Willie Crawford Teaches REAL Internet Marketing  

Seasoned online marketers often advise less experienced
marketers to get into niches outside of IM.

It REALLY isn't because we don't want the competition.
I welcome competition, but view most competitors as future
joint venture partners.

Anyway, MOST of my income is made outside of IM, and MOST
of it is actually made interacting with the real world.

At a seminar sponsored by Michael Penland last month, a
question came up that led to the panelist all talking about
developing "The Midas Touch."  I do seem to have it but as
I shared with the audience, it's really just many years of
learning to recognize what is MORE likely to work.

So it's not that I can make anything work, it's that I
generally only touch things that I'm 95% convinced WILL work...
and even then I actually have more failures than successes.
It's just that the successes WAY over-shadow the failures.

In another thread, the topic was on the advice to "just do
something".... to "take action."

That IS one of my secrets.

I'm really not rambling, just laying the framework :-)

A couple of years back, I listened to one of Yanik Silver's
Underground Online Seminar speakers share how he made a
very nice residual income running a portal site in his
hometown. He just sells advertising to local businesses, and
then he drives traffic to the site where the ads are all at.

Basically, he generates leads, and business for the local
businesses and they pay him handsomely for that.

Simple idea that thousands have been exposed to but few
actually implement effectively.  I have, but it took me a few
years!

I embraced the idea when I first heard it.  Imagine having say
1000 local businesses each paying you $1000 per year for
advertising. They pay a heck of a lot more for Yellow Page
advertising, so it's not like the won't spend the money on
advertising.

$1000 x 1000 is $1 MILLION... and if you can make it residual
... and if you can set it up where you pay someone say
$30,000 a year to manage it... then you have a lot more
time for fishing...or hanging out on forums :-)

Guru's like Dan Kennedy will tell you that most small
businesses that spend that kind of money on Yellow Page
adverting don't even track it or know how effective it is.
They just do it because everyone else is doing it.

Jay Abraham teaches that when you study industries, most
businesses in a given industry generate sales/business
the same way. It's as if they all follow the same formula.
That means that if you just notice the formula, thriving
in business can be as simple as standing in front of the
flow :-)

One of the things shared by Yanik's speaker was how he let
his customers track results, therefore knowing that their
ads were working. At that point, the idea of spending money
month-after-month, year-after-year, is a non-decision. It's
just a business expense.

Anyway, this morning as I walked my dog, I walked past a
new housing development.  I stopped briefly to talk with
a realtor/developer who was out front surveying "his
struggling empire."

Being the salesman that I am... and having learned a lot
about copywriting right here on the Warrior Forum, my
conversation was a sales pitch for advertising without my
even really trying.

I just pointed out how local builders all seemed to be
over-building, how the local economy seemed to be in a
slow-down, how most realtors just sat around waiting for
someone to happen to drive by ... when it is so much more
effective to be where they are.  All of this led into my
telling him about my recently opened portal site, and offering
him a very prominent ad for $3500.

He bit!  Running this ad on my portal site will cost me all
of $100 for a year.  So, before taxes, that's $3400 that I earned
this morning, while out walking my dog.

Assuming this customer gets the value that he anticipates, he
should advertise with me for many years to come. Assuming
that he does this for 5 years, with each annual renewal
actually being a very matter-of-face advertising expense, that
will translate to $17,000 earned for 20 minutes of "work"...
with the work being just stopping to talk to someone while
walking my dog. 

The lessons learned from this simple event are that the
secret to making money online is going to the people who have
the money and are prepared to spend it.  Realtors, doctors,
lawyers, business owners are accustomed to spending money
on things that bring them additional business. 

Even your leisure time can be extremely profitable. I say
that because one way that I "market" my portal is to just hang
out at local civic groups, charitable events, etc.... and
just talk with the business owners about their businesses.

Incidentally, I got the seed of that method from my friend
Elsom Eldridge, author of "How to Position Yourself As The
Obvious Expert."  In one of his presentations Elsom pointed out
that you can just swing by the local Chamber of Commerce
office in most American cities and ask for a directory of
members. I did that the day after I got home from the seminar
where I first heard Elsom speak.

The Chamber of Commerce membership roster basically gave
me the meeting schedule, and contact person, for EVERY major
organization in my area. Then it was just a matter of contacting
them and letting them know that I'd be willing to come speak at
their business meetings about leveraging their businesses
through the internet. Simple... very effective... very
profitable.

In case you're wondering what software I use, or how I
operate, it's all spelled out here:
http://TheRealSecrets.com/PortalDirectors.html

"The ball's in your court"  :-)

Willie

I should also point out that my earnings are not typical.
Most people online don't earn $3500 in 20 minute, nor
am I imlpying that you can.