If there’s one thing that bugs the heck out of me it’s people asking for help then not using the information they receive. I frequently get the feeling it’s because they’re lazy, not because they can’t do it. Or maybe they just don’t give it a fair shot and they give up too soon.

It’s like they think "Oh, wow! I didn’t know I’d have to do any work to get traffic to my website." (Or build a website; or find/create a product to sell; or build a list… etc.)

Sometimes I get the feeling they expected me to tell them about some little magic pill that will drive traffic to their site and make people pull out their credit cards and buy immediately.

Well, here’s a wake up call - making money online is like making money anywhere else - you MUST work. I’m sorry, but money won’t just fall into your lap. I get sooooo tired of people thinking they don’t have to WORK to make money online. They might as well be wasting their time looking for a money tree.

Recently someone wrote and told me article marketing doesn’t work, it’s a bunch of B.S. (and some other choice words). This guy was outraged at me for suggesting to my readers that they purchase a brand new software product that makes writing articles a breeze. He said I was trying to "scam them out of their money."

Now, anyone who knows me (and my background) well enough would know that I do NOT scam people, so his comment really ticked me off! I felt had to get to the bottom of this guy’s rage.

I’ve had great success over the years with articles, so I wrote back and asked him if he had ever written any articles and if so, how many articles he had written and where he had submitted them.

You know what his answer was?

ONE!

He had submitted ONE article to a "few" directories several months ago!

And when I asked why he had only written one and submitted it to a few websites he said it was too time-consuming!

He admitted he had gotten a "trickle" of traffic at the time, but now the
traffic has tapered off.

Well, BINGO! That’s the exact reason marketers need to submit many articles to many directories and/or ezines for publication…

The more articles you write and submit, the more traffic you’ll get. And even though the traffic will taper off as your articles become "older" in the directories, they’ll still bring some traffic over time. Plus you get the benefit of backlinks from each directory to your website.

New articles are always posted at the top of the pages at article directories so visitors can see new content quickly. And when ezine publishers print your articles you’re in the spotlight for their subscribers.

Writing articles "brands" your name in the minds of people who read them. You’re seen as an expert in your field because you’re providing information. So the more articles you write and submit, the more well-known you become.

Anyway, after a couple more emails back and forth with the guy who reamed me for sending a promo about an article research/writing software, I discovered he had written me in the past and asked how to get traffic to his website and I had suggested writing articles.

Sooooo he took my advice, but just barely. And I think that instead of spending time promoting his article, or writing more articles, he chose to sit and spin his wheels and be upset because he wasn’t making money from that one article.

But since he got a "trickle" of traffic from one article submitted to a few directories, it stands to reason that he would have gotten more trickles from more directories and more articles. And with time, all of these trickles would run together and become like a "river" of traffic to his website.

Of course there are other ways to promote your website and products besides articles. But article writing is still, and always will be, a source for long-term traffic so I stand by my decision to recommend writing articles with Instant Article Wizard because it makes it MUCH less time-consuming.

But whether you choose to write articles or not, please realize you WILL have to work to make money. Yes, I know there are many promises online of "autopilot income" but what you need to understand is that to get money coming in on autopilot takes work first.

You need to get yourself and your website "out there" and use squeeze pages to
capture names and email addresses of people who are interested in your products. You need to set up an autoresponder series of emails to follow-up with those prospects about your products.

And most of all you need to keep your momentum going. Do NOT stop using a method that’s working for you. Floods of traffic and sales won’t happen overnight, but persistence is the key to eventually getting floods instead of trickles.

I’m sure you noticed the launch of "Lay Off Your Boss" by Jeff Wellman a few
days ago. I chose not to promote it on launch day because I hadn’t had time to
review the product yet, and I won’t recommend something unless I’ve reviewed it.
But now I’ve finished checking out the entire product so I’d like to give you
my honest opinion of it.

"Lay Off Your Boss" doesn’t contain any "new" information (that I noticed) so
if you’re looking for something new, you may want to pass on this. But it DOES
contain rock-solid information directed especially towards new marketers or any
marketer who isn’t yet making money online.

Jeff covers a wide variety of topics from finding a good product to sell to
creating your own product to building a relationship with your list members and
joint venture partners. He also covers WHY those things are vitally important
to your business.

Now, quite honestly, Jeff had a huge advantage over most marketers when it
comes to making money online. If you didn’t already know, Jeff is the father of
Keith Wellman who is a well-known Internet marketer, so naturally Keith showed
him the ropes. And because of Keith’s guidance Jeff was able to put together a
truly awesome product package.

"Lay Off Your Boss" isn’t just an ebook. It also contains video interviews by
top marketers Keith Wellman, Heather Vale, Frank Sousa, Simon Leung and Harris
Fellman, plus Power Point overviews of each one.

But that’s not all… Jeff is also including live audio interviews with Gary
Ambrose, Ken McArthur and Sterling Valentine.

All in all, this product has overdelivered on quality information that you can
use to start making money online in very little time if you take action on it.

When I first heard about this product before it launched I expected it to be a
medium to high-priced item - $97 to $197. But it’s not even close. Jeff knows
what it’s like to be starting out with very little money to put into learning
when you’re not making any money yet. And he priced it so it’s affordable to
almost everyone.

I highly recommend you get a copy of "Lay Off Your Boss" so you can start
making money as soon as possible. And if you grab it before noon U.S. eastern
time on Friday, May 25th you’ll also get two fast action bonuses - Cutting Edge
Traffic Tutorial and Underground Marketing Strategy, so do go check it out now.

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything in the last several days. My daughter is
visiting from out of state and I haven’t been online much. But I promise to
answer all your questions from my recent survey within the next week or so,
right here on the blog, so bookmark it and check back often.

Here’s one reader’s #1 Internet marketing question:

"define internet marketing. how to succeedinit make it simple.
What are the exact steps I need to take to get started without any hype?"

Truthfully, online marketing isn’t much different than offline marketing. But a
lot of people think they’re very different and they don’t grasp how to do it.

For one thing, if you’re selling something offline, you wouldn’t typically call
it "marketing." You’d be more likely to say "I sell Avon" (or Tupperware or
whatever). But in reality, the biggest difference between offline marketing and
online marketing is the MEDIA with which you market your products. Internet
marketing simply means you’re selling your products VIA the Internet.

So if you think in terms of selling something offline and define your action
plan, the steps you’d take to sell products offline, you can make some simple
adaptations for online selling.

Let’s use selling Avon products offline as an example. If you’re just starting
to sell Avon, you wouldn’t have any customers or prospects. What would you do?
How would you find people who are interested in what you’re selling?

The first step would probably be to contact family and friends, right? You’d
tell everyone know that you have wonderful products if they’re interested in
buying. And you’d probably ask them to tell their family and friends, too, so
more people know.

After giving your family and friends the current Avon sales brochure, you’d
wait for them to call with their orders. But what would you do if no one calls?

I hope you’d make phone calls to see if they want to buy. Why? Because they
probably set your sale book aside and forgot about it. They got busy with other
things and your book got buried on the kitchen counter under 3 days of mail.

You need to REMIND them that you’re placing an order tomorrow for the current
sale items and ASK if they’d like to order something.

Let’s recap the steps, equating online selling to offline selling:

1. Find a good product to sell
2. Find people who are interested in your product (list-building)
3. Spread the word that you sell this product (promotion & viral marketing)
4. Follow-up with prospects to remind them of what you’re selling (offline this
is typically done with phone calls; online it’s done with emails)
5. Take orders/make money

I can’t tell you exactly where to promote your products or website because it
depends on what you’re selling. But you can visit any search engine to find
ezines to advertise in, websites to buy advertising on or to swap links with,
classified ad sites, etc.

The key is to promote to the right market - people who are interested in the
type of products you sell. You could advertise weight loss products in a
fishing ezine, but you probably won’t get any sales. You need to advertise your
weight loss products in health and diet related ezines.

And if you think list-building and follow-up aren’t important to selling
products online or offline, check out this article I recently wrote.

I’ll be back here within a couple of days with more answers to your questions,
so stay tuned.

I’m still answering questions sent to me by readers in my recent survey. This
one is interesting…

"ARE WE REALLY GOING TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR OFFER ON INTERNET MARKETING. OR JUST MAKE US FOOL WITH LONG WRITING ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS,FLASHY STORY AND COLLECT OUR MONEY FROM OUR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT."

Let me just say that NO product and NO one can make money for you. YOU are the
only one responsible for that. I can recommend hundreds of good products to
help you make money, but if you don’t apply the strategies you learn then you
won’t "make money with it."

And the same goes for any other marketer. We can all make recommendations, but
if you don’t use the products the way they are meant to be used, then you won’t
make money.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more answers to your questions.

Here I am again with more answers to readers questions. Now, before you go
thinking I’m insulting anyone with my subject line, take a look at this
question:

"My number one question? What is the best "turnkey" program out there? I am
looking for a program that even "dumb" grandma can do in her sleep."

See? She called herself a dumb grandma. I didn’t

This is kind of a toughy because there are so many turnkey programs being
offered around the ‘Net. I can’t really tell you what’s the "best" because it
would just be my opinion. But I can tell you the ones I’ve had great success
with.

The two I’ve had the most success with are Autopilot Profits and
Secret Affiliate Weapon, both by Ewen Chia.

Both of them are turnkey programs in the Internet marketing niche, so if you
don’t want to sell to that market they won’t be turnkey programs for you. But
they WILL help you learn a lot about Internet marketing so even if you’re in a
different niche you’ll find them helpful.

Secret Affiliate Weapon specifically teaches you strategies for selling
affiliate products. Autopilot Profits is an overall view of how to make money
online with your own products or affiliate products.

And yes, even a grandma can do this. I’m a grandma and as I said before, I’ve
done VERY well with these two products.

Now I’d like to tell you some things to look for when you’re checking out
programs…

First, scroll down a few posts in this blog and read my post called "How to
Keep From Being Scammed" for some pointers. You don’t want to get conned out of
your money.

Besides that, when looking for good programs, keep in mind that if something
about the sales page makes you think twice about buying, then it’s likely your
prospects will think twice, too.

For instance, I’ve seen a "business opportunity" that sells for $997. It
contains tons of ebooks and software and I’m sure if they were purchased
separately they would cost more than $997. But how quickly do YOU cough up
$1000? Your prospects are likely to feel the same way.

If the products look crappy or the sales letter looks like it was written by a
3rd grader you’ll probably have trouble selling it, too. You really just need
to use your best judgement.

I’ll be posting more questions and answers over the next few days, so bookmark
this site and come back often.

Today I’m answering another question from a reader in my recent survey.

"How do you brand yourself on the web so people will come to you to join your
MLM, no matter what your selling? Now that’s a good one for you Denise."

I’ve always told people to write and submit articles to as many article
directories and ezine publishers as you can find. You simply add a link to your
website or opt-in list subscribe page in the author’s resource box at the end
of the article. This is what got my name and website "out there" 4 years ago.

The more exposure you have, the more website visitors you’ll have, leading to
more sales and signups. Articles are typically posted online for a long time,
so this can bring you traffic for years to come.

You should also advertise in as many places as possible - ezines, classifieds
sites, forums, etc. Just keep your name and website in public view. Post
comments or answers to other people’s questions at forums that are about your
topic, too. Just be sure you follow their rules about advertising and posting
links.

These days many people are also using "social" sites to drive more traffic and
make more sales. Sites such as MySpace and YouTube could be a good place to
brand yourself with people who are interested in your topic. Again, be sure you
follow their rules.

Recently I conducted a survey of my newsletter readers, asking them what their
biggest marketing question is. I received a long list of questions so I
decided to post them here, along with my answers, to help ALL my readers.

I’m answering 4 questions today because they’re very similar to each other…

"With a ton of products being offered on the internet everyday, how can you be
sure you’re buying a genuine product and not just falling for another scam?"

"How do you determine what is truly a trustworthy resource and exactly how do
you choose honest products and honest vendors to represent?"

"There are thousands of opportunities on the internet that promise the world.
Is there a way other than, ‘this sounds too good to be true’, to distinguish
the genuine versus the quick buck artist?"

"Denise, what is the best way to overcome the fear of being scammed again,
which leads to inaction and hesitation to do anything, for us newbies who don’t
have money to throw away on hype and misleading promises of many internet
marketers?"

This is definitely not an easy question to answer. Much of it is gut instinct,
and the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" does
hold true here. But there are certain measures you can take to keep from being
scammed, too…

For one thing, steer clear of outrageous claims like "make $10,000 overnight
with no work." Not only does that sound too good to be true, it also sounds
totally absurd. Don’t even join something like this to satisfy your curiousity.
You’ll be wasting your time and possibly losing money. When you see something
like that, close your browser window - fast.

But the more subtle scammer won’t make such ridiculous income claims. He’ll be
more likely to tell you a story you’ll believe so you’ll join his program. And
these are the ones that are much harder to know if they’re good products or if
they’re scams.

The best thing you can do to figure out how good something is, or whether or
not it’s a scam, is to research it. Visit forums like Scam.com and see if there
are any posts about it. If not, ask if anyone knows anything about it.

You can also visit the Better Business Bureau’s websites. There’s one for
offline companies and one for online companies. See if there are any reports on
the company you’re researching. The BBB posts both good and bad reports that
they receive from consumers.

You can do a search on Google or any other search engine for the name of the
product or program or even the person running it to see if there are any review
sites listed in the search results. You may find the answers you seek by
reading someone’s review or blog or forum comments.

If you’re specifically looking for information on Internet marketing related
products, I’d suggest a site called RatingsHub.com. The site is run by David
Vallieres and he has hundreds of associate editors who review products. If you
don’t see a product listed there, you can request that it be reviewed. You can
even review products yourself if you’d like other people to know your opinion,
good or bad.

Never be afraid to ask for a refund if a product isn’t what it claimed to be on
the sales page. Always go to the person you bought the product from first, but
if they won’t give you a refund don’t hesitate to contact PayPal, ClickBank, 2
CheckOut or whatever payment processor took your money. Most of the time
they’ll grant you the refund.

Honestly, the best thing is to do your own due diligence. Check on products or
programs before joining them and if anything smells fishy, stay away from it.

I’ll answer more readers questions tomorrow, so check back here then.

By now you’re probably tired of "learning" about Internet marketing and would
actually like to make some money, right?

I don’t blame you.

When I see dozens of marketers selling the same info I feel like I’m drowning
in information overload. And instead of actually making money I’m too busy
trying to keep up with all the latest marketing fads.

The good news is you don’t need to know all the newest fads. Internet marketing
isn’t any more complicated than offline marketing.

You need 3 simple things:

1. A good product
2. A good offer
3. A good prospect list

But the simplicity of actually making money is complicated by one thing: FOCUS

From what I can see, hundreds (maybe thousands) of new marketers get stuck…
they have trouble focusing on what to do next, so they end up spinning their
wheels.

Here’s my suggestion… do ONE thing at a time.

Instead of hopping on every "next best thing" that comes along, concentrate on
doing ONE thing until you’re good at it. When you start to see results from
your efforts, you’ll know it’s time to start learning the next step.

Most people want to try and learn everything there is to know before starting
to build their business.

Well, guess what? There’s always something new to learn, so going about it that
way will get you no where. You’ll be in a state of constant learning and never
DOING what you learn. You MUST take ACTION on what you learn.

This is the philosophy behind my "Recipe For Internet Marketing Success" report.

Decide what your next step is, then take action on it. This is more important
to your success than doing nothing because you’re waiting for all the pieces of
the puzzle to come together.

It’s much more important to ACT, then learn more as you go, rather than never
acting at all. Every small goal reached is getting you one step closer to your
ultimate success.

Here’s something that seems to have great potential:

Combine the best of what YouTube does (deliver videos) and offer an opportunity for affiliate marketing or publishing (like Clickbank).

This idea is the brainchild of Brad Fallon. Brad is a pretty creative guy and has a number of winning Internet projects under his belt already, so like his other sites, I think this will draw huge attention. If you’re familiar with Brad you know he can really bring in the traffic.

The site has a two-tier affiliate program that allows you to get paid
for a full year on any purchases or sales your referrals make.

And you can embed video on any site you want, just like YouTube, but when the person goes to the site and makes a purchase, you get paid!

It’s free to join, so go check it out. It’s also free for you post your own content - both free and paid - on the site. They accept ebooks, audios and videos. This could be a *very powerful* viral system…

FreeIQ

This is a story of 2 people who want to create a successful Internet business.

They both graduated from the same high school and college. They are the same age and they live in the same small town in the USA.

But Guy #1 doesn’t know H-T-M-L from L-A-T-T-E.

Guy #2 not only understands that HTML is what goes into your website and LATTE is what goes into your stomach, he also knows how to use them in the right way to achieve his desired results. (Yes, caffiene is a necessary ingredient of success.

They both have a strong desire to succeed, but Guy #2 has some skills that will help him succeed and can build simple websites in an afternoon and test them within minutes.

Guy #1 has no skills. So when he does have an idea he would like to test, he has to wait for his ‘web guy’ to come back from vacation just to tell him what he wants. Then he has to wait for his ‘web guy’ designer to build the site. Of course, the web guy has dozens of clients, so even creating a simple website for Guy #1 could take weeks.

In the meantime, Guy #2 has his site built and has already started testing it - all completed in an afternoon.

Which one do you think will be more successful online?

There’s a common theme I’ve been hearing from a lot of people I talk to when it comes to being successful online…

The common theme is that they are all able to design and create their own simple websites. I’m not talking about anything complicated, just simple but attractive websites that are built and uploaded so they are visible online.

There are exceptions. Yanik Silver outsourced almost all of his sites at the beginning of his Internet business, but he was already doing well in the offline world in direct marketing so was able to afford to outsource his online stuff.

I learned HTML in 2003 when a friend showed me how to edit a webpage she had created for me.

With her guidance I was able to create my own websites at will and now generate thousands of dollars in sales each year online as a direct result of knowing HOW to create my own webpages and sites, fast.

If I didn’t learn how to create my own websites whenever I wanted to, I’m sure I would have had very limited success online because when I started out I didn’t have any money to hire a web designer.

The same skills I learned in 2003 I still use today because even thought the tools have changed, the basics of HTML and creating your own sites hasn’t. It’s pretty simple to do, if you have the right knowledge.

For 95% of those who have found success online, the common theme is that they are able to:

1) Build websites at will - in an afternoon if they want
2) Make minor or major changes to those sites at will
3) Test by creating webpages fast and getting them online
4) Create attractive websites that sell

Let’s think about this for a moment.

Websites are the ’stuff’ of the web… it’s what makes you money. If there were two guys, like our story above, which one do you really think has a chance at being successful and which one doesn’t?

It’s the guy with the skills, right?

It’s the same online as it is offline. The guy with the skills wins.

Marlon Sanders, a guy who’s been online and offline and successful at both, has come up with a product called Design Dashboard that makes you a ‘website building ninja’ overnight.

It’s a comprehensive, but easy and fun, way to learn how to create your own websites from scratch and it’s interactive with videos and tutorials.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and invest in yourself and learn how to build a decent looking website. Once you go through these tutorials, you’ll have skills in no time at all.

Then YOU will be the master.

Why is this important to learn?

Imagine being able to setup a squeeze page in a few minutes, or a sales page that looks awesome in an afternoon (or less) and being able to make money at will because you can move quickly, get it done and start testing right away.

See an affiliate product you’d like to promote? You can setup a page that pre-sells it in minutes and start sending traffic to it through PPC to test it - all in a few minutes once you learn these skills!

Marlon has a video that demonstrates how his Design Dashboard can help you build sites fast and that look great. Watch this short video and see how easy this is to learn how to build sites using the right tools.

Watch the Video