We have all been caught out by statements that circulate on the net. We see them so often they begin to take on a life force of their own and before we know it they have power over us.

This happens a lot to newbies, but every one of us needs a reality check from time to time. The pity is that this hype can make people have quite unjustifiable expectations of what their own performance on the Internet should be - and they give up when they can't produce the result to order.

Take a look at some of the statements below and see what I mean.

' This is the True Secret of Success on the Internet.
Pardon? Firstly it's very doubtful if there are many secrets left on the net and secondly if the secrets these people know are worth money then why are they falling over themselves to sell? Don't worrythey will answer that question for you toosomewhere in the 20 paragraphs of sales copy they have laid out for you to read.

' How I made an extra income while lying on the beach at X.
The net has a great capacity for helping create residual incomes. Someone with a well-established Internet business can easily take a holiday while the business continues to earn online. That's a goal for all of us. But don't make the mistake of thinking people can develop a good income on the net while lying on the beach. It just doesn't happen, even with a laptop. Think about the work involved in marketing a stream of saleable products as some of the gurus do: creating the products, getting the sales copy, the domain, the website, the payment processing and the advertising up and running for each one - not to mention setting joint ventures and affiliate systems in place for marketing - and you will realise these guys work very hard and deserve the money they make.

' In the morning, I wander down in my pyjamas with a cup of coffee, spend 20 minutes at my pc answering mail, and then go off for a day's golf.
How many times have you seen that one? Well, maybe the pyjamas and the coffee are real, but that's about all. Unless you are building rapport with a big client, or taking time off to brainstorm with an associate away from the pressures of the office, golf will not bring home that extra income, either on the net or off it. This is pure hype. To earn online, you have to BE there.

' Our system does it all for you!
Oh yes, it's a great systemit presents, records, sorts, and spits out emails from its autoresponder. It is an enormous helpbut it is only thata help. Make no mistake - YOU are still the most important ingredient for your success. You have to recruit - or find people, one way or another, to feed into the jaws of this miracle monster. And you will need to find plenty of them, because if it manages even a 3% conversion rate, it is doing very well. Remember alsothis system will not provide the personal contact your people need, or answer their individual questions about how to earn online. Do not be fooled. This is one marketing tool, not a sinecure.

' How I made a fortune in X days.
It is possible for someone with an established net presence and a large contact list to make a healthy extra income in a short time. But don't be misled into feeling guilty if it doesn't happen to you in your first few months on the net, or longer. The people who really do make large amounts of money from scratch in a very short time are few and far between.

' When you have X000 people in your downline you will earn $X00,000 a month.
Promises, promises. Take a deep breath and ask yourself what the REAL likelihood is of everyone in your downline being able to recruit the magic number of people to produce this windfall. It's not even remotely likely. As soon as people find recruiting isn't so easy they go looking for greener pastures. More than that, think about what happens to the people "down the line" that come on board and find the market is saturated. They will drop off and those above them will lose the promised income and they too will drop off. These things are guaranteed to shrivel from the bottom up.

' He made a fortune in MLM.
Well maybe he did - so why isn't he in it anymore? Because anyone who succeeds in building a big organization in MLM ends up burning out from the stresses of maintaining it. It is probably a few hundred times worse than being in a JOB.

' This is your passport to FREEDOM.
There we go again. Usually this is the cry of the boys at the top who want to recruit youthen you become their slave so THEY have a passport to freedom.

' This is the answer to Internet Success.
There is NO ONE ANSWER to being able to earn online, unless it is: PERSISTENCE!

People who make big money on the net do so generally because they EARN it. (I am not talking about fraud here.) Realise that, and take the pressure off yourself. If you are new to the net, adopt a sensible plan of action (about which more later) and stick to it!