ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Evoy

I am a Canadian physician who formerly taught and practiced emergency medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

I realized early in my medical career that doctors were doomed to be slaves to the government in our socialized medical system. I still wanted to practice emergency medicine, but as a hobby that I loved.

So my wife and I designed toys and games. Before becoming "Web-sessed," we sold 23 of our inventions to large companies around the world, generating millions of dollars in royalty revenues along the way.

Our toy design biz has been featured in many regional and national media. Anyway, thanks to toys and games, medicine is my part-time hobby that I still love...

In late 1996, I "accidentally" became interested in the Internet. I had started writing a computer program for an investing hobby that started from a rather unusual theory...

In the six years before that, I had developed a successful investing strategy in a highly specialized "niche" market. Due to time constraints, I used the strategy infrequently. Despite that, this "occasional hobby" grew an original $5,000 experimental stake into more than $150,000. But by late 1996, my strategy could not identify any strong investment candidates.

So I decided to use the Internet to broaden the choice. I gathered all my loose-strewn notes and rough database... and converted that chaos into the "ultimate software." Originally intended for my own use, I planned to use the software and the Internet to generate more high-potential investments.

However, like a lot of other people, the Internet absolutely captivated me. It's the digital Wild West. Right now, everyone has the same chance to successfully market a product on the Web.

While learning about the Internet, I realized that the Web was really the ultimate "high-density marketplace." What do I mean?...

Manhattan can sustain high-niche retail stores because millions of people are on one tiny island. Well, with the Internet, you have tens-and-soon-hundreds of millions of people sitting right inside your computer!

I figured that if my "niche-investing" software product was of interest to me, it would also be of interest to others on the Web. So I said, "Let's see if it's actually possible to sell something on the Web"...

I realized right from DAY 1 that my investing software would be virtually impossible to sell! You will never have to sell a product as difficult-to-sell as my first Web product. Here's why...

• It was in a little known investing niche -- not many people know about it.

• Those who do know about it, have a negative impression about it (rightly so).

• I am an unknown in investing circles -- not only was I not Warren Buffet, I was a doctor -- much worse!

• I could not even permit a trial download (due to the unique nature of the niche).

• We were selling it at a high price.

The Web audience is notoriously hard to convince, at the best of times. This little experiment promised to be a most interesting and difficult challenge!

But it was a challenge that intrigued me, for two reasons...

First, I could see immediately that I could control the result. I understood that if I had a great product and then designed a site that would sell effectively, and then attract targeted traffic, the project would succeed.

I knew that I had a great piece of software (I loved and used it regularly, and made money with it). But there were still two big questions...

• Could I design a site that would sell this near-impossible-to-sell project?

• Could I attract customers?

I was not sure about the answers to these two questions at that time, "way back" in late '96. But I am now...

Since our launch in November, 1997, I have proven that the answers to those two questions are resounding YES's! That "challenge" nets (after expenses, which are minimal) my wife and I over $1,000 per day, up to $5,000 some days.

The second reason that I loved this challenge?... I love to teach. I have taught...

• a championship Little League baseball team -- twenty years later, one of the stars from that team, a man who has "made it" by selling his successful Web biz to a major e-commerce company, writes the Foreword to my book! You can read it when you take advantage of your free trial download.

• a professional touring Canadian golf pro -- my most exciting moment in sports came in the summer of 1996 when he won his first tournament and publicly gave me the credit! He was the most improved player on the tour in 1996.

• medical students at a McGill University teaching hospital -- pure scientific, up-to-date knowledge can be learned from journals and books. Instilling common sense, good judgment, patient empathy, and diagnostic skills was my main mission.

• a startup toy manufacturer in Hong Kong, someone who grew to be one of my closest friends. And who also grew into one of the very best toy makers in the entire Orient. Tony Kwan, owner and president of Pointsder Manufacturing

  "Ten years ago, I was a struggling toy manufacturer. Ken and I became friends through the toy business. Ken loves to help people. I can honestly say that if I had never met him, I would not be where I am today. And my company, Pointsder, would not be the HK$200,000,000 success story that it is today."
  

In keeping with my teaching inclinations, this Web venture would be a terrific opportunity not to "sell tips," but instead to teach people how to do exactly what I do... totally via the Web.

SIDEBAR: I reveal this software project in the free trial download, but not here. I do not want to be accused of trying to sell that software here. And I do not want to distract you from this discussion.

In any event, here's the bottom line....

While marketing that first product on the Web, a 2-year trial-and-error process developed into a tight, battlefield-tested system that works... and will work for you, no matter what you're trying to sell on the Web.

That product forced me to become a battle-tested expert in attracting targeted customers and making sites with SALES POWER.

Whatever it is that you are selling, your product will be easier to sell than my first product...

... far easier.