Secrets of the Big Dogs

THE SECRETS OF
THE BIG DOGS

There’s something ya gotta know about my friend Rick Brown...

He's a natural-born comedian.

And I’m not talking about the kind of person who bores you with long, pointless jokes that you have to pretend to laugh at. I’m talking about the Dennis-Miller-type of comedian who makes you chuckle with biting, incisive, INTELLECTUAL humor.

Anyway... Rick and I were sitting around one evening after we had downed a few ales at a local pub, and the conversation became a little philosophical. You know. The “Why are we here; what’s the purpose of life” kinda stuff.

“Y’know, Rick,” I said, “according to all the self-help books I’ve read, in order to be financially successful, you have to establish a DEFINITE monetary goal as well as a DEFINITE time frame in which to achieve that goal. In other words, you need to know WHAT you want, and WHEN you want to get it."

"With that in mind, Rick," I asked, "what exactly do YOU want out of life? WHAT do you want, and WHEN do you want it?”

“That’s easy,” he said...

“I want it ALL, and I want it NOW!”

At the time we both laughed about his clever comment. But over the years I’ve come to find out that the majority of entrepreneurs have the exact, same attitude about being in business. About the most concrete thing they can say about their financial goals is that they “want it ALL and want it NOW.”

Well, fellow Big Dogs, it just doesn’t work that way.

Merely saying that you want a $5,000 per month income from your Internet business is meaningless. It doesn’t assist you at all in actually GETTING to that $5,000 per month income. What you need to do is to establish a series of “steps” leading UP TO your ultimate goal, AS WELL AS a time frame to achieve EACH of those “little, baby steps.”

The "Secrets" of the Big Dogs are nothing more than tried and
true business principals, combined with common sense,
applied to a new marketing medium..... the Internet.

(In fact, the "'Secrets' of the Big Dogs" could be more appropriately called
"Day-to-day Habits of ALL Successful
Internet Marketers"

These are the success secrets that, quite frankly, most of the Internet's Big Dogs don’t WANT you to know about! Oh, they’ll throw you a "bone," alright – tools and techniques that work MODERATELY well, or perhaps not at all. Keep in mind, though, folks, that the Big Dogs want to REMAIN the Big Dogs! They don’t want to relinquish their position as "web gurus." If you knew all their secrets why would you need to rely on them any longer?

Think about it!

SO!…without further ado, we present the
Secrets of the Big Dogs!

"SECRET" NUMBER 1:

"The Big Dogs have patience."

To be a successful netpreneur (and still maintain your sanity!) you must have patience in TWO areas.

First of all..... as we pretty well covered in Chapter 2, you absolutely MUST have patience with your computer and with the Internet.

In this respect, Murphy's Law ("Anything that CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong.") must be your guiding principal. Learn it - live it - BELIEVE it! Always assume that anything computer or Internet related is not going to work properly 100% of the time and that it's going to develop a "glitch" at a time when you need it most. Not backing up your computer? Well, that is the same as going on a cross-country trip in your automobile without a spare tire.

Glitches WILL occur, my friend. Prepare yourself
mentally for them!

If you want to avoid beating your head against the wall at 2:00 A.M., always assume that the worst is going to happen (it WILL!), and PREPARE for it - this IS the Internet!

Secondly, and more importantly..... you must have patience with your business itself. If you honestly think that there is some magical program available on the web that is going to make you an overnight success, well, you’re simply living in a dream world. I advise you to save YOUR time, and, ultimately, MY time, and rush down to your local 7-Eleven and "invest" in a couple of lottery tickets. Your chances of "overnight" success are far greater. Any LEGITIMATE business takes months to mature and develop to the point where it reaches substantial profitability.

(As brutal as it may sound, if your rent is two months behind and
you need fast money, Internet marketing is NOT for you.)

And oh, yeah.....

Are you easily distracted by “shiny” new programs? Are you constantly starting new programs only to move on to the next one as soon as that one gets started?

Do you only ever make it through 50% of a new business project, before ditching it for the bigger, better, coolest, "never seen before" program out there (only to do the exact same thing 50% of the way through that one).

Well, chances are you have.....
Shiny Object Syndrome.
Don’t worry, it’s not fatal, but it can cause you to run in circles while
feeling constantly busy and never quite achieving anything.

"How Can I Prevent It?"

1. Start!

Chances are you’re probably already good at this, but it’s important that you need to do this anyways. You can’t stop if you don’t start.

So, freaking start already!

2. Keep Going

Victims who suffer from SOS often find themselves continually “starting” things – doing the easiest possible thing to constitute “starting.”

Unfortunately, too many sufferers of SOS get caught in the starting spiral which looks something like this:

Start –> Start Over –> Start Again –> Keep Starting

Don’t get caught in the "keep starting" spiral! Keep going and then you have to do something really, really important.

3. Decide

This is where most people screw up. They don’t mean to really, but often this mistake is made more through neglect than intentionally.

The mistake made is the lack of decision. They never decide what they’re going to do.

This frequently causes indecision, paralysis and uneasiness of the future, since you’ve left it up to chance. The failure to make a decision is often followed by bouts of procrastination, followed by guilt of said procrastination, followed by even more procrastination.

Make a decision. Decide what you want to do, then decide to do whatever it takes to actually do it.

"More is lost by IN-decision than by WRONG decision."

4. Commit

The main factor here is action.

Do you follow your decision up with action or not? You’ll find that as soon as you take action on a goal, you’re committed.

If you decide but never do anything about it, you might as well not have decided to do anything at all (because you’re not really doing anything at all), you’ll find shiny object syndrome will continue to ravage every aspect of your life.

5. Embrace The "Tough"

If you’ve miraculously made it this far, guess what?

Things are going to be tough. Like really tough. Like make you want to go back to those easy, exciting starting days, and the happiness that a "Next Shiny Object" always brings.

If people ever make it to this point, this is where they give up…

Why do they give up? Well, YOU know. Because it’s HARD…and hard things aren’t MEANT to be done, are they!? And you’ve got a really good story on why it’s hard – why it’s impossible.

OF COURSE ITS HARD

"If it’s worth doing – it SHOULD be hard. In fact, it's MANDATORY.
If it was easy, EVERYBODY would do it!"

6. Keep Going

Yup, this again. it’s that important. When things get hard, it’s not enough to embrace the hard and lean into the pain.

YOU HAVE TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Push through it all, and keep going.

7. FINISH

This is crucial.

FINISH. Work to an end point. Don’t leave something half-way done. FINISH IT OUT.

Now, this doesn’t mean everything is going to be a smashing success, but it does mean you’ll have a finalized product.

Once you do, you’ll find that the shiny newness of a project doesn’t really compare with seeing it through to the end. Sure, it’s a quick and easy high, but the payoff of doing something for the long haul is not easily beaten. Once you do this, there’s only one thing left to do...

"'Done' is better than 'perfect'"

8. Repeat

Once you finish your project – really finish it – chances are you’ll repeat some version of this:

“That was hard, REALLY hard. But it was totally worth it!”

You'll even want to do it again. So DO it again! And again. And again. You’ll realize that it’s much more rewarding than the cheap thrills of “starting.”

The real key to beating SOS is continually repeating the process as it’s quite easy to relapse into fantasizing and day dreaming about that Next Shiny Object!

“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”
                                                                                    -Julius Caes

"Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of PATIENCE. Be prepared to invest a MINIMUM of three to six months in your online business before you expect to see a reasonable profit."

"SECRET" NUMBER 2:

"The Big Dogs devote time to their business."

Oh, so you think that you can hit the "enter" key once a week, walk away from your computer, and soon build a business that will be the rival of Microsoft! The Big Dogs know differently, folks – that’s why they ARE the Big Dogs.

You have to decide – right HERE and right NOW – exactly what kind of business you wish to make from the Internet. In fact...

...do you really want a business at all!?

What I mean is this: Maybe you don’t rush off to your job every morning with a smile on your face, eagerly waiting to get there. Maybe you’re not the type that can’t wait for the weekend to be over so you can get back to work. But!... you make "OK" money, you’re paying the bills, and you have a little left over at the end of the week…and you’re fairly content with your life. Maybe, just maybe, all you're REALLY looking for is a hobby, rather than a business – something that you can play around with a half hour or so every week or two. Well, that’s fine, and I wish you the very best. Have FUN!

BUT!…if you want to build a business, my friend, you have to treat what you’re doing LIKE a business. YOU MUST MAKE THE INVESTMENT OF TIME.

"Ninety percent of success is just showing up!"

…which reminds me of a true story that I have used for years to illustrate this point..

In one of the offline businesses I was once involved in, I happened to have this one part-time sales rep – we’ll call him Mike – who was stuck in his dead-end, low-paying full-time job, with no benefits. It was a job he HATED. One evening he called me, and I could almost hear the tears in his voice. It turned out he had had another argument with his boss.

"Stan," he began, "I just can’t take it any more. I never have any money. I hate this job, and my boss is always on my back. TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I don’t care what it is, I’ll do ANYTHING to get out of this job and start making some real money!"

"Mike," I answered, "It’s pretty simple. I want you devote an honest, sincere two hours each evening for four evenings every week, working this business. I can guarantee you that within one year you will have achieved what you want."

What do you think he said?

In a VERY shocked voice, he said, "Gee, Stan you’re asking for an awful big commitment, aren’t you?"

Yes, folks, this is a true story, and it serves to illustrate my point very nicely. Everyone SAYS they want to be in their own business and make a ton of money. But what separates the successes from the failures – the Big Dogs from the puppies – is the ability to invest time on a consistent basis.

"Internet marketing is the EASIEST business in the world if you work it HARD!
But it’s the HARDEST business in the world if you work it EASY!"

Fortunately (and this is one of the many things that make Internet marketing so great), the time you invest can be very flexible. In all probability, you’ll be working from your home, perhaps in a spare room, or a corner of your bedroom, and this gives you a LOT of flexibility in WHEN you want to work. But I will tell you this: You must be prepared to set aside an honest and sincere block of time - on a consistent basis - , four or five days a week, in your business.

And I DO mean EVERYday! Internet marketing is done - no, lemme take that back - any successful business is done on a daily basis. If you are committing to one hour a day, that MEANS one hour a day, not a few hours every other Friday night. (That’s having a "hobby," not running a business!) Think of it this way. Brushing your teeth takes just three minutes, three times a day. Instead of doing it for nine minutes every day, try brushing your teeth for 63 minutes... JUST on Friday night.

It’s just not the same thing, is it!?

“Perfection of effort is not required, by the way. It is the consistency of attempting to work these tools that brings the progress. It’s like anything else. If I want to tone muscle, lifting a ten-pound weight a few times every day will move me toward my goal much quicker than hoisting a fifty-pound barbell once a week. Yes, it really is true: 'Slow and steady wins the race.' Just try a little, every day. You’ll see.”
                                                                                      -Holly Mosier

You need to develop the HABIT of success by doing just a little job every day, rather than trying to do a big job once a week. When that one special day comes along, it’s just too doggone easy to find an excuse to put off your duties until "tomorrow." Well, in many cases, that never-never land of "tomorrow" never comes, and soon you find yourself "tomorrowed" out of business!

"It’s hard by the yard, but a cinch by the inch."

There is yet another reason to steel yourself to do your Internet marketing on a daily basis. Always keep in mind that anything on the Internet is VERY ephemeral – at the end of the day, it’s GONE for good. It doesn’t work that way in the "dirt world." Two YEARS after having run ads in various offline magazines, I would STILL get activity from them! People let magazines lay around for a long, long time; they may cut out an interesting ad, or write down the details of it and put it in a file, or on that "pile of interesting stuff" on their desks. Not so with the Internet! If an ad doesn’t catch their attention right then and there – FORGET ABOUT IT! It’s gone into cyberspace forever!

Now, as important as it is to commit to investing an hour a day with your Internet business, it is just as important to know when to get OFF the Internet!

We all know how addictive the Internet can be. There’s just so doggone MUCH "stuff" on there to see. There is no limit to the amount of time one can waste in surfing from this website to that website, in investigating this program or that program.

Y'know why so many Internet marketers fail?

"40% of Internet marketers failed because they never learned when to START working, but 60% failed because they didn't know when to STOP."

Stick to your schedule – do the work you need to do – then get OFF the dang-gone computer, and go have some F-U-N! Otherwise, you'll find yourself "informationed" to death!

You’ll be a much better adjusted human being (and a happier one!)
if you know when to QUIT!

"Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of TIME. Commit to investing a specific block of time EACH day in your online business."

"SECRET" NUMBER 3:

"The Big Dogs aren’t bothered by change."

If the thought of change makes you cringe and break out in a cold sweat, the Internet is not for you!

Unlike the dirt world, change happens on the Internet in milliseconds. Marketing techniques and tools that work terrific today may be antiquated in three months…or three DAYS. The Big Dogs inherently know this, understand this, and, most importantly, ACCEPT this.

But the human animal inherently HATES change!

Change fills us with anxiety and frustration. We want things to stay the way they are; we crave stability. As Mary Shelley said in her classic novel Frankenstein, "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change” But stability ain’t what the Internet world is all about, sports fans!

You need to develop a mindset like the US Marines and learn to.....

"Improvise!"

"Adapt!"

"Overcome!"

“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we CHANGE. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the battle. Do it! Throw yourself into the battle!”
                                                                                  -C. JoyBell

"Change – RAPID change – is a fact of Internet marketing. Understand this and accept this."

"SECRET" NUMBER 4:

"The Big Dogs know it takes money
to make money."

OUCH!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You’ve heard all this hype about how you can get on the Internet, and with zero money, make a fortune. Well, my friends, I’m here to tell you it simply doesn’t work that way. The old adage that "it takes money to make money" is JUST as true on the Internet as it is in the dirt world.

That’s the bad news.

The GOOD news is that it takes a whole lot LESS money to develop a thriving, profitable Internet business.

You have no office rent, or employee expenses, no telephone, postage, or printing expenses. So that cuts down on your financial investment substantially, to say the least.

But, fer the luvva Pete, it does take SOME money!

"The trouble is, if no one is SPENDING money
then no one is EARNING money!"

Now, I am quite aware of the fact that the Internet is absolutely riddled with "free" this and "free" that – COUNTLESS programs and so-called business opportunities that are absolutely free. Did you know, though, that you can join just about ANY program on the Internet in two ways – as a FREE member or as a PAID (or "Pro") member? Why is that? Do you think that all the folks who own these companies are just being nice guys to offer a free version of their program?

Nope! That’s not the case at all. There are actually two reasons why free versions of programs exist:

The first reason.....
.....has to do with the law. You see, Federal Trade Commission regulations make it illegal for a business offering it’s services in the United States to charge for the opportunity to sell it’s products. Now this is a GOOD law, and it came about because of the extreme abuses of the network marketing community in the early ‘70’s. Back in those days, many companies were requiring prospective distributors to purchase HUGE amounts (sometimes thousands of dollars worth!) of soap, or dried foods, or vitamins, or motivational tapes in order to be "qualified" to earn a commission. A whole lot of this stuff just ended up filling up the poor distributor’s garage.

This is how the derogatory term "garage qualified" came about in network marketing.

This law is, of course, still in effect both OFFline as well as ONline. It stipulates that although a company CAN charge for it’s products or services, it can NOT charge just for the privilege of SELLING it’s products and services. Thus, any legitimate online company adheres to this law, and makes available what is called a "free reseller opportunity," or a "free affiliate opportunity." As a Free Member you don’t get to USE that company’s products or services (after all, you’re not PAYING for anything). You simply have the authority to SELL the company’s products or services and earn a commission. FREE membership in a company generally offers NO benefits of the company’s product or service, or at most a much watered down version of them.

The second reason.....
.....is one of "sales psychology" Companies offering a free version of their program gamble on the fact that a certain percentage of free members will take an option of upgrading to a paid version. Be warned, though! The free version of any program is essentially a "window-dressing" version of that program. Free members have VERY few (if any) of the paid member benefits and the commission level may be as much as TEN times less!

Now the Big Dogs know all this.

The Big Dogs pretty much make jokes about the free members, and certainly don’t take them seriously. They know that if a program or service is worthwhile at all, the only way any real value is derived from it is by PAYING for the privilege.

And I’m here to tell you that "free members" seldom get around to doing anything! Despite what a whole lotta people would like to believe, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!

"Not one person ever got rich without
spending SOME money.
Think about it:

Even lotto winners BOUGHT a ticket!"

Now if YOU happen to be a free member in a number of programs, I am not trying to "step on your toes." The fact is, my friend, that IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT! Like so many thousands of others you have been mislead by the "join this program for free, do nothing, and make a million dollars" hype that is so prevalent on the Internet.

Think about it like this: How effective can a person be in SELLING any product or service if they haven’t at least TRIED that particular product or service themselves!? Do YOU think you’d make a great car salesman if you had never driven an automobile?

Also, there is unfortunately an entire level of Internet society that has the attitude of, "This is the Internet. I expect and DEMAND something for nothing." These folks spend HOURS a day doing nothing more than hopping from website to website, joining the free portion of program after program. They think that if they join ENOUGH free programs, that eventually they’ll make their Internet fortunes – all without having to do any real work. The Big Dogs jokingly refer to these program-hoppers as "freebie-seekers" or "lookie-loos" And if YOU don’t ration your time when dealing with these people, you can end up spending most of it "playing" with free members, virtually NONE of whom will contribute to your wallet.

Let me give you a couple brief examples of what I mean, by sharing with you just a few of the countless emails I've received from Free Members of various programs I was involved in. (Note: I have kept the spelling and grammatical errors intact.)

"Dear Stan. I have joined 212 programs as a free member now. It’s been over two weeks and I’m still not making any money. What am I doing wrong?"

"dear stan. I found yur emale address in papers on my desk Do I belong to yur program? if I do rush me all the informaton I need."

"Dear Stan. I like your program a lot and as soon as I get some of my bills caught up I think that I’ll have the money to join. In the meantime, below is a list of 75 important questions I need you to answer. If I don’t hear from you right away I’ll know it’s just a scam."

Understand, now, friends, that I am NOT trying to put down or make fun of those genuinely sincere folks who, through their inexperience, really believe that joining as a free member in any program is going to make them money. It’s certainly not THEIR fault if they believe all the extravagant claims on the Internet. If they have true grit, however, they soon learn the truth and become productive members of the online community.

But I have NO sympathy.....

.....for the people who expect and DEMAND a free ride, and have neither the desire, the ability, nor even two nickels to rub together to build a REAL online business. Here’s the bottom line (and again, folks, I apologize if this sounds brutal, but I’m here to try and tell you the TRUTH, not a bunch of lies that you’ve already heard a hundred times): If a person doesn’t have a couple of dollars they can throw at a business for a few months to see if it works for them, and NOT have their lifestyle affected if it doesn’t - well, then, they should seriously consider a different form of enterprise - like a JOB!

Now, then... ..
......just how MUCH money should one look to invest in their online business?

First and foremost, your pocketbook is always the deciding factor in any business venture.

NEVER get in over your head financially for more money than you are absolutely comfortable with. But remember that we are talking about starting a business, NOT a "hobby." In my last year of running an OFFline business, I was spending around $8,000.00 each month on advertising alone. Now, my friends, I had a relatively small "dirt world" type of business, and $8,000.00 per month is NOT a whole lot of money to spend in offline promotion. Just ask any of your friends who own traditional businesses.

One of the many nice features about ONline marketing, however, is that you can get the same bang for a much, MUCH smaller buck! Just what would a typical financial commitment be?

An average monthly commitment of between $400.00 and $600.00 to invest in your business is very reasonable, and compared to OFFLINE ventures, is laughably small.

Can you start off smaller? You betcha! But, like any business, the smaller you start out, the longer it will take to achieve your ultimate goals.

Here is a very good general formula for calculating the amount of money you should spend on a business venture...

Step 1: After (a) every single one of your regular bills are paid, and (b) you've set aside money for your daily living expenses (i.e. food, clothing, gas, the occasional evening out with the family, etc.), and (c) you've put a consistent amount of money into your emergency, "rainy-day" fund, what is a conservative and reasonable amount of money you can invest in a business on a monthly basis?

Step 2: Take the result from Step 1, and ask yourself these three questions:

(a) Can I continue to invest this amount of money into my business for a period of six months, withOUT borrowing?

(b) Can I continue to invest this amount of money into my business for a period of six months until I start to show a profit, withOUT my spouse threatening to throw me out of the house!?

(c) In a "worst case scenario," if my business is not successful, can I just "write it off to experience," withOUT my family's standard of living being affected the slightest bit?

Ain't what you wanted to hear, is it?

Yep, I realize that this is an ultra-ULTRA-conservative way of looking at starting a business. And it's sure not what you're used to hearing from a lot of other websites on the Internet that "absolutely, positively guarantee" you'll make a fortune in the time in takes to reboot your computer.

But I want YOU to do things differently. I want YOU to approach the exciting world of the self-employed with your eyes wide open and with realistic expectations.

"In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable. At times, you will have to step out of your comfort zone to realize significant gains. Know the boundaries of your comfort zone and practice stepping out of it in small doses."
                                                                                   -Robert Arnott

Let me offer one last example: Ever hear of a "little" company called Amazon?   (Yeah, we discussed 'em in the previous chapter) Amazon makes about $80,000..... every second! Wouldn't YOU like to have an Internet business that made that much money? I know I sure would.

But!.....

.....to MAKE that $80,000 a second, Amazon SPENDS $79,200 a second. And yet that small percentage profit allows Amazon to make a net profit of 1.15 MILLION a day! Don't you think that if there really WERE a way to make tons of money on the Internet for free.....

.....Amazon would know about it!?

"Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of MONEY. Be prepared to make SOME type of REASONABLE financial commitment."

"SECRET" NUMBER 5:

"The Big Dogs don’t dig for gold.
They sell the shovels."

Huh!? Now, what the heck does THAT mean!?

Well, lemme give ya a little history lesson...

In 1848 gold was discovered in Sutter’s Mill in California. Within two years, over 40,000 eager entrepreneurs seeking their fortunes made their way to this little town in the middle of nowhere. Of those 40,000 adventurous souls, around 5% managed to barely make a living mining gold; less than 1% ever accomplished their dreams and became wealthy! (Sounds almost like the Internet, doesn’t it!?)

BUT!…another group of people virtually ALL became wealthy in the gold fields of California...

...the shopkeepers!

These enterprising individuals instinctively knew that striking it rich mining for gold was a crap shoot at best. But what they DID know was that the miners couldn’t mine unless they had tools, clothing, and food. The shopkeepers made their fortunes "selling the shovels." Whether or not a miner struck it rich or whether he never found a single nugget was just plain irrelevant – that prospector STILL needed the shovel. And the shopkeepers were there to sell them! Gold or no gold, the guys who sold the shovels made money!

Now, what does all this have to do with the Internet?

Well, you don’t have to be on the Internet very long to find out that you can have the best product in the universe and the flashiest website in the world, but IF NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT YOU’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE A NICKEL. There’s an old tongue-in-cheek adage in the real estate business that the most important three features of any piece of property are location, location, location; I'm sure you heard it. Well, that adage can be made to fit the Internet by saying that...

...the three most important features for any website are
traffic, traffic, TRAFFIC.

What we’re talking about here, folks is "advertising," plain and simple. You and every other netpreneur must get every piece of traffic you can to view your website.

"If I had 14 cents to spend on a shoelace business, I would spend 1 cent on shoe laces, and 13 cents on advertising."
                         -Henry Ford

"Internet success is simple. If you want to make money like a guru, you have to advertise like a guru. PERIOD!"
                                                                                                             -Stan Stuchinski

Recently, Google's annual revenue topped 50 billion dollars. And 96% of their revenue came from - you guessed it......

          .....SELLING TRAFFIC!

It doesn’t take very long for a new Internet marketer to have his website up and running, and find out that that website is nothing more than some digital code residing on a host computer somewhere. That website isn’t going to make him nickel ONE until he gets some traffic to that site.

It’s obvious that every netpreneur out there is crying out for
large volumes of quality traffic for HIS website!

So doesn’t it just make logical sense for you to supply these "gold diggers" with their "shovels?" Doesn’t it make sense for you to specialize your efforts in marketing programs that are designed to drive traffic to a person’s website?

Think about it!

If you concentrate on promoting programs that are designed to generate traffic, it AUTOMATICALLY gives you a DOUBLE whammy!.....

It solves YOUR problems of generating traffic for YOUR website!

It gives you the opportunity of a SUBSTANTIAL income by sharing (i.e. selling) these methods with other netpreneurs!

This is SUCH an important point that I'm going to repeat it: You automatically "kill two birds with one stone" when you promote programs that generate large volumes of quality traffic.....

You generate targeted prospects for YOUR website, and

You generate HUGE, recurring commissions by sharing these programs with others!

Can it GET any sweeter than that!?

Ponder this, if you will: Right now you may be promoting (or plan on promoting) an exciting new nutritional supplement, or website hosting, or a self improvement course, or even the next "get-rich-quick" scheme. Prospects may be ignoring your ads simply because they have no interest in what you're promoting. After all, it's impossible for 100% of the people you contact to be interested in whatever it is you're promoting; only a very small percentage of a given group of prospects is interested in a particular item. But I CAN guarantee you THIS...

I GUARANTEE you that.....
.....100% of the people you approach about increasing
their website traffic ARE interested!

Promote a "product" that EVERYONE wants and needs..... LARGE VOLUMES OF AFFORDABLE, TARGETED, RESPONSIVE WEBSITE TRAFFIC!

"Advertising is totally unnecessary! (Unless you want to make money.)"
                                                                -Jef I. Richards,
                                                                 Professor of Advertising

"Don’t dig for gold. Sell the shovels! Concentrate on programs designed to generate website traffic - for yourself, as well as potential customers"

"SECRET" NUMBER 6:

"The Big Dogs concentrate on programs that
require a monthly, on-going financial
commitment from the purchaser."

There are literally MILLIONS of quality programs and products available for you to sell on the web. Many are very good and you can earn a substantial commission from selling them. BUT…what would you rather have – a $20.00 profit ONE time, or a $10.00 profit every month, over and over again, for an indefinite period of time..... without having to do anything for it?

Silly question, isn’t it?

If you concentrate your marketing efforts on "one shot deals," you may very well make some nice money.....THIS month.

But, then, NEXT month you have to start all over again – in effect you are starting out your business from scratch. Do you actually want to do this month, after month, after month?

When you sell a product that pays you just once, you are making money for the company. When you sell a product that pays you over and over again, you are making money for yourself!

If you concentrate on programs or services that require that the purchaser commit to a regular monthly purchase, you only have to make ONE sale and you get paid over and over again!

Beautiful!

Over a period of time you can build a truly nice RESIDUAL, CONTINUING INCOME that comes to you over and over again, long after you made that initial sale. And believe me, my friend, it’s nice to wake up on the first morning of a new month KNOWING that you are going to get "X" amount of dollars that month. It’s almost like being semi-retired and receiving a monthly annuity check!

Avoid at all costs that dreaded "Feast or Famine" lifestyle!

Nothing is worse than that empty feeling in the pit of your stomach - that overwhelming feeling of insecurity - of being unsure of your next "payday." Big, one-time-payments are great, but nothing allows you to sleep better at night than a regular source of income from subscription-type programs.

From a personal perspective, I have been marketing online fulltime for nearly twenty years. I have sold dozens of different types of products. Some of these products were what can be called "big ticket" items, and there's no doubt about it: it's pretty thrilling to get a commission check (for just one or two sales!) in the amount of a thousand dollars, or to wake up to find that a thousand bucks has been deposited in your PayPal account for a day's work.

BUT!.....

Those big paydays always seem to "disappear" just as quickly, and come all too infrequently. On the other hand those residual commissions, the ones that come regularly from selling subscription-type programs, just keep coming and coming, and coming.....

Residual commissions put your mind at ease because you know you have a cushion NEXT month; you don't have that continual mental stress of having to "start over" each day, or at the beginning of each month.

I STILL get regular monthly paychecks from programs that I haven't promoted for over a decade! And believe me, my friend, NOTHING puts your mind at rest so you can really ENJOY life, like KNOWING you're going to get an ONGOING income!!!

"You will find that a 'slow dime is better than a 'fast nickel.' Smaller amounts of money that come to you CONSISTENTLY over a REGULAR period of time are mentally relaxing and more profitable over the long haul. Larger amounts of money that come to you at IRREGULAR and UNPREDICTABLE intervals are spent quickly and lead to increased stress levels."
                                                         -Stan Stuchinski

"Concentrate your marketing efforts on programs that you sell just ONCE, but that CONTINUE to give you an ONGOING income. RESIDUAL income is the holy grail of business!"

"SECRET" NUMBER 7:

"The Big Dogs concentrate on...
LEGITIMATE programs that WORK."

Now that statement sounds like a real "gimme," doesn’t it!?

Of COURSE you should only become involved in programs that work – that’s just common sense, now, isn’t it? But how do you KNOW what works and what doesn’t – what is pure, overpriced garbage and what is genuinely worthwhile and should be included in your "arsenal" of marketing tools?

There are a gazillion-and-one Internet-based income-generating programs. The majority aren’t worth the power to blow-‘em away, but they are ALL promoted to APPEAR like the next guaranteed road to riches.

On the other hand, there ARE many good, quality opportunities available in the online world.

So how do you know? How do you separate the "wheat" from the "chaff?"

How do you know if a program, product, or service is worth your investment of time and money? Are there specific guidelines one can follow to determine if a program is worth “hitching your wagon to?”

Naturally, we here at Big Dogs HQ are kinda partial to our own program. However, we are aware that many of our people use the facilities of Big Dogs to promote a different, favorite program.

And that’s just fine!

We DESIGNED the Big Dogs program to be fully customizable to individual needs, and as a promotional vehicle for virtually ANY program, product, or service.

We have a number of people who, although they USE the facilities of the Big Dogs program, don’t promote Big Dogs at all; they already had a favorite program with which they were happy and successful.

And we are fully aware that many folks are currently on the lookout for other programs to promote, IN ADDITION TO, or INSTEAD OF, the Big Dogs program itself.

Again, that’s fine! Big Dogs was specifically engineered to be “program neutral”

So, we return to the big question:

“How do you know if a program, product, or service is worthwhile; how do you know if it’s a program worthy of your time and money?

The process of examining a product or service to determine if you want to (or should!) spend your time with it is called doing your "due diligence." Naturally, in the business world, there can be no guarantees, but arming yourself with some very basic information increases your chances of success immeasurably.

In doing your "due diligence," there are four basic questions you should ask….

Due Dilligence Question #1:
"What is the product?"

This is the FIRST thing you should ask yourself, and it is the simplest of our four questions to answer.

Personally, I use the guideline established by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission: “Would the average person buy this product if there were NOT a money-making opportunity attached to it?”

In other words, is there a “real-world” value
to the product all by itself?

Due Dilligence Question #2:
"Who am I dealing with?"

Call me old-fashioned, but I like to know EXACTLY with whom I am dealing in a business situation!

Before I “hitch MY wagon” to a program that I am counting on to make me a lot of money in the YEARS to come, I wanna know a few things about ‘em. I wanna be comfortable that they’re gonna be around to PAY me my commissions! Knowing that close to 90% of Internet programs don’t last more than six months, should make YOU a little gun shy, too.

I want to know three items of information about the company that ANY savvy investor would want to know before putting their hard-earned money into an opportunity; basic information like:

How long has the company been in business?

Knowing the dismal track record of the majority of Internet programs, I DON’T EVEN LOOK at a program seriously unless it’s been in business for a MINIMUM of six months.

Who is the owner, and where is he (or she) located??

What? You think I'm silly and overly-paranoid for wanting to know the name of the guy (or gal) who's gonna make me a million dollars!? But isn't at least the name of the principal of a reputable company merely common sense information any intelligent investor would want?

And what is the actual, physical location of the company? In the offline world, would YOU stake your career and retirement on a company if you didn't know where in the world it was located?

How can I contact 'em?

I’m especially looking for an email address and a phone number. And again I ask: does that make me sound old-fashioned?

Now, almost ALL programs have an on-site “support form.” BUT….. what if the website goes offline for any number of reasons – technical or otherwise! Maybe the Administrator is simply performing some routine maintenance. Maybe they're moving the site to a bigger server. (And - God forbid - maybe they've gone belly-up!)

If a website goes offline, a support form becomes useless!

I don't think this most basic of information is TOO much to ask; do you?

Unfortunately, the above three items are often difficult to find. Many (if not most) websites don’t make ANY of this information readily accessible.

So how DO you find out?.....

Actually, it’s pretty simple. When you register a domain name, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) REQUIRES your domain name registrar to submit your personal contact information to.....

.....the worldwide WHOIS database.

You can access the WhoIs database for free, and find out all the information (and THEN some!) You need simply go to:

https://www.whois.com/whois/

…and enter the URL of the website you are investigating.

Another very useful site for gathering background information is:

https://www.scamadviser.com/

(Unfortunately, in recent years it has become possible for website owners, for a small fee, to hide this information using a service such as Domain ID Shield Service. Now, I can understand why, especially on the Internet, an individual's privacy is important. HOWEVER, when running a legitimate business, we business owners have to be prepared to give up SOME privacy - such as who owns the company and where the company is located. I don't think is is asking too much; do YOU!? After all, it's simply what any LEGITIMATE business is prepared to do.)

Due Dilligence Question #3:
"How do I get paid?"

It never fails to amaze me that most affiliates don’t have a CLUE as to PRECISELY how they make money with that program that’s (supposedly) gonna make them the proverbial “million dollars by Thursday.” They may be convinced that the program is the answer to all their financial problems, but they can’t even explain exactly how the compensation plan works!

What amazes me even more is that so many program owners make it virtually impossible to know precisely the terms of commission payment. They either make it difficult to find on-site, or don’t even mention it at all!

Similar to Question #2, there are six items of information about getting paid that you should always be aware of:

How MUCH do I get paid?

Depending on your level of participation in the program, you may receive as little as a 10% commission, or as high as a 100% commission. The average, of course is 50%. This is one item of a compensation plan that is fairly easy to find. However, other facets of compensation plans are NOT so easy to find, or are non-existent!

HOW do I get paid?

There WAS a time when PayPal was the "big daddy" of payment processors; everybody used 'em to send and receive commission payments. Unfortunately, PayPal periodically "goes on the warpath" against certain industries, and we affiliate marketers are prime targets.

Thus, in today's world of Internet marketing it is necessary to use MULTIPLE alternative payment processors. (i.e. Wise, Uphold, Zelle, crypto-processors, etc, etc.)

Now, there over a dozen alternatives to PayPal, and today most online companies make use of at least two or three options. Yes, it does make Internet marketing a little more complicated, but you do need to be aware of which payments processors are being used by your program of choice, and what you need to do to be acceptable by them.

WHEN do I get paid?

This is the BIG one! But amazingly, this is the one question that most marketers simply take for granted!

Do you know EXACTLY (and I DO mean exactly!) when the company is going to pay you your commissions?

Does the company pay on a weekly basis, or a monthly basis? If they pay on a weekly basis, on which DAY of the week do they pay. If on a monthly basis, precisely what day of the month?

What is the "threshold" commission?

What this means is this: is there a minimum payable commission due you before you get paid? To take an example: if the company of your choice has a "threshold" of $40.00, that means that even though you may have earned, say, $30.00 in commissions, you won't get paid your commissions because you haven't yet met the "threshold" of $40.00!

In other words, the "commission threshold" is the MINIMUM amount of money you must earn before you qualify to get paid.

I prefer companies that have a LOW "threshold" of no more than $10.00. In fact, some of the biggest and most successful commission-paying companies on the Internet have a commission payment "threshold" of just one dollar.

And, yes, there ARE a few companies that have NO threshold at all!

What is the "hold" period?

A "hold period" is the amount of time a program administrator delays paying commissions to safeguard against potential charge backs or refund requests.

(Side note: From purely a business perspective, I do understand this, but I'm not sure I agree with it. Statistically speaking, any QUALITY program will have INSIGNIFICANT refunds or charge backs. I have always felt that this is merely another "cost of doing business," and in two decades I have never questioned a refund or charge back.)

I know of two co-owners of several Internet programs whose philosophy is this "Earn commissions today, get paid Friday - it's that simple." Now that's my kinda pay schedule, and my kinda Admins!

That being said, a 7 day (or even a 30 day) hold period I find acceptable, but I seldom consider a program with a hold period of MORE than 30 days; affiliates, especially new ones, want to see their money as quickly as possible!

Do I have to submit a "request" to get paid?

Some owner/admins require that, in order to get paid, you must submit a "Request to Admin" via email, or a "Support Request" via the website.

I've NEVER liked this requirement, because it makes me feel like I'm begging for my own money! Not only that, but it makes tracking commissions and bookkeeping an extremely involved process. Nevertheless, there ARE a few good, reputable companies that DO have this requirement.

I prefer companies that pay me AUTOMATICALLY (no "request to Admin" being necessary), ON A SPECIFIC SCHEDULE.

In fact, I would LOVE to see a simple, no-nonsense statement like the one below, posted in BOTH the "Commissions" area and the "Frequently Asked Questions" section of EVERY commission-generating program on the Internet. (Naturally, of course, dates and amounts would vary based on the parameters set by individual owner/admins.)

“Your commissions are paid…..”

1.      AUTOMATICALLY (no “request to admin” necessary),
2.      on the last day of the calendar month,
3.      through the payment processor chosen on your “Profile” page,
4.      subject to a minimum of $10.00 (USD),
5.      a “hold period” (to account for refunds and charge backs) of seven days after a purchase is made by one of your referrals, and
6.      payable at the percentage specified in the commission schedule, based on your membership level.

Due Dilligence Question #4:
"Is there training and support?"

Naturally, on their websites, ALL programs promise the sun, moon, and stars when it comes to training and support. Unfortunately most fall dramatically short when it comes time to “put up or shut up.”

So how can you find out how responsive and helpful a company is BEFORE you join ‘em?

Actually, it's pretty simple.

You ask 'em!

Once you've thoroughly studied the website of the program or company you are considering, you are sure to run across an item that is not quite clear to you or that you don't understand. Just submit a request through their online support system, or email 'em, or phone 'em.

A responsive Admin who truly focuses on support will supply you with a cogent answer to your question in a timely manner (generally within 24 hours during the typical business week.)

Summary:

Well, there you have it.

Four simple, common sense questions to ask of ANY online (OR offline, for that matter!) program, product, or service that you might be considering. Four common-sense questions that ANY wise entrepreneur/investor would ask.

Like I stated above, knowing this information can't GUARANTEE success, but it does substantially INCREASE chances that you will be choosing an organization that "will be there when you need 'em" and stand behind their product or service.

Now, to make sure you understand the above four principles when choosing a company to promote, let's use a "real-world" company...
How does

stack up against the four important questions you should ask yourself BEFORE you join a program???

Let's find out.....

  Question #1:
"What is the product?"

Actually, there are TWO products in the Big Dogs program, aren't there:

The main product is the "Secrets of the Big Dogs" ebook itself. "Secrets of the Big Dogs" is essentially a "self-help book" for budding entrepreneurs, the kind that are sold by the millions in bookstores across the nation. If you recall, we have literally hundreds of unsolicited testimonials expressing gratitude for the pointers given in the ebook that can be viewed from the main sales page for the ebook, even BEFORE you purchase it! If you simply follow the "Ten Secrets of the Big Dogs" as outlined in this Chapter - even if you go no further in the ebook - you will find that you will save countless hours of wasted effort and hundreds or dollars worth of wasted money.

So, as far as the "Secrets of the Big Dogs" ebook is concerned, it's obvious that “...the average person WOULD buy this product even if there were NOT a money-making method attached to it” People buy self-help books and business advertising everyday, and they certainly don't expect to be paid a commission by a newspaper or TV network.

The second, optional "product" is the crux of the program, and that is our Coordinated High Income Portfolio (the C.H.I.P., which we'll be explaining in a later Chapter) of several traffic-generating programs. Traffic-generation is crucial to successful marketing, and the programs in our CHIP generate, not just traffic, but generous commissions as well.

Thus, there is an obvious “real-world” value to the product ("Secrets of the Big Dogs" ebook) itself.

Question #2:
"Who am I dealing with?"

If you do a WhoIs search for the domain name "bigdogsecrets.com," this is what you will find:

Creation Date

2001-05-11

Admin Name

STAN STUCHINSKI

Admin Street

P.O. BOX 275

Admin City

HOLLIDAYSBURG

Admin State

PA

Admin Postal Code

16648

Admin Country

US

Admin Phone

814-696-0469

Admin Email

Stan@BigDogSecrets.com

Lo and behold! This is the IDENTICAL information given on the initial sales page for the "Secrets of the Big Dogs" ebook - even before you spend a single cent!

Big Dogs does not "hide behind the Internet!" You know all of our pertinent contact information before you spend a penny!

Question #3:
"How do I get paid?"

Once again, "transparency" is the hallmark of the Big Dogs program!

In giving a summary of each of the programs Big Dogs promotes, we tell you EXACTLY:

(1) how much you get paid, both as a percentage and in dollars
(2) the day of the week or month you can expect your commissions, and
(3) if a "request to admin" is necessary.

With Big Dogs there is no guesswork involved in your commission payment! BEFORE you make the commitment to "run with the Big Dogs" by joining our recommended programs in the C.H.I.P. you know EXACTLY how much money you can make and when you get it.

Question #4:
"Is there training and support?"

You are given the URL for our special, member's-only "Big Dogs Training Site." Written in "newbie-speak," the Training Site takes you by the hand, and in a step-by-step, "paint-by-the-numbers" style, shows you exactly WHAT to do and WHEN to do it. For example, one of the many key benefits of the Training Site is our much heralded series of "Fast-Track Tutorials."

Each tutorial shows you in a "Step 1-do this, Step 2-do that, Step 3-now do this..." manner with no confusion or frustration - even if you've never done anything like this before!

And!... our Training Site gives you a systematic game plan to follow that will allow you to finish all of your routine marketing chores in less than an hour a day!

And while we encourage you to write your own ads, and even instruct you how to do that, we realize that not everyone is an ad-writing genius. That's why our Training Site also includes the Big Dogs "Ad Vault" which contains dozens of preformatted, dynamite ads designed to promote the Big Dogs program, IF you choose to do so.

Naturally, we are always accessible by email or by phone to answer any questions or to explain the Big Dogs program in more detail to any of your ebook purchasers. (OR..... even to folks who have not yet purchased the ebook! Remember: our phone number and email address are on our sales page even BEFORE a prospect makes their purchase.)

In addition to that personal touch, however, once a prospect purchases the ebook from you, he also begins to receive a daily email message from Home Office highlighting a different facet of the Big Dogs program. Thus, you don't even need your own autoresponder! Each of your ebook purchasers receives a different instructional message once a day for fourteen days, and then a different message every three days for another month, and then a message every seven days for another two months! And, when any of these folks make any further purchases... YOU get the commissions! Now THAT's support!

In other words.....
"We give you HELP, not HYPE!"

And, of course, ALL ebook purchasers receive their regular edition, published every two weeks, of the Big Dogs Bulletin.

Training and support!? You gotta be kiddin' me! With Big Dogs you never have to be concerned with proper training and necessary support when needed! We effectively rewrote the book on effective training and timely support!

(NOTE: I think it bears pointing out that we are NOT just tryin' to brag about the Big Dogs program! What we ARE attempting to do is to furnish a "real-world" example of how to analyze and judge a product or program you are considering. Big Dogs IS an excellent program, but it is certainly not the ONLY worthwhile business opportunity on the Internet. Although they are few and far between, there ARE a number of fine Internet-based products and programs; our above guidelines will help you find 'em.)

"Market programs that give a genuine value to your customers – legitimate programs that actually WORK!"

"SECRET" NUMBER 8:

"The Big Dogs diversify their business by being
involved in multiple programs simultaneously."

When I first got involved with sales in the OFFline world (more years ago than I care to remember!), the first thing I was taught was: "Never try to promote more than one program at a time. You spread yourself too thin, and you lose your focus." That was (and still is, to a certain extent) the carved-in-stone, cardinal rule of sales.

But I'm here to tell you that, ON THE INTERNET not only SHOULD you promote multiple programs, you MUST promote multiple programs, and you must do it simultaneously!

Now this may sound like heresy to a lot of you, and under ordinary circumstances you would be correct; it IS darn near impossible to effectively promote more than one concept, or product, or program at a time.

Generally speaking, you would find that, this course of action is far more time consuming, and the income generated from all these projects is actually less than focusing on just one project. But this is the Internet we're talking about here and things are just a wee bit different. There are three VERY important reasons why experienced and successful netpreneurs ALWAYS establish a diverse portfolio of business interests:

I. DIVERSIFICATION:
It guarantees you stability, safety, and security.

Let’s get this one out of the way REAL quick!

I know it sounds like "cyber-heresy" to say that Internet companies can go out of business, but they are no more immune to financial troubles than their dirt world counterparts. In fact, because conditions change so rapidly on the Internet, companies that don’t continuously evolve in response to changes can easily find themselves king of the world one day and cleaning toilets the next.

This same thing (although at a slower pace) can happen to dirt world companies, of course, and this is why the mutual fund came into existence. A mutual fund takes investors’ money and puts it, not just into one stock, the value of which may rise and fall, but into dozens or hundreds of DIFFERENT stocks to "spread the risk." If one or two companies experience financial downturns or even go out of business, other companies in the portfolio compensate for it.

Think of the C.H.I.P. as a "mutual fund of the Internet" While C.H.I.P. has nothing to do with stock market investing, the principal of "diversification of risk" still applies. GREAT pains have been taken to choose established, solid companies – companies that offer a real value. After all, we, ourselves have an investment of time and money in these programs – THEY ARE THE COMPANIES AND PROGRAMS WE USE OURSELVES! All "due diligence" that can be done, HAS been done.

But, then again, ya never know - one learns to take NOTHING on the Internet for granted.

II. DIVERSIFICATION:
It guarantees you...

Quite frankly, the vast majority of programs on the Internet are geared toward people with little disposable income to invest in a business. The typical financial commitment for the majority of programs on the Net is around $25 per month, or $300 per year.   Now the typical compensation plan pays out a commission of 50%. That means that the average program is going to pay you a commission of around $12.50 per month (if your prospect pays his subscription monthly), or $150 per year (if your prospect pays his subscription annually).

Now a single commission of $12.50 you receive every month (or $150 per year) is a little difficult from which to make a living. So you have TWO options: You can sell a lot more of these smaller $25/mo, $300/year subscriptions. Or..... you can promote "bigger ticket" programs - those in the $250/mo, $3,000/year range.

The problem is, though, that there are simply very, VERY few quality
$250/month, $3,000/year programs on the Net!

You pretty much have to "manufacture" one yourself by promoting SEVERAL cohesive, complementary programs at one time.

Are you starting to get the idea of C.H.I.P?

Now, if you are like most folks on the Net, you are used to the concept of $25/month programs. The idea of getting people to commit to $300 or more per month, or several thousand dollars per year may sound like an impossible task.

But it is NOT as hard to do as it may sound to you at first. Why? Statistics show that the typical marketer who is in ONE program as a paid member is ALSO in 6 or more OTHER programs as a paid member. In other words, most serious netpreneurs are ALREADY using and/or promoting multiple programs, but they are in those 6+ programs under 6+ DIFFERENT sponsors.

Wouldn’t it be GREAT if, somehow, you could be that person’s sponsor in ALL of those programs!!!???

Are you starting to see where we are heading with this?

The basic, underlying concept behind the C.H.I.P. program is now becoming clear: The Big Dogs C.H.I.P. is specifically engineered to combine multiple programs to:

1. provide our Big Dogs with safety and security by spreading risk over multiple sources
2. allow our Big Dogs to achieve the Holy Grail of Internet marketing: multiple streams of stable, recurring income

3. give our Big Dogs access to huge volumes of targeted traffic from multiple, diverse sources

(Note: For a moment, let’s say there WAS a single "big-tcket" subscription-type program available. That would still go against the basic principals of diversification that we've outlined above.)

III. DIVERSIFICATION:
It guarantees you multiple traffc sources.

Any one source of traffic can generate only a FINITE amount of traffic for you, no matter how good it is. No single source or program, no matter how comprehensive and effective, can give you all the traffic you want. No matter how successful you become, if you are a "one-source-wonder" when it comes to traffic, if that source has a problem.....

          .....you, my friend, are effectively out of business!

"Successful Internet marketing DEMANDS that you diversify in multiple programs simultaneously to insure (1) stability, safety, and security, (2) multiple streams of income, and (3) multiple traffic sources."

"SECRET" NUMBER 9:

"The Big Dogs know they are not alone."

Now just what does THAT mean!?

Folks, I’m here to tell you that, taken seriously and worked like a genuine business, there is just NO business like Internet marketing! It’s great. It’s wonderful! It’s terrific. There are dozens of positive factors about being a "netpreneur." But unlike every other form of marketing that came before it, nothing gives you the feeling of utter "ALONENESS" and FRUSTRATION that the Internet does.

A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found that a person’s feelings of loneliness and depression INCREASED in direct proportion to the amount of time they spent on the Internet. And it’s REAL easy to see why this is so. Despite the fact that the Internet gives us almost instantaneous access to other people, it’s just not the same as interacting face-to-face with living, breathing human beings.

When you’re an Internet marketer you are "on your own" like no other business in the world.

As much as we like the idea of having our own business and not having a boss breathing down our throats, the Internet takes this to the extreme - to the point where we have NO interpersonal contact. There’s no water cooler down the hall where we can meet with co-workers. There’s no coffee shop down the block where we can gather with friends and talk over the events of the day, complain about the boss, or maybe talk over ideas with other warm bodies.

What’s worse is that we NEVER "get away from the office," do we?

Most of us have our office right in our homes. Even if we’re taking a break from the old computer and TRYING to watch a TV show, there’s always that feeling in the back of your mind that you SHOULD be doing something else with your online business.

Have a problem? Who are you going to talk to about it? Your spouse? (who, in all probability, thinks that this "Internet stuff" is silly and a waste of time anyway) Your kids? (who see the computer only as a different kind of video game). And we ALL know how tough it is to get through to a company whose "never-fail, user-friendly" software just isn’t as simple as you thought it was going to be.

The learning curve on the Internet can be a long one. It takes time before you really understand what you’re doing. My friend, take heart! We ALL go through it.

I hate to tell you how many times, at three o’clock in the morning, after HOURS of trying to figure out a new piece of software, or a new program, how many times I found myself wanting to just curl up into a little ball in a corner.

Or take an ax to my computer!

Does that surprise you? Folks, it’s something we ALL go through – every single one of us. But take heart! One day, as if by magic, everything just seems to snap into place. The clouds part, the sun shines through, and tasks that just days before, that perhaps took you hours of intensive, frustrating labor to perform – why, all of a sudden you can do them in minutes, while whistling a happy tune!

What makes it so doggone difficult is that WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS ALONE!

“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration. ”
                                                                                    -Pearl S. Buck

"If it’s any consolation, though, understand that you are NOT alone. Every single successful netpreneur has gone through this same thing. It’s what separates the Big Dogs from the little dogs – from those who persevere to become successful Internet marketers and those who throw their hands up and just walk away."

"SECRET" NUMBER 10:

"The Big Dogs NEVER
Put the Cart Before the Horse."

Of all the mistakes Internet marketers make that will inevitably lead to failure and utter disaster is allowing themselves to become infected with what I call the "Cart-Before-The-Horse" Syndrome.

Now just what does THAT mean!?

Maybe you already know of that perfect, ideal, once-in-a-lifetime product: It's something that is glitzy and glamorous. It's an item that is inexpensive and cost-effective. You've used this product personally for several months and you know that it works even better than is advertised. It's something that everybody wants and needs. It does sound like that "can't miss" product, dunnit?

But, hold on there, cowboy; lemme ask you a question.

How will people know you have this product? And I don't want a simplistic answer like, "Oh, I have that area covered; I already KNOW I need to advertise."

Y'see, merely knowing that you have to advertise just ain't good enough. You need to know precisely - and I do mean precisely, exactly, specifically - how you're going to promote your product, before you start; where are you going to promote it, what method (or methods) are you going to use, just how are you going to advertise and over what period of time, what results can you reasonably expect, what is your ad budget, etc, etc. Just acknowledging that, "I know I need to advertise, and I have a coupla ideas to try out," doesn't cut it!

Naturally, your campaign is like a battle, and any battle is a fluid situation; you must be prepared to modify your course of action at any time to keep pace with changing conditions and information flow. But you must have your advertising game plan planned out well before you start your campaign.

If there is a "first commandment" of Internet marketing it's this: NEVER, under any circumstances, start a project with the thought of making a ton of money BEFORE you know E-X-A-C-T-L-Y how you're going to promote it. Don't be foolish enough to simply assume that, if your product is good enough, people will beat a path to your door and beg you to take their money.

They won't!

"Never, EVER fall into the trap of putting your cart before your horse. Before you become involved wholeheartedly with a project, make doggone SURE you know EXACTLY how you're going to go about promoting it. In other words, you need to know PRECISELY how you're going to advertise it, B-E-F-O-R-E" you start a business!"

SECRET NUMBER 11:

The simplest one of all! Secret Number 11 is...

As we've stated before...

...common sense is a commodity that is in very short supply on the Internet!

Even well-meaning, ordinarily intelligent people, lured by the hailstorm of gross exaggeration and falsehoods, get on the Internet and are pulled into that mentality that the established rules of business no longer apply.

Well, the established rules DO apply, and we Internet marketers must be continuously reminded of that! The "Secrets" of the Big Dogs are nothing more than tried and true business principals, combined with common sense to a new marketing medium..... the Internet.

It is a true fact that 97% of people who attempt to run a successful Internet business, FAIL. That remaining 3% - the folks who ARE actually successful on the Internet - INSTINCTIVELY KNOW THE SEVERAL "SECRETS" OF THE BIG DOGS THAT WE'VE OUTLINED IN THIS CHAPTER.

That, my friend, is why they ARE the Big Dogs!

So if you're looking for that magic button that you only have to press ONE time, never do a thing the rest of your life and have tens-of-thousands dollars pour into your bank account every month?...

Sorry.

Ain't gonna happen!

The magic button to success is a LIE.

It was designed by unscrupulous “gurus” who just want to take your money and keep you broke. That way you’ll keep buying their “magic button” promises.

"The one true 'secret' of Internet marketing success, is that there IS no secret!"

Now, before we move on, let’s review.....

1. The Big Dogs have PATIENCE.
They know it’s going to take at least THREE to SIX months to develop their business.
2. The Big Dogs spend TIME at their business.
They devote a specific block of time EVERY day to their business.
3. The Big Dogs don’t let CHANGE bother them.
They understand that rapid change is a fact of life on the Internet
4. The Big Dogs know IT TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MONEY.
It doesn't take a LOT of money, but it does take SOME money.
5. The Big Dogs don’t dig for gold; they sell the shovels.
They devote their efforts to programs and products that generate TRAFFIC.
6. The Big Dogs concentrate on programs that require an ONGOING FINANCIAL COMMITMENT from the purchaser.
RESIDUAL, continuous, month-after-month income.
7. The Big Dogs use only LEGITIMATE programs that provide a genuine value.
Always do your due diligence.
8. The Big Dogs DIVERSIFY by being involved in MULTIPLE programs.
Diversification ensures stability, safety, and security, as well as multiple sources of income and multiple sources of traffic.
9. The Big Dogs know they are NOT alone.
There are hundreds of thousands of like-minded individuals on the Internet.

10. The Big Dogs NEVER put the cart before the horse.
They know EXACTLY how they'll promote a product BEFORE they become involved.

11. The Big Dogs know that the REAL "secret to success" on the Internet is that there IS no "secret!"
They know that it simply takes an investment of time, patience, and (a LITTLE) money.

Study this Chapter! Learn it. Live it.
If you go no further in this book -
if you do nothing more than apply what you've learned thus far - you will have gotten far more than your money's worth!

.....and you WILL be successful!

So... whaddya think? Are you READY for Chapter 4?
Are you ready to become an EXPERT on website traffic generation!?

Forward - To Chapter 4                    Back - To Contents