The TRUTH about Offline - and YOU may not like it :)

You pointed out the truth. And guess what, most people ignored it. Sad beyond belief how the truth is so simple yet most people miss it. Or just ignore it and prefer to carry on in their bubble.



When I started out, a friend suggested that he thought I had a certain skill and should try making money online with it as their are people doing that, and told me about a few sites, including this one, that sell manuals and training on how to do that.

I found a really popular thread that sounded really good and bought the WSO. The concept sounded brilliant.

Email business telling them I was looking for a business like theirs in their area for a free feature, write a free article, promote it a bit on some article sites, and then upsell them on and ongoing monthly article writing service for 200 a month. 50 customers and you had a nice living.

I posted some well written ads on craiglist, put a training manual together, went and 'interviewed' a guy in a pub in Leytonstone who wanted to know more, set him up and he went out and got a fair few people to go with the free trial. But he flaked out and never followed up, so I had about 20 leads, had articles written, yet the follow up stage of getting in touch, showing them the work and upselling them didn't happen. Luckily I had another respondent, a really amped up, ambitious American guy, who at least made an attempt to follow up, but the leads had gone cold because they'd been left for a week and they must have wondered what was going on.

Plus I had no decent script for the American guy or sales process. Anyway, I told about my plans to set up a video production and media company, and he could be the front man, being an enthusiastic, upbeat and charming American and could go and do the meeting clients side etc and closing deals and I'd build the business and take care of everything as the owner. He worked for me for free for a month or so, calling freelancers and building a team, letting them know about the business, etc.

I actually built an outstanding website and managed to make it look like a cool, upmarket boutique firm, had a big team of highly talented video production professionals and top corporate type graphic designers, and everything was ready to go.

So he was out pitching people, but he arranged to do a deal and cut me out, only the guy he was trying to do the deal with sent an email to an account I was using so I saw it and had to get rid of him. I then had to go and close a millionaire client and pitch and win the deal myself, which was out of my comfort zone but was a success nonetheless.

However, it was at that point that I realized that although I managed to build something that looked like a professional business on the front end and get customers, I was actually clueless and had very little idea how to run a consistent, sustainable, profitable long-term business.

That was a rude awakening. I knew little about copywriting. Little about marketing. Little about sales. Little about recruiting. Little about some of the services I was trying to sell.

And the American guy, unhappy I'd got rid of him, and who had worked for corporate companies so had more experienced, launched a tirade about how I knew nothing and would get no-where.

That hit me pretty hard. And I stopped any idea of trying to trade and sell to other people until I had firm handle on business and was expert in what I was going to go into.

I've studied intensely over the last few years to fill the gaps in my knowledge so when I get going again there is nothing that is a mystery. And steadily built up capital to build the business I wanted to.

I nearly put all that knowledge to waste though, as a few months back the main thrust of my new company was selling only video production services. I had a handful of services to offer, with a few price points, but luckily a professional video presenter friend told me my idea would be a very tight stretch based on his knowledge of what I wanted offer, which made me switch to going for something I'd scheduled down the line when I had more cashflow to build.

It's taken 3 months to build a large network, and a few extra grand investment, but it's going to be very, very hard for me not to make money as I have about 50 potential and proven revenue streams that are a much better proposition and provided great value, and I can offer it in much greater volume, and it's not different from just having a system in place of going out and contacting business owners every day that I had when I started out. Only I now know all the inner workings of business.


Thinking about how I started and got into things, it is a bit different from the people you are talking about. Who have read something on a forum where some one made 500 quid from selling a website, and thought it would be easy to launch a website business. Bit still, even when I did have what I thought was a solid, easy to understand and comprehensive business model, I realized quite quickly that in the real world there should more planning and study done before someone launched a business.


This is good thread and many could benefit. Unfortunately they won't. The majority of people are simply averse or allergic to the sort of hard-graft and work you have to put in to launch a profitable, long-term business.

No matter what stage they are at.

Ah.... yes... The Happy Warrior WSO thread.

That's because those who know it's the truth need not reply. = )

Lol. I see those ads all the time. You are telling the truth. In my 7 years as an "Offliner" I have been the most successful finding the leads, closing the deals, and doing the "work" myself. If you don't know how to do these things yourself then outsourcing is a nightmare...