I have an interesting problem. As most of you probably know, two years ago I started a private web site called "Secrets To Their Success" where each month I publish a couple of 15-20 page interviews with people who are making $100,000+ with their online businesses.

By all accounts, this site has been a massive success. I'm still seeing new members sign up daily as word continues to spread about the high caliber of "real world" marketing advice that's given away in each interview. People are frequently astounded that I'm able to persuade business owners to reveal their most profitable marketing secrets in such careful detail.

But despite all of this success, about two weeks ago I discovered that there has been one surprising downfall to publishing this site:

People just getting started and those with smaller, part-time businesses seem to be less inclined to mention their “little” success stories to me now, because they don't believe they're “big enough” to be worthy of notice yet.

I came to this rather astonishing realization during a coaching session with a new client a few weeks ago. One of her first comments was "I'm nowhere NEAR the income level of those people in your Success Secrets site..."

Now, what you need to understand is that this woman is just getting started! Her site has been up less than six months, and she's barely had time to dip her toe in the water since she's been managing the business as a part-time venture and continuing to work full-time while she gets established.

But she's doing a LOT of things right. She's generating sales... she's started an opt-in list... and she's working on getting automated early. She's jumping all the hurdles that EVERY online business owner faces when growing a business from a start-up venture to a profitable storefront.

It seemed odd to me that she would be so hard on herself, and I told her she shouldn't measure her success by comparing herself to businesses that have been established for 2-3 years or more.

I told her that while you should model your business after other successful web sites (like those featured in "Secrets To Their Success"), you shouldn't expect instant overnight success -- every business takes time to grow.

It may take 6 months to jump your income from $300 per month to $1,000 per month... and maybe another 6 months to push it from $1,000 per month to $4,000 per month. But once you get going, after a year or so, things can really start to snowball if you continue to work at it and keep educating yourself about the latest Internet marketing strategies.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit sidetracked here. The point is, later that same week, I was chatting with a couple of my team members when I happened to bring up this story -- and to my surprise, they recounted similar conversations with other customers over the past few months.

And this got me thinking...

Has my "Secrets To Their Success" site overshadowed the thousands of smaller success stories I know my subscribers experience on a daily basis?

Because while I love to hear from those of you who are achieving massive financial success using combinations of the strategies I've shared with you, I have to say that I always get a thrill hearing from people with online businesses in the early stages of development who try a technique or strategy (even something simple) and are pleasantly surprised and excited by the results they get.

... Maybe your newsletter opt-in form was only generating five new subscribers a week, but you applied a simple copywriting strategy, or tried a pop-up, or repositioned the offer and now you get 15-20 new subscribers a week.

... Maybe you changed your headline, or redesigned your order page, or sent an e-mail promotion to your opt-in list and increased your sales by a couple hundred dollars this month.

... Or maybe you did something as simple as reformat your newsletter, and you've been getting great feedback from your readers.

No matter how small the success may be, I know from personal experience that it is these little achievements that drive you to keep testing new strategies and put in the effort required to eventually grow your business from a small part-time income into a substantial full-time income that allows you to quit your day job, take a really nice vacation this year, or even just spend more time with your family.

That's why I want to make sure that, no matter how small your achievements, you celebrate your successes. So here's what I've decided to do:

I'm challenging each of my subscribers to send me your favorite personal success story. If you take 10-15 minutes to do this, and your success story ranks among the 50 most detailed, most useful, most inspirational stories I receive before Friday, August 15th, I promise that you will be generously rewarded.

First of all, I will be cramming as many success stories as I can fit into the next issue of the "Marketing Tips" newsletter, set to be published in the last week of August. The issue can be no longer than 8-10 printed pages, so I figure I'll only be able to publish somewhere between 10 and 20 stories. Of course, if your success story is published, I'll include your name, business name, and URL.

Second, if your success story is among my 50 favorite, you will ALSO be given your choice of the following gifts:

1. A six-month subscription to "Secrets To Their Success": My exclusive, members-only private site that features the real stories of "real people" who are making $30,000 to $2,000,000+ with their Internet home businesses. (Value: $102)
   www.secretstotheirsuccess.com
   
   
2. A copy of "The Insider Secrets to E-mail Marketing -- Advanced Series": This is my new eBook that exposes all of my most profitable e-mail marketing strategies that I';ve used to earn $213,705 and generate 41,409 NEW subscribers -- in just 30 days! (Value: $97) www.marketingtips.com/emailsecrets
   
   
3. Mailloop -- Business Automation Software: This powerful e-business automation software will save you hundreds of hours every month by automating the monotonous e-mail chores that eat away at your time and profits. A must-have tool for any serious entrepreneur! (Value: $379) www.marketingtips.com/mailloop
   
   
4. eBook Pro: Create, compile, and begin marketing your very own information product in no time flat! eBook Pro is the ONLY secure publishing software that allows you to publish unlimited eBooks to increase your Internet income... in a completely secure fashion, without fear of theft. (Value: $197) www.ebookpro.com

The purpose of this is not only to get you to reflect on your own personal successes -- no matter how small you think they may be -- but also to share a bit of inspiration and practical advice with other like-minded business owners.

Also, I have personally found reflecting on my past successes beneficial, because I will frequently "rediscover" a profitable technique or strategy that I haven't used in a while that's worth testing again. Hopefully, during this reflection you'll have a similar experience!

Here's what I'd like you to do. Take the next 10-15 minutes (it shouldn't take you any longer than this) to write me an e-mail that explains in detail how one of the strategies, software, or resources you've received from me have impacted your business, your income, your relationships with your family, or anything else you can think of.

If you do this right, your story will read like a miniature case study -- it will give specific details of what you did and the results you achieved in terms of the number of sales, subscribers, leads, or responses.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What specific techniques or software -- that you learned or purchased from me -- did you use?
   
   
2. By what percentage did it increase your business? (For example: Did it increase your business by 115%? Did you make an extra $300?)
   
   
3. How long did it take?
   
   
4. What was the biggest benefit you saw from doing this?
   
   
5. Why would you recommend this to other people?

You can simply send me answers to these specific questions... Or you can sit down and write me a story about what happened. You can make your response as long or as short as you want. All I ask is that you include as much detail as possible so that the people reading your advice have a clear idea of how they can apply it to their own businesses.

Then, when you're done, make sure you include a quick blurb stating that you don't mind me sharing the details of your story to help teach other people how they can build their own successful e-businesses.

And then e-mail your entry to entries@marketingtips.com

I expect to be swamped with stories, so in order to ensure that I have enough time to read them all and choose the top 50 before the next "Marketing Tips" newsletter is published during the last week of August, I can only accept entries until Friday, August 15th.

After that, the e-mail address entries@marketingtips.com will be disabled, so I urge you to send me your success story right away.

Remember, I want to hear about ANY success -- no matter how big or small. So please don't put this off. Take the next 10 or 15 minutes and e-mail me your story. I look forward to hearing from you!

Celebrating your success,

Corey Rudl, President
Internet Marketing Center