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If you're in business for yourself (or you'd like to be), then you should read this. It's important.

This past week, I was sent emails from several high-profile Internet marketing gurus announcing openings to their exclusive subscription web site.

Their introduction videos were fantastic. Their message was spot on. I could not wait to share this information with our team and get their impressions even though no price for this service was mentioned.

We reviewed the information and videos together and even after we discovered that the subscription price to access this information was $797.00, (Did I mentions that that subscription price was monthly?), we still questioned whether we could afford this investment in education.

In search of finding an answer to the value and ethics of these guru's offering, we visited various forums and Google search results looking for answers to their reputations and the value of the offer. We finally determined that this was not an offering we wanted to involve ourselves in. But, the interesting part was analyzing the process and the motivation that almost got us to press the submit order button. We had the order form completely filled out and that is how close we were to investing $797.00 per month to a subscription web site.

It did get me thinking about the guru crowd, and the massive amounts of money they are consistently able to extract from the wallets of their loyal followers.

Despite all the hype, promises, time and money invested, I have to tell you that the most valuable lesson I've learned in the past 15 years was presented to me by a mysterious and successful older gentleman who shared this "secret" years ago.

And here it is:

"Create the product and services you'd want to use."

Before I'd read that, for years I'd been developing sites and services with the sole intent of earning income online. There's nothing wrong with that, but focusing exclusively on making money made me feel empty. At the end of the day, I'd ask myself, "Is the world a better place as a result of my work today?"

Invariably, the answer was always, "No."

It wasn't until my two sons were born that I started to think about a legacy and how I would answer their questions about what I did for a living. Kids really change the way you look at the world. I didn't really have an answer that I felt good about.

As a result, when I discovered DotNetNuke, and later XMod, I quit what I was doing. I left my Corporate job as Senior Web Developer, and spent several years learning all I could about these wonderful products and trying different things with a new approach. And that's when my new business mantra was presented to me.

And a year later, the DNN Professor website was born.

It's the result of focusing not on money, but on striving to create value, solve problems and help people. It's the type of product/service I would use if I were looking to take advantage of DotNetNuke, XMod, and web video and didn't want to spend a lot of time and money trying to figure it all out.

My advice: Don't worry about the big gurus. Most are just good at getting you to believe they know something you don't - which of course they'll be happy to share with you for a hefty fee.

I decided to disregard all the advice that I was receiving from these so called gurus and follow the advice of that mysterious and successful older gentleman.

Based on feedback from DNN Professor subscribers, and keeping the above mantra in mind, I'd say I made a good decision: http://dnnprofessor.com/AboutUs/Testimonials.aspx. It has made all the difference in the world.

• Build the web site you'd like to visit.
• Write the book you'd like to read.
• Create the video you'd like to watch.
• Develop the service you'd like to use.
• Create the product you'd like to buy.

It worked for me...

Oh, did I mention that those two sons are now my partners and together we daily share the excitement and satisfaction of helping create a world that is a better place because of the work we do today?

It is a privilege to serve you.

Buck