Think of the whole Internet marketing gig as working your way through an hourglass. At the start is every possible thing you could address on the internet; all of the stuff you could possibly do to make money. You work your way through the sand, your focus getting narrower and narrower until you find you own personal bottleneck point: your microniche, the right keywords, the unique selling position, and all of that good stuff that the gurus tell you you have to have, bolstered by the digging that you did (research) that tells you that people will be interested in what you have to sell. You build your site. You then work your way out of the other side of the hourglass, getting more and more people who are interested and will buy from you to go and visit. At the other end of the hourglass, you have the maximum number of targeted visitors going to your site and making you money. That's the goal, right?

When you first start out in IM, you've got no clue about what any of this is, much less how to do it. There are a lot of people making a whole lot of money, some of it monthly, simply by teaching people this process. But if you think about it, that's pretty limited; if you only go so far, and refuse to go further in your teachings, you're going to get a lot of people wandering around confused thinking "I know I need to do this -- but HOW?" It's easy to learn the general process, but really tough to apply it.

Have I said recently how much I love the 30 Day Challenge? I'm sure I have -- it's what I'm focusing on right now. But I've said in the past that I've learned more from Ed, Dan, and Bob (et al.) in two weeks than I have at my IMU in two months; and it just struck me that this is the very reason why. My IMU said, "We'll teach you the process," but never let on that they would only take me so far and then leave me to flounder around on my own. The 30DC said, "We're not only going to tell you about the process, we're going to show you, every step of the way, and help to make sure that you learn this by actually making money online yourself." And did I mention it's free? Did I fail to mention that the Challenge website and forum will NOT close down at the end of the challenge, so starting late does not mean that you can't finish? People are still joining. And although I'm probably preaching to the crowd, as I don't think anybody reads this but the people in my 30DC team room, I just wanted to get it out there. I wish I'd known about it before I . . .  well, let's just leave that alone. It's happening now -- and I've got articles to write for a Squidoo lens and a Hubpage!

<steps off soapbox, closes blog editor, goes back to her research . . .>

I don't know what IMU is, but I feel exactly the same way :). I've been trying to learn IM for 5yrs now. And it always seem like I haven't learn something, like I don't know enough to start. 30DC just takes you by the hand and leads you where you were afraid to go alone, giving you all the basics you need. The most difficult task is to get started, and they make it so much easier. I just love them :)
I wish I knew about 30dc 3 yrs ago, but i am glad I know about it now. It's scary to think I might've missed it at all...

Thanks for the comment, Rita!:) IMU is the Internet Marketing University that I'm not naming. And I agree -- there is SOOO much to learn! That's why I'm thankful to the 30DC -- they're helping me sort it all out! :P