Mark Anastasi

The title of this book is so reminiscent of pervasive internet scams that I almost didn't click on the link...until I remembered I was shopping for audiobooks on eMusic and not reading my email. Typically, such sensational headlines get categorized in my brain under the heading: "multilevel marketing scam" (ala Amway). But something about the open-ended premise of the title interested me enough for a look-see. After all, I didn't have to attend a cult-like seminar as I did once with Amway, and I didn't have to follow links to dark corners of the internet where Nigerian scammers lie in wait.

So am I rich yet? Did I at least quit my job? Well, no and no. Do I think I can profit from the advice given in this book? Well, we'll see, but I am optimistic the answer will someday be "yes.": How much is dependent on the effort put in, and quite frankly those who will benefit the most are those with a love for marketing. And that, sadly for my bank account, is not a vocation which I find myself on speaking terms.

Author Mark Anastasi begins with his own down-and-out tale as a young, unemployed man with little prospects and getting evicted from his apartment. In comes his mentor, identified as "The Laptop Millionaire" who proceeds to trickle down advise throughout the book, often taking Anastasi's own revelations up to the next level.

The book is essentially a primer on how one can reach a massive number of people, develop a profitable customer base, and creatively expand product lines to leverage this exposure. Blogs and an email list are most important, but social networking, particularly Facebook and Twitter, can play a large role as well. We also learn where to go to hire people to cheaply acquire more leads, and when to trade your own lists with others to further expand your reach.

What I found most interesting and of potential value was his advice of outsourcing much of the operational functions. Finding out I can hire Filipino webmonkeys for as cheap as $200 per month to create functional websites in no time; and then hiring still others to do the marketing work and drive customers to a blog or web page could be useful in building a business venture my wife and I have barely raised off the ground.

Anastazi covers many different avenues of product creation and marketing; again a bounty of ideas for those whose business and interests are a good fit. He is a strong advocate of hosting webinars on your particular niche, recording them, publishing them for sale, packaging them with others to form a course and upselling that as well...you get the point. A mailing list might yield a small percentage willing to pay $800 for a course, but just 5 of those is $4,000. And if your mailing list is big enough, you might get this daily for weeks. While returns on a particular product might vary, it seems a standard expectation from an opt-in mailing list (not spam, but one that people actively choose to join) is $1 per person per month if one has steady release of products to sell. Much of this book is about building such lists and leveraging them for top results.

I'm somewhat excited to try some of the techniques and ideas covered in this book. I don't anticipate an invite to the ":Millionaire's Club" anytime soon -- while I lack the passion to dedicate a lot of time or resources now, that could change with signs of moderate success. To be sure, it will be an interesting project.

Anastazi is planning a series of more in-depth, focused books -- I look forward to the next.… (més)