Best clueless line of all time:
"By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's."
That was Paul Krugman in 1998.
Ouch.
Actually, the Internet has changed everything.
One of my favorite early Internet stories:
In the 1990s, Tom Woods Show guest Steve Hogarth, of the band Marillion (which has sold in excess of 15 million albums), tried explaining to American audiences that they couldn't afford to tour in the U.S. The books just didn't balance. Their fan base was in Europe.
But on the fledgling Internet of the 1990s, Marillion fans banded together and raised $60,000 -- and then pledged to buy tickets on top of that if Marillion came. Which they did.
Hogarth later noted that here he was the lead singer, and he had no idea this was even going on. Suddenly, they had this pile of money.
But he was a quick learner. "Whatever this Internet thing is, we'd better get on it," he said.
Other struggling bands, not wise to the benefits of the Internet, missed out on these advantages and opportunities.
The Internet has made things like this possible. It has also made possible the kind of lifestyle I myself enjoy: wherever there's WiFi, I can work. No boss, no fixed schedule, no workplace politics (which must be excruciating these days), no physical inventory. Just doing what I love to do.
Even now, in 2021, most people still slave away at miserable jobs they hate, as if this were a fated existence and the Internet wasn't a thing.
You have got to hear Aidan Booth and Steve Clayton's special eCommerce presentation for my people on Tuesday night. You are going to thank me.
What should newbies looking for a soup-to-nuts side hustle do? This.
No Amazon, no Facebook, no China.
Oh, and I'm throwing in four bonuses just for attending live:
(1) The Tom Woods Email Domination Program, which teaches how to build and monetize an email list, and kick the stuffings out of people with bigger lists than you. This sells for $97. You can have it for $0 if you stay through our workshop.
(2) My $5000 case study. I went to New York City to visit Michael Malice shortly before the world shut down. As you can imagine, on a trip like that I didn't spent much time working. Yet I managed to pull in nearly 5000 smackers from just one source. I walk you through every single step of what I did.
(3) We're giving away 100 smackers to each of ten random people chosen at random from the live attendees.
(4) If we can get at least 500 live attendees, we'll donate $5000 to the Scott Horton Show -- and if there's anyone more deserving in the libertarian world than Scott, I don't know who it is. (Please DO NOT tell Scott about this; I want it to be a surprise if we manage to pull it off.)
Sign up to join us, and I'll see you there: