1. The World Wide Web is loaded with vast amounts of information to get you started and keep you going in your business whether it is on line or off line.

I know, big surprise, huh? Actually, though, most people are not aware of just how much information is literally at their finger tips, and the vast majority of it is free.

You don¡¦t always have to spend hard-earned cash on the latest software program, how-to e-book, membership only forum or newsletter in order to get the information you need. Granted, there is a lot of good stuff out there that is worth an investment, but never neglect first looking for it for free.

The most valuable tool in my quest for success in internet marketing has been none other than that now-gone-public monolith, Google.

Virtually anything I have needed to know, needed an opinion on, or needed to know how to do, I have found by ¡§Googling¡¨ for the web site that has the information I¡¦m looking for. And as a result, my confidence in finding what I need on Google in relation to my business has helped in other areas of my life, too (like the time it helped this Dad look like a genius when, at the last minute, he came up with a killer idea for his daughter¡¦s third grade science fair!)

2. A good, quality autoresponder service is a godsend.

And I personally feel I am with one of the best. I¡¦ve got it set up with the basics ¡V it takes care of my newsletter subscription for me, sends out my bonuses to my new subscribers, sends out my newsletters every two weeks, let¡¦s me send out a ¡§broadcast¡¨ message to anyone or everyone on my subscriber list with a few clicks of the mouse, keeps track and alerts me when someone new subscribes and where they came from, how many subscribers I have and their names and email addresses, notifies me whenever someone unsubscribed ¡V the list goes on and on!

It automates a vast amount of the daily work involved in my business which frees me up to take care of other important things like marketing my products.

And it¡¦s surprisingly easy to set up, especially if you do go with a quality, reputable company that provides excellent customer support, tutorials, and clearly written, easy-to-understand instructions.

I rank it right up there with the discovery of the vaccine for polio.

Okay, that may be pushing it a bit, but this particular tool is priceless, and an absolute necessity if you want to be successful online.

3. Creating an awesome looking web site is harder than you may think.

Okay, it could be that I¡¦m just a dunce, but I nearly got into fist fights with my stupid HTML editor program trying to get it to do the most basic things. And it was supposed to allow the ¡§complete novice¡¨ create a ¡§beautiful¡¨ web site.

Yeah, right. I could actually FEEL myself growing older as I fought with the thing and spent hours trying to do super-sophisticated things like, oh, say change the background color of my web page.

If I were to do it over again, I think I¡¦d probably just go with a basic template, add my material to it, and call it good.

4. No matter how beautiful your site or how great your product is, you¡¦ll sell NOTHING if you don¡¦t have traffic.

¡§No kidding?¡¨ you say?

Hey, I¡¦m here to tell you that I, for one, thought that it made perfect sense that if I put my awesome looking web site out on the World Wide Web where absolutely anyone in the world with a computer could access it, the law of averages says that even if a TEENY percentage of the world¡¦s population finds it, I¡¦d be rolling in the cash.

Okay, pretty naive, I know, but I¡¦m willing to bet I¡¦m not the only newbie who has thought that way.

The bottom line is that it didn¡¦t take me long to realize that I needed TRAFFIC! And the more traffic I could draw to my web site, the greater the likelihood that I¡¦d be successful.

And it¡¦s amazing how quickly, once you realize that sufficient traffic is the ¡§only¡¨ thing between you and success, you can educate yourself on the best and most effective and efficient ways to generate that traffic.

So how do I generate traffic? Sorry, you¡¦ll have to read about that in a future article ƒ¼

5. Any ¡§Guru¡¨ who says you can become incredibly wealthy in no time at all (or anything even remotely similar to that) is flat out lying.

And they know it. I¡¦m a pretty good copywriter, but when I was first contemplating getting into this business, I¡¦m telling you, there were some web pages owned by so-called ¡§gurus¡¨ that had me frothing at the mouth and itching to whip out my credit card and buy their course/e-book/software and get it Fed-Ex¡¦d to my house the next day!

They were true experts who prey on the wants, desire, needs, and fantasies of others in a slick and deceptively convincing way. The good ones can get your heart pounding and make you envision all sorts of riches if you¡¦ll just send them a ¡§little¡¨ money to make it happen.

However, true success in any business takes time, patience, and perseverance, and rarely happens overnight. Save your money, take advantage of the vast wealth of free information out there, and then get back to work on that computer!


About the author:

Mike Mann is the author of a successful internet newsletter that cuts through all of the hype of becoming successful online. Need some fresh new direction in your quest to online success? Looking for some awesome tools to speed things up and make life easier? Visit http://www.seeyalater9to5.comRIGHT NOW!


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