Want to fire your boss? Work from home? Make more money than you ever imagined working from home? Want a system that does it all for you on auto-pilot?

It sure sounds nice, but here’s a dose of reality.  You cannot become successful by purchasing some self-proclaimed marketing guru’s e-book, plugging into a system, and pushing a button. Sure, some of these marketers are making a fortune by telling people what they want to hear… for just $97.

They get your $97 and your undivided attention as you read every word of that e-book you just downloaded, which is little more than sales copy for a $997 course, coaching system, seminar, or some other product or service (and I use both terms loosely).

Beware of the long sales letters and squeeze pages that will have you subscribed to a marketing guru’s auto-responder. There’s no value there, except perhaps in looking at the process by which you ended up on their site. They do get traffic… and sales, so they’re doing something right… if only there was value in the products they pitch.

But there is no value. They want you to buy the $97 e-book, which of course is just the tip of the iceberg. The book sells the $997 course, which sells the $9,997 personal coaching program, which sells dozens of other $97 must-read e-books, which each move you along their own up-sell process.

Here’s the secret to online riches… be of value to others. If you can find (or develop) a product or service that you can really get behind due to it having true value and a real benefit to anyone who might use it, then it’s just a matter of putting that product or service in front of the right people. That’s the way to wealth.

Be sure to come back for the next post. This is the first in a series that will explore a variety of business ideas (and legitimate business opportunities) and each post is open to comments from those who have done it, aspire to do it, or have any experience to share.