Do you know it doesn’t matter if you buy a $10,000 membership, a $5,000 mentoring course or just train yourself learning good free material and spend nothing.

If somebody is not ready to knuckle down and get their hands dirty with some basic Internet marketing ground rules then the dream of working from home is not going to happen just yet. The old saying of the master appearing when the student is ready is very true.

It is unfortunate that most people rush toward an online business because they have perceived easy money, fast cars and time off which their day job doesn’t give them. It really is a dream and it is surprising how many people are throwing something away which could definitely become a reality reasonably quickly.

The more money people spend on “systems” the farther away from their goal they drive themselves. $200 this week, $300 next week, Adsense, Adwords, membership sites, Google dominators, ClickBank profit systems, eBay and whatever else is continually pulling at their wallet.

You could refer to the following as “Keep Working Your Day Job” bullet points:

	Constantly buying IM products online - No Focus!
	Believing what you hear in forums - successful people who really “know” rarely have time to hang around forums or chat rooms. You will be listening to a load of opinions and third hand advice from wannabees. The dangerous thing here is you tend believe and focus on whatever is within your comfort zone and unfortunately learning something new that is going to provide a sustainable income generally requires new skills and a willingness to do things you wouldn’t normally do.
	Impatience to earn money online - as with anything core principles have to be learned first.
	Desperation to earn money online - not generally a good time to try and start an online business mainly due to lack of focus because of money and family issues but it is do-able.
	Going with your “gut” instead of the numbers - you just have to research and test everything otherwise it’s a hobby which is costing you money instead of earning.
	Believing an online business can be run on 2 hours a week in your PJ’s!
	Spending hours, even days, downloading all the material from the free giveaway sites - People give away stuff to make money. You will have to sign up for each and every list and most will have a OTO before you can download the product. So, if you download 100 ‘free’ products you are now on 100 lists being constantly marketed to by 100 people who all want to sell you 100 different “Can’t Fail” products. Wow, I’m dizzy just writing this… LOL. Be very selective, you surely don’t need everything do you?, and use a throw away email account because at least one of these people WILL sell your name and email onto a spam list.
	Thinking you can start of in the Internet marketing, health, weight loss or other savagely contested niche.
	This is Real Life folks so be wise.

The way the Internet has been moving for last few years is not towards marketing but towards manipulation and that is something you cannot build a long term business on. That’s not just manipulation of people but also systems, search engines - in fact, anything which can be manipulated has been.

Older folk can understandably get bogged down with a lot of this technology. Tweets from Twitter, No Follows and Weebly can sound like another language but here’s the good news folks… It’s easier than Algebra used to be! (Is it still called algebra?)

Here is a core skill which if you take the time to really understand it, will make the difference between a hit and miss type online business and one where you can pick a profitable market with virtually a 100% certainty of success. Professionals always do research and continual testing. The core skill for a long term profitable business is being a able to identify and research niche markets and their associated key phrases.

If that sounds difficult then don’t be discouraged. You can buy some very good software quite cheaply to semi automate your research. Be careful what you buy because there is some junk out there.

The fastest way to make money on the Internet is to use Google and Yahoo PPC.
A Warning.

If you don’t take the time to learn the core principles of Adwords you can lose thousands and thousands of dollars overnight. Spending a few hours a day over a week to get your head around it all means you are reducing your risks and understand how to use PPC to test a market using minimal cash.

If you are starting from scratch and know nothing about PPC, here is what you need to become proficient with:

• Adwords principles - great help files from Google. A must see video is one by Dan Thies from the Stompernet GN3 series. This is worth more than a $200 course.
• Adwords admin - know your way around the admin interface and how to pause campaigns.
• Website hosting.
• Choosing a domain name for your niche.
• Simple HTML.
• Building a landing page and understanding Google’s Quality Score system.
• Niche / Keyword research - no point in wasting your time building something that nobody wants.
• List building basics and being able to set up a web form from your autoresponder company.

Just make a note that everything in the above list apart from the Adwords specific points are core to any online business.

Outright Internet Marketing Lies You Should Be Aware Of. Any program claiming:

• Google or any Search Engine domination.
• To exploit a Google or SE loophole.
• Huge Adwords profits.
• Huge Adsense profits.
• Massive Viral Growth.
• ClickBank domination or manipulation.
• Easy profits with PLR.

Memberships and programs to be really careful about committing yourself to.

This is absolutely not a rant about the top end marketers. We get some great stuff from them but if you are a newbie you must be aware of a few things before you decide to spend thousands of dollars, sometimes on a monthly continuity payment, on something which will more than likely overpower you. The last couple of years we have seen some very high end programs being pushed even to the point of it becoming really annoying because the promotions are continuous with all the members offering huge bonuses as a bribe to get you to join under them.

When you consider that if you join Stompernet under someones affiliate link they are raking in around $400+ a month of your $800 monthly membership fee you can see that this is big business for the members of this group. The programs are also usually over the $1,000 mark so just understand what you are getting into. As I write this a copy writing program is being pushed for a cost of a few bucks short of $2,000. Is it worth it? Absolutely as it’s from John Carlton but if you have no idea about the basics of our little list above you have jut flushed a couple of grand down the toilet because the information will overpower you.

It’s the same with all these memberships and you must be focused and specific on what you spend money on. Just a quick story before I wrap up and it’s about Stompernet. These guys are incredibly good and very, very clever and the best thing I ever did was to leave the membership. Their information is always cutting edge stuff produced by guys who are hands on professionals. I just signed up for their latest package where they are breaking into the lower cost $47 and $97 membership area market and the content on the DVD’s reinforced just what a good decision I had made to leave them as a full member. Why?

You see, I was spending so much time learning and absorbing information my business suffered because I was spending less time actually DOING something. When the latest batch of info arrived the information geek in me went straight back into the old routine of learning every single detail. This is nonsense and for me this extreme, in depth knowledge of knowing ten thousand ways, (exag.) to do a nofollow link may be really clever but just doesn’t presently fit in with my business plans. So this is just an example of things to be aware of.

It is worth giving some thought about whether you want to promote and build a business around:

• Software
• Digital Information
• Physical Goods
• Consultation (Online or off)
• Professional Services
• Do you presently have a brick and mortar business?

The BIG Secret To Sustainable Long Term Success Online!

Guess what? There isn’t one. You obviously have to learn the craft of working a business online like, SEO, traffic and other basics but it all comes down to 2 things.

1. A LOT of good quality content that people enjoy / need and is built naturally over time.

2. The willingness to learn new things and work your butt off to make things happen.

That’s it. That is success. Dilute any of them and your income is proportionally reduced at the same time. It’s like the difference between the guy who has a few products in his eBay store complaining that he isn’t making any money despite spending a fortune on a guru course and a guy who didn’t spend any money on a course but works every day just adding one or two products and building a couple of links.

The guys and gals plodding along with focus will win every single time.

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