Red_and_blue_pillSo…  You wanna make money online?

I got an email from a reader the other day.  Told me my emails were okay.  But he didn’t really read them.

Why?

Because he just wanted to find out how to make an income online.

Now let’s think about this.

I’ve worked from home since 2010.  I make my money “online.”  And in my emails every day, I’m telling you the thinking and specific strategies required to do it.

Coupled in with proven strategies I use to help my clients grow their business.

But for whatever reason, this reader doesn’t think reading my emails will get him there?

Why?  Because he’d been fed a load of lies!

I wrote before about how I think most “gurus” are at least giving you information that’s useful in a certain context.  And that I like to learn from everyone — even some gurus folks think are kinda scummy — because I often get really effective marketing and business growth ideas from them.

And yet other people follow these same gurus and get nothing but an empty wallet.

What gives?

“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

— Morpheus, The Matrix

I peddle red pills.  Most people don’t want to take the red pill.  Most people want to take the blue pill, and live a fantasy life.

The blue pill of internet marketing: sit at home in your underwear, and make a million dollars online.

There are a ton of gurus who are happy to make this promise.  Because they know you’ll buy it.  At least, if you’re a blue pill buyer (which is the majority of the “make money online” market).

If you’ve sucked down the blue pill, it doesn’t matter what they actually deliver.  Great biz-building advice, mediocre biz-building advice, crap biz-building advice.  It’s all the same to you, because you’re buying the dream.

You’re not actually buying what you think you’re buying.  You’re buying another shiny object promise that will allow you to make a ton of money without working.

And next week, you’ll line up for the next product launch, and then the next one, the week after that.  And you’ll keep buying their big promises as they pass you around like a fatly-rolled joint.  They each get a puff, and they get high (rich) off you, while you just get burnt out and discarded in the end.

If you’re focused on “make money online,” that will forever be your fate.

The red pill of internet marketing: solve a problem for a market full of buyers, and make a million dollars with a real business.

You don’t have to be a Christian to get the truth in this bible verse, Matthew 7:13-15…

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it. Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves…”

Following the truth isn’t always the easy way, or the most comfortable way.  It won’t get handed to you.  You have to walk the narrow path on your own.  Can you get help along the way?  Yes.  But it’s your responsibility to find and follow the narrow path, and reject those who try to pull you away from it.

And in marketing, that narrow path involves actually doing the work and focusing on your market, not yourself.

“I wanna make money online” isn’t a business idea.  It’s an emotional desire.  And there’s nothing wrong with it, at its core.  It’s just that it’s not enough to get you what you want.

You have to find a way to EARN that money.

And the way you earn that money is to solve someone’s problem.  You have to find a market of people who are willing to pay to get a certain result, and be the person who helps them get that result.

Once you decide to take the red pill, here’s what you need to do…

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about offers, and specifically how to teach people to create offers.  But I’ve never found a way to present it as simply and memorably as Kevin Rogers (of Copy Chief fame) recently did in an email to me.

This is the WWW offer formula.  And while “WWW” often refers to the internet, this isn’t just about making money on the internet.  It applies to all businesses.

WWW stands for WHO, WHAT, and WHY.

— WHO do you want to serve?

— WHAT result are they interested in, that you can get for them or help them get?

— WHY should they buy from YOU right NOW?

Depending on your market and your offer, you might be able to do this from home, in your underwear.  Or you might have to build a business with employees and an office and systems and procedures.

You might end up making most or all of your money online.  Or you might make some money “offline” too.  (The internet is not a niche — it’s a medium for communication.)

The big difference is that you’re coming at it from an angle that will result in building a real business.  One that actually attracts customers, makes a promise they want, gets them to spend money with you, fulfills on your promises, leaves your customers happy, and has them coming back for more plus referring friends.

And when it comes to actually making money…

That’s what you gotta do.

Yours for bigger breakthroughs,

Roy Furr