FINANCIAL FREEDOM! Those of us who yearn to create a better life for ourselves strive to be financially free. There are several ways we can achieve financial freedom; some imply luck and others imply dependency on others. However, there is a way to get to that level without relying on luck or the direct help of others: BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS.
When you strive to become your own boss, you are taking your life into your own hands. Therefore, there are several ways that you can create a better life for yourself. The best way to start earning income for yourself is ECOMMERCE. Why not? If you have a computer and internet access (which millions of people access daily), you have the initial tools to start generating income online. Once you create (or discover) a product or service that you can market, you’re on your way to financial freedom. Welcome to the world of INTERNET MARKETING.
For those who are familiar with internet marketing, you may find opportunities that tell you that you can “make money overnight” or they may tell you how easy it is to start earning $10k per month. Also, some of these opportunities will tell you that it’s “free” to start making money online. I want to discuss some of the misconceptions you may hear about internet marketing and the truths about each of these misconceptions. Before I get into these misconceptions, I’ll illustrate an example of a misconception I faced years ago when I was looking for a business opportunity.
The year was 1987 and I was a sophomore at Howard University in Washington, DC. At the time, my mother was paying part of my tuition. I received the rest of the financial aid. I know it was hard for my mom to pay for my college education, so I wanted to find a way to help her with those expenses. After all, I ultimately wanted to be responsible for my own college education.
I don’t remember where I saw the opportunity, but it was an ad that said MAKE MONEY STUFFING ENVELOPES. Of course, at that time, the Internet was not available to the general public, so I had to ask for the information by mail. About a week later, I received a letter in the mail. I started reading the letter, excited about the possibilities of making good money. I remembered some of the things that were mentioned in the letter:
First, he mentioned how easy it is to make money stuffing envelopes and get paid for it. Second, she would ask: HOW MANY ENVELOPES CAN BE FILLED PER MONTH? 10? fifty? 100? 300? Reading this, my excitement grew. “YES, I can fill 300 envelopes or more.”
The next thing the letter focused on is how much money you can earn. I don’t remember the exact amount, but the amount was in the range of $2k to $5k per month.
The bottom line is… the letter focused on how much you can earn, which would make anyone excited to sign up. At the end of the letter, there was a price of around $24.95, which you would have to pay to start stuffing the envelopes. I paid the fee and then submitted my order form. I was thinking to myself… not only will I be able to pay for my own college expenses, but I’ll also be able to do some Christmas shopping during the holiday season.
When I received the report and read it, my excitement suddenly turned to disappointment. After reading this report, I discovered that I had to place ads to solicit others who wanted to stuff envelopes, then I would have to send interested parties the same letter I received earlier, hence the term “Envelope Stuffing.” In the report, it was suggested to place an ad in the National Inquirer. When I bought the National Inquirer, you wouldn’t believe how many ads I saw for STUFFING ENVELOPES. There were HUNDREDS of ads. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The envelope stuffing scheme was an example of a chain letter scam. Such tactics would be illegal today, but there were quite a few of these business scams at the time. Deception is the name of the game with these opportunities. He convinces whoever is reading his letter of how much money he can make without discussing the details, he puts a price on it, and after the prospects pay, he reveals the truth about what is being offered. Unfortunately, many business opportunities today use the same tactics. Many of them tell you what you want to hear about making big money, and tell you how easy it is to make that money. After paying the fee or agreeing to receive emails, you get the lowdown on the opportunity. In my opinion, this deception is one of the reasons why many people who want to become internet marketers fail before they even get started. When a person striving to become their own boss comes across a business opportunity that misleads them by saying one thing, after paying or participating, saying something else, that can be discouraging to say the least.
Below, I’ve listed 6 misconceptions about internet marketing, followed by the truths that go along with these misconceptions.
MISCONCEPTION #1: YOU CAN MAKE MONEY OVERNIGHT
The Misconception – This is probably the number one misconception you hear about internet marketing. Believe it or not, there are business opportunities out there that claim you can make money “overnight.” When they say this, they don’t mean that you can literally make money overnight, but rather that you can do it quickly.
The truth: There are several ways to make money overnight: 1) winning the lottery, 2) winning big at the casinos, 3) winning by betting on sports, and 4) getting money from an inheritance. As for making money overnight in internet marketing; that is, if you start from scratch, it just doesn’t happen. Nobody goes from rags to riches overnight with internet marketing. The truth is that making money as an internet marketer is a slow and methodical process. Even our top internet marketers will tell you that it took them months, maybe years, before they even made any cash.
MISCONCEPTION #2: YOU CAN’T MAKE MONEY ONLINE
The misconception: Before the Internet was available to the public, there were many pyramid schemes and business practices that would be illegal today. Regardless, many people believe that most online business opportunities are not legitimate, so making money online is nothing more than a fantasy.
The truth: There are legitimate business opportunities online that can bring you a good income. As with any business venture, whether online or offline, there are procedures you must follow if you want to be successful. In other words, you should treat your online business like you would any mom-and-pop store; You will have to build it, which means you will have to work! Over time (and with a small investment), you can earn a substantial online income for yourself.
FALSE CONCEPT #3: FREE… FREE… EVERYTHING IS FREE!
The Misconception: When it comes to internet marketing, the one word you’ll see with most business opportunities is the word FREE. Some of these opportunities will claim that they can help you make money online and they can do it for free.
The truth: You will not be able to earn $10k per month with an opportunity that you received absolutely free. Many of these business opportunities will tell you that you can earn a substantial income for free, but only after you “opt in” (meaning you’ve signed up to receive future emails from them) will you receive emails from them. “They’ll sell more” emails to persuade you to pay for an offer to make money off the opportunity. The fact is that no business opportunity will make money by giving you something 100% free. Think about it. If you could earn $10k a month without spending a penny of your money, then there would be more successful internet marketers in the business.
FALSE CONCEPT #4: “YOU CAN EARN $1,000 IN JUST 7 DAYS”
The misconception: You’ve probably seen opportunities that claim you can earn a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time. I have personally seen videos where people claim they made over $1000 within a week of starting the opportunity.
The Truth: It may be possible for an experienced internet marketer, who has already established a business relationship with a large number of people (i.e. a large list of email subscribers), to start a new business opportunity and raise at least a thousand Dollars. in a week. It might be possible to earn that amount of money if he pays a lot of $$$ for advertising. In general, no one, and I mean ANYONE without internet marketing experience, will be able to generate that amount of cash in the first 7 days of promoting the business. The fact is that many of these business opportunities tend to exaggerate profits to persuade you to sign up. Any legitimate business should tell you more about the opportunity itself and less about the money you could make.
FALSE CONCEPT #5: “IT’S SO SIMPLE, EVEN A TEN YEAR OLD CAN DO IT”
The misconception: When a business opportunity says that a ten-year-old can work in the business, it is telling them that they don’t have to work very hard to make money.
The truth: If this statement were true, there would be many more Internet marketers generating substantial income online. If a business opportunity was that simple, you wouldn’t have to go to college for 4 years to work toward a bachelor’s degree. All you would have to do is promote this business to earn money. The truth is that no business opportunity is “simple.” You will still have to spend a lot of time and effort (and/or money) to grow it and start generating income.
FALSE CONCEPT #6: “YOUR WEBSITE WILL BE VISITED BY THOUSANDS”
The misconception: There are systems out there that claim they can help you get a lot of traffic to your website or affiliate link.
The truth: This is yet another hype to make you opt or buy your system. What they don’t tell you is that in order to get thousands of visits to your website, you’ll have to pay… and even when you do pay, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get that many visits to your website. Also, the views you may get may be from other internet marketers looking to promote their website or affiliate link. The only real way to increase traffic to your website is to pay for advertising.
Many of these trading systems and opportunities will exaggerate or trick you into paying or participating in their program. As an internet marketer, you have to keep in mind that nothing will come easy when it comes to building a $10k per month business. As with any business opportunity, you will have to earn your way to success by putting in the time and effort to grow the business. Using the right tools, you will succeed.
