Elsmarc - 12:19 am on Sep 1, 2012 (gmt 0)

@diberry - A bit off your topic, but...

I would tell them the Gold Rush is over. I have had the same situation, relatives and friends, asking me to tell them how to do it. They think it's easy and anyone can do it.

I tell people this: It's work and it's something you have to learn. I can't teach you. I can discuss things with you, but YOU have to get one the internet and LEARN by reading, reading and more reading.

I have a cousin who came to me 3 years ago wanting to make money off the internet. He had a small site set up on Godaddy and wanted to sell jewelery (essentially as a "representative" for a bigger company sorta like an Amway thing). I went to Google, put in the key word and showed him how many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of hits there were. He then told me Godaddy "promised" him that for US$40 they would give his site "visibility" and was upset he wasn't on page 1 in a Google search. And this guy didn't even know html (not was he interested in learning any thing about it).

Google isn't "out to get" anyone. The biggest problem is there are what - something like 300,000,000 websites on world wide web. Something like 20% to 30% are "active". That, my friend, is competition.

Just something to think about when a friend or relative who knows nothing about the internet, and making money from it, asks for your help.