There are many ebooks available online, but all you can do is read them. So first actual product I developed was "The 7 Secrets Of Success". It's an ebook in PDF form, but it has links so you can listen to me reading too. I had a great response to this, especially as people in USA loved my UK accent.

BizE-zine: How did you go about promoting it?

PT: You can have greatest product in world, but if nobody knows about it, you won't make any sales.

By chance I received a mail shot about these guys in US who were really successful online, and had just presented a seminar in Las Vegas. I bit bullet and spend around $500 on videotapes of seminar, all 30 of them!

That really turned my head around to see how these guys were finding customers and leading them into their websites and products and making sale after sale. I put many of their strategies to use for "7 Secrets" and they worked.

The best product I bought after seeing tapes was Yanik Silver's '33 Days to Online Profits'. Rather than just present a pile of stuff in one go, it took you a day at a time through what you needed to do. He even chases you with reminder emails!

People then started to ask me for advice on how to get their Internet businesses going and so I figured I'd work smart and muster up all that experience from radio, TV and Internet. I decided to interview 10 of top online marketers.

Obviously I started with guys I'd seen on videos. First, Yanik Silver said 'yes'. Then I contacted Jonathan Mizel and so on. I set up telephone interviews with them all, transcribed them (nearly 200 pages in end) and converted them into streaming audio for Real Player and Windows Media Player. There were many frustrations and heartaches along way, not to mention numerous technical failures, but because I had committed myself big time to all these gurus there was no way I could stop.

BizE-zine: How much of your income is now derived from Internet?

PT: About 40% at moment.

BizE-zine: Is that fairly stable, or have you experienced any slowdown online?

PT: There has been a bit of a reduction in my voice- over work recently because of recession in advertising. But online, I haven't found a problem.

BizE-zine: It is clear that you believe in investing in yourself, from all tapes and books that you buy. What was it about these books that lit your fuse?

PT: What really lit my fuse about books I read was that they were real people talking about challenges they faced and setbacks they overcame. I always used to think that people were successful because of their education, amount of money or talent. None of it is true. Anyone can be successful; you just have to follow a certain set of rules just like an instruction booklet. Just follow other successful people and copy what they do.

BizE-zine: What is your favorite way of generating traffic?

PT: Just to connect with people. I spend lots of time sending personalized emails to other successful marketers. I participate in discussion forums and just offer help whenever I can.

BizE-zine: Do you worry about making mistakes?

PT: I have made thousands of mistakes over years, but if you analyze them and don't repeat them, they can help. I've learned to keep all those boring things like accounting up to date, to pay attention to details and double check when people say it's no problem. You have to take total responsibility for yourself.

BizE-zine: What software do you use to help you run your business?

PT: Although I have swapped from one to another I would say that I couldn't be without good autoresponder and mailing list software. I prefer web-based systems so they don't tie up your own computer. Also you can access them from anywhere.

BizE-zine: What is next for Peter Twist online?

PT: The great thing about Internet is that your business can expand whether you like it or not. By that I mean new people are always finding out about you and putting links into your site, so it grows on it's own. I would like to develop a few more products and expand in that way.

I'd be daft to try to re-invent wheel, so how about another book interviewing Internet experts? When are you free Martin?

A lot of books you read waffle on for page after page, I want to write one called "The Smallest Ebook in The World" It will be one page with a list of what you need to do to succeed online. Watch this space...

BizE-zine: I don't know if you are joking or not! What advice would you give to someone who is just planning to start out?

PT: Read as much material as possible from people who are doing right now what you want to do. Then when things get tough, you can focus on them. Don't be a perfectionist, just take action, but learn quickly from your mistakes. Write down in great detail exactly what you want - down to how much you'll earn. Even more importantly, write down what you will do with money. Look to earning a good monthly income rather than $1 million.

If anyone is thinking of writing a book now, you just have to get on and do it. Write it with something like Microsoft Word, which has a spell checker. Don't get hung up about security and passwords, if people are going to copy and steal it that may be a good thing because it gets your name around! Try to get people to send you their email address, offer them a free gift, or updates to your book - that way you can build up you list and when your next book comes out they'll buy that.

I have looked at all formats and personally prefer books that can be read with Adobe Acrobat. Then, people with Apple Macs as well as PCs can read it and it looks professional. To collect money, just use Clickbank. They process credit card payments and pay you money, and, others can sell your book through them too.

The most useful piece of advice that I have ever seen is to start building your own "opt-in" list. These are people who have seen information about you or your web site and have then given you their email address because they would like more information. It's up to you to then develop a relationship with them so they begin to see that information you are sharing is useful to them.

I would say to anyone starting out, just get your hands on as much material as you can and start learning. Choose a good mentor, someone who you can see is doing what they say, but also get online yourself and start making mistakes. It's only way to learn.

Peter Twist is author of "The 7 Secrets Of Success" and "Success Internet Interviews, more info at http://www.internetsuccessinterviews.com

LESSON THREE:

Accountants and analysts tried reasoning with public during late 1990's --- during boom --- concerning profitability of these companies that people were throwing their savings at.

Yet public was more inclined to believe those who were wanting to sell us these shams that Internet era was different. The argument went like this, "This is a new economic era where old rules of measuring bottom line do not apply."

Hogwash.

History has shown us that these people selling sham were really people looking to make millions from ignorance of public at large.

The truth is, same rules that apply to measuring offline businesses must be applied to online world of business as well.

We must always measure our successes and failures, based on how they affect our bottom line. We must use concrete numbers and measurements to make our estimations and our decisions.

We cannot sit and hope that if we throw thousands of dollars into advertising that we will see our money coming back to us.

Instead, we should measure every advertisement and every advertising medium. We should compare one advertisement against another, and we should compare one advertising media to another. If one is not working for us, we should kill it. If another is working well for us, then we should expand on it.

The truth is, without a method of measuring results, we will never truly gain advantage of learning from our successes and failures. Sure, you can guess at what works and what does not, but what if you guess wrong?

The Dot Bomb's threw money at Internet advertising and hoped that something would stick. They figured they had millions, so why did they need to worry...

In retrospect, they probably kick themselves on a daily basis. If I had squandered millions to no avail, I can guarantee that I would be kicking myself on an daily basis!

The most important lesson we can take from Dot Bomb's is that we must measure our results and make our future decisions based on proven results. If it is not profitable, don't do it. If it is profitable, then look to find ways to expand on that profitability.

Measuring success of an advertising campaign is as simple as tagging your ad with a special tracking URL or email address to provide yourself a method of tracking results gained from a specific advertisement and advertising media.

In conclusion, take whatever means are necessary to track successes and failures in your advertising and always watch your bottom line. This is imperative if you wish for your online business to be profitable. Learn lessons of Dot Bomb's, measure or perish.