It took along time for me to learn how to do this internet thing.
I began delving into the whole “internet marketing thing” 13 years ago, and boy, did I have a lot to learn!
Here’s my story:
After the birth of my fourth child, I decided it was time to get serious about my family’s financial future.
My husband had always “taken care of me” and by that, I mean, he paid the bills, he worked the job, and he did anything “heavy-duty” that needed to be done (like taking out the garbage, carrying in the groceries, etc.). I guess you could say, he pretty much sheltered me. In the winter time, I would send him out for whatever I needed, as I stayed inside, warm and toasty with the kids. He handled pretty much everything including the finances.
Especially the finances.
I was completely in the dark about all things financial. As long as their was food on the table and the lights were turned on, I was pretty much okay. But then, something happened that forever changed the course of things. It was catastrophic.
For the first time in our married life, I became exceedingly anxious about our financial future.
During the pregnancy of our youngest child, my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. Kind and loving as my husband is, he had one fatal flaw back then…he could not bring himself to quit smoking, even when given a diagnosis of cancer.
I couldn’t imagine living without him, and tried not to think about it.
(my daughter to me)
“What if daddy dies?”
“Daddy won’t die, he’s too awnry”
But still, I wondered….what would I do if he wasn’t around?
At the this point I need to tell you that I was pretty upset about the fact that my husband had gone and gotten himself cancer. I know my husband was still a great guy, even though he smoked. Believe me, I know that. I mean I do realize that smoking cigarettes is not the worst thing that a person can do, and that some very good people (my husband included), have smoked. Almost every day my husband would say something to the effect of “Baby, why are you so mad all the time? I’m a pretty good guy and smoking is really about the only thing that I do wrong.”
“Yea,” I would agree. But it’s also probably the only thing you are doing that can actually KILL you!”
This is not a story of how bad my husband is, because he really isn’t; rather, it’s the story of a broken heart.
Now, the next part may break your heart.
Actually, it may make you mad. It sure made ME mad.
Because after I drove him home from the surgery, after I stopped at the drug store to get his heavy-duty, Oxycontin-based subscription, my husband purchased (you guessed it), some cigarettes.
If you have ever watched someone struggle with an addiction, only to “waste” their time in rehab, then you know the frustration, anguish and even anger you feel when all of the “fix them” time is down the drain.
I love my husband. There is no doubt about it. I kept hoping that this surgery would be the turning point for him. And I think, as a family member of an addicted person, it was the hope that had been killing me. Every week before the surgery, I was sure his “quit smoking” date was just around the corner. After every doctor’s visit and every specialist’s exam, I was sure that this will be the day he throws out his cigarettes for good. So it hurt even more when I realized that those two weeks in the hospital, nicotine free, had NOT yielded the results I’d expected.
Well, that was the turning point for me; I realized that my husband wasn’t at all serious about quitting his smoking habit, and that he probably never would be.
I really didn’t know if he would be alive in another five years. I didn’t know if he would have to go through another painful, expensive surgery like that.
In the meantime, bills were piling up, and I don’t just mean the medical bills (that’s another story..) The mortgage, utilities, and phone bill still kept coming, and he wasn’t yet able to work
Then, through some miracle (well, that’s what I call it) he kept getting a paycheck for a week or two. He was so popular at his job, that his co-workers pulled together and donated their vacation time/pay to scrape together a pay check for him. And he wasn’t on worker’s comp, I mean it was nothing like that. They just collectively decided to bless him.
This was all new territory for me. See, my husband had never shared with me the dynamics of paying bills. I realize how juvenile this must sound on my part, but I had never seen the bills, never handled the bills and really, I had never even thought about the bills. All I knew was that my husband was the organized, efficient guy who got up every morning, like a marine, and took care of us. I knew he was the guy that would go to work outside in the freezing cold to make sure we were all provided for.
So it wasn’t until this blessing from his co-workers happened that it fully dawned on me…we had no steady income.
I knew that I had to bail the water out of our ship and fast! I searched online for some way to make money, and signed up with a company I trusted. The only problem was, it required me to sell on the phone.
I really thought that I could do it. I reasoned that I would put my daughter to bed, and call a few prospects while she napped. After all, my other children had always taken naps with no interruption. What do you think ended up happening? You guessed it; this child was unique. In a good way; I had actually prayed for a snuggler (her siblings were so independent and adventurous). Unlike her sisters, though, she wanted to be held non-stop. Even while she slept. During those few times that I was able to get another sibling to calm her, I would make phone calls. And that worked okay; for about the first five minutes of the call. Then, it happened; someone had to talk to mom, and they meant RIGHT NOW! Maybe it was a crisis. And maybe it wasn’t. But by the time they got through screaming for me, the baby would cry. If you are a mom, then you know that nothing in the world can re-direct your focus like a crying infant.
This clearly was not working.
My husband had just started back to work again, shortly after I signed up, so he wasn’t available any more, during the daytime.
But, I had a plan.
“Honey..” I approached my husband that evening. “Do you remember that work-at-home membership I just purchased?”
“Yea! How’s that working for you?”
“Um… not so good. Could you hold the baby and watch the kids so I can get some work done tonight?”
“Yea, sure.”
I mean, I should have known: I guess I shouldn’t blame him too much. After all, he is a man, and men don’t like having their wives micro-manage them, I do get that.
He took that opportunity to watch every video I disapproved of, while I chatted with prospects. Will the kids have nightmares? Will I lose this sale? Oh great, another moral conflict to feel guilty about: do I close this sale or snap off the worldly video he’s feeding the kids?
Working at home just wasn’t working.
Well, I wasn’t ready to give up yet. After all, I had already invested major money into my first online opportunity. Maybe I just needed to try again, and pick up on the “phone stuff” when the kids got older.
I decided to try my hand at selling online. Calling customers wasn’t possible given my busy daytime schedule. Maybe I could work on a website at night, and sell items online!
That night, I put the baby to sleep (finally) crawled out of bed after I had tucked hubby in and given him his “quality” time and then, when I knew everyone was asleep, I started surfing the web.
I stayed online for four hours trying to figure out how to set up a website. Oh, and did I mention, I also signed up for every free internet marketing newsletter that I could find. I even signed up for (heaven help us all) those “paid survey” rackets.
Reader, please stay away from paid surveys; they are a complete waste of time.
Finally, I decided there just wasn’t enough free info on the web that made any sense to me. Everyone had conflicting “secrets” and everyone thought that everyone ELSE’S method was a scam. Hmmmm…..
I finally did buy a couple of them, but again, the information was lacking…I had to learn this to make sense of that, etc.
“Man” I kept thinking.
“Doesn’t anyone, anywhere, have one piece of info, one DVD, one e-book or something that I can buy that will just tell me where to start, what to do first, and take me through the process?”
I guess you know where I’m going with this…I actually ended up creating my own internet marketing program that was step-by-step complete, with a real end in view.
And you can read about it right here: “our program”
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How to Sell Anything Online 