Service or product based business and consistent income!

[KathleenGageSpeaker]

You are right Lisa - lots of hype on the Net. I read an article recently that had some of the best advice I've seen in some time. Basically, stay focused and be careful not to get sidetracked by things that have nothing to do with the direction you are aiming for.

Most of the "hype marketing" information is designed to create a sense of urgency and feelings that if you don't get something right now you won't ever have the chance again. Fact is, there will be more of the same coming around the corner by the next so-called "guru."

Best thing to do is research people who claim to know how to teach you anything and find out if they have "walked the talk."

Unfortunately, many people who are selling how to do this or that have not done it themselves. I am a firm believer if you are going to teach someone something you ought to know how to do it.

If I want to learn how to ride a horse, I am certainly not going to put my money down for someone who has never been on the horse.

Kathleen

[womaninbiz]

Glad you find the topic interesting Lisa

Was just a question I've had in my mind for some time now and you are right, the information recieved here so far has been great!

There are people out there earning an income myself included, but like you I was just looking for a way to decipher what is real and what is just hype!

All the best to you with your current ventures.


Scharlene

[womaninbiz]

Glad you find the topic interesting Lisa

Was just a question I've had in my mind for some time now and you are right, the information recieved here so far has been great!

There are people out there earning an income myself included, but like you I was just looking for a way to decipher what is real and what is just hype!

All the best to you with your current ventures.

Thank you for the congrats Lynn!!


Scharlene

[Lynn Terry]

[Todd Sumrall]

Personally I'm a fan of recurring income. I've been marketing and selling services on the net full time since 1998. Started in 97. Turned a profit in 98. I've been profitable every year since. While I'll not disclose numbers, I will say in my past life, I spent 8 years as a welder prior to getting into sales. My income is 3 to 4 times that of a journeyman welder. Dedpending on your location in the US.

I prefer service sales of the digital kind, simply because you do not have sweat nor have to keep selling something new to your client base to substain income. Sell only once and every month payment is made. I wouldn't be interested in doing manual labor service though owning a company that provided services on contract would be appealing. Landscaping, pest control and the like. As long as the income is recurring.

Everything is FREE. I don't even have to sell anymore! Even wireless merchant account equipment is FREE!

[Todd Sumrall]

One last comment about the $40k question. The answer is yes. I have a merchant who is simply brilliant when it comes to membership sites. He starts a new one about once a year. He generally hits the $40k mark within the first month.

I have a buddy some of you may know Willie Crawford. He is an avid affiliate marketer. Because he lives close to me I have gotten to know him quite well. What he makes from affiliate income should be a sin

Back in the early days, it was affiliate income that substained me until I got my biz rolling along. I'll never forget when the domain names went from 22 characters to 67 characters. (at least I think that is the correct number) I joined registrar "something" (can't remember the name.) Anyhhow they were paying commission of $25ea. They were selling them for $60 which was cheaper than Network Soilutions at the time. The very day this went into effect I joined their affiliate program and sent a brief email to my list of about 1000. 8 hours later I had made $2800. This was at a time when Excite search engine (dead engine now) had dropped my site from top 10 for relevent keyword phrase, and I was having a very bad month in sales. Just in time. I'll never forget the feeling. That was a lot of domain names sold!

Willie Crawford puts that number to shame though. It's routine for him.

[Lynn Terry]

Great posts, Todd! Welcome to the SSWT Forum

Nice to meet you!

[Todd Sumrall]

[WAHumor]

How computer savvy were you when you started, Todd?

Did you need to develop such skills much before seeing a decent return?

[Todd Sumrall]

Computer Savvy? ZERO. My skills were in welding and thermal cutting. I had recently quit the blue collar world in favor of a sales job.

1997 -My mother gave me a hand-me-down computer, A Compaq 486. The Pentium had arrived and they got themselves a 333 MHz Compaq.

I bought a book about getting on the Internet. I had heard about the NET and was curious about it. I signed up with Bellsouth and at 14.4 modem speed I was connected. I was addicted instantly too.

I saw a banner one day from a competing company Card Services and about fell out of my chair. Here was a competitor on the Internet. How did they get on the Internet was the big question for me. I set out to find out how they did that.

I got a free web hosting account, built a web site using Netscape's built in editor. Then built it again and again and again. I joined a couple good ezines and 100 bad ones with LED Digest and I-Sales being among the good ones. From them I learned I was not getting any sales from my web site because a green marble background, blinking mail box, assorted color and sizes of text were not acceptable ways of building a business web site. Yea my mom thought it was neat, but in the first 8 months with a web presence I made only one sale. Why I made that sale is unknown to me. But I will never forget the feeling of success it brought. Sales went up when I went from that marble design to black text and white background.

1998- I bought FrontPage 98 and studied SEO and got a #1 position in Excite for the term "Merchant Account" that lasted about 8 weeks, and business took off.

I had no schooling officially for computers, web design, marketing and such. I had a desire, no I was driven to make this net business succeed. This drive forced me to learn the computer, to learn how to FTP, install scripts etc.

Fascination with Internet marketing and desire to make it online, pushed me along. I joined a marketing membership club called the Warriors that taught me probably the single most important thing at the time was getting the email list and sending out a newsletter. I bought and read everything I could about marketing. I learned a little html.

I studied SEO and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked website after website. I sure was glad when GOTO now called Overture arrived on the scene with pay-per-click. I was tired of SEO and about slam wore out with the 8 am to 8 am work hours I was keeping. My sleep is forever screwed up because of those first couple of years.

[Lynn Terry]

I can sure relate to almost everything that you said there, Todd

Except I started out with a 9600 baud modem!! LOL

[Jeff Casmer]

[Lynn Terry]