Book DotCom Secrets

Did you know there’s a formula for selling online, no matter what industry you’re in?

The formula for selling products exists, but you need to know the rules.

Entering the world of online marketing isn’t easy. It’s helpful to have a teacher explain things thoroughly with real-life examples as there is a learning curve for marketing and sales online.

The good news is Russell Brunson, one of the best internet marketers, wrote a book on the online marketer sales process, and it’s one of the best books that explains the ins and outs of online business. That book is DotCom Secrets.

I read DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online years ago, and it’s improved my online marketing skills and has been a resource in my home library since. In this post, I’ll share my key takeaways.

Here’s what I’ll cover in my DotCom Secrets review:

If you decide to get Russell’s book via his free plus shipping page, make sure to check out our bonuses towards the end of our review.

What Is DotCom Secrets?

dot com secrets foreword author

Dan Kennedy

DotCom Secrets Foreword

While teaching you about the shining secrets of the internet, he shows you how to build these tactics and strategies into your business on solid ground – tactics and strategies founded in true direct-response marketing.

DotCom Secrets was written in 2015, and at the time of writing this review, the book has over 670 customer reviews on Amazon with a 4.7 out of 5-star rating (up from 4.5 out of 5).

Although DotCom Secrets was published a few years ago, his book still teaches the fundamentals and secrets all successful marketers use.

At only 254 pages, this book is often known as a reference book by marketers today.

If you’re a marketing newbie, getting a copy of this book and keeping it handy is a sound idea. It’ll help you understand how a sales funnel works to grow your company.

Russell’s writing style makes DotCom Secrets an exciting read! DotComSecrets is filled with stories, real examples of marketing funnels, and scripts Russell uses with his own products and services.

Who Is Russell Brunson?

Russell Brunson

Russell is a successful internet marketer who is well-known for the company he helped co-found Etison LLC, where he successfully launched the Clickfunnels (all self-funded).

Clickfunnels is a software company that offers a sales funnel builder used to sell products online, lead generation, launching products, conduct split tests, and more.

Before Russell’s net worth exploded because of Clickfunnel’s success, Russell had success as an athlete at Boise State University and later selling DVDs on how to build potato guns online (cool way to get a first-class education on online sales funnels).

Later ventures involved helping other online business owners get over a million dollars in revenue, a coaching company, a supplement company, and more.

The entrepreneurs he’s helped over 10 years have a spot in Russell’s 2 Comma Club (Tony Robbins endorsed). He’s helped over 200 business owners from multiple industries become millionaires.

The core principles that got each one of those members in that club are taught in DotCom Secrets.

He’s also the author of Expert Secrets, which I also bought and reviewed (it’s advised to read DCS before Expert Secrets) and Traffic Secrets.

What You’ll Learn In DotCom Secrets

DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson is broken up into five sections.

To give you a true DotCom Secrets review, read the section summaries below.

Section 1: Value Ladders and Funnels

Russell starts DotCom Secrets by introducing you to the concept of a value ladder concept of online business.

overall funnel system

The above image is the visual representation of products/services you can sell to your ideal customer over time. Notice that the high-ticket products/services are not sold first but last.

The sales theory here is that people don’t usually buy the most expensive thing you’re selling until they’ve made a smaller price point purchase from you. This is a process that any company can use.

Let’s cover a quick example.

Say you’re an SEO freelancer. You can try selling your most expensive business services first (like a monthly recurring service), but a lower-ticket product (sometimes free) like a website audit or keyword research package would work better than going for the big retainer close right away.

Each step in the ladder is a commitment (as micro as it might be) by the customer that gets people buying more from your business.

It’s a win for you, and the customer wins too because you added higher value via your higher-ticket products/services, and the customer goes home happy. You get rewarded by increasing your business’s revenue!

This section covers the different types of funnels and which are fit for each kind of product or service. Each step of your ladder (each product/service) should use a funnel (he gets into WAY more specifics, but you get the gist of it).

Lastly, Russell goes over the three types of traffic sources to attract your dream client and how marketers can geometrically improve their traffic.

Section 2: Your Communication Funnel

Email marketing is still the best communication channel to communicate with your audience & dream customers in 2024.

Russell doesn’t get straight into the communication funnel principles, though he explains the concept called the Attractive Character.

The Attractive Character is about establishing your online persona (how your audience views you and how you attract your dream client to your message). Companies online use this principle to relate to their customer avatar(s).

You’ll use the Attractive Character in your marketing journey to build a following of loyal fans who will be among the first to buy your products and services.

The Attractive Character

As you can see from this image, 3 components make up your character: Elements, Identity, and Story Lines. (This all has to do with the communication funnel, by the way).

You’ll start by defining your Attractive Character’s elements, which are:

  • Your Backstory
  • Your Parables (little stories)
  • Your Character Flaws
  • Your Polarity

Russel Brunson explains each of these elements and dives deeper with the Identity and Story Lines components.

The second half of the section is about the two most effective email marketing strategies for communicating with your email list.

Soap Opera Sequence

Up first, the Soap Opera Sequence (SOS), which is a method of email marketing used by the best marketing gurus in the world because it makes the people on your list actually want to open your emails…

These emails are primarily designed to build a relationship with your subscribers effectively.

I originally learned this strategy from an email marketing course by the actual guy who invented email soap opera sequences, and I can tell you Russell did an excellent job explaining it in DotCom Secrets.

He gives a 5-day Soap Opera Sequence examples (email scripts) in the book, along with reasons why they should be sent after a lead subscribes to your list and at what frequencies.

Next up is the Daily Seinfeld Sequence (DSS). These are emails meant to go out to your list after your people have gone through your SOS.

While the SOS was meant to build a relationship with your subscribers, the DSS is made to maintain the relationship with your subs – otherwise, they might forget about you!

email series

So, why the name “Daily Seinfeld Sequence?”

Russell gave these one-off emails this name because they’re supposed to be entertaining yet not too direct. Simultaneously, these emails are related to your business, and cal helps you make sales.

These emails can mix delivering valuable content and a sales pitch now and then to your dream clients.

Now I know what you may be thinking… daily emails?!

This all boils down to preference. You can email your list daily if you want or every week; the main takeaway is always communicating with your audience or risk them forgetting about you and your business.

Section 3: Funnelology

In this third section, Russell goes over the fundamentals of using sales funnels strategies to lead your customers to a sale over and over again.

If you’ve never created (or thought about) a successful funnel before, you might be happy to know that you don’t have to start from scratch!

Instead, Russell recommends market research and reverse engineering a successful online funnel in your target market because, more than likely, you’re not the first player to enter your niche. He covers how the exact process of hacking other people’s funnels.

The next secret of this section is the 7 Phases of a Funnel.

The 7 Phases of a Funnel
Ladders and Funnels Marketing System

Here, Russell puts all the pieces of the puzzle together into a simple process. From getting traffic to the pre-frame, getting people to subscribe to your list, eventually buy your products online… and then how to keep them buying from you!

The 7 Phases part is when things really start clicking for people. Everything you’ll learn up to this point begins making sense from an applicable business point of view.

He wraps up the section with the building blocks of sales funnels, plus when and how to use the frontend funnel and backend funnels.

And last but not least, he talks about attracting potential customers to your business using the best bait. This is the last part of the DotCom Secrets book before he shows you his seven proven funnels.

Section 4: Funnels and Scripts

Section 4 is one of my favorites because Russell breaks down all the funnels that can be used as customers ascend your customer value ladder.

He breaks section four up into 3 mini sections: Frontend Funnels, Funnels for the Middle of the Value Ladder, and Backend Sales Funnels (each mini section has different sales funnels for all types of businesses).

The 7 funnels he thoroughly covers are the:

  1. Two-Step, Free Plus Shipping Funnel
  2. Self-Liquidating Offer Funnel
  3. Continuity Funnel
  4. The Perfect Webinar Funnel
  5. Invisible Webinar Funnel
  6. Product Launch Funnel
  7. High-Ticket, 3-Step Application Funnel

Specifically, you’ll learn how each funnel type works, what funnel building blocks are involved, and why they work. This is perfect if it’s your first time learning about the funnel sales process.

Also included are fill-in-the-blank example sales scripts templates you can make your own and use for your business. Each funnel Brunson talks about has a script you can implement.

Throughout this section, Russell also shares tips and tricks to increase your target audience’s business success rate.

Section 5: Clickfunnels

As you might’ve guessed, this section is about using the Clickfunnels software to build your business funnels.

It’s shorter than the other sections of DotCom Secrets, and its goal is to create minimal friction between what you just learned and the technology aspect.

Does The Book’s Teachings Work?

Absolutely. If you have an existing business or make money online, it’ll be easier for you to start making money with the marketing tactics taught in DotCom Secrets.

If you don’t have a business yet and are not sure where to start, you can always sell other people’s products and make affiliate sales. This is known as affiliate marketing and is a popular way people make money online these days.

Take Click Funnels; for instance, they have one of the best affiliate programs on the internet.

The cool thing about being a Clickfunnels affiliate is you can promote other courses, books, and products under the Clickfunnels partner program (you can promote Russell’s funnels, which have been battle-tested for conversions).

As an affiliate, you’d use what’s taught in DotCom Secrets to sell Clickfunnels and its related products as if they were your own products and, in return, get an affiliate commission (sometimes monthly recurring).

There are tons of affiliate products to promote on the internet today that have a target market, which is all you need to make money with Brunson’s DotCom Secrets teachings.

DotCom Secrets Pricing

How much does DotCom Secrets cost?

You can purchase DotCom Secrets on Amazon for roughly ten bucks, but Russell offers the book for free from his website. He asks you to pay shipping, which costs $7.95!

This is a perfect opportunity for you to see the shipping funnel in action. You can visit the DotCom Secrets website here.

It’s always great practice to analyze how successful online marketers are selling products via funnels. Some call this process reverse engineering a funnel – Russell calls it Funnel Hacking.

Book Review Conclusion

DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook For Growing Your Company Online was a mind-blowing read when I first started my online journey.

I can attribute DotCom Secrets to making me think strategically about my sales funnels, my email mailing list, overall value ladder funnel, sales pages, and traffic types in my business.

The big takeaway from Russell Brunson’s Dotcom book, for me, was not to solely focus on traffic to your website, but rather how to convert people into customers.

Now and then, I reference DCS to see how I can better implement Russell’s teachings in the internet marketing world and with my dream customer.

Here’s my DotCom Secrets review bottom line: whether you’re selling online in an e-commerce business, real estate, information products, affiliate marketing, or whatever business, I strongly recommend you get yourself a copy of the book to boost your sales.

DotCom Secrets Bonuses for Our Readers

Considering getting Russell’s book after reading my DotCom Secrets review?

We have bonuses that go with the book as a thank you for using our link (it helps us continue writing awesome reviews like this one).

These are the book bonuses you get:

#1. CF for Beginners Course to shorten the time it takes to learn Clickfunnels.

#2. Lifetime Recurring Affiliate Program List for those of you who want monthly recurring commissions!

#3. Access to CF Follow Up Pro so you can communicate via email with people who sign up for CF under your affiliate links

Getting this book bonus offer is easy; get Russell’s book via this DotCom Secrets review link (or other ones on this page) and contact us here with proof of purchase (receipt), and we’ll send the bonuses to your inbox within 24-48 hours.

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