“My online business is now generating as much as $200,000 a month and this figure is rising almost daily. Without the help of Jim Cockrum none of this would have happened.

Jim was one of only 3 mentors who I turned to when I was struggling to get my business started, and his help and advice has literally been worth millions of dollars to my business.

Right now my business has 9,238 registered affiliates, but the SECOND person to ever promote one of my products was Jim.

I owe him a lot which is why I’m always singing his praises to anyone who will listen!!

Sincerely,
Lee McIntyre”

That’s a cool endorsement isn’t it?

Here’s the best part for you…

I’ve gotten Lee’s permission to offer my readers his entire online business “blue print”  for $5!

Get it here:

http://www.MySilentTeam.com/LeesBlueprint.html

Some of my thoughts about Lee, his system and the note he left me:

•   Lee took a solid concept he learned from me and others and SYSTEMATIZED it.  No matter what you are trying to do online you can benefit from seeing Lee’s game plan spelled out. It’s a great example of automating, outsourcing, and auto-pilot growth.
• Lee is doing affiliate marketing the RIGHT WAY (I’m always teaching that concept as well). Visit the “affiliate marketing” category on my blog for more info on what I mean by “the right way”.
• Email marketing is at the heart of Lee’s success (You’ve heard that a thousand times from me as well right?) Again, I have an entire blog category dedicated to that as well.
• He’s having huge success using his strategies to attract “offline” businesses as well (i.e. OfflineBiz.com type of income).
• Quite often, the student becomes the mentor in this biz. I learned a lot from studying Lee’s blueprint, and I know you will as well.
• It can be quite lucrative to teach others how to succeed in the “wild west” that is “Online Business”. Lee earns money from several sources online, but teaching others the lessons he’s learned along the way is lucrative as well.
•  The greatest service I perform for my readers (that’s you) is to FILTER through the endless stream of junk, hype, exaggeration etc. and point out the “good guys” that can actually teach us something worth learning. This is one of those times.

1. Affiliate marketing IS NOT a business
Perhaps my most controversial point of the 7, but I’m not the one who said it first. One of the richest affiliate marketers of our time said it. Find the proof here.
2. Those of us who stuck it out with eBay are still making a lot of money. Amazon.com is full of opportunity too. It’s the “boring” stuff that really works.
I’m banking more than ever on eBay, and teaching others to do the same. Sure, it’s only a portion of my online income, but it’s steady!   When in doubt head to where all the buying traffic is. I still love eBay and love Amazon more all the time as an income geneartor.
3. Yes, you have been making others rich buying all those courses, membership sites and ebooks.
The good news is, you know more than you realize.  The solution? Go after some low hanging fruit. This blog post spells out where I think the low fruit is.
4. You don’t start with a website or even a “great” product. You need an audience first.
This blog post will get you thinking correctly about how to find and grow an audience as your FIRST focus.
5. Every new “marketing opportunity” that has come along since email marketing took hold has fallen in one of these three categories: 1. a fad that has (or likely will soon) pass,  2. is best used to grow your email mailing list (i.e. social media), or 3. has been a barely more than a waste of time entirely from day one. (The only possible exception to these three rules is mobile marketing)
6. Your skills don’t matter as much as you think they do.
Stop chasing skills and start building systems. Learn to outsource work to the highest performing/lowest price option. People with skills work for rich people with ideas. Possible exception:  The only possible “skill” you are likely to ever need to succeed online.
7. Relationships rule (not content).
Use your real name, show your face, and help people make hard decisions with the content you create.  Sure, I’m a fan of great content (what other kind is worth your effort?), but relationships earn you the right to even present your message.  Here’s a video of what happens when a bunch of people trust your advice because you’ve built a relationship (watch me earn $7K in a day in that short video).
8. Over-delivering REALLY pays off. Under-delivering is death online.
I call it irrational generosity. Notice I promised 7 harsh lessons. This eighth one is important.  Every customer who thinks your are amazing will tell potentially HUNDREDS of people. Amaze your customers even if it’s expensive.

Please leave me a comment using the link at the top of this article. I want to know your favorite, or if you think I’m wrong or left something off the list.

While writing this article I asked my Facebook followers to chime in their ideas. Here’s what some of them said were the hard lessons they are learning. You are NOT alone if you are thinking any of these things!

Please JOIN THE CONVERSATION! Leave a comment.

• 
  Tom J Curtis Sometimes the gold is at the very bottom of where you are looking, but most people give up either way before the gold or a quarter inch from it. They’re quick to abandon what seems to not be working when all it takes is one more punch through that last quarter inch of conflict and…JACKPOT!!! I speak of my own experience of course.

• 

  Jose Lukes Trying to roll out your online biz until it is just “perfect”. If I had waited until every online biz venture I took was perfect, I would have never had any success.

• 
  Tom J CurtisBy the way Jim, I love this post. No sugar coating from you. People deserve to know that it takes good old fashion rolling up the sleeves and going to work to make anything online or off work in this world. There’s definite glory and joy to be had on the other side of it but not after paying the price, which price is unique to each person, there’s a price to pay nonetheless. I do believe there’s an enchants life once that price is paid…until the next set of challenges of course. But that’s where real accomplishment is found.

• 

  Roy Pickens Do not accept a set back as failure. Quitters never win and winners never quit.

• 

  Tom J Curtis That’s why you’re the real deal and I’ve always enjoyed that about you. I think that’s the only way people can build genuine relationships life. Especially with list building…the more authentic the person building it, the more quality the list.

  I’ve learned so much over the last year. I’ve learned it’s not the size of the list, but the quality. It’s a matter of creating raving fans from genuine, personalized content. You are the front runner Jim.

•  
  Jenni Rosing HuntYou simply can’t be everything to everyone… That’s a tough one I learned early on. Not only did it help me get into a tight niche, it also helps let some criticism roll off the back.

• 

  Roy Pickens That it takes more than a big pretty website. One of my first misconceptions.

• 

  Amitav BorahThe biggest point & one of the most common… Stop jumping from one project to another…and just concentrating on One and only One….and finish it up!! & Also..Never Quit!!..even if you fail the first second or third time….. Keep moving until you get it ! Be Stubborn…Be Persistent!

• 

  Marlo J McCarthy It’s easy to spend every dime you have learning from brilliant “gurus” but if you never take the jump and apply what you’ve learned it is all time and money wasted.

• 

  Marlo J McCarthy‎….incidentally – an excellent program can set you on the right path – I’ve just known too many wantrepreneurs that keep buying different programs but when it’s time to apply and work, they buy the next shiny program.

• 

  Martin Hurley ability to focus on one set goal until achieved

• 

  Andrew J Titcombe Even if you believe the claims that the “gurus” make it is absolutely no good to you financially unless you are prepared to work. 10% inspiration 90% perspiration comes to mind. THEIR money is safe in THEIR bank Their claims don’t make YOU rich!

• 

  Win Thomas A lot of it has already been mentioned. I would agree that keeping focused on one project and not being ‘seduced’ by the next life changing programme to come along, until you’ve completed it. Stay focused. Listen to people like yourself Jim who have integrity and practice what they preach.

• 

  Nikki Stephens FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Successful.

  Follows on from what some above have said – perseverance is key, & you won’t find success simply by buying into lots of different courses.

• 

  Dave Stevens When you wake up asking how can you help people rather than asking how I can make some money .

• 

  Michael Markuson Focus and Perseverance! Never Give up!

• 

  Jamie Smith Don’t believe the hype or the squeeze pages with “who else wants to put $25,987 in their bank account tonight with my black ops super secret CIA affiliate mega bomb success course that literally shoots thousands of dollars into your account effortlessly”. “click below to buy it for the limited time price of $1497″ and p.s. blah blah blah and p.p.s. blah blah blah

• 

  Todd Fetters You absolutely have to have a mentor who has succeeded online with a business that doesn’t sell how to be successful in an online biz. Find someone who is proven to succeed on their own before they became a teacher. I have taken the last 6 months away from this business just to clear my thoughts and regroup. It would be great to have a pool of resources to utilize so an idea can become a reality. Jim-you are definitely one of the few who has an amazing reputation in a business full of not so honest people. Then again, every business where money can be made is no different. Thanks for holding to your core values!

• 

  Doug Kramer You will be distracted before you are successful.

• 

  Joseph Carducci I think the biggest lessons are: 1) Be very very selective in who you follow and listen to (and keep this to a short list, at least in the beginning to avoid distractions) 2) Concentrate on something that you have passion for so that you will actually enjoy doing it (although be careful to do solid research ensuring it is a viable market) 3) While following a few selected “mentors” or trainers, still learn to think and decide for yourself (just because Frank Kern is doing something does not mean it is the right thing, tip or tactic for YOUR business)….this last one took me the longest to really get (and I still need to constantly remind myself)!

• 

  Leszek Cyfer Things won’t get done by themselves – you have to put yourself to them because no one will do them for you.
  The only way to automation is to make a system, but it needs to be constructed by you.

Even if you DIDN’T order CCM, know this…

The most active discussion forum and best instruction in the world in this niche is ALWAYS being offered at OfflineBiz.com. The great people shown below are three of over 10,000 members of OfflineBiz.com waiting to help you inside our active discussion forums. You’ll find the most cutting edge and effective marketing strategies for ANY business inside OfflineBiz.com and you can talk about it with people that make a living helping other businesses!

Good news: No website needed and it will cost only a few dollars to get started

Here’s how:

1. Buy a PLR book (Private Label Rights) and update it, or write your own book or report using free OpenOffice writer (openoffice.org) and convert to PDF.
   

   Sample $5 ebook covers from Fiverr.com

2. Get a nice graphic cover from fiverr.com for $5
3. Set up aweber.com to collect email addresses no website or techie skills required here’s how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzdemYscFhY (Be sure to use the ebook graphic you had created on Fiverr.com to make your opt-in form look nice)
4.  Spread the word (look for great ideas on this blog)

Have a question or feedback? Leave a comment on this blog post  – I’m happy to help out.

To me nearly all SEO efforts are the art and science of trying to stay one step ahead of Google in order to get undeserving websites a higher ranking than they deserve.  A great way to avoid all of that nonsense is to NOT CARE and NOT RELY on your Google rank.  If you do rank well occasionally, it’s a bonus. If you don’t rank well don’t worry about it. Just use my proven Four C formula below.

Are you curious how much time I’ve spent working on, thinking about and paying people to assist me with SEO? Ready for the total?

It’s ZERO.

And yet (to grab one example),  SilentSalesMachine.com (a simple one page website with a google pagerank of 5) gets loads of organic, search engine traffic. This is because people talk about it, they link to it, and it’s a great book according to the “crowd”.

Ready for the Four C’s?

I choose to create fantastic content that starts conversations and then the crowds find me every time. (I’ll call it my four C’s)

Each time I have an audience online paying attention to me I offer them the option of getting on my email list so I can contact them later with other stuff they might love (email marketing). Yep – it’s all that simple.

If you are spending your time, money, energy or heaven forbid you are building your career around figuring out ways to get Google “Love” for websites that only deserve Google “slight affection” (or worse), then I say embrace the 4 C formula now and only spend your money and time with people that get it.

Keep in mind this trend while you are making up your mind:

The Internet is increasingly LESS and LESS about “websites” and it’s more and more about RELATIONSHIPS, PEOPLE, TRUST and COMMUNITIES.

Being good at tricking google is not a skill that will get you through life much longer if I’m right.

Now, click the comment button and tell me all the reasons I’m nuts (I’m serious – I want your best shot!)

Additional reading:

http://www.jimcockrum.com/blog/?p=1688

I’m rolling it out to loyal fans – many of which have read EVERY version!

Since 2002 I’ve been updating and re-releasing what is surely one of the all time (if not the all time) best selling ebooks in the world.

What’s this book about?

Quite simply, it’s about what works NOW and what doesn’t work NOW online. It’s about where to get started and what to avoid. It’s the story of my success online and the success of thousands of others that I’ve taught, but better yet, it’s how you can do it as well.

Yes it’s true-  thousands of people have used past versions of this book to launch their online income streams.

Here are the details on the “Silent Sales Machine 7.0″ ebook update:

•   If you are a member of MySilentTeam.com log in to get the latest update at no charge
•   If you bought the book in the past I’ve emailed you a copy by now (or you dropped off our email list).

If you are a long time loyal reader of “Silent Sales Machine” I have a favor to ask though:

• Read the new version
• Send me your feedback (as an email, or post it as a comment here)
• If you have a story of your own success that belongs in the book send it to me! I’ll include it (once verified of course). I always have room for new success stories!

Ready to pick it up at the $5 launch price?
Visit SilentSalesMachine.com

Have a question, comment feedback etc.? Please leave a comment using the comment button above! We will publish all comments that others might find useful, but if you have a private question you can leave it here as well and we’ll respond to the email address you leave us.

CONTEST:

For the next several weeks, each week I’ll be randomly selecting one comment from ALL comments left on this blog post. The winner will get various prizes. Your comment DOES NOT have to be positive to be eligible of course!

The only guideline for eligibility:
Your comment must be feedback about what you thought of the latest version of “Silent Sales Machine”. Other feedback, questions or other comments are welcome of course, but only feedback left about the book is eligible for the contest.

There will be various prizes for the random weekly winners…a signed copy of my 101FreeMarketing.com book for example, or access to a membership site of your choice (offlinebiz.com or mysilentteam.com etc). Go read the SilentSalesMachine.com book, and leave a comment on this blog post! It’s that simple!

WINNER #1: Larry (screen name morecustomers). He’s been contacted via the email supplied when he left a comment!
WINNER #2 : Jacqueline. She’s been contacted via the email address she used for her comment.
WINNER #3: TBA SOON

P.S. Want to get paid to tell your friends about this book on facebook etc.? Check out the affiliate info at the bottom of the SilentSalesMachine.com page.

GET THE AUDIO VERSION HERE

The story behind this book:

I was approached by a major publisher nearly one year ago (the “For Dummies” publisher – Wiley and Sons) and they asked me to write a book about how to START or GROW a business (or spread and idea, a cause, an organization etc.) using free and virtually free marketing ideas.

After nearly a year of hard work on this book I think you’ll love what I’ve come up with.

Hit store shelves Fall 2011.

Thanks Paul Hobart for sending this pic of his 3 1/2 yr old starting her biz career early!

What made me qualified to write this?

From the perspective of the publisher I’d achieved something that many others would like to accomplish. I’d grown multiple successful and creative online businesses…and had done it WITHOUT ever needing to invest a wad of cash. In the rare instances where I did spend any money it was either on inventory that would quickly sell for very nice profits, or it was nominal expenses like $5 for a video, or $30 to have a long audio transcribed into writing etc.

I’ve been a ravenous consumer of effective and “Free Marketing” concepts for over 25 years.

Michael Markuson's daughter explaining some of the finer points to him...

From here forward I’m considering the self appointed title of:  “World’s Foremost Expert on Free Marketing Ideas”.    You like it?   ;0)

Seriously though – the book is CRAMMED with my best ideas and the first few dozen reviews are all RAVING.   It’s so stuffed with great ideas that they asked me to shorten it but I refused. Since they initially asked if I had 100 ideas to fill such a book and I agreed…I decided to deliver those 100+ ideas on MY terms.

The final product is the best ideas from my nearly decade of success online. It’s not a cover to cover type of book though. Whether you have five minutes or six hours to spend with this book I hope you’ll walk away inspired (that was my goal).

I can sniff out winning ideas like a bomb sniffing dog on caffeine. It’s a gift and a curse, but I tried to capture that way of thinking and put it all into a single book.

Click the book image or visit 101freemarketing.com for more info.

Want to see the reviews from readers? Click Here for Amazon’s Reader Reviews Page

Tearing up the charts! It’s a #1 Top Seller Worldwide!

Can you help spread the word?

Finally, here’s my invitation to you to help spread the word about this book. I also explain where the proceeds are going (I’m not keeping them).  You’ll also see a video of my wife, kids and I seeing the book for the first time ever just a few days before it hit store shelves – it was a fun family moment!

Be Sure to buy more than just one copy!!

o   Booster seat for toddlers
o   Have any business minded friends? They’ll love you!
o   Have non-business minded friends with insomnia? They’ll love you too!
o   Christmas isn’t that far off!
o   Sell them on eBay? (or Amazon) and get most if not all of your money back? (the book is still at pre-launch pricing temporarily but that WILL change soon.)

Have a question? Leave a comment and someone will help you out.

I’ve been helping my readers and students launch successful online and Internet based businesses for nearly a decade. Even though I’ve been part of helping thousands of people achieve significant online incomes, I’m aware that much if not most of my audience is still stuck at square one for one reason or the other. This is a visual map to help you pick an idea to start with, or if you’ve had some success and want a new income stream you’ll find my favorites here.

Welcome to my “Opportunity Landscape” or “map”. A lot of thought went into this – I hope you like it.

Thanks Thea Woods for helping turn my chicken scratch into a pretty chart!

To download this full image (bigger) use this link.

I’ve made three very short videos (under 5 minutes) for you to explain the detail on this table. Please let me know what questions you have by leaving a comment (use the comment button at the top of this article).

Did I leave anything out? Do you want more detail on any of these opportunities? Do you disagree with where I placed any of the opportunities? Let’s talk about it… (also – for additional reading check out my SilentSalesMachine.com book. It’s the best $5 you’ll ever spend to help shape your online income goals.)

Video 1 of 3:

For each video you'll need to click into "full screen" mode to see the details.

Video 2 of 3:

Video 3 of 3:

Please leave a comment! The button is at the top of this post.

…but first the “back story”:

David Frey has done marketing consulting for Fortune 500 clients and mom and pop businesses alike for well over a decade. He’s helped online businesses thrive and he’s helped offline businesses alike.

He often asks a simple question when he meets business owners (online and offline).

He asks businesses:

“Where do you get most of your new clients and customers?”

What answer do you think he hears the vast majority of the time?

The answer is “referrals”.

Thanks to all who took a stab at the answer BEFORE I revealed it.

I asked my readers to take a guess at the answer in the blog comments and several of you nailed the answer.

The opportunity:Very few businesses ever deploy a solid referral strategy with a systematic approach. Which leads David to his next simple question he asks business owners which is:

“Do you have a simple system in place to automate and capture referrals?”

If you are bold enough to ask those two questions you could have a thriving, fun business.

David is the sharpest guy I know is this arena – you’ll meet no one better.

He’s agreed to do a training webinar with me to teach you some new things that I promise you’ve never seen before. He’ll also show us a tool he uses to generate literally MILLIONS for his own business.

Watch a  replay of the webinar by clicking here

Here’s  some of what we covered:

• He’ll show us the tool he uses to automate referrals for his own business and multiple other businesses.
• He’ll reveal his most successful advertising campaign ever (he’s NEVER shared this before online and has revealed it only once before to ANYONE outside his business).
• Shows you the system he uses to generate autopilot income month after month (and has been using it for years)
• One of the things he’ll show us is what I call a $150,000 business model that I believe ANYONE can duplicate
• Shows us a simple service that those of us in the “Offline Biz” world can use to attract and serve clients in a way unlike anything they’ve seen before
• David will share with us his PERSONAL CELL PHONE number if you want more detail about what he’s teaching us

The webinar is aimed primarily at those of us that work with “offline businesses“, but even if that’s not part of your business plan you should attend this webinar or watch the replay. David will teach you some simple stuff that ANY business can benefit from including your own.

He’ll be revealing the MOST POWERFUL WAY HE’S EVER SEEN to attract and build relationships with prospects and clients. It’s not to be missed if you have a business of any kind.

If you have any questions or comments about the webinar or the topics we cover feel free to post them here as a comment.

Have a question for David about the presentation or SOC? Here’s his email address:
SOCDavidFrey[at]gmail.com (replace [at] with @ of course)

It’s a strange story to start with, but did you know that I have a partner that I’ve never met?

Actually we’ve never seen each other or spoken to each other and yet he and I run an active, growing, profitable (five figures monthly) website as 50/50 partners with thousands of adoring fans visiting the site weekly as paid members.

Is ANYONE listening? Here's how to make sure they are!

How is all of that even POSSIBLE?

Here’s a new business truth you MUST grasp in order to “get it” so that you can then benefit from it:

TRUTH:  For the first time in human history it is now possible for any of us to establish rock solid trust with individuals or even large groups of people globally without ever meeting them, speaking to them, or seeing them in person.

You can get as large as you’d like online once you grasp that TRUTH.

This one truth is probably the biggest “game changer” that the Internet has brought to the world.

I’ll cover “how to do this” in a moment, but first…

What impact has this truth had on us all?

This single truth is behind the movement away from “old advertising” methods where advertisers tried to interrupt their way into our life without any trust being established first.

Now we expect far more from those that we do business with. Without even noticing it your own standards have likely risen dramatically.

For example, why do the vast majority of us now go to Google to find the services we need instead of just opening the Yellow Pages?

Is it just the “speed” of the research? Maybe, but there’s another factor that has lead to us chucking the yellow pages.

I think a big part of the answer lies in the fact that we want to make sure that we do business with someone that has a good reputation and is trusted by others. It’s pretty easy to do online – but the phone book can’t do that for us.

The 50/50 business partner I mentioned above is Andrew Cavanagh. He and I run a very successful membership site at offlinebiz.com. We have over 9,000 members, and make multiple decisions weekly as a team, but we’ve never met.

Better yet, we’ve never even spoken because he lives in Australia and I live in the United States. The time zones just don’t accommodate a whole lot live phone calls (neither of us like working late, or getting up early), so in the four years we’ve been working together we’ve never spoken–not even once.

For the first time in human history it is now possible for any of us to establish trust on a big scale with individuals or even large groups of people globally without ever meeting them or seeing them in person.

Do Andrew and I trust each other? Yes, implicitly. As much as any two business partners ever could. How is it possible to go into business with a total stranger and put tens of thousand of dollars seemingly at risk with them? Are we both just crazy? (perhaps, but there’s a better theory…)

Here’s what we know that you should know by now as well:

It didn’t take Andrew very long to research my reputation and see that I was among the most trusted experts in Internet marketing. It also didn’t take me very long to do the same research on him and see his expertise being freely shared on popular discussion forums in our niche. We agreed to a partnership within about two days of having swapped our first email.

How can you set about building a reputation online that positions you to be instantly trusted? It really is simple.

• Find discussion forums where people that you can help hang out. Help them.
• Find experts that have large audiences of people that you can help. Support and help that expert.
• Find popular websites that attract the sort of people that you could be helpful to. Be helpful.
• Write a useful report and give it away – while growing your email list of course. More info on that in the “Email Marketing Tips” section of my blog)

Establishing trust can happen faster, and on a bigger scale than ever before, but it still starts with proving that you are trustworthy and capable.

In my own business I frequently invite my own top customers and proven followers to join me in growing my business. How do I find these people? It’s easy, they are the ones that spend time helping others, and truly enjoy doing it.

If you aren’t the type of person that enjoys helping others, you will struggle to ever establish a noteworthy presence in the new economy.

Learn how to add a Facebook “like” and “send” button to any webpage like I just did in this 2 minute YouTube Video

Enjoy this article? Please leave a comment by clicking the comment button at the top of this article.