I know the headline sounds ominous. And I’m not talking about a technique that can get you slapped by Google or labeled a spammer by AOL.

No, I’m talking about the risk of complete lack of action due to information overload. Between the constant flood of email messages with valuable information, as well as those offering to sell you the latest marketing technique you absolutely must know about, it’s enough to keep you surfing the web seeking to learn more and more for the rest of your days.

Of course, the huge problem with this is that you’ll have lots of useful information that you never have time to use because you’re off looking for the next nuggets of knowledge. So, you spend time - and probably money - attaining all this know-how and what I want to know is, “When are you planning on using it to make some money of your own?!”

Now before I get too preachy about this, please know that I am as bad an offender in this area as anyone reading this. I don’t even want to count how many programs are in my office, many of them unread (or listened to or watched).

If you’ve been learning about internet marketing for any time at all, I’ll bet you have a long list of ebooks on your computer right now that you’ve paid for and never read. Nevermind the expensive multi-media programs on your shelf. Be honest now!

Rich Schefren calls this getting information “just in case”. He believes that many of us in online marketing already have plenty of information to make our businesses more successful and shouldn’t be so worried about missing something. He’d rather we got our information “just in time” rather than “just in case”.

I have to agree with him. The marketers out there selling this information make it sound like we’ll be losing out on a one-time opportunity if we don’t buy their current product. That’s the power of a persuasive email campaign, joint venture partners, and good web copy.

But think about it… Have you ever seen online marketing information offered that wasn’t available, often in a new, “better”, revised version sometime later? After all, these guys aren’t going to let “important” content be sold once only to languish forever unsold in the future.

Yes, I know there are huge packages that have been offered for great prices recently by John Reese, Mike Filsaime, Frank Kern, Andy Jenkins, Jeff Walker, Rich Schefren, and seemingly every other big name internet marketer out there. And I’ve bought some of them. But these guys aren’t going anywhere. And the information they’re offering will continue to be offered - if not by them, then by others who’ve often learned it from them.

So what I suggest is that you stop reading every marketing email you receive. Unsubscribe from most of them. I promise they’ll be more than happy to welcome you back later.

Also, don’t buy every great marketing package that comes along. If you really want to learn more, pick one marketer whose business model and style of teaching resonates with you and focus just on his material for awhile. Try to pick material you can implement right now in your business. When you feel like you’ve gleaned - AND PUT INTO PRACTICE - his material, then and only then might you want to find your next guru.

I love learning and never want to miss out on anything, so I’m a terrific prospect for the talented internet marketers. However, we all need to find the right balance between learning more and accomplishing more.

One of the reasons I’m writing this is in the hope that if I’m persuasive enough to convince you, I might follow my own advice.

With that in mind, I resolve to focus on one program at a time and schedule an hour a day to work through it. That’ll allow me to digest the information and implement it in my business as I go. And please Lord, don’t let me run across sales letters for any more “must have” marketing products for awhile! Neither my schedule nor my bank account can afford any more “help”.

What’s your plan to balance learning with action?

When you’re building an online business, you will most likely be advised to find a hungry niche: a target market consisting of prospects who are able and willing buy what you offer. Most marketers soon realize that customers buy what they want, not what they need. They will often find a way to buy if their desire is strong enough.

I identify two types of a hungry market: the cookbook and the tire store. One market always wants “just one more” and the other wants “just one - right now.”

By way of contrast, it’s harder to sell “nice to have” novelty products, such as the lavender salad dressing I bought last year.

Cookbook business: Remember the potato chip commercials that teased us about eating just one — and stopping? This business model targets customers who will always want “just one more.”

People who are into cooking rarely own just one cookbook. They have dozens and they’re always buying more. They also buy cooking accessories. Their friends give them cooking gadgets for birthdays.

You know you have a cookbook business when your market keeps buying more and more products in the same category. Cookbook businesses include quilting, knitting, teddy bears, dogs (ever meet a dog with just 1 toy? Either zero or too many - and I have 4 dog beds for 1 dog), golf, and yes, Internet marketers.

Tire Store: When was the last time you visited a tire store? I bet you weren’t “just looking.”

Customers buy tires to replace flat or worn out tires. They rarely browse around a tire store on a lazy Sunday afternoon. They rarely comparison shop. They buy because they’re, well, desperate.

Tire store businesses target customers who think their business is failing, seek solutions to embarrassing personal problems, can’t seem to lose weight, want to save a failing relationship and/or just received a diagnosis of cancer or diabetes.

Lavender salad dressing: Does anybody search for this product? No. Do food shoppers buy it? You bet.

Every year my favorite upscale food store, Metropolitan Market, holds a lavender special. Last year, waiting at the checkout counter, I bought a jar of lavender salad dressing. I rarely even buy salad dressing: give me olive oil and balsamic vinegar any day. It was delicious.

The problem is, this type of product often doesn’t do well on the Internet. It’s a “nice to have,” not a solution to a problem. If you fit this category, you need to get in front of readers while they’re looking for something else.

To take just one example, I have an ebook about intuition for career and business challenges. Not a hot topic on the Internet. But I promote it on web pages related to careers and to business. I offer it as a bonus with other purchases. So readers see my ebook when they’re looking for something else.

A home based internet business can create freedom in your life if you commit yourself to it. With the state of today’s economic uncertainty, and peoples desire to escape the stress of mainstream employment, home based internet businesses are flourishing.

That’s the good news, the bad news is that 95% of home based businesses fail within the first years. You do not have to be in that 95% group though, all you need to do is to commit yourself to really working you internet business and you will succeed.

Most people think that working from home on their internet business will be a rather simple task requiring little effort. It is possible, however just like anything in life that is worth pursuing, your success will depend on how much of your personal effort you are willing to expend on it. This is where commitment enters into the equation.

You need to commit to getting training in the methods that will make your internet business successful. Next you need to commit to implementing what you have learned non-stop. You can not just open an internet business then sit at home doing nothing but watching television and say you are an entrepreneur and watch the money start flowing into your back account. Business does not work that way.

As an owner of a home based internet business you need to look at your internet business like any other business. You need to deal with business issues such as accounting, insurance, advertising, taxation, your health care and many other business related issues.

One of the major issues that is key to the success of your internet business is YOU. You must be a self starter, it is your business and it won’t make money if you don’t get up and moving. You need to set up a schedule for your work time and commit yourself to it.

Your commitment to yourself is critical to your success in your internet business. If you are not highly committed you will end up in the 95% that do fail.

You want to be in the 5% of successful home based internet entrepreneurs, so go ahead and commit yourself to doing something constructive every day for your business. Commit to educating your self on your internet business and then implementing what you learn so that you can have the freedom you want in your life.

Making money online is the way many people are building their home-based businesses. I knew that I wanted to work from home, so I learned as much as I could about building an online business. After two years I have broken it down into 5 main areas that you must focus on to be successful on the internet.

Blogging
Article writing and marketing
Social networking
Teleseminars
Creating info products

I call this my 5 pronged approach to making money on the internet. By combining these 5 activities and marketing methods, you can become known in your niche and will begin to attract people into your little part of the internet.

Choose a niche as quickly as you can. This doesn’t mean you have to stay with this niche forever, just for the first 6 months or so. It will take that long for you to make money that can go on without you. This becomes passive income. To get to that point you must spend some time with each of the 5 prongs.

Blogging is the fastest, easiest, and most inexpensive way to create a presence on the internet. Within a few days people will be able to find you and your topic when they do a search on Google or any of the other search engines. Use your keywords in your post titles and your visibility will soar.

Article writing and marketing is a must. Write articles on your topic and you will position yourself as an expert in your field. You can also put your blog or website address at the end of the article so people can see what you have to offer and sign up to receive more information from you. Build your credibility with articles.

Both Facebook and Twitter are the places to be in order to make connections online. You can set up Twitter to automatically tweet your blog posts and every time one of your articles is published. Facebook allows you to create your own group to build a list very quickly. Be seen in these two places and your list will grow.

Teleseminars and internet radio give people the opportunity to hear you and to make a different kind of connection with you and what you have to offer. Use teleseminars to build trust with your prospects.

Creating your own products is a must if you want to make passive income online. Start with small digital products and grow your inventory slowly over time. You will make money while you sleep once you have your own info products to sell.

These are the five prongs of building a successful online business. I encourage you to spend time in each area to maximize your potential for success.

It is sad this article needs to be written. Unfortunately there’s lots of worthless information in this market niche. The “Black Hats” are out in every marketing niche but it seems they like the online business or work from home markets the best.

The problem is that if you get burned a few times you may think everyone is trying to scam you. This is not the case. Thousands of people are building solid profitable businesses from their home and enjoying financial freedom, not to mention freedom of time.

There are some sure fired tips you can use to spot the scam offers right up front. If you are new to the online business internet marketing niche, here is what you should be on the look out for.

The first red flag is the promise. Does it sound too good to be true? We have all seen the marketing copy that states fast money. It goes something like “You will be earning $10,000 a month in 30 days”. We all wish that were true, but it’s not. Every legitimate online marketer has spent a year or more to get to that level. Watch out for the promise. If it promises fast money and little or no work or “we do all the work for you”, forget about it. Great copywriters make it tempting, but it’s just not true.

The next telltale sign is the offer. Beware if it goes something like this, “This offer will be gone in 24 hours”. If it is a legitimate product or service, then the seller wants to sell as many as possible and certainly would allow you to take your time to evaluate the offer. Now, there can be a cut off for services but not for digital and non-digital products. At least this is another red flag.

I’m sure you have seem these offers that tell you the offer will be gone in the next five minutes. Then there is a clock counting down next to the buy/submit button. Go back to that offer tomorrow and the clock is still ticking. Red Flag.

So let’s say you are deciding whether to purchase an offer and you’re just not sure if it is a legitimate offer by a legitimate company. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers known as ICANN is in charge of administering upper level domain names. They in turn, assign regional companies to register names.

Here is what you do. Go to the whois lookup. You can just Google it. Every website has to be registered. There you will find the information on the company or individual. If the name, address and contact information is not there, you have another red flag. If you can’t find the contact information on the website or it doesn’t match the registration, you have yet another red flag.

There is no need to purchase any product or service online with a scam company. Today, there are many great online marketers that are legitimate. They will give you their full contact information. These are the ones that deliver good products and services because they want your business over the long run. They want word of mouth. The only way to build a solid online business that performs, makes money, and lasts, is to do it the correct non-scamming way. You are now armed to detect and avoid the scammers.