |
| marketing web sites, we've probably all done some | | | | cutter web site, a very savvy salesman sold me on a |
| brainless things. Well, I've done all of them. I've been | | | | program that for $6,000+ would make me an expert |
| so incredibly gullible, my pocketbook is empty and I'm | | | | in everything. They had people who, over the |
| sure I've contributed many a laugh to the Internet | | | | telephone, would show me how to build a web site, |
| "experts." Since I've done just about everything | | | | people who would show me how to get myself on a |
| wrong, I want to share my story with other newbies | | | | search engine, people who would help me write copy, |
| who are looking for a fast way to get RICH with a | | | | people who would help me get RICH!!! Believe it or |
| web site.Rich. Ha! What a wonderful illusion of our | | | | not, I took money out of my IRA to buy this |
| dream house on the lake, a BMW, Lexus and maybe | | | | program.It started well. My tutor called at the very |
| a Model T in a six-car garage, month-long vacations in | | | | time we had set the appointment. I thought that |
| far-off lands where you can be served cold, salty | | | | was a good sign. No one had told me, though, that I |
| drinks with a little umbrella and spend only 20 minutes | | | | needed to do homework before the call. In half an |
| of work every week - and all of this comes with the | | | | hour, I was supposed to tell her what products I |
| fulfillment of our greatest fantasy: telling our | | | | wanted to sell, what I wanted to say about them, |
| corporate boss to "shove it."It didn't take me long to | | | | how I was going to price them, how many pages I |
| realize that life can be a stinker. I really didn't have | | | | wanted on the site, etc. Since I only got six calls with |
| dreams of getting rich as my long-time ambition was | | | | my tutor at half an hour each, 1/5 of the time was |
| only to work from home. Since I'm in my 60's, hey, I | | | | already wasted. However, I thought, okay, I should |
| deserve to take it easy after so many years of the | | | | have been ready. If I want to sell something, I should |
| Fortune 500 dog-eat-dog world, right? So I said to | | | | know what the heck I want to sell!By the second |
| myself, "Ann O, , what are you going to do?"Every | | | | call, I had everything in place. Here are the products; |
| Get RICH Deal in the BookIn the beginning, I looked | | | | here are the prices. Then more questions arose: |
| into several "get RICH" ventures. I was just looking | | | | Where are you going to get them? How are you |
| for a system to get some dandy money in a very | | | | going to ship them? Do you want a shopping basket? |
| short time. I subscribed to every free or cheap | | | | A merchant account? For $6,000, I thought THEY |
| newsletter I heard about. Most of them have enticing | | | | might supply me with some of these answers, but I |
| ads for new business possibilities. When you get your | | | | had to figure out the whole plan.I needed a drop |
| name on the Internet "work at home" lists, you also | | | | shipper. Where do I find those? "Look on the |
| get deluged with snail mail ventures too and some of | | | | Internet," she said. Okay, I looked on the Internet |
| them are so absurd even I didn't fall for them! Are | | | | and found some middlemen who would sell me |
| they still trying to get people to stuff envelopes?An | | | | products on a drop ship basis, but I would only make |
| early opportunity that came along was selling web | | | | about 5 to 10% profit on the purchases, which isn't |
| sites, but what did I know about web sites? I only | | | | going to get me RICH. Adding in the costs of doing |
| knew that you clicked on some buttons and | | | | business, breakage, exceptional customer service, |
| information appeared. So that wasn't a good idea. | | | | etc., would leave me owing myself money.The rest |
| Another prospect was buying real estate without any | | | | of the phone sessions were cast of the same mold |
| money. Wow. How do you do that? I read all of that | | | | as the first couple of calls. I learned very little other |
| stuff, but not being a rocket scientist, I couldn't | | | | than that the people at this company were curt, |
| understand it. Okay, I'm not doing this right. Let's try | | | | rude, and obviously not interested in my little |
| something else.There are many testimonials from | | | | business-to-be. The other sessions I managed to get |
| Internet marketers who are becoming RICH! They | | | | through weren't productive, as you had to start with |
| have all the money they want, so why are they | | | | a viable web site (which never did get built) before |
| hawking information? So my goal became to search | | | | you could design anything else and I wasn't able to |
| out the kind of opportunity that would lead to my | | | | manage that. About $5,000 of that $6,000 went |
| own enviable testimonial success story - and the | | | | down the drain.Eventually I did find a company (Drop |
| search was on.The Clicks and Clacks of the | | | | Ship Source Directory) with a list of real |
| All-Inclusive Web SiteLo and behold, THE big one | | | | honest-to-goodness drop shippers. They are |
| came along - a complete cookie cutter web site with | | | | absolutely superior, a delight to work with, and |
| products and a shopping cart and a very simple way | | | | extremely reasonable in price. And the manufacturers |
| to change the web site as I saw fit. So I anted up | | | | are first class too, offering great profits, flexibility, |
| many dollars and voila! I had my own web site and | | | | and support.The Ups and Downlines of Multi-Level |
| products and everything else I needed to get RICH. | | | | MarketingI still wasn't done with my goofball |
| Pretty soon all of my friends and family knew about | | | | attempts at getting RICH!!! Okay, let's look into |
| it and were anxious to help me out by buying | | | | multi-level marketing (MLM); that seems to be the |
| something.Unfortunately, almost all of them | | | | way to go. I overlooked the little detail that this was |
| apologized, and said they just couldn't justify buying | | | | kind of like a pyramid scheme. If a real company with |
| anything. because the products were so cheesy. One | | | | a name, address and phone number is doing it, |
| friend did opt to buy two items, but as soon as his | | | | though, it must be okay. However, I still had that |
| name, address, credit card number, etc. were | | | | nagging feeling I was getting into something a little |
| submitted, up popped that awful message, "Sorry, | | | | shady.The industry sold a service that would be of |
| this item is backordered; you will receive it soon."I hit | | | | tremendous value to many Americans, and I was |
| the first big concrete wall when it occurred to me | | | | anxious to get the word out to those who needed it. |
| that I'd best go find some other customers. I had no | | | | This company, however, was far more interested in |
| idea how to do that. I barely knew what a search | | | | luring other recruiters into the business than selling |
| engine was and didn't know how to get onto one. I | | | | their product. As a result, I learned virtually nothing |
| knew I could always send to an email list. Of course, | | | | about the product and far too much about growing |
| by this time I had heard all about spam and decided I | | | | my downline.We did have telephone coaching |
| didn't want to be thrown in jail, so that plan didn't | | | | seminars and could ask questions of our "mentors" |
| even warm up.Okay, I would buy some lists. Many | | | | anytime we wanted - but not about the product. |
| web sites out there offer opt-in email lists that are | | | | Just the downline. I never was able to get any |
| so refined that they give you people who are | | | | answers orally or in writing, and the few times I did |
| interested in white lilacs grown in Nebraska in the | | | | try to cold call a prospect, I broke out in a sweat. |
| winter on a window sill! Wow! Of course, the cost of | | | | That little undertaking cost me a couple of hundred |
| these lists isThat brainchild didn't last long. I ended up | | | | dollars.Where There's Will, There's Pay!After all the |
| buying just 5,000 plain Jane addresses for way too | | | | dumb things I did, I finally wised up, did the right kind |
| much money, authored what I thought was a great | | | | of research and found there are several exceptionally |
| sales letter, and sent the e-mails out. I got a | | | | good people who are willing to be teachers for those |
| purchase from two people for a total of $37.All of | | | | who are trying to succeed. For me, finding them was |
| the "experts" recommend sending the same email | | | | a trial and error experience, but several names |
| three or four times because the first and second | | | | surfaced: Shawn Casey, Dan Kennedy, Cory Rudl, |
| time, no one pays attention. So I did that and got so | | | | Yanik Silver, John Reese and Tom Hua, and my |
| many unsubscribe orders that it took me the better | | | | apologies for not remembering the rest. Doing it the |
| part of two days to erase them from my list. Talk | | | | RIGHT way though is NOT easy, and you won't get |
| about spam!Don't Judge an e-Book Deal by Its | | | | rich quick. You're NOT going to sell stuff in he first |
| CoverI jumped right into another one. I was going to | | | | ten minutes. If you don't feel like waiting, though, |
| sell an e-book. It didn't cost me anything but the | | | | there are pre-built sites that offer products or |
| rights to resell it, and I got the book and a one-page | | | | e-books.There are many steps you have to take, |
| web site that was very nicely done. From there on, it | | | | and these experienced internet marketers can guide |
| would be pure profit!Then again, I forgot that I had | | | | you. You have to build a good reputation, you have |
| to get people to visit the site and I still didn't know | | | | to KEEP the good reputation, you have to build a |
| how to do that - or couldn't afford to get the lists. | | | | solid customer base, and you have to KEEP the |
| So there my web site sat. And sat. And still | | | | customer base. You do this by constantly testing the |
| sits.Another Work at Home SchemeAnother | | | | market, providing exceptional customer service and |
| opportunity looked particularly rewarding. All you had | | | | being willing to spend (and lose) a little money. By |
| to do was contact businesses to see if they had any | | | | working with them, you'll be doing it right. Bear in |
| unwanted product they were looking to get rid of. | | | | mind that 95% of Internet businesses fail. Remember |
| Maybe they were going belly up; maybe they | | | | the dot com debacle of the 90's?After all these |
| manufactured too many widgets and couldn't sell | | | | failures, and after doing the research I should have |
| them all.So all I had to do was find these guys with | | | | done in the first place, I found a company, Global |
| the extra product and offer them a price for their | | | | eBusiness Technologies (GET), that is willing to build |
| merchandise. If they agreed, the liquidation company | | | | my web site, provide the necessary marketing, |
| would find a seller and take the product off their | | | | critique the products I want to offer, suggest |
| hands. The company (for a hefty price) provides you | | | | revisions in the prices I want to charge, get me on |
| with a directory of businesses in all 52 states. So | | | | the search engines in a very good position, and |
| what more did I need? Easy huh? And I could get | | | | generally help me succeed. These services are not |
| RICH!!!After making countless phone calls and mailing | | | | inexpensive but they're worth the time, money and |
| 2,500 tantalizing postcards to these businesses, I | | | | involvement.My site should be up soon, and I'm |
| managed to put together one deal for a popular | | | | looking forward to getting RICH!!! No, I won't get rich, |
| product. This deal should have netted me about | | | | but at least I'll have some income besides my Social |
| $20,000. All bases were covered, the price was right, | | | | Security, and I'll certainly make more money than an |
| etc., etc. Well, don't you know the liquidation | | | | 8 to 5 job. GET's services are not cheap, but I don't |
| company said they couldn't find a buyer? Uh huh.So I | | | | want to forget that extremely important fact of life: |
| figured I spent almost $500 buying this directory, | | | | there are no free lunches. There are no get RICH |
| several hundred dollars in printing supplies for the | | | | quick deals either.My success will enhance GET's |
| postcards, $600 in stamps, untold hours in designing | | | | reputation, and I can't wait to write my testimonial. |
| the postcards and printing, hand stamping, and mailing | | | | And when you see me, you'll know I'm for real.by |
| out the cards. There were a number of other | | | | Ann O. NimusJuliana Johnson and Ann O. Nimus are |
| problems with this company, but that's enough about | | | | newbies to internet marketing but are trying their |
| them. So. I'm still not getting rich.The Ins and Outs of | | | | darndest to be superstars. |
| Internet MarketingWhat else did I do wrong? Oh, | | | | exquisite gifts at unbeatable prices. |