By Gary Durkin © 2005

Firstly, we have to define exactly what ‘Bandwagon Business’ means. If you are familiar with my various articles, you will know that I often use common phrases or sayings in support of my argument / points.

This is no exception!

Here, phrase is ‘jump on bandwagon’ - meaning to get involved with latest venture / fad / craze / in order to make money, achieve an element of success or just simply to appear ‘cool’.

In business sense, I am relating to frequently changing developments, niche opportunities, schemes, incredible new ventures………….

What is clearly apparent, in particular in online world - or internet as we all know it, is vast numbers of people who seem to jump from one bandwagon to another, with intense frequency, that you may be left thinking they have surgically attached springs to their feet.

Unless you are VERY lucky indeed, this process will not work for you. Here are my Top Ten Tips to Spot / Avoid this problem of epidemic levels…….

1. Decide on your identity. In very simplest of senses, there are two main categories of people online looking to make money. Those who are plain and simple ‘opportunity seekers’ - looking to make money from some ‘get rich quick’ scheme’….. Doublers, Triplers, Gifting Programs, Money Matrixes…..

Then, there are those who are seeking to create their own online business. A real business.

If you are former (opportunity seeker) - be warned. Most of these schemes FAIL…… period…. End of Story. FACT.

If you are really looking to create an online business - this is vastly different. It may take a great deal more time, energy, work, involvement, commitment, focus… and perhaps even investment - but it’s a business - a real business - not an empty pot of false promises.

So, decide which one you want to be - and stick with it.

2. Don’t undervalue yourself. It is often said, that they key to your success, lies inside you. You may not know it, or have realised it….. but it’s there. Everyone has weaknesses - so focus on your strengths in main, and quietly develop areas in which you are a little less strong…… and gradually turn them into more positives.

3. What are your expectations? Define clearly to yourself, exactly what it is that you want from your online activities, and what you expect to achieve. Be realistic. Although internet is FULL of claims of people can make a fortune ‘overnight’ - it simply isn’t so. If you have never made money online, set a target to reach just $500 to start with.

Once this is achieved and sustained, increase your target to $1000 - then later $2000 per month….. then afterwards raise your target to $4000 per month….. and so on…… Start small….. work from there, and gradually increase your expectations only when you have achieved your first targets. You WILL find this works far more effectively than expecting to make $250,000 a year online within a week. Most people soon realise that they won’t be millionaires in a few weeks with their ‘program’ - so off they go looking for next one.

Additionally, it seems that many people that are in business of search engine optimization (SEO) are, with good reason, going completely bonkers. As Google came on scene in 1998 and quickly dominated search business, website optimization became largely a game of shooting at a single target, namely, pleasing Google...for all intents and purposes, Google became "800 pound gorilla" of search engine business.

Since advent of search engines (particularly Google) spawned whole SEO business, I guess its only fair that search engine industry can once again turn SEO business on its ear, and it seems now to be sort of a cat and mouse (not desktop) relationship that can get really interesting as we move forward.

Not only are there now several viable players (most notably Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask Jeeves) in search engine business, but they are all adopting different and frequently changing algorithms for determining ranking positions for websites.