Build it... and they will come.

Big Web Lie #1

I saw the movie "Field of Dreams".

It's a great fantasy flick.

If you're serious about a web business, you need to get out of the fantasy world and come back down to reality with the rest of us.

This has to be Big Lie #1 out of the ten biggest bull patties of all time.

I explore the ten biggest web lie whoopers in my blog.

I have had sincere, honest, and caring people tell me "Paul, if you build a site with a great domain name, outstanding service or products, and work hard at building great content, they will come."


Bull Patties! (this one rates 3 bull patties)


Building a successful web business requires more than just a great web site that sells.

People continue to listen to the Gurus and we still have a 97% business failure rate on the Internet.

Most of these Gurus have never built a web business, and I hate to burst your bubble, but most of these Gurus are making a killing off people like you.

Everyone owns a web site...everyone writes and eBook...everyone is making millions!

Yea, right.

Can you smell it?

Bull patty meters are going off all over the place.

Let me help you avoid some pain.

Do you have any idea why people surf the web?

Notice, I said surf (they haven't become a client or customer yet).

Most people surf the web for information they can find fast and free.

Let's take the key word phrase "Civil War Battles".

For those of you who built a beautiful web site with great products and great pictures and credit card processors, I'm sorry to announce that you lost your butts. All the keyword optimizer programs and graphics programs and header programs are a big waste of money. You got suckered.

Common Sense would tell you that 95% of the people who typed the key word phrase "Civil War Battles" into their favorite search engine were students doing their home work assignments. Why? They can find millions of pages and pictures and blogs about civil war battles that would guarantee them an A+ in history.

So answer me this.

How did building the most beautiful web site in the history of the Internet with the best tools available, the best products earn you one penny?

So you can't earn income with a Civil War Site?

Not unless you understand your prospective client or customer and the difference between him/her and a high school student looking to impress his/her teacher.

And you won't make an income or profit unless you understand how to get qualified traffic to your web site. Did you notice that word... qualified?

If you're selling civil war products, students looking for homework help are not qualified. They aren't there to buy. You can brag all day about your traffic hit counter going off the charts if you want to, but you just got "punked" by another web Guru who told you that if you sign up for his/her program, you'll get thousands of hits a day... didn't you.

That "snake in the grass" got you!

So if you find a niche, have a passion or expertise in that niche, find the right tools to design and promote your site, how do you get qualified "themes" to come?

You have to do a lot of thinking and planning. You have to have a strategy that works. In other words, you ain't going to get rich quick and you may not earn enough to even support your investment without doing the hard work.

Like a good friend, or coach, I'm trying to give it to you straight.

This stuff ain't easy.

If it were, everyone would be doing it.

Hey wait a minute... everyone is doing it.

What's that tell you?

NEXT POST... Big Lie #2 You can make a living on the Web

In the begining

Before I began my own web business, I had to ask myself the following question. Paul, are you 100% serious about building your own web business...that works?

If you are not 100% serious and committed, don't go one step further. Quit Now! You'll save yourself a lot of pain.

What do I mean by 100% serious?

I know thousands of people who are 50% serious.

They have a niche or area of expertise that they are passionate about, they purchase a domain name, throw up a site, it last about 5 months and fizzles out.

I know hundreds of people who are 75% serious.

They have the expertise and passion, they commit 20-30 hours per week but when their web business only returns $25 per month of income they quit and say it doesn't work.

That's a shame because they are just a few steps away from making it work.

100% commitment and 100% serious means having the expertise and passion, a willingness to work hard, a commitment to at least 1 year on line using the best tools available on the web and building a web business that works.

To simplify what 100% commitment means, it means:

1. knowing your outcome
2. taking massive action
3. measuring your results
4. and readjusting your action until you get your outcome

Make sense?

I was always serious about building my own web business. I started on eBay in 1998 and earned about $1,500 per month. But, that's not what I really wanted to do. Why? I spent 50-60 hours a week answering emails, ordering product, running to the post office to ship product, and handling customer complaints.
But there are many successful eBay sellers who earn thousands per month and don't mind those kinds of activities. I like to be able to leave my home or office and get away every once in a while.

I wanted to build web businesses that once I invested my time and money, I could actually put it on auto pilot and allow it to become an additional stream of income without a lot of additional effort.

Ok. That's doable... but there's a price to pay or maybe I should say a price to invest to get that kind of web business.
Just like any other business you must invest one of two things to make your business a success.

Time or money. (you get there a lot quicker if you have both)

If you don't have the money, you must be willing to invest the time.

Forget those people who say just 3-5 hours per week. That's ridiculous! I'm talking a minimum of 25 hours per week.

If you don't have the time, you need to be willing to invest the money. How much?

No...not just $100 bucks. I'm talking about $500-$2,500 just to start your business.

Well, I don't have that kind of money right now, so I decided to go with SBI (site build it). I do have the time to invest and I've decided to go for it!

In my next posting and all of the future postings, you'll get to come with me on my journey and see the building process in real time, step by step, and evaluate for yourself if you can build a web business that works... even with all the lies out there in cyberspace.