I’m Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian, heart surgeon and social entrepreneur. I use my Internet-based information marketing business to fund heart surgery for under-privileged children in India.
This is my blog – and here is my story…
Getting Online
In 1995, the Internet came to India. I was online – with a dial-up modem, surfing the Web at 14.4 kbps on a text-only Lynx browser, yet feeling on top of the world!
Very soon after, I found myself interested in building a website, and created a resource on my subject of expertise and passion – congenital heart defects. At the time, I was a resident in cardiac surgery, and worked on my websites late into the night after a full day of operating and taking calls at the hospital.
By 1996, my website was getting 150 visitors a month – and one of them happened to be a talent scout for a new start-up that ultimately grew into one of the Top-10 web properties… About.com
Becoming An Infopreneur
I eagerly snapped up his offer to be Heart Disease Guide on About.com (then called The Mining Company) – even though it involved writing 8 original articles a month, managing a growing online community, finding quality links to add to a directory, and other administrative tasks… for a monthly payment of just $150.
Why did I do it? Because it gave me experience of working with a quality team, on a project that revolved around building information resources on various topics. That ended up being the best decision I ever made in my online career.
Learning Information Marketing
I spent the next year learning a lot about information marketing – things like developing content based on a strategy, attracting the right audience, monetizing models, and web marketing tactics that drove traffic to the site. I got involved in many Internet marketing discussion lists like LED, iSales, iAdvertising and ePub, where I met experts in various fields – and forged friendships and connections that last to this day.
As About.com grew into a powerhouse, so did my income. By 1998, I was making close to $1,000 a month. And in parallel, I was building another resource called “Heart Disease Online” which today serves over 25,000 visitors every month.
Creating Info Products
It was in 1999 that I created my first information product – a niche ebook that is still on sale today, and has brought in several thousand dollars in profit. I followed a process taught by the late Corey Rudl, one of the best Internet marketing specialist I’ve learned from – and who taught me the value of creating ‘evergreen’ products.
During this time, I also published an email newsletter, “The Heart Beat Healthzine”, which at its peak had over 15,000 subscribers. At that time, there were very few ezine publishing tools or services, and autoresponders were a novelty.
I ran my email newsletter right from my email client (called Pegasus) that ran on my PC, pasting the subscriber list into the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field of the message!
Yes, this was in a pre-spam era, and when each issue went out, I would receive between 30 and 300 replies – and engage in a fun conversation with my subscribers!
That key to infopreneur success is sadly missing these days. Connection and engagement with your audience is a KEY to being a good infopreneur – because it helps build empathy and awareness of their biggest needs and wants.
Building An Infopreneur Business
Some time later, I left About.com and made my first foray into the exciting arena of Internet marketing as an infopreneur. I began to see the enormous potential that lay ahead from building an online business – and came up with a strategy that tied it into one of my deepest seated passions… a desire to help children with heart defects.
The result of this plan, rooted in passion, driven by purpose, and that would take a lot of persistence and patience to fulfill, has led (10 years later) to my non-profit, the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation being able to sponsor over 50 heart operations – funded partly through donations, but mainly from profits of my growing infopreneur business!
As you’ve seen, I already had 3 years of experience in a niche I was expert at, had created infoproducts and published a popular and widely read ezine before even venturing into the ‘make money online’ niche.
Entering the Internet Marketing Niche
My first infoproduct here was also based on my rich experience as an ezine publisher and marketer – an ebook called “Ezine Launch”. Hesitantly, not at all sure it would sell, I priced the 140 page book at a measly $4.95 and offered it to members on a busy email discussion list.
(Interesting anecdote: Before doing this, I contacted affiliate super-guru, Allan Gardyne, who was also subscribed to this list. I offered him the opportunity to sell my ebook and keep 50% of the profits – and sincerely believed he would jump at that mouth-watering offer… until his politely worded reply declined it, dashing my fond hopes – and setting me on the course to becoming an infopreneur!)
A few minutes after my post was distributed to the list, I had made my first sale! It was EXCITING – for 20 minutes.
Then, I got my first refund request!
It would have been heart-breaking – if not for the fact that over the next few hours, I made 12 sales… and in the first week, had 32 sales for that ebook at $4.95. In the years since, only one other buyer has asked for a refund for that ebook – and that’s what I remember a very popular Internet marketing guru for, not for her amazing success since those early days! 
Studying Expert Information Marketers
Being more certain that this ebook was in-demand, I then made many changes. I bought my first ever infopreneur guide, Dr.Ken Evoy’s “Make Your Site Sell”, which was then a $19.95 ebook with around 60 pages. I studied everything in it, and applied the lessons to my own product.
Then, I steadily raised my price to $19.95, and then to $47, and finally to $147.00 – for the same information product! It was worth that much – but it took a while for me to realize it, and then convey that value to buyers.
By now, the infopreneur bug had well and truly bitten me – and over the next few years, I created 25 to 30 different infoproducts, many of them short special reports and a couple of them more elaborate courses, turn-key niche minisites and even a software tool.
In 2003, I joined a popular discussion forum that many Internet marketers are familiar with – the Warrior Forum.
It was a network of very experienced business owners, and associating with them, learning from them, and over time, imbibing their mindset, attitude and approach to business took me to the next level, bringing in quick succession my first 4- and then 5-figure pay days!
Mentored By Master Infopreneurs
The biggest benefit of those windfalls was that it paid for a 26-week mentoring program under the legendary marketing genius, Jay Abraham. If the Warrior Forum was responsible for a quantum change in the way I thought about business, Jay’s coaching shifted another paradigm, and grounded me thoroughly in strategy and tactical elements.
After that year, my success as an infopreneur was practically guaranteed!
And things just kept getting better all the time.
Information Marketing Is Easy
But only when you know what to do!
What I’ve shared here are the highlights of a 15 year long career. What is not detailed are the long nights, countless hours, agonizingly frustrating mistakes, fits of hopelessness, and the occasional heart-broken decision to simply throw up my hands and give up!
But I did not give up. And a part of the reason is because of the work I do off the Internet, as a pediatric heart surgeon.
Yes, I actively practice medicine, and perform heart surgery. The little children I treat are often seriously ill. They have been dealt a bad hand by fate.
Yet, they are cheerful, determined, and never give up.
For them – just as for you and me – failure is not an option.
To give up is to die. And that lesson helped me hang in there through the tough and rough times.
Over a decade and a half, I’ve seen people come and go. Some shine brilliantly for a while, like a supernova, before they implode and fade away. Others struggle along gamely, but then lose heart when they see success remote and far away – and give up.
A select few stick with it. Explore and experiment. Learn and correct. And keep plugging away, committed to winning through.
They always do.
I want you to be one of them.
That’s why I shared my story.
Now it’s your turn.
Tell me about YOU. Your challenges and hopes, your frustrations and disappointments – and your promise to yourself, to make YOU succeed in this exciting game of Information Marketing!
Go…