“Dear God, you made many, many poor people. I realize, of course, that it’s no shame to be poor. But it’s no great honor either! So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?”

– Tevye

“And the bathroom must have a large tub.” “But where’s the fire?” “I like this place – I smell soft money.”

All our efforts online are to make money and lots of it. The first thing a new marketer does on venturing online is type “make money online” or “get rich online” and the excitement knows no bounds when millions of sites come up.

So,  getting rich online is possible …. *a smile*

Shift the focus to a year later and for most people there is no sign of that smile …all you find is a frustrated countenance.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

This realization comes after many lessons learned. Experienced marketers can save you a lot of surfing and give you the bottom line on all these millions of sites.

Most of them don’t work. Why? Because they only offer different permutations and combinations of the same things that guarantee getting rich online!

An eBook selling for $20 promises to hold the secrets of a million dollars. Really? Let those neurons start firing for a moment. If that person knows of a way to make a million dollars online, why would they be selling $20 products? Of course, all this comes with “verifiable” testimonials!

“John Doe is a deity incarnate. Not only did he teach me the secrets of making millions online, but also showed me his secret!” – Tom@foolish.com.

Try sending an email to Tom, and you have John Doe himself responding. Yes, you’re catching on!

Since you want to find the secrets behind getting rich online, let’s take a look at the best ways of not getting rich online.

Just don’t do them and you’re be all set on your path to riches.

NOT getting rich by: Playing.

This has to be the first rule – don’t play with Google. Type in “cheat Google” and you will see thousands of sites coming up with several ways of getting number one listings for any keyword you choose. They teach you how to cheat search engines. Let me tell you, that the only way you can get to #1 position for every single keyword is to buy Google. You might need a rather large bank overdraft for that one…

The cheating epidemic continues to get worse, but with Google wearing new and improved glasses on an almost regular basis, there’s no way one can get away.

Don’t touch anything that even remotely suggests you can cheat Google or the other search engines in any form. NOTHING! No exceptions here.

NOT getting rich by: Spamming.

We all agree that one of the main things marketers need to be successful online is an email list. There are several options for acquiring an email marketing list. You would have seen people selling or renting out email lists. These lists are sold based on psychographic and demographic information.

A moment of desperation or urgency can ruin things for you. Most of the lists are sold so many times that the open rates and click thru rate (CTR) are really bad. There are sales agencies that work with you to find a list of names based on your needs and criteria.

But the problem is not just the CTR. You’re lucky if you end up with a very low or no ROI. There is a major danger lurking and that is of spamming – yes, you’re spamming when you send emails to all those lists without their permission. Why do you think we talk of double opt-ins today?

There are organizations that are dedicated to SPAM elimination. They have numerous ways of catching spam through placing SPAM traps on email addresses etc. You have consequences to face when faced with SPAM charges.

“If you want to get something, work for it.”

Build organic email lists by using the numerous methods we’ve discussed and enjoy the process of getting rich through a more stable marketing journey. No email list you get for free or by paying should tempt you. The only lists you should trust are yours.

For more information on list building check out these articles:

The Mysterious Art of Building a List

Email List Building: 3 Tips For Increasing Your Mailing List Subscribers

NOT getting rich by: Faking

“Fake it till you make it” is often the worst advice anyone can give you online. Would you believe it if I say that a large percentage of the Internet marketing population fake it and that’s the reason there are so few successful people online.

You might be interested in this story about Bruce Serven who faked it but did not make it. Bruce shot his months-old baby boy and killed himself too after an argument with his wife.

He was said to have portrayed himself as a Marketing Guru through his motivational blog and a Facebook fan page. In reality, he has been unemployed for months and just before he killed himself, he got a job as a Forklift driver.

Poor Bruce was not an isolated case. There are many marketers who don’t earn anything and struggle to make ends meet. But they portray themselves as making thousands of dollars online only to sell their products and make some money.

Fake testimonials and fake income proofs are the order of the day. Today, you can buy Facebook fans, Twitter followers, Product reviews, Fiverr testimonials, traffic to your blog/website and even friends. But this is not going to get you anywhere, so stay away from buying anything from people who sell these services. It is detrimental to the health of your business, and to your own true self.

NOT getting rich by Duplicating.

Yes, we’re talking about duplicate content. Even with the search engine algorithms shouting hoarse that they hate duplication of any sort, marketers continue to slap their web pages with content they lift from elsewhere, only to end up getting slapped by Google.

This quote makes a whole lot of sense and never fails to amuse me:

“No one saw the panda uprising coming. One day, they were frolicking in our zoos. The next, they were frolicking in our entrails. They came for the identical twins first, then the gingers, and then the rest of us. I finally trapped one and asked him the question burning in all of our souls – ‘Why?!’ He just smiled and said ‘You humans all look alike to me.’”

– Sgt. Jericho “Bamboo” Jackson

Whether the duplicate content is a “true” duplicate or a “near” duplicate, Google hates it with all its might. Google is concerned about offering the ultimate user experience to its visitors. To make even a small success out of your business, stick to providing superior quality content that is not copied from elsewhere on the Internet. When you get your content right, you don’t have to rely on duplicate content checkers to tell you if your content is original or not.

For more search engine ranking tips you might like these articles:

How To Rank: Achieving First Page of Google

Post Penguin Link Building: SEO Isn’t Dead, It’s Just a Lot Easier To Understand

Before we end the topic of how NOT to be getting rich, I’d like you see here how bad customer service led to a major disaster for an Internet marketing firm as well as for the company it was handling.

NOT Getting Rich: What You Learn “Not To Do” Can Help You

If you’ve gotten into any of the above habits, the time to unlearn them is NOW. Treat online marketing as you would a real-life business. Online marketing is not a panacea that will guarantee you millions – but the money surely is available if you work for those millions!

It’s possible to see results that will blow you out of the water! A bit if hard work, persistence and a little passion for what you do can be the harbinger of good tidings for you. Don’t expect results overnight, be patient and don’t give up. Maintain a positive energy and attitude and you will have success.

How else can new marketers NOT get rich online? Are you currently getting rich?