You do the research and the reading on the internet and decide to venture into the world of online marketing. This decision is made by hundreds of people each and every day.

The main attraction is the low overhead of an internet based business. It's quite compelling when compared to the traditional brick and mortar enterprise. But keep one thing in mind. Low overhead does not translate to free.

Many have tried the free route and been truly disappointed. In the early days of internet marketing free ads and such worked. Mainly because there was very little competition and shopping on the web was a new and novel idea.

Those days have been gone quite a while and successful marketing has become a very sophisticated process in recent years. Unfortunately, newcomers to the web are often lured into scams and schemes by information that is woefully outdated.

There are many activities, requiring more time than money, that can increase your marketing success. The secret is assessing which tactics will ultimately reward you and how much time and money you should invest in them.

Here is an example. As a newbie, without my own opt-in list, safelist advertising seemed a viable option. After a month of dismal results, I knew that it wasn't for me. Fortunately, just a few days after deciding to change marketing strategies, an offer to join a "safelist with a twist" came along.

Feeling that I had wasted so much time trying to market via the previous safelists I was tempted to ignore it. But the "twist" intrigued me. Being fairly certain why my previous efforts had failed, this "twist" seemed likely to solve the problem.

The owner of this safelist also published a newletter and I had been on his opt-in list for some time. His articles and tips were useful.I believed I could trust him. So I paid for the pro upgrade after joining the program.

Two months ago another marketer decided to run an experiment using this safelist with a viral marketing program to grow his opt-in list. Naturally I watched the results with great interest. After about a month the growth of his opt-in list slowed to a halt.

I was astonished! In four months my income had increased dramatically using the same safelist program! Reviewing the data I found a singular difference. The experimenting marketer had used the free version of the safelist. He had fewer opportunities to mail and fewer recipients.

Invest your money when you don't have time to waste and invest in programs endorsed by those you trust.