What do you do for a living? This is probably the most common question I’m asked upon meeting someone. It’s always fun studying someone’s reaction after I tell them I’m an Internet marketer. Older people usually stare off into space, afraid I’m going to start talking over their head and leave it at that while others start asking questions. When they start asking questions is when it gets fun.

While there are a million stories I could tell in response to this question, there is one I find particularity entertaining. One day this past spring Ryan and I were working out in our local gym when a somewhat attractive female approached us. She said she heard how we “worked on the Internet” and that she too worked online. I’m always cautious when someone in our small town in West Virginia says they work online – this generally means they have an eBay account and might make a couple hundred dollars cleaning out their garage.

Being as I’m polite, I listened to what she had to say. She explained how she markets household products by compiling lists, uses the Internet, and blah, blah, blah. Ryan and I both had a feeling where this was going but as she explained how highly motivated of an individual she was she recommended we go to a meeting with her. She told us we just had to go and she’d even drive us there.

OK, so there’s the ultimate red flag. We just met this person yet she’s so sold on this “Internet business” she is going to drive us to a meeting. The conversation finished and we did our workout. As soon as we got home, we researched what she was doing. You guessed it – she wasn’t involved with Internet marketing – she was part of a pyramid scheme. Needless to say, we never made it to her meeting.

Ryan, John and I work in high performance marketing. We create campaigns, send traffic to them and make money off the conversions. We do not sell toilet tissue to our entire household, praying to get someone to sign up under us so we can make some type of profit under a pyramid scheme.

So many people out there are looking to get rich quick they will do just about anything. They do not care if what they do is moral, ethical or even legal. They want money and want money now. There is no shortcut in Internet marketing. If you want to make it, it’s through hard work and dedication that is going to get you there.

It’s a shame there are people out there such as this misled female that gives all us Internet marketers a bad name. I’m sure there are plenty of you have horror stories of your own, care to share them with us?