I hope you are reading this before you have fallen for one of the countless online scams or mistakes Internet marketers often make! Most of these scams focus their offer at beginners who are seeking a way to make LOTS of money online by tomorrow.

Does the offer promise things that sound almost too good to be true? If the offer all but insures making “hundreds” or even “thousands” of dollars per day for a few hours of work, you should KNOW it’s too good to be true! Or if it offers some type of shortcut that sounds too good to be true, it surely is. There are no shortcuts to the basics. 

• Data Entry and Type at Home – These are the biggies! Why can’t I get people to pay me $49.99 as easy as these sites do? I guess because I am not playing on those “get rich quick” emotions. There are NO legitimate “data entry” or “type at home” offers. If you think someone will pay you good money just to “fill out forms”, I’d like to sell you my house overlooking the ocean here in Oklahoma. (If you are overseas, you might want to check a map before you buy it.) NOTE: There are companies that will pay you for doing online work for them. However, you do not have to buy a package in order to do this. If you are interested in doing this type of work, check out sites like elance.com, guru.com, odesk.com, etc.

• eMail Blasts – They sound awesome don’t they! You can send an e-mail with your offer to 2.5 million people for $39.99! I won’t get into the details here, but they are a total waste of money…and might get you into trouble too! Instead, build your own list!

• Get Your Site on Page One of Google -GUARANTEED!….just $89.99! – Cool! Let’s read the fine print here. No, you don’t get to pick the keywords; they use their choice of keywords related to your niche. Sounds OK? Here’s how it works: They optimize your page for a very long-tail keyword. For example, if your site sells leather dog collars, they will optimize your page for something like, “buy leather dog collars cheap”. Yip, you will get on the first page for that term. Heck, a ten year old could optimize for that keyword and get on the first page! The problem is this: How many people do you think search for that term in Google? If you can find an approximate answer to that question, you understand why it is a scam. If you don’t have a clue as to how many people might search that term, you need to learn how to perform keyword research. Learn more about ranking well with SEO in correct ways!

• Instant Site Creation Packages – You don’t know how to make simple sites? No problem! There are countless ways a person can get a website up and going without knowing how to do it from scratch. Most of these methods only require $49.99 or so! Here’s the bottom line: I have NEVER known anyone having good success online without knowing how to create simple sites. Stop trying to find shortcuts. If you want an “Internet” business, shouldn’t you at least know how to create a simple “Internet” web site? Makes sense to me! Ok, the word “scam” may be a little harsh for these things. They do what they say; the end result just isn’t what is expected.

• Link Farming – This one is BAD! They offer to get you “thousands” of incoming links. Yes, incoming links are good, but doing it like this will get you labeled as a spammer in Google’s eyes (the term “spamming” is not just related to email). Avoid these guys like the plague! Google will BAN your domain!

• Free Classified Sites -These are not really scams, but they are HUGE time wasters! I’ve had many people tell me they spent weeks submitting hundreds and hundreds of these free ads. Yet, they are getting no affiliate sales! Where do you go when you are looking to purchase something? Have you ever gone browsing those free classified sites for anything? I sure haven’t. The only caveat to this advice is Craigslist. It does offer some marketers in some niches a substantial opportunity.

• Free Hosting -Again, these aren’t scams. They just aren’t a good idea. Many free hosting packages place their own ads on your page! Who thinks that is a good idea? Also, these free hosts often put sever limitations on what can be done with respect to the code of the site. You can get real web hosting for $3 or $4 per month. If you aren’t willing to invest that little amount in your business, I think you should ask yourself if you are really committed to this or not.

• Pre-Packaged Sites (canned websites) - Packages of tiny niche sites which are already made do not work. Even if one gets their own domain for each, they will never rank well. In most cases these sites are simply duplicated time and again and resold. The search engines hate this type of duplicate content.

• Site Design Wizards -These may not be a true scam, but no beginning marketer can use these to build a long term and profitable business. Having to use some type of online site building tool to create a site is a major handicap for the new marketer. Not only are these options expensive, they limit the marketer's ability to easily create multiple and inexpensive sites.