Have you purchased any business related products or training courses and have failed to take the necessary actions detailed in the product or failed to complete or even start the training program? If you answered YES’ to either part of that question, you are not alone. I am ashamed to report that I have several high ticket training courses that I failed to complete because I allowed myself to become distracted by other things, including my fulltime employment obligations, which I cannot ignore or put on the back burner, it’s currently how I support my family. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I am not trying to excuse myself from fault with that last statement, it is not a valid excuse because it is only on a periodic basis that my consulting business becomes overwhelming and requires my undivided attention for a month or two, but it seems that when I am able to return to the task at hand, that being building an online business that will allow me to retire from the consulting business, I am easily distracted by the next, best, surefire methodology or training that will insure that I succeed online faster and easier than the previous training or product I was involved with just before I got really busy with my consulting business.

Glad you asked, Yes, I do make a good living from my consulting business, but, I am getting older and due to constant, rapidly changing technology and the demand on your time, it is usually considered a younger person’s vocation. I normally work a ten hour day and pursue my new career, that of internet marketer, in my spare time. When my consulting business demands more of my time, my secondary pursuit suffers. So what now? The obvious I hope, I found these high ticket courses to be worthwhile and spent a good deal of my hard earned money to purchase them, so I will now do what I should have done before I ever thought about looking for another shortcut, namely Michael Cheney’s Black Box Brain Dump, which I intend to make my last impulsive purchase of this kind. I can’t guarantee that I will never make another impulsive purchase the rest of my life, there are just so many opportunities, but I will guarantee that I will not purchase another training course, until I have completed and implemented the following; ‘The Arbitrage Conspiracy’ with Aymen, ‘Howie’s Apprentice 5 Program’ with Howie Swartz and last but not least, Gauher Chaudhry’s ‘Pay Per View Formula 2’.  If I only ever apply what I learn from one of these three training programs I will become truly successful online, earning a fulltime living. So what am I waiting for? Nothing, I am in high gear and have already started.

All of these programs are currently closed to new members, or I would have included a link for you to check them out, and could possibly have made a commission in the process.

Stay tuned, I am starting with Aymen and ‘The Arbitrage Conspiracy’, I will post you with my progress and what I have implemented from each week of training. If I am accountable to you, I will be accountable to myself.

“If not You, Who? If not Now, When?”  Hillel

Well, I haven’t written a day by day account documenting my experience with Michael Cheney’s  ‘Brain Dump’ as I intended, because there was a disappointing amount of material to write about. I don’t mean to say that he didn’t put his heart and soul into each of the 90 minute sessions. What I found to be disappointing was the fact that the entire ‘conversation’, was a 60,000 foot view out of the airplane window. You can see the hills and valleys and an occasional structure as you fly over the near empty landscape, but none of the important details are visible to the naked eye. I told you on my “About My Journey’ page that I would always give you the cold hard facts about my successes and failures with no candy coating, or to quote Michael Cheney, ‘Warts and all.’. I have to put this one down as one of my many not so good decisions that I have made over the course of my journey to a successful internet marketing career.

Not Michael Cheney’s fault, I am sure he put out a product that many would find extraordinary by all standards, but for me personally, it missed the mark. When I do become a successful internet marketer, I am sure I will find the many business tips to be very informative and practical. But, at this stage of my internet  career, in which I am still experiencing more ‘Failure to Launch’ then I am anything else, it wasn’t the neural network I was hoping it would be. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t what I got out the eight sessions with Michael.

Here comes the kick in the stomach and maybe what helps to stir up the negative juices just a little, and it is something I should have anticipated. Michael Cheney will soon be coming out with the recordings from these sessions and selling them at a greatly reduced rate. I have been around the internet marketing business long enough to have seen this one coming. I am even willing to place a small wager that I can even write a small part of the sales page. It will go something like this, ‘Previously,  Michael Cheney’s Black Box sold for $1997, but you can get yours today for the low, low price of $297’ I cut out the usual; not $1997, not $997, not $597, not even $397, but just $297 sales jargon that seems to be so popular today, frankly I just find it annoying and an insult to everyone’s intelligence. At that price it is a bargain and I would have bought it in a heartbeat and would have felt that I got what I paid for.

I do however feel that this practice of offering an exclusive ‘Look inside of My Business’ for an exorbitant sum, should stay as advertised, an ‘Exclusive Look’ and not sold at some bargain basement fire sale a month or so later, or anytime for that matter at an extremely reduced rate. I wrote Michael Cheney expressing my disdain, explaining how I felt it diminished the value of the product I purchased, after all, myself and twenty four other people paid a lot of money for that ‘Exclusive Look’ inside Michael Cheney’s business. I understand that Michael is a millionaire and he makes a million or more every year, but I don’t and to me $1997 is a lot of money. There was nothing in the eight 90 minute sessions that was an incredibly deep dark secret that would give me a tremendous advantage over someone who purchases the same ‘Exclusive Look’ two or three months later at a fraction of what I paid. In the game of baseball, I am sure this would certainly be termed a ‘Foul Ball’. By the way, I haven’t gotten a response to my email, I should probably send him this post as well.

Even though I have never met him,  I like Michael Cheney and have been a customer and reader of his for quite some time. When he sells a product I always give it a good look and I probably still will, it hasn’t changed my mind about Michael Cheney being a brilliant internet marketer.

“If not you, Who? If not now, When?” Hillel

Michael Cheney’s Brain Dump, that he is calling ‘The Black Box’ for reasons I explained in the last post, is only going to last five days. I am not capable of absorbing the information as quickly as it pours out of Michael’s head, who is?  Fortunately he is providing recordings and ‘mind maps’ of the entire process, which I am sure he is following as he speaks to us on the hour and a half phone calls twice a day. The calls move along way too fast to take adequate notes, so I will be going through the calls and taking notes for questions that I will email to Michael at an undisclosed email address, that I am sure will be closed after the thirty day duration of the interactive part of this ‘coaching’ course. Michael Cheney has not said this, so do not take this as a quote, just pure conjecture and logical course of events in the internet marketing world, the recordings for this course will probably be for sale for $497 sometime in the future, I hope that wouldn’t happen, but after all, Michael Cheney is an internet marketer and why let all this perfectly good content gather dust on the shelf. It would be a tough decision to make if I were Michael Cheney and had a perfectly good Black Box just sitting there in the dark waiting for the first ray of daylight.

Anyway, the first day was pretty much as you would expect, a get acquainted, getting started agenda where he talked about internet marketing, his background, warts and all, what motivates people to do this, clearing the deck of distractions, getting yourself organized and of course, The LIST. It was one of those things, you know, you had to be there. My one burning question is how do I start? What is the first action item that puts everything else in motion?

“If not you, Who? If not now, When?” Hillel

My Plan is beginning to take shape, a different, sharper, more aggressive image is emerging. A little scary and overly ambitious without question, but like I said in my last post, I am into the second year of my two year plan and I am way, way behind schedule. It is crunch time, so let’s get crunching.

However, I may have gone slightly over the top. ‘Howie’s Apprentice 5 Program’ has a busy and ambitious schedule, but it is doable for most people, myself included. Three nights a week on one hour plus webinars, with ‘homework’ assignments overseen by Howie’s project managers, is about as much as I can handle.

But, as fate would have it, Michael Cheney, yes the millionaire internet marketer Michael Cheney, had an epiphany on a plane ride back from a soccer game, extreme turbulence, people screaming, etc., you may have had a similar experience yourself,  and he realized how easily he could be the late Michael Cheney, one time internet marketing millionaire, now deceased. Fortunately for all involved there was no airline tragedy that day, but what did come out of it was that Michael knew, that if he were to suddenly pass on, he was not going to leave a legacy of any kind, he would just be gone.

Years of internet marketing experience and knowledge would be gone in a heartbeat. Even after a plane crash, there is the famous ‘Black Box’ to provide answers to investigators that would hopefully prevent the same tragedy from happening again. Michael didn’t have a ‘Black Box’.

A short time after that life altering experience Michael came to the conclusion that, should something happen to him, he needed to know he left something behind and helped others in the process. He wanted to leave his own ‘Black Box’ behind, and Michael Cheney’s ‘Black Box’ Coaching Program was born, a little play on words, but very telling. Can you see where this is heading?

As soon as I saw where “The Black Box’ was going and what Michael Cheney’s ‘Black Box’ was going to contain, the rest was history.  Michael Cheney’s “Black Box’ is nothing less than a complete brain dump of his internet marketing business, as he likes to say, ‘warts and all’. This is the first time anyone in internet marketing, especially anyone in internet marketing of Michael Cheney’s room presence, has done anything like this before, and may never again. Even with everything else I have on my plate, I could not pass on this once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from someone of his caliber, in my chosen profession of internet marketing, a ‘no brainer’. Michael Cheney’s ‘Black Box’ was not inexpensive, but it was less than I expected to pay. It should certainly prove to be some of the best money I ever spent on my internet education, and will save me months if not years of disappointment and failure.

I am committed to my new career in internet marketing and have more or less, set the boat adrift with no means of returning to shore without finding the oars I need to row myself to the ‘safe harbor’ of financial freedom. Michael Cheney’s brain dump will only last for five days, so there will be a tsunami of internet marketing knowledge coming my way in a hurry. ‘Howie’s Apprentice 5 Program’ will continue for 10 weeks, so if necessary I can work double overtime to catch up and make sure I don’t miss anything that ‘Apprentice 5’ has in store for me. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. So, ‘Let’s roll’.

“If not you, Who? If not now, When?” .. Hillel

As you may guess by the title of this post I haven’t given up, in fact quite the contrary, I am probably in over my head. If one coaching program doesn’t get you where you need to be, do another, and while you are doing that 3 plus nights a week, take on a couple of more projects. If you think it sounds like I am having second thoughts, your right. Oh, did I mention that I work 50 hours a week at my full time gig? At my desk at 6Am EST until 6PM EST, I usually take an hour for lunch.

Why another coaching program after the last one didn’t quite live up to expectations? Because I believe I need a mentor to show me the way, a guide through the ‘Cyber Jungle’, and since I believe this is the fastest way for me to be successful, than for me, its’ true. I think that for many of us , especially those that did not grow up in our parents basement, glued to a computer screen, the intricate workings of the internet is, and always will be one of life’s great mysteries .  So, I need a mentor, maybe you do as well.

As of December 3^rd, 2009 I became Howie Swartz’s Apprentice. I joined ‘Howie’s Apprentice 5’ program to be schooled in the discipline of internet marketing. This program costs me twice as much as my previous program with Alex Jeffries called ‘Marketing with Alex’ , but I believe it covers much more. When I compare the two curriculums, Howie’s Apprentice 5 program wins hands down and should well out perform the dollar differences between the two courses.  Marketing with Alex was one night a week for 7 weeks, Howie’s Apprentice 5 program is 3 nights a week for 10 weeks. Howie’s obvious investment in course development and content alone make it an absolute bargain compared to Marketing with Alex.  Howie also has a staff of internet marketing experts, each an industry leader in their own niche to teach me the how and the why. I am excited to be in a position to be able to take advantage of this training and I have high expectations for the future.

I had a two year window to get established in my internet marketing business and half of that is gone and right now I am making a measly $800.00 a month and putting that right back into my business. Not much of a living, right? Where in the world could I go and support my family in the style they have become accustomed to, on $800.00 a month, any ideas?

As you can see by my writing, I am violating the first rule of successful blogging, I am writing from my heart and mind with complete and utter disregard for keyword insertion. This means that few people will find their way to my blog and read my stories. Since this blog has yet to be monetized and may never be, it really doesn’t matter to me. What does matter you ask. If you are reading this, you are probably on the same journey as I am, searching for the same things that I am, if this blog serves as your guide or it serves as your example of what not to do, is a story that remains to be told. I am doing my utmost best to make this blog your blueprint for a wildly successful internet marketing business of your own.

I am and will continue to be, painfully honest in this blog and document my struggle. I am planning to be posting to this blog multiple times a week, short posts due to the all too obvious  time constraints, but they will truly document what I am doing to put myself in a position of financial independence.

I know this will be an epic struggle for me, but in my mind, its’ crunch time. For the past year I have closed my emails with a quote attributed to an Israeli sage from long ago, it was as true then as it is today.

“If not you, Who? If not now, When?” .. Hillel

Well, the more I poke around the internet trying to find my way to a profitable internet business, the more I believe that  my story is really not so unique. More and more stories are finding their way to my computer screen like metal shavings to a magnet. I guess it’s true, when you create a need the ‘universe’ seeks to fulfill it. Out of this latest ‘challenge’ I have not come away empty handed, my education continues even when I wish it didn’t.

Definite ‘Lessons Learned’:

• There is no ‘Free Lunch’ and what worked for some ‘super’ successful affiliate coach, may never work exactly the same way again.  Two years ago on the internet is equivalent to a lifetime ago in human terms. I very much doubt that if my coach started his internet business today, using the same  methods he’s teaching me, the exact same way he started in business, that his results would not be very much different than my own have been, dismal. That’s certainly not a fact I can prove, but I think it’s a better than average bet.

• Don’t enter into any coaching program that does not have a 60 day, no questions asked,  money back guarantee. Since you are probably a new arrival on the internet marketing scene, it will take you at least that long to evaluate what you are being taught and if I t is really up to date information that can readily be applied. Things change lightening fast on the internet and you could be getting yesterdays’ news at futuristic prices.

• When the vast majority of your coaches’ income, which is of course, a big draw when it comes to recruiting students, comes from the last time your coach recruited a hungry throng of students, the red flag should go up. In other words, learn from someone with a million dollar income that is the direct result of selling other peoples products, not from someone where the majority of their income comes from teaching other people to sell other peoples products in previous coaching sessions. You may want to read that last sentence more than once. In other words, did the huge income come from teaching or doing?  You need a DOER, as well as a TEACHER.

I did however get a good understanding of the basics and technical requirements of affiliate marketing, I said understanding, not proficiencies. I believe I could intelligently outsource the technical aspects and not be in the dark when talking to anyone I might engage to complete my technical requirements. Alex Jeffries said it is unlikely that he will ever hold another coaching session, if he does, I hope he takes a different approach.

I cannot say it was time and money completely wasted, I at least got a good jumping off point and will continue to search for the mentor I need and hopefully continue to grow and move forward toward my eventual success on My Internet Journey.