Listening to Chris Rea recently I thought that about sums it up – I’ve come so far but I’ve still got a long way to go.

The last few months have crystallised quite a lot of my thoughts about how to progress with Internet Marketing. As I’m sure you probably believed at the outset, all we had to do was buy one of the “bright shiny things” that for a consideration of $49, $97, $199  would take us by the hand and lead us to the promised land of untold wealth and luxury.

Yes, I did and spent a bit of money along the way. And what have I learned? Well, I’ve learned that there are a lot of people out here who want my money more that my success. I’ve also discovered that there are some really good people out there who want to help me to help myself to succeed. There is a cost attached but there’s also a lot of good free stuff as well.

So from today this blog will be dedicated to revealing what I’ve learned so far and what I learn as I go along.  One of the major problems I encounter is that of assumed information, i.e. that the writer assumes that you know what something is – whether it’s how to find and buy a domain name or how to use a particular piece of software. On a regular or more likely irregular basis I’ll try and give you as much free info as I can muster starting from the very basics onward. As I get better and quicker at doing things hopefully my blogs will become more useful.

The very first lesson is that THERE IS NO EASY BUTTON. If anyone asks you for $199 and all you have to do is push the button and watch the money roll in, don’t believe them. Internet Marketing is like any other business (yes I said business). It’s not a toy or a hobby – it’s a business. What many people won’t tell you is that to really succeed in business you need two things – a tremendous amount of hard work and a bit of luck.  But often by doing the hard work you make your own luck. Gary Player, the renowned golfer, was often quoted as saying “the more I practice, the luckier I get”.

Your internet business must be run and planned like any other business. Calculate how much you can afford to invest in your business for the first 6 months and then set that in concrete. There will be many people whispering in you ear along the way, tempting you with there “bright shiny things”.

What I plan to show over the coming weeks is to show you where I went wrong and where I still go wrong as I surely will along the way. Hopefully you can learn from what I’ve learned and the mistakes I’ve made.

Well, so long for now. In my next blog I’ll start from the beginning and where I now believe I should have begun.

Doug