Don’t get me wrong, I make a decent living online. I have a passion for what I do, and my hard work has paid respectable dividends, both to me, and to my visitors.
The sad part is that what got me interested in making a living online just so happened to be the same empty promises, and the same “Get Rich Quick” hype countless crooked businesses and individuals use each and every day to lure in average, everyday people, looking for a legitimate way to earn a respectable living from the Internet.
These shady people make millions. I got lucky. Instead of “selling the farm” and dumping a boatload of money into the firstdeception I saw, I did a little homework. While a part of me wanted to reach for my wallet and become the next Internet success story, my common sense saved the day and urged me to explore my options first.
What happens to those who fall victim to these scams? The exact opposite of what they had hoped to accomplish. Instead of building a steady source of income, they use the funds that could have been directed at starting a legitimate business, and invest them into the false promises of Instant Internet Millions.
A lie, combined with something people want so badly, becomes a cruel and frighteningly powerful weapon.
I never was a good liar. Which brings me back to the reason I’m writing this article.
It doesn’t matter that I publish a newsletter with information I’ve used to grow my business online, as well as listing legitimate resources that can be used to take some of the guesswork out of earning a living on the Internet.
I personally follow-up on every program submitted to my affiliate programs directory, by visiting the site personally, I can ensure that it holds value to my visitors. There is nothing more detrimental to your success online than recommending low value products and services.
I own a good percentage of the products I recommend myself. This helps me give a better description of a products benefits, drastically reducing the number of lost affiliate commissions due to product returns from customers who had the impression they were buying a product beneficial to their business.
Bringing traffic to your web site is one of the largest challenges any Internet business will face. I experiment with what I know to work as well as what does not. Membership sites are a great way to reduce the amount of time spent on finding effective methods to grow your business. I belong to quite a few, yet I recommend only the three I feel offer a service that justifies the monthly fee.
By gaining membership to the good and the bad, I can avoid recommending a service that will jeopardize my credibility and eliminate future sales.
It’s easy to offer your visitors a quality service and collect a check, but I place as much emphasis on pointing out programs that don’t deliver the results they promise as well. It’s important to keep your visitor’s best interests in mind.
I can’t promise anyone success. What I can do is show them how I found mine.
For all of these reasons I’ll continue to make a good living on the Internet. These are also the painfully obvious reasons why I’ll never make millions of dollars in the process.
My inability to exaggerate the benefits of my products or sell my visitors a dream I couldn’t possibly deliver, will ultimately keep my feet planted firmly on the ground. Right where I want them.
Adam Buhler is the owner of Affiliate Programs Directory: http://www.smokesoft.net Adam is the author of the weekly newsletter “Affiliate Secrets”. He is offering a free copy of the ebook “Internet Cash Machines” For a limited time to anyone who subscribes at: http://www.smokesoft.net/newsletter.html
