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Tip#1 To be a successful netpreneur (and still maintain your sanity!) you must have patience in TWO areas. First of all, you absolutely MUST have patience with your computer and with the Internet. In this respect, Murphy's Law ("Anything that CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong.") will be your guiding principal.  Learn it - live it - BELIEVE it!  Always assume that anything computer or Internet related is not going to work properly the first time and that it's going to develop a "glitch" at a time when you need it most.  Not backing up your computer?  Well, that is the same as going on a cross-country trip in your automobile without a spare tire.  Your computer IS going to crash, my friend.  Be prepared for it! If you want to avoid beating your head against the wall at 2:00 A.M., always assume that the worst is going to happen (it WILL!), and PREPARE for it - this IS the Internet! Secondly, and more importantly, you must have patience with your business itself. If you honestly think that there is some magical program available on the web that is going to make you an overnight success, well, you’re simply living in a dream world. I advise you to save YOUR time, and, ultimately, MY time, and rush down to your local Seven/Eleven and "invest" in a couple of lottery tickets. Your chances of "overnight" success are far greater.  Any LEGITIMATE business takes months to mature and develop to the point where it reaches profitability As brutal as it may sound, if your rent is two months behind and you need fast money, the Internet is NOT for you. "Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of PATIENCE. Be prepared to invest a MINIMUM of three to six months in your online business before you expect to see a reasonable profit."   Tip#2 Oh, so you think that you can hit the "enter" key once a week, and soon build a business that will be the rival of General Motors! The Big Gurus know differently, folks – that’s why they ARE the Big Gurus. You have to decide – right HERE and right NOW – exactly what kind of business you wish to make from the Internet. In fact... ...do you really want a business at all!? What I mean is this: Maybe you don’t rush off to your job every morning with a smile on your face, eagerly waiting to get there. Maybe you’re not the type that can’t wait for the weekend to be over so you can get back to work, But you make "OK" money, you’re paying the bills, and you have a little left over at the end of the week…and you’re fairly content with your life. Maybe, just maybe, all YOU’RE looking for is a hobby, rather than a business – something that you can play around with a half hour or so every week or two. Well, that’s fine, and I wish you the very best. Have FUN! BUT!…if you want to build a business, my friend, you have to treat what you’re doing LIKE a business. YOU MUST MAKE THE INVESTMENT OF TIME. "Ninety percent of success is just showing up!" …which reminds me of a true story that I have used for years to illustrate this point.. In one of the offline businesses I was once involved in, I happened to have this one distributor – we’ll call him Mike – who was stuck in a dead-end, minimum wage job, with no benefits. It was a job he HATED. One evening he called me, and I could almost hear the tears in his voice. It turned out he had had another argument with his boss. "Stan," he began, "I just can’t take it any more. I never have any money. I hate this job, and my boss is always on my back. TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I don’t care what it is, I’ll do ANYTHING to get out of this job and start making some real money!" "Mike," I answered, "It’s pretty simple. I want you devote an honest, sincere two hours each evening for four evenings every week, working this business. I can guarantee you that within one year you will have achieved what you want." What do you think he said? In a VERY shocked voice, he said, "Gee, Stan you’re asking for an awful big commitment, aren’t you?" Yes, folks, this is a true story, and it serves to illustrate my point very nicely. Everyone SAYS they want to be in their own business and make a ton of money. But what separates the successes from the failures – the Big Gurus from the puppies – is the ability to invest time on a consistent basis. "Internet marketing is the EASIEST business in the world if you work it HARD!  But it’s the HARDEST business in the world f you work it EASY!" Fortunately (and this is one of the many things that make Internet marketing so great), the time you invest can be very flexible. In all probability, you’ll be working from your home, perhaps in a spare room, or a corner of your bedroom, and this gives you a LOT of flexibility in WHEN you want to work. But I will tell you this: You must be prepared to invest an honest and sincere one to two hours a day, five or six days a week in your business. Internet marketing is done on a daily basis. If you are committing to one hour a day, that MEANS one hour a day, not a few hours every other Friday night. (That’s having a "hobby," not running a business!) Think of it this way. Brushing your teeth takes just three minutes. Instead of doing it for six minutes every day, try brushing your teeth for 30 minutes JUST on Friday night. It’s just not the same thing, is it!? You need to develop the HABIT of success by doing just a little job every day, rather than trying to do a big job once a week. When that one special day comes along, it’s just too doggone easy to find an excuse to put off your duties until "tomorrow." Well, in many cases, that never-never land of "tomorrow" never comes, and soon you find yourself "tomorrowed" out of business! "It’s hard by the yard, but a cinch by the inch." There is yet another reason to steel yourself to do your Internet marketing on a daily basis. Always keep in mind that anything on the Internet is VERY ephemeral – at the end of the day, it’s GONE for good. It doesn’t work that way in the "dirt world." Two YEARS after having run ads in various offline magazines, I STILL get activity from them! People let magazines lay around for a long, long time; they may cut out an interesting ad, or write down the details of it and put it in a file, or on that "pile of interesting stuff" on their desks. Not so with the Internet! If an ad doesn’t catch their attention right then and there – FORGET ABOUT IT! It’s gone into cyberspace forever! Now, as important as it is to commit to investing an hour a day with your Internet business, it is just as important to know when to get OFF the Internet! We all know how addictive the Internet can be. There’s just so doggone MUCH "stuff" on there to see. There is no limit to the amount of time one can waste in surfing from this website to that website, in investigating this program or that program. But I can easily define why so many Internet marketers fail. They don’t know when to START working, and they don’t know when to STOP. Stick to your schedule – do the work you need to do – then get OFF the computer! You’ll be a much better adjusted human being if you know when to QUIT! "Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of TIME. Commit to investing one hour EACH day in your online business."   Tip#3 If the thought of change makes you cringe and break out in to a cold sweat, the Internet is not for you! Unlike the dirt world, change happens on the Internet in milliseconds. Marketing techniques and tools that work terrific today may be antiquated in three months…or three DAYS. The Big Gurus inherently know this, understand this, and, most importantly, ACCEPT this. But the human animal inherently HATES change. Change fills us with anxiety and frustration. We want things to stay the way they are; we crave stability. But stability ain’t what the Internet world is all about, sports fans! "Change – RAPID change – is a fact of Internet marketing. Understand this and accept this."   Tip#4 Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You’ve heard all this hype about how you can get on the Internet, and with zero money, make a fortune. Well, my friends, I’m here to tell you it simply doesn’t work that way. The old adage that "it takes money to make money" is JUST as true on the Internet as it is in the dirt world. That’s the bad news. The GOOD news is that it takes a whole lot LESS money to develop a thriving, profitable Internet business. You have no office rent, or employee expenses, no telephone, postage, or printing expenses. So that cuts down on your financial investment substantially, to say the least. But it does take SOME money! Now, I am quite aware of the fact that the Internet is absolutely riddled with "free" this and "free" that – COUNTLESS programs and so-called business opportunities that are absolutely free. Did you know, though, that you can join just about ANY program on the Internet in two ways – as a FREE member or as a PAID (or "Pro") member? Why is that? Do you think that all the folks who own these companies are just being nice guys to offer a free version of their program? Nope! That’s not the case at all. It all has to do with the law. You see, Federal Trade Commission regulations make it illegal for a business offering it’s services in the United States to charge for the opportunity to sell it’s products. Now this is a GOOD law, and it came about because of the extreme abuses of the network marketing community in the early ‘70’s. Back in those days, many companies were requiring prospective distributors to purchase HUGE amounts (sometimes thousands of dollars worth!) of soap, or dried foods, or vitamins, or motivational tapes in order to be "qualified" to earn a commission. A whole lot of this stuff just ended up filling up the poor distributor’s garage. This is how the derogatory term "garage qualified" came about in network marketing. This law is, of course, still in effect both OFFline as well as ONline. It stipulates that although a company CAN charge for it’s products or services, it can NOT charge just for the privilege of SELLING it’s products and services. Thus, any legitimate online company adheres to this law, and makes available what is called a "free reseller opportunity," or a "free affiliate opportunity." As a Free Member you don’t get to USE that company’s products or services (after all, you’re not PAYING for anything). You simply have the authority to SELL the company’s products or services and earn a commission. FREE memebrship in a company generally offers NO benefits of the company’s product or service, or at most a much watered down version of them. Now the Big Gurus know all this. They know that the "free" version of any online program is there simply to fulfill the letter of the law. The Big Gurus pretty much make a joke about the "free" programs, and certainly don’t take them seriously. They know that if a program or service is worthwhile at all, the only way any real value is derived from it is by PAYING for the privilege. And I’m here to tell you that "free members" NEVER get around to doing anything. Now if YOU happen to be a free member in a number of programs, I am not trying to "step on your toes." The fact is, my friend, that IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT! Like so many thousands of others you have been mislead by the "join this program for free, do nothing, and make a million dollars" hype that is still so prevalent on the Internet. But think about this: How effective can a person be in SELLING any product or service if they haven’t at least TRIED that particular product or service themselves!? Do YOU think you’d make a great car salesman if you had never driven an automobile? Also, there is unfortunately an entire level of Internet society that has the attitude of, "This is the Internet. I expect and DEMAND something for nothing." These folks spend HOURS a day doing nothing more than hopping from website to website, joining the free portion of program after program. They think that if they join ENOUGH free programs, that eventually they’ll make their Internet fortunes – all without having to do any real work. And if YOU don’t ration your time when dealing with these people, you can end up spending most of it "playing" with free members, virtually NONE of whom will contribute to your wallet. Let me give you a couple brief examples of what I mean, by sharing with you just a few of the countless emails I receive all the time from Free Members of various programs I am involved in. (Note: I have kept the spelling and grammatical errors intact.) "Dear Stan. I have joined your program as a free member six times now. It’s been over two weeks and I’m still not making any money. What am I doing wrong?" "dear stan. I found yur emale address in papers on my desk Do I belong to yur program? if I do rush me all the informaton I need." "Dear Stan. I like your program a lot and as soon as I get some of my bills caught up I think that I’ll have the money to join. In the meantime, below is a list of 25 important questions I need you to answer. If I don’t hear from you right away I’ll know it’s just a scam." Understand, now, friends, that I am NOT trying to put down or make fun of those genuinely sincere folks who, through their inexperience, really believe that joining as a free member in any program is going to make them money. It’s certainly not THEIR fault if they believe the incredible amount of Internet hype that is out there. If they have true grit, however, they soon learn the truth and become productive members of the online community. But I have NO sympathy for the people who expect and DEMAND a free ride, and have neither the desire, the ability, or even two nickels to rub together to build a REAL online business. Here’s the bottom line (and again, folks, I apologize if this sounds brutal, but I’m here to try and tell you the TRUTH, not a bunch of lies that you’ve already heard a hundred times): If a person doesn’t have a couple of dollars they can throw at a business for a few months to see if it works for them, and NOT have their lifestyle affected if it doesn’t - well, then, they should seriously consider a different form of enterprise. Now, then...just how MUCH money should one look to invest in their online business? Naturally, your pocketbook is always the deciding factor in any business venture. NEVER get in over your head financially for more money than you are absolutely comfortable with. But remember that we are talking about starting a business, NOT a "hobby." In my last year of running an OFFline business, I was spending around $8,000.00 each month on advertising. Now, my friends, I had a relatively small "dirt world" type of business, and $8,000.00 per month is NOT a whole lot of money to spend in offline promotion. Just ask any of your friends who own traditional businesses. One of the many nice features about ONline marketing, however, is that you can get the same bang for a much smaller buck! A monthly commitment of between $200.00 and $400.00 is very reasonable, and, compared to OFFLINE ventures, is laughably small. Can you start off smaller? You betcha! But, like any business, the smaller you start out, the longer it will take to achieve your ultimate goals. "Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of MONEY. Be prepared to make SOME type of financial commitment."