John Evan's "Success Alert"
"Success Alert" profiles 11 successful internet entrepreneurs
(10 regular interviews and 1 bonus interview included)
The style of this book is in the interview format. At the end of each interview, there is
a summary of the vitals of the business including the startup costs, yearly revenues
(I would like to see actual profit margins but maybe that's asking too much),
actual website URLs, revenue models, marketing strategies and some of the tools
used in marketing the business. Almost all of the people interviewed have been in
business for at least 3 years, if not more.
I went back to the sales page yesterday and noticed that two of the people interviewed
have been changed from the version of the book that I bought about two weeks ago.
I did not receive any emails about the update so I emailed John Evans and he kindly
provided me with the updated version.
Here's a breakdown of the types of businesses involved:
1 Affiliate Marketing
2 eBay Selling
2 Membership Sites (this is the new addition in the updated version)
5 Online Retailing
The original version of the book was heavily concentrated on online retail
businesses with 7 out of the 10 interviews being focused on the retail model. If
you're looking for success strategies for selling digital products or information
products, then this book is probably not for you. However, maybe the author got
some feedback and decided to change some of the content to include some
entrepreneurs using the membership site/subscription model. These are the two
new interviews which have been replaced in the updated version of the book.
Many of the online retail business models involve stocking products in a warehouse.
If you already have a retail business, I think you can use some of the ideas in the
book to help you increase your sales. However, this is by no means a step-by-step
guide showing you how to break into the business.
The upside:
I like the fact that you can visit the actual live sites that are pulling in the big
bucks for these people. (This is the biggest advantage, I think) You'll see that
some of the sites aren't the greatest in the world, but hey, they work.
In the book, you also get a sample of the newsletters used by a couple of the
people interviewed. Each person was also asked how their business got started
and how long it took for them to grow the business.
The people interviewed all have their own niche market outside of Internet
marketing. There's much to be learned from that. One of the ideas (see
interview #10) is something that I would never have thought of!
You'll get inspired. Some of the businesses involve stocking products and
shipping, and to me, that's too much work. But the guy who makes 6 figures
from affiliate marketing and working 4 hours a day... now that's inspiring.
The downside:
Quotes from the salescopy:
"...avoiding the HYPE of smokey 'Guru' Internet marketing ploys"
Funny thing is in the past two weeks, I've already gotten so many emails from all the
"Gurus" promoting this book. That's HYPE to me.
"...treasure map to online riches..."
Hardly. The book while inspiring is hardly any sort of 'map' to 'online riches'. It does not provide any step-by-step guide to launch your online
ventures. It's more of an 'overview' or 'big picture' kind of book.
"Learn the traffic gathering techniques that work"
Nothing new here. Most of them use pay-per-click (Overture, Adwords) and search
engine optimization (SEO) to get traffic. You won't learn any earth-shattering,
eye-opening strategies here.
Conclusion:
Overall, I think this is a good read. It is inspiring in the sense that some of the
businesses only involve one or two people and yet can bring in 7-digit revenues.
However, I think there is too much hype in the sales page. This is by no means
a revolutionary idea. For example, there was a book out in 1997 by Jaclyn Easton
entitled "Striking It Rich.com" that profiled 23 successful internet businesses that
are still up and running today. I checked on Amazon.com and you can get the
digital download version for $10.47.
If "Success Alert" were to be sold off-line in a bookstore, it would probably
retail for about $25. There's a lesson to be learned in all this. Information products
can be sold online for a premium.
The salespage for "Success Alert" can be found here.
This book has one of the longest salespages I've come across. You'll have to
filter out all the 'Guru' testimonials and really look at the profiles of the people
interviewed to see if this is the right choice for you.
Author: John Evans
Book size: 304 pages (plus 28 pages of the bonus interview)
Price: $47
Go to the Success Alert website.