Use the Internet Better

How do you use the internet?

Every few days I used to go online and Google “Matthew Russell” or “Matt Russell” to see if any of my websites were near the top of the results. I discovered that there were a lot of successful Matthew Russells, but according to Google I was not one of them. I think the best I did was a link on the second page to an article I’d written on ezinearticles.com

No, I wasn’t Matthew Russell the American football player, nor was I Matthew Russell, the successful poker player. Neither was I Matthew Russell the famous (or not so famous)photographer.

I did a search for an old university friend, Trevor Fairhurst several times. In fact to alleviate the boredom of an old job I went through a stage when I googled several people who I had lost contact with from university. Trevor turned up near the top of the search results quite a few times due to his running and triathlon exploits in Australia.

Most people use the internet like a pencil torch to find their way through a pitch black forest; or as a massive hammer to crack a peanut.

They check their email, log into facebook or MySpace, go on ebay and do a bit of online shopping. They might even read the newspaper online. But that is about it.
The problem with the internet is also its strength. There is so much information at people’s fingertips. There is so much information that people retreat into their little corner online because that is where they feel comfortable. That is how they deal with information overload.

It is a good tactic and one that I employ myself, but I find myself getting bored very easily and that is when I go out looking for more safe little corners online. Because I know that the internet is a vast place and I should really use it better. Unfortunately, this characteristic has led me into many online business scams. Most of these online business ventures have sounded too good to be true; when they haven’t they have lured people in with their promise of doing all the work for you. All you need to do is sit back in your home, click a few ads, or surf a few sites, and with the magic of the internet in six months or less you will have a profitable online business.

This is a trap most online newbies fall for at some point. If you’re lucky (or wise) you don’t lose all your money on this venture, and just as important you don’t lose your willingness to take a risk; because among the dross of online business ventures there might be the occasional diamond.

There are many good uses of the internet, but if you’re going to use it to make money do some keyword research, write some articles and publish them to a website. There are many intricacies to this process, and there is plenty of good free information online that will help you.