Can't seem to get enough of the recycled royalty-free jpegs showing wads of cash, happy faces, and fast cars?

Then you've probably seen one or two or maybe a thousand new, secret, exclusive, and/or "incredible" systems that will allow you to realize your dream.

Now there ARE ways to make money online. But much of what is out there for free, is often what you'll find in the secret systems.

To expound on that point, internet marketers repackage information that is widely available, add their own little (often times insignificant) twist on it, and sell it to you at the incredibly low price (till midnight tonight only!) of $49.95. Often times these involve some chintzy software, php scripts, or e-book whose true purpose is to drive traffic to the marketer's affiliate links while he teaches you the "scoop" on how to be an online millionaire.

I know that the above is a rather cynical and sweeping judgment, and who knows, you may find someone who has a heretofore unheard of take on affiliate marketing that's combined with Adsense clicks that may work for you.

But do you really need that someone?

Think of all the free advice you can get from the thousands of free article sites on the web (many use these for content on their own sites, but it's astounding how much free information you can pick up yourself!).

Think I'm just trying to kill some competition? Well, on my way up the ladder, I tried a couple of these systems myself. One relied on page generation software (programs that produce keyword-heavy pages of nonsense), the other on a combination of affiliate marketing (of their own program) and a php script for "free" traffic. Neither had solved the problem of getting traffic to the appropriate pages, and I had both refunded.

Be a little creative! Think it through! Try some affiliate marketing, write some articles and get your feet wet. If you've got an analytical mind, tackle Adwords The more you do, the more ideas you'll get and you'll discover on your own how to work these techniques together. Certainly, some guides are better than others and someone out there may explain it to you in such a way so that it all clicks. But if he or she is trying to sell you a "secret," don't believe it.

One final thing to mention is this. Something we almost always see in the sales copy of these products is the prospect of having "inside information," and it can be VERY seductive. The thought of having some secret to uncover is almost irresistible, and the relatively brief history of the internet has shown that we'll pay thirty to fifty to a hundred or more for it. It's easy to fall for this (again, I bought two of them!), so don't be too distressed if it's happened to you.

On the other hand, learn from your mistakes! Invest in some solid educational material and work at it. Chasing rainbows and looking for that one elusive secret will only drain your bank account and leave you with shattered dreams.