So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and remember this in 2010 and far beyond: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

Until then, remember: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

I am doing the XFactor Adsense course.  If you don’t know what it is, let me direct you to it:

Adsense Course eBook

If you can’t spare the $77 for the course ATM, John has given you a huge 32 page thread on the Warrior Forum exposing some of his secrets.  I have patiently read this after fellow Warrior Kelly Verge directed me to it after I nearly put it all down.  It is the thread that I have studied HARD and put into action.  Here that is:

32 Pages Of Adsense Talk

Putting the techniques into action, I am seeing numbers instead of goose eggs for the first time in a while.  Just this week I had three consecutive $3 days and then I had a huge $5 day.  But Adsense, being so unpredictable as it is, I only made less than a dollar yesterday, sadly.  But of course this goes up and down, but as I build more sites for this (built one yesterday, another one to come Monday and another on Tuesday), I can get it up to start seeing consistent $5, $6, and even $7 days, eventually getting it up to my first goal of $10/day.

Let me tell you this, though – Goal setting is important.  Not only does it motivate you, but it does keep you busy.  Another helpful thing is to place some inspirational and motivational sticky notes around you or tape some notes on the wall around you (I had those but my stepdad didn’t want them there for some bullshit reason, so I had to put them in my room where they don’t really do any good).

But yeah, I am seeing success.  Small success, but success nonetheless.  As I continue to scale this up I’ll fill you in.

But here is one note you can put on your wall: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

But just remember: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

Step by step, in the true meaning of the phrase, is to take the instructions, follow them, implement them, and achieve the result you want (make money).  It should be: Step 1: Do this, Step 2: Do that, Step 3: Do this, Step 4: Do that, Step 5: The result.  That damn simple.  If it were TRULY step by step, even a braindead moron can follow simple ass instructions written down on a piece of paper and achieve the result every single time without the need of assistance.

Blueprints take the step by step meaning much further.  When a company is given orders to build a house, roller coaster, or any other building or ride, they are given a blueprint.  A blueprint that they MUST get right the first time, every time, and without any assistance.  And basically, it is all laid out on paper that they read and put all the pieces of the puzzle together.  The same SHOULD be true for a blueprint to make money.  You ought to take the blueprint, read over it, put all of the pieces together in the EXACT way it is shown and told to you, and get it right the very first time you do it and achieve the result (make money).

Take you by the hand is yet another way of taking step by step much further.  In the true meaning of the phrase, you are guided through each and every phase of something, from beginning to end with absolutely NOTHING left out.  Again, the same should be true online.  You should be shown literally EVERYTHING.  I mean where to click, what exactly to type, how exactly to do things the right way, etc.  And once they take you by the hand, you should hit the promised land (the money).

But unfortunately for you, the truth must be told: There is NOTHING out there that is “step by step”.  There are no “blueprints” out there.  And nothing will “take you by the hand” and lead you to the promised land.  You know why?  There are always roadblocks out there.  For example, say you’re doing bum marketing.  If it were truly “step by step”, you shouldn’t have any questions since all the answers are sitting there in front of you.  But then you go and ask what you’re doing wrong after you are sure you followed all the “steps”, but then the majority tells you “Your resource box sucks” or “Your landing page isn’t good enough to get clickthroughs” or whatever.  Okay, if it were “step by step”, the resource box should be right THE FIRST TIME.  If it were “step by step”, the landing page should have gotten clickthroughs THE FIRST TIME.  Therefore, it isn’t “step by step”.

Another example, this time using the “blueprint” meaning.  Say you’re doing PPC.  You’re in Google Adwords and you set up a campaign EXACTLY the way the “blueprint” tells you.  But when you do it, you’re not making money but instead LOSING money.  Okay, so you followed the “blueprint” and you lose money when you’re supposed to make money?  A piece of the puzzle is missing.  You go to find out what’s up, and you hear bullshit like “Your ad isn’t enticing” or “You’re not targeting the right keywords”.  Where was all that BS in the “blueprint” that you followed?  Nowhere.  That’s like, in a real life blueprint, you forgot to bank a turn on a piece of roller coaster track on there and the coaster fails.

One last example, this time using the “take you by the hand” meaning.  Say you’re trying to build a list.  So you’ve been “taken by the hand” and you’ve got your e-mails ready, affiliate links tested and ready to go, and you have your squeeze page up and ready to collect those e-mails.  But as you do your tracking, you notice something is amiss: Where are your subscribers?  I thought you were “taken by the hand”?  You ask what’s up and you get “Your squeeze page copy isn’t up to par” or “The layout isn’t good”.  If you were truly “taken by the hand”, you shouldn’t have had this problem!  But say you ARE getting subscribers.  But something else is miss: You’re not getting sales.  You go for help and you get “Your links aren’t in the right place” or “Your subject lines don’t make readers open the e-mails”.  But if you were “taken by the hand”, those links should already be in the right place and those subject lines should already be eye catchy!

I am sure you catch my drift by now.  To put it another way: This “step by step”, “blueprint” and “take you by the hand” bullshit doesn’t exist.  If it did, you CANNOT fail, period.  No no.  You CANNOT fail, exclamation point!  You should get it right the first time, every time, and succeed, without any assistance AT ALL.  But roadblocks will always put you at a loss, and you realize you were fucked over again.

Phew, that was my longest rant by far.

But allow me to take you by the hand, give you a blueprint, and give you four simple steps that no one can fail at.  Step 1: If it doesn’t work for me.  Step 2: It won’t work for you.  Step 3: Chase the pipe dream.  Step 4: Live the pipe nightmare.

For instance, if you are an aspiring musician, especially in something like rap/hip hop, there is no way your pride and your ego would let you dress up in a suit and tie.  It does not fit your style.  Your style is jerseys, sweaters, jeans, and sneakers.  Not dress shirts, ties, khakis, and dress shoes.  If your style of music is country, you wear cowboy hats, overalls, and boots, not some stupid purple McDonald’s shirt, black slacks, and slip resistant shoes.

Uniforms have also been made a rule in these damn jobs.  If you don’t dress the right way, you either get sent home to do so or you get disclipined.  It isn’t like I’m coming to work naked!  And no one here is going to give a rat’s ass about the way I dress, but rather the way I work.  I just grow tired of the monotony of uniforms.  They suck ass.

Sorry that was so short, but the next time you’re dressing up to go to work, look in the mirror and say this: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

The average everyday shopper, online or offline, doesn’t know about dropshipping at all.  Believe it or not, these major stores like Wal-Mart, KMart, Best Buy, Target, among many others are something like dropshippers in a way.  Let me explain just what dropshipping is in a nutshell: Buy low, sell high.  As in buy a product for much less than its retail value then resell it for profit.  These major stores buy a huge bulk of certain products (like video games for example) for, say, $20 a pop.  This is called the wholesale price.  Then they resell these products (using the video games example) for, say, $50 a pop, giving them a $30 profit on each copy that flies off the shelf and into a consumer’s hands.

Well, okay, it isn’t dropshipping in the sense of the word, but this is basically how the retail business works.  But the model of dropshipping has been opened up online to the average everyday person.  The way the dropshipping online business model works is this way: A customer buys a product through you.  You collect the selling price and the shipping costs.  You send the dropship provider the wholesale price.  The dropship provider sends the product to the customer (with your company info on there).  You keep the profit.  And basically, you don’t even have to have the product in your hands to sell it.  Sound good?

Well, don’t get excited.  Let me tell you why – most of these dropship providers are basically something like middlemen.  Basically, they are the ones getting the products for you from REAL wholesalers.  And most of these dropship providers jack up the price on you, forcing you to sell the products at a higher price than others in order for you to even make any profit.  Bad, BAD stuff.  Examples of these dropship providers include Doba and Salehoo.  I have read too many horror stories to count from these clowns so don’t even waste your time with them.

But can you get the products directly from the wholesalers?  Yes you can – if you know where to find the reputable ones.  But to help you out a bit, I heard of this company called Worldwide Brands, which supposedly lists some reputable wholesalers.  It has got some good reviews.  But prepare to shell out $300 for that info.  Even if you do find a good one, you’re basically another store competing with some of the top names out there as well as the Powersellers on eBay, which is a no-win situation.  And here is the thing – you will have to stock the products yourself, so be prepared to make some room in your house.  And another BAD thing – remember that wholesale price?  Well, don’t expect to just buy one of the product at wholesale price then turn around and resell it for profit.  You have to buy a certain amount.  It depends on the product and the MSRP.  Going back to the video game example, say the MSRP is $50 and the wholesale price is $20.  The company will force you to buy, say, 50 copies of the video game at $20 a pop.  $1000.  OUCH.  That is too high of a startup cost for an online business.  You better hope you sell all 50 of those at $50 a pop and make a healthy $1500 profit.

If you DO have the money to invest and you HAVE found a reputable wholesaler, you’re still not out of the woods.  You now have to do your research and find out just what is selling right now.  And let me tell you – that research is a royal pain in the ass.  You have to find the niche, go around on various websites and pinpoint what is really hot at the moment.  Waste of time.  Waste of money if you haven’t done your research.

Overall, I recommend that you stay away from dropshipping.  It is just too much bullshit that goes into it and you’ll be set up with way too many damn roadblocks.  Don’t try and compete with Wal-Mart.  You will NEVER win that battle.  You’ll just get your ass handed to you.

If you do decide to dropship, however, don’t forget to put this on the box: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

In a nutshell, a testimonial praises a product.  It is ALWAYS good, and it is only a paragraph or so long.  A review, on the other hand, goes more in depth and picks the bone of the product, pointing out the good and the bad.  Reviews are also much longer than testimonials because of the detail in them.

Because of the testimonial/review ratio out there that favors testimonials, you’re suckered into buying a product, thinking that if these guys say it is good then it has to be good.  But then you realize that the product has less than you bargained for.  You go and ask the product owner questions to the point where he/she loses patience with you, then you realize you’ve wasted your money.  IMO, I don’t buy products based on testimonials anymore unless there is sufficient information on it that draws me in.  Because admittedly, I’ve blew loads of cash on products that the masses say were good but in my eyes they were crap.  If there is a very detailed review of a product, going into the pros and cons, I’d be convinced if the review favors the pros.

Testimonials help product owners sell products without a doubt.  But when the honest and nitpicky son of a bitch comes in and reviews it, there is a possibility that sales go DOWN.  Let me tell you a TRUE story: I bought a site flipping WSO once based on testimonials (call me a sucker if you want).  But I went and reviewed the thing.  One of the guy’s modules in the WSO got a mediocre 3.75 from me because I was honest about it.  And as a result, he went in and updated the module immediately (something other product owners just don’t do) and literally BEGGED me to update my review.  You know why he begged me?  Because his sales were probably decreasing.  Okay, so I updated it.  But I know not to do that again, especially if the WSO is about making money (put your own techniques into action and compromise the lost sales of the product).  Guy ended up flipping the WSO for a cool three grand I think.

So listen: Before you buy your next online product (especially a WSO), wait for reviews, not testimonials.  If there is an EXTREMELY high number of testimonials, just listen to your gut before you plunk down the cash.  Don’t buy on impulse and definitely don’t get suckered into the sales page claims (I have a lot more of that to come in future rants).  And whatever you do – if anyone offers you a review copy but tells you to leave a good review, either don’t take the review copy or take it and leave a TRUE review and not a testimonial.  All that review copy crap on Digital Point shouldn’t be called review copies.  More like testimonial copies.  And even those testimonials at DP suck a old woman’s wrinkled ass.

This is my testimonial: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

Seriously, I HATE these with a passion.  Whether you have to fill them out online or using the good ol’ paper and pen, applications bite.  And filling these jokers out is so monotonous and frustrating.  You know the routine here: Fill out your name, address, phone number, and SSN.  Answer U.S. eligibility questions and criminal record questions.  Enter availability info.  Enter school info.  Enter past employment history (my weak point).  Then enter references.  Sign and date at the bottom, turn it in, and hope for the best.

I mean, it seriously bites.  First off, filling out applications sometimes is a total waste of time.  Especially when you have a trillion and one other applications you have to compete with.  Some of them never get looked at.  I remember calling out to places I applied at and ask “Hello, have the applications been reviewed yet?” And I got mostly the same answer: “Yes, we’re just calling people in for interviews.” And after I hear that, I know that I wasted my time on that place because I never get called in.

Secondly, I REALLY hate applications that ask for too damn much!  For one, school information isn’t relevant because upon first glance at you (when you ask for an application), the manager or whoever should tell that you’re NOT a braindead moron!  I also hate those apps that make you take some stupid surveys on your personality, with all this “Strongly Agree” and “Strongly Disagree” bullshit.  References aren’t needed because to my knowledge, employers rarely call references.  The bare application should be this: Name, Address, and Phone Number.  Then Availability Info (Just check Day or Night on each day and not all that time BS).  Then Employment History.  That’s it.  Nothing else.  The whole app should fit on one page, just the front.

Seriously, I could wipe a gorilla’s ass with applications, then hand it to those employers to show them that they asked for too much.  Or to at least make my application stand out from the rest.  Oh yes, applications blow.  But if you can get past this point, there is the next step….

And while you’re filling out your next application, think about this: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.

Let’s begin with Read.  I stumbled onto a site called Money List Profits, which was some overseas guy (I think Indian) named Tushar Sheth.  After being patient enough to read through the very dizzying sales page filled with shitloads of testimonials, I had to look deeper into this.  After being assured that it wasn’t a scam, I plunked down the $80 to check it out.  The premise of this was to sign up to several PTR (Paid To Read) sites and use throwaway e-mails to read the e-mails that the PTR sites will send you.  But what they DON’T tell you is that in order for this method to work, you will need to get people to sign up under you at MLP, meaning they will have to plunk down $80 as well.  Do you smell MLM?  I sure did when I read through the course.  But the thing is this: If you’re an expert internet marketer, this can work for you someway.  And let me tell you this – don’t sign up for any of that crap that promises you MLM leads.  They suck.  So I got my refund from this program (since it was Clickbank) and moved on.

Now on to Click.  Now ironically, a certain PTC (Paid To Click) is how I discovered MLP.  And it is one of the most known PTCs out there: Bux.to.  The same premise is there as PTR – you click on ads, wait 30 seconds, then get paid pennies.  But the real meat is when you actually invest into Bux.to.  They have this little thing where you can buy a certain amount of referrals that signed up without anyone referring them with you reaping all the rewards.  The cash sounded promising, and after talking it over with friends and God I plunked down $339 to invest in a premium membership and 300 referrals.  I eventually cashed out $355.25 in hopes that I’d get it in the 30 days they promised.  I had a plan but they ruined it all.  But thankfully, they DID eventually pay me, though it took 89 days instead of 30.  This was because of a whole lot of bullshit that would take me ages to explain.  At the moment, I have another pending cashout, this time of a much larger amount: $1100.28.  It has been pending since July 20, 2008.  That is not a typo – 2008, NOT 2009.  As in well over a year ago.  However, I still visit the site today but I am nowhere near as active as I was during the times when I was really into it.  Bux.to isn’t a scam, but in the condition they’re in now, it’s just a waste of time.  Bux.to DOES have competition, in NeoBux.  I have been flirting with signing up with them (instant payments and better autoclicker protection), but right now I’m just doing something else.

And finally, Paid Surveys.  I know during your time online you have heard of taking Paid Surveys for cash.  Basically, you take a survey, let them know of your opinion, and get paid a few dollars to several dollars.  But here is the thing: Most paid survey sites require you to be qualified to take a survey.  And it is a huge headache because even when you know you’re qualified to take a survey, you get told off after answering a few questions with “Thanks For Your Time” or other crap.  No explanation why, just said that you’re not qualified.  Like if you want to take a survey about Wal-Mart (which is a household name) they just tell you off for no reason.  So don’t waste your time with this crap.

All in all, the GPT methods aren’t ways you can make a reliable and stable source of income.  There is always some crap that comes up with them, i.e. bux.to.  After my experience with those, I went elsewhere.  Into a world that changed the way I talked forever….

And keep this in mind: If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you.  Chase the pipe dream.  Live the pipe nightmare.