For the Love of Money

I confess: Money IS important.

One of the first ways to attract it is to wonder how it could help you in your life to do all the altruistic things you claim you would do if you had some.

A second way to attract it is to imagine money as a scorecard of how excellent you are becoming in your work and in your character.

A third way to attract it is to reflect upon the people and situations in your life which caused you to have a distaste for it or to mistrust those who do have an abundance of it.

Mind you, I have been conflicted about money for most of my life, and I was always dreaming up reasons why I shouldn’t or couldn’t have it, or why others should not.

Literally and figuratively, money became something I got – like a lottery win – rather than something I earned by meticulously designing and executing a plan.

The Internet is for many of us the first chance to earn enough money to live out our dreams rather than to surf them away. There are so many people becoming fabulously wealthy online, and yes, many more who are pissing their money into the wind.

Even for negative people holding a limiting belief system about the green stuff, the possibilities are astronomically in your favor of building an ethical, residual income using the Internet. I am speaking of an income which can easily surpass the the minuscule wages you presently earn from your nine-to-five drudgery.

I fervently believe that there are many earnest people online, teaching others to become independently wealthy SOHOs, who truly believe in you and your worthiness. Yes, they do and will make money through selling their products and collecting consulting fees, but the bottom line is that they can introduce you to the tools and strategies which will bring to you an exponential return on investment over time.

My pledge to everyone I touch is to separate the hypsters from the marketers who deeply care about your success in addition to their own. Unfortunately, the former group largely outnumber the latter. Due diligence in choosing who to listen to and who to buy from is an absolutely necessary for online success.

Many marketers will sell you software and ideas which may be sound and useful for an advanced netrepreneur, but for you, a relative beginner, the same tools will sit idly on your desktop screen collecting cyberdust.

For example, keyword or Google Adsense software tools are totally worthless until and unless you can at least make a simple, operable webpage. Yet the unscrupulous marketer will use a takeaway sales strategy to create an immediate need for you, a relative beginner, to purchase this or that tool. Little by little you become frustrated and totally cynical about all net marketers and their intentions.

Professional marketers should feel good about making money by providing powerful information, strategies and services with a smile. They should be overwhelming concerned with bringing true value to the marketplace. Embedding an affiliate link for a product you endorse is not unethical or bush-league, if the product or service is relevant to a discussion, has been reviewed by the embedder, and, when possible, comes from a highly trusted source.

In conclusion, money is neutral. When you provide value to the marketplace, you usually will attract more of it. If you have more of it, you have more chance to effect the world for the better. To get more of it, you must first make a decision to want some and to stop living day to day on a survival level.

Frankly, I support George Bernard Shaw when he said, “Lack of money is the root of all evil.”

Overcome your ambivalence towards it and you will most definitely thrive. It is your right and duty to claim money for a job well done.