Does your computer have an interior microphone or an interior video recorder? If yes, these technologies can be activated without your knowledge. Hackers can not only get your data files, but they can record sound and video files of conversations and activities taking place in your work area.

Almost everyone knows importance of protecting their system against viruses. My anti-virus software knocks off at least 3-4 viruses every week. And most people with a direct Internet connection (i.e. cable, ADSL) know importance of installing firewall software. My excellent (and free) Zone Alarm firewall (www.zonelabs.com/) protects me from hacks coming through open computer ports.

But recently I learned about a third threat -- potential danger of malicious codes coming in through ports that I must leave open in order to access Internet. Hostile ActiveX codes, Java codes and Windows scrap objects can be buried in Rich Text email, embedded in documents, hidden in games and electronic postcards, or downloaded from web sites.

It's a safe bet that no responsible webmaster has knowingly placed hostile code on site. However, many sites are vulnerable to attacks from hackers, and hackers have no such scruples. Imagine logging on to your favorite sports site and unknowingly downloading hostile code that damages your operating system, installs software that allows third parties to use your computer for denial of service attacks, or makes your personal data available to prying eyes. For full information, refer to an article recently published on ZDNET. http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2764074,00.html

Which one is 'ultimate'? Well, if you hear them tell it, theirs is, of course.

"Turn $5 into $50,000,000,000 in 30 days with no effort!" Did Bill Gates figure out how to condense his lifetime into 30 days? I doubt that he would say he got where he is today with no effort.

Are you listening to these guys, or do you REALLY want to make money on Internet? Becoming instantly rich on Net is about same as sitting around waiting for your lottery numbers to hit.

I like to believe that we're smarter than that. We realize that only way to truly become successful at anything requires a lot of hard work, motivation, persistence, and luck.

Now let me explain each of these points.

Hard work - This is a no-brainer. You ARE NOT going to be able to turn on your computer, walk away from it, and expect to end up with a successful business.

You have to work at it. The more productive work you put into your website and your marketing efforts, greater rewards.

Notice that I said 'productive' work.

It is easy to spend 20 hours a day on web and not do anything constructive for your business. You have to focus your efforts to make above statement true.

To put it a different way, if you spend 20 hours a day adding content to your site, refining design, promoting it, testing and retesting to learn what works and what doesn't, you WILL see results.

Many websites fail not because owner didn't work hard enough, but because he didn't work smart enough.

Motivation - How do you stay motivated to enable you to survive months and months of extremely long days and nights glued to your monitor?

Is it lure of having a successful web business someday?

The idea of eventually being able to quit that job that you hate?

Believe me you will hit low points, you will get frustrated, and probably even utter words "at this rate I'm never going to make it".

So how do you stay motivated? The above questions can help, but I think absolute most important motivator is to pick a topic that you love. When you are working on a subject that you totally enjoy low points will be far less frequent, and have far less impact on you.