File This Under General Advice For Newbies: I have an all paid membership site that has given me a vivid insight on why most newbie internet business owners never make money online. My site is just $4.95/month or $49.95/year (no, this is not a promotional post – I’m not even going to link to the site). I am amazed at exactly how many people sign up for the membership and simply don’t have five bucks in their PayPal account a month later to keep the service. I’ll get a couple of notifications from PayPal that the payment subscription has failed and many times I get emails from members asking for more time.

This post isn’t to insult anyone, we all have to learn and that takes time. My membership site is an ad tracking site so I have the unique opportunity to take a peek at what members are promoting and there is definitely a disturbing pattern.

Without naming particular sites, most of those not earning are wasting their time with traffic exchanges, safelists and free for all (FFA) type sites. Crazy things like gifting and survey sites. Others are trying affiliate marketing which takes some skill to gain success. But the biggest common denominator is marketing. Almost every member that loses their account from non-payment has setup a ton of tracking links and has no or very few clicks on their trackers.

My recommendation to new internet marketers?

1. First of all, subscribe to this blog and newsletter. Seriously, I’m here to help and I won’t take your money to do it.
2. Second, make some friends. This is one of the best ways to learn the ropes. I love the group of marketers and bloggers we have here. Everyone is quick to help each other and we have fun doing it.
3. Third, find a mentor. Find someone successful that has the same interests and see if they’ll give you the time of day. If they’re too into themselves to notice you, move on and find the right fit. You don’t have to worship a mentor, just learn from them.
4. Fourth, Subscribe to every blog that you can find that offers valuable information in your niche. Who cares if they’re your competition? Subscribe anyway and compete as friends and always interact by sharing and commenting.
5. My fifth, and most important piece of advice – help others. It’s true, you can go a long way by serving others. Go out of your way to help, always acknowledge your friends and don’t be stingy when it comes to giving credit where credit is due.

I’m sure there’s more. I hope more will be added in the comments below. The internet is big enough for all of us to make money and I’d love to see all of my friends get there. Your comments and advice are welcome.

Image Credit: PassionatePhoto.com

This post is going to sound like I’m spiteful, jealous or even bitter. I’m not – really. I love internet marketing and I believe in the free market system. I’m impressed when others out do everyone and make a ton of money and I’m happy for them.

I just want to clear something up for our subscribers and site visitors. I also want our Ad Tracking members to understand this too. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the be-all end-all expert on the subject but I’ve been here for years. What I’m about to say will make a few people mad but most will already know the truth. Here it is…

Let me say that again:

I’m not saying don’t buy online products. I’m just saying know what you are buying and buy it for the right reason. When Big Boy Marketer says you will make thousands by reading his secret ebook he may not be the right one to listen to. You already know why. He’s trying to sell it. If it was that great he would keep his mouth shut and do it himself getting rich in the process. No, Big Boy Marketer knows the only way to make money with that product is by selling it so that’s what he’s doing. You didn’t think he was just a really really nice guy did you?

Here’s how it works. You tell me if this sounds familiar at all:

An internet marketer comes along and gets moderate success. He sells a few products for $27 and then $47 while he builds a small base of affiliates and a list. Now he takes that success and his team of affiliates and sells $97 products. Then, as he gets well known and everyone wants to work with him the prices go up. Products go quickly at $197, $497, $1497 and up. They get so high payment plans are created just so people can buy the products.

All that sounds great and I’m all for making money. The products are not what’s selling it’s the marketer. No surprise there, that’s the system we live in. But here’s the problem…

Many of the marketers are selling a lie. They lead others to believe that’s how they got where they are. A newbie sees the successful marketer and hear’s him say, “Do this and your world will be blessed with gold and silver“. Once he squeezes as much out of that product as possible he sets up the next sale. “Buy this“, he says, “and you’ll have to hire a team of accountants to count your money“. The truth is that very often the product is no better than the first one that sold for $27. Oh, it didn’t work for you? You must have done it wrong. Did you follow my steps exactly as outlined? You see, the marketer forgot to mention that he didn’t make his money from the steps outlined in the ebooks, tele-seminars, live conferences, online courses, membership sites, video packages or any other product he’s offering. He made his money by convincing others that he did. Period! That’s it, case closed. No really, I mean the post is finished

Image credit: SXC

According to InternetWorldStats.com there are over one and a half billion internet users worldwide. That’s 336.1% growth from 2000 to 2008 with 23.5% penetration by the end of 2008.

With one forth of the world having access to the internet combined with the overall world economy it’s pretty easy to understand why so many are turning to the internet for an income source.

This is hardly scientific but I have been running a small poll on our Tracker Blog asking, ‘Are You Making Money Online?‘. 49.0% admit they have not made a cent while another 33.0% say they haven’t even made enough to cover expenses. With 82% of our poll takers loosing money online while they are trying to earn a profit I have to believe there is a large need for legitimate instructional resources.

It’s sad to see internet marketing newbies slapping together a quick site or blog and filling it with affiliate and PPC ads. With average “click-through” rates of around 1/2% a lot of traffic is needed to go that route yet that seems to be standard procedure.

Why bring it up? I was a little surprised at the numbers and think it may be a huge opportunity for many. I think this trend will keep moving in the same direction for a long time with more and more newbies needing direction. A lot of our subscribers and site visitors are already working the newbie niche and providing an excellent service. It’s just something to think about.

BTW, As a side note I’m not that fond of the term ‘newbie‘ but it seems to be the most accepted name. I mean no disrespect or insult to new internet marketers.

Strange question but I’m interested in what you do while working your online magic. What gets you in the right frame of mind. Is it music? Watching TV? Oh, you’re so bad! LOL

I’m guilty of both but lately I’m trying to get back into an ‘all business‘ environment. Today we have a lot more distraction then we did just a few short years ago. It use to be the phone every now or then and perhaps a family member needing your attention. Now we have things like cell phones, text messages, email alerts, instant messengers, Twitter and Skype just to name a few. Toss in a cool program like House or a great album playing in the background and we’re soon in desperate need of hair transplants.

Ok, the best solution is quiet. Shut everything off and get to work. That might work for some but I need those little distractions mentioned above, I don’t care about my hair falling. It can’t get any grayer! What I can do is regulate them a little. As cool as Dr. House is wouldn’t it be better to fill my head with a little Seth Godin or Robert Kiyosaki? What about a teleseminar we may have missed? I’m a big fan of YouTube and most of these videos can be played behind your work while listening to the audio portion. I use a laptop next to my desktop for audio and video learning.