Have you noticed how entitled some people seem to feel about getting targeted, interested visitors to their sites?

And have you seen some of the sites they feel should be honored with the precious time, clicks, and purchases from visitors?

John Reese said it all when he said most sites on the web are junk. (I paraphrase, but that was the gist.)

It is so true there is not a single person on the web that would disagree.

Yet every website owner truly seems to believe their site is worthy of top search engine positions and hundreds of links.

The vast majority of website owners cannot fathom that their lack of traffic could possibly stem from the site they built and the business model they adopted!

I joke with my clients that most sites would get more traffic if they were parked at their registrar with some Adsense ads on them.

What then is the problem?

People feel they can come on the web, slap up a site, and begin reaping the same rewards that hard working, dues paying professional site publishers enjoy. And that has never, nor will ever, happen on the web.

The internet is a bastion of opportunity, it's true. Once you get to a point in your business where you can understand how the web works and what motivates search engines and visitors in any market, it's like there are hundred dollar bills laying a foot deep all around you for as far as you can see.

Until then, "someone with a website" is simply nothing. There are billions of web pages on the internet. There are only 10 top 10 positions in any given search engine.

In order to earn a spot on a high-traffic web site, whether a search engine or a link partner, people seriously have to raise the bar on what is considered a solid content site.

If your site looks, performs, and informs nothing like the sites you have in your own bookmark file, how can you expect anyone to put your site in theirs?

Authority sites stand out like a bucket of fried chicken on a fat farm.

If you don't have the tools and know-how to create an authority site that looks, feels, and acts like sites that have sold for millions in the recent past, you still have options.

None of which include you building it yourself with FrontPage and a $3.99 a month hosting account.

Step 1: Become a student of the web, not just someone who wants to make money and quit their job. You will neither make enough money nor be able to quit your job in NEARLY the timeframe you'd like, so get over it and be nice to your boss for awhile longer.

Learn what makes the web and the particular markets you are interested in "tick."

Think for yourself and don't blindly follow the advice in ebooks written by anonymous 13 year-old mouth-breathers who have absolutely no right to advise anyone on building and marketing high value sites.

Step 2: Find the right people to follow. Usually they own some extremely high-value property on the web and can prove their methods work.

Once you find the right people to help you (because you are definitely not going to pull this off on your own before you have grand kids) unsubscribe from every "newsletter" you are subscribed to that doesn't fit what your personal expert is telling you and put on your blinders.

Find a plan. Follow that plan to the end. And never EVER let yourself get side-tracked by gimmicks, schemes, and guys or gals trying to sell you on a "better plan."

Step 3: Read steps 1 and 2 again and consider them your new religion.

Jaded folks will say that I want them to ignore everyone else and just buy from me or the people I tell them to buy from.

Only I know for sure that it would be a damn good start given that what I teach works.

Really the biggest reason I say put on blinders and get to work is that the reason people fail to make their dreams come to fruition on the web is distraction.

The information on how to have a thriving internet business isn't hidden. In fact, there's way too much of it. And most of it is wrong for you.

Good advice stands out like that bucket of fried chicken on a fat farm does. You can tell, if you stay objective, who is bullshitting you and who might just be on their game.

The first thing that happens to newbies when they express interest in having a thriving online business is that the vultures descend.

It is much like running away to Hollywood, getting off the bus, and having the drug dealers, sex merchants, and other undesirables mob you hoping to take you into their dark underworld, pick your bones clean, and discard you in an alley.

And you thought Tom Cruise was going to escort you to your first sure-thing audition for a feature film?

That's exactly the same thing as expecting life on the web to be easy, no sweat, a walk in the park way to start a valuable high-dollar business.

The key is to be dead serious, willing to sacrifice, and willing to search for the truth about internet business, content site building, and publishing without settling for nickel and dime schemes that feed on newbies on the way.

Copyright 2006 Tale Chaser Publishing, Inc.