People who aspire to earn a living online are often strapped for cash to begin with. So in they go to the vast internet ocean where sharks of every spot and stripe lie in wait to prey on their hope and ignorance. One can, however, take the following five pieces of advice and swim more freely in infested waters.

1. Commit to completing a program before trying a new one

This may seem like a no-brainer, but there's a large segment of individuals online who are essentially marketing system junkies. They buy one e-book, then after reading it and applying one or two concepts realize they haven't made a million yet, and then go off in search of a new e-book.

Look, most of these products are sold on Clickbank which gives you eight weeks to try out anything. If after seven weeks of seriously trying it the program you purchased, you see no income, then return it and look for something else.

There are of course exceptions to this, such as the outright scam you wouldn't want to waste your time on, but on the whole, it's a good rule of thumb.

2. Skip the promotional "upsell" page that follows your initial purchase

These really annoy me. The marketer spends all his energy telling you how his $29.95 system will change your life and then after you buy it, he greets you with a page that says something to the effect of, "well, what you just bought was good, but if you REALLY want to make money online, then buy my $129.95 program where I'll show you secret techniques blah blah blah..."

So, how valuable was the initial offering that you said would change my life?

I don't care for this tactic at all. It's designed to catch you while you still have your credit card out. The pages are full of threats about how you won't have the complete picture and won't succeed nearly as well without it and that you'd better get it now because this offer will never be repeated.

Don't even look at these pages. Scroll down, and click where it says, "No thanks, I'm going to pass on this opportunity to have a better life."

And if you're really put out, return the original and tell the vendor why.

3. Be careful with shared mailing lists

One way to increase traffic to your site is with a mailing list program whereby you are allowed to send your ads to so many people provided they can send you theirs. Going into the details of this is way beyond the scope of this article, but one caveat should be observed: don't spend a lot of time reading the emails you get. If you do, eventually, you're going to get sold on something. And if that happens, you're going to have a hard time following rule number one.

4. Stay off of, or unsubscribe to any list that's sending out recommendations more than once per week.

How many great ways to make money online are out there? If someone is sending you more than one recommendation per week, you'd be right to be skeptical. After all, if this individual was touting Super-Adsense-Earnings-Through-Sky-Diving one week as the greatest income opportunity ever and then the next weeks says that Dream-Profits-Super-Affiliate-Mega-Articles is the way to go, then which is it?

Opt-in or not, this tactic is just barely legitimate and smacks of spam marketing.

5. Don't believe outlandish promises.

When you're starting out, you CAN NOT make $34,769 in one week. No way. Forget it. Unless you're willing to run drugs across the Mexican border or rob a bank, it ain't going to happen.

Not in a week.

Now, this doesn't mean that using a particular system for a while with hard work and sweat that you couldn't get to that point, but for now? Dream on.

But what about the screenshots from the gurus that show how they made that much in seven days?

Well, for one, they could be faked. Photoshop and similar programs make that a fairly simple task.

But more likely than not, you're looking at these seven days out of context. These marketers have been building momentum for some time. They've taken the time to work at building their mailing lists, building and optimizing their sites, and developing products. What they'll never show you is a screenshot of their FIRST seven days in business!

So there you are. Five simple pieces of advice should help you hold on to most of your cash while you work at building your business. Now there are times to spend money, but tread carefully, and take another look at this article before you do.