Money for nothing

Hardly a day goes by when my inbox isn’t blessed with another promise of easy money from the internet. One sender of such joyful offerings labours under the illusion that although I failed to respond the last thirty-seven times, maybe I will the thirty-eighth. Even though the core message is unchanged:

You can make thousands from the web! And it’s easy!

Yeah, yeah. Well, you can make thousands, millions even, from writing a song, writing a book, kicking a football, standing in front of a camera, standing behind a camera...

And those things aren’t just ‘easy’ for the people who are lucky enough to do them for a living, they’re a whole lot more fun than slogging away at web marketing.

Making money online has become the Aladdin’s lamp of the modern world. So simple, anyone can do it. Indeed, snake oil sellers have been swift to market their wares to the unsuspecting and naive. How easy it is to lure fools with dreams of financial independence into swapping their cash for the next internet cash-making machine.

I even sat through a video the other day (just for the hell of it) which assured me I didn’t need to do anything at all to make thousands of dollars every month. Didn’t need any special skills, experience or talent. Just buy the online marketing miracle he was peddling and follow his easy steps to riches.

Hah, I was sorely tempted to hit the BUY button!

Trouble is, these purveyors of digital diarrhoea are everywhere. While some may actually have something worthwhile to offer, most are going to make far more money for the seller than the buyer.

Right, enough. I’m off to buy this week’s lottery ticket...