If It’s Not Scottish, It’s Crap!

photo credit: striatic

Have you ever noticed how much crap there is on the Internet? I’m sure you have, just as I’m sure my mentioning it isn’t an earthshattering piece of information.

Recently a reader on the blog commented:

“You have a very interesting blog it’s nice to see some real information for a change I like your writing…”

The words ‘it’s nice to see some real information’ caught me. For one I was delighted by the compliment, secondly I realized that there really is a lot of crap out there. Some of that crap is disguised as honest information. However, that disguise is fairly thin and shoddy. If you dig a little you realize that it’s just fluff trying to sell you something.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with making money through Internet marketing. I offer things for sale on this site, so I’m not against it. What I’m against is all the crap that is available, disguised as something beneficial. It really disgusts me.

Think about it, with the advent of the Internet we are already incredibly unproductive people. Toss in sites and blogs that are just crap and well intentioned unproductive surfing becomes a time sink as you sift through the refuse that permeats the Internet.

Of course you can Google what you’re looking for, however even this is flawed. Often junk sites pay to have their keywords come up on the first or second page. It’s how they drive traffic and then convince consumers to buy their crap.

So what can you do about it? How do you climb atop the pile o’ crap and conqueror it?

1. Visit reliable sources. This step will take time, however as you gather up reliable sources of information you’ll cut down on the amount of crap you need view.
2. If you visit a site and are bombarded with advertising you may want to leave. It’s not that there isn’t good content here, but if you can’t find it for advertising then stop wasting your time.
3. While on a site, if you follow a link and it fires you off to another site, you may want to leave.
4. Has the site you’re visiting been updated lately? Is the content fresh? If not, you may want to move on. This doesn’t mean their isn’t relevant information to be found, but you’re going to have to search for it.
5. Be focused! Don’t get distracted while surfing. You’re bound to find a kinds of interesting links while you’re doing you’re research, by all means bookmark the site for a later visit, but stay focused on the present.

My final piece on ‘junk’ on the Internet are the sites that promise you can get rich quick and make $200/day online. I’m not saying this isn’t possible, in fact it is possible. However, it’s not something you put together in a quick hour, at least not in the beginning. With the present financial turmoil and job uncertainty many people are looking for some secondary income. Be warned that while the Internet can provide an income stream it isn’t as easy as it looks. Yes, you can do it, but be prepared to work for it and to spend some cash to get the ball rolling. Like any business it does require some capital to get things started.

So as you face off against the Internet today, know that you are armed to overcome the ‘crap’ that is out there.