Making Your First Million.pdf - Association of Net Entrepreneurs and ...

Making Your First Million
The Internet has the same pivotal relationship to the information revolution as the internal
combustion engine had to the industrial revolution. It will turn everything on its head,
leaving old technologies behind, and like the early days of any new technology (TV,
video, cellular phones) there is a proliferation of competing brands and formats yelling:
"Try me! Buy me!" What we have to do to establish our presence on the Internet is to
take our folding chair and go sit on the sidelines and think.
Get back to basics. Run the numbers. Think. What is the main feature, or the unique
selling proposition of the Internet? Its intimacy. It says in a seductive voice: "You've got
mail." It sits back on its haunches, puffing and slobbering saying: "Whaddaya want?
Whaddaya want? I'll go get it, huh?" It's your personal slave. Doting. Obedient. Still a
little bewildered. Apt to bring back more than just the wood ducks you targeted. And so
quick. And we crave this intimacy. We all want to be needed, wanted and loved. And we
want power and control of our lives. The Internet offers it to us and to our potential
customers.
How can you use this part-brilliant, part-moronic hound-dog to make you money?
Ninety-five per cent of web residents haven't a clue. That's how many lose money on the
net. Most blunder onto the net as a 'gottadoit' exercise. "I dunno nuthin about it but I
know I gotta be there.", is their complaint. Be a follower if you must, but at least do the
research. There are tens, hundreds of millions of people on the net and hundreds of
thousands signing up each day. Most potential web merchants adopt mass marketing
methods to reach them, spamming email, blanket advertising, banners, buttons, even
advertising their website on other media. And most fail. Even amazon.com, the largest
reseller of books on the web has failed to make a profit there. Despite hundreds of
millions spent in promotion, largely garnered from its optimistically-priced shares, it has
failed to register a profit. Yet.
What's the answer? Well, if you haven't already got a spare million or so to box the web's
ears to make it sit up and take notice, I suggest you refer back to the Principles of
Prosperity. You get what you give away. Be daring. Commit acts of outrageous
generosity. When I first started out in mail-order in1979 I needed to get noticed so I
approached the user groups and computer retailers and offered them my software in
exchange for their mail lists. I had something they wanted. They had something I needed.
You can do the same on the web. Don't sell it. Give it away. If it costs you nothing to
reproduce the material then give it freely. If it costs something, then sell it at cost. What
you are buying is goodwill, mind-space. It will take a while to establish your brand or
your name. Prepare the soil. The web is full of rip-off merchants promising the earth and
delivering a mouthful of clay. Do the opposite. Under-promise and over-deliver. You are
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