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Guest post by: Teresa Bohannon Become an Author

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If the Internet were a country Guru bashing would be the new national past time.

I read once that most con artists and sociopaths always go for the big lie because most honest people cannot believe that anyone would anyone would actually tell a lie that big. If you have spent any time at all online, you probably would agree with that statement. After all, how many emails do you receive in your box each day from someone who has made millions online and is willing to show you how to do it too...for a price?

Guru bashing is the hot new term on the Internet, but do not waste a lot of sympathy on the poor bashed gurus. Most of the ones getting bashed deserve it because they are selling high-priced, rehashed, or scammy products that prey on the foolish, the desperate and the lazy. Please understand, that not all of these products are worthless and not all of these gurus are con-artists. Many people have genuinely made big bucks on the internet. Unfortunately, most of the gurus have made more money selling Internet Marketing products, traffic secrets and mentoring to would-be Internet marketers than they have ever made simply marketing online.

To differentiate between the two-groups we could call the ones who are selling the scams and over-priced, poor quality products psuedo-gurus. The problem is they pretty much use all of the same tactics, so you even if you look very carefully it is almost impossible to tell a guru from a pseudo-guru...unless, of course, you buy their product and by then it is often too late!

The scary thing about gurus is they flock together like sheep...not for safety's sake but for enhanced credibility. These flocking gurus all trade testimonials on each other's websites and proudly show snapshots of their PayPal accounts and their luxury cars and mansions and beach homes as proof of their success. One launches a new product (the higher priced the better) and all of the others help promote that product in exchange for referral commissions and having their own products promoted when they in turn have their own big product launch. It is a vicious cycle. There is invariably a special excitement building "soon to disappear forever" pre-launch price or tempting limited edition giveaway involved to get your name on their mailing list so that they can be sure to notify you of any future product launches that they, and their fellow guru flock might have. Then on launch day, it is a circus as each one sends out virtually the exact same email, and then tries to out do the other by providing special bonuses if you will just purchase using their affiliate link.

Also, do not forget those emails with provocatively negative subject lines that make you believe that someone is really going to tell you the truth about the guru's product. In most cases the implied negatives turn out to be faked ploys to get your attention, and the money-making affiliate link turns out to be legitimate. And finally, do not forget the inevitable countdown, designed to make your heart pound and create the irrational fear that this is the best and last chance you will ever have to make it online!

I have said it before and I will say it again...there is no great secret to making money online. All of them however, take learning the ropes and putting in time or money.

There are basically five quality courses of action that you can successfully take:

1. Create a unique product offered exclusively online that others will find genuinely useful, price it fairly and offer friendly and cheerful customer support.

2. Use the internet and email, a blog and or a website to creatively and inexpensively market your brick and mortar business to your hometown and the world.

3. Pay Per Action(PPA) marketing where you use email, a blog or website to promote the products of others through affiliate marketing and receive a percentage of each sale or confirmed contact that is made.

4. Pay Per Click(PPC) marketing where you use email, a blog or website to promote a particular topic and then include AdSense or other advertising that hopefully people on click on so that you are paid for each click generated.

5. Combine any or all of the above into "Multiple Streams Of Income."

Add creating traffic and mentoring into the mix, and most of the secrets that most of these gurus are selling are almost always related to one of those five topics. The so-called secret is knowing how to do it, and all of that information is freely available online if you are willing to put the time into researching your chosen method.

If you want quick answers...go with the gurus, just first do your research and make sure you pick the right one, which of course is the only real secret to making money online--deciding who to trust, what to buy, where to begin, how to do the basics, and when to stop being afraid and take the leap.

And finally, no matter which method you choose, you will need a certain amount of unique content, and you will need to spend time and effort or money promoting it to create the traffic you need to survive.

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

– W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915

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