Everyday, there are more and more newbies hitting the web, and what do they find? Well, to begin with, confusion, then awareness, then confidence, then frustration, and then, one either quits or keeps going, like I did!

When we all came to this place, the World Wide Web, we all had our own thoughts and ideas of where we were and what we would find, but, yes, there is that word, but, we soon find out that things are not what we thought they would be, they are worse! You know what I mean!

Anyone that comes to this understanding must make a decision, either quit, or get busy!

What do I mean? Think back to when you believed everything you read, like the “get rich quick”, “join this club”, “our community is better”, and nobody but me will ever know about those pics! Do you remember now? I hope so, if not, maybe you are now a newbie? Thats ok, reading this will save you some time, a lot of time in some cases.

The first thing that happens is that you learn what Google is, and you start searching, learning, and find that there is no one but you that has that idea! Then, you get a FREE website somewhere, which usually has more ads on it than a TV station, then, you make that decision, I am going to build my own site! Now what?

As soon as you register a new Domain, there is a searchbot that finds it, finds that new email address, your phone number, your home address, your kids names, how many pets you have, how often you and your ……. get the point? Believe me, I get over 10,000 SPAM emails a week! Sometimes it is more like a million! Yeah. it takes me like an hour to check my email! This happens like 3 times a day! Get my point?

How do you avoid this? You can’t, you will get SPAMMED, but, you can limit it! If you register a new domain, make sure that you check that little box to keep your info private, and NEVER EVER publish your email address!,  if you don’t, you will be like me! I had 3 or 4 domain names, all public, because I didn’t want to pay Yahoo that extra money, like a buck or two, whatever it was back then, and of course I re-registered a year later and so on! After like 5 years, it was too late! If you get to where I am, all you can do is get rid of the domain, or pay extra for SPAM protection, that doesn’t work right! Yeah, the really good stuff works! BUT! It works too good, it will make you miss that sale you have been waiting on! Imagine, everypossibleword@ your website.com, gets picked up by a SPAMBOT and that is all she wrote! Forever, you will get SPAM!

Anyone reading this that knows me, knows that I ramble a bit, I get off on these bunny trails and…………see my point, anyway, if you do read what I write, and suffer through to the end, you may learn something, I love to share.

To an Internet Newbie:

If you are brand new, like just started that Vista Machine, or that Mac that is supposed to do everything, right out of the box, you should read this! Either that or turn the thing off and NEVER turn it on again!

1. They LIED to you, all computers have one major problem, the operator! That and the other BS that convinced you to buy that particular machine, yes, it is a piece of JUNK, they all are, about 5 minutes after you buy it! Why, because the next model is already out, it is now the newest best thing, for about 5 minutes, get my point? Oh, Macs still need software to do anything but check your e-mail!
2. Now that you are surfing, you start seeing all of these special offers that are ONLY AVAILABLE TO YOU! You get that first SPAM, and no, she won’t really send you her pics! NO they can’t REALLY make it bigger, and no, you are not a winner of some contest you never enterred and you ARE NOT just some lucky person selected by some poor unfortunate millionaire in AFRICA! Here is the tip: If you get an email from anyone that isn’t replying to your email, or a friend that you are expacting an email from, maybe a business you deal with, mark it as SPAM! Trust me, it will save you time! Oh, and NEVER EVER open an attachment! I don’t care what kind of AntiVirus Program you have, if you open that attachement, you will get something that Ajax won’t wash off! Trust me!
3. The next hurdle is something that we all do to ourselves, we think we are special! All of us want to get rich and fall for the SCAMS, been there done that, like almost two decades ago, when it was new! “Just pay me a dollar and you will get Rich!” I think that was the one that got me, it wasn’t worded that way, but you get my point. If somebody tells you that they will give you a FREE website that will make you rich, don’t believe it, it CAN NOT HAPPEN! You will work your butt off and never ever sell anything, and don’t buy it yourself either, WALMART is cheaper, get my point?
4. Once you get beyond these things, there is another biggie, and I mean a BIGGIE! That first Domain is a pain! When you get it, you think that the whole world is going to come running to see it! You think that the whole world wants to buy what you have because they never ever saw it before, hmm, see the pattern?

Ok, anybody with more than a minute on the web has learned about this stuff, right? No, if you join this traffic exchange, you will find plenty of examples of what I am talking about, if you surf that is. There is so much of this kind of junk, many that want to just harvest your e-mail address, or con you out of a dollar or two, but maybe even worse! I do my best to watch this site, I surf, like everyone else, but I have the best Virus/Spyware/Adware/Pop-Up etc protection and if I get a warning, that site is gone, but, you will find links here to other traffic exchanges, many of which could possibly have an issue or two! No, it isn’t that they do it on purpose, it just haopens! Once a site is approved, the bad guys add some bad code to that site! Yes, it happens, and yes, that FREE site you have may be the one!

Why would anyone give you a share of their millions for FREE? Think about it, they want something from you, and definitely not just your friendship! When you get a FREE website, what have you done? All that you did was add a page or two to somebody elses website! If that domain name is not registerred to you, guess what, IT IS NOT YOURS!

Now that you have made the progression, have a real website, and know that the other stuff marked as FREE isn’t, welcome to this website!

The next step is to promote that new website, is it easy? NO, it is exacltly the same as any other business, you need visibility! If you open a shoe store on Main street, that is one thing, somebody will walk by, sometime, but you still need ads or no one will know it is there but you! Your website is no different, or is it?

Main street doesn’t have Google, unless they also have a website! Things have changed a lot over the years, and the biggest change is what is called Web 2.0 or, the New Internet, I have heard it called a lot of things! Many are not nice, but that is because they don’t know that Web 2.0 makes all of our lives better! Even Google!

What am I talking about? Well, do you know what an RSS Feed is? Look at the top of this age, in the address bar, see that little orange box with the funny pattern on it? If you see that, you don’t need to visit the site anymore, if you have a Feed Reader, or use Yahoo or Googles services, keep looking you will find it!

Now that you know about 2.0, how does it help you? Well, the first thing is speed, the speed at which the search engines find your website! Once Google has your site indexed, maybe a month or two, as soon as you publish a new page, it is crawled by their bots, I mean within seconds, maybe even faster! The old plain jane HTML sites, it may take 6 months for the same thing to happen!

Anyway, other than the automatic stuff, what can you do? First, be patient, sit back, drink a cold one, and start surfing!

If you join a surf-site, like this one, make sure that you do it for the right reasons, otherwise you may be wasting your time!

What can a surf-site, either auto or manual surf, do for you? Well, the first thing is to get people to look at it! That is why you will always find that “Get Rich Quick” crap on all traffic exchanges, but trust me, ALL OF IT is garbage! Why do you need visitors to your website? Simple, the more visitors, and the longer they stay, and the more pages they look at, the more important your website must be!

Yes, a traffic exchange puts you in front of new people, people like me, that have seen it all and know the truth, people like you and I both were, new, that fall for the crap, but other than that, what does it do for you? As I said above, more visitors means more important, more important to the only thing on the Internet that matters, the Search Engines!

If you have a new website, and I mean a “REAL” website, then you need to know that GOOGLE is like a god, (little g) make Google happy, and guess what, people will find your website when they do a search! Yahoo and the others, even MSN, all use Google like tactics, but Google is the best! What is the difference? Google has a three month cycle that updates monthly! Trust me, sounds funny, but it is true. The others, well, lets just say that they follow, and have their own criteria as to what is important, that is why you may get listed on one, but not the others, but remember, Google is the biggie!

Ok, all of that out of the way, there is one more thing, I saved it for last because it involves all of the above, the basics.

If you have ever done a search on Google, or anywhere else for that matter, you will notice the “Sponsored” listings, or ads, and yes, you can buy these! BUT, do not fall for the ads that try to sell you the TOP LISTING ON PAGE ONE, that is the worst SPAM of all, it attacks the more advanced webmasters! I get emails al the time with people asking me about this trash! Hey, if you want, you can pay me, and I WILL GUARANTEE a TOP SPOT ON GOOGLE! Or, you can do it yourself! Yeah, will take a little time to learn, but you can do it and not pay anybody but Google! Do Not fall for that one! They will charge you about 100 times what you can do it yourself for! But, if you really just wanna pay somebody, I’ll do it for you!

The truth of the matter is this, it is all about keywords, when you do a search, and type in website promotion, as an example, there is no telling what you will find, click that link and take a peek. What ever you sell on your site, like widgets, click that one and look, the words that describe you or your products and website are keywords, DO NOT FALL FOR THOSE ADS that want to sell you the top spots! Sign up with Google AdWords and do it yourself, it is much, much, much cheaper, and if you keep it simple, it will be simple!

Let’s just use the keywords, traffic exchange, as an example, I use FireFox 3 with adblockers, like ABP, as most experienced people do, so, if you pay Google for an ad, I will never see it, those annoying ads never even appear on my browser! Anyway, many people still use IE7 or with Vista IE8 or other browsers that these ads will stil show up on! If you want to buy an ad, it can cost you from ten cents a click and up, mostly up, and sorry, it is not worth it unless you are a major retailer, just do a little SEO and save your money, people will find you!

So, what is the moral of the story? That is simple, I can sum it up in one word, STUDY! Don’t pay anyone to do that for you, unless it’s me, just be patient, build your site, come here and get some traffic, and study! Whatever you want to learn about, type that keyword at Google.com, and read! After you have read a few hundred pages, you will see the patterns, just be careful and have fun! If you have questions, post it here in a comment, and I promise, I will tell you the truth, and, I won’t charge you for it!