Article Surfing Archive

This article is part 1 of an ongoing series following the adventures of an unemployed slob with a dream.

The trek into the world of internet marketing can be a bit daunting. I know because as I write this, I've just taken one of my first steps into this foray.

I assume I've done all of the typical things most newbies do on the road in. I also assume that my reason for doing these things is somewhat textbook. I was laid off a few months ago from a dot-com for the second time in 3 years and just couldn't stand the thought of going through the whole thing again. So I entertained all kinds of thoughts of what I "should" do for work. Ideas whizzed into my mind as quickly as they raced out: "I should just bite the bullet and get a tech job", "Maybe I should do construction", "I'll hit the lottery", "Interior Design?", "How about writing a book?", "Maybe I can get by as a consultant", "McDonald's?".

One day as I finished my breakfast of all the job and classified websites I could eat, I angrily pounded on my keyboard, "MAKE MONEY". I laughed when I realized that my cursor was in the Google search box. I hit enter. My first thought was, "Look at all of these scams!" Then for some reason which I don't recall, I clicked one. Then another. After about page 10 in Google's results pages, I realized it was all very interesting to me. It wasn't that I was actually buying it, I mean, I wasn't a sucker. It was the fact that beyond the obvious scams, there was actually a story. I read the testimonials of hundreds of people. "I made $50,000 my first month!", "I'll retire in 4 years!", "If my grandmother can do it, you can!" They were as endless as the over-the-top enthusiasm. It provided me with the same literary satisfaction as a Reader's Digest short story. But there was something more. I couldn't help but wonder, "Is there even a tiny bit of truth in here?" I imagine this must be what it felt like for pioneers that pondered the journey west to search for gold. Sure they heard grand stories but what are the chances? Armed with the amazing knowledge that only 25 minutes of reading Google results can give you I considered myself much better equipped than the average joe. I went off to find the one goldmine that had yet been unpicked.

A week passed and I'd read thousands of testimonials, ideas, free ebooks, and forums. The forums were particularly interesting to me because here were people that all seemed to have a general interest in helping one another to achieve financial freedom. Being a competitive person in business, sports, and life in general, I wondered what the point of that was. "Why tip your hand?", I thought. As I continued to read threads in the forum, it hit me, relationships. All good businesses have one thing in common, great relationships. Whether it's with a landlord, the mailman, a client, or an employee, successful businesses thrive on good relationships. I was now addicted to this thought.