Then one of those Internet gurus publishes a $144 Internet Marketing Secrets For Beginners courses which is guaranteed to guide you to the promised land of Internet marketing profitability. You jump at the offer even if the price tag makes you wince.

You and 1,999 other newbie marketers who are all in the same boat as you!

Half of those who bought the course don't even bother downloading the materials.

Half the people who download the materials never get beyond the first couple of lessons.

Half of those who actually finish the course don't apply any of the stuff to their own online businesses.

Two hundred and fifty people actually manage to complete the course, and even begin to put the lessons into practise, but half soon tire of the work requirement and sink back into their old habits.

The rest begin to see some improvement to their business, but have not yet made any money at it.

Then, one of the other Internet gurus publishes another course which promises to turn newbie marketers into the latest Internet success stories and you hear that the course comes with an excellent affiliate program built into it. Most of the people who'd completed the first "Internet Marketing For Newbies" course promptly buy the second... and the whole procedure begins once more!!

The problem does not lie with the nature of the materials they purchased, nor with the willingness of this group of newbie marketers to put in the hours working.

No, it is a question of focus and leverage. Or rather, it is a question of focusing on the wrong thing - website development, clicking for traffic, chatting in forums, searching for new affiliate programs... buying new "Internet Marketing For Newbies" courses.

These are all the wrong things to be focusing on - and focusing on the wrong things is almost as bad as not focusing at all!

Okay, so what should you be focusing on?

Actually, there are three key steps that you'll need to focus on.

First, focus on finding a profitable market packed with customers who buy again and again.

Second, you need to focus on finding a range of products to sell to the market.

Third, you need to focus all your efforts on building a list of people in that market niche to whom you will sell your products.

The third step is the one that requires most focus and attention. Actually, as soon as you have identified a lucrative market, you should start building your list without waiting to locate a list of viable products to sell to it. Obviously, without a list to sell to, no amount of good products will be of any use to you.

The question of How To Build A List will be dealt with in my next article, "Focus On Building Yourself A Qualified List Of Customers Who Are Eager To Hear From You And Buy Your Products".