Jim Rohn – Take Charge of Your Life

December 1, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 2 Comments
Filed under: Success and Failure

As you may know, I’m a firm believer in finding people — successful people — and learning from them.

Some of these people have taken the time to record and/or write their stories, experiences, and advice so we can learn from them.

Learning from Jim Rohn is worth your time, effort, and money. It has been for me.

Here’s a free sample of his advice.

You can learn a lot more from him on his website…

Visit JimRohn.com Today!

If you want to take charge of your life, learn from people who have already done it.

People like Jim Rohn.

It has worked very well for me.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Jim Rohn, success

Sitesell issues a fifty thousand dollar challenge!

October 9, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure

Have you heard the old line, “Put your money where your mouth is?”

Ken Evoy is doing just that. He has issued a challenge. He posted the challenge on Sitesell’s Facebook page (click the $50,000 challenge in the menu on the left of that page to go right to the challenge). Briefly, here it is…

If you can find documented proof that another product, or collection of information and tools (see tools.sitesell.com), delivers everything that SBI! does (or more), at the price of SBI! (or less) AND that product documents success to the depth that SBI! does (see proof.sitesell.com), we will pay you $50,000.

Here’s a direct link to the Sitesell $50,000 Challenge. Be sure to read the entire status post and the first comment, which contains the official rules of this contest.

I’ve been hearing people say for years that SBI is overpriced and that there are better and cheaper ways to do just as well. Well, here’s your opportunity to show Ken your better solution. If you win this challenge, you can not only earn bragging rights, but you can get cold hard cash (well, probably a company check) for your effort.

I would try it myself, but I just spent the last five years searching diligently for a system or group of tools and information that was better than Sitesell’s SBI. I failed in that quest, and now I am 100% comfortable in saying that SBI is the best system out there for an individual or small team — especially if they have limited technical skills — to build an online business. I have no doubt at all.

Won’t I feel foolish if someone wins this challenge?

Yes, I will, for a few minutes, and then I’ll go test it for myself. I honestly don’t think there will be a winner in this challenge — except for Sitesell and all of us who enjoy using SBI.

After my five year search, and testing other products that looked like they might be good enough, I’ve closed almost all of my test sites and I’m going back to working on my SBI sites.

I would love to win that $50,000, but I have nothing to submit to the challenge.

So, I’ll just get back to work and EARN it.

Do not post your entries and contenders here. Go to the Sitesell $50,000 Challenge and post your entry as a comment in that thread. Read the rules.

Don’t dawdle. This challenge is for one month. It expires at midnight on November 8, 2011 (Eastern Time).

Who will win? Sitesell’s SBI — or a challenger?

(Oh, I forgot to mention that their Facebook page now has over 40,000 people who like it, and more are joining every day.)

Act on your dream!

PS. Knowing the folks at Sitesell as well as I do (I’ve been a happy customer and affiliate for over ten years), I’m willing to bet — if there is a winner to this challenge — that we’ll see SBI extended to be even better than the winner, and that they won’t raise the price on SBI. I already know of some big improvements that will be introduced to SBI over the next few months and I can’t wait to start using them.

Tags: challenge, Ken Evoy, SBI, Sitesell

Dan Kennedy GameChanger DNA – Last Day

October 1, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Dan Kennedy, Marketing, Success and Failure

As I said yesterday, I am doing something I almost never do. In this post, I am promoting something that I have not bought, studied, used, and tested for myself prior to recommending it to you.

There is a simple reason. I know Dan’s reputation for quality and his ability to teach effective marketing techniques that have worked for thousands of people. So, although I have not seen this particular product of his, I have studied other books he has written over the years, and GameChanger DNA is a collection of what he has learned about marketing over the last nearly four decades — all presented in one place. It’s not everything he knows, but it should be enough to change your marketing game, if you study it and implement what you learn.

If you know in your heart that you won’t spend the time to learn and use the valuable knowledge in this product — Do Not Buy It!

To be perfectly frank, it’s not worth an affiliate commission if I have to listen to you bellyache and whine about it being a waste of money.

First, it can’t be a waste of money, because you have a 30-day money back guarantee. If you buy it and don’t like it, follow the refund procedures and get your money back.

If you learn from it, implement it, and reap the rewards, I’d love for you to come back here and tell us about your experience.

It’s time for you to decide.

Would you like an easy to use, step-by-step, take-you-by-the-hand, done-for-you, proven system that will change your game immediately?

Dan’s closing the cart for his GameChanger DNA tonight at 12 MIDNIGHT CST, on Saturday October 1st.

Simply click the Add to Cart Button on the following page to get access…

Click on my GameChanger DNA link or on the image above to see for yourself!

But there is more, much more than just the cart closing. Your chances of becoming a Game Changer are slipping away.

This science of influential communication has been of more value to professional marketers than a thousand techniques or gadgets or gimmicks. Now it can be yours for a small investment, fully guaranteed.

If you haven’t made a decision yet I urge you to finalize your plans, weigh the pros and cons, and make your commitment to achieve.

Go now, and see for yourself.

Act on your dream!

PS. As I said yesterday, Dan’s GameChanger DNA offer is not for everyone. It’s for business owners — and people who intend to own a business — who realize that effective marketing is the most important pathway to success, and who are willing to invest in themselves by studying and then implementing what you learn. Only with a steady stream of paying customers, will your business thrive.

If you do nothing else, get a copy of his Outrageous Advertising book. How much does it cost? If you go now, you can get a copy of Outrageous Advertising for free, and you’ll have to pay for shipping only.

Tags: Dan Kennedy, GameChanger DNA, Marketing

Dan Kennedy – GameChanger DNA Webinar Videos

September 30, 2011 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Marketing, Success and Failure

Today, I’m going to do something I almost never do. I am going to suggest something to you that I have not purchased and tested for myself.

It takes a lot to get me to do this, so let me tell you the back story…

Dan Kennedy is a marketing expert and is rapidly approaching the status of marketing legend.

I have read several of his books and I’m right in the middle of reading his “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent” book, as part of my planning on rebuilding my marketing business, now that I’m recovering from my illness and I’m getting back to work.

I trust his advice and I know some of the back-story of how he has helped a lot of people over the years to build very nice incomes.

Yesterday afternoon, while doing some research for my new marketing plan, I took a short break and was playing on Facebook. That was a lucky thing for me.

Here’s why…

I have been following Dan Kennedy on Facebook and he sent out a very short status with a link. Out of curiosity, I clicked that link, and it changed the rest of my afternoon.

(Dan is known for not liking, nor using, modern technology, even though he understands it, so I doubt that he was the one that published the status update. Most likely it was an employee or someone he influenced to do it for him.)

That link took me to a video about the launch of his new GameChanger DNA product. As far as I know, this is the first time he’s used a big product launch like this for his own products, but he has been involved behind the scenes helping with others. (I’m almost, but not quite, positive that I have my facts straight here.)

Anyway, to cut a long story shorter, I dropped what I was doing and watched those videos. It was the first time I’d seen Dan on video and I enjoyed watching it. I also enjoyed observing how they were doing the marketing for the new product.

Note: This product is not the normal kind of product I promote. I don’t think it’s right for most of my readers. If you balk at paying a few hundred dollars for using a tool for a year, you’re going to cringe when you see the price of this product.

However, if you are already a business owner and you want to learn how to distance yourself from the herd of competitors in which you are surrounded and you want to learn how to raise your prices and earn more profit, then this is an indispensable and very valuable collection of information, techniques, and expert tips that Dan has spent 38 years learning and developing.

I’m almost sure that you could not afford a single hour of Dan’s consulting time, but you can get this package for a fraction of his consulting fee — a small fraction, at that.

So, since I know Dan by reputation and I know him from reading his books, I did some checking and applied for his affiliate program this morning. A couple of hours later, I was accepted, and an hour later, I’m writing this.

Again, this is not cheap, but it is very valuable information.

Now, even if you have no plans to purchase it, set aside a couple of hours (I’m not sure how long it is, because I wasn’t watching the clock yesterday while I was watching the videos), and open your mind and pay attention.

Even if you know a lot about marketing, I bet you’ll learn some new tips or look at some of what you think you know with a different viewpoint.

If you don’t know a lot about marketing, stop what you’re doing and watch these videos.

There are a lot of people out there who claim to be experts. Dan Kennedy is the real deal. He’s the one the experts hire when they need a consultant to help them.

I am not under any illusion here. I don’t think you’re going to buy this. But, if by some wild outside chance, you do, make sure you take the time to study it, absorb it and then implement it!

I have not tried this product.

I just wanted to reiterate that. This is one of the few times I’ll recommend something to you that I have not already bought, used, tested, and proven that it works for me.

Even if you’re not interested in buying. Watch the videos.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the last day for this promotion, and I don’t know if the videos will remain online, or not. If you want to watch them, don’t delay.

(That is not me trying to build artificial urgency. I honestly don’t know how long they will be available. They may be there from now on, they may disappear at the end of this promotion tomorrow night.)

Here’s a prewritten letter that affiliates can use to promote this. Normally, I would not send it, since I prefer to write my own copy, but I’m passing it along to you because I have to leave, and my driver is tapping his foot as he impatiently waits for me to post this.

So, any typos are mine. I just wanted to get this out before I leave.

Subject: Early Warning: The “GameChanger DNA” Finale is here

It made me sad to see Dan Kennedy’s last “GameChanger DNA” video today.

Here it is:

Click on my link or on the image above to see for yourself!

In case you missed it last week, Dan’s released 3 free videos so far – revealing the exact fundamental principles you need to SEE the profit potential for your business.

Tens of thousands of people have watched Dan’s tutorials and learned how to apply these fundamental principles to CHANGE the GAME of their business.

And those tutorials are PLENTY if all you want is understand the basics. But if you’re like me, the “basics” aren’t enough…

I see too much potential.

If you want to stop scratching the surface and become a REAL GameChanger, Dan has a LOT more to share with you in today’s video.

Watch the FINAL public “GameChanger DNA” release here.

And listen, this is a special EARLY notice from me to you (Dan told me it’s okay). You’re seeing this BEFORE the rest of the public.

For you, it could be just a start.

For EVERYONE ELSE, this really IS the END of GameChanger DNA.

Don’t miss it,

JD

P.S. Be sure you register for the “Early Gamechangers” list, they can close registration at any time, so if you want first dibs, get on that list.

Again, Dan Kennedy is someone I highly recommend. If you do nothing else, buy his books and study them.

Success is not in the tools and tricks, it is in the mindset and how you approach it. When you change your attitude, then you can start using the tools to great advantage.

Act on your dream!

Tags: "Dan Kennedy", Marketing

Are comments highly overrated?

September 11, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 29 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Business, NovaMind, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure, WordPress

I have been debating this topic with myself for several years and I decided now is the time to bring it out into the open and ask the question, here.

(Yes, I recognize the irony in asking you to comment about whether comments are overrated.)

I have built multiple websites, blogs, forums, and social communities over the years. With the exception of the websites, I have tried to start discussions that would lead to more understanding and different viewpoints about topics in which I am particularly interested.

I have been a miserable failure in that endeavor.

It seems that the people who want to discuss the issues don’t want to buy anything, and the people who click and buy what I promote don’t want to talk about it. They just want to buy it and get on with their own activities.

Yes, a few kind and learned souls have added comments to the discussions that have added to the topics, but most commenters, I am now sure, are more interested in getting a backlink than they are in the discussion.

I’m testing my theory

So, as of today, as a test, I have turned off both CommentLuv and the dofollow plug-in. I’ll see for myself over the course of the next few months whether the readers and commenters on this site will slow and/or disappear, or whether there are real, live people who are interested in the topics about which I write.

I have updated item number 4 on my Comments Policy to reflect this change.

As far as I know, there is no way to set CommentLuv to leave the old links on the comments, so that means all of the CommentLuv comments are now gone.

That one part of the test may very well doom this blog to oblivion…

…if I am correct in assuming that people comment more for the backlinks than they do for wanting to take part in the discussion.

This is one more test in an ongoing series of marketing tests I have run over the last decade.

I enjoy the social aspect of blogging and commenting

I enjoy talking to real people who comment and add to the discussion at hand. I enjoy thinking about differing viewpoints. Some of them make me re-think my own understanding of a topic and some actually change my mind.

I really dislike having to moderate my comments.

I hate dealing with all the spam, and it is getting increasingly difficult to discern whether it is a real person commenting, or a hired wordslinger, or a well-programmed robot.

Will the readership of this blog drop?

Will disabling CommentLuv and going back to the no-follow default for WordPress blogs make a difference in the number of people who respond to my diatribes?

I’m betting it will.

I’m betting that the number of readers and the number of commenters will drop. Perhaps it will drop precipitously.

How will the test affect profits from this blog?

I’m also betting that it won’t make a bit of difference to the profit I can track back to this blog. It has never earned nearly as much as my tier-structured websites.

Now that I am adding Facebook comments to those sites, I’ll see if comments are as important as I once thought they were.

Blog or build websites?

Ken Evoy, founder of Sitesell, Inc., has been saying for years that building well-structured, niche-oriented websites will produce more profits than blogging, and I have been having an internal argument with myself about that topic since he first wrote about it.

I like blogging. It’s easy. It’s inexpensive. It’s fun.

However, for me, it does not produce profits.

Blogs are, however, good for when I want to express my opinions about something that has just happened or a new development, whether or not it qualifies as news. That’s what blogs excel at doing. Their reverse-chronological structure is ideal for late-breaking news and/or developments, so I’ll most likely continue to use this blog for that purpose — regardless of the outcome of this test.

I get an idea, do some quick research, and write a new post to the blog. Depending upon the topic and how much I want to say about it, this can take from a few minutes to two or three hours of work.

It’s different when building a money-making website.

I plan those sites carefully. (Sometimes it doesn’t look like it, however.)

I do weeks or months of keyword research. Then, I research my competitors for the keywords I intend to write about. Then, I research ways I can monetize the pages I write.

I’ve been planning for several months on how I’m going to revamp my Act On Your Dream! site, and it will take me a few more weeks to finish the plans and start writing the pages. I know going into this project that it will be profitable. Perhaps quite profitable.

I know how the site will be structured, how the various topics fit with the central theme, and how I will monetize each page, before I write it.

I have brainstormed and organized sections and topics for the site (using NovaMind mind mapping software) and I’ve almost completed building a site blueprint that I’ll finish before rebuilding the site.

I have prepared reader profiles and will write each page to appeal to that particular person. (As well as I can.)

Each page will have one most wanted response (MWR) and I’ll offer two or three secondary actions that I’ll encourage. For most pages, the most wanted response is for someone to click a link and go buy what I’m recommending. Failing that, I want the reader to subscribe to my newsletter (which I’ll resume writing). Finally, if they don’t do either of those, I hope they’ll click on an Adsense ad or look at another page on the site.

The pages will be simple so that readers aren’t confused by a plethora a links as they are on this blog. People said I needed a three-column blog theme with links to lots of things and RSS feeds from my other sites, so I tested it. It has not increased my profits.

I will be changing Act On Your Dream! to a three column format, but it will not look like this blog. I’ll test the three columns. If it increases my income, I’ll continue to use it. If it does not increase my profits, I’ll go back to a simple two column format.

Readers tend to look at more pages and stay on that type of site longer than they do on a blog. Bounce rates are lower, time on page is higher, the number of pages viewed per visit is higher, and profits are higher — all without commenting.

I like the social aspects of commenting.

This was especially true over the last three years when I was sick and mostly unable to work. The online discussions got me through some days when I felt horrible, had no energy, or was in quite a lot of pain.

Now that I’m better, it’s time to get back to work and earn my keep, again. It’s time to do my best and move off of disability and food stamps and back to being a productive tax-paying member of society.

I am grateful for the assistance I got when I was unable to care for myself, but it’s time to move forward.

I just don’t think that blogs will do that for me. I’ve tested them for years and that’s the conclusion I have come to, reluctantly.

Please sir, can we have a blog module on SBI?

I even asked Ken Evoy on the private members-only forum for SBI subscribers, if he would ever add a blogging-with-comments module to SBI, and he said that would not happen. Blogging just doesn’t fit into the structure of an SBI-style tier-structured website.

So, I tried for months to think of a way to trick the system, and never found one that would work. I was pretty hard-headed and stubborn about this.

SBI gets Face-It!

So, now, I can have my cake and eat it, too, and it isn’t nearly the treat I expected.

SBI now has a module that helps us promote our pages on social networking sites. Click a button and it’s active. It’s called Socialize-It! (Note that all the modules end with an exclamation point and that sometimes makes for awkward sentences.)

Actually, Socialize-It! has been around for awhile, but it’s changing and merging with Face-It!

Sitesell recently introduced Face-It! version 1, which makes it easy for us to add Facebook Like buttons to our pages, and we can optionally add Facebook comments to the pages, too.

I thought that would be great. Less spam, because someone has to be a Facebook member to comment and there is less anonymity, as well, and now people could discuss the topics I wrote about.

Each page can have lots of comments, and that will percolate through the Facebook system and bring more readers. The jury is still out on this, but I don’t expect it to bring a deluge of new readers. I’m open to the possibility.

You know what?

Now that I have comments on my SBI sites, it’s really a let-down. I’m disappointed. It seems to me that comments are highly overrated and just add work. I don’t see any change in income and there have been only a few comments, so far.

I think the main reason for this is that the readers of my tier-structured websites are not commenting because they are not bloggers who mainly want backlinks to their blogs.

So, now, we’ll see what happens when I de-emphasize comments on this blog.

By de-emphasizing comments on the blog and offering comments on the website, will there really be any change in profits and my workload?

Has Ken been right all along?

Have I wasted years of efforts in building blogs, forums, and communities? Would all that effort have been better directed to building more and better niche-oriented websites using SBI.

I’ve almost come to the conclusion that he was right, all along. At least, for me and the things in which I’m interested.

I freely admit that Ken Evoy is a much better businessman than I am. He is a millionaire several times over (before founding Sitesell and creating SBI) and he builds real businesses that employ people around the world. SBI has tens of thousands of customers, also around the world.

Not only does he have more experience, but I believe he has a better, more refined thought process about building a business.

I’ve been happy — and remain happy — with my little microbusiness that makes it possible for me to work at home in my home office, or out on the front porch, in these beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. I’m living where I want to live, doing what I want to do, and I’m not interested in building a multi-million dollar business.

I would enjoy, however, earning more than I have the last couple of years!

So, what will I do after the test is over?

That remains to be seen.

I’m going to let this test run until the end of the year.

Disabling the CommentLuv plug-in may have doomed this blog, already. If that proves to be true, then I’ll repurpose most of the content that I’ve written here and move what is appropriate to my income-producing websites.

I am already starting to plan for a website that will replace this blog, if it becomes necessary. Yes, it will be powered by SBI. Yes, it will take more work. Yes, I’ll happily pay another $300 per year to build and host it using the SBI system.

What do you think?

I welcome your opinions, thoughts, and observations.

Act on your dream!

Tags: commenting, CommentLuv, comments, Ken Evoy, nofollow, WordPress plugin

Can you succeed online?

September 6, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 10 Comments
Filed under: Act On Your Dream!, Affiliate Marketing, Business, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure

I think that is a question that lots of people ask themselves, every day.

Can I succeed online?

I’m not going to lie to you. I truly do not believe everyone can succeed with an online business.

That’s probably not what you were expecting to hear.

You probably expected me to tell you breathlessly that you can succeed beyond your wildest imagination and that money will gush into your bank account if you only buy the world changing secret that only I know.

Right.

Well, I’ll tell you right now. That’s a bunch of crap.

The real world does not work like that.

Only hucksters, shysters, scammers, and crooks pretend to know the one thing you must know to build a successful online business (or make a few extra bucks every month), and insist that you have to buy it RIGHT NOW or it’s going to disappear.

Nonsense.

Code Red! General Quarters!

When you go to a long form sales page with a gazillion bonuses and all the rest you’ll see, you should declare “Code Red” and turn your BS deflector shields to maximum. Divert energy from the warp engines, if you need to, but raise those shields.

I won’t say that all those pages are scams, but I will say that a large percentage of them just are not worth the time it takes to read it.

At least, for most people.

Deadlines? We don’t need no stinkin’ deadlines!

Also, look at how much they’re stressing a deadline. That is used to intentionally build a feeling of scarcity to get you to buy now. It may be true, or it may not be true.

Lots of times that deadline is programmed in PHP or javascript to have today’s date or just a few days from today. It’s not real, and it should send a signal about how real the rest of their offer may be. (You can prove this to yourself by noting the deadline on the offer you’re considering. Bookmark the page. Go back a few days later and see if the deadline has changed.)

Good business deals don’t need fake deadlines

While there are some real deadlines in business, most of the time a good deal today is just as much of a good deal later. Sometimes the deal gets better over time.

Will it work for real people, or just for technogeeks?

Some of those offers do have good information that can help you sell something online, but most of the average people won’t be able to make it work the way the technical geeks and marketing nerds portray it. (I’m a geek and a nerd, so I can say that. I’m talking about my herd.)

Let’s face it. Most people don’t even know what a browser is and can’t name more than two of them.

Most people don’t know what a CMS or plug-in is.

Technogeeks live and breathe that stuff. Real people don’t.

If you do, then you’re ahead of the curve and you should feel good about learning what you know.

The problem arises that you probably have learned some things that aren’t effective and don’t produce as well as they are claimed. Some are just busy-work. Some try to trick the search engines. Some are unethical. Some are illegal.

Some actually do work.

How can you tell the difference?

Don’t look at the number of hits, or visitors, or page views. Look at your profit and loss statement. Real businesses produce a profit.

What do you know about the company and the people behind the offer?

If I am going to buy anything that costs more than about $20 or so, I think about it and consider my options. I’m not saying I’m cheap. I spend several hundred dollars every month on website hosting, domain names, mailing list services, card mailing services, and other things I need, but I don’t spend the money unless it helps me generate a profit.

(The last two years are a notable exception. I operated at a loss while I was too sick to work, but now I’m focused on profit, again.)

If I’m going to invest any real money in buying something, I want to know who produced it, where they are located, and at least a couple of ways to contact them, before I pull out my card.

Try learning who the owner of the business is. What’s the address of their home office? Do they have a phone number and physical address? Can you contact them? Do they reply with any answers that actually address your questions? How long have they been in business? What do people say about them? Can you talk to their customers? Will they answer questions in public?

Are they real, reliable, ethical, knowledgeable, and honest?

If you can’t verify that for the people who own what you want to buy, how can you verify — in advance — that you’re making a good choice in investing your time and money in it.

I’m going to address some of those questions and I’m going to give you my best recommendation for how you can learn how to build a real, ongoing business online.

Can you succeed online?

No, it’s not easy. No, you won’t get rich in a few weeks. No, you won’t earn more money than your wildest dreams of avarice.

Yes, it is possible to succeed with a work at home, online business.

Are you willing to really read, study, practice, and implement what you learn?

Are you a good writer? Do you spell well and have a good grasp of grammar, sentence structure, and the norms of communications?

Do you have a topic in which you are passionately interested?

If so, then you have a better than average chance to be successful with your online business.

Are you willing to invest a few hundred dollars, a few hundred hours over a couple of years, and a lot of head-scratching, and serious thinking?

Then, you may be one of the few people I’m trying to reach.

I’m going to let you in on my secret, although it’s no secret at all.

First, who the heck am I?

I’m John Dilbeck. That’s my photo up there at the top of the page. It was taken last summer when I spent a day on Lake Hiwassee with my family. The lake is located just to the north of Murphy, NC. I live a few miles from there. If you search for my name, you’ll find me on my own sites and blogs, on social media, and in forums.

I’ve been a full-time affiliate marketer and webmaster for about 15 years and I earned the great majority of my income for most of that time from my online business.

I’ve been around and I’ve paid my dues.

I have been building blogs with WordPress since the early days, before there were plug-ins and widgets and the code had to be modified by changing the PHP scripts. Automatic updating didn’t exist back then.

I’ve been blogging since before that was what it was called.

I’ve been building websites for almost 20 years.

I’ve built forums, communities, an article directory, and other similar online presences. I’ve tested a number of content management systems. I program fluently in PHP and PERL. I’ve been a systems administrator for an ISP. I’ve been a computer consultant since the late 1970s. I taught computer programming and using computer applications at two colleges.

I have owned several of my own companies over the last 30+ years. I was not a raging financial success, but I paid my way and haven’t gone hungry. Learning and achieving have always been more important to me than getting wealthy. I’m not one to dream about getting rich or winning the lottery, and I don’t mind months of work to achieve something.

The journey is the reward. That’s how I see it.

I am not some Johnny-come-lately who is going to try to baffle you with BS about something I know nothing about.

Those are my bona fides.

Why do you promote SBI instead of WordPress? This blog is powered by WordPress!

I maintain this blog mainly to prove that I have a good working knowledge of blogging and WordPress. Plus, I enjoy blogging and discussions with people who leave good comments.

So, let’s get back to the subject…

Can you succeed online?

If you want to learn more, go to Sitesell’s page that introduces the C-T-P-M process. It will open in another window. I’ll wait right here.

Welcome back!

(if you left to look at the other site)

Now, do you remember those questions I asked at the top of this article? Here’s a reminder…

Let’s address these questions one at a time:

Try learning who the owner of the business is.

I know it’s not a question. It’s more of a challenge.

Sitesell is incorporated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded by Dr. Ken Evoy. You’ll learn more about the management of the company on that page, too.

Ken is the author of one of the first, best-selling ebooks about marketing on the Internet and he overdelivered and underpriced back then, the same way he continues to do.

The book sold for less than $20 when it was introduced.

It was revised in 2002 and the new edition was sold for $29.95.

Unlike many ebooks, this was 1,500 pages of outstanding information. Even though a lot of things have changed since 2002, I still keep a copy of that book on my desktop and refer to it at least once a week. The business information and advice is timeless, even though some of the recommended sites and technical advice is out-dated.

If you want, you can download the ebook for free and you don’t even have to give your email address. Just go get it, if you want it: Make Your Site Sell!

I knew how to build websites before I ever saw that book.

What I didn’t know how to do, was to make my sites sell. That’s what I learned from the book.

I used what I learned in that book to rebuild several websites and sold physical products and services online, as well as earning income through affiliate marketing commissions and Google Adsense commissions.

Make Your Site Sell! was what helped me change from a technogeek to a successful marketing nerd.

So, now, you know who founded and manages Sitesell, Inc.

What’s the address of their home office?

Here ya go. It’s on the bottom right of their LinkedIn Business Profile page.

Their LinkedIn profile also has information about some of their employees.

Do they have a phone number and physical address?

Their physical address is on their LinkedIn profile. Their phone number and email contact form is on the Questions page.

Can you contact them?

You can call or email them. The information is on the previously listed Questions page. The phone number is toll-free in North America, and they have an alternate number you can call if you are located outside of North America.

Do they reply with any answers that actually address your questions?

Test them and see. It’s free. If you have a legitimate question about building your own online business using SBI, they will do their best to answer it. SBI can help most people be successful online, but it won’t do everything and it isn’t for everyone. You can get a straight answer. No obligation.

How long have they been in business?

Sitesell, Inc. was founded in 1997. The company is still headquartered in Canada. Ken has moved to Anguilla to escape those Canadian winters.

What do people say about them?

Except for a well-known Google bomb that was concocted a few years ago around the fake “Is Sitesell a Scam” review, comments are overwhelmingly positive about Ken Evoy, Sitesell, and SBI.

You can also see for yourself on Sitesell’s Facebook page.

If you go there, you can see that over 35,000 people like the page and there are active discussions ongoing. Notice how friendly and helpful those discussions are.

Can you talk to their customers? Will they answer questions in public?

There are thousands of Sitesell customers participating on their Facebook page, and I think most of us are happy to answer questions in public. I’ll respond to your questions here in the comments or on the Sitesell Facebook page — if I see it.

There. I think that shows that Sitesell is an established, above-board company.

What does the media say about Sitesell, SBI, and some of their customers?

Sitesell, Inc. has a Media page that includes reports from newspapers, TV shows, and other websites.

SBI is taught in colleges around the world

I think it says a lot about the credibility of Sitesell and SBI when you learn that the SBI method and tools are taught in colleges and universities around the world.

I am a satisfied customer and affiliate

I am extremely happy that I became a Sitesell customer back in the 20th century and I continue to use their tools in the 21st century.

SBI grows and expands as needed to keep up with what is really important for helping customers generate more income. The SBI system I subscribed to after its original release was not nearly as powerful nor as well documented as what I subscribe to, today. Yet, the cost is the same: $300 per year per site.

Quality and power continues to grow and the price stays the same. I like that.

I have two SBI-powered websites, but they have been largely neglected for the last two years while I fought a battle with cancer that almost killed me last year. Now, I’m on the mend and recovering nicely.

I’ve been doing a lot of strategizing and planning for how I’m going to expand and improve my two SBI sites and you’ll see a lot going on there in just a few more weeks. These two sites will be my primary focus over the next two years and will provide much more income for me than all my other sites and blogs combined. That’s why I promote Sitesell.

And both of my sites are about subjects in which I’m really interested and which I knew, going in, would not be the best choices for earning a large income. I’m doing it for the passion and I’m in a stage of my life where money is not even close to being my main motivator. Still, I don’t mind earning more.

Can you be successful?

If you have basic word skills and can write clearly, and you’re willing to learn a proven process and use a set of tools that work, yes, you can.

And I truly believe that you will substantially increase your odds of success if you build a firm foundation of knowledge and couple it with great tools and support, all offered at one low annual cost. You will NOT be bombarded with a constant stream of upsells, cross sells, and what you may have grown accustomed to, elsewhere.

You will not be surrounded by sharks in the members-only forums. You’ll find people who are willing to share what they’ve learned with you. Affiliate links and promotions are prohibited in the forums.

How much will I earn?

I can’t tell you how much you’d earn, and it would be illegal if I did.

I know many people who use SBI to earn a few hundred dollars of additional income each month, and I know quite a few who earn substantial full-time incomes.

Success often depends upon your own definition of the word.

I am not saying that SBI is the only way to succeed online.

Let me reiterate. I am NOT saying that.

I believe that there are many ways to build a successful online business, but the great majority of them require sophisticated technical skills and knowledge.

I know about that first-hand. I’ve been programming computers for over 40 years and I’ve been building websites since shortly after the World Wide Web was invented. I’ve been selling products and services on the web since shortly after it became legal to conduct commercial operations on the Internet.

I know a lot of ways to build a website and I know how to do a lot of things that I can’t do in SBI. I also know that the great majority of people who want to build an online business don’t know all those things nor do they have that level of experience.

I’m betting you aren’t a technical expert.

But, I’m also betting that you have specific knowledge about something and that you may be surprised that you can earn money while exploring what interests you, legally, ethically, and with class.

You don’t have to become a scuzzy old marketer who takes advantage of people.

Instead, you can learn how to present information to people when they’re looking to solve a problem or buy something they want. And, you can earn a commission from doing that.

Want to learn more? Give SBI a try. There’s a no-questions-asked, 90-day, unconditional, money-back guarantee. All you can lose is a little time and effort, if it isn’t for you. And, you’ll learn more than you know now about building an online business that generates a profit.

What can you gain?

You can gain a lot of valuable business and technical knowledge that has value in the 21st century. You can build a business that provides another source of income. You can find something interesting and useful to do if you’re a stay-at-home mom or dad, or if you’re retired and are looking for something to do with your time.

You can give a gift of real value to your child so that he or she will learn something that can be very useful in a career.

In a couple of years, or so, you can write me and tell me that you’re happy you subscribed to SBI and let me know how happy you are with your business. You won’t be the first who has thanked me for telling them about SBI and you won’t be the last.

It is interesting to me that I’ve referred a lot of people to a variety of business-related tools and information, yet I’ve never received a single thank-you from anyone other than people who subscribed to SBI. I haven’t received many, but there were a few and I should have kept them for reference, but I didn’t.

Most of the people I have introduced to SBI continue to renew their subscription, year after year. Why? Because it’s working for them.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll succeed, but I can guarantee that you won’t lose any money by trying SBI. Not a penny. Subscribe, follow the action guide, take it slow, do each action step methodically, and you’ll learn more about online business than you can imagine right now.

If you decide it isn’t for you, just contact support within the first 90 days and they’ll refund 100% of whatever you’ve paid. If you paid for an annual subscription, you will get 100% refunded within 90 days, and a prorated amount if you choose to ask for a refund after 90 days.

Downside risk? No money to lose, but you’ll have to invest some time and energy to test it.

Upside potential? More knowledge about online marketing and building a website. More technical skills — if you want them. A good opportunity to increase your income.

You may even change your life. Some have.

Act on your dream!

PS. My two SBI sites are Act On Your Dream! and Murphy Gold. Watch as they grow in the coming months.

Tags: Facebook, Ken Evoy, LinkedIn, Murphy Gold, online business, SBI, Sitesell, success, work at home

Unrealistic expectations about building an online business

June 13, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 57 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Musings, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure

This morning, I was reading a forum message from a very unhappy new online marketer who was complaining of all the hard work he put into his business and the complete lack of results he had gotten out of it.

I think we can all relate to that, at some point and on some level.

So, out of curiosity, I went and looked at his website (a blog, in this case) and wasn’t surprised that he was getting no results.

The blog had only 19 posts over a bit less than two months and there was no theme or niche orientation that I could see.

I don’t see any point in mentioning this man’s name or the URL of his blog. I’m sure I could do a little research and come up with dozens of similar examples.

In his complaining forum post, he said that he had been working very hard on his online business and wanted to quit his job and do this full-time. He was behind his planned schedule.

What?

Does anyone really believe they can start a website or blog or anything else and make enough profit in two months to replace a full-time job? If so, they need to face some facts.

If you want immediate income, sell something you already own or get a job (if you can).

If you want to build a business and live off the profits, it’s going to take time, a plan, lots of energy and creativity, and the investment of money to succeed.

Yes, it costs less to start a website, but you’re completely invisible until the search engines start referring visitors and you won’t get a lot of that without writing pages with quality information and building links to your site so the search engines will find and index those pages. This takes time, and I don’t mean two months.

(I’m assuming that you are not buying ads on other sites, using Google Adwords or Facebook ads or anything similar. That can drive immediate traffic, but it adds to your expenses, too. If you can make a profit, it can be a good way to get visitors to your site.)

If you want to build an offline business, it takes tens of thousands of dollars and more time. Most new businesses should expect to have losses every month for at least the first couple of years and often for longer than that.

Business isn’t a game of days or weeks of work before earning a profit, it is often a game of years of work before you realize an income from all the work you’ve done during that time.

People with get rich schemes tell you that you can earn tens of thousands of dollars (or pounds or Euros or whatever) in a few days or weeks. They are lying to you to get you to buy their products.

If you’d like to prove me wrong on that point, I’m listening.

Just today, I did not approve comments from two people who were linking to the same get rich quick scheme from their comment. No thank you. Life is too short and there are too many other real opportunities to build a business for me to be a part of promoting such wastes of time and money, even from the link from a comment.

How long does it take to build a business?

That’s kind of like asking, “How long is a piece of string?”

The answer, of course, is, “It depends.”

It depends on a lot things. What are you selling? How big is the target market? How well can you reach them? Can you overcome their objections? What else can they buy with the same amount of money?

Those aren’t the best questions, but they are apropos to the point I’m trying to make.

It takes time and work to build a business.

Do you think large businesses like Sears, J. C. Penney’s, and Walmart were built overnight? No, they weren’t. Each of them started from humble beginnings and the owners invested years and most of their revenue into growing the businesses.

(I’m just using those three as examples, because they were the first that came to mind, since I already knew some of the history of their businesses and how they built them. There are thousands of other examples that could be chosen.)

Except for a few exceptions, most large businesses started very small and grew over time.

Richard Sears got into the retail business when he purchased a shipment of watches that a local jeweler didn’t want. He was a train station agent and he sold these watches to other station agents for a tidy profit.

The first Sears catalog was published in 1888. They didn’t open their first retail store until 1925, nearly 40 years after he started selling those watches.

James Cash Penney opened a small dry goods store in 1902. Over the years, the company grew and opened more retail stores. They published their first catalog in 1963 and what was the forerunner of their current website started selling on the online in 1994. It took them over 60 years to start their catalog and over 90 years to enter online commerce.

In the 1940s, Sam Walton began his retail career when he worked for J. C. Penney. In 1950, he opened Walton’s 5 & 10 store. In 1962, they invested most of the company capital to open the first Walmart store. In 1968, after opening several stores in Arkansas, they opened their first store in a different state. They opened their first Wal-Mart Supercenter in 1988.

The point I’m trying to make is that these retail pioneers started small and invested a lot of time, energy, and money into building their business. They reinvested their profits and grew. (Of course, unlike most small businesses and almost all micro businesses, they also received capital from investors who bought their stock and that gave them more resources to continue growing.)

None of them had a successful business with less than twenty pages of questionable content on the Internet. None of them had a profitable business in less than two months. All of them invested lots of money (for their time) in opening their stores and purchasing inventory.

Now, the pace of change has quickened. It’s not unusual to hear that someone started an online company and became millionaires or billionaires after a decade or less. Those are the exceptions. They are not the norm.

People, maybe you, have acquired unrealistic expectations on how long it takes to succeed with an online business. They have unrealistic expectations about how much money they’ll make.

Unless you are very lucky, or very talented, or both, you will not become the next uberbillionaire. If you were working on that project you would not have time to read my quaint little blog.

Even a company that I respect and admire — Sitesell — makes the mistake of using terms that lead to an unrealistic expectation for how long it will take to build an online business.

They use a 10-Day process for analyzing and building a new niche-oriented business.

While they make it very clear in their documentation, Action Guide, and most of their online marketing, that a “Day” in this process does not equal a 24-hour day in the real world, I think it is misleading to folks who try to rush through the process without slowing down, reading the documentation, watching the videos, and proceeding at a more reasonable pace.

It’s true that some of those “Days” tasks can be completed in two or three days in real time, but some of them will take months to complete, or represent ongoing activities that may be performed for years as part of building and promoting an online business.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Sitesell used to have the entire Action Guide online, but it has been privatized for the benefit of their customers, only. However, they do have a series of videos about the process they teach for building an online business and those videos are available free on YouTube. They are an abridged version of the videos that are part of the Video Action Guide that comes with a subscription to SBI.

Nowhere, though, do they say that it will be easy and free and your inbox will overflow with people rushing to send you money with no work on your part.

Others, however, say exactly that. They try to sell you software and systems that they claim will make you rich in a few weeks.

Who are you going to believe?

Think it through for yourself. If someone has an automatic system for making huge amounts of money online with no effort nor experience, why would they sell it? Wouldn’t they use it themselves and reap the benefits?

If you had one, would you sell a goose that laid golden eggs?

Of course not.

It is possible to build a business that makes a good profit. It can be done offline in a brick and mortar business or it can be done online with a website that does the selling.

In neither case is it easy nor guaranteed. Some of us succeed. Some of us don’t. Then, we try again.

I love working on my sites from the comfort of my home in the mountains. I don’t just like it, I love it.

I’m not rich and I’m not even doing as well as I was a few years ago before I got so sick. Now that I’m much better, it’s time to get back to work and equal or exceed the success I enjoyed few years ago.

I’m using a combination of affiliate marketing on some sites and promoting locally owned brick and mortar businesses on other sites. There are countless niches in which a profitable online business can be built.

It can be done.

Can you do it?

I don’t know.

Act on your dream!

Tags: business, online business

Your online business: A business mindset

May 20, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 13 Comments
Filed under: Act On Your Dream!, Affiliate Marketing, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure

A few minutes ago, I was reading Ken Evoy’s blog and was very impressed with this post:

A business mindset and other lessons

In his post, he refers to an email he received from one of his customers, Louann (owner of wedding-flowers-and-reception-ideas.com), who was thanking him for what he, the team at Sitesell, and SBI had done to impact her life in a very positive way.

Then he offers eight lessons and an insight into his philosophy. I found her letter and his lessons to be touching and valuable.

I am delighted when I read that someone is having real success with their online business, and Louann has worked hard for several years on a site based on her passion about weddings, receptions, and flowers. Now, she is reaping the rewards for all that hard work.

Her site is about a subject that she loves and understands. She has developed real knowledge of her subject and presents it well. If you are interested in wedding flowers and receptions, you’ll find a wealth of knowledge on her site and links to lots of products you can purchase for your wedding.

What she is not doing…

She’s not trying to tell you how to blog, or make money online, or do any of the other things that most people associate with an online business. She’s not telling you that it is important to promote your business on MerchantCircle, LinkedIn, Yelp, FourSquare, or other similar sites.

Notice the lack of hype. No long form sales letters.

She did not invent a whole new thing. She did not write a book and then look for readers.

She doesn’t market on Facebook or Twitter. She doesn’t have a membership section on her site. She doesn’t have a mailing list or a newsletter.

What she is doing…

What does she have? A large, well-organized site that provides what her readers are looking for.

She uses a very simple design. Two columns. No widgets. No fancy javascript menus. Just a simple, easy to navigate, tier-structured website.

Then, she presents information for free and gets paid for advertising and commissions on sales.

She is providing information for people who are interested in wedding flowers and receptions and she is actively selling them the products they want to make their own wedding dreams come true.

She has identified a niche for which she has passion, interest and knowledge.

She has built a site dedicated to providing what people are looking for in that niche.

People find her site in the search engines and buy the products she provides.

Everyone is happy.

That’s a great example of niche marketing that is completely unrelated to the “make money online” niche.

She provides information that people are looking for. Have you ever wanted to know how to fold napkins into fancy designs for your reception? I haven’t. But some people really, really want to know how to do that. They can learn it on her site.

There are a number of designs available and they link to individual pages that show step-by-step directions and videos.

How much does it cost to get the information?

Nothing. It’s provided for free.

Each of those pages is designed around a particular keyword phrase that people are already looking for. She used the tools in SBI to research those keywords and then designed and wrote pages to put her information in front of people who were already looking for it on the search engines.

When her visitors were happy with the information she provided for free, they were more inclined to trust her and to buy the products she sells: wedding gifts, floral arrangements, photo gifts, and other products related to weddings and receptions.

Years of hard work is rewarded…

I think she has done a great job.

I’ve read many posts on the members-only Sitesell forums where she has discussed building her site with other people who use SBI. (We refer to ourselves as SBIers.)

She has helped others along the way, too, by providing great advice to help us build our sites and attract new visitors. And, eventually, to make sales and profits.

I hope you’ll go read Ken’s post and follow the link to read the email she sent him.

A business or a website…

Back in January, I addressed part of the difference between making money online and building an online business:

Make money online vs. Build a business online

Louann provides a great example that shows the difference between making money online and building an online business.

Well done, Louann! Congratulations on your success.

Act on your dream!

Tags: niche marketing, success stories, weddings

This is my last post to 21st Century Affiliate Marketing

May 14, 2010 by John Dilbeck · 17 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, John Dilbeck, Marketing, Success and Failure

Before I say anything else, I want to thank all of you who have been regular readers and who have made this blog better by sharing your thoughts and comments with all of us. You know who you are.

This is the last post to this blog and I will be shutting it down in the next few days or weeks, as I have the time and energy. I’m closing my marketing business and I’m out of affiliate marketing.

It’s amazing how much of a difference two months can make in one’s life.

Two months ago, I went to the emergency room because I could not get out of bed. After 7 units of blood, I felt a bit stronger, but that lead to the discovery of colon cancer, which was followed shortly after with intestinal surgery, gall bladder removal, and today I learned that I need surgery for cancer in my liver and a biopsy for possible cancer in one of my thyroid glands.

For the foreseeable future, I’ll be putting my energy into kicking these cancers’ butts. I don’t intend to let them beat me, but you never know.

I don’t know for sure what will happen to this domain name. If you’re a regular reader and contributor to this blog, I’m willing to listen to your ideas.

It’s been a wild ride for the last several years, and I’m sad to see the ride coming to an end.

I plan to continue posting (now and then) to JohnDilbeckAndFriends.com and to my Facebook account at facebook.com/johndilbeck .

Thanks for reading, contributing, and making affiliate marketing just a bit more interesting as we shared ideas and thoughts about the subject.

Continued success to you.

All the best,

Tags: Affiliate Marketing, conclusion, illness

Lemons or Lemonade?

February 5, 2010 by John Dilbeck · 8 Comments
Filed under: Opinions, Success and Failure

If you’ve been reading this blog for any time, you know that my attitude changed last year when everything seemed to turn against me.

I bitched and moaned about it for several months and I’m not going to do any of that now.

Last month, I turned the corner and feel like I’ve finished a dark chapter in my life’s story and now I’ve opened a new, brighter chapter filled with hope, opportunity, and challenges I’m looking forward to meeting.

You know the old saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

I was reading Seth Godin’s blog and found a very short post that linked to the movie Lemonade.

I took a half-hour and watched that movie and it was inspirational. I want to share it with you, if you haven’t seen it.

Here are several people who were fired or laid off and took the opportunity to do something they really loved, instead of just working to earn a paycheck.

The last year or so has been rough for a lot of people. Maybe you.

Have you considered that maybe this is your opportunity to do something you love?

Act on your dream!

Tags: fired, laid off, lemonade, lemons, opportunity