Business --- Telephone Conversation 1

Scott: [Phone rings]
Dave: Hello?
Scott: Yeah, hello, Dave?
Dave: Yes.
Scott: Hi. This is Scott Foster. How are you doing?
Dave: Hey, Scott. Good. How are you doing?
Scott: Hey, listen, did I catch you with some time now? That I’ve been talking with you through email and , we talked about me asking you some questions. I just wanted to check to see if we are still on for today.
Dave: Well, sure. I have a few minutes I can talk to you.
Scott: Okay, are you sure just a few minutes, because I’ve got a lot of questions?
Dave: [Laughter] Well, I’ll give you as much time as you need.
Scott: Hey, I appreciate that. Well, hey, listen Dave, this is awesome you know getting to be able to talk on the phone and I was hoping I was going to catch you. You have to bear with me. I’m kind of excited that I’m on the phone with you.
And , real quick, Dave, what I want to do, I want to ask you some questions, you know, that I think that every person that is entering this industry of digital information publishing and Internet marketing and the like would have.
But before I ask any questions, can you tell me about some of your successes and how you got started in this industry?
Dave: Well, , I started my first business when I was 14 and I think I’ve always had an entrepreneurial art.
I gathered some kids in the neighborhood and we went out and cleaned lots and did some odd jobs for people in the neighborhood around the city I was living in. And, I really enjoyed that experience.
The first real entrepreneurial experience I had was with my brother. We published a weekly newspaper that was really classified ads for people that wanted to sell their cars.
And, it was kind of like an Auto Trader that you have today, but this was before Auto Trader. This is going back to oh, 1979.
Scott: I see… uh, uh.
Dave: And, that was a really successful venture. My brother and I started, we both were pretty young and it was the first big entrepreneurial venture that we had.
We ended up selling that business a year and a half after we started it for a good sum of money. And, I’ve always been writing. Always doing reports, selling them to classified ads, magazines, and um, always in the information publishing business.
But when the Internet came around…When I first found it in 1995, I just said that this is a legal way to print money.
Scott: Yeah…I see...
Dave: It was just an absolutely incredible medium and I jumped on it right away. And, I’ve been involved in Internet marketing and marketing information products on the Internet ever since.
Scott: Uh. Well, that’s very interesting, “A legal way to print money.” I’ve never heard it put that way, I like that.
Dave: It is. It is unbelievable. I mean, I think that the opportunities are better today than they were even in 1995, because in 1995 the Internet was still relatively new. People were reluctant to buy things over the Internet.
Scott: Ah.
Dave: My very first product that I sold on the Internet was actually a physically delivered product.
It was a “how to” manual about book collecting that I had created myself. I had put advertising on an html web page to sell it. I think that at that time I was selling it for $197.
And, people would call me instead of placing their order over the Internet, they would call me with a credit card number, I’d run it through my merchant account, and then clear it and send the product in the mail. That’s how things happened back then.
But now, of course, you’ve got all kinds of options about merchant accounts, you have PayPal, you’ve got ClickBank, you’ve got PaySystems.
You’ve got so many ways to collect payments from your customers. And, your customers are more used to doing business and buying stuff over the Internet now that it’s really a piece of cake.
That’s why I say that the opportunities now are much better, because people are used to using the Internet to buy stuff.
Scott: Well, I’m taking notes here as we talk. I hope you don’t mind. Well, Dave, I’m really excited. I’m kind of nervous, so, you know. So, if you kind of notice my voice shaking and stuff, you know.
Dave: Yeah.
Scott: Please forgive me, because, you know, this is just tremendous. I mean, I have been searching the Internet.
And there is just so much you can do and, listening to your information and your newsletter. I mean, it’s just opened…so many ideas are coming to my mind. And, I’ve got a couple of ideas that I’ve like to share with you and see what you think about them.
But before I do, I have noticed….I want to ask my first question. So, here’s what I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of people that are trying to find….you know people always try to find ways to make quick money, and a lot of people get scared away by the hype.
But that’s actually true, and you proved it! And, over the course of a year, I’ve been following your newsletter. But, I have an interesting question for you.
Dave: Okay.
Scott: I’m really curious as to how you’re going to respond to this. Now, I’m a guy, right? I’ve just lost my job yesterday. And, let’s say I only have 200 bucks to spare with an Internet connection.
Dave, how quickly could I get a product, an idea, a business, etc going to making positive returns?
Dave: Well, um, boy. So, if you only have $200, you just lost your job and you’ve got to find a way to make money fast, there’s no better place than eBay. EBay is the central market place for millions of users.
And, I mean there’s a lot of different ways that you can approach that problem.
But, this is one way that I started when I started marketing on the Internet. I told you about the manual that I sold.
I guess when I eventually found eBay, in 1996; I actually began selling it on eBay. I also sold a lot of used and rare books, marketing books, a whole lot of printed books.
That was kind of my specialty then. And, um, you can easily make…I don’t know what you were making on the job, but if you were making three or four hundred dollars a week then eBay is a real option.
I mean, there is real money being made on eBay. And, that’s one of the quickest way to get started.
All you need is a credit card or debit card. You don’t even need any money up front. You start listing products on eBay, and in 7 to 10 days you’ve got positive cash flow.
Scott: UmOh...ok...
Dave: You know that’s how easy it is. Now, if you want to go the strict Internet route. Then, you’ve got to get yourself to www.worldwidelists.com. No dashes or anything, dot com and sign up for their program.
And, with a deposit of $30 and just an idea, you can start getting some subscribers to your ezine and start making some sales. It’s that easy.
Ezine is just a newsletter or a letter that your going to send out to your subscribers. You have to have a focus. I mean, you have to have some idea of things for your newsletter.
But, it’s the quickest way to start selling stuff over the Internet.
Scott: Ohh...
Dave: A lot of the gurus, guys like Marlon Sanders, you know, a number of those guys will tell you that the money is in the list.
And, they are absolutely right. The problem is that most people don’t take that to heart.
They don’t really understand what it means, that “the money is in the list.”
You have a list and if you’re not marketing to them on a daily, weekly, or a monthly basis you are losing a lot of money.
Scott: So, what….
Dave: That’s probably the easiest way to get started. Start with your own list.
Scott: So, World Wide Lists dot com?
Dave: World Wide List dot com.