DotCom Secrets Review: Is It Still a Relevant Book in 2024?

You should read the DotCom Secrets if you want to get ahead in your business.

Yes, it’s that powerful. And hundreds of thousands of online marketers, leaders, business owners, and industry influencers have benefitted immensely from the book.

This is a comprehensive DotCom Secrets review. So get ready to learn new skills and ideas that will take your marketing skills to the next level.

It’s one of my favorite business books. You may have to read it multiple times to fully grasp it. Or simply make it your companion as you go about your online lifestyle business adventures.

In the introduction of the book, Russell Brunson promised to keep the book evergreen for years to come. The goal is to make it relevant to both new and advanced online entrepreneurs.  

How many business books do you still find relevant in this ever-changing world? Even though marketing techniques are constantly changing, the DotCom Secrets book is still incredibly relevant and useful today. 

What is DotCom Secrets?

The DotCom Secrets book provides a step-by-step process for growing a successful business — whether online or offline.

Even though DotCom Secrets was first published in 2015, you’ll find that most of the strategies that Russell talks about are still effective today. 

You’ll get a ton of actionable advice from the book and if you have plans to sell products online or you’re already at it, you need to get a copy of DotCom Secrets and keep it as a reference.

The late Dan Kennedy wrote the forward to the DotCom Secrets book. In his exact words: 

“In truth, this is a proven playbook for growing your company with effective lead generation and sales/conversion methods, which can be used online and offline.”

This is a powerful and transformative book. DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson is the perfect road map if you’re looking to start a business or scale an existing business. 

Within the pages of the Dotcom Secrets book, you’ll get a detailed plan that guides you on the right building blocks for your business. You’ll definitely get results from reading it. 

To be honest, DotCom Secrets sounds like a book for building a sustainable online business only.

But don’t be constrained by that because the actionable marketing strategies work for both online and offline businesses. So you’re in safe hands if you run a brick-and-mortar business and want to transition to online marketing.

Who is DotCom Secrets for?

Is DotCom Secrets for you?

Well, only you can answer that question. If you want to start or scale a business and follow proven ‘shortcut’ that has been tested by Russell himself, you should read the DotCom Secrets book.

It’s changing lives and I’ve personally found it super valuable on my entrepreneurial journey (I’ve read it several times). I highly recommend the book.

If you’d rather play cool and try to figure it out by yourself, then DotCom Secrets may not be worth your read. You should consider another book.

Although, DotCom Secrets provides smart insights and strategies to:

• Existing business owners: If you haven’t started a business at all or have no business idea, the book may not be relevant to you.
• Product owners: If you have an existing product already, then you can learn strategies to double or even triple your sales.
• Confident marketers: If you’re willing to take steps that may challenge your idea of business, then you should use DotCom Secrets as a reference.

Why DotCom Secrets is a must read book for any entrepreneur or online marketer

You want to build a business that stands the test of time. You don’t want to fizzle out because you lack the skillset, tools, and secrets that have been tested and proven to produce terrific results.

So whether you’re a beginner who’s just getting started or you’re an expert, DotCom Secrets will walk you through the process of starting and growing a profitable business.

If you already have a business, use the secrets in the book to scale to unbelievable levels? Aside from making money, you’ll touch more lives and make the world a better place.

DotCom Secrets Is a trusted and powerful book that provides specific, actionable directions on what you should do to fail-proof your business, how to attract customers, and the secrets to significantly boost your sales.

If you fail to read DotCom Secrets, you’re still not limited at all. The only challenge, though, is that you’ll miss the opportunity to quickly grow your existing business or thrive in a competitive industry.

How is DotCom Secrets different from Expert Secrets & Traffic Secrets?

Sure, there are some differences between Expert Secrets. Both books are relevant to, lifestyle entrepreneurs, business owners and online marketers — since they complement each other and provide for starting and growing a successful business.

DotCom Secrets outlines a step-by-step process to effectively structure your business. You get to learn how to deliver your message and communicate value in a way that makes people want to pay you.

Expert Secrets gives actionable examples, illustrations, and stories that help you find your voice, build a loyal fan base and get paid to share messages that will change someone else’s life.  

Both books are recommended to business owners who want to become more successful in their industries. Entrepreneurs who are built to see opportunities in competition instead of pain.

And finally in Russell’s third and brand new book in the trilogy called Traffic Secrets, which is the playbook for filling your websites and funnels with your dream customers (aka getting tons of traffic as the title of the book suggests).

DotCom Secrets Review: An in-depth look inside

The Dotcom Secrets book is organized into 5 sections just like Expert Secrets that outlines the simple marketing processes and how to implement them.

Section One: Ladders and Funnels

Russell started the first section of DotCom Secrets with “Ladders and Funnels.” He also reveals five (5) marketing secrets. Let’s go over them:

Secret #1: The Secret Formula

First, you need to have a full understanding of where you want your business. How does this understanding help your customers and clients? 

This will help you to serve them better — instead of trying to find out their pain points, how desperate they need solutions, and what they’re willing to pay.

In the secret formula, four simple questions were outlined in a step-by-step order inside the DotCom Secrets book:

• Who are your dream clients?
• How do you find them? 
• How do you attract them without being pushy?
• What benefit will they get from your business? 

You’ll find answers to these questions and more in the first secret.

Secret #2: The Value Ladder

Value is key when it comes to building a sustainable business. If there’s no value, customers and clients will leave. 

That’s why Russell invested a ton of time to dissect the steps that you need to follow to navigate your dream customer from taking the “bait” (starting point of your ladder) to where they want to be. 

This secret is referred to as “taking them through your value ladder.”

When you successfully structure the value ladder, you’ll not only make more money, you’ll also provide your customers with a more customized solution. They’ll love you for this.

Secret #3: From A Ladder To A Funnel

This secret is where the magic happens. It’s like an epiphany that changes everything you already know about growing a profitable business. You’ll get started with building out your own sales funnel and the psychology behind a profitable funnel.

It goes beyond the product you’re selling or how they’re priced. There’s a lot more…

You need to have a complete value ladder in place. It’s like your infallible system for making sales on autopilot. You may not be able to build a high-converting sales funnel if you don’t have an effective value adder mapped out.

The sales funnel is important and has changed the way entrepreneurs and businesses approach sales online. 

It works because it takes into account the customers’ behaviors — and moves them through the different steps of your value ladder until they’re ready to purchase your product — willingly.

Secret #4: How To Find Your Dream Customers

You have a target market. Unfortunately, you may not know how to identify or serve them. That’s why knowing how to define your target market is important. 

This secret outlines where your target market (i.e., customers who are ready to purchase your product) are spending most of their time online. Discover the tricks to divert their attention to your sales funnel. This is gold!

You’ll be armed with the strategies that work to get a customer to leave whatever they’re doing and check out your page.

Every online entrepreneur needs to learn and master these strategies. Russell makes it easy in DotCom Secrets. 

Secret #5: The Three Types Of Traffic

Generating traffic to a landing page or website is a constant struggle for most people. It’s arguably the most daunting aspect of running a successful online business.

Do you really understand how traffic works in the online marketing space? If you aren’t confident in your traffic generation expertise, Russell has the answers.

He shows you the best type of traffic that you should pay attention to and how it can transform your business. The type of traffic includes: 

• Traffic we control
• The traffic we don’t control
• Traffic we own

Section Two: Your Communication Funnel

In this section, Russell digs deeper into the processes involved in building an audience by leveraging more advanced personal branding tactics, the secrets to communicating well with your audience that will lead to a sale.

Make sure you don’t skip this section while reading DotCom Secrets.

Secret #6: The Attractive Character

There’s a secret to building a confident and attractive character.

Why do you think guys like Gary Vaynerchuk, Marie Forleo, Tony Robbins, and of course, Russell Brunson have massive followers?

As a business owner, you can’t go wrong when you finally establish an attractive character. When you’re successful at it, it means you can add more qualified customers to your email list and launch a successful product that people are willing and ready to purchase right away.

In creating that attractive character, Russell Brunson defines the three components you must keep in check, which is split into three (3) categories: 

• The Elements
• The Identity
• Storylines

DotCom Secrets shows you how to create an attractive character using these components and their elements, and identify the best way to communicate your captivating stories that will get the sales coming in. 

Secret #7: The Soap Opera Sequence

This “secret” comes from the previous part of Dotcom Secrets. It’s all about creating a bond and a sort of rapport between the Attractive Character and the target market via a traffic source we own. Email.

The Soap Opera Sequence comprises a series of email sequences that help to connect and establish an instant relationship between you and the person reading your email. Russell credits Andre Chaperon (creator of Autoresponder Madness) for coming up with the Soap Opera Email Sequence.

Russell out of his good heart also shares the EXACT five email templates that have helped him to transition into an Attractive Character and a sought-after internet marketer.

The Soap Opera Sequence works because it capitalizes on giving value to your subscribers. This ‘value’ coupled with an irresistible open storyline hooks them the moment they read your first email and they’ll look forward to the next one.

The days of boring email sequences are over. Don’t just enjoy soap opera on TV, it’s time to anecdotally use it in your email messages.

Secret #8: Daily Seinfeld Sequence

According to Russell Brunson, “the secret to keeping your subscribers happy to hear from you every day is using the Seinfeld email format.”

So what’s the Seinfeld format all about?

It’s an email style that builds excitement in your readers. It’d entertain them and cause them to purchase from you. 

It leverages the power of storytelling. But this time, you’re being creative in sharing your life and relevant stories happening with/around you — stories they can easily connect with. You should be strategic and purposeful about it anyways.

You want to be able to lead ideal customers back to your offer. This may look simple but it’s powerful nonetheless!

Russell also provides good examples and written templates to speed up the process when you’re sending Seinfeld emails.

Section three: Funnelology

In this section, the strategies and tactics for building high-converting funnels are discussed in detail, as well as and what you really should do to make your funnel work.

Russell covers the fundamentals of a funnel, phases (and sales funnel stages) and the type of landing pages to use, how to structure them, when, and in what matter.

Secret #9: Reverse-engineering a successful funnel

In Marketing 101, we learned the importance of sticking to systems that work. In other words, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

If you’re a business owner and you’re struggling to break even, there’s a chance that you’re making the above mistake. 

This is common with entrepreneurs who are just starting with their sales funnel. They attempt to re-invent the whole vehicle. What a terrible path to follow when building a business!

The secret here is leveraging on other people who already have a successful funnel and making your offer to their exact customers. Keep an eye on the:

• Demographics
• Ad copy and copies
• Traffic sources
• Offers
• Landing page

Knowing how to reverse all these elements to work for you is a priceless gift for your business. It’s quite easy once you understand how the pieces fit.

Secret #10: Seven phases of a funnel

I’m very glad that I read DotCom Secrets a few years ago (and several times more since that first time to fully understand and implement the strategies in my own online business.

It not only opened my eyes to funnels and how to build them but also the seven phases that an ideal customer has to go through.

It made me better come to terms with this sentence within the DotCom Secrets. It reads:

The real difference between having a six-, seven-, or even eight-figure business is whether you understand the phases of a funnel and can successfully monetize the points along the line.

I got to know that there are levels of traffic temperature and therefore, treating them along the same funnel process is dangerous. 

This secret alone is fundamental to creating the right type of page, offer, and traffic that will lead to sales.

There’s also the pre-framing concept that you need to fully understand when creating a funnel — especially if you want visitors and leads to trust you more. Well, who doesn’t want to establish trust already?

Secret #11: The Twenty-Three Building Blocks Of A Funnel

DotCom Secrets goes beyond the typical business advice. It goes into the specific landing pages you can create in the 7 building phases that we’ve discussed earlier. 

You get to see the twenty-three of the most effective building blocks for your sales funnels. 

Smart funnel hackers use these building blocks at specific times during these same four phases of the funnel:

• Pre-frame bridge
• Qualifying subscribers
• Qualifying buyers
• Identifying hyperactive buyers for your products and services.

Once you’ve understood how this works, you can decide which you want to begin with first and which one to stick to in your market. 

Secret #12: Frontend Vs. Backend Funnels

Choosing the right type of funnels can be a struggle even to the more advanced marketers. More so, understand the funnels that will be served only to qualified buyers (at the backend).

This mistake isn’t so obvious — but bypassing it can make a difference in your traffic engagement and sales.

Here Russell outlines the process he follows when choosing a funnel to use on the frontend of his value ladders, the funnel he uses in the consideration stage (the middle), and those used for the backend offers.

Secret #13: The Best Bait

I couldn’t contain this ‘secret’ when I first read the DotCom Secrets book. 

Russell spills it all out in this section and reveals the secret that made all his books sell millions. 

Just by grabbing your free copy of DotCom Secrets and studying the funnel steps, you’ll have several “Aha-Moments” that will change your business, especially if you have a product you’re currently selling online (or even offline).

I mean if you can order your free copy of DotCom Secrets and study the funnel steps, you’ll understand the secret behind these records.

He emphasizes the power of words and how using a certain WORD can change your entire business magically. That single word can act as bait.

Regardless of the industry you operate in, what you do, what products you offer, or the business model, this is the part that some of the successful entrepreneurs would hide from you.

Section Four: Funnels And Scripts

The first time I read DotCom Secrets, I couldn’t grasp this section because it was unique in its way. I had to read the book again to understand the point that Russell was making.

As one of the actionable sections, Russell dives deeper into the core funnels he uses in running ClickFunnels and other companies, as well as the exact funnel scripts that have helped him to sell millions of each of his products.

These are split into the Frontend, Middle and Backend Funnels. Interestingly, you don’t have to struggle with these parts because there’s a powerful suite of software you can use to automate everything — ClickFunnels software.

1. Frontend Funnel: Two-Step – Free Plus Shipping

The Frontend Funnel is important because it shows what should happen once you get your visitors onboard your sales funnel. 

You’ll find this type of funnel in the DotCom Secrets book Funnel. It’s a Two-Step funnel that’s simple to build and can benefit eCommerce marketers or entrepreneurs who have Free Plus Shipping offers.

The first page of the Frontend Funnel begins with a video with the Who, What, Why and How script which pre-frames the visitor. Next, the visitor is asked to supply where the product should be shipped.

On the second page (step-two) of the funnel, the visitor’s credit card information is requested for the shipping and handling charge. Once the visitor has successfully filled out the second page – the One-time-offer is next.

Of course, you’re not left alone as there are scripts you will use to make this whole 2-step free shipping funnel effective. Thanks, Russell!

2. Frontend Funnel: Self-Liquidating Offer

In the same Frontend Funnel, we also have the SLOs or Self-Liquidating Offers. The goal of setting up this offer is to help breakeven and cover the money you spent on advertising or getting the lead.

Here, Russell Brunson shows the practical mechanics involved in this type of funnel. And he also introduced a unique script called the Star, Story, Solution script which helps to nudge a cold lead towards your products. 

You’ll gain access to these scripts which are forty-four (44) in number.

3. Frontend Funnel: Continuity

In this Frontend Funnel, you’ll discover how to entice visitors and let them keep paying for a longer time.

But you’re not limited in any way — as there are many ways to utilize this to increase your success rate.

4. Middle Funnel: Perfect Webinar

The perfect webinar is the perfect and also the first funnel for the middle of your value ladder. It covers everything about hosting high-converting webinars; how to use live or recorded presentations to market your products or services on autopilot.

Sure enough, you’re provided with the techniques and scripts that will make the webinar truly “perfect.”

5. Middle Funnel: Invisible Perfect Webinar

Unlike the Perfect Webinar, this one is a little different. It’s not FREE!. It’s a more advanced webinar presentation where your goal is to get people to buy. But it’s “invisible” — which means there’s no pushy or deception involved. 

You’ll also access the scripts for this upgraded version of Perfect Webinar. 

6. Middle Funnel: Product Launch

You use the “Product Launch” funnel specifically for launching a new product by sharing a series of videos to provide tons of value to your visitors.

Online marketing influencers like Ramit Sethi, Brian Dean, Dean Graziosi (the creator of Knowledge Broker Blueprint), and a host of them use it.

These videos will be persuasive, helpful, and entertaining — thereby causing visitors to take actions. You’ll discover how to properly structure these videos in the DotCom Secrets book.

7. Backend Funnel: High-Ticket, Three-Step Application

This is where you master the art of selling high-ticket offers using an advanced formula and scripts. If you’re a coach or consultant, this funnel is what you need to acquire premium clients. 

Section 5: ClickFunnels

This last section is brief but you can learn more by reading my ClickFunnels review.

DotCom Secrets pros and cons

DotCom Secrets is a great book if you want to gain insights, see examples, and read stories that will inspire you to build a successful business online or guide you in transitioning from offline to online marketing channels.

So let’s consider the pros and cons quickly:

Pros

• DotCom Secrets is free. Get business-building knowledge without paying money.
• Improve your business’ relevance using the value ladders and sales funnel strategies and scripts.
• Get secrets to becoming a thought leader in your industry. 
• Simple strategies that will work for any business model. 
• Build relationships and establish rapport with your customers. 

Cons

• You may need to have an existing business to benefit from DotCom Secrets (although it can certainly benefit you if you’re just starting out as well as long as you implement the information).
• The book is ideal for businesses that leverage online marketing platforms.

DotCom Secrets book pricing

DotCom Secrets is FREE when you get it from the official website. You only have to pay for shipping/handling — $7.95 if you’re based within the US or $14.95 for international.

There you have it, the Free Plus Shipping offer we discussed earlier. As you can see, Russell is a master at implementing what he teaches.

If you prefer to buy DotCom Secrets from Amazon, you can get the paperback format for $14.80. It’s your choice.

DotCom Secrets free book

Thanks to Russell for offering the book free from his website (you just pay for shipping).

DotCom Secrets upsell options

It’s quite easy to DotCom Secrets for free as I mentioned.

But it does come with some optional upsells. Let’s go over it, so you know what to expect.

This is The DotCom Secrets Funnel Upsells:

• Order Bump #1: You get The Black Box
• Order Bump #2: You get the 3 Funnel Bundle
• One Time Offer #1: You gain access to the Audio Books + Bonuses
• One Time Offer #2: Instant access to the Traffic Secrets Course
• Thank You Page: You gain access to the Funnel Builder Secrets (special discount to get 12 months of ClickFunnels Platinum, which is the highest plan available, and includes everything Russell and ClickFunnels have to offer, like Actionetics/Follow Up Funnels, Backpack affiliate program, FunnelFlix and much more).

If you’re not ready for any of the upsells, you can ignore and simply just get the free copy of the DotCom Secrets book, which is still really valuable on its own.

FAQs about DotCom Secrets

Here are some of the major frequently asked questions I see people ask about DotCom Secrets before they get the book.

DoCom Secrets review summary: Is it worth getting the book?

The DotCom Secrets book is a package of actionable strategies and secrets for starting and growing a business. 

You’ll come across a bunch of aha moments while going through the sections. More importantly, you’re guided on how to incorporate the concept into my own business.

DotCom Secrets is a playbook. You may have to read it multiple times to get the ‘secrets’ into your head and business. But you don’t have to if you have a strong IQ, which I’m sure you do!

All in all, if you’re selling products or services online, I highly recommend that you get a copy of DotCom Secrets for FREE.