An Internet Marketing Lesson from Dave Ramsey

Great post Tiffany. I used to listen to Dave Ramsey every day while I waited to pick my kids up from school. Sadly, when we moved a few years back I'm now in an area where no radio stations carry his show.

I need to check to see if he still has shows archived on his web site. I know he used to, but I haven't checked in quite a while.

Hi Tiff,

So true.

One other point came to mind. Free information that's applied is far more valuable than a $197 product collecting virtual dust.

Now, some may argue that paid information is better, and in some cases that's true, but if you're not sure, then come on in and ask at the WF or look at a preponderance of the evidence.

If you don't have the money to spend right now, don't spend it. Put the free info to use to make enough to buy those "must have" titles.

All the best,
Michael

Amen to your post, Tiff. I've been guilty of buying e-books and reports when I had no business spending the money. I finally decided to just stick with my low-maintenence Ebay affiliate sites (very newbie-friendly) and Squidoo, and focus on earning money with my artistic pursuits (I melt glass to make beads for jewelry) .

I still love getting your newsletter, Tiffany. You are the only one I've subscribed to that doesn't come accross as fake and disingenuous. Someday when I'm ready, I'll put more effort into figuring out the nuts and bolts of IM. For now, my $97 and $27 account transfers are going instead toward my bills (and to my glass supplier)!

My husband and I took our sons to Dave Ramsey's workshop. The result - we have three adult children who have bought cars with cash, and have no debt (other than a small student loan). We had to almost force our second son to get a credit card so he could establish some credit. At the rate he's going, he'll buy a house with cash and won't need any.

Dave Ramsey is great, I listen to him a lot. I'm not a big fan of the envelopes method, although I'm incredibly biased because of my own software

I'm continually amazed at how calm he remains when people call in and say they've stopped paying their mortgage/loans/credit cards and exercised very little responsibility in their lives. I don't know if I could have that much self restraint!

Those are great observations, Tiffany. And very eloquently put, too!

- Russ

Some Excellent Sources of Free Information on Internet Marketing


Your local public library is an amazingly good source
of information about internet marketing.

For example, there is an excellent book by Tracy Repchuk called
"31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles -- A Direct Path to Internet Profits."

On the cover, Tracy asks you a question:

"If your life could be different in 31 days, would you try?"

Inside, she covers such topics as ...

• The #1 mistake most new internet seekers make
• Secrets about the 4 websites you must have and why
• Market Funnel marketing for big-bucks profits
• The Millionaire Mindset you need to succeed
• Deadly website combinations that skyrocket your sales
• Super Affiliate secrets, Joint Venture Basics,
Monetizing your Blog, Adsense, Adwords, How to Create
a Traffic Hurricane, Landing Page Results, and more ...

It is both a "blueprint" for success and an "overview"
of the entire internet marketing industry, in that she
mentions a good many critical concepts which you might
not hear talked about in other sources.


Another *awesome* resource is Ed Dale's 30-Day Challenge
that happens "live" every year in August, and there are
audios and videos of the lessons, plus forums and groups,
so you can actually take it any time of year you want,
and go at your own pace into the bargain.

And it *is* a bargain. It's free!

What's more, its focus is to get you earning your first profits
before the month is out.

Thirty Day Challenge


A third incredible resource is this, the WarriorForum.
I will tell you a $17,000 success story that materialized
right here.

A couple of years ago, a 17-year-old boy came to me and
asked me for a recommendation as to which internet marketing
course to buy. He had very little money to spend, and he
wasn't sure which one would be the best pick.

Since I wasn't sure that *any* "course" would be good for him
in his situation, I asked him a few questions.

Well, it turned out that he loved to play the WorldofWarcraft
game, and that he had written these "guides" that all his
buddies at school thought were cool.

Note: A "guide," for those of you who don't know (which I
didn't at the time), is basically a cheat sheet.

And cheat sheets (I found out later) are hot!

And he had written several of them!

Bingo!

He already had a product that a market of WorldofWarcraft
game players wanted to buy, and that he wanted to sell.

The only thing missing was the "mechanics" of enabling
them to purchase it.

Now, I could have recommended an internet marketing course
to him, but I chose instead to send him here.

I encouraged him to put up a post which said something like,
"I'm 17 years old and in high school and I want to try to
earn the money for college by selling my WorldofWarcraft
guides on the internet. What is my next step?"

I told him that I was sure at least one marketer would
respond, and probably several. And they did.

I told him to go do what they told him to do. And he did.

Then I told him to go put up another post which basically
said, "Okay, I did that. Now, what is my next step?"

I told him to go do that step, too, and to "rinse and repeat"
that process until he reached his goal.

The next time I heard from him, he called to say that he
had done what I told him to do ... that he had made $17,000
so far ... that he was going to be able to go to college
after all ... that he had found two marketers here who
were generous enough to "mentor" him and ... oh, yes!
thank you very much!"

And I said, "Well, I guess now you can afford to go buy
any internet marketing course you want!"


As inspiring an example as this is -- and a tribute to the
great folks on this forum -- it is also illustrative of
something else I feel is very important to keep firmly in
mind as you go forward toward success with internet
marketing, and that's the basic truth that there is
*always* -- ALWAYS -- a "story behind the story."

Even *this* story, which tells his story, doesn't tell
*all* his story. It doesn't tell, for instance, how he
came to learn how to play WorldofWarcraft, or how he got
inspired to write "guides" (cheat sheets) for it, or how
all his buddies at school came to be interested in them.

So if all you look at is the end result -- the $17,000
(and probably lots more than that by now) he earned by
selling his guides on the internet, you're not going to
see all the stuff that went in front of it ... all the
stuff that happened *before* the $17,000 happened.

*This* story picks up *after* this 17-year-old boy ...

(a) talked his parents into buying him this game, and
(b) spent hours and hours learning how to play it, and
(c) thought it would be cool to beat it, and
(d) succeeded in beating it by cheating it, and
(e) showed off his cheat sheets to his buddies, and
(f) basked in the aura of their approval, and
(g) decided to make money selling them, and
(h) the rest of the story you already know.


President Theodore Roosevelt is quoted as having said ...

"Start where you stand with the tools that you have;
better tools will be found as you go along."

and ...

"If they ask you if you can do a thing, tell them,
'Certainly I can!' and then get busy and find out
how to do it!"


When you were little, you figured out how to ride a
bicycle. It wasn't easy ... you took some tumbles ...
it felt strange and weird at first, trying to balance
on that thing ... but eventually ... it happened !!!
you were flying in the breeze with the greatest of ease!

Well, this thing they call "internet marketing" has a
lot in common with bicycle riding.

You try things.

You lean a little to the left ... ooops! too far!

You pedal like the devil ... eeek! stop!

And then one day you win a race like Lance Armstrong
and they give you a gold medal ...

and everybody asks you how you did it !!!




Tony Robbins says ...

"I believe there is no such thing as a lazy person.
There are only people with uninspiring goals."


And Tommy Hopkins tells this story ...

It's about a reporter who was sent to interview this really
rich guy ... like, you know, a bazillionaire or something.

Before her appointment with him, she thought she'd better
bone up on his past history. And when she did, she found
this strange story about a man with his same name, in his
same town, who was a bum who slept on park benches.

So, being a reporter, at some point during the interview,
she brought this up. She mentioned this guy with his same
name, in his same town, who slept on park benches.

And he said, "That guy was me."

She was stunned ... "You? What happened?"

And he said, "I always knew I was going to do something like
this someday. I was just waiting til I was ready to start."


If you're ready to start, then you need a product to take
to market ... something to sell, in other words.

And if you want to make money "fast" -- like today --
you need a product that you either own yourself, or you
own the rights to, so that when you sell one of them, all
the money goes right to your PayPal account, right now.
(No waiting 6 weeks for an affiliate paycheck, in other words.)

And it would be best if you have a free ebook to go with
your product that tells all about it and the problem it
will help people solve, because that's the kind of information
people are looking for, so if you can give it to them, then
you're just that much ahead of the game, because then they
will be more likely to trust you and maybe even click on
the link in your free ebook to go buy your product, especially
if it's not terribly expensive, like maybe $10 or something.

And hey! A hundred $10 sales is $1,000 !!!

In the words of internet newbie Christy Blackburn ...

"The package is only $10, but the book is free and it is well worth
your time just to read through it. I chose to work with the link first,
since it was the easiest and I did not have to have any technical skills
to implement. What you do is pretty much sell the link to others. When
someone else buys the link, then they promote it and make money themselves.

"There are, of course, thousands of ways to promote this link, but I chose
offline advertising. What I did was place a classified ad in the local
newspaper that said: If You Are Interested In A No Hype Way Make Extra Cash
From Your Home Call Me At ###-###-####. Did I expect a few calls? Sure.
What I actually got was 12 calls the first day, 34 calls the second day,
9 the third day (Sunday), 27 the fourth day, 31 the fifth day, 45 the sixth
day and 25 the last day. It was a grand total of 183 calls, my husband was
furious because the phone was constantly ringing. When I got a call I briefly
explained what it was and then told them about the link. I then gave them an
address to a blog that I had set up which included a link they could follow
to download the free book and receive the same offer I did. The response was
awesome. I had a few that were not interested, so I thanked them for calling
and that was that. At this time, this was the only way I promoted the link.
From the first day the ad ran until 3 days after the last day, I received
a total of $1240.00 in my paypal account.

"I have since changed the strategy just a bit for my husbands sake. With the
money I made, I rented a conference room at a local motel. I then ran the
same ad but over a three day span. I announced a meeting at a certain time
and place. At the first conference, we had 84 people present. I now do the
conferences in my town once a month and the surrounding areas as well. I was
able to employ my sister to help me and now it is a family thing. I was able
to quit my full time job about a month ago and have never been happier. Yes,
it takes a lot of work setting up the conferences and speaking, but it has
been well worth every minute of it. This just goes to show, there really is
money to be made out there if you know what to do and how to go about it!
Hope this gives you some insight." --Christy Blackburn


Now, I have checked out this free ebook and $10 product myself and
find it to be everything she says it is, and more. It is actually an
awesome education in the fundamental principles of internet marketing,
and it comes with all the tools you need to implement them, plus all
the support you could ever possibly want which, for a product that
you get a 100% commission for selling, is really rather amazing.

This package was developed and is supported by Harvey Segal, who has
been on the internet since like forever, and who really knows his stuff.
One of the things you get for your $10 is access to him and his forum and
answers to all your questions. He's there to help you. You're not alone.

What I salute him for, especially, is removing so many of the barriers
to entry that so often stop a person new to internet marketing dead in
their tracks. He offers you a complete marketing *system* and, if you
follow it step by step, you *will* make money. Today. Now.

Just as soon as you're ready to start.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Elizabeth

P.S.

You can get the free ebook here:
Internet Marketing SuperTips

To build on what you're saying - when I first started my freelance writing career, I spent a lot of time reading and buying resources telling me how to be a writer. In retrospect, I did very little that first year. I only read about what to do.

I learned less from those resources than I actually did by my own follies and successes. Once I finally started writing I found that I promptly screwed things up - the very thing I was trying to prevent. I thought, sheesh - I could have gotten started a lot sooner.

All of those expensive resources could actually be a detriment.

I just had success on something I was trying to do (revenue sharing writing sites) and it was quite by accident. I tripped into a great keyword and learned a lot by dissecting the characteristics of that keyword so I could apply it to other things. That's really how I learn - from my own experience.

The resources I've purchased have been a great help to me. But I always need to morph it into my own thing through my own experience.

Thanks for the wonderful article and post Tiffiny. I see and listen Dave Ramsey's show very religiously and indeed what he says definitely makes sense.
So hats off to him for giving and hats off to you for sharing such an important lesson with all of us.

I got a mentor for a reasonable amount of money. The greatest advantage I believe is the discipline this brings to my efforts. Sticking with one way forward is vital. The way forward for me is to build a LIST. Whatever you want to sell in life the best way is to have a list of prospects. Alex Jeffries, a successful online marketer, guided me to this realisation. He has a number of FREE videos you can access through gerry savage marketing online. Stick with this system and give it time to work. After trying unsuccessfully on my own, I now see this as the way to go. One step at a time. Learn to build a business by building a list of interested people. Adapting this principle has enabled me to become focused and disciplined, detaching from my desperation and impatience. Because I was so impatient in the past I spent money recklessly on the latest, 'secret', but nothing worked. Better still nothing was ever going to work. The way I am now I'm much more relaxed and confident as I see my FREE list build every day. You just get a sense that this is the proper way to progress.

Me and hubby are working on the Total Money Makeover right now actually!

I agree if you are *desperate* you will NOT think straight. This causes you to jump from one idea to the next...buying everything for the chance to get some quick cash.

Building a business online is much like offline...building reputation, relationships, trust, product/service credibility, etc. all of which takes time.

If you have a plan and you work on that plan with extreme focus only buying the things you *need* to take your business to the next level you will be successful online.

Hello Tiff,

Everything a person "NEEDS" to know to be successful on the internet
can be found right here. The currency is either time or cash, but it is
here at the WF.

BTW. Started to listen to Dave years ago. Have not made a car payment
in 12 years. Can't tell you how great it is to be debt free and no mortgage.

When you are a newbie like me, the temptation is too great. You want to make it as fast as possible, like earning thousands tomorrow.
Thanks for your advice, Tiffany. Made me realize I gotta go through the hard way, even if it takes a little bit longer. I feel I'm getting wiser and have learned a lot in this forum.

Dave Ramsey gives awesome advice Tiffany. Free advice CAN work, but you need to be careful who you take it from. Yes, live on a limited budget....you MUST do that when you are starting out, but don't be afraid to invest in your education either.

Through the miracle of the Internet you can listen to Dave Ramsey's radio broadcasts!

Real Debt Help - Get out of debt with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Plan.

Since I have never heard of him, I want to listen to some of them, (even though I am debt free). I am pretty good at managing my money, but like anything...there is always room for improvement.

thanks
Levada

Through the miracle of the Internet you can listen to Dave Ramsey's radio broadcasts!

Real Debt Help - Get out of debt with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Plan.

Since I have never heard of him, I want to listen to some of them, (even though I am debt free). I am pretty good at managing my money, but like anything...there is always room for improvement.

thanks
Levada

Dave Ramsey has good advice for a lot of people, but "delivering pizza and papers" is not the best and highest use of time for a true entrepreneur. I also think going to Iraq as a contractor, even if you do make $100,000/year, is a big risk for anybody, especially somebody with a wife and young child.

Yet this is the kind of advice he gives out call after call.

The show is a worthwhile listen, but he's not the genius people make him out to be.

The most successful people in this business have taken risks to get where they are. "Delivering pizza and papers" may get you out of debt, but it won't make you rich.

Dave Ramsey is who inspired me to get out of debt in the first place! Thanks to his motivation I was able to pay off $72,900 in debt in less than 2 years.

The funny thing is that the plan Ramsey teaches to get out of debt is not the fastest way to do it or the cheapest way.

thanks for the valuable information.

Thanks Tiffany, much appreciated

I clicked on this post because I love Dave Ramsey, and I was pleasantly surprised!

Great advice that I have followed myself - and a wonderful nugget for total newbies. Desperation and fear drive stupid decisions. If you can't think clearly because you are frustrated with the pressures of life, business, and what-have-you, you will be more likely to waste money on 'quick fixes' instead of investing in products and services that can actually help you achieve your goals.


Very cool post :-)

Thanks Dave a great idea.

i just saw this book got reviewed in our Sunday paper today.. and voila, you guys are talking about it.. :-)

Will check on the link that levada gave, and will try to go to the bookstore again..

Elizabeth

Some very usefull points I see here. Thanks very much ...

It's odd that being frugal is brought up because I was talking with My wife about how we shop at places like Target,Khols,and Marshall's for clothes and she is a coupon queen.I love wearing boots and will by them from the military surplus store and they will last between 2 - 3 years.I admit I currently have a crappy credit score because I was irresponsible and made bad choices.I have learned from those mistakes and will not repeat them.

I also wanted to point out that I have been learning the basics of IM through a free membership program.It is also where I found out about people like Perry Marshall