Online Business How To: Real-Life Lessons

In a previous article, I told you about some of our background in starting an internet business. We have sold homeschool curriculum, eBooks, and home-study courses built around online business how to tips. And we have learned a lot about the intnert through both our success and failures.

The first eBook we ever sold, my wife wrote. It is called “Raising Leaders, Not Followers.” Basically it was an eBook designed specifically for homeschoolers, teaching them how to raise their kids for leadership positions. My wife approached me with the idea, and I said, “Honey, it is not really a barn-burning topic. I just do not know that you are going to make any money with it.” Well, she proved me wrong. She sold $11,197 the first 19 days. How is that for internet marketing 101?

Not too shabby, right? On the heels of her first success, my wife started thinking about another eBook for the Christmas season. She said to me, “Sweetie, I am going to write another eBook about preparing your heart for Christmas. It seems like a lot of people get close to Christmas day and end up discouraged because they were not really prepared for the season. The presents are great, but what do they do next?”

I told her, “That is a great idea, but there is so much free stuff on the internet about Christmas. How do you think you will get people to buy it?” I was not too optimistic, but she proved me wrong again. She sold over $2000 with her Christmas eBook. It turned out to be an unexpected bonus. And now every year, we roll it out a month or so before Christmas, and every year we get the same bonus.

You see the principle here? Well, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, I will be the first to admit. But when I saw my wife do these two things, I thought, I can do it myself. And I got my chance to start an internet business pretty quickly.

I had a red pickup truck. It was a Ford F150. My daughter had taken it to high school. She was playing softball with the high school. And all of a sudden, her teammates were screaming, “Gentry, your truck is on fire!” She looks up. There were flames going 20 feet high out from under the hood.

Turns out Ford had recalled the cruise control switch in this particular model. And I could see why. Once we got the fire put out, we could see that the truck was totaled. I called Ford, but all they could do was apologize. It seems they had notified me of the recall by sending me a notice to my previous address in Texas. But we lived in Idaho.

I decided to start an online business, so I put up a little website that said, “My truck caught on fire.” I had pictures of the truck, and I opened up the hood and showed how all the engine compartment was burned up and all the wires were burned up. I said, “Why don’t you help me while I help you? I’m going to give you all this free internet marketing stuff. Graphics package. Some software. eBooks. Marketing tips.” All this stuff I had compiled and got free off the internet. I compiled it into a product and sold it for like $47. And I made $5,470 in the first 9 days.

I hope what you are seeing from these real-life examples is that you can succeed on the internet. Seriously! All you need is a little online business how to and you can begin making a profit.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2010

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Are you starting an online business?  Stephen Beck can help by showing you how to make your first $1000 on the internet. Grab a FREE link to his webinar replay, where Stephen shows you exactly what you should do: http://www.YourOnlineBasics.com.