Sophie's Success Shortcuts

Let me start with a little story:

There was once a farmer who had a donkey. The donkey was a real pain, it kicked and it bit...

One day the donkey fell into a well that was not in use.

The farmer tried to pull up the donkey from the well, but he did not succeed. He called for help and a few of his neighbors came, but even together they could not pull out the poor donkey.

The farmer had a change of heart and decided that the donkey was old, and it had only been trouble, so they will be all better off if they just bury the donkey. They will get rid of the old well and the donkey at the same time.

So they started to fill the well with dirt, one shovelful at a time.

The donkey, every time the dirt hit his back, shook himself and stepped up a little, on the top of the dirt. After half an hour or so, to the amazement of the farmers, the donkey stepped out of the hole and ran away. But before he ran, he bit the farmer well.

This story will play out well... in the following case study.

I will be painfully honest in this series of articles. It will be painful to me, because I will be admitting to some of my weaknesses. And it may be painful to some other marketer, who I decided not to mention by name, but he will recognize himself.

Now, the painful part: I have been in internet marketing, unconsciously and consciously, for 12-13 years.

I started by turning an offline wildly successful local magazine into an online venture, mainly because 1. printing was too expensive, 2. my health didn't make it easy for me to work that hard any longer, go to clubs, deliver magazines, go, go, go, work work work.

I didn't know I was in marketing. I was a publisher. I didn't know my main job was marketing, so I knew nothing about marketing. I did some stuff that I now consider marketing, but then... I didn't even have the word. I thought marketing was focus groups, and I despised that then.

So I didn't make any money, and only after quite a few years I started to make a full time income. By full time I mean I could pay the bills and eat. I mean I didn't have to have another job.

About five years ago I heard the word marketing in a different context, and this time it sounded like that is maybe what I should be doing... if I knew how to do it.

I started to study, but could not see how it applied to what I was already doing.

I learned that if I could build a mailing list, I could start to make more money than just paying the bills.

I met Tellman at the Underground Internet Marketing Seminar at breakfast, and shared with him. When he found out what kind of traffic my site had, he went ballistic. He was sure I was sitting on a million dollar goldmine. Everyone had always thought that, but all I could eke out is a meager living.

He told me exactly how to build a mailing list, then went his merry way. I tried. I failed at it.

I hired this coach for six months, that coach for six months... some increase, but still no mailing list.

Then I had a brainstorm, and managed to build a list of 278, fans, lovers of what I had to say, not buyers.

By that time I was successful with affiliate marketing in the self-improvement field, became good at ppc, could teach what to do (like a good basketball coach... not good at throwing baskets, lol), still no list.

In July of this year I took on a fellow bumbling, fumbling wannabe. I spoke authoritatively, so she trusted that I'll be able to guide her to make money.

She had few skills, little knowledge, so I decided that I'll teach her, but I'll use the energy of the relationship to fuel me to get through the stopping points, the rough spots, the walls I hadn't been able to go through. I wanted to scale high walls, I wanted to jump over big canyons... I wanted to become the basketball coach who can throw baskets. I wanted to become the internet marketing coach that made money doing internet marketing.

Continued in Part 2