SBI Success Story – Elad buys a home

June 6, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 6 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Sitesell and Site Build It 

This is going to be one of the shortest blog posts I’ve ever written. There’s no need for me to say very much.

Elad Shippony and his sister started a coolest kids birthday party website using the tools included with an SBI subscription.

Over the years, he shared his story in the case studies section of Sitesell’s website. About a month ago, exactly eight years since he resigned from his full-time job, he, his wife, and their children moved into a new home: Elad buys a home

You can read the other updates to his story by clicking the links you’ll find on the bottom of that page.

Real people, building real businesses by marketing on the Internet. That’s my dream and my goal.

Want to read more? There are several case studies telling the stories of real people succeeding with their online business.

Act on your dream!

JD

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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!

JD

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Click Here to Order – Stories of the World’s Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs by Joel Comm

September 16, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 3 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Amazon, Books, Marketing, Self-Publishing, Sitesell and Site Build It, Success and Failure 

Last month, Joel Comm’s newest book, Click Here to Order – Stories of the World’s Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs, was released and currently ranks #2230 in sales out of all books sold by Amazon.com.

This is not a step-by-step how-to book for new Internet marketers. If that’s what you are looking for, you should probably look elsewhere.

Click Here To Order tells the stories of some of the earliest Internet marketing entrepreneurs who succeeded beyond their dreams. You may know some of their names, already.

In fact, if affiliate marketing is part of your business revenue model, you may even promote products that some of the people in this book created.

From the product description:

While the general public is familiar with the larger Internet companies such as Yahoo!, Google, eBay and Amazon, very few are aware that small business is thriving online like never before, especially in the realm of information products. Click Here creates an entertaining and instructive narrative that provides an in-depth look at the unintentionally underground movement known as Infoproduct marketing, and the people who have profited and succeeded in the industry.

This edition of Click Here to Order is a 300-page paperback book. The list price is $17.95 and, as you probably know, is offered at a significant discount by Amazon.com.

Marketing on the Internet can be a very lonely business since we spend lots of hours in front of our keyboards and sometimes lose sight of what we want to accomplish because we get so bogged down in the details of what we’re doing.

Sometimes, it’s good to get away from the details and learn about the pioneers in this business. Who are they? What did they do? How did they do it? Why did they become so successful?

You’ll find some of these answers in Joel’s new book.

If you are interested in the history of the Internet marketing pioneers, and you want to learn more about how some of the best copywriters made their first dollars with online marketing, you’ll probably enjoy this book.

This is just one of the books about Internet marketing that I recommend in my Amazon.com bookstore.

Do you want to learn about Infoproducts and how to create them?

You can download, for free, Monique Harris and Ken Evoy’s excellent ebook, Make Your Knowledge Sell!.

While it won’t do the work for you, you’ll learn how to create an infoproduct of your own.

They provide great information about picking good ideas, writing to persuade, packaging your infoproduct, marketing it, and making sales.

Make Your Knowledge Sell! sold thousands of copies over the last few years, and now you can get it free. What are you waiting for?

Who knows, maybe you’ll be one of the people who’ll be featured in some future book about successful Internet marketers!

Read Click Here to Order for background knowledge of the business and how it has developed. Get inspired to do more by reading about the people who blazed the trails some of us are following.

Study Make Your Knowledge Sell! to learn many of the details and skills you’ll have to master to create your own infoproducts.

You can get started by learning affiliate marketing before you create your own products

Perhaps you’re not yet ready to create and sell your own infoproduct or service.

One of the best ways to get started in online marketing is to become an affiliate for a company with top-selling, high-quality products and services and then earn commissions by recommending them.

That’s my preferred business model, as you can tell from the name of this site.

I highly recommend Ken Evoy’s Affiliate Masters Course, and you can download a free copy here from my site.

Even if you choose to create your own products and sell them, you’ll want to know more about affiliate marketing. After all, you may create a great product and want to have affiliates helping you sell it.

Act on your dream!

JD

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