One thing that gives Internet Marketing a bad rap is the fact that people review products that they’ve never used or have no intention of using. In their reviews, they boldly claim how wonderful something is and list all the reasons why you should buy the product too. Many times, these products sound too good to good to be true. People then buy them, find out that they’re crap and your reputation is forever tainted.

To me, you must be honest in your reviews. They must be based on actual personal experience. If you say something is great then by golly it must be great. That means, you must actually purchase the product you’re reviewing so that you can recommend it. I think a lot of people confuse reviews with promoting but to me, they’re not the same. If you’re promoting an item then you can simply put up a 3 line ad, send prospects to the merchant’s sales page and you’re done. You don’t have to worry about whether their claims are true or not.On the other hand, reviewing a product is putting your personal reputation on the line. You’re basically telling your readers about your personal experience with the product. You’re telling them that you actually used it and offering them advice. If you’re trying to get around not purchasing the item then DON‘T do it!Just the other day, I purchased a product and it was a bit disappointed by it. It wasn’t full of crap but it didn’t meet my high expectations either. In my honest review, I told about the good and the bad. When I was done, I embedded my affiliate link, told people to use their best judgment in purchasing it and you know what, I still made two sales.

I was open and honest in my review and I was rewarded by my honesty. So, the next time you review a product, review it first. This way, you won’t be simply blowing smoke up someone’s fanny to make a sale. After all, your reputation is on the line!

Hey guys… in case you haven’t noticed, I added a cool little tip jar to my website. (It is on the right hand side underneath my Internet Marketing Writer banner). Now, mind you, this isn’t your ordinary tip jar where you leave me a tip and I enjoy a happy meal off you and you get nothing but the satisfaction of feeding me.

Nope, with this amazing tip jar, you actually get something in return. You get to hold one of my top spots on my site and increase your traffic. Wow!

Right now, it costs only $5.00 to own a top spot on my blog and this is actually pretty cheap considering all the millions of visitors that I get on a daily basis. Not really but a girl can dream, can’t she? One day…one day…one day this will be true!

If you have your own blog or website, and I certainly hope you do, then you should get one of these fancy snazzy tip jar thing-a-ma-bobs too. Not only will this enable your readers to show you some tip love, increase their traffic by piggybacking off your site, but you can also make some instant PayPal cash as well.

Here’s how it works. You sign up for free at Scratchback and set your own advertising price. Then, once someone tips you, they are taken to PayPal, pay your requested tip amount and you receive 90% of the money and Scratchback takes 10%. For instance, if you charge $10.00 for your tips, you make a whopping $9.00 (enough for a Big Mac Meal and a desert). Not bad.

In return, your tipper’s postinggets placed on a highly configurable Top Spot on your blog. It remains there until it is bumped by another tipper or for a certain time (you set the time frame - options are 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days). The great thing about Scratchback is that you don’t need any design skills to get it up and running. Woohoo! You simply choose your favorite style widget and colors, input the HTML in your blog and you’re good to go. Its that simple folks.To me, this is really a great looking invention and can provide you with a great way to monetize your site. Just remember that in the future, you’ll have to pay Scratchback 50% of your payments but for now, you only have to pay them 10%.

Check it out today and if you’re feeling really generous, show me a little tip love and join my top spots.

I frequently visit the Warrior Forum because I think it is a great place for Internet Marketers. There are so many knowledgeable and wonderful people over there willing to share their information that it is actually quite mindblowing, to say the least. To be a part of a community that openly provides quality information to people just starting out is invaluable to one’s success in the Internet Marketing business.That said, there is a section over there called the “warrior special offer” section (WSOs), and this is where other warriors post their products and services to other warriors. Let me be honest. You’ll find some great stuff there and some junk. The problem with being a newbie is being able to decipher the gold from the fool’s gold.Just be aware that to more experienced IMers, newbies can be gullible. I mean most of us are looking for “quick cash” and “easy methods of generating money” online. These clever folks know that newbies are their best customers, so they market to us hard.Here are some tips to keep you from being sucker-punched.

1. Don’t fall for the hype. If a claim is so bold that it seems unbelievable, it probably is. Go with your gut instinct. If someone is telling you that they’ll teach you how to make a million dollars from typing with one finger, for only two minutes a day, then you should stay away from that offer because common sense tells you that it won’t work. Internet Marketing is hard work.
2. Don’t believe everyone that posts is smarter than you. Contrary to everything you read, not everyone is a marketing genius. In fact, if they were, would they even have time to crank out 10 or so WSOs a week for $7.00 each? I think not. Although some warriors are making that kind of money, not all of them are. Only take advice from the ones that are.
3. Evaluate the author’s credentials before plopping down your cash. To quickly check, look under their warrior name and see if they have any stars (the more stars they have the better.) Then, review their warrior profiles by clicking on their names. When you do this, you’ll be able to spy on them. Pay special attention to how often they post, types of topics they participate in, their current WSO offers, whether they have a website, etc.
4. Review the entire offer. This means you have to evaluate the offer and the sales letter. For instance, does the author show proof of earnings? Is the process something you can easily replicate? Does the author show examples of the actual process, offer support and upgrades? Be a tough critic.
5. Consider comments from other warriors. Are they positive or negative? Do others believe the WSO is a tremendous value for the money? This will help you gauge whether this WSO is garbage or provides quality information. Only choose those products that offer quality information.
6. Check to see if they offer a satisfaction guarantee. A guarantee means you can get your money back if the product is crap. I always like to purchase WSOs with guarantees. It is just good policy and offers me protection. In fact, I’ve returned a couple of garbage products in the past.

Well, that’s it. If you follow this plan you should be able to avoid junk WSOs and only purchase quality ones that provide you with good information.

I have to be honest with you. I had been attempting the whole Internet Marketing thing for about a year before I really started seeing any results from my efforts. It wasn’t that I didn’t try to achieve greatness. It’s just that I kept being pulled in so many directions that I didn’t know where to turn.

Every single day, I was bombarded with all sorts of messages from this guru and that one. The more I signed up for “free offers,” the more I received ones that required money. Just about everyone seemed to achieve success but me.This person kept touting this product and this one kept saying, “No, you need this one.”

As a newbie Internet Marketer, I kept right on buying eBooks and courses looking for the newest and best thing that would make me the next internet millionaire.I would then get all excited, read the book, try it out half-heartedly, lose interest and move on to the next thing. The result? I was spinning my wheels getting nowhere fast. After a year, I had accumulated about $4000 in debt from all my reading material and was startng to think that Internet Marketing was a total waste of time. Then, by divine intervention, I found the book by Dennis Becker called 5 bucks a day, which changed my life.

This book was exactly what I needed. It was about focusing on small monetary goals (like 5 bucks a day) and putting all one’s focus into that one thing. Then, once that one was done, I could move on to the next.

With hard work and focus, this would inevitably grow into huge financial gains. In addition, this book taught me the importance of setting goals, doing what needs to be done, and getting it done NOW.

It also gave me lifetime access to a great forum where other struggling newbies were trying to make their first dollars. The great thing is that Dennis wrote from the perspective of someone who had been where I was. It was like with every word, he was talking to and directing me.

I highly recommend 5 Bucks a Day to newbies and experienced IMers. If money is tight, you can purchase the book only, but I have found the most benefit in the book and the forum combined.

So, I’ve been a member of Elance for over nine years now, and I typically receive my payments via electronic deposit. I stopped receiving them via check a long time ago because it took too long and I was always scared it would get lost.Anyhow, I recently noticed that I could apply for a debit card and decided to try it out.

Apparently Elance, through their partnership with Payoneer, now offers members the option of receiving their money through a paid debit card.It took about three weeks to get approved for the debit card, and I received it about a week after getting approved. The card was blue and had a fancy Elance logo.

It was pretty cool to see my name with Elance next to it. For a moment I imagined that I owned Elance and was a millionaire, and then I imagined that I was a corporate partner or an employee of Elance with corporate privileges. Heck, a girl can dream, can’t she?

Here’s what I found: Elance’s debit card deposit isn’t instant. In fact, it may be slower than bank deposits. Heck, it seemed to take longer for the money to credit Payoneer after Elance sends it to them. The delay is caused because you have to wait for Elance to send the money to Payoneer, then you have to go to Payoneer and release it to your Payoneer account. It then takes two to three days for the money to post there. This costs $1.50 extra that is debited from your account.

The only way to avoid this extra step is to make the release at Payoneer immediate. You’re then charged $4.50 every time, and the money is available within two hours.So, here’s what I think…the Payoneer Elance card is NOT faster than bank deposit and costs you more money, but I still like it for my IM business.

Here’s why: I use it to budget my IM costs. You see, every month, I set aside 30% of my freelance income to build my IM business. Therefore, I transfer 30% from Elance to Payoneer and then use the Elance Payoneer card to cover my IM costs. This way, I never go over my budget. I then transfer the remaining freelance funds for spending purposes. This method works for me and keeps me from overspending!

If there is anything I learned from being a ghostwriter to the gurus it’s that you don’t have to get mad – get even. Learn what they know and use it to your benefit. By doing this, you will not waste precious time and energy thinking about all the money that you lost as a result of NOT learning Internet Marketing before now. Instead, you will use your marketing skills to make huge profits for yourself.

Internet Marketing is extremely powerful, and once you combine it with your writing skills, there is absolutely nothing that you can’t accomplish. In fact, one successful writer-turned-Internet-Marketer that I personally know has actually befriended the gurus and become one herself.

Her name is Tiffany Dow and she is outstanding. I’ve known Tiffany for about eight years now and we both started off as struggling ghostwriters on Elance. The only difference is that Tiffany left ghostwriting years ago and while I was still struggling to pay the bills, she has been working as a full-time Internet Marketer. As such, she is now a guru herself, does joint ventures with the gurus, and makes some serious cash.

Well, I recently contacted my buddy Tiffany and asked her for some advice on skyrocketing my eBook profits. Well, she immediately suggested that I read her eBook on Building an eBook Empire, and I must say that it is outstanding. I have been writing eBooks for years but never knew how to market them. That is the key.

Tiffany basically broke it down about how one one can use their outstanding writing skills to amass TONS of residual cash just like the big boys do. She candidly discussed such topics as: choosing a profitable niche, importance of thorough research (and how to do it), writing hard-hitting sales copy, successfully compiling and selling your product, branding your product, developing an affiliate program, back-end tactics to boost profits, and more.

In Building an eBook Empire, Tiffany even talked about how she took one aspiring writer and transferred her from broke freelancer to $4,000-a month-eBook empiress. And no, it isn’t me, but if it were up to me, it would be! LOL!

The thing I love about this book is that Tiffany doesn’t leave anything out. Unlike some gurus, she lays it on the table and doesn’t leave you wondering or guessing if there is more. She wants you to learn and apply the lessons that she teaches. All you have to do is read and implement the techniques that she gives you, and I do believe you will become successful in eBook publishing.

I give Building an eBook Empire two thumbs up and if you’re interested in taking your Internet Marketing writing eBooks to a new level, then you have got to read this book. Once you do, you will have the tools you need to get even with the gurus, too.

As for me, I plan on implementing Tiffany’s techniques on my two current eBook projects and will be producing and successfully marketing one eBook or short report a month on “hot” topics for “desperate buyers.” Join me, won’t you? Let’s give those gurus a run for their niches and profits!