It was once said that the American Dream was to own your own home. I think that needs an update. The American Dream now is "to own your own home, and work from it." More and more people are looking to the internet to create their income. People don't want to work for someone else, nor do they want to go to someone else's office. They want to create their own business, operate it when they want to (which means not between the hours of 9 and 5) and spend the balance of their time enjoying life.

This is a great goal. And in my current profession, I see it happen every day. I also see it fail every day. Why? Why are some people able to work this way, and others try and fail?

It has nothing to do with luck. It has nothing to do with "being an early member of an MLM." It has nothing to do with any external factor.

Marketing products on the internet is a business. It is NOT a get rich quick scheme, although there are many dishonest people who try to market products that way. So if someone is going to run their own business, they have to apply basic business concepts, such as planning, research, marketing and sales, finance, distribution, and public relations.

This problem seems obvious to some of you. All of these aspects must be considered, and they must be thought out and planned in order to launch a successful online business.

Many of the people who launch these businesses have professional experience behind them. Many have worked or are still working for a business, and are applying the concepts learned there to their online business. While that will work in some circumstances, it should be noted that marketing products on the internet is not like marketing products at your local mall or flea market. Why? Because unlike those other businesses, the customer can't "look you in the eye" and know that they are getting a great product at a great price. In fact, most people worry that the internet has more scams than good deals. So there are many marketing steps that should be taken by marketers to achieve customer confidence. Writing articles (just like this one!) is a good start. But there is much, much more.

So what are the two things that you absolutely, positively need to be successful? Here they are.

First, to really understand this new business, a MENTOR should be consulted. Mentoring is the most important asset a new internet marketer should obtain. Why? Simply put, you need someone to show you the ropes. Sure, there are plenty of "education" resources out there that will teach aspects of the game, such as pay per click advertising. And you can learn a few tricks from these resources, but you also need someone to guide you through it once or twice, to make sure you don't make key mistakes that will cost you a fortune.

Here's a great example. One of my students was working on a cookbook. He and I began to do keyword research. We discovered that the keyword phrase "Health Eating" cost about $4.00 on Adwords. Pretty expensive. But then, the keyword phrase "Eating Healthy" only cost 5 cents! So this student was able to save a fortune on keywords because he had someone guide him through the steps to keep him from spending a fortune.

The purpose of mentoring is to help you navigate situations like the one above. Good mentors also enable you to fully understand all of the business processes so that you can repeat them, over and over again. And in the world of internet marketing, you need to repeat them. For nearly everyone, replacing the salary of a day job requires multiple products. A mentor will guide you through the process for your first product. You should then be able to repeat those steps for any other product that you want to market.

Sure, you can learn a lot from ebooks. But you also need someone to help you after you've done that study. Consider this - do you think you could learn to drive a car by just reading an ebook? No, you also need to get behind the wheel with someone who's done it before to help you. That's what mentoring does.

The second thing you must have is a SELLABLE PRODUCT. I know, that seems obvious. But many new marketers dive into this business and pick up a resell rights product or become an affiliate for a product without looking to see if those products already are being marketed on the internet. That is probably the second biggest mistake I see every day.

I had one student who found an ebook that he was really excited about marketing. But after he did a little inspection on the internet, he found that there were literally hundreds of websites that were offering the same product. The final blow was when he saw someone who was marketing the product on eBay for $1,97!

We have found that there are great resources for finding products that have not been on the internet yet, and we often give those to our students so that they can be successful.

In summary then, the two most important resources for anyone wanting change their lifestyle from working 9 to 5 to working at home are MENTORING, and SELLABLE products. Before you start, find someone who can help you provide both. It will save you a lot of time and money, and will help you actually achieve your goals!

Lastly, and most importantly, don't give up on this dream. Many people are doing it. You can too. Believe in yourself, find people who believe in you and are willing to help you, and don't let anything stop you. You can do it!!!