Copyright 2006 Randy McLean

There is a very interesting trend that I witness every time I am searching for internet marketing information. People pushing get rich quick opportunities. A lot of people try and fake it before they make it. They put the cart before the horse.

It becomes even more obvious when you read the various money making forums on the internet. People not making a dime while at the same time promoting opportunities with headlines promising easy money or the ability to work from home.

You then have the people who are successful at promoting the same opportunities. After analyzing both groups I can see the one major difference. More often than not, the successful people have their own web site and they also have their own list of prospects.

You can talk about RSS feeds, splash pages and all the other technical jargon all you want but it mostly boils down to a list and your own web site. That is what separates successful people from those looking to make easy money without treating it like a business.

I have seen sites that are ugly do well because they offer quality information and represent a person you can trust. They have built an entire system designed to capture the persons information so that they can follow up with them later.

Think about it for a minute. How much more can you stretch your advertising dollar by building a relationship with people? You won't be wasting your money and more importantly, your time. Let me give you a real life example I read in a forum not too long ago.

A group of people were promoting a certain opportunity when suddenly the web site of the opportunity they were promoting went down. Now quite a few people were enraged, especially after paying hundreds of dollars for solo ads that ran the night before.

The people who took the time to build their own mailing list were in a much better position. They simply mailed the people on their list and explained the situation. Are you getting my point?

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad calls it minding your own business. Don't just make money here and there and jump from one thing to the next. Start your own thing! It might take more work and patience at first but in the end you will have something that has value.

When starting a site in any niche share your experience. Be honest and write about what has worked for you. You might not think that the $500 you make online a month is much to sneeze at but a lot of people would love to learn how to make an extra $500 a month. Write an article about how you accomplished it and share it with your prospects.

The truth is that we all have something to share that we can teach others. Think about grade school. You learned from people and people learned from you. We are all at different stages and different levels of learning. Find your passion and if you feel strongly enough about it, make it work. Don't let fear stop you.

As you become more successful, keep sharing your experiences. Then if the timing is right, present your opportunities. Only present opportunities that you trust and that you have tried yourself. Better yet, you can also share what products and services have worked for you. You will then start seeing sales on a more consistent basis. And the more you work your business the more it will grow.

Remember that success means different things to different people. True wealth is defined by income versus expenses. It is not always what you make but how you spend the money as well as how you earn it.

The first thing you need to do is set your goal. You need to determine what your passion is, what you want to do, how much money you want to make, if you want to do this part time or full time, and how much money you can set aside to start your business.

The next thing you need to do is take action. Figure out how much time you need to set aside each day to accomplish your goal and then stick with your plan. Make this a priority in your life and explain to others that this is your time. You don't need to go into detail. People always seem to be more interested after they have seen the check.

The bottom line is just pick something you love and do it. Then describe your success, education and experiences in the form of content. Start minding your own business and in a few years you might just be surprised at what you have accomplished.