Confessions of an Internet Skeptic—or,
How I met Evel Knievel while doing
business in my shorts
by Dr. Joe Vitale
www.mrfire.com
I admit it. I was an Internet skeptic.
I used to tell people the easiest way to make money online was to write a book on how to make money online.
You can't really blame me for my bad attitude. It was 1994 and the hype around the net glowed with promises of gold on the cyberstreets. But I wasn't convinced you could make money online. As I wrote in my 1995 DBA magazine column:
"It's easy to get mesmerized by the big numbers: Over 2 million computers reaching 3.86 million people in over 135 countries... Sounds like a marketer's idea of heaven until you realize these cyberspace travelers don't log on at any one point, don't have road maps to take them to your business and aren't on the Internet to buy from you."
By early 1996 the estimated number of people online had ballooned to more than 50 million. Talk about smoke and mirrors. Fans of the Internet kept forgetting to inform anyone that the majority of people online aren't at all interested in what you are selling. They are surfing to get information, find sex, play games, browse, download software, find sex, or sell you something. Or find sex. And not necessarily in that order.
I remained a skeptic.
But then something odd began to happen.
Most people don't realize there are more than 71,618 e-mail discussion lists online. (You can search for lists of interest to you at http://www.liszt.com/.) As part of my research for my magazine column, I had subscribed to a handful of e-mail lists on sales and marketing, posted answers to questions, gave my two cents on topics of interest, and just generally "walked around" cyberspace. I didn't know I was inadvertently advertising myself. To my surprise, I began to get business.
People who read my posts on the e-lists would think they knew me, trusted whatever reputation that saw based on whatever I put in my sig file (a sig or signature file is like the bio of me at the end of this article), and hired me. Most of these people I never met, spoke with, or even faxed. Some of them were as far away as Singapore and Ireland. They would e-mail their request for ads, sales letters, and news releases. I would e the work back. They would snail mail their checks to me. Big checks. Because I didn't know these e-clients, I would often ask for higher fees, and request almost all of it be paid up-front. No one complained. The checks rolled in. It soon represented a thirty percent increase in gross revenues. It's now the source for more than eighty percent of my income.
Suddenly my skepticism gave way to something deeper: Cash.
I began to see that being online extended my marketing reach. It also made me look pretty big. Because all anyone could see was whatever I posted, they were free to assume I was a giant ad agency as big as David Ogilvy's empire. No one ever suspects that I am one man sitting in front of my computer, in my shorts, with a cat on my lap, typing on my keyboard while sipping cappuccino.
Nor does it matter. I don't need to be a big agency, though the illusion of bigness doesn't hurt. As long as I subscribe to e-lists and participate in them, letting people get to know and trust me, they continue to hire me. It's like being a member of a business networking group that meets every Wednesday morning. The more you go and participate, the more you get business from others in the group. Only online the group meets several times a day, has no fees, has members around the world, and everyone gets a chance to talk. And you don't have to leave your desk to get to a meeting.
There have been other blessings from being online, of course. One of the biggest is the number of hot shots I can meet with only e-mail. The famous are no longer hiding from us. When I wanted endorsements for my new book, There's A Customer Born Every Minute, I hunted for well known people at http://www.altavista.digital.com. I easily located Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the guerrilla marketing series of bestselling books. I sent him e-mail outlining my book and asking for a testimonial. Within two hours (two hours!) he replied by e-mail saying he was on the way out the door to go skiing but to send him my manuscript. I did. Two weeks later I received a glowing testimonial from him.
One day I read a short magazine review of Evel Knievel's web site. I knew people still considered Evel the greatest daredevil of all time. I knew he ran his own business, did his own publicity, and made more than fifty million dollars in his career. Despite his past medical bills, he's a success.
So I went to Evel's site at http://www.evelknievel.com and sent him e-mail. Within two hours (yes, hours) his office manager e-mailed back, asking me to send my book along. I did. One week later the impossible happened: Evel Knievel called me, leaving a message saying he wanted to know if I would help him write his autobiography. I still can't believe it. I nearly dropped the phone. Not only did I get a testimonial from him for my forthcoming book, but he may be my next client.
And this all happened due to my roaming the net. I'll never be skeptical again!
Copyright © 2005 by Joe Vitale. All rights reserved.
You may forward this in its entirety to anyone you wish.
Hypnotic Marketing Inc.
P.O. Box 2924
Wimberley TX 78676
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