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you can either have it accidentally happen or you can plan and make it happen. but out of the 2 planning has a higher probability. but both do work

Yup! I was trying lots of different methods that were meant to make money but didn't work. But then I started a basketball website which is my passion and everything fell into place

Learning from such courses isn't bad at all for the reason that how if you know nothing? Will you come up with a successful website of your passion straightaway and instantly make money from it? The answer will probably be no because before you even have the chance to explore your capability online, there are a lot of competitors out there challenging you as possible and thus seeking help from 1-3 effective courses or tools for you wouldn't be an issue.

At the end of the day, the issue will lie if you're going to purchase all prominent and expensive courses, ebooks, etc and then you still end up with nothing. In simpler means, it's depending on how you manage both knowledge, experience and passion to create your own business and succeed in it. You have to maintain focus, continue learning and take action - life in the Internet could be as real and competitive with real life so you have to have these "shields of knowledge" given by experts to help you do the job.

I've never bought a course, but then I've never made richjerk type money!

I am lucky I have a web related job. For newbies the learning curve is steep, so I guess something to get them started could help.

Trouble is, none of these "incredible money making techniques" have worked for me. Like for example I saw someone on hubpages raving about vast amounts of cash made from shetoldme, yet I've only ever had one referal from that stupid site!

It's better to read on forums because then you learn all areas of IM and that way you can gain more knowledge than any ebook can teach you.

I agree that you feel there is no need for a guide for you; and more than likely many of who would be a part of your constituency. Yet, I disagree with the blanket statement that this applies to "everyone".

Each person is going to have their own level of understanding of each of the things you listed above...
- creating a site.... how?
- getting traffic.... how?
- sifting through that traffic for 'targeted' visitors..... how?
- sell those visitors.... how? how? how?

The idea of the collective is what fuels 'any' community minded endeavor; creator, marketer, merchant, consumer, support... this is a community. The collective feeds off itself by way of each element IN the collective. If it were as simple as you've broken it down, then there would be ONE type of website that sold to everybody.

Microsoft tried it and then Google kicked them in the nuts. Google tried, (they're still trying), that and then they got punched in the face by Facebook and now publicly admit fear. PFFT, the Romans tried it and look what happened to them!

Yes, finding and diving into what you're passionate about does make things easier for the collective mind, on a whole. Yet, some of us would rather dig deeper than that; which is why there will always be a 'need' for a 'guide'. Without structured guides all we're left with is limits and chaos.

IMHO, of course
PLP,
tecHead

Hello,
I disagree, if you are not willing to learn from someone that has gotten it right why would you try to make a mistake until you get it right yourself.
I may not follow a course or ebook 100 percent but I am sure to get something useful out of it one way or another.
My motto is to learn from others mistakes.

I think courses and e-books have their place in explaining the ropes to a complete newbie or maybe some cool new IM method. The deal is if the method really works, it won't be cool or new for long. Everybody will be doing it and it will be common knowledge.

That said, the problem is that everybody and their daddy is trying to make money off newbies and sell them stuff. It's overwhelming and very hard to separate the gold from the dross.

Forums are good for listening to the buzz and trying to separate what's good or not. Remember, you only need one or two...then get started implementing something! Spend your money on outsourcing instead (and why buy an instruction manual on it, sign up somewhere and figure it out yourself).

As an aside: I get a lot of mileage off Frank Kern, although his prices are ridiculous--but they must work for him 'cause some folks pay them.

Jimmy Brown gives the basics to newbies in a straight and clear manner and gets you started! He also has reasonable prices.

Buying a whole lot of stuff instead of implementing something and learning from your own successes and failures basically just makes other folks money.

First lets be clear there is a difference in buying a buying a guide and buying up every get rich quick ebook that is presented to you. All information within guides can be got freely from the internet but how much time do you want to spend gathering it, because the more time you waste the less you earn. The same goes for trial and error. You could learn everything yourself but it could get costly eg PPC.

There are some very successful people out there that have spent a lot of time and money testing various sales funnels and systems and have put this information together in the form of a course or guide and this can literally save you money and time if you use thier findings correctly, even more so if they offer support.

So do you need a guide to be successful in Internet Marketing. Well that depends on how fast you want to make money.

I was making my living online for 6 years before I even discovered the IM/Ebook seller community. I think sometimes not having a guide is better, as you approach with your own angle, not the cookie cutter version designed to appeal to people buying ebooks.

I still get the best insights from just surfing the web and seeing what other people are doing and then trying to reverse engineer it.

There is a single feature of humanity which is almost exclusively determinant of success in technical fields like these.

It's the ability to develop what is called a generative mental model.

Like I say, imagine a file folder. And you go, okay.

And I say, there's a bunch of papers in that folder. And you go, okay.

And I say, there's another folder in that folder. And you go, okay.

And I say, that's how your hard drive works. It's like a folder, and inside that folder there are papers - your files - and other folders.

And if you can develop a generative mental model, you say "ahh, I see." Because it is immediately evident to you that any folder can contain both files and other folders, and therefore that the folder inside this folder may also contain files and other folders - and so forth.

But if you can't, you say "Wait, I have a bunch of folders on my hard drive. And I have folders inside of folders inside of folders. And what folder is my hard drive in?" - because your brain doesn't build a GMM. There's some difference in the way your brain works, chemically or structurally or maybe just experientially, that means you don't do this. Ever.

And when you have this kind of brain, the world is not a series of patterns to you, it's a bunch of unique and individual experiences that have no relation to one another. So you need a completely new article on each and every thing, because you don't see the parallels and similarities.

As Ayesha said, there are two sides to this.

First off, good on you for not continually browsing the many How-To products out there and continuing your own thing. I don't think you'll have too many problems with distractions. Now, many of these guides *can* help you out - but only if 1.) they are good (which is subjective - most have a grain of truth, but they are only as good as the user) and 2.) you apply what you learn. Hunt for these guides all day, and you won't get anything done.

Now, say there's a specific area you want to learn more about... site-flipping. I've never flipped a site before, but maybe I'd like to learn in future. A few seasoned Warriors around here have guides on site-flipping, so maybe one day I'll seek them out should I try my hand at site-flipping. If you want to learn something very specific (as opposed to jumping around between business models), it's okay to ask for help.

Well, i agree partly and partly i guess there is BIG need of Internet marketing articles and guides and programs.
Reason is very simple, I remember those days, when internet was new to me, at that time i was also in love with making websites, but that time i didnt had anything to make a site for.
Those day i used to think, like i need some business or something for which i should make a personal website.

But after reading Internet marketing article, i came to know that lot of websites have been made purely for profit making and earning some decent amount of revenues.
These days we select niche which is most paying, or we make a site which is revolving around a particular high commision revenue product, because we know Internet marketing concept.

Even today crores of people dont know how to earn DECENT AMOUNT of money from their website which is set up since long and they are getting some traffic.
Internet marketing has stuff for everybody, from a newbie to a pro.