Why are you on the Internet, Newbie? Beware of the cyberspace landmines!
Actually the question is, "What do you hope to accomplish by going online?". Do you think you can run a successful small business or SoHo online?
When I first heard about the world wide web, (the mythical WWW) I had no idea that anyone who had an 'internet connection' could get online and have a 'presence'. Coming from a computer background, you see, I had some idea and understanding that the WWW was more than a network of computers, but I could not imagine that individuals like me could run a home office and be notified. My understanding was that this huge WWW monster was meant for the big western world fortune 500 corporations, the big multinationals who needed to really entrench themselves everywhere on this planet. Me? No. Not for me.
What do you have as a newbie? More specifically, what resources are available to you to even start thinking about an iota of a presence on the web? When I started out I did not have much to go with. Hey, I have never been discouraged, since all the suggested setbacks. I know I will succeed. So will you, Newbie!
The reason I am sharing part of my online journey is basically to encourage you. Does not the world say, "where there is a will there is a way"? If you have the will, you too will soon become a successful online business owner. Sometimes even write a book about your experiences online and sell it as a product for everyone to learn from. Remember what you have heard so far? "You need a product of your own to make it". So start from within yourself! There, see I have learned already from the self proclaimed gurus. Go for it.
A few years ago, about 2000, I decided to take a plunge and step out into the deep WWW to gather info about an online presence. I read somewhere about newbies making it online. At least you could start out selling other people's stuff and earn some money. Sounded good. Action speaks louder than words. So, I took off my right shoe and sock and put my foot into the sea of the WWW. I picked up some free stuff here and there and began to read. I read and read and read. Each day that I read and acquitted some knowledge, I got sucked into the WWW sea. Before I knew it I was gasping for breath. I did not see the tide coming in to shore! Beware, not everything free is free!
Wow, what happened? I should have stayed close to the WWW coastline, right in the eagle's eye of a life guard. But alas even the life guard was choking me as I came up for air once in a while. Before I knew it, everyone was trying to 'rescue' me and showing me the right way to do things! Buy this. Enroll for this. I am the expert, attend my seminar, free. No, it is me the guru not that other person. Yes, you are safe with me. You will soon earn millions of dollars if you stay with me. I will show you how. I could go on and on, but ….
As if this was not enough, I was naive. I subscribed to every free good sounding program. Before long, I began to receive offer letters in my mail bag on my computer from all manner of places. I learned later that they are called e-mails and not letters! Ha ha ha! So I welcomed these e-mail offers initially. After all they were coming from fellow Interneters who were interested in my success online! I opened up my Inbox for every offer, sometimes one of them, just one of these mails was the 'it' I needed to break through.
Ha, in no time I began to see that my mail bag, (sorry my Inbox, forgot I was online!), Was being bombarded with all manner of junk! Junk after junk after junk and I was weighed down in no time. What to do now? I looked around for a solution, (you guessed it), free again! How ironic and still no solution in sight. At least not yet. I needed something to throw out junk before getting to my Inbox. I also needed to construct a wall with a fire around my Inbox and especially around my entry point into the WWW orbit. I said to myself, "I can not trust anyone in the lighthouse, especially those free life saving services. I have to be careful, this time around.
Yet again I looked around for possible free solution to keep out junk which I learned was now being called SPAM. Wow, spam everywhere even from those who promised to help me keep out junk! Before I gained my full consciousness I was now engulfed with spyware, malware, etc. The more free solutions I got to rid myself of junk, spam, spyware, malware and virus the more freedom I lost! I saw that free was actually the source of more infection. Whoops, now I have even learned that you can get infected with all manner of computer disease, just like the infection in a human body. More web entanglement. You have to be alert to stay alive on the web. The WWW is contagious both positively and otherwise. Be Aware. Be alert.
Hey I am not condemning everything free. There are a lot of very good free things on the WWW. Just be wake and look in the right places. For instance once in a while these days I run to the web for some free online virus, spyware and malware scans. There are organizations out there with very good and effective resources especially in this area. For instance I was recently hit by a Mutant Trojan which almost wiped out my mail database. Fortunately I had just installed an anti-virus and security software I was trying out. Boy oh boy was not I really saved just in the nick of time!
Anyways, as the years progressed in my online growth, (remember up to this time I am still only taking in knowledge and self training), on the WWW I began to realize that if I was going to be somebody, I needed to be my Own man. But how? I needed to decisively address the question, "Why are you on the internet, newbie?". No more milk teeth or kid gloves. I must break out and be my own man. I must learn to tell junk / spam from the real stuff out there. I have trained myself through experience, you see. So, when I resolved to go full throttle on the WWW, I refused to label myself "newbie". Since I was a resident of the part of the world which is now commonly referred to as an "emerging economy", I am now an "emerging entrepreneur online". Yeah, emerging entrepreneur and not "newbie" anymore. Yeah, it sounds good and inspiring too! Emerging Entrepreneur, mmmmmmnnhh.
Did it take long? No. I thought I had broken out. Right then I began to encounter more sophisticated suffocation. Wow, I soon learned that there are Gurus at almost every rung of the WWW as you 'go up'! Now it was, 'you have to know affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, must have the right keywords', and the list goes on. For all these things there is one kind of expert from another.
Wow. I got tired again. It is like a story I read somewhere online about the gold rush. Apparently it is not everyone who mined and panned for gold that stuck it rich. Well not so for a lot of them. But hey, check out the guys who were selling the tools for gold mining and panning. They consistently sold shovels, picks food, liquor and whatever to the gold miners to spur them on. The hardware traders even cave the miners Guru advise on the right tools to use. Obviously like our internet gurus they made consistent profits on selling tools. And the miners? Some cave up or died without much or anything to show for their labor! Sound familiar somebody? So I remembered this story about the gold rush and decided I am going to do something about it. It must not happen to me like it did with the gold miners.
Anyway, this is now 2008. For me, forget the newbie stuff, the junk, the spam etc. I am forging ahead as an emerging entrepreneur. So finally in 2007, it was goodbye testing and learning on the periphery. It is now hands-on Internet business training and building. I hear that those who do not attempt do not do. Those who want success must remove fear and train like champions to become the champions they want to be. Period.
Lessons I have learned? Do not trust everyone and everything on the WWW. I am now focused on what my original intention is on the WWW, that is, to have a real entrepreneur's presence on the WWW! One day everyone who matters must get to know about my small online business. My Soho or Home Office must be an essential benefit to those who are like minded with me, distributing a goodness of benefits and solutions to all manner of interneters.
And the free stuff. Not everything is free as in really free. There is no such thing as I have now learned both in the real life and life on the WWW. I am not a statistician but I can safely say 50% of the WWW is full of truth but it is up to you to discover which 50% this is. Again beware. Be alert. Stay awake! You will succeed online this way.
So, once again, why are you on the Internet? What do you wish to accomplish on the WWW? Can you refer to some of my experiences listed here in this article? Are you still a newbie, or you have not tasted the cold waters of the WWW yet? Are you now an emerging entrepreneur or a fully grown small business owner with a succeeding home office? Fear not!
I pray God's Peace and Prosperity to you.
Joseph