Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I got to thinking about all of the JUNK on the Internet that over promises and misleads marketers into thinking they will actually get 13 million people to read their email. I decided that we should talk about this and stay focused on what works.

Generally speaking, there are three types of online marketing; Junk, Active, and Passive marketing.

Junk advertising is usually identified by their big promises, "send your ad to bagillions of hungry shoppers with credit card in hand..."...you've heard them all before. Your site can not get submitted to 200,000 search engines, dmoz.org says there are only about 1700 approved search engines. So where is your ad going? Probably a FFA (Free For All) page where your link will only be up for a few minutes as they get tens of thousands of submissions on a daily basis.

Most safelists are junk too, especially if they are claiming to send your email to millions and billions of readers? Who in their right mind signs up to read the thousands of emails that are being submitted by unsuspecting Internet newbies? No one! Where is the value in that? Beware of false promises.

Now lets talk about active marketing. Active marketing means that you are doing something on a regular basis to maintain and start advertising...actively market your business or starve in other words. Such as PPC, print and online ads, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It is very important to actively market your business on a daily basis.

Planting seeds is just as important...passive marketing. Writing a book and/or ezine article is an example of passive marketing...something that never goes away, that sends your message forever. It's like planting a seed that will grow over time.

A perfect example is the very article that you're reading. This article is timeless and will be around for an infinite amount of time. It can and most likely will be added to others blogs and newsletters, and as a result is a seed that I'm planting that will bear fruit for years to come.

Of the thousands that try, few succeed at conquering Internet marketing. My hope for my students is that you will stay focused and realistic about what it takes to make a living by marketing online. Sure, it will take some trial and error but with study, drive, and determination you can make it work.