Essentially, the idea is to gain revenues by any means necessary.  And we’re not talking about a small amount of revenue either.  Zynga, the maker of Farmville (which I’ve never played by the way), makes about 1/3 of its estimated $250 million annual revenue stream through these scam-related offers.  It has agreed to take all of those offers out of its games, which is a big commitment.

On the other hand, there are many opportunities for individuals to play in the game of making money by any means possible.  If you’re on even a few mailing lists of online marketing “gurus”, you’ll get countless offers to buy over-priced how-to guides on the process.  And the fact is, if you follow some of their formulas, you can indeed make some good money.

I’ve always been hesitant to do these get-rich quick schemes – most definitely to my own financial detriment.  I started to question myself recently on exactly why it is I refuse to play these money-making games.  The answer I’ve come up with is that I’m the type of entrepreneur that needs to make a difference in peoples’ lives with the companies I start.

Yes, I’d love to make buckets of money just like the next guy or gal.  However, doing so in a way that does nothing to help the individuals buying from me, or doing so in a way that does not create something new and different – well, I’m just not motivated by that.  I’m into the art of entrepreneurship for the art itself, you might say.

Now, honestly, I can’t say I see anything wrong with a lot of the gurus out there.  A lot of them are really helping people to make more money and lead happier lives.  And if you find yourself in the category of doing the art of entrepreneurship for the money, then please go for it by all means.

If you’re like me, though, do yourself a favor and unsubscribe from the gurus’ get-rich-quick scheme e-mail lists.  You won’t find what you’re looking for there.  In fact, it will probably make you feel worse.  We sensitive types tend to take offense when we see others making those buckets of money while we, the starving artists continue to starve! -

In online marketing, the niche is the thing for entrepreneurs.  Find a good niche, build a site, hammer away at the search engines with relevant copy, and you may just have a chance at making a living online.

The niche concept, however, has been around long enough for just about every niche and cranny to be filled.  Should you spend all your time trying to figure out if you can find one that isn’t filled yet?

Maybe you should, or maybe you should try this instead: find a group of people that represent a niche and figure out how to market a service to them that’s proven profitable in the past.  In other words, get into a profitable niche of your niche.

To do this, you’ll want to know a couple of things.

1. How to dig into segments to find niches.
2. How to figure out profitable things that niche engages in.

Now you’ve got a business.  As soon as I actually get my “main idea” on doing this online, I’ll talk about it more.