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One of the most effective ways to make money is to be unique. Thus, one of the biggest problems which I see in the world of Internet Marketing is a failure to be innovative. The typical marketing websites tend to have a typical look.

One of the most effective ways to make money is to be unique. Thus, one of the biggest problems which I see in the world of Internet Marketing is a failure to be innovative. The typical marketing websites tend to have a typical look.

Do you remember the dot com boom? Well, when the dot com boom was really booming, people knew that they had to come up with the next new thing to even have a chance at success. Being innovative was primary, and practical business sense came somewhere later on. Just think, the Internet was relatively new. If someone could invent something on the Internet which could made something which we use frequently more accessible, they would stand to make millions, if not billions of dollars. If you think that I am exaggerating, just hop on one of the search engines and type in the name, "Mark Cuban". Mark Cuban is a dot com billionaire. He became a billionaire by selling his idea for Internet radio, and now can be seen court side at Dallas Maverick games, seeing that he used some of his well deserved money to buy the team.

Ten to twelve years ago, it is not simply okay to have any old site. Rather, you had to stand out. Of course, this often leads to more flash than substance, which I believe contributed to the dot com fall.

Okay, here is what I want you to do. For the next three minutes, I want you to stop reading this article, and conceptualize outside of the box ways to make money. The good news for you is that you have history on your side. Internet entrepreneurs of the past did not have this luxury. However, we know that there are ways to make money on the Internet, and they have not stopped coming. For instance, Facebook and Twitter are two newbies who come to mind. The funny thing is that both entities were ridiculed for going against the grain. Um, oops.

The thing about the Internet as it sits today, is that it is perpetually in puberty. It is continues to grow at an exponential rate. Last count, there were in excess of 40 billion websites on the Internet, but that number may change by the time I have finished writing this article, so do not hold me to that number. Nonetheless, you cannot just add your one or two websites to this portal, and think that anyone is going to pay attention. You have to identify a market niche which has a need, and give them the solution to their need. Take Twitter, for example. Twitter takes care of the need to streamline information to a vast array of individuals in an instant. Twitter was able to identify a niche in online communication, and provided a solution to the needs of this niche.

Going back some decades, Walt Disney was a very non-traditional thinker. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, he was ridiculed in his early years. In fact, many business geniuses are ridiculed prior to demonstrated success. For instance, the press doubted that Disneyland had a chance of survival, and referred to it as "Disney's Folly". Funny huh? I wonder who got the last laugh.

One thing that you have to prepare yourself for when you step outside of the normal mode of thought, is ridicule. Let us go back to the year of 1996. Back then, the Internet was quite new. Now, picture yourself having come up with a plan to create an Internet business which will garner its success from giving everything away for free. How do you think people would have responded to you if you had proposed that idea. Perhaps a few would think that you ought to be institutionalized.

Do you know what is funny? A company actually developed a business with the plan to give everything away for free, and went through with that plan. The company is Hotmail. Hotmail gave their e-mail platform aways for free in an era where in order to have an email account you either needed to be a student, been employed by a cutting edge employer, or paid out of pocket. Hotmail was the very first company to give away free email accounts. This is often forgotten.

Hotmail understood what would bring the market to them, and create ways to make money in the future. Take a paid for service, improve upon it, and give it to people for free. They made their revenue by selling ads, and eventually achieved the big payday by selling to Microsoft.

The concept of finding what people are paying for on the Internet and giving it away free if still effective. However, if you want to be successful on the same level as Facebook, Twitter, and Hotmail, you probably need something more. What that something is, is perhaps the billion dollar question. If you find the answer, you will find ways to make money in the millions, if not billions.

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