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Home » Marketing Articles » Truths And Lies Of Internet Marketing

Truths and Lies of Internet Marketing

A long time ago you decided that working all the hours God sends every week and being away from your family just has to be wrong. You know what? It is. There is a way to right this wrong and it has to do with the Internet. But you knew that already. So what is the next step?

You have been looking online in the search engines and maybe in the newsgroups and you have seen plenty of opportunities. Most of the hype you read sounds much too good to be true and most of it is. However, there are some real opportunities out there. You just have to know where to look. Don't follow the other sheep, work it out for yourself.

Where do you look? Who holds the keys to this bountiful virtual treasure chest? Do you have a chance at success?

>From here on in we'll confirm some truths and dispel some lies which you'll find all over the place online.

Lie: I can earn amazing sums of money online really quick. I can quit the 9-5 within weeks!

Truth: Pure hype reigns supreme on the Internet. The claims of huge downlines, 6 figure incomes overnight and massive mailing lists with no effort are complete drivel. Nothing is easy to make a go of and online it's no different. It's possibly even harder to make your fortune online since the rules are always changing. Staying on top of and driving these changes is where your success will come from.

Lie: Working your online business is easier than working the 9-5.

Truth: Making a true success of your online business is, more often than not, a whole lot harder. You are directly responsible for the amount of money you put in the bank at the end of the month. You will need excellent time management skills and organizational skills. Possibly the hardest thing is the motivation. To get up every day and motivate yourself to switch the computer on, knowing you have to get down to some hard work can be very tough some days.

Lie: My time is my own. I can work whenever.

Truth: Your time is your most precious commodity. There are daily demands on your time from your family and the business of everyday living. Real life carries on regardless of whether you have a spreadsheet to prepare or not. Managing your time actually becomes a delicate balancing act. You cannot ignore your family if you're working at home - and anyway, one of the reasons you wanted to work at home was to spend more time with the family, right?

Lie: My children will enjoy the extra time I can spend with them.

Truth: Still with this time thing. Yes your kids will be happier to see you more around the place but they will also become confused as to why you can't play with them more and may even come to resent this. The delicate balancing act is indeed a thin tight-rope walk and you've got to be a masterful acrobat to pull it off. It can be done however and this shouldn't put you off.

Lie: Build it and they will come.

Truth: Whilst this may have been true in the very early days of the Internet with the most basic of search engines driving traffic, these days nothing could be further from the truth. Building your website and getting it online puts you on the first rung of the ladder. Getting enough traffic to make your website profitable is your next goal. There are many places online which claim to be able to do this for you, only 2-3% of these places will be worth your time.

Lie: The Internet is just one big playground for scammers.

Truth: The Internet, with it's anonymity, is indeed a fertile breeding ground for the more unscrupulous among us. While scammers get all the press there are plenty of real people like you making some nice piles of coin from the Internet perfectly legally. The information revolution is upon us and you better get onboard.

Lie: All my friends and family will want to join me.

Truth: Your friends and family will think you're completely mad. While you may find one or two people who're open to your dreams and visions, most will simply ridicule you so be ready for that. They may not talk about you openly but they will think you're wasting your time. Ignore them and prove them wrong. You can do it. Success is sweet.

At the final analysis, if you want to work at home on the Internet, become truly financially and spiritually free then the odds are not stacked in your favour. This being said, with the fire of determination burning inside you, with the strong desire to enjoy a life of no money worries and more quality time with your family then you will succeed. It takes time, effort and hard choices but you can do it.

Just do one thing every day to improve your position and that's all it takes.

Here's to your ultimate success!

Riley.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Credit Card Shocker

Have you ever looked at your credit card statement? I'm not talking about just making sure that all the transactions are correct. I'm talking about looking at the finance charges. I daresay that sometimes that figure is almost as great as the minimum monthly payment you're making. After all, as long as you can keep the creditors at bay by paying the minimum, that's all you care about, right? If you agreed, I urge you to reconsider.

I'm sure that by now, many of you realize that you lose money by buying on credit. Still, I don't think many of you appreciate just how much your credit cards are costing you. I'd like to really drive that point home.

Let's say that Joe decides he needs new patio furniture. He doesn't have the $2,000 cash, so he slaps down his plastic card knowing that he can make the minimum monthly payment, no sweat. And so that's what he does, month in, month, out, year in, year out, and pretty soon he's been doing this for one full decade. Surely it's paid off by now! No, not even close. In fact, if Joe continues to make the minimum monthly payment, he will be paying for that furniture for the next 38 years! And once he has made the final payment on his original $2,000 purchase, he will have paid an additional $5,300 in interest! Pretty disgusting, isn't it? And this is at 14% APR. Many cards run higher.

Some of you more savvy credit card users out there might be thinking that you already know this, so you don't fall for that trap anymore. You only get credit cards with a much lower interest rate, right? But do you notice that it's only for a few months? And do you pay attention to what the interest rate jumps to after that short introductory period? You kind of have to hunt around for this figure since they don't put it in plain view. Believe me, credit card companies are not losing money on these lower introductory rate offers.

Credit card promotions are becoming even more devious. Now the credit card companies are offering 0% interest on all balance transfers for up to 18 months! Wow, well, you've GOT to take advantage of that, right? I'll show you three reasons why you shouldn't.

First, even though you might be "pre-approved", it is in no way certain that you will actually get this low rate. The credit card companies reserve the right to reconsider their original offer based on your qualifications. They will often go ahead and issue you a credit card, but it could be at a substantially higher rate. Don't assume that what you applied for is what you are getting.

Secondly, there are often balance transfer fees that are substantial enough to gobble up any savings you might make on a lower interest rate. Transfer rates run anywhere from 3% to a hefty 5%, with a single transaction costing as much as $65.

Thirdly, and this is the sneakiest part of all, in order to secure the 0% rate on your transfers, you are required to purchase a minimum amount on your card for several consecutive months. At first, this doesn't sound so bad. However, the fine print tells you that the interest rate applied to these new purchases is NOT the same 0% rate, but a different, much higher rate.

What's more, all your payments will always be allocated to the balance that will earn the credit card company the most money. This means that the balances with the lowest rates will be targeted first, while the balance with the much higher rate keeps accruing and compounding interest month after month. So, if you transfer a large sum in order to take advantage of this seemingly generous offer, you will likely be paying on it for a very long time before you ever get around to paying down the mandatory purchases, which are racking up some pretty serious charges in the meantime..

And we've only looked at interest rates here. There are also default penalties, late charges, over-the-limit fees, transaction fees, ATM fees, stop-payment fees, cash advance fees and annual fees, all of which are on the increase. Over half the states in the union have no limit on what credit card issuers can charge for annual fees and yearly interest rates. These companies are gouging their customers with charges that are downright outrageous, and unfortunately for us, legal.

So how do you avoid falling into these sneaky traps that the credit card companies set? If you are lucky enough to not be playing the losing game of credit card roulette, for heaven's sake, don't start! If you are already involved, get out as fast as you can. Here are a few basic steps.

• Don't carry a credit card. It's amazing how easy it is to ignore this obvious first step.
• Apply any extra money to your debts first. If you're saving a little nest egg earning at a rate of 5%, but you have debts gnawing away to the tune of 12%, it's not difficult to see that this is a losing proposition.
• Target one debt for elimination at a time. Pick the one that can be wiped out the most quickly first.
• Take all the extra money from the first debt and apply it to your second target.
• Continue in like fashion until you have dug yourself out of this miserable pit.

And finally, breathe a major sigh of relief and vow never to pass that way again.