I’m certain many of you have experienced this.  I know I did, and if you didn’t… well you are one of the lucky ones.

Early in my attempts to create a successful online business, one of the many sites I came across first were the so called “turn-key” businesses.  They have real “reach out and grab you” headlines like…

“Do You Want Results Like This Just By Getting a FREE Website?”

Then, of course, there are plenty of testimonials saying how great the results were.  Some of these sites are offered by really well known marketers.  Their testimonials are real, but you just don’t know the context, or experience of the people giving the testimonials.

So many times I tried various “turn-key” affiliate website offers. Almost to a tee, each of them gave you a cheesy website, made it possible for you to put affiliate links in them (along with a banner), and then…

… claimed they would teach you to get tons of targeted traffic so you would make bunches of sales.  They did this in a number of ways…

• Told you to go make a bunch of Adwords campaigns and didn’t really teach you how to do it correctly
• Sent you to a pile of traffic exchanges
• Told you to email every safelist on the planet
• Or gave you a “downline builder” for you to refer bunches of people to in hopes of making commissions because others would do the same thing

These sites use all, or some of the above, and none of them is a proven money maker for anyone but the owner of the site.  Sure, it really grabbed me emotionally.  I had no cash, no credit, no savings.  I only had pure desire, and I needed to get going at a very low cost.  How bout you?

So I did them.  I tried and I tried, but never did a penney come back to me.  Never!

Sometimes I wanted to cry.  Other times I wanted to quit.  I did cry, but I never quit.  I just had to apply a touch of logic.  Try once, and fail, what did I learn?  Try again and fail, what did I learn?  Try a third time and fail, what did I learn?

Often I wasn’t answering the question honestly.  How bout you?  Do you answer your failures honestly?

Eventually I faced the facts.  These programs did not teach me how to get any real targeted traffic that would ever buy anything.  That is the fact.

They ate up my time, with no return.

Eventually, I saved enough money for some real mentoring on how to really get targeted traffic and increase online traffic daily to any niche site.  I studied, and took action.  I put it all to work, and then narrowed it down to the steps I needed to get a website up and flowing with highly targeted visitors from the day I posted the first content.

Then I worked on automating as much as possible.  I don’t mean ‘black hatting’ either.  I’m talking about a targeted traffic system you can use to create the highest traffic website as the lowest possible cost.

First I found the free tools that really brought targeted viewers and potential buyers.  Then I tested a number of paid automation services.  Most worked to varying degrees, but I had to use the one with highest return, in terms of time and potential profit (note I don’t say Return on investment – real profit is all that mattered).

When I got it all narrowed down, it became TrafficStarterPro.  I actually used an offer called the Great Traffic Experiment to help me figure out how I could best teach the process.

So, I’m guessing that many readers, whether you’re brave enough to admit it here or not, tried the same thing with the turn key websites, and ended up much the same way.

What’s your story with Turn-key websites?  Tell me below.

- Wayne Sharer