Ever since I started the Small Business Internet Guide and the associated website, I’ve been looking for ways to make them more useful, increase readership, and in general provide a better service to small business owners. After all, we’re all looking to use the power of the Internet to improve the performance of our small business or professional service.

So naturally, like most business owners, I frequently search the Internet for new ideas and tools that might help me accomplish that goal. Increasingly, no search is required as these offers magically find their way into my inbox.

What you will find when you start searching the Internet looking for that kind of information is a growing army of gurus, some I suspect real and some self-professed, that are willing to offer you advice – usually free or of little cost to start, then increasingly expensive to continue on for the “good stuff”.

This is how it seems to work. A guru, let’s call him or her Guru A, will purport to have discovered a method to accomplish nothing short of miraculous results by using some “new” tool or discovered secret methodology. There’s usually a sense of urgency associated with this promotion, so you need to act quickly or you might miss out. Of course if you do miss out, as the story goes, you will be ground into the dust under the boot of your competitor’s that do decide to grab the offer.

After conducting Internet searches like this over time, you will discover a cadre of “usual suspects” lovingly known as “super affiliates” that are ready to dispense this advice. The informal organization of gurus is like a wheel with spokes; at the center of the wheel is the guru that has developed the latest product and offer. Each of the spokes leads out to an affiliate guru who beats the bandwagon about what a great opportunity this is – usually with some additional incentive thrown in to buy this offer through them. How can you resist? And bear in mind that some of these offers can create a staggering amount of revenue for the guru and his or her affiliates.

Like an Offer de Jour, the cycle repeats and a new guru with a new offer moves to the center of the wheel; and all the gurus along the spokes (the affiliates) beat the bandwagon anew. With the current recssession, this has reached a fever pitch with several offers being released to appeal to and capture the unfortunately growing number of out-of-work people.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against affiliate marketing, it provides a legitimate income for lots of small business owners; its the “churn” that bothers me. Certainly there are good products and methodologies that could help us grow our businesses; that’s the maddening part. The problem is that it’s very difficult to separate the real products and services that might help us from the hype that will only waste our time and money. Discovering which guru really has the goods is the challenge.

So what to do? One thing that we can do is use a forum like this expose products and membership sites that we have found to be truly helpful in growing our businesses. Please don’t hawk your affiliate products here unless you have actually used them and found them to be truly worthwhile.

I invite your comments. If you’ve discovered a tool or idea that helps your business grow – please let us know.

In closing, I offer the following suggestions:

Resist the temptation to be hooked in by each new offer. They all sound good, and they may even seem like something that might work. Above all, avoid being distracted by the “churn” I spoke of earlier. Pick one method and work it exclusively until you succeed. If you don’t find success after three months of real effort, then, and only then, should you consider something else. Be sure to learn the basics of Internet Marketing before you do any of this. The saying Knowledge is Power is very true in this business. Just a little is dangerous, but don’t think you need to become a master of the process to get started either. Experience is a great teacher.

As a primer I recommend a no cost course offered by an Australian named Ed Dale. He will eventually try to sell you something, but it will most likely be something that can help, and you can always just say no to any offer Ed might make. There is no obligation to take the training.

This no cost training is called the Thirty Day Challenge. Be sure to check this out. You will need to register a domain name and obtain hosting to participate. Get your domain name at GoDaddy – they usually have a sale going on for around $7.50. There is a link on this page. Get a .com name if at all possible. Ed’s course will provide advice on picking a domain name. So wait until you get into the course before you do anything. You need to develop a plan – the training Ed offers will help you think about your options.

This knowledge will allow you to evaluate these “offers” when they inevitably come your way, with deeper understanding as to whether they make any sense or not.

This tutorial has been move to our sister site MatrixReviews.com. View it HERE at http://matrixreviews.com/learn-how-to-add-youtube-video-to-your-blog-or-website/