It is not easy admitting that I was a former get-rich quick internet marketing junkie. But the truth of the matter is that for five, long years I wasted thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours all in vain searching for that elusive pot of gold that I thought was awaiting me at the end of the rainbow.

I would like to share with you the results of all of my internet marketing efforts:

• Compounded frustration
• I lost thousands of dollars of hard-earned money
• I ended up lying to my wife, which prior to my internet marketing addiction, would never have occurred to me in a million years!
• I seriously damaged our marital bond of trust and faith not only by lying but by cheating (not sexually) on my wife as well. What do I mean? I opened up a private bank account; took out a private credit card, opened a private postal box. I could not believe to what depths of deception I was prepared to do so that I could feed my delusions about succeeding with internet marketing.

In short, I came as close as possible to a point of no return where I could have lost literally everything meaningful in my life – my wife and children – everything that I cherished most in life.

I just would like to say that I am not a person sitting on the fringe in society. The truth of the matter is that I consider myself a normal, educated, middle class person. I have a college degree. I am an English high school teacher by profession.

So, if I have almost everything that I could possibly want in life – family and material comforts (car, house, etc.), so what happened to me? Perhaps a mid-life crisis? Mental breakdown?

There was something very attractive and exciting about having my own home-based online business. I never could see myself forever being a teacher. I wanted to make extra income, like most of us to make ends meet by the end of the month, and perhaps to have something extra so in order to do more things together with the family. So, literally, like a bouncing ball, I went from one home business opportunity to another after another, hoping that this time I would strike it rich. But rather then striking it rich, I simply STRUCK OUT!

My advice to you is the following and please take notice, because these are the words coming from a former internet marketing junkie who has been there and done it!

· Stay away, like your life depended on it, from All Get-Rich Quick schemes! Do not let the temptation of making $5000 or 10,000 dollars a month delude you into believing that by investing (I call this throwing your hard earned cash down the toilet) $50, $100, $500, $1000 dollars or more in some program that makes promises from A-Z, that you will be making money in no time flat, just remember this – The person who has just taken your hard-earned money is probably laughing his head off all the way to the bank.

· There is no such thing as making quick or easy money on the internet! If you will, think of internet marketing, in the negative sense, just like a slot machine in Las Vegas, nothing more and nothing less!

If this article will save at least one person from falling into the endless pit of becoming an internet junkie, like myself, then I will have the comfort of knowing that I have fulfilled at least one of many of my missions in my life.

Fortunately, and thank God, there is a happy ending to this story. After realizing what is really important to me in life, I destroyed my credit card, cancelled my bank account, closed my postal box and began to rebuild the trust (that I had betrayed) in my relationship with my wife.

The million dollar question that you might be asking yourself now is this: So, has he given up entirely the possibility of ever doing internet marketing? My honest answer to you is, no. However, I will leave you with something to think about. If I had only followed my instincts at the very beginning of exploring ways to perhaps make money on the internet and not been greedy, as well as thinking to myself that I know better, I could have truly followed one of my passions in life and created something truly of value not only for myself but for the benefit of others as well. Not to mention, that I could have been happier and wealthier as well.

It took me five, long and very difficult years in my life to discover what was always in front of my nose but I was just too blind to see.

If you are curious to know what I am talking about, I will not beat around the bush. Simply have a look at my signature below. All the best.