One important change over the last 25-30 years is that most people work harder but have less to show for. I live in Toronto where costs for most things for day to day living increased 5-10 times since 1982 while the minimal wage has only increased less than three fold. Worse, a job that paid maybe $25,000 in 1982 does not return $75,000 today, but maybe $55,000 or so. So there is a further dip in your buying power. Back then you could still buy a 5 year old car for a few hundred dollars and insurance would run you another couple hundred dollars or so. And gas? At 24 cents a liter gas was simply not a problem. Rents? Around $300-400 per month for a three bedroom apartment with parking. Today, much of that buying power is gone and a lot of younger people simply cannot afford to drive a car while older people have to work harder and harder just to keep their heads above water.

No wonder that some are turning to the internet hoping to supplement their income by participating in many of the advertised money-making opportunities. Somehow replying to an ad posted on an electronic bulletin board seems to have more of a sense of legitimacy than answering a five line ad in Popular Science and the same people who would ignore that latter can get quite excited about the former. And then with one click here you are. Welcome to the land of confusion! A lot of times it is difficult to know just what exactly is being sold. There is a lot of emphasis on traffic but often little on what that traffic is for. I guess the thinking is that it really does not matter what the traffic is for. As long as a few dozens out of a few millions do something different than the rest you are could be on your road to riches. Hopefully that different event is clicking on a website and buying something. In that case the person who provides the traffic and funnels it to that product’s web page can earn a commission on each sold item. But sometimes just clicking without buying can return a commission too although these deals are harder and harder to find. Traffic, products and pay per sale or pay per click commission are the fundamentals of internet marketing.

But just immerse yourself one afternoon into the mad, mad world of internet marketing and you will be easily convinced that you really are clueless and the only way to become educated is to buy, buy, buy! Actually, what is being offered is not education but wealth. And lots of it. Talk about hitting pay dirt. Did you know that you can retire rich from selling dirt? And I am not talking about buying and selling real estate but about making batteries from dirt. This is an actual product that is advertised for sale. It pays (no pun intended) to remember that buying an internet marketing scheme that has no good product to support it is like buying hot air without a balloon.

Does the word “webinar” sound like something that sat in your fridge too long like a half-eaten Subway sandwich that you put away last summer and came face to face after Thanksgiving? And if you don’t know anything about internet marketing, and you will become fast convinced that you don’t, otherwise why are still scraping by on your regular job, you’ll have to attend several dreaded webinars until your stomach is really going to start turning. Clickbank, squeeze pages, affiliate programs, it’s easy to get a panic attack. How do you know what works and what doesn’t? In a short while you’ll be made to believe that they all work and the only thing that is not working is you.