Book comparison · Which to read first
DotCom Secrets vs Expert Secrets: Which One First?
Both books are free, so this was never really a question about which one to buy. It is a question about reading order, and the usual answer, publication order, is not the one the author gives.
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TL;DR
Read Expert Secrets first, unless you are already selling something. The two books are halves of one argument: Expert Secrets is the message, the audience and the offer; DotCom Secrets is the sequence of pages that carries that offer to a sale. A funnel with nothing worth saying in it fails quietly, which is why the message half usually comes first. The exception is real though: if you already sell something and know who buys it, your bottleneck is structural, and DotCom Secrets is the book that fixes it. Both are free for the cost of shipping, so the cost of reading both is about twenty dollars.
- Read first (most people)
- Expert Secrets
- Read first (already selling)
- DotCom Secrets
- Price
- Both free, shipping only ($9.95 US / $19.95 intl each)
- Published
- DotCom Secrets 2015, Expert Secrets 2017
- Length
- 393 and 355 pages, hardcover
- Third book
- Traffic Secrets, read after both
Which one this is: the two books by Russell Brunson, co-founder of ClickFunnels. They are commonly compared because they are sold the same way and look like alternatives, when they are actually designed as a pair.
The Short Answer
Start with Expert Secrets. It answers the question that comes first in practice: why would anyone listen to you, and what exactly are you offering them. DotCom Secrets answers what happens next, once someone is listening: which sequence of pages turns that attention into a sale.
Build the funnel first and you get a machine with nothing to run through it. That failure is quiet and easy to misdiagnose, because the pages look fine. The reverse mistake is louder and cheaper to fix: a good offer sold through a clumsy page still makes some sales, and you notice the friction immediately.
The exception, and it is a real one: if you already sell something and know who buys it, that ordering flips. You have the message. What you are missing is structure, and that is DotCom Secrets.
Side By Side
| Expert Secrets | DotCom Secrets | |
|---|---|---|
| The question it answers | Why would anyone listen to me, and what am I offering? | What sequence of pages turns attention into a sale? |
| Core frameworks | Epiphany Bridge, the Perfect Webinar, the four core stories | The Value Ladder, the funnel type catalog, page scripts |
| Built for | Someone with knowledge or a cause, and no audience yet | Someone with an offer, whose conversion is flat |
| Read it first if | You are still working out what you sell and to whom | You already sell something and know who buys it |
| First published | 2017 | 2015 |
| Length | 355 pages, hardcover | 393 pages, hardcover |
| Price | Free, pay shipping only | Free, pay shipping only |
Why The Usual Answer Is Publication Order, And Why That Is Not The Answer
Search this question and most results say DotCom Secrets first. The reasoning is almost always the same: it came out first, and the three books are described as a trilogy, so people assume the trilogy has a reading order and that it matches the release dates.
Russell Brunson's own guidance does not line up with that, and it does not entirely line up with itself either. He has said Expert Secrets is the logical place to start, on the reasoning that you build the movement before you build the funnel, even though he wrote DotCom Secrets first. Elsewhere, on Facebook, he has told people starting out to go read DotCom Secrets. Both statements are his. That is a large part of why the question keeps getting asked, and why pages answering it keep hedging.
We are not going to hedge: the order that matters is the one that matches where you actually are, and for most people reading this that is Expert Secrets. The publication order is a fact about the author's life, not about your business.
Pick By Situation
Start with Expert Secrets if
- You know a subject well but have never turned it into an offer.
- You have an audience that likes you and buys nothing.
- You are selling coaching, consulting or a course, where the pitch carries most of the weight.
- You sell something but cannot explain in one sentence why someone should pick it.
Start with DotCom Secrets if
- You already make sales, and want more of them from the same traffic.
- You send people to a homepage or a single page and suspect that is the problem.
- You sell a physical or ecommerce product, where the structure matters more than the story.
- You have run ads that get clicks and no conversions.
What Neither Book Covers
Traffic. Both assume someone is already arriving, and neither spends much time on where those people come from. That is the third book, Traffic Secrets, which we do not cover on this site. Read it last if you read it at all: sending traffic at a funnel that does not convert is the most expensive possible way to discover that it does not convert.
Both also date themselves in the same place, which is tooling. The frameworks are about offers, structure and persuasion, and those have not moved. The screenshots and the specific platforms mentioned have.
DotCom Secrets vs Expert Secrets: Common Questions
Which should I read first, DotCom Secrets or Expert Secrets?
Expert Secrets first, for most people. It gives you the message, the audience and the offer; DotCom Secrets gives you the pages that carry them to a sale. The exception is if you already sell something and know who buys it: then the bottleneck is structural, and DotCom Secrets is the one that fixes it.
Do I have to choose? How much does each one cost?
You do not really have to choose. Both are free, you pay shipping only, $9.95 in the US or $19.95 internationally for each at the time of writing. The real decision is which one to read first, not which one to buy.
What does Russell Brunson himself say about the order?
He has answered it both ways, depending on where you ask. He has said Expert Secrets is the logical starting point, because building the movement comes before building the funnel, even though he wrote DotCom Secrets first. He has also told people starting out, on Facebook, to go read DotCom Secrets. That inconsistency is part of why the question keeps getting asked.
Do the two books overlap?
Less than you would expect. They are halves of one argument rather than two versions of it. DotCom Secrets covers funnel types, the Value Ladder and page-by-page scripts. Expert Secrets covers finding your voice, the Epiphany Bridge storytelling structure and the Perfect Webinar. The overlap is mostly in vocabulary, not in content.
Where does Traffic Secrets fit in?
It is the third book in the set, about getting people into the funnel in the first place. We do not cover it on this site. Read it after the other two: traffic sent at a funnel that does not convert is the most expensive way to learn that it does not convert.
Are these books still worth reading? They are from 2015 and 2017.
The frameworks hold, because they are about offers, structure and persuasion rather than about any platform. What shows its age in both is the specific tooling and some screenshots. Read them as manuals for how to structure an offer and a pitch, not as software tutorials.
Get Either One
Both ship free for the cost of postage, so reading both costs about twenty dollars in total. If you are taking our answer, the top button is the one to start with.
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Our Full Reviews, And His Other Offers
Expert Secrets review: what is actually in it, who it fits, and what the free-plus-shipping offer really costs.
DotCom Secrets review: the funnel types, the Value Ladder, and where the book shows its age.
Perfect Webinar Secrets: his $7 package built around the framework Expert Secrets teaches in full.
Funnelology: his $7 video training covering much the same funnel catalog as DotCom Secrets.
AI Secrets Challenge and One Comma Club Challenge: his two free 5-day live events.
Who is Russell Brunson? Our full profile of the ClickFunnels co-founder, with his track record and every offer of his we cover.
This is an independent comparison. This site is not operated by or endorsed by Russell Brunson or ClickFunnels. DotCom Secrets™, Expert Secrets™ and ClickFunnels™ are trademarks of their respective owners. We may earn a commission from orders made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you.
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