I want to make one thing perfectly clear, right now. I am not suggesting that all SEO's are corrupt. I don't believe that for a second. There are many fine, honest and hardworking SEO's out there, who are doing a wonderful job for their clients.

I have utmost respect for people like Jill Whalen, Bruce Clay, Robert Woodhead and many, many other fine and reputable SEO experts. These individuals don't over-hype their services or your expectations.

They also have excellent rankings on search engines. So they definitely know what they're doing.

Then, there's other end of spectrum--the companies that give good SEO's like aforementioned a bad name. I'm sure you've all seen some of these headlines:

"Top 10 and Top 20 Rankings Guaranteed!"

"Guaranteed Number 1 Ranking!"

"Guaranteed Top Ranking!"

"Top 10 Placement Guaranteed!"

Well, next time you see this kind of advertisement, make a mental note to check out that company's ranking. You'll be shocked at what you find out. Some of these companies making these outrageous claims are ranked at number 3 million. That's not an exaggeration!

Now let me point out something very important to you. A company's search engine ranking doesn't always tell whole story. I know of many companies making a nice living on Internet that aren't ranked that highly in search engines. You probably know a few yourself. You may even be one of those companies.

However, if you're considering hiring an SEO, I think where they rank is very important. Why? Because if they aren't capable of getting their own web site a high ranking, how can they possibly achieve a high ranking for someone else? They can't!

You should bear that in mind, when checking out SEO's.

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Who ever thought that a site for collecting Pez dispensers would become an American icon? I doubt that even Pierre Omidyar did when he founded Ebay in 1995 but now there is an Ebay in every country you can think of and anyone else who has started an online auction business cannot hope to be anything more than a copycat. This is an example of a business that was taken to net and flourished even more than it could of offline, because medium allows for millions of customers a day.

Of course, with good also comes bad. Canter & Siegel decided to convert junk mail into something that they could use in newly born world wide web by posting their commercial message to every newsgroup they could find and spam was born. Now it is a part of every day life. And I would rather have it that way. The freedom of information we have on net is worth price of deleting a few emails or even a few hundred, but that is just my opinion.

Look around you. There are ideas waiting everywhere. Products that are begging to be converted into something that can be delivered electronically. Marketing techniques that only need a twist to become latest and greatest internet marketing tactics. Businesses that not only will thrive on net, but literally take over it. You can remain lazy and say internet marketing is over, world is flat, and no one will ever walk on moon or start today and take it to net.