The world is changing today so fast it’s really hard to keep up. Just a few years ago pretty much everybody worked for someone else. For most, it was the smart thing to do.

Safe, secure, benefits — the whole bit.

How things change. Today, manufacturing in the developed world is dead, toast, gone.

And so called "knowledge work" is now carried on by independent consultants, freelancers, and other entrepreneurs who come together virtually from the four corners of the earth. It’s cheaper, more efficient, and involves far less risk than the traditional everything-under-one-roof business model.

In this brave new world, only idiots still believe employment equals security. The average tenure in a J.O.B. is now, what… eighteen minutes?

The big, lumbering, vertically-integrated companies are failing like the dinosaurs they are, spitting out long-suffering employees like so much mulch. Since the vast majority of these employees were educated for a business world that no longer exists, they are now left twisting in the wind, clutching at straws.

And sooner or later — with the help of web wolves in sheep’s clothing — it dawns on these poor souls: Make Money on the Internet. It’s a fabulous idea. You absolutely can make money on the Internet, though most people who try don’t make a red cent.

Why?

It all boils down to a mindset that buys into these three big myths…

Myth #1:

Push Button, Make Money

From what I can tell, most newbies approach online business with the exact same mindset they bring to their jobs. They give no thought to the purposes of their labor, save a paycheck at the end of the week.

And this flawed thinking makes them prime suckers for every add-nothing-of-value-get-rich-quick scam that comes down the pike.

Multi-level schemes… auto-blogging… PPC arbitrage… software that automates some almost-useless function to such a degree that it squirts a little money… the exploitation of temporary loopholes that allow you to inject yourself into somebody else’s value chain, but without bringing anything useful to the equation.

These are the kinds of things that attract the employee mindset. Just give me some mindless activity — I don’t want to know the motivations or interests of anybody else — the less thinking I have to put into this the better.

The flimflam artists who dream up these schemes know that the less they explain about what it is they are actually selling, the more suckers they’ll enlist. No thinking person would buy from their sales copy because it fails to answer the fundamental business question: What value does this bring to anybody but me?

Contrary to popular opinion, the purpose of business is NOT to make money. The purpose of business is to fulfill unmet needs and desires — to add value to other people’s lives in some way. Making money is a byproduct of that process.

Myth #2

You Need a System, Blueprint, Roadmap, Formula, Method to "Duplicate"

Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with modeling. The problem is mindless modeling. The kind of modeling where Joe Newbie takes said model and applies it out of context and without adaptation.

In today’s world, there is no such thing as context. Things change much too quickly to expect that by the time a particular system, blueprint, or roadmap comes to market it’s still entirely optimal — even to the exact same situation it was originally developed for.

Let alone the inevitable differences of situation that exist between where it was developed and where it will be applied.

Yet this is exactly the expectation. The average employee expects his or her employer to show them step-by-step how the job is to be done. If the output is less than ideal, it’s the employer’s fault. And this idea gets carried over into the entrepreneurial world. If it doesn’t work, it’s the guru’s fault.

And so yet another disillusioned newbie begins wandering aimlessly through the Internet marketing streets like a hapless vagabond in search of something that actually works. There is no such thing as a plug and play business. Doesn’t exist, never will.

It’s up to YOU come up with your own system, blueprint, or roadmap that solves the specific problem that defines your business.

Myth #3

You Don’t Have to Sell, Just Make "Friends", "Followers", and "Connections"

The promise of social media marketing is this: Make fans, they’ll do your selling for you.

It’s all about authenticity and connection and interacting with your public on the same stage, where everybody gets an equal voice. While it’s certainly true that liking is important to persuasion, it’s just part of the equation.

The social media marketing game is at best foreplay that can never succeed without getting down the "ugliness" of direct marketing and actually asking people to buy stuff. It is this fear of selling that causes newbies to flock to social media marketing in the first place.

At its worst, social media marketing is prostitution. What was supposed to be a pristine oasis of authenticity and a sanctuary from blatant commercialism is turning into a cesspool of disingenuous opinion and endorsement — a media that is inherently unreliable, and therefore destined to devolve in value.

Case in point: Twitter now offers a revolutionary new suite of pay per click advertising services. With Promoted Tweets you can now buy celebrity endorsements at the push of a button.

The service is only available to large advertisers at present, but pretty soon the little people should be able to log on and use their plastic money to get plastic people to tweet about them.

It’s incredibly genuine. They’re keepin’ it real.

Or how about Promoted Trends? Yes, you can actually buy your own trend. Who’d have thunk it?

Or the ultimate in pimposity, Promoted Accounts. This is where Twitter will help you turn a quick trick by soliciting followers on your behalf.

The wonders money can buy. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned, honest direct marketing?

Until next time, Good Selling!