‘Earning money online’ seems such an attractive proposition. Whether we are at home tending the kids, or retired but still wanting to ward off the days of  ‘stir-crazy’. Whether we want to expand our ‘life-style’ and work towards the ‘4-hour working week’ or whether we are just trying to earn a crust,  just sitting in front of a computer for a couple of hours each day (or night) while tapping a few keys seems the answer to a person’s prayer. Yes, there are endless reasons for taking a leap onto the Internet Bandwagon in the hopes of making some cash and why not?

Why not, is a question worth asking.  The fact that statistics  tell us that around 93% of on-line ventures rapidly fail must surely offer a clue here. Sadly, as beginners, our limited experience of the internet probably means that we have absolutely no idea of what we are taking on.

The information is out there. We can discover it for ourselves, if we want to. We can research hundreds of words and phrases that will lead us to the truth, but when we do find all the details – WHY, IN THE NAME OF HEAVEN, DO WE NOT LISTEN?

We do not listen, because we have already committed to a path. We are not sure what that path is, nor indeed, if it is the path for us, but we have decided that we are going to travel it anyway. In truth, I suspect that many of us find this path by accident. We wander on to it while doing something else and Boom! All of a sudden, we are going to ‘make money on line’. Double Boom!

The internet itself has dozens of web-sites encouraging people to start up. They trumpet the news that making money on line is ‘easy’. The writer says that there are dozens of different ways of doing it and then lists them claiming that they themselves are making heaps of money doing ‘this’. Then, with a flourish they say something like, ‘ all you need to do is blah, blah and blah and you are ready to go.’

WARNING – JUST SLOW DOWN HERE.

I know that there are many who are sucked in by this myth of easy money. They do not realise the amount of work that goes into almost any online venture. Not just the technical knowledge that is required, which is relatively easy to deal with, but the inexorable demand for fresh material day after day, for chasing leads and for grabbing the latest trend.

They do not realize that the most financially successful marketers may run many sites and employ VA’s to do a lot of the scut work. These guys spend shed-loads of money on developing their news-feeds, hiring writers and building their lists. It truly is not a matter of flipping off an article or an email once a month and having the money roll in.

But, by the time our ‘newbie’ has chosen a path, purchased bits and pieces of software that will give him ‘instant success’, written a few serious and relevant posts and maybe is climbing the Google rankings – he or she is lost….God help us – we love doing it!