So you’ve started an Internet business and you’re working around the clock trying to make a buck. It’s hard. Progress is slow. And everyone seems to think you’re crazy for leaving (or planning to leave) that safe job in order to be an entrepreneur. (Sometimes even you think you’re crazy…) Well, for all those reasons and more… it’s time to celebrate.

That’s right: celebrate. I don’t necessarily mean you throw a party or take a vacation. Especially if money is tight. You might, instead, celebrate by treating yourself to a movie with a loved one. Or by getting a massage. Or by going out for dinner. Or just by taking an afternoon off and going for a walk.

Whatever you do, just do something for yourself – something YOU enjoy – in recognition of your entrepreneurial efforts.

Think you know what business you’re in? Think again. According to marketing gurus such as Dan Kennedy and Australia’s Mal Emery, an accountant is not in the accounting business and a life coach is not in the coaching business. They – and, in fact, all of us – are in the marketing business. Or, at least, we should be.

This reminds me of one of my first jobs. Back in the late 90s I joined the graduate marketing program at Uncle Ben’s of Australia. Uncle Ben’s is now known as Mars Australia and is part of the Mars, Incorporated group of companies. Among other things, Mars sold – and continues to sell – the leading pet food brands in Australia, including Pedigree, Whiskas, Chum and Dine.

Heard any of these dangerous myths lately? It takes money to make money. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Ready, fire, aim… not ready, aim, fire. Entrepreneurs are born, not made. Buy into any of these and other generalizations at your peril!

I’ll admit to spouting off some of these sayings myself. And doing so is not inherently harmful… as long as you remember that generalizations are, by their very nature, descriptive NOT prescriptive.

Business and technology pundits are quick to theorize about why Apple and its CEO, Steve Jobs, have been so successful in recent years, but what keys does Steve Jobs himself attribute to Apple’s success?

Steve Jobs recently hosted a press event and GigaOm’s Om Malik was on hand to distil some of Jobs’ explanations for Apple’s success. I’ve elicited slightly different lessons from what Jobs said during the event, but feel free to watch the video and derive your own insights (see link below).

If you subscribe to a lot of mailing lists in the how-to Internet marketing niche you’ve probably noticed that a lot of marketers frequently promote their competition. Why do Internet marketers promote their competitors… and should you be promoting the competitors in YOUR niche?

Tomi T. Ahonen has written a rather sobering blog post about the economics of developing applications for Apple’s iPhone platform. His basic contention is that, for most developers, creating either a paid or free app for the iPhone is a huge waste of money.

Tomi explains his viewpoint with a convincing breakdown of the costs and revenues faced by a typical iPhone app developer. I won’t repeat Tomi’s analysis here, but, after taking all the relevant figures into account, he concludes that:

Which kind of Internet entrepreneur are you? Are you a part-timer? A lifestyle entrepreneur? Or a company builder?

Knowing which kind of Internet marketer you are is useful in helping you make decisions about such matters as:

• What goal(s) and expectations to set yourself;
• What kind of Internet marketing business to build;
• How many resources e.g. time and money to allocate to Internet marketing;
• What skills to learn and develop; and
• Whether and how to grow your business.

Let’s look at how you might approach your Internet marketing business depending on the type of Internet marketer you are…

There’s one KEY factor that will ultimately determine how successful your Internet business is and how much money you make online. Surprisingly, virtually NO-ONE talks about this.

What is it? Listen, watch or download the podcast or read the article below…

When it comes to allocating money, time or other resources to Internet marketing campaigns – whether it’s investing in pay-per-click advertising (a.k.a. search engine marketing or SEM), hiring article writers, or even spending TIME on such activities as social networking or search engine optimization (SEO) – you’ll no doubt want to make the best use of your money and/or time.

While you’ll hear plenty of ‘experts’ telling you to invest in SEM, SEO, social media, email marketing, article marketing and a ton of other activities, the best thing you can do is NOT to buy into someone else’s agenda. The best use of your time, money, skills, etc is unlikely to be the same as that of someone else.

As you succeed and gain greater attention online – you’ll see more people not just modeling you, but downright copying you. Your blog posts, your articles, your products, even entire websites.

So what should you do about copycats and rip-off merchants?

Listen, watch or download the podcast below.