...I have actually learned how to LEGALLY PRINT MONEY, (in any currency :-) )…
Last year I decided to learn how the Internet works and to see if I could use it as part of my marketing strategy. The objective was to see if I could apply the Formula For Riches to Internet Marketing and to be able to do it all myself (Not relying on EXPERTS).
I invested seriously into myself (the 1st Law of a Wealth Creator = First understand before you invest). It took me about six months to do so and I really put in the TEM$ (Time, Energy, Mindset and Money).
I launched my first site http://www.learn-to-invest-money.com/ on the 21st November 2007 just after 15h20 to 652 people on one of my databases.
I was blown away with the response.
Within the first five minutes six people responded. It was as if I invented my own Auto-bank in my lunch room.
I was literally printing money.
Each time I looked at my inbox there was more.
Within 24 hours I made more than $2,000.00. At that stage the rand/dollar was about seven rands to the dollar.
My total investment for http://www.learn-to-invest-money.com/ was $128.4. It took me less than 1 hour to offset all my risk.
Within a day my ROI (Return On Investment) was 1,457.63%.
Within a week it was 2,563.8%.
I applied the Roll In strategy about two months ago and launched my second website http://www.warriorsagainstdebt.com/
This time I not only developed a website but I have actually developed my own Website Building SYSTEM - and it cost me not a cent. (Again applying the Formula For Riches.)
My Return On Investment (ROI) on my initial investment today (3rd November 2008) stand on more than 476,551%.
What is the WEALTH INSIGHT lessons?
Invest in yourself and make sure you understand what Internet Marketing is all about before you actually do it.
Don’t trust the experts - or if you wish “trust but verify”. There is a lot of sales-talk out there and less than 1% is really working, the rest will only cost you money.
Learn the Formula For Riches (FFR) and how to apply it. (Chapter twelve of my e-book “The Formula For Riches - The Difference Between Rich And Poor”.)
To all your success!
Dr Hannes Dreyer
Wealth Creators Mentor & INTERNET ENTREPRENEUR :-)
PS I would like you comments…
I invested seriously into myself (the 1st Law of a Wealth Creator = First understand before you invest). It took me about six months to do so and I really put in the TEM$ (Time, Energy, Mindset and Money).
I launched my first site http://www.learn-to-invest-money.com/ on the 21st November 2007 just after 15h20 to 652 people on one of my databases.
I was blown away with the response.
Within the first five minutes six people responded. It was as if I invented my own Auto-bank in my lunch room.
I was literally printing money.
Each time I looked at my inbox there was more.
Within 24 hours I made more than $2,000.00. At that stage the rand/dollar was about seven rands to the dollar.
My total investment for http://www.learn-to-invest-money.com/ was $128.4. It took me less than 1 hour to offset all my risk.
Within a day my ROI (Return On Investment) was 1,457.63%.
Within a week it was 2,563.8%.
I applied the Roll In strategy about two months ago and launched my second website http://www.warriorsagainstdebt.com/
This time I not only developed a website but I have actually developed my own Website Building SYSTEM - and it cost me not a cent. (Again applying the Formula For Riches.)
My Return On Investment (ROI) on my initial investment today (3rd November 2008) stand on more than 476,551%.
What is the WEALTH INSIGHT lessons?
Invest in yourself and make sure you understand what Internet Marketing is all about before you actually do it.
Don’t trust the experts - or if you wish “trust but verify”. There is a lot of sales-talk out there and less than 1% is really working, the rest will only cost you money.
Learn the Formula For Riches (FFR) and how to apply it. (Chapter twelve of my e-book “The Formula For Riches - The Difference Between Rich And Poor”.)
To all your success!
Dr Hannes Dreyer
Wealth Creators Mentor & INTERNET ENTREPRENEUR :-)
PS I would like you comments…
29 comments:
Interesting post, but I have my own experience, which spans over three years.
I have a permanent job, and would like to be financially free. When it comes to computers and the Internet, you should rather ask me what I cannot do, than asking what I can do. For the past 20 years or more, I have been working with computers. I am a quick learner, and can program in any computer language. I have been on the Internet since 1995/6, and created more websites than I can count since then. I am also knowledgable about businesses, and teach other people how to create and run businesses, as a Lecturer at a leading University.
I also know that my pension that I will get from my employer will NOT be enough to sustain myself after the age of normal retirement. For these reasons I have, more than three years back, started to more seriously look at and invest into several Internet businesses to substitute my income and in an attempt to make me financially free from my employer, with the hope and belief that I will create passive income as you have done.
During the last three years I have learned alot about the Internet. During this same time, I can show you more than 30 domain names of different websites that I own and assisted to develop for my customers. The scary thing is that none of these websites bring in sufficient money, or as the Internet Marketing Gurus are promising. If I get income then it is from people that I already know in anycase, so I could've done the business offline in anycase, and this was to create for them websites. With the assistance I provided these customers, I have found that my income is limited to the amount of time that I have available. I have made with this about R30'000 over the three year period, and less than R1000 per month in hosting.
In short this is the 10 lessons that I have learned, and why I am exiting the Internet as a prospective business opportunity:
1. I have tried more than 30 times, of which all is unsuccessfull and cost me money.
2. The time spend does not justify the money you make.
3. It seems that the Internet Marketing Gurus makes their money out of me, and not out of the method itself, they teach us
4. What the Internet Marketing Gurus teaches you does not take the one or two hours a day that they say it takes, but in practice it took me alot more time than that - I thus lost out on other opportunities.
5. Search Engine Optimization is a money making scheme for the SEO experts and not for you - this is because they do not have control over what the Search Engine does.
6. South Africa is a too small economy to do Internet Business in, and too few people in South Africa has access to the Internet (All these nice techniques my work elsewhere but not in South Africa)
7. PayPal does not work in South Africa, so International customers do not trust your website with some obscure payment processor - they are used to PayPal.
8. Search Engine Advertising is NOT feasible, especially not for products below R250
9. There is so much spam around that people do not read their emails anymore, so that also limits your Internet Business Income potential
10. Our bandwidth and hosting is very expensive in South Africa in comparison to the rest of the world, so Internet Businesses do cost more in South Africa, and we have less of a chance to be successfull than our foreign counterparts.
Although I have applied the first law and invested in myself tremendously over the past three years I have found that it is better NOT to do business over the Internet. I have purchased numerous ebooks on the Internet about Marketing on the Internet. I even went to a Seminar on Internet Marketing in this year (2008), which cost me R2500, and there was no real concrete way or method that will ensure financial freedom that I could find. However I have applied all these techniques that I have learned, but it seems that too many other people are doing this, or there are something they do not tell us. It seemed to me that the wealth of the so called experts comes from people like me who do their courses, seminars and buy their ebooks. Besides to implement these ideas takes so much valuable time from me. I only have 8 hours per week, and sometimes less since my permanent job takes up all my available time. When looking at some of the adverts for these courses, they tell you that you need only about 1 hour per day to implement what they teach you. Yet I find myself (and I am a programmer) taking much longer to implement their methods. I tried to give away an ebook to build my database, and for the last 6 months, I think only 2 people downloaded it.
I have tried it all. I researched all that I could find on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), just to find out that I have only 20 to 25% control over the indexing in Google and other search engines. I recently also found out, that Google will also sometimes place you at the top at random times. Something else that I found astonishing is that SEO experts tells you to test your ranking with keywords that are made out of your domain name. Ranking will naturally be higher in that case, and this is not a true test. A true test will be if you test it with more generic search keywords. Therefore although SEO is important, I have found it in most cases NOT financially viable to pay an SEO expert to do it for you, since they actually do not really have control over the rankings at search engines.
Another thing that I have tried was Search Engine Advertising such as AdWords and AdSence. The one is where you get paid to advertise google ads on your website, and the other is where you advertise your website on other websites through Google. The one you receive money and the other you pay for the advert. I have placed the Google Ads on my website, and received NO INCOME from it. Although it cost me nothing, it took a tremendous amount of my time to implement it onto the website. I have tried this on a website with more than 40'000 hits, but no one clicked on a Google Ad on the website.
By advertising on Google, you bid for your advert. The more you pay per click, the more likely your ad will show. I worked out that this is also not financially viable, as you have NO GUARANTEE that the person who have clicked on your advert will end up buying from you. And people can randomly click on those adverts in anycase. I also asked someone else who are using this advert strategy, and this is what he told me: He spends about R1000 per month per website, to advertise on Google. Then he gets about 300 leads (not customers) from that, of which about 5 to 10 will take up the offer in about three months time. His product would sell for something in the region of R100. I don't know about you, but it would be cheaper for him to just give away the product.
Since I am in South Africa, and I have seen statistics that South African Internet usage is about 3% of the rest of the world. To do business with people in the rest of the world is very difficult if not near impossible if you are a South African. The rest of the world uses PayPal, which is widely accepted. As a South African, you cannot receive payments via PayPal. We can make payments to other people, but we cannot receive money. This makes it even worse for us, and we can therefore only do business with the 3% South Africans.
Another issue with doing business on the Internet is that everyone do not have email addresses or access to the Internet. Thus you cannot reach these people. Setting up a website is expensive as it is, and doing it for a 3% Internet market is just not worth it!
I read about these unbelievable outrageous statements of people that show that they made in the region of $10'000pm. They even show their statements in the videos on YouTube. But again, if those statements are true (because as programmer I know you can manipulate things), then that is not applicable to us in South Africa, because our market is a 3% market. And 3% of 10'000pm is only $300pm. That is with the current exchange rate about R3000. Then you need to deduct your hosting fees, website fees, and marketing costs, and there goes the R3000 that you have made. Hosting in South Africa is quite expensive and our cost per bandwidth in South Africa is higher than developed nations.
In the past three years I have only managed to make R30'000 in total, and that was offline business. On the Internet businesses I am breaking even with a monthly turnover of about R1700pm. In order for me to safely replace my salary I will need to get at least a R25'000 monthly sustainable positive cashflow. The issue that I have with Internet businesses is that it takes too much of my time, and I cannot see that a person with a permanent job can succeed on the Internet with only 8 hours available. Since I am a programmer, and saw how technical things can get, I cannot see how anybody who is not as knowledgable as I am will run a successful Internet business. With everything I have tried and all the Internet Marketing and Business courses that I did, I have come to the conclusion that you will remain a slave, and that the Internet does not provide a real sustainable solution to bring you passive income, and less likely of you are a South African.
I would like to urge anybody that are interested in Internet marketing and Internet businesses to not waste their time and money in ventures like these, since I am living proof due about 30 trials within 3 years and with nothing new, that I am aware of, on the Internet that can be tried! I think that I tried it all! If you want extra cash, rather work for your money, book overtime, but do not fall for things like "work from home" or "Internet Riches" or whatever they call it. You will do better at a restaurant waitering job after hours. And remember, this comes from an experienced programmer who happened to have 8 hours a week available, and the technical knowledge to try and test a lot of ideas out there.
Now I challenge anybody out there with real guts in them to proof me wrong. Remember my experience, however I am willing to try one more time to make sure I did not miss anything, but only if the person can guarantee that I will not spend more than 8 hours per week (Typically a Saturday, since I work during the rest of the week) and that I can totally replace my income with at least R25000pm in less than one year from the time I start with the venture. In this same year I must be able to repay all of my debt which is mostly a mortgage of slightly more than R500'000. This would proof that one can become financially free if they are like me with debt and an income to replace. If this is achieved then it would proof me wrong, and I will accept it, and it will help other people to know how REALLY to do business on the Internet.
Noel,
I think you're getting too hung up about the technical side of things. I'm a technophobe, but like Hannes, have learned to use website builders so I can churn out websites by myself now.
I've also tried many different things before I 'saw the light', so the trick is not to give up. You'll eventually come up with a winning concept, as long as you keep trying. It's only a failure when you admit that it is. Otherwise it's a lesson to learn from ... mainly how to do things differently - better - next time.
I started a website 2 months ago, that in its first month, generated over 30k, and in its second month, over 50k in revenue. All of that revenue is my profit, bar some operational expenses. AdWords costs me about R1500 a month, hosting etc less than R200 a month. Phone costs are about 1000 a month. That's it. Still means about 30k profit in the first month, and 50k in the second ... with a few hours of work a week.
So yes, it's possible. Look for a problem that people are willing to pay for, and offer the solution. It's that simple really.
Oh, and I'm not an internet marketing guru by any stretch of the imagination and am not trying to sell you something here. Just thought you sounded like you needed some encouragement.
Wrt to your technical problems: my market is South Africa only, and I use AlertPay for credit card processing - you don't need a merchant account. They accept ZAR as well as any of the major currencies. Any decent website building package will take care of the SEO for you - my site ranks 493000 in Alexa after just two months, and is number 3 in Google for its main keyword (which is its domain name, but that exactly why I chose that domain). That's without any SEO apart from what's part of the software package (I use XSitePro).
Good luck with your ventures!
Steven
Very interesting, but I believe you might have been spending too much time on technical issues, and too little time on marketing ideas. I'm not nearly as successful as Hannes Dreyer (yet) but I can say this for the internet. I started a business that was cash flow positive on the internet with only 1 bulk email sent to the people I had on my database. Around 200 contacts. I did not even have a website to back up my product. I had 2 responses (actual sales) and made a passive income of R7000 nett. per month out of those 2 clients for nearly 18 months. It cost me roughly 20c in bandwidth to send that first email and R100 in petrol to go see the clients. I had a deposit within the first month and that paid for the set-up of the business. From then on, I had no further input, except to make out an invoice once a month and check my bank statement to see if they had paid. After running that business for 18 months, I sold it to an up and coming entrepreneur for R150 000. I used that money to set up a new business that is still successful, so change your mindset first, find a saleable product and limit your risk. And, one more thing... I did that before I had even heard of Hannes Dreyer. I now apply his principle to all my investments / business's and I can say that I am reasonably succesful. I am not yet financially free, but at least I can see the path that will get me there, thanks to Hannes Dreyer. And yes, I have also tried all sorts of internet marketing in the past, from affiliate sites, to developing my own products, to SEO.. you name it, I have tried it. It is not what you do that matters, but the way you approach the idea.
Wow - I found my identical twin brother. It seems you have duplicated exactly what I have done with the same background.
Since being introduced to Robert Kiyosaki's teachings in the late early 90's I too have followed this path and I too have some 30 websites with my own hosting .
In fact you could say my learning curve and results have been identical with the exception that I ran 3 very successful online entities through Bid or buy which generated approx R500K in turnover.
but as far as making directly from websites - poor results.
Unlike Noel, I have found a way to benefit from Paypal and have received payments in $$ but certainly not the riches we dream about at $1 =R9.00 .
I also believe from my results that the people who are making money are those that are selling "how to make money on the internet courses" . I have yet to find a single "guru" who bothers to respond to your e-mails unless there is several thousand $$$ income to be made from you.
At this stage , after spending over R60K in self training, trial and error I have pretty much had enough and reckon offline income is more consistent and reliable .
Whether it is because we are located in S.A I cant say but when I was in the USA doing the same things my end result was much better. Im not a programmer so maybe Noel can tell me whether the browsers actually somehow "tag" sites as non- US based.
Either way Im frustrated - It is so easy to photoshop your clickbank or Paypal results results & I am yet to see actual living proof of all these claims.
As for time spent . DO a little excercise for yourself ...create a keyword targeted article, a hubpage, a squidoo lens , a press release & a blog.
Then find the sites to submit these to and while you are at it create a PPC campaign with split testing, a website with a landing page with good copywriting , an RSS feed, Youtube clip and syndication etc. And if you tell me you can do this by yourself in a couple of hours then sir - You are either a genius or you are a Liar !!!
As for Adsense , I have software that will generate a 100 000 page website in about 40 ins with adsense ads . So far that site has earned me maybe $30
So the next Guru who comes along making fancy claims can provide me with his miracle cure for free and let me take it for a trial run before I even bother reading his website or e-mails
Hi Hannes
You and I have spoken about exactly the problem that Noel has. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no experience in programming and little to no experience with websites, google adwords, SEO, blah, blah and another blah. Thus, this increases my personal risk exponencially. Fortunately I am VERY concervative when it comes to spending money via the internet on all these type of goodies, scared stiff, actually. But I am open to the idea that you actually have an answer for us dummies out there, and this is only because I know you and can get hold of you if I need to. Many times I have tried to get hold of helpdesks in the USA, every time to no avail!! So Hannes, please enlighten us and to Noel, you might be an expert, but dont give up, you can actually trust this guy!Forget what you know and have done and listen to what Hannes has to say before you spend another cent and abandon your effots forever. Just maybe, he could lead you in a completely different direction. Good luck.
Chiquita
Hello Noel and Hannes
I can truely relate to what Noel is saying. I have done all he mentions in his post. I am not a programmer but am self taught.
I have put up websites for myself and friends and family and earned nothing for it. But it did give me practice!
I believe there is money to be made from Internet marketing, but I am still looking for the way that works.
I think Hannes, that your sales are possibly easier generated because your products are in digital format that is easily purchased over the internet, or they are seminars/courses, again items that are easily purchased over the internet.
A challenge in SA is the sale of physical products. I have found this to be financially challenging as the courier costs are steep and this out prices the product thereby making it not financially viable.
I feel it is all about building a trustworthy relationship with your database so they may trust the products you sell. But first the relationship needs to be formed.
I need to learn how I may grow my database. Traditional Internet marketing "guru" methods do not necessarily work (or rather they work at a slow pace)
Instead of being another Success at internet marketing, could you share your success and failures in marketing methods and experiences?
That would be super.
I have invested in myself and put in the TEM$. The reward however is still to appear. This can be discouraging (as Noel has written) not to mention the negative feedback that one gets from friends or family. One starts to sound like just a dreamer with ideas because even after implementing your ideas and working at them with purpose and passion - zip, nada.
Thanks for the interesting seminars and mails.
What a can of worms eh?!
I agree with Noel -- I'm an IT professional, I can read & write ten computer languages just as well as I can read & write four human languages. But that doesn't help diddly-squat! Like Noel, I thought being an expert must give one some edge over the other laymen out there, but it doesn't.
The trick is not to think you have any edge -- you're at square one just as all the other people out there who know nothing more than how to point and click.
The internet marketing guru's are all getting rich by selling info on how to do internet marketing -- it's actually not different to the scheme that goes "Make money from home by filling envelopes" and the only thing you put inside these envelopes is info on how to get other people to buy your info on how to make money by filling envelopes.
99% of Internet marketing is EXACTLY the same, only the medium has changed from printed pages to web pages. It's a house of cards that cannot continue to exist.
The magic words are always "do this or that AND THEN SIMPLY DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE". Simply, they say, but they don't tell you exactly how because that's the part that nobody can guarantee.
99% of the "success B.S." industry is built like this. People who are unknown nothings become apparently successful by telling other people how to become successful, but that is not sustainable.
The thing that makes people like Hannes and Robert Kiyosaki different is that they became rich and successful by doing business offline -- mostly in property.
Both Hannes and Robert are now using the information products sold over the 'Net to get maximum leverage from the offline work they've done initially. Both of them have established real-world offline business and credible offline reputations, then they used the 'Net to continue to grow beyond their physical presence only AFTER their physical presence became the limiting factor that prevented their real offline businesses to continue to grow.
That is the ONLY way to use the Internet in my opinion -- build a real business with real products first. The Internet is just the medium, it is not the product. You can't expect to do business by selling the Internet over the Internet.
The trick is being able to recognise the Hanneses and the Roberts from all the other wannabees.
Lies like Internet-merketing-for-the-sake-of-internet-marketing have no right to exist in this perfect universe; they all will eventually self-destruct. Just like the credit-bubble...
I would like to thank all for their response to my post. I find it encouraging, and I am commenting to some of it within this post to clarify some of my issues that I have raised.
My responses are in bold below the quoted comment:
@Steven,
"I started a website 2 months ago, that in its first month, generated over 30k, and in its second month, over 50k in revenue. "
Thats why I said I will try one more time, but this time with the truth, so if that is true, then I want to learn the real method and replicate it myself, without the clutter advocated by the so called gurus.
@Michael,
"Whether it is because we are located in S.A I cant say but when I was in the USA doing the same things my end result was much better. Im not a programmer so maybe Noel can tell me whether the browsers actually somehow "tag" sites as non- US based."
No they don't, but Google can sometimes - it knows where your server is. If you cannot accept Paypal, forget about International Customers, because they generally pay with Paypal.
"Then find the sites to submit these to and while you are at it create a PPC campaign with split testing, a website with a landing page with good copywriting , an RSS feed, Youtube clip and syndication etc. And if you tell me you can do this by yourself in a couple of hours then sir - You are either a genius or you are a Liar !!! "
My Point Exactly - It's about the Time Invested versus the Money Received
@Brendon
"Very interesting, but I believe you might have been spending too much time on technical issues, and too little time on marketing ideas."
Possibly, but I did do the Internet marketing that was proposed by the so called gurus, The marketing takes more effort than the technical issues though, as highlighted by Michael.
As many of you I have tried many programs, affiliate and others over the last 10 years.
I have my own offline company that keeps me very busy. However this company is still very new, and I am not earning a salary from this business yet.
If it was not for my online marketing ventures I do not know what I would have done.
I make a living from the internet.
I am no technical person…. But I have thought myself HTML and built all my own websites. I have six websites. Yes I agree hosting and bandwidth is very expensive in South Africa but there are other alternatives on the net.
You can get hosting for $10 / Month in America and that includes your domain registration and emails and every thing. (Ok that does fluctuate with the strength of the dollar, but its still cheaper than hosting locally).
I must say that most of the stuff the Gurus sell you does not work. I also agree that they make money off us plebs purchasing all their ebooks and junk.
So what I have done is I have looked at online products / solutions that people need and does not cost me much or anything that I can give away for free and get a kickback from the supplier for doing so.
There are many things online you must just go and sit down and think a bit. Then ones you have Identified your product, you must source it.
Then the work starts, you have to market it. … having a website is like having a beautiful brochure. If you do not give the brochure to people outside of your office and only put it on your coffee table, who will ever know about your company or product.
The time spent manually linking to search engines and directories, this is time well spent. The more quality inbound links of the same category as your site you have to your site the better your Google Page Rank. By having many inbound links to your site you will get the traffic.
Listen this does not happen over night. But if you put in the hours in the beginning you will reap the reward, and later it will only be a bit of housekeeping and or maintenance work, and you will get a residual income for life.
But remember the internet changes constantly, so change with it!!!
I agreee wholeheartedly with Noel.
I have a similar background to his and my experience is exactly the same as his.
The possible income that I could have earned on my primary website has been resitricted severely by not having Paypal. I don't care what other alternatives are available, the world wants Paypal. And if you cannot offer Paypal, the DANGER LIGHTS come on for the average American and British visitor - why not? Why is the reputation of this person/website/service so bad that Paypal cannot be offered? And they flee, because they are not interested in excuses - if you are unable to offer paypal there must be something BIG wrong with your operation.
And having once fled, they NEVER return.
Paypal! Paypal! Paypal! Or don't bother. Unless you plan to sell only to South Africans - in that case they want to pay money directly into your bank account as a preferred payment method.
My conclusion? There is lots money to be made on the Internet - DEFINITELY! But as a Sout African, the deck of cards is stacked against you, we have it considerably more difficult! Also, you will have to work very, very hard. It takes time, you have to put in hours and hours. You cannot balance your time between work, family, leisure and a part-time Internet venture.
That Internet project of yours will sit on the most competitive marketplace in the world, and to achieve success you have to work harder, give "THE RIGHT STUFF" to your visitors, do "THE RIGHT STUFF" on your websites, implement the right changes, keep up with changes, technology, competitors, search engines, marketing, trends etc. In a sentence - "THE RIGHT STUFF, RIGHT NOW", not later, tomorrow, another day or even just now. It has to be right now, or someone else will have done it, already and you will be history.
GET-RICH-QUICK schemes are a myth. You have to put in a tremendous amount of hours, expertise and knowledge. And then you will find that you have to run as fast as possible to basically stand still - if you are lucky! And to move forward, you have to run even harder.
Given the same amount of effort, success in South Africa is much easier in the brick-and-mortar world than as an Internet marketer and don't believe anyone that tells you different.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt etc and the only people that differ from my experience are "Internet Marketers" telling you how much money there is to made on the Internet while they have an affiliate link somewhere in their sales blurb.
Re Paypal - people don't understand the issue involved. It is not a matter of choice between Paypal vs any other payment gateway.
Paypal is a standard payment system on websites that are trusted by the Internet consumer in the USA and the UK. If you cannot offer Paypal on your site, the consumer is not interested in excuses - rather he is scared away by your inability to qualify as a website to have a Paypal payment system. And that prospective visitor flees, and will never return.
Not having Paypal as an option is a red-flag in the minds of the consumer in the USA and the UK. It flags your site/preoduct/service as a very dodgy operator and potential scammer from somewhere in Africa.
Paypal.or.die should be rule #1 for South African Internet marketers.
In all fairness to those concerned we need to define what we understand that it is to make money with a website.
I also have a client list of many happy clients that I can shoot off an email to and make a couple of thousand a time.
The issue that I struggle with is the creating of a large and sustainable direct income, received from the created on-line product,creating the sales page and creating the successful website around the product that new buyers return to over and over
I have sites that can receive payments via paypal and setcom, sites that earn adsense (just cents per day)and sites that harvest leads.
What I have not got right is a huge income ($5000) overnight for 1 or 2 hours work on a site I can leave once it is created and which turns into this "money printing machine". This secret eludes me at this point.
There is a practical and very effective way to accept paypal payments as a South African..perhaps I should market my own e-product in this regard.:->
PAY ATTENTION : THIS TIP IS WORTH THOUSANDS !!!!!!!!At a stage it was suggested that we open a brokerage account with a company called "e-trade" in the USA.Unfortunately your application must go through the UK office first and they are hopeless. E-trade will supply u with a bank account and cheque account, debit card etc
With the debit card / cheque account you can open a paypal account and accept payments online.Once the paypal account has been open for 60 days you are entitled to apply for a Paypal Debit card
If you have a US bank account then clickbank will pay you direct via EFT as will other affiliate companies
The US Patriot act does not prevent South Africans living in SA from having bank accounts in the US.
Hannes, perhaps we can create a collaborative product here to assist your clients.Please contact me if you are interested.info@nbws.org
Dear Hannes
I don't like to do this but I don't agree with your calculations of returns on investment.
When you talk about risk you like to talk about offseting monetary risk you took. In this case you say your investment was $128.40 = R1255 at today's exchange rate. What about the investment you made in yourself before actually gaining anything from this venture?
If I were to calculate something like this I'd have to include the 'cost' of actually putting in the TEM$ as you say. What money could you have made, in a field you've already mastered, if you weren't doing this research? I'll assume you didn't spend 8 hours a day, 20 days per month researching this before going for it. But let's assume you did an average of 1 hour per day for 20 days per month.
6 months X
20 days/month X
R300/hour that I could have made doing my normal job.
=R36000 just to educate yourself and applying TEM$. We could adjust this, as I'm currently working a normal job in London which is making over double that. I think that theoretically you(Hannes) could have been making much more that that per hour if you were consulting or something like that. But for the sake of simplicity I stuck to ZAR and what it would take from me.
According to my calculations your total initial investment before launch was at least R37255. That's excluding the value of your database of contacts, books or other materials you may have bought or required during your research/education in the field.
Doing your calculation now(on Excel for lack of any other tool)($2000=R19270), your IRR for day 1 is negative, 2 days of that kind of performance would give you 2.29% IRR and if you made $2000/day for 7 days in a row(you don't say what the real value was for the first week) you'd have a 48.47% IRR. Which is very impressive, but not thousands of %
I'm not siding with the people who aren't positive here. I'm not gloomy about this, as I have to admit that I don't feel like I've concentrated enough on making it work. I did run an internet-based business on the sideline for about 4 years, and it occasionally broke even, other times were worse. I have to admit that I didn't give it my best and was preoccupied with other things. Lots have changed and lots of things are still changing on the net and it always will be - it's the nature of the medium. So I foresee loads of opportunity to some people who can spot it and apply it at the right time.
In fact my calculation above (I don't feel it is too far off the mark) and just reading your article and the comments, and writing back and thinking about it has made me excited about the prospects and opportunities out there!
I have also "been there, done that..." made no money as well.
Although,I think the easiest way to make money online, is by having your own digital product and a huge list of subscribers/clients that already trust you that you can market your product to.
That is probably what Hannes did...
interesting debate! i have learned more here than i have in many google searches. thanks guys!
a lot of commenters mentioned the 'drawbacks' we have as south africans, but keep in mind that if you can stick it out, and find solutions, and persevere, then when the internet grows in south africa, you will be posistioned to take advantage of it, while others are scrambling to learn what you already know. and the internet will grow here, it has already started.
i am by no means an expert, but i think blogs are more user friendly, more interactive and easier to make money from. i have made a little from my blog, at least to cover some of my direct costs, and it was all accidental, as i never intended to make any money from my blog.
good luck to all of you. remember: nothing is ever a waste of time if you use the experience wisely!
PayPal problem solved: The big international banks have offices in SA. Knock on their door and open a UK or European based account in GBP or EUR, they will also give you a credit card if you ask for it, then link that to PayPal. If the Pounds or Euros get into the credit card account you can withdraw the cash at any ATM.
In response to Anonymous' post:
- PayPal does not allow South Africans to add accounts - not even international accounts, So you have to enter an international address (this is against the PayPal Terms of Service)
- You have to access your PayPal account from the Country you said you are (IP Tracking) - I am in South Africa.
Anonymous, please tell us if you have followed this process you tell me about and what you have done to make your PayPal work?
@ Anonymous said...
"PayPal problem solved: The big international banks have offices in SA. Knock on their door and open a UK or European based account in GBP or EUR, they will also give you a credit card if you ask for it, then link that to PayPal. If the Pounds or Euros get into the credit card account you can withdraw the cash at any ATM."
Gee there are a lot of people hiding behind anonymous nicknames!
In response to those last comments. The banks in SA are not going to open a foreign account for you unless you have a VERY good reason to have one and that is almost as difficult as getting the Paypal account
If you bothered to read the previous posts you would see the answers to your problem are here in the comments
Paypal's Terms of service are so restrictive in fact that they have the right to freeze your account for any reason at all even if they are having a bad day. And guess what? You havent a hope in hell in changing their mind. It does happen frequently.
There are ways around every problem if you look hard enough. This is the internet after all !!
Well I have been following Dr Hannes Dreyer for a while now and it thrills me to bits to see him making serious money online. Plus he is South African so the internet is making the world a smaller place.
Now Noel negative talk is justified since he has not made it online yet(Profitable) Now who is to blame for this? I think Noel should stand up and take it on the chin. Then maybe go and ask Hannes Dreyer how he went about it and maybe even share knowledge. Since the overseas Guru's do not answer you. Stop over analysing everything. Since I am sure you not smart people with lots of money and you know dumb people with lots of money. So the question is how did they do that? Have you ever asked someone?
That is all I can say I know you will respond to my response. I know you will attack me for what I said. But my question is how bad do you want it? That will determine the outcome.
Ok and now for some other info I would like to share with you. Firstly I have a website it is http://www.luisteixeira.co.za it is not for making money it is there to provide people with information to make money online.
Then there is a guy whom I am now co-hosting a podcast show with his name is Justin Harrison check him out @ http://www.justinharrison.com
He is a real life person who has made millions online and he is South African.
Here is how you can make and recieve international payments.
http://www.justinharrison.com/internet-marketing-south-africa/sending-and-receiving-international-payments.php
Till next time.
What a hugely interesting and topical debate!
I am a bit out of my depth here, amongst all these experienced internet marketing specialists. I have been researching and gathering information for the last few months, and could not find anyone or anywhere where one can be taught Step 1, Step 2, etc, at a very basic level.
I am a normal, fairly clued-up individual without any advanced technical knowledge, and I still have to find the beginners introduction to international internet marketing.
I have a product, and I have just started to fully implement the Referralserver system. My product also provided me with my own personalized website, so I have all the basic resources, I just need someone to teach me to take it a few steps further!
I am sure there are many people like me, so I hope to get some feedback from someone out there!
If you have a relative or friend working in USA who have a bank account, s/he can open the PayPal account and transfer the money into your SA account. Except for the question of TRUST, there should be no problem.
Thanks for the info Louis . I checked out Justin and turns out he is an SEO Professional which is an advanced level of web analysis. Most online marketers vaguely know what this is while newbies haven't a clue.
Michael Glad I could help. If we all help each other out we all win and boost South Africa man that is what we need.
Tip, which may reduce your web hosting costs.
Why do you people host in South Africa? South Africa has limited brandwidth, they provide almost no webspace and less email accounts. It is possible to host .co.za domains on US sites, I do it with all mine and pay about R 800 per year for my hosting with unlimited brandwidth and a vast array of add-ons which can easily be utilised, even the creation of such a blog which we are on now in seconds.
Google cheap web hosting.. and do some investigation, you will be surprised with what you find, and the costs it will save you.
However, as for the success of a webpage.. I am finding it hard to build passive income with internet businesses as well. I believe the ideal would be to make a name for one self as Hannes did and then go online or the other most logical solution taking the formula into consideration would be to create a product with an internet system but take the time and responsiblity to physically visit potential clients such as companies--however, for people such as Noel who has a steady job, that would be impossible.
Remember, you are not alone. We all feel these pains. Good luck friends, don't stop trying.
Reading through all the comments on this site, I found it very interesting to note the various viewpoints expressed. I think we should also thank the people who have made a special effort to be helpful and give advice. In a certain small way I would also like to add something. This goes specifically to those who say they have tried 'everything' with poor results.
I would like to stress, before I make my comment, that I am in no way trying to belittle anyone. I simply think it is a matter that needs attention.
Let me put it this way: If I am on the internet looking for certain products and I come across a prospective website that I find interesting, I will immediately be put of by bad spelling and poor grammar. From the way in which those shortcomings are lavished in the letters on this blogg, I am led to believe that the websites created by these people might be suffering the same blight. People who might be interested are surely not impressed by amateurish-looking web pages and may then simply look elsewhere.
Personally, I do part time copywriting and script editing for a few clients and have seen what difference a proper, professionally developed website can make.
Just thought I'd add my pennie's worth...
I find this blog very interesting, because it just highlights a few of the things I have been thinking about.
I am in engineering management an I have often come across the question on technological entrepreneurship (and I include internet marketing in this mix) and why a lot of very clever and brilliant people (engineers, internet developers, etc) are not successful with their endeavours.
It seems to be a very complex question to answer, but is it really? Maybe not. But the implications of the answer might be. What do I mean? First, everyone say they put a lof of time and effort into their projects. It is also part of Hannes's formula (T and E of TEM$). So, why doesn't it seem to help? I think it is because people do not know how to measure, control and manage their time and effort correctly. You might be an excellent developer and build the most amazing website, with links to facebook and RSS feeds and ... BUT do you know the principles of marketing and do you apply them as diligently as you apply coding principles? Lets go a step back. Did you and How did you for instance determine that your product has a market? Or one more step back. What is your goals for the product and does it tie in with your purpose in life? Now you will probably say I am too touchy-feely and believe in fairies. Without going into detail, this is simply not true. Too many people just want to start their website, but they do not even consider themselves in the process. Is this what I really want to do? Will it bring me closer to my fulfilling my dreams, etc? without your input the endeavour is doomed, because you will be lying to yourself.
So it seems that the M (Mindset) in the formula is even more important than the time,effort or even $ you spend.
As I said I am into engineering management. If you look at product development, the Japanese are probably the best example these days. Do you know how much of a role mindset plays before they start building it? The Toyota guys creates a leader team, and they go to the ends of the earth to create a "concept report". This is a 25 page document spelling out only one thing, namely what the VISION of the leader team is for the development. And this vision is solely based on what their customers want (in other words a customer value Mindset is created for the whole development team to follow to ensure everyone works towards one outcome). How do they know what customers want? "Normal stuff" like questionnaires, etc but also much more. They physically visit clients and in the case of Toyota live and drive with them for weeks. My point? If you have ever started a internet business, did you really start with the "end in mind" as Stephen Covey says, or did you just decide to "just do it"? It is easy to start a business, but to start it RIGHT can make all the difference in the world!
Lastly, do you measure/evaluate yourself? I see Noel has started more than 30 times. His effort has to be applauded! But did he measure his efforts? Is it realistic to expect different results for following the same process/recipe over and over? Did he ask himself why website number X failed and if so did he implement corrective action?
I can ask and say a million more things, but I think this enough to make you think for now... I know I am.
Eugene, I agree with you. I am a frequent buyer online of products that I find interesting; BUT, if that website looks like a standard created webpage that is pages upon pages of testimonials(that you cannot follow up) and reasons to buy the product with a limited time offer that is really not a limited time offer, I click [X] and look for something else.
Through my own struggles with this I have found some interesting facts that do make a huge difference:
Find a system and consistently work it. The secret is consistency with daily input . Make life easier when doing website use wordpress and if u dont have cash then use Squidoo lenses.
The biggest issue is not creating the site but generating traffic to the site.
Dont wait for the 1 big 1 that will solve all your problems - build a bunch of little ones .
All the little stuff ads up to some very big incomes very fast. Particularly if u are selling in USD or GBP.
Lastly, dont give up - success is just around the corner. :->
Very interesting info! Great comments! I learned a lot! Thanks Hannes.
Post a Comment