Read This Before Trying to Make Money Online

Hard times are upon us and more and more desperate people are flooding onto the internet in search of money to pay their bills, buy food, send their children to school, and all the myriad other reasons we all are slaves to the economy.

Most should look elsewhere for an income, for the hard truth of the matter is, the learning curve for successful internet marketers is long and precipitous, and almost all will give up the dream before ever making a profit.

The time and money required in order to learn all the average successful marketer needs to know is daunting.

Almost every neophyte marketer will start this learning curve by buying a “system” that some self-proclaimed “guru” swears is the end-all, be-all of the deepest secrets of how to make endless torrents of cash while working maybe an hour a day. The budding millionaire pays his money, downloads a lot of text, or video, or audio, or all three, and quickly realizes the material is totally incomprehensible gibberish because he or she does not know how to implement the strategies being taught, does not know the terminology, has only a bare-essentials kind of computer expertise, and just did not realize how complicated it all was. The smart ones quit right there.

Unfortunately, the dream is so compelling that most keep plugging away, doing their best to learn all they can, and after awhile, buying more “systems” they can’t afford, can’t understand, and usually don’t implement.

By now the average newbie has learned how to set up e-mail accounts, PayPal and ClickBank accounts, and has started advertising on the easiest avenue to exposure, traffic exchanges. He joins every “free” money making site that is presented to him, drives thousands [and thousands] of hits to a variety of offers, and still has not made his first dollar online. “Hey, maybe this isn’t as easy as they said it was”. A lot swallow the dream and quit there.

A sizable number, however, will continue chasing the internet rainbow, convinced that they are smart enough and strong enough to fight through all the obstacles and finally come out on top.

It’s at this stage of the game that the remaining few, that twenty or so percent that REALLY WANT IT will hunker down and go on a learning binge, studying relentlessly how to write articles, do social networking, drive traffic from forums, sell PLR products, write ad copy, make videos, build websites, make squeeze pages, learn HTML, build Squidoo lenses, learn Twitter tactics, and the list is endless, and they spend more and more money, and finally, one morning they wake up and realize that they STILL haven’t made a profit.

Never fear, the “gurus” will tell them, all they need is another “system”, the ULTIMATE SYSTEM, the one they have been dreaming of, the step-by-step solution to all their problems, the REAL GURU SECRETS! Never mind that it costs a couple thousand, put it on the credit card, and before the wife or husband even knows you spent the money, you’ll be swimming in green!

A few weeks or months later, the realization that they just are not going to make the dream come true finally sets in on the vast majority of wanna-be millionaires. We have now pared the pack down to the one or two percent who will actually make money at internet marketing.

I said “make money”, not “get rich”. There is a world of difference.

The average “profitable” internet marketer will make a living. Maybe a good living. That’s all.

But what of the “internet millionaires” you’ve heard so much about? Well, the truth is, the percentage of people who actually get rich in internet marketing is about the same percentage as in the rest of the world.

There are very few people who possess the ruthless drive to make themselves wealthy, and the overwhelming odds are, you’re not one of them.

Am I telling you to give up, not even try? No. What I am trying to demonstrate to the readers of this article is that to just make a living at internet marketing is a daunting task. To get rich is almost impossible.

If you are determined to try, just try to keep things in perspective. Learn all you can from free sources, of which there is a huge supply on the web. Remember that most of the systems that are offered for sale are re-hashed, re-mixed information that has been around forever, and is available from public domain websites all over the web.

Google “public domain” for free stuff, or the thing you want to learn followed by “tutorial” and you will discover vast amounts of knowledge for free.

Don’t spend every free minute on the web, your relationships will suffer for it.

Do not harbor unrealistic expectations from internet marketing, or it will consume you.

I am an internet marketer who has lived this article, and I am not trying to sell you anything with this article, although you could visit my blog and read more of my articles if you are so inclined.

Good Luck and God Bless,