Do you really believe that there are people making VERY comfortable livings selling stuff over the Internet? Or do you believe that they're just a bunch of fakes who'll tell you ANYTHING just to get your money?

Like many of you, when I first came online I believed that it WAS possible. Then, meeting with marginal success for a while... as I marketed many different products, I began to doubt. It was during this time that I watched many friends who've come online at the same time that I did, simply give up and go back to their regular jobs. I never seriously considered doing that despite my wife's "suggestions."

Eventually, I was exposed to those actually doing what I dreamed of doing. I met them at conference and workshops. I talked to them on networking calls and teleseminars. Slowly, I began to believe again. I saw people offering irrefutable proof that they were really making the big bucks. Like many people, I reasoned that if they could do it then so could I.

When I say big bucks, I mean over $200,000 a year. To someone from my background that is a significant annual income. My annual goals are now seven-figure, but I still keep grounded and acknowledge that a six-figure income is above average. So it's the six figure income that I sought the secret to earning.

Then, one day, I woke up and it was happening to me. At that point, I asked myself, "How did it happen?" I actually sat in bewilderment as I asked, What happened?" I needed that answer because I wanted to show others.

Here was my biggest challenge! Every week I was approached by people with very big dreams. They wanted to build a business on the internet to supplement their incomes or maybe even completely quit their day jobs. Long after I was able to leave my day job and earn a full-time living on the internet, I really couldn't explain to others WHY they couldn't do it too.

I knew what I was doing and what was working for me, but there seemed to be a missing piece of the puzzle.

I needed that missing piece of the puzzle because by this time I had become a trusted advisor and role model to many. I viewed their trust in me as almost sacred and I desperately didn't want to mislead them. What a tremendous burden!

I knew that the answer had to be in something that I had done. It had to be in something that my role models and mentors had done.

As the pressures of desperately needing to make money just to pay the bills lifted, this allow me to view things from a more detached view. What I began to see and understand was mind-boggling.

The first thing that became apparent was... what all of the experts had been telling me was actually THE WAY. The problem was that I couldn't hear what they were saying over all the noise in my head... the noise born of desperation to find a way to earn a living online... that struggle to succeed that so many do experience.

When that noise quieted down, I could see that first of all there are only a handful of "Internet marketing experts" making the big bucks online in "Internet marketing." Many of these are actually making most of their money in niche markets. Many of them are also making much of their money in the offline world... often in mail order.

This is what they were telling me from the very beginning though. However, for some reason, I couldn't hear what they were saying. I could not hear their message. It was like I was deeply submerged under water and could barely see or hear them just above the water's surface.

What were they yelling? "Find a niche and fill it!" Some even taught, "Find a niche and totally dominate it, ethically exploiting it in every way possible."

Recently, I found these teachings reinforced even more. One of my friends shared a manuscript with me that told the stories of people earning from $100,000 to $18 million per year... all selling very niche products over the internet. One of these was an affiliate marketer, but he was targeting very specific niches.

My friend had actually tracked down and interviewed over 60 people who were making the big bucks. He had asked each of them over 75 probing questions to get at the very essence of what they did and why it worked for them. As I read the answers to the interviews he conducted, they firmly confirmed all that I'd slowly learned over the past 7 years. They confirmed that all of the things the experts had been teaching me were true.

Had I gone full circle? I now believed the possibilities were as limitless as I perceived them to be when I first came online. When I first came online I saw the possibilities of earning a living on the Internet as totally limitless. I even named a site and an ezine "Limitless." Now you know the rest of that story :-)

Internet Marketing (marketing products and services over the Internet) is truly the greatest opportunity that most of us have available to us. The barriers to entry into your own business are so low. The only element really missing for many is the how-to.

My friend compiled his interviews into an ebook which he called Success Alert - Conversation With Successful Internet Entrepreneurs. This ebook is actually just 9 of the best interviews that he conducted. That fills a 281 page ebook. I encourage you to check out this ebook at: http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=79505

I've just shared with you a cycle that I think many internet marketers go through as they gradually figure out the puzzle. The baffling part is how difficult it can be to see what people are telling you. We seek answers and are given them, yet we often don't hear them.

Yours in service and gratitude.

Willie Crawford

Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford

Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build an on-line business since late 1996. Frequently featured in radio, magazine and newspaper articles and interviews, Willie teaches the average guy what the top marketers are doing but seldom talk about. Willie provides detailed how to information in his newsletter, through his personal coaching, and at his annual how to workshop. Subscribe to Willie's free course at: http://williecrawford.com/