Making Money On the Internet With Facebook & Twitter
by Art Kunkin
March 25, 2010

Readers of this column certainly know by now that I have written a book about how an ordinary human being may be able to live for hundred years. I have already sold many hundreds of copies of this book through internet marketing and at conferences where I have been a speaker. The book sold for $30, a price I felt reasonable because it contains priceless information totally unavailable elsewhere.

I have written this book about achieving longevity for several reasons. First, the idea of possibly living for hundreds of years seems to be extremely disturbing to most people. My book is, in part, an attempt to show that extreme longevity is going to be part of our future whether one likes it or not. I am preparing those I reach for the inevitable.

This is not simply an advocacy of my particular method for life extension. My investigations have revealed that hundreds if not thousands of scientists are already working on the problem of achieving longevity. An incredible extension of the human life span is probably only years away, likely in the lifetime of most of the people living now.

A second reason for the book is that I am a writer and have made much of my living from writing books, magazine articles, and publishing newspapers. Given the difficult economy and my present age of 82, there are few other jobs other than writing, communicating and teaching private classes open to me. My book, in fact, is an experiment in self-publishing and self-marketing using the new computer and internet technology. My intention is to use my experience with this book to demonstrate how super-seniors can possibly support themselves even if they are hundreds of years old.

However, because of this planned use of my book experience, my computer desktop and files are a total mess. For example, in anticipation of my teaching to super-seniors, I have retained 114,000 stored and unread emails on my computer that might be useful. Also, I have been collecting material from more than a hundred internet “gurus” about how web sites can be built and monetized through selling advertising.

I have been learning to use certain computer tools by which huge email lists of tens of thousands of names can be collected, organized and maintained. I have been learning how to negotiate with marketers on the internet to obtain their products for sale without my having to come up in advance with big dollars. I have been learning how to compile and use special internet tools to automatically manage all these aspects of internet business without have a staff of many dozens of people.

In short, I have had to learn tricks that make computers and the internet itself easy to access and use. I have also had to learn to detect the tricksters, scammers and spammers who say they will teach you everything needed to make money but whose real success in business is measured by how much they can swindle from your (or my) pockets.

So come to the present. Last week I had some extraordinary large expenses and little cash. (Does that sound familiar?) In particular I needed to fill a large tank with hundreds of dollars worth of propane for cooking and heating, a large one-time expense that doesn’t recur for many months. So one thing I did was to reduce the price of the book from $30 to $9.

Then using Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and other social networking sites, I made friends with hundreds of potential buyers for the book, people interested in longevity who would give me their email addresses in exchange for stuff I offered them. Often, I wouldn’t be talking about selling the book at all. I spent hours just being engaged in the friendly chit-chat and question-asking and question-answering that takes place on internet forums and discussion groups.

Finally, I sent out through a very reliable company specializing in email advertising a “Propane (Fire) Sale.” This “broadcast” email went to hundreds of people on my email lists who had (and this is most important) given me specific permission to send information about the book. By using these special “opt-in” lists I avoided spamming, the unforgivable crime of the internet where you pester people with unwanted advertising.

In a few days I saw the results of my work. In a short period, I quickly sold a large number of books at the reduced price of $9 and could pay my extraordinary bills. I didn’t make tens of thousands of dollars, as the unscrupulous internet markets promise when they ask for exorbitant monthly consultation fees. However, I did make a fairly large sum of money, enough to pay my bills. My book remains on sale at $9 while more emails are being sent. I have many friends who trust me and I am happy. (More on internet business in future columns).