We Internet marketers are an optimistic lot. We have to be since we get clobbered so often by gurus and scam artist. Here are some Internet marketing hints that could help you to grab that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

1. Avoid the Gurus

Don't listen to that sob story on the guru's pitch page. He never was an orphan, never was in the poor house, and he never did meet that stranger in the dessert who told him the secret of turning rocks into gold.

A guru is simply and always an Internet marketer who wants to slip his hand in your back pocket over and over again to extract that last dollar bill and place it in his coffers. Yes he does make tons of money selling to his mailing list. He is your competition, not your friend.

Hint: Get Your Own Mailing List. Do What the Gurus Do.

2. Avoid PPC if You Are a Beginner

That is a horrible thing to say but PPC requires special skills that most of us don't have. PPC sites can gobble up your coins like a turkey gobbles corn. If you set up a PPC campaign and leave it to the PPC site software, you can get clobbered.

Many of us use PPC. It can be an effective way to drive customers to your site. It can be profitable too. But you need to learn the basics first. If you are a beginner, contact your PPC sites service personnel. Talk to them on the telephone, tell them what you are trying to do, and get their advice. Google, MSN and Yahoo have great service personnel. They know that if you do not make money, they will lose you as a customer.

However, their software doesn't care about that.

The service representative can help you get started in a profitable campaign.

Hint: Use Free Marketing Techniques Until You Generate Enough Income to Risk on a PPC campaign.

3. Use Free Marketing Techniques

Some free marketing methods work. Some don't. Here are a couple of methods that do work:

Article Marketing

Can you write a simple article like this one? If so, you can make product sales. The process is one of these three:

A. In the article (if allowed) or in the Source Box you place a direct link to an affiliate pitch page. You need no web site yourself.

B. You place a link to a Testimonial Page. Now you need a website because it will be your testimonial of how glorious the product that you are pitching is.

C. You place a link to a Review Page. You review several products, making yourself an automatic expert. Yes, you need a site.

The trouble with article marketing is that you need to write many articles to get enough traffic to your link to make a sale. You may have many readers but only a few clicks on your URL. That could mean few sales for all your hard work.

Oh, the life of a writer!

But if you have lots of good articles and a very good ad in the Source Box, things add up over time and you will generate a monthly income. And if you are like me, a person who can't keep his fingers off the computer keyboard, you will have fun doing it.

Hint: Choose a good keyword phrase you can use in the title and body of your article. Write a possible keyword phrase in quotes in your Google Search Box. If fewer than 5000 keyword-phrase items come up, you've got a winner.

Hint: When you write a new article, list it in your blog and ping your blog at pingomatic.com.

Forum Marketing

If a forum allows a signature carrying your URL, then you can market by posting to forums.

Alternately, you can pay someone to post for you.

Hint: When you pick a forum, make sure it represents your audience. Eskimos make their own snow shoes. Snow bunnies don't.

I hope these Internet marketing hints will speed you along as you seek that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Keep Truckin'!