After having been marketing on the Internet for over a year, and having been turning a profit for a while now, I've come to realize something.

Each new person as they get involved in Internet marketing goes through certain stages. Naturally, there are those that bow out of the game at each stage and those that persevere. Plus, there are those lucky few that run into the right piece of advice at the right time and are able to catapult ahead, skipping some of the non-profitable early stages.

Today is your chance to hear that right piece of advice. It's up to you to take it and move yourself ahead. As you read through the stages listed below, I'm sure you'll identify with them. Try to picture where you are now, and then you'll be able to see your way further ahead.

To make it more personable, I'll use the term I.M (internet marketer) as a name in the following descriptions.

STAGE 1 -- Wow!

Getting on the Internet in the first place is like opening a great big new door to another world. Couple that with the fact that money can be made simply by working the Internet, and a typical, brand new I.M. can be seen floating through cyber la-la land for quite some time.

During this stage, I.M. is a reader. As a reader, I.M. see countless ads describing how easy it is to gain riches by working at home simply because of the huge numbers of people flocking to every bit of information the Internet provides. This is easy to believe at this point because I.M. is indeed constantly looking for information himself.

STAGE 2 -- I Want In!

Having believed in the ideal of selling information to a waiting public, I.M. finds a good piece of sales copy and buys in. Notice I said finds a good piece of 'sales copy'. In other words, I.M. buys in to the possibility of selling information, based on the sales pitch he reads, and NOT into the idea of providing a valuable service or product. Expecting immediate results, I.M. blasts out ads similar to those he read as a STAGE 1 individual.

STAGE 3 -- So Where's All The Money?!

At this point, I.M. is upset. He's been promised instant wealth, and easy profits, but they just aren't happening. He's promoting an affiliate program just like the affiliate program tells him to, but nothing is resulting from it. Disgusted, I.M. either blames the advertising services he's used, which at this point most likely include free classified sites, ffa pages, and banner sites, OR he blames the affiliate program he joined.

Many people are lost at this stage because they are offended and feeling misled.

STAGE 4 -- Discovery of Ezines (content that is)

I.M. has bopped from classified ad to web site to super promoter to email, and has read a 1000 things, BUT he has never really bothered to really READ any decent ezines. Up until now, I.M. has been too focused on headlines such as "Profit INSTANTLY from the Information Super Age!" and completely ignored seemingly complicated topics such as "How To Properly Use Ezine Advertising".

However, eventually a more sensible article title, not ad title, will seem to hint at an answer to the current problem he is having and he will read it. And I mean REALLY read it! From here one of three things will happen. Either I.M will start to glimpse what is really needed to succeed on the Internet and he will start to search for more on real topics that he needs real help with. OR he will decide the whole thing is way more complicated than he first imagined and quit. OR he will sense there has to be real work involved and recoil in fear to the more easily digested topics claiming big, instant riches and try it again that way.

STAGE 5 -- Rekindling

If at this point, after realizing there will be more work involved than he first thought, I.M decides to continue, he has just tripled his chances of actually making money online all the way up to about 5%. However, if I.M decides to continue learning, be patient, and find out what it really takes to succeed, his odds continue to improve from here on out.

STAGE 6 -- Well, Duh!

This is where I.M starts to see things in a different light. He's been around a while to where he starts to recognize the names of some of the more successful authors, marketers, and business owners. Then, not only does I.M start to listen more to their words than others, he also starts to watch their actions and analyze what it is they are actually doing.

Now simple things that should have been clear to anyone wanting to start their own business begin popping out at him left and right.

*You MUST sell items of value, not just the dream of riches. *You HAVE to create your own Internet presence and differentiate yourself among all the others blindly promoting the same things. *You NEED to build a solid reputation and as many working relationships with others as possible. *You MUST promote continually and consistently, not hit and miss. *You WILL NOT succeed in competition with 2 million other affiliates by using the same promotion methods, ads, and sites. *You NEED a unique product or service of your own, or a unique presentation of other's products or services. *You HAVE to promote using methods that actually get your ad in front of real people that are engaged in actual reading.

And most importantly...

*You MUST realize it will take WORK and will not happen instantly.

STAGE 7 -- Ok, But Now I How Do I Do It?

It's one thing to realize what needs done, but quite another to actually accomplish it. This is where it gets difficult as well because the answers are different for everyone. A good writer can promote through submitting his articles around, but not everyone is a good writer. Someone who learns and is persistent can work the search engines, but others may become too easily frustrated with the system. If investing money is not a problem, I.M. can hire the services of other professionals or buy needed software, however, for many that's not feasible.

I.M now has to answer certain questions for himself.

What product or service will be my main focus? What other affiliate programs can I correlate to my main product or service to use as secondary income streams? What promotion methods am I interested in and comfortable doing? How much do I have to invest? How much time do I have to invest?

>From here, I.M. finds the best sources of continual education for himself and constructs a legitimate business plan for the first time. He sets goals, identifies the way he wants to proceed and begins.

STAGE 8 -- Slow But Steady

I.M. gets his plan underway and proceeds. It takes time, but his business relationships start to grow, he learns more, he gets things running as planned, and slowly but steadily he starts to see his income rise. Naturally, there are problems and setbacks, but I.M. now knows what he needs to do so it's simply a matter of getting things done and giving them time to bear fruit.

STAGE 9 -- Continuing

Even at this stage I.M. may decide to quit, it's happened before. There are no guaranteed results, no sure-fire methods that always work, and no reason that I.M. may not just up and change his mind as to what he wants to do.

It takes effort to continue and keep your business growing. You will continually have to learn and adjust to your market, and it will take continual promotion.

Determination is an easily disgruntled human trait. However, if you can keep it alive and continue to work, THEN and only then is the potential of building a sizeable income and even a lifetime residual income a real possibility.

These stages are not absolute, nor does everyone move smoothly from one to the next, nor does everyone go through each and every stage. There's nothing to stop people from going back and forth between them either.

However, the sooner you realize the cold, hard facts of the latter stages, the sooner you can start to realize the goals you originally set.

It only takes minutes to imagine the world you want to be living in, but that doesn't mean it can be made a reality just as quickly.

You can't escape reality by entering into your own. Dreams bring forth images, persistence brings them home.