“I can show you how I made $100,000 in month on the internet!”

Does that sound familiar?

We have all seen claims of this sort on the internet. The author promises to teach you how to make a gazillion dollars on the internet…just the way they did it…guaranteed! In almost every case, they also have screenshots of their payouts from Google, Commission Junction, Clickbank, etc.

I don’t necessarily doubt the truth of these earnings statements, but by themselves, they tell you nothing about how good the business model is. In fact, you could “make” a $1,000,000 a month on the internet and still fail miserably.

Why? Because it’s not what you make, but what you keep that makes a business valuable. Real businesses have revenues (what you “made”) and expenses. The of your revenues and expenses is profits (what you keep). Profits is what makes you bank account go up in the long run.

I understand that this terminology is standard convention and meaning on the internet. I “made” $xxx means I had that many dollars in revenue. However, the author never tells you the expenses that went along with the revenue. So, you don’t really know if their bank account went up or down. The difference is very clear to me ( I have a CPA background), but to others, revenues versus profits may not be clear. This is especially the case given the way numbers are presented in sales copy.

Having said all that, I actually believe that most of the information being sold on the internet is potentially very valuable. If you discover the one idea that gets you past a hurdle in your business, then the benefits far outweigh the costs.

However, when you read sales copy that makes claims like this, be aware that they are really talking about revenue (in most cases), and your results will almost always be less (due to expenses). It’s what you keep, not what you “make” that counts.

Stay tuned .