Internet Marketing...Just Another Fishing Trip
In January of 97, I became interested in Internet Marketing. It's an odd switch for a man who made his living for over 30 years killing fish. Yes, I was a commercial fisherman. And if I don't say so myself, I was one of the top producers trolling for salmon on the westcoast of Vancouver Island.
But fishing isn't what it was 30 years ago and I'm not as young as I was 30 years ago, so I wanted to find something that could give me the same thrill as I got from filling my boat with fish.
Many people have used fishing as an analogy to marketing on the web and believe me there are many similarities, we just use different hooks, bait, and we catch a different kind of fish. But in my mind it's still a fish just the same. Every day I have to sharpen my hooks when they stop catching. Sometimes my bait just doesn't work anymore and I have to try something new. I'm always testing trying to find out what works the best.
But you don't just become an Internet marketer, that's like sitting on the couch eating a bag of chips and saying you're gonna win the New York marathon. There's a ton of hard work learning that stuff and believe me, you can't learn it in school just like you can't learn to fish in school, unless you're a school of mackerel.
And being a fisherman for 30 years I knew I had to jump into that school of mackerel. And believe you me they are a vicious lot. Spam mail coming from just about every place you can think of and everybody you meet is going to make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.
That is until I met Ken Evoy. Well, OK I haven't actually met him yet. He lives in Quebec and I live in BC. I don't get out that way too often...like about never. But I met him through his online business, Site Sell, and he said the things I wanted to hear. I had learned about the sharks that were swimming amongst us mackerel and Ken was there to rescue me.
I signed up for his free courses and the 5 Pillar Club and waited to see what he sent me. Well I was almost overwhelmed by the amount of information he was GIVING me. I had almost been eaten alive by the sharks and struggled for every tiny scrap of knowledge I could find. And here was a guy telling me exactly how it was and how the little guy could beat the sharks at their own game.
I finished his courses and the training program for the 5 Pillar Club and then ordered 2 of his books, Make Your Site Sell and Make Your Words Sell. All the while I am reading this material, I am getting teased to death about Site Build It which was yet to launch. Similar to some of the hype I had been hearing, so I was still a little sceptical but with what I had learned so far, I was betting Site Build It was going to be a winner. And I was standing in line waiting to buy one of the first copies. I was going to be a PIONEER.
December 16, 2000 - Get Ready For Site Build It
That's the day I got an e-mail from Ken Evoy telling me my Site Build It software was ready. Christmas was 9 days early that year. Well at least for me, I think my family would say something different. I think I started to scare them when I turned around because they didn't know me anymore, only seeing the back of my head.
Well it got a lot worse, I couldn't leave it alone, but at least it was better than the porn sites. I was sure I would come out further ahead in the long run. I wrote and cut and pasted and wrote and cut and pasted and wrote some more. But even now I still sometimes have to beat my head against the wall because of how stubborn and egotistical I was, believing I could take the program Ken had created and slaved over for who knows how long, and make it work the way I wanted.
But then I guess that's what pioneers are for and there has to be someone to drive Ken nuts. I made lots of mistakes and ignored lots of advice in the beginning but I perservered and slowly came around to working with the system the way it's designed. Once I figured that part out it became so much simpler. As the site grew and the pages got a little sharper, traffic steadily began to grow and by the end of the first year we had 77,000 visitors to our site. I had played around with a few websites as a hobby but had never been able to get anything more than a few hundred in a month.
The next year we kept adding pages and searching for partners to work with us that could help us earn money with our site. But because of the very subject of the site I didn't think it would ever be much of a money maker. It was more of a tribute to my mother-in-law than anything else and if I could earn enough to cover expenses and learn something in the meantime I would be happy.
We have just passed our second anniversary and will have our second consecutive month of over 50,000 visitors. For the year we had over 270,000 visitors. And we have yet to pay for advertising. We have only used the Site Build It software and the programs contained within to drive traffic to our site. And I haven't formally invited my friends and family yet either. They know I play around on the computer building websites, but they don't really have much of an idea. I wanted to see what Site Build It could do on its own. We plan on aggressively marketing our websites in the future and this website is the first step in that plan.
If traffic continues to grow at the same rate as last year we could reach over 1,000,000 visitors this year.
Click here to visit Gramma Cookie's Kitchen, one of the very first sites to be built using Site Build It. This website is a tribute to my mother-in-law and receives over 50,000 visitors per month.
Links to Site Build It
Site Build It!
"Why build JUST a Web site...when you COULD build a Web BUSINESS?"
Site Build It! "Quick Tour Slide Show"...
Site Build It! SweepStakes
Want a chance to win a copy of Site Build It? Click on the link above and enter your name to win. If you have a friend who you think might be able to use SBI, you can enter up to 10 other names for 10 additional entries. Monthly drawings so enter often.
SpamCheck Report
Do you send out a newsletter? Do you know if it makes it through all the spam filters many ISPs are using these days. Keep yours out of the "Junk Mail Folder" by using SpamCheck which is a standard feature of SBI. Check your newsletter by using our spamchecker. Just send YOUR finished newsletter to this e-mail address
spamcheck-information14@sitesell.net and you will be immediately sent a report detailing how "spammy" it is. Make sure TEST starts the subject line or we'll ignore it.
Best-selling Books Provide the Secrets to Marketing on The Web
By purchasing and reading any of the books below or requesting any of our free e-mail courses you will be able to build a professional looking website no matter what your skills are. If you can read this, you can build a website with Site Build It. You don't need me.
Make Your Site SELL! 2002
"The definitive work on making ANY Web site SELL!"
Make Your Knowledge Sell!
"Turn knowledge into revenue -- sell your brain on the Net."
Make Your Price Sell!
"Price with complete confidence & double your Net profits."
Make Your Words Sell!
"Want to sell MORE? Become an e-persuader."
Make Your Net Auction Sell!
"An e-biz in every closet... Get into Auction Action!"
Free E-mail Courses
The following are free e-mail courses offered by SiteSell. I have taken several of these courses and found them full of useful and timely information. This isn't material that has been floating around the Internet for years and years. Information in these courses, if followed will help you succeed in those areas.
If you would like to take one of these courses, just click on the link and send the blank e-mail that opens. The course will then be sent to you over the next 5 days.
- Service Sellers Masters Course
Attract new clients from around the world...
Or from around the block
Send me this course.
- Affiliate Masters Course
Shows you how to become a high-earning affiliate champion.
Send me this course.
- InfoProducts Masters Course
How to brainstorm, create, produce, and sell
your very own infoproduct online
Send me this course.
- Pricing Masters Course
"How much money are YOU leaving on the table?"
Send me this course.
- Netwriting Masters Course
Want to sell more? Write better.
Send me this course.
- Net Auction Masters Course
Start and grow a profitable Net auction business.
Send me this course.
Become a Promoter of Site Sell Products
Click here to join the top rated affiliate program on the net and begin promoting Site Sell products yourself. Find out why 5 Pillar Club members are among the top producers on the Internet.
|
