Learn To Last
by John Delavera
I have already told you that I started heavily "playing" my
stake in Internet Marketing in July 2002. But actually,
this did not happen that way. Truth is that I RETURNED to
the worldwide scene at that time. There had been a period
from 1994-1998 when I was testing and learning things. I
was trying to create a system that could generate some
income based upon free resources I was finding online. That
was a mistake; read my article "Free Or Not?" and you'll
understand why. You can download it free here:
http://affiliatescenter.com/delavera008br.zip.
However, during those years, I created some silly sites,
full of banners, images and animations, multi-color sites
with various fonts used, etc. I also registered with some
affiliate programs, downloaded some resources - mainly
ebooks - and created various accounts with free hosting
services. And then, in 1998, I stopped; I went ...off-line.
Nobody cared about my sites anyway. I was nobody, had done
nothing, and offered nothing special, unique, or important
that anyone would miss my sites. My conclusion at that
time was this: The System Works, But I Cannot Make it Work
for Me. I admitted it and gave up. BUT, I also promised
myself that one day I would return more powerful and full
of knowledge and experiences.
For 4 years, I was NOT creating anything. Instead, I was
OBSERVING everything. And when I returned in 2002, I
realized that my REAL mistake in all those years of testing
('94-'98) was that I was not thinking BIG. I was looking at
the tree and missed the forest. My real mistake was that I
wanted to become a success quickly and easily. Do this, do
that, and then this and that and your checks would be
coming in. All done in a week; sounds like "How to Master
Prosperity in 30 Days"... This is the promise many people
give and many other stupid people believe... Even today, I
see messages in forums posted by people who want "instant
cash"... If you want instant cash, go out and wash cars;
don't deal with Internet Marketing because you'll spoil
things and the market. The Internet is a Huge Area and the
truth is that the System works: you can create your
automated websites to bring you money while you sleep. But
this cannot be done in 30 days. Some people did it, I know
it. Who repeated it? Those marketers who created something
that everyone wanted and repeated that formula for success.
People today search for the SECRET that could make them web
tycoons. Believe it or not, the Secret, the Very Big And
Well Kept Secret is Only And Just One: There is NO Secret.
So what makes a success, I hear you whispering... The
answer is simple: provide people with what they want to
buy. The difficulty is to find what people want to buy,
then to create a site that sells, then to promote your site
and repeat the promotion until you get some sales, and then
repeat the procedure for another site to create multiple
streams of income, etc. If you do not know "How to Read
What People Have In Mind," get my article here:
http://affiliatescenter.com/delavera010br.zip
But people cannot wait... And for people who sell hopes and
dreams, a Secret Must Exist. Do you understand what I am
saying? Wouldn't you prefer to read, "I Know The Secret And
I am Going To Reveal It Now..." People believe in dreams,
fate, magic, destiny, BUT forget Reality. When you come
down to Earth, you'll see that Reality Is Fancier Than ANY
Fantasy... What LIFE, real life, daily life has to offer
you cannot be compared to ANY promise. Put it Simply: Life
Has It All. You have to be patient and consistent to your
VISION if you want to REACH your Ithaca one day. What makes
it crazier is that if you obtain the virtue of being
patient and consistent to your dream, you'll enjoy the
"journey" so much that you will not care if you reach your
Ithaca or not. So, the worst thing you can do to yourself
is to give up because you "didn't make it."
This conclusion includes a comparison. For example, "I
didn't make it: George earns $10,000 per month from his
online business and I earn only $100. I give up." You
compare yourself to George and conclude. Oh really? George
is older than you: George is 45, you are 35. Have you ever
wondered a) what was George doing those extra 10 years? And
b) who told you that when YOU become 45, you'll not be
making the money George earns today - and more? Have you
ever thought that probably, just probably, George really
wanted to give up when he was 35, too? But he didn't. You
cannot have in 30 days or 12 months the futures of people
who have spent 10 years creating them. Remember this and
don't underestimate yourself. You need time. I got my
lesson.
What I did: I forgot what 'spare time' meant. Some friends
call me a Vampire or Dracula for this because I sleep after
3-4 am every single night and I have been doing this since
January 2002. Yes, I know. That's not good for my health
and my skin. But I had lost some valuable time during the
years '98-'02. The only way to get that time back was to
invest the time when other people ("competitors") ...sleep.
It worked. And in any case, I like working at night. Just
visit http://software4profit.com
and tell me: Can you
believe that I created everything listed on that site (all
products and services) in less than 12 months? Get your
lesson: Learn to Last. Continue your work and efforts from
that particular moment other people give up.
The other mistake that took me some months to overcome was
that I did not LOG & TRACK my activities. When I returned
in 2002 to this worldwide scene, I found that I had
misplaced all the information concerning the affiliate
programs I had registered with in the past, all the
usernames and passwords of the sites built on free hosting
servers, etc. There are some sites I created that still
wander around like corpses in (cyber) space because there
is no way I'd update them today or even delete them. Even
today, I have a CD full of ebooks I had downloaded during
that time period, but if you ask me if a certain ebook is
inside the CD or not, I cannot answer. I continued to make
the same mistake. I had been downloading ebooks, saved them
in a folder, and forgot what was inside. I had been
registering with affiliate programs and could not find the
username and password to login and get my links. I started
to pay for products and services and did not know what I
paid for, when I paid for them, and where I had saved them
to my hard disk.
I got my lesson: Since July 2002, I have been keeping safe
ALL the messages I receive from affiliate programs I join,
all the affiliate links, all the usernames and passwords,
all the receipts, all the instructions, and even my
additional notes for each and every product or service. You
cannot imagine how critical this issue is. You must save
ALL data if you want to gain flexibility and move faster.
I'll give you an example: Visit the Best Free Ebook at
http://best-free-ebook.com.
There are 64 ebooks in that
version, which people can download and brand free. There
are also 79 affiliate links people can brand when they buy
the brandible version of the ebook. If you think the Best
Free Ebook was an easy project, just consider this:
- I had to download the 64 ebooks onto my computer.
- Some ebooks included the e-brander application while others
didn't, so I had to download the e-brander application for many
of the ebooks and compile a zip file with both the ebook and the
e-brander.
- I then had to upload the 64 ebooks onto my server and track all
the URLs.
- I had to create a tracking URL for each ebook because I wanted
to be able to change the location of each ebook in case there was
a server problem.
- I had to then create the categories and find the affiliate programs
I could add to each category.
- Then I had to create my affiliate accounts, get my links, images, etc.
- I had to insert special tags into all the affiliate links: one tag the
customer could brand and one pre-defined tag that the e-brander
application should use in case the customer does not fill a tag.
- Then, I had to create the website, the autoresponder accounts,
the protected areas, the messages for all the ebooks, etc. etc. etc.
That was a lesson indeed.
What I do today: I create an Excel document or even a
text-database for all the resources I have. For example, I
have a file for the Best Free Ebook, with all the titles of
the ebooks, their size in KB, the URLs of where I have
uploaded the ebooks and the URLs of the trackers I have
used for each ebook. For the ebooks on my computer: I
created a file with the title of the ebook, the creator,
the size in KB, the price, the URL of where I uploaded the
website for reselling it, the URLs of where I have uploaded
the zipped files to distribute to customers, the URLs of
the trackers that correspond to some of the ebooks, the
images of the ebook covers for each ebook so I can easily
include them on any website, etc.
Track EVERYTHING you do on your computer.
And create a simple database for anything you save on your
computer. Create categories and a database for each
category. For example, one category for the ebooks, another
one for the software, another one for the affiliate
programs you joined, etc. Creating a database is easy: Just
open your Notepad and start filling the document: put 1
product on each line and separate the fields with commas.
What to include in a database of an ebook listing: Title,
Writer, price, size, URL, tracker, image.
What to include in a database for the programs you have
joined as an affiliate: Title, URL of the website, URL of the
login page, username, password, affiliate link, banner, ebook
cover.
As for the product you pay for, create a folder on your computer,
name it "Bought" or something like this and create a sub-folder
for each product you order. Save in that sub-folder: The product,
any codes you need to access a membership site if one exists,
the email message from the creator with instructions on how to
download your product, the email message of the receipt of your
order or even the html file of the page with the payment, all bonuses
and all the correspondence for this product if any.
And then also create a text database file with the Title, Creator, price,
size, Date of Purchase, and if you can resell it, the sales
page URL, the URL of where your customers will download the
file, any tracker you use for the aforementioned URLs, the
image (ebook cover, banner, software box) of the product,
etc. Add as much information as you can.
Here is the structure of what's described above:
-Bought (folder)
--database.txt (the database you created for the
products included in this folder)
---ProductA (sub-folder)
----ProductA.exe, or .zip, or .pdf
----receipt.txt (the email message you received saved as a .txt message)
----notes.txt (the text file you created in Notepad with
your notes for this product)
----codes (any username and password you may need for accessing
the membership site)
----For Affiliates (sub-folder)
-----banner468x60.jpg -----
(the banner image code for the product you are promoting)
----links.txt (the text file you created in Notepad with your affiliate links
for this product)
----codes.txt (the text file you created in Notepad with your username and
password for accessing the affiliate area)
----ProductB
-----ProductB.exe, or .zip, or .pdf
-----receipt.txt (the email message you received saved as a .txt message)
-----notes.txt (the text file you created in Notepad with your notes for this
product)
-----codes (any username and password you may need for accessing the
membership site.)
In addition to the above, I also include all the
information described above in a file I create with TreePad
software. You can find the free version (2.6.9.c) of this
organizer here: http://www.freebyte.com.
Here is another
software you can use to organize personal information, keep
a diary, catalog web pages, write books, or create a
knowledge-database in a tree-structured outline form. This
is a fully functional 30-day trial version for evaluation
use: http://www.wjjsoft.com/download.html
(select Mybase,
Desktop Edition, Ver 4.82.)
Having everything in order will save you time and allow you to create
your new websites when you are ready. Being organized is the secret
for many successful people. If you devote some time for tracking all
the information and data for EACH product you download,
whether free or not, and for EACH affiliate program you
join, all you need is some time to accumulate your
resources. THEN and ONLY THEN will you be able to create
any info-product or membership site related to the
information you have already gathered.
By the way, for more information on creating a membership
site, you can visit this page:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?1nternet/paidsite
I bought it
today and it's really a very good ebook. I am sure I'll use
it for making my membership site even better!
Yours, John Delavera
p.s. Feel free to use my article and include your affiliate
links both inside the text and in the Resource Box.
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Copyright(C)2003 by John Delavera
Developer of Viral Marketing Software and Ebooks
YOUR AFFILIATE LINK HERE
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You can become my affiliate here:
http://affiliatescenter.com