He’s very successful now. But it wasn’t always that way. Here’s his “rags to riches” story, in his own words.

Be encouraged by it.

And–take note, there is a gift at the end you won’t want to miss.

What $12.95 Can Mean

Early in our marriage, my wife and I got deeply into credit card debt. (I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars in debt at 18% interest.) We had a combined annual income of just under $30,000 and couldn’t pay our monthly bills.

We had to charge electric bills, food and other necessities on our credit cards because we were so far off budget due to the debt.  When we made a $800 payment to the credit card, about $650 of it went directly to interest payment.
We did the math:  making the minimum monthly payment (which was growing!),  it would take almost 70 years to pay off.

Things weren’t looking good.

Then, something happened:  I made $12.95.

Ten years ago a $12.95 order came through a secure order form at my website. It was for a small information product that I had put together which taught how to earn affiliate commissions with X.com (which later became Paypal).

I had to manually process that order on a credit card machine that I used for a small gift shop I owned in my home town. When the order came in, I hand typed the numbers and expiration date and then “batched” out the order at the
end of the day.

The memory of my wife and I dancing in the small living room of our small home over that $12.95 order is still vivid in my mind.   We were so excited!  I had generated a sale completely online.  It wasn’t much money, but it was a
start.

Paula was a few months pregnant with our soon to be firstborn son.  My hope was to get this Internet business up and running so she could quit teaching and stay home as a full-time mom.

Little did I know at the time how dramatically our lives would change as a result of that first $12.95.

I stepped out on faith, sold my retail store and went “full-time” as an internet marketer.  That was ten years ago this month.  That’s when I launched ProfitsVault.com.  That $12.95 turned into a six-figure income my first full year
in business.  And that six-figure income has grown to numbers so far beyond my expectation that I still have trouble believing our good fortune.

Paula, by the way, resigned as a teacher and has been a full-time mom ever since.  She’s in her fifth year as Jacob’s homeschool teacher, and loving (almost) every minute of it.

I’ve been blessed.  Like it, don’t like it … God has been good to me.  During the past ten years the Lord has not only blessed us with a lot of income, but with some WONDERFUL friends that have come into our lives as a result of this
business.

We have no debt now.  Our home is paid for.  Our vehicles are paid for. We travel a lot, do a lot of mission work and help people around the world.
Thank God!

Ten years later, our lives are much different.  That’s what we’re celebrating this week … not just ten years online, but the result of those ten years:  freedom from debt, flexibility to do what we want.

That’s our story.

I hope it encourages, inspires and challenges you to create your own story!

Let me give you a nugget of truth to hold onto that may help…

Leading up to this ten year milestone, many people have asked me the question: what do you do differently now than you did back then?

With all that’s changed (I certainly don’t hand key in credit card numbers anymore , much of what I do has remained the same.  When Armand Morin interviewed me back in 2003, I explained the process that I had been using for three years at that point.  Seven years later, I’m still using it…

1. Create an offer.
2. Mention it to my subscribers and lists.
3. Invite affiliates and partners to promote it.

While there are a lot of variables – and, to be sure, many of those variables have morphed into new things – the core foundation that my business is built on is unchanged.

I share that because one of the things I’m convinced of is this:  the reason most people fail in this business is because they abandon their foundation and attempt to try “every new thing” that comes along.

Sure, there is a time to experiment.  There is a time to tweak.  There is a time to try new things and fine-tune old things.

My challenge to you is this:  keep things simple.  Find something that generates revenue and then duplicate it.  I’m a big believer in this advice that I regularly pass on…

*** Strip everything down to as FEW steps as
possible to get the job done well. ***

You want to do the MINIMUM amount of activities as you can in order to achieve the result you want.  Everything else is a distraction.  Everything else is taking away time from the things you started this business to free yourself up to do!

I’d rather be playing tennis or serving on the foreign mission field than experimenting with some new “idea of the week.”

Thanks for the advice, Jimmy!

And if you want to learn the 10 Lessons from 10 Years in Business Jimmy is passing on for free, go here to either view the video, listen to the audio, download the transcript–or all three!

As usual, Jimmy offers a lot of great content, in a way that makes you believe, “Hey, I can do this!”

You know that. No doubt your email inbox, like mine, is stuff with emails from them.

You suspect that most of them are making claims that make them money, but that don’t actually add to YOUR bottom line. They’re making money off of selling you hope that you’ll make money. You’re probably right.

I’ve been studying this for 6 years now. I’ve watched a lot of people come and go. I”ve seen how they market.

In some cases, because of my contacts, I know the Real Story behind who’s who and what’s what.

I’ll tell you, there are only a handful of people I trust and follow now. Only a very few truly know what they are talking about, truly have a system that works for the average person, truly offer good value for your investment.

At the top of the list is Jimmy D. Brown.

Jimmy is a true IM pioneer, and he’s always at least one step ahead of most of the other IM “gurus.” At the same time, his strategies are based on tried-and-true principles of marketing, and he doesn’t jump at every new tactic that comes along. It seems to me, from my observations, that many of the “gurus” actually learned from Jimmy.

At least, when I hear what they teach, I remember: “I learned that from Jimmy.”

Jimmy has a real gift for making things simple and doable. Whereas others often complicate (perhaps to make you feel your need more of their stuff?), Jimmy gives it all, no holding back.

There is an honesty about Jimmy I like a lot. He openly professes his Christian faith, and from what I can tell, he lives it. (I have gotten to know him personally somewhat.)

Best of all, Jimmy’s stuff is very reasonably priced. I always feel I get great value, even if it’s only a 20-age “Small Report.” There is more actionable content in two pages of Jimmy’s stuff than in 20 pages or hours of listening to other people.

I suggest you follow Jimmy D. Brown’s blog. You’ll learn as much from watching him as you will from reading him. (I learned that from Jimmy, by the way.)

I suggest you subscribe to his blog. I suggest you get his Special Report on writing.  If you work from home, you must get his Special Report on Homepreneur Habits. (Both these Special Reports are on sale, and  only available until 2/26, so get them now.) I suggest you get his course on list-building.

These things, for starts, will give you an excellent start in building your author platform–for only $57! Believe me, his suggestions will keep you busy for a while. You’ll get more in these three things than you would paying many times more from someone else.

I once hard another person worth following, Michael Masterson of Early to Rise, say, “Pick one guru and follow that person, you’ll go much farther than following many voices.” Pick Jimmy, DO what he says, and you won’t go wrong.

I haven’t. (My biggest problem is I haven’t implemented enough of his excellent suggestions.)

Noah defines it as this mathematical equation: number of people you reach divided by time.

Publishers don’t care how you reach them–radio show, podcast, Twitter, email list.

In fact, they prefer you have a combination of all of the above.

The easiest place to start, however, is

an email list.

Despite how spam has wrecked email, it still remains the “workhorse” of marketing, as Noah said.

Tired as we are of spam, we still do read the emails that matter to us.

You want your emails to be in that list of emails people eagerly read.

So how do you do that?

Well, over the past 5 years I’ve made a study of online marketing and have come up with just a handful of people whose systems truly work, who offer them at a very good price, and who themselves operate in integrity.

(These are the only kinds of people/programs I recommend.)

One of those who make the list is Jimmy D. Brown, who has been around the Internet since 1997, and who has made a six-figure living at it since 2000.

In fact, Jimmy practically invented list-building online!

And Jimmy has just agreed to let me post an except from his course “List PROFIT System,” which is a fantastic course for beginners. It really should be recommended reading for anyone starting an online business, in my opinion!

After you read this excerpt, be sure to grab Jimmy’s FREE report “Six Steps To Six Figures With List Marketing.”

But, first — I’ll share a few pages of the actual paid course.

Excerpt from List PROFIT System
by Jimmy D. Brown

PART 3: Seven Opt-in Triggers That Get Subscribers Like Crazy

You can have all the right “ingredients” to an opt-in page (the things we just talked about in the previous section) and still not get great results. It’s how you put everything together that counts.

So, that’s what I want to share with you now.

You’re about to get the benefit of results from more than five years of tweaking and testing (and tweaking and testing some more!) the opt-in process. I don’t know if there’s anyone who’s been doing THIS longer than I have. I was using a mini-site to get subscribers since back in 1999 – back when list-building pretty much meant having a link on your site that said, “To join my list, click here.”

While there are a gazillion variations and distinctions, there are some basic “triggers” that I’ve found really do dramatically improve your opt-in rate.

There are seven of them…

Note: The first three are very basic, but I’ll be revealing some ideas that you’ve probably not considered before…so read them anyway. The final four are more “advanced” in nature. You’ll find that only those “in the know” are using them. Add your name to the list.

1. Offer Real Perceived Value. Years ago I went to the late Corey Rudl’s web site and he was giving away a free subscription (like everyone else) to his newsletter. What made his different than the rest? It had a simple notice near the subscription form reading, “$197.00 value”.

Instant perceived value at the time. (That’s not the case now with everyone putting inflated “values” on their free offers).

The point is this…you can CREATE perceived value. Here’s how.

- UNIQUENESS. One way to do this is through your own “unique” approach to your free offer. You can say the same thing as someone else in a totally different way and see a marked difference in responses.

For example: “$600 cash back” is NOT the same as “A year’s worth of free gas” to someone about to buy a car. (Especially today with gas prices rocketing skyward in leaps and bounds!) “A year’s worth of free gas” has a much higher “perceived” value even though its monetary value is the same.

What makes your list unique?

I *highly* recommend you grab the FREE report “Six Steps To Six Figures With List Marketing.”

It’ll give you an overview of the essential pieces involved in profitable list marketing. He’ll show you how to build a big list that responds to you–this is the key! Numbers don’t mean a lot; loyalty does.

A strong author platform is made up of people who love your message and your style. Jimmy will show you how to do it.

Check it out.

In this case, he’s talking about what makes information sell in an age where, as you well know, we’re all inundated with too much information. What he says here is an important piece of what I call “the new era of publishing.”

Please read the article and my follow-up suggestion. (Jimmy is always practical, and offers great resources.) I also included comments on Jimmy’s ideas in a couple of places.

I want you to add a new word to your business vocabulary…

The word is “specialization”.

A new age has dawned in information marketing. And it’s the age of “specialization.”

Before I explain how this will help you create information products that sell like crazy, let me give you a very brief history lesson. Click to continue reading.

“If I spend X dollars, will I likely at least recoup my investment?”

This is a question I ask myself any time I spend money, especially on my business.

I operate on a shoestring budget. Not because I’m so cheap, but because I like to get the best value for my dollar as possible. It’s smart to keep things simple and lean. I am not afraid to spend money on training, tools, etc. if they will truly help me become a more successful author and business person. But any expenditure should, ideally, be an investment.

There are lots of ways to spend money, and some of it is an expense, some an investment.

I try to make sure as many of my expenditures as possible are investments, rather than merely expenses.

With that in mind, I thought I’d evaluate some of the smaller expenditures that turned out to be investments with very good ROI, and tell you why.

Best $14.39 (amazon price) I Ever Spent:

Maria Veloso’s Web Copy that Sells (Second Edition). This is a must-have reference work for any copy (persuasive writing) you do. It will help you with more than web copy; you can use her principles, especially the Trifecta Neuro-Affective Principle, for book titles, email copy, even book proposals. (I also suggest you download a free copy of her excellent ebook, Frame-of-Mind Marketing.)

Best $15.59 I Ever Spent: The Secret Code of Success by Noah St. John. This little book is probably the last “self-help” book you’ll ever need. Full of great insights that turn typical self-help advice on its head, explains why most of what you hear doesn’t work, and shows what does. If all you get out of it is how to do “afformations,” it will change your life.

Best $27 per month: Jimmy D. Brown’s Membernaire course. If information is what you want to sell, then this course on how to create, market, and profit from a “fixed term membership site” is well worth it. Jimmy knows so much about content creation, marketing, repurposing, the whole shebang. And he has a gift for making it easy and doable. I have bought most of his courses, and they are all excellent. A less expensive option, that’s still a great investment, is his Small Reports Fortune course. Here’s a free Special Report to give you a taste.

Best Money ($197) I Ever Spent (period): XSite Pro Web Design Software. This may be one of the best investments I’ve ever made. It’s saved me so much time–I can create great-looking websites in literally minutes. It’s also saved me money–no designers or webmaster needed. Here’s one I did most recently, in around 10 minutes. The template was one of the hundreds I could have used that came with the program. You don’t need to know html or anything like that. You don’t need to know what a plugin is, like you do with a blog. Everything you need is in the program, and it’s as easy to use as MS Word. (Not much different, really.)

Besides the time, money, and hassle I prevent by not needing a webmaster or designer, by being able to change my website quickly and easily, it also gives me GREAT search-engine ranking. Supposedly blogs get greater search engine ranking, but my XSite Pro sites actually do better. That latest website I created, www.developyouraudience.com, was only created 3 weeks ago. Yet if you search “develop your audience” on Google, it comes up #1 on page 1. That’s because of the excellent search-engine optimization already built in. And again, it’s easy to use. All you need to know is what keywords you want to use. The program does it all.

So if you’ve been balking at putting up a website because it seems too hard … if you’re paying a webmaster to do every little change you want to make (and waiting for days for it to get done) … if you are intimidated by what you need to know to put up a great-looking blog … then this will be the best $197 you ever spend as well.

So that’s an introduction to some of the best lower-cost expenditures I’ve made that have given me great ROI. I recommend any of them without any reservation whatsoever.