Truthfully. Just how difficult is it to make a living in online marketing?

In 2002, I started a line of greeting cards, a business which unfortunately generates very little income and is notorious for haemorrhaging money. When I'm not writing witticisms about growing older or congratulating some poor unsuspecting soul for breeding and adding to the surplus population, I play the viola in a dimly lit orchestra pit for the local ballet. If I ever see another Sugar Plum Faery, it'll be too soon.

I have many varied interests which take me from writing poetry to photography but for some bizarre reason, I am NEVER drawn to anything that makes real money. Anything having to do with the liberal arts has always held an almost unhealthy attraction for me. But these interests rarely pay the bills. So, I've come to terms with the fact that something in my life has got to change drastically and quickly.

What I need is to see lots of green Benjamin Franklins. I admire the man but I admire him even more when he is on the front of a one hundred dollar banknote. What a wonderful feeling it will be to walk around with several likenesses of him lining my pockets!

One evening, after much coaxing, a friend dragged me to a viewing of "The Secret.It took an awful lot to get me into the theatre since this is not my normal bill of faire. But since I'm trying to be more open minded in my old age, I needed to test this theory. When they talked about how people inadvertantly push money away from them, I was riveted. Who knew that all this time I'd been shooting myself in both feet over and over while at the same time wondering why I walked with a limp? Whenever I said, "I can't possibly afford that!", I was literally digging a hole for myself that I would have a devil of a time getting out of!

I now have a dollar bill upon which I've added several zeros after the number 1 with black marking pen. I've taped it to the ceiling directly above my bed so it's the last thing I see before I go to sleep and the first thing I see upon waking. I carry a lovely smooth stone in my pocket to remind me of just how grateful I am for all the wonderful things I already have. I'm reminded everytime I touch it. It's been one month and neither of these excercises have made me into a millionaire. Yet.

Then, after doing more research on the internet about just how the whole "multiple streams of income" worked, I checked out several websites which promised the moon, the stars and huge bags of money. These sites were so, for lack of a better word, slimy! Lots of flashing banner ads with pictures of luxury cars parked in front of vulgar McMansions with the obligatory smiling couple holding enormous wads of cash in their white knuckled fists. There must be literally millions of these sites out there, all promising the same thing.

Since I am one of those people who are in posession of a finely honed skeptical nature, when I first saw this outlandish claim that went something like, "get thousands of dollars in special promotional pay-per-clicks FREE!", I naturally clicked 'delete' and continued to wade through the rest of my email. The next morning, I saw the same advert. It was taunting me. But this time for some reason, due to some sort of paradigm shift, I figured I had nothing to lose, went ahead and clicked the link. So far, I've made a whopping $1,087.00 in one month. Okay, so maybe it really isn't that big a deal for an attorney, a doctor or a politician. But for a lowly musician, it's pretty cool.

So, as of today, my new mission is to try out as many of these Internet Marketing sites as my schedule and patience will allow in an attempt to separate the Get Rich Quick scam artists from the ones that truly have something worthwhile to offer.

You're more than welcome to join me on my quest.

Here's hoping that when your ship come in, it's a freakin' yacht!

Cheers, Alicia Warrington