The Internet is a very dangerous place for entrepreneurs.

That's the unexpected conclusion Perry Marshall and I came to recently.

Now the case can be made that between the two of us, Perry and I have helped more businesses put themselves on the Internet successfully than any two people on earth. At the very least, we are way, way up that list.

So why are we down on the Internet?

Well, we're not down on it so much as we believe would-be Internet entrepreneurs need to know about the down sides so they can avoid them.

Make sense?

OK, let's jump in then.

Internet Danger #1:
The Internet is a very distracting place

The Internet is so inherently distracting that the claim can be made that it's the most distracting place on earth.

Have you ever gotten on the Internet to do one thing and found yourself - several hours later - doing something completely different - and nonproductive?

Some people repeat this process day after day until weeks and months and sometimes even years go by.

Shoemakers don't have this problem. Neither do plumbers.

It's really obvious in most businesses what is work and what's not. In the Internet world that line can get blurred very easily.

Yes, surfing can be profitable when it helps you uncover actionable ideas you can apply to your business today (or soon), but it can also be one of the most dangerous time-blasters known to man.

Internet Danger #2:
The universe of bad, overpriced and watered down advice

I started saying this in 2000, but it's just as true today.

If I started in online marketing today instead of 1993, I'm not sure I would make it.

Here's why:

The market is bigger and more responsive than ever. The tools are so good now they're practically space age. Our understanding of how to proceed is extremely advanced. All good things.

But if I were a newbie, or someone trying to get traction, I would be completely overwhelmed by the sheer mass of advice and advisors out there.

And I can tell you as someone who has looked over the work of and dealt personally with many of the "gurus" out there, if you're trying to learn the business from many of these people, you're in for a world of trouble.

Would it surprise you that there are a lot of people peddling Internet marketing advice today (often pieced together from other people's work that they've "re-written" or outright stolen) that don't care whether you succeed or not?

There's only one bottom line they care about: their own. And if they blow you up in the process with bad or incomplete advice too bad. They've got payments on their beach houses and Maseratis to make.

Internet Danger #3:
The illusion of "online" marketing

Many people have figured out how to get around the first two dangers.

They eventually figure out who the good guys are and learn their Internet marketing info straight from the source at fair prices instead of overpriced, watered down and sometimes even toxic junk from the BS cowboys.

But this third danger trips up a lot of otherwise very smart people.

Here's the world's biggest secret about online marketing...

Your customers live in the offline world.

I don't care if they're fused to their computer 24/7 with a USB wired directly into their brain, they are - at the end of the day - offline creatures. That's where they live and breath and eat and sleep - and form buying attitudes and make their buying decisions.

The Internet is one of the most beautiful, powerful, elegant money tools in the history of the world, but it's only a piece of the puzzle.

The real fun, the real money, and the real financial stability comes when you plug into the real world.

Some ways to do that:

1. Ship something physical

2. Get real world mailing addresses

3. Send people stuff there

4. Host live meetings (in person or on the phone)

5. Go to where your customers are and talk to them

There are lots of reasons to do these things, but they all boil down to one thing: They make you more money than you could ever make being "online" only.

Here's just a few reasons why:

• What makes a bigger impact on you - yet another MP3 or a CD you can hold and play in your car?

• Do you carefully read all your e-mail? Your prospects and customers don't either, but they practically always pick up their mail and open envelopes.

• What's a bigger surprise to get from someone you do business with, yet another e-mail or an interesting piece of real mail?

• What holds your attention more powerfully, an eBook or being part of an interesting group of people participating in a well thought out program?

• Who knows more about the living details of what your customers will and won't spend money for, you staring at a blank computer screen or you talking face to face with your prospects and customers?

Yes, you can make very good money being "online only" but you can rock the world when you get "offline."

If you're trying to start a business online - or make the business you already have make you more money, I have three suggestions for you.

This is the exact same program I follow. It's the exact same program everyone follows.

• Advice #1: Read the good stuff

  The best marketing advice in the world is contained in a handful of books you can easily get and I think all of them are under $20 - "Scientific Advertising" Hopkins, "Tested Advertising" Caples (4th edition or earlier only), "How I Raised Myself from a Failure to Success in Selling" Betger, "How to Write a Good Advertisement" Schwab.

  Don't get another Internet marketing eBook or other product, including my own, until you've bought and read at least one of these books .

  Why? They're the gold standard. Immersing yourself in even just one of these fascinating, well written and immensely practical books will help you tell the difference between good marketing advice and bad. Everyone of them will raise your marketing IQ a least 10 points.

• Advice #2: Talk to real people

  Don't get your marketing advice from celebrity "gurus." Listen to your prospects and customers instead. It's a lot cheaper and a lot more profitable. And talk to fellow entrepreneurs. They're a gold mine of valuable information. That's why smart entrepreneurs go to a few carefully selected marketing events each year. For the speakers sure, but also as a place to meet and reconnect with colleagues.

• Advice #3: Test things all the time

  It's 1000 times better to put up a lame web site, send some traffic to it and measure the results than it is to buy another eBook or listen in on another tele-seminar.

  Internet marketing is a doing business, not a learning business. He who knows the most does not always make the most and he who does the most will always blow away the most "knowledgeable."

  Success has a formula

  And it's this...

  Learn - Do - Network

  I talked about this at the very first System Seminar and it's truer now more than ever.

  Step One: Get a solid education that is strong in the fundamentals.

  Step Two: Do things. Silly things, mediocre things, clumsy things - it doesn't matter what you do as a beginner as long as you are in there NOW doing something. It's the feedback that you're after.

  Practically no one ever ends up in the same business they started in. Don't worry about getting it "right." If you're going to worry about something, worry that you are not trying and failing at enough new things. You can' make a dime without feedback and you can't get feedback without doing things.

  Step Three: Network. What does network really mean? It means talk to people and listen to what they have to say - and then follow up with the people it makes sense to follow up with. That's it. No mystery, but so few people do it or take it seriously.

  Here's a secret for you: He who has the biggest rolodex of quality people usually wins in every business and field of endeavor.

  If you are learning and doing, don't be shy about networking intelligently.

  How do you network intelligently?

  Simple: You go to live events where the kind of people you want to meet are most likely to hang out.

  One of the things that has surprised me over the years is how many people have made so much money not just from the content of the System Seminar, but also from the quality of the people they've met at it.

  In fact, the real pros in the business tell me that they come not for the speaker presentations, solid as they are, but for the opportunities they get to "network" with a prime time audience.

  Earlier I said that

  The real money is offline

  That's been the case for me.

  I read a lot, but the ideas that have really gotten through to me and made me the most money are the ones I've heard at live events, sometimes from the stage, sometimes over a meal or drink from a fellow attendee.

  In fact, I can trace the evolution of my own business through events....

  Like the time I went to my first direct marketing industry conference. I couldn't afford the hotel, so I stayed in the YMCA and commuted to the conference center. I didn't learn that much, but it was fascinating to be there and I did come home with one big idea (which I'm still profiting from twenty years later.)

  Then there was the first entrepreneurial direct marketing training I ever went to. Wow, was that an eye opener. All of a sudden all the random ideas that had been floating around in my brain suddenly came together. I literally doubled my income in the next three weeks. (I had been leaving a ton of money on the table by missing one little idea.)

  Then there was my ten million dollar seminar. That's the one I went to where I got an idea that I have generated a least ten million dollars in sales with.

  The scary thing. I almost didn't go to that one because I thought I already knew it all.

  What about you?

  Do you know it all.

  Does you bank account agree?

  I don't know where you're at in life or what you're trying to accomplish, but if Internet marketing is important to your plans, consider this...

  Fifteen years ago, I put on the first web marketing seminar ever held. Every year since without fail, I've put together at least one high level gathering of Internet marketers.

  My rolodex of legitimate experts may be the biggest in the business, especially when you include all my contacts in the offline world of direct mail.

  Our annual event - which I started calling the System Seminar seven years ago - is a zero hype, no pitch, no BS zone for serious people who want to make serious progress in their Internet marketing.

  If Internet marketing is important to you, I strongly recommend that you take a look at what we're doing.

  Listen to what the graduates of our programs have to say about us.

  Take advantage of our extensive free pre-seminar trainings, available a no cost just for the asking.

  And compare. Compare the quality of our faculty to every other event you can attend.

  Google itself sends its executives to train our students. This year we'll have three Google certified marketing pros and the authors of two widely acclaimed books (real books, not eBooks) on electronic marketing. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

  For more details on what a lot of experienced people call the best Internet markting seminar on earth, click here:

  www.TheSystemSeminar.com/pre

  Best,
  
  Ken McCarthy
  The System Seminar