Congratulations to Maverick1000 Member #108 Marc Ostrofsky, on the upcoming release of his latest book, Get Rich Click!
This book hits shelves May 2, 2011—however in true Maverick spirit, Marc asked us to help pass on a free copy of his book to each of you. Read on to learn more…
Proud Maverick1000 member, professional speaker, consultant, venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur, Marc is popularly known as the “Technology Wildcatter.” Founder of the prepaid phone card industry, you may know this Maverick first and foremost as the man behind the sale of the domain name “Business.com” in 1999—a $7.5 million sale that landed him in The Guinness Book of World Records for most expensive domain name ever sold. (And this was just the beginning…)
Marc has created numerous magazines, tradeshows and market research studies, which he later sold to firms for $50+ million, and is one of today’s leading experts in making money online and teaching businesses how to effectively compete in the new digital world. These days, between authoring books and speaking at high-impact events (you’ll see him next week at the Underground 007 Online Seminar!), Marc continues to operate a portfolio of highly profitable online business ventures, including Blinds.com, CuffLinks.com, Bachelor.com, BeautyProducts.com, Consulting.com, TechToys.com, eTickets.com, SummerCamps.com, Photographer.com, MutualFunds.com, and many others.
Marc’s firms have won countless business awards to date, including the Inc. 500 and the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award; and you’ll find him quoted in over 1,000 media outlets, such as ABC’s 20/20, The Today Show, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CNN, FORBES, Inc. Magazine, etc.
Here’s Marc’s inside Maverick1000 peek into the ”how and why” of making of this book…
The Launch of Get Rich Click! —The Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online
Ever think about writing a book? It’s not the glamorous business it once was.
Why did I do this? Why write a book? It wasn’t the money (there is little to no money in the book business). I enjoy being a keynote speaker (when I find time); I’ve created and operated many different businesses, which I sold for $100+ million; and my current internet companies are generating $75 million a year. So I didn’t do it for the money. Why then, right? For the fun? Excitement? A new challenge? (I am a Maverick, so certainly ego had a part in this decision.) I’ll tell you why as we go through this story. First, my personal advice to you about publishers:
When I started this project four years ago, I went the traditional book route: Write up a proposal. Find a good agent. Get big bucks as an advance and write the book. Problem is, today’s book business is a complete mess, and the “Old World” book business plan doesn’t work anymore. For example, a (horrible) self-service agent sold the copyright for my book along with the book—a VERY bad idea, but “I didn’t know what I didn’t know.” Then there were the lawsuits with the publisher to get the book rights back…and all the different book distributors…well, they’re just an incredible mess. (Thank goodness for e-Books.)
But when all of this started, I was asked the same questions over and over: “What’s your platform?…”
- Do you have a TV show?
- A radio show?
- Are you a celebrity with a following?
- Are you a politician with a loyal followers?
- A magazine with a lot of subscribers?
- …maybe you have millions of customers?
Well. I had been a magazine publisher for almost 20 years—I kind of knew the game (or so I thought). Wrong! Today the book industry is more of a mess than ever before. Major book publishers are basically small-time venture capitalists, who fund the minimal amount needed in the hopes of getting one or two grand slams to cover all their bad investments.
Here’s an eye opener: What do you think is the average number of copies sold for books in America? 5,000, 10,000, 25,000? Guess again. The average is 2,500. No, this is not a typo. The average book only sells about 2,500 copies—and many of those are bought by the author. In terms of publisher support, only one in 10,000 books published today gets any real help from the publisher in terms of marketing, advertising and public relations. So once I understood this side of the game, I asked, “Why use a publisher?” They do editing, layout, design, printing and distribution—and then take 70 – 90% of the profits (if there are any profits). I could do all of that but the distribution part. So I found a distributor…and I was in business.
What do you need to get a book out on your own? You need:
1. Time
2. Money
3. A “platform”
4. A lot of friends to help announce it to the world
5. Great testimonials (it’s a bit of a “chicken and egg” situation, but you can get them)
6. Proofreaders—and a lot of them
7. A great title sure helps!
So I had the time and money; now I had to develop a platform.
For the last 15 years, many people asked me the same question most Mavericks probably hear all the time: “How can I make money online?” I decided to write a book that could answer that question. I wanted to keep it easy to read, understand and apply to real-world situations—so I created Get Rich Click.
In my book, I tell the stories of different online business models that have worked for me, including:
1. How to make money with no money
I own Blinds.com with a fantastic partner/operator named Jay Steinfeld—and you cannot imagine my amazement when we took this firm from $1 million to almost $70 million in annual sales—with NO products, warehouse, stock or inventory of any kind! It’s 100% outsource and drop-ship. Go out, take a photo of something you think you can sell, list it on eBay, sell it, collect the money (plus a small profit on shipping), and THEN go buy it and fulfill the order! As long as you assure the products are in stock, you just made money with no money—and paid for the product with the buyer’s money! How simple is that?
2. Running a no-inventory business
I bought a small business some years ago called SummerCamps.com, which is a listing service for parents to find the best summer camps for their kids. This service has no physical product—just a listing of camps. So it takes less than one full-time person to run and operate that business.
3. Running a small-inventory business
One of my favorite sites is CuffLinks.com, run by founder Ravi Ratan. The site is AMAZING. Many people say, “Cuff links? Who wears cuff links?” Well I do; and enough people do that we own about 10% of the entire $50 million business. Selling at retail and wholesale, and supplying other websites and licenses from the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc., gave this business enough “competitive advantage” that I felt it would be a good investment. In the four years since I’ve owned it, we managed to diversify from very little in wholesale to a 50/50 wholesale to retail split, which doubled the size of the firm. Definitely a good investment.
4. Domain names
Some years ago, I was lucky enough to have a very smart sister named Dr. Keri Ostrofsky Pearlson, a professor with her MBA at Stanford and a PhD at Harvard, who taught me about the internet and explained what a domain name is (we’re talking 1994 here). Inspired, I ended up buying Business.com for $150,000…and the headline that best expresses the way the media saw my purchase was, “A fool and his money were just parted.” Well I guess I had the last laugh when I sold that domain for $7.5 million in 1999—and then reinvested part of the money back into the Business.com start-up, which we sold a few years ago for $345 million.
In 1994, I coined the phrase, “Domain names are internet real estate,” and this concept continues to prove true with other sites I own such as MutualFunds.com, Photographer.com and Bachelor.com. Each time someone clicks on one of the links on these sites, I get 60% of the revenue from that ad dollar. So needless to say, I my internet real estate pays.
5. Forwarding traffic to a third party
I own eTickets.com, which has a business model like no other. Instead of sending traffic to Google, I send it to a firm called TicketNework, who functions as a “market maker” in the ticket industry. This model is amazing—I send them the traffic from my website, and they send me a nice check each month. I finally got them to wire payment to me, so now my entire process is 100% automated.
6. Other people’s online success stories…Mavericks included!
My staff and I also set out to find other stories about folks who make money online. We found a partnership with ClickBank, which allowed us to create a video series called “Get Rich Click with ClickBank,” in which we interview people on exactly how they do it.
….and much, much more in the book!
A FREE GIFT for Mavericks
I support my friends in Maverick1000. For us, it’s not about the money. So I talked to Yanik and arranged to send every Maverick a free copy of Get Rich Click! If you like it and feel it can help others, all I can ask is that you tell them via your social networks and via email. It’s a really good read—this I assure you.
And by the way, what was my REAL goal? To hit the New York Times Bestseller list, of course! Thanks for helping spread the word, Mavericks. Enjoy!
Marc Ostrofsky, Maverick Member #108
Marc@GetRichClick.com
Get Rich Click! hits stores online and offline MAY 2, 2011 $19.95 USD
Book Testimonials:
“Personal computers plus the power of the internet make it possible for anyone to make money online. My friend Marc has done this over and over again and teaches how he and others have done it in Get Rich Click™.
—Steve Wozniak, co-founder of APPLE computer
“The future potential of internet-based businesses is staggering. This easy-to-follow book will teach you the ropes of this business and give you great tips and suggestions on achieving financial success.”
—Dr. Stephen R. Covey, Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Leader in Me
“I’ve asked thousands if they will be one of the millionaires made by the recession. If you read and apply what Marc has laid out in Get Rich Click™, you will be well on your way. It’s actionable information you can apply now!”
—David Bach, NY Times Bestselling Author of Start Over, Finish Rich
“Think differently! Think online! If you are going to survive, thrive and grow in this interconnected world we now live in, you need to read Get Rich Click™.”
—Brian Tracy, NY Times Best Selling Author and Management Expert
“Marc Ostrofsky delivers in Get Rich Click™. His approach will change how people think about the role of the internet in business and delivers on teaching you how to make money online.”
—Jack Canfield, NY Times Bestselling Co-Author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series
