It was a morning like any other. Up by six, in the office by eight, awake by nine. Two pots of coffee and last nights pizza. Another great start to a perfect day.

My name’s Dirk Digglewad. (Yea I know, but it’s not my fault!)

I run a little known detective agency in Los Angeles. ‘Little known’ are the key words here. I don’t want to say that business is slow, but I just paid last months rent and my landlord was ecstatic, cause now, I’m only a month behind.

My office is in the back of a little garage, in the worst part of town, or I’m sure, I’d have been kicked out by now. I don’t think anyone else would want it. Most days, I get more rats than customers! (Worst part is, I’m happy to see ‘em. Gives me someone to talk to.)

My specialty is missing persons, and you’d think, that in a town like this, business would be good. Truth is, I get lots of calls, but somehow they never seem to show up for their appointments. (Maybe it’s the neighborhood, ya think?)

I really am good at what I do. I have over a ninety percent success rate, but it’s hard gettin’ the clients to believe me, once they’ve been to my office. Trouble is, I just can’t afford better. Heck, I can’t afford this!

Well, I’d been sittin’ there all day, waitin’ for people to not show up, and it was gettin’ on towards five, so I decided to shut it down a little early and went to my favorite Gin Mill, intent on drownin’ my sorrows, one more time. (See, I like to look and feel my best each morning while I wait for people to not show).

“What’s up Dirk”, it was Bobby, the bartender, and one of my only friends. I run a tab with Bobby, that rivals my rent, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He knows I am good for it.

“Lookin’ a little down in the dumps, Dirk”, he said as he got me another Boiler Maker. “What’s givin’ ya the Blues today, Bud.”

“Just don’t think I’m gonna make it, Bobby.” I said, as I dropped that shot glass to the bottom of that frothy grave. “We both know I could track down a polar bear in a snowstorm. Heck, with that fancy new computer and all the programs I got, most times, I don’t even have to leave my office, but I just can’t get any one to believe me. Haven’t had a new client in over two weeks.”

“It’s that dump you work out of”, Bobby said, as he meticulously wiped at the spills and grime on the polished, hardwood bar. “It’s time you dragged yourself into the 21st century, Dirk. You need to get yourself on the Internet and stop countin’ on the Yellow Pages and that tiny little ad in the paper that no one ever reads.”

“Yea, I know Bobby, You been preachin’ that same ole gospel at me for over a year now, ever since you got that Internet connection at your home. What good’s it done you, huh? You spend all your spare time ‘Surfin the Web’ and ignoring reality. Seems like a waste of time to me.”

“Think so, huh?”, said Bobby as a huge grin split his face like a size forty butt in an old pair of size thirty-six jeans. “Well feast your eyes on this, my sarcastic and broke friend!” Bobby reached into the pocket of his new, neatly pressed, dress shirt. “Just got this today.”, and he held up a check, with his name on it, for fourteen hundred and fifty five dollars. “And that’s just the beginning.” He stuffed the check back

into his pocket as I sat there with what must have been the most dumbfounded look since Granny first asked Mr. Drysdale to stay for ‘Road-kill Stew’.”Where did you get that!” I managed to say, through the envious drool that was suddenly leakin’ down my chin.

“From my website, Dirk. You may think I’ve been playin’ around all this time, but truth is, I’ve been readin’ and learnin’ about Internet Marketing. It’s taken me awhile, ’cause there’s a lot of information on that World Wide Web. Some of it’s good, but most of it’s garbage. I finally figured it out and now it’s startin’ to pay off.”

“Your website!” I sputtered, “How’d did you get a website. How’d you learn how to do all that stuff. Those guys speak a foreign language, even when they do it in English. No offense, Bobby, but you ain’t exactly a rocket scientist.”

I felt bad as soon as it had come out of my mouth, but it was the truth. Bobby is a good man, but with an IQ that had to exercise hard, just climb into triple digits, I just couldn’t see any way possible, that he could have done this all by himself!

“It’s called ‘The Newbie Club Website Builder’.” he said, as he puffed up his chest like a new father holdin’ his first born son up to the in-laws as if to say, “See, and you thought I couldn’t do it!”

“They’re a couple of guys who are writin’ all these books about computers and computer stuff in a way that even you and me could understand. They put it all down in what they call ‘Newbie Speak” and explain, step by step, everything you need to know and do, to build yourself a killer website that’ll sell your product.”

Then he looked me square in the face and said, “Now, Dirk, if you want to save your business and finally pay off that bar bill of yours, then get yourself back to that rat infested hole, you call an office, get online and go to this address.”, and then he took out a clean bar napkin and a pen from the same pocket that was holdin’ that gorgeous check, and wrote down this address, http://newbieclub.com/cgi-bin/sgx/d.cgi?builder-check_it_out.

“Bye the course, Dummy, and build yourself a website that’ll get you an ‘International’ business. You said it yourself, you do it all on your computer anyway. If you build your business on the web, you won’t even need that dump you call your office. You can do it all right out of your home.

Well, it may have been the check that convinced me, but I did as I was told. I bought the course and started reading.

It was all so easy. Why had those computer geeks made it look so hard for all those years. (Guess they needed the work.)

Those books walked me through the whole thing as I began to build a site. Every time I had a question, they answered it, and before I knew it, I had a website.

And not just any website, I had a great website!

Well, that was Six months ago, and now I have more business than I know what to do with. I won’t tell ya it was an overnight success, it’s taken a lot of hard work, ’cause I had a lot to learn, but if I’d started this thing a year earlier, when Bobby first started harpin’ at me, I’d be workin’ out of a nice house of my own now, instead of this crummy old apartment. Oh well, it won’t be long now, things are progressin’ just fine, and at least my rent is paid up. Now, I don’t get up till eight. Still don’t wake up till nine, but I’m already at my office and I can afford to eat a good breakfast instead of that cold pizza. (Now, if I could just find someone to cook it for me; but that’s another story.)

I learned that no matter what kind of business what you have, you can do better if it’s on the web, and you don’t have to pay some ‘Geek’ a King’s ransom to get there.

I also found out, much to my surprise, that I can make a nice little chunk of extra change by telling other people about it, which is why I’m writing this little story.

Take my advice. Whether you’re a complete ‘Newbie’, or an old hand at this Internet stuff, there’s a lot to be learned form ‘The Newbie Club’. They’ve got books and tutorials on just about everything you can think of, concerning the computer.

Stop suffering through the learning curve and go get yourself some real knowledge!

http://www.newbieclub.com?check_it_out…