And the Survey Says …
By Joshua Boswell

In a word … WOW.

Last week, I asked you to share your thoughts, questions, concerns, and dreams with me.

The response was almost overwhelming. I have been reading thousands of comments, stories, insights, and personal feelings.

Thank you!

I feel like I know you now. I’m going to do my very best to honor the trust you have placed in me by being so open and direct.

Today, I thought it would be very helpful for me to summarize a number of the things that came up repeatedly in the responses.

After I share those main points with you, I’m going to give you five specific resources that will show you exactly how to start making money online.

(You’ll notice there is a strong correlation between your questions, thoughts, and comments … and the insights I’m going to share with you over the next few weeks.)

I found five major themes repeated time and time again as I analyzed and evaluated the survey results. Here they are … see if you relate to them …

1. Big Question #1 … Who do I listen to? Who can I trust?
   

   This is a HUGE issue.

   Specifically, you told me: “I want to get focused and start moving forward, but there are so many options, so many systems, so many tricks, so many secrets, so many voices. Which one do I listen to? And should I be listening to all of them? I mean, they all sound really important!”

   I sure can relate to this. When I first got started building my business, I went newsletter crazy. I think at one time I was subscribed to 30-40 newsletters. I had purchased about half that many marketing, copywriting, and business development programs. And, I had attended twice that many live seminars.

   If they were talking, I was buying and listening and trying.

   After a while, my head started to feel like it was going to pop. Massive information and sensory overload.

   What’s more, I felt like a failure because I couldn’t make ANY of those programs work. So, my frustration levels rose and my income dropped. It was not good.

   One of the biggest decisions I had to make at that time was who I was going to listen to. I realized that many of those people were just con artists. They were selling systems for making money online that taught other people how to sell systems for making money online … and no one had actually made money online with a viable business.

   Stay clear of those folks.

   But, there were others that were sincere, genuine, and truly successful … I just couldn’t listen to and follow all of them. I had to pick one to save my sanity.

   So, how do you pick? How do you know which is right for you?

   In the next few weeks, I’m going to give you a very clear, concise formula for choosing your “online business and money-making mentor” … I’m talking about the person and/or system you should follow and use to create your personal business and money-making system.

2. Big Question #2 … How to pick a product or service that will actually sell.
   

   I was speaking at a seminar a few months ago and a very nice, distinguished-looking gentleman in his mid-50s approached me with this same question …

   “I’ve been in business and sales for over 30 years. I know a little about marketing and a few things about copywriting. I’m talented and intelligent. I just don’t understand the Internet … and even worse, I have no idea what I would sell online.”

   The talented individual without a product or service to sell is very common.

   How do you know what will sell? How do you know if the market is saturated? How do you pick the next, hot trend? How …

   Obviously, if you could figure out the next Facebook, you’d be set for life. I’m just going to burst your bubble and say that you probably aren’t going to.

   But, I’ll re-inflate that bubble by telling you that you don’t need to create the next Facebook. You can make a couple hundred dollars … to tens of thousands of dollars … online with just a small handful of people on planet Earth ever even knowing you exist.

   I have met and coached people who have a ‘buyer list’ of less than 5,000 people, but make a strong $500,000 a year. Think of that!

   One of the keys to that formula is picking the right product and/or service.

   That is going to be a major part of our conversation in the coming weeks as well. I’ll show you a number of really simple, totally free, and low-tech ways of checking the pulse of the market. Give me any product or service idea and in about 10 minutes, I can tell you if it is going to sell or not.

   I’ll show you how to do the same.

3. Big Question #3 … How to build a profitable online business without learning a bunch of techno-garbage.
   

   I’m with you there!

   Technology is the ultimate moving target. iPhones rule the world … and five years ago they didn’t even exist. Facebook, Twitter, iPads, Google Docs, mobile marketing, texting, and hundreds of other technologies came into being just in the past 5-10 years.

   It moves at lightning speed.

   What will tomorrow bring? Scary to think about.

   The question is this … do you have to keep up with the ever-increasing madness? Do you need to be a certified geek and devote your life to the worship of the latest and greatest gadgets?

   No!

   How would you feel if I told you that you don’t need to be unusually technologically savvy to make money online. What’s more, keeping up with the geeked-out Jones’ is not a requirement.

   And, actually, from a business management and money-making perspective, you may be better off keeping your hands off the iPad, and staying out of the HTML coding. You’ll see why as we move forward.

4. Big Question #4 … How to build a list of people who want to hear from you and will buy.
   

   There was a day when people walked around and bragged about the size of their “list.”

   “I have 300,000 names on my list” they would say with a deep sense of belittling pride and superiority.

   It used to impress me.

   Not any more.

   I started working with many of those companies. I saw how many of those people were actually listening to them. I saw how even fewer were actually buying … or had ever bought.

   I don’t know, maybe there was a time when that was the only way to have success online, but those days are gone.

   Being genuine, building relationships, connecting with real people that are excited and eager to buy from you … that is the key to online business today. Especially if you are not looking to get rich, but just want to make an extra $1,000 to $10,000 a month with a side business.

   If people really want to hear from you, they will usually buy … especially if you are connected with them and know what is going to benefit them.

5. Big Question #5 (the nitty gritty!)  … You want to know if you can get started with little or no money …
   

   This is a tough one. And, I’m compelled to be straight with you …

   Nothing in life comes for free. I don’t care what anyone tells you. There is a price to everything.

   But, one of the marvelous things about the Internet is that it has radically changed our medium of exchange.

   It used to be that money was just about the only medium of exchange. If you wanted something, you had to cough up cold, hard cash.

   Today, the Internet makes valuable exchanges so much easier that in many cases, money is not needed. For example, if you want to be heard on Facebook, you don’t have to pay money … but you do have to pay in time and interesting posts.

   I have found many, many resources for starting and running an online business that require a price other than hard cash.

   So, is it possible to get up and running with little or no money? Yes — I believe it is.

   But, let me be clear … There is a price to be paid. You will make some kind of exchange to get money flowing to you.

   I’ll give you the resources and insights needed to make the exchange quickly and reasonably … and usually without putting down cash.

Okay — that’s all I have for you right now …

There were many other insights and questions that came up.

For example, “Can you give me a simple, rational, step-by-step system for making money online?” or “I’ve tried many systems that get me started, but leave me hanging at the halfway mark. Can you help me finish and actually start making money?”

I could go on, but I think the five I’ve commented on here were the biggies.

I want you to know that I’ve heard you loud and clear. I told you before that my mission right now is to help you build an online, side business that will bring in a solid income — eventually netting you over $100,000 a year.

I now know what your most pressing questions are … and I promise to answer every one of them.

Not only that, but I also promise to answer the questions you didn’t know to ask. It’s what we don’t know that we don’t know that can really hurt us. So, I’ll peel back the curtain for you and unravel this mystery called “making money online.”

To start fulfilling this promise, I’d like to give you a peek at what we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks. I’ve created a series of articles I’m titling “Simple Steps to Making Money Online.” Here are the article topics:

1. Step One: How to Find a Mentor You Can Trust
2. Step Two: How to Find a Product that Sells
3. Step Three: How to Be Techno-Smart … When You're Not
4. Step Four: How to Find Buyers that Will Buy From You
5. Step Five: 5 Ways to Get Started Without Spending a Dime

I think you’ll enjoy these topics and conversations. More important, I think they will help you begin to see just how you can build a business online, in a realistic, simple, rational way.