I am old, so I remember the Walt Kelly comic strip from the ’60s called Pogo, of which the most famous line ever was “I have met the enemy and it is us.” In Internet marketing, it is so often true that we are our own worst enemies. I was reminded of that recently when I taught one of my many classes to veteran marketers looking to understand this Internet thing. Most traditional marketers have some amount of struggle with the Do It Wrong Quickly concept, but on this occasion I ran into one who was apparently so threatened by it that nothing was going to penetrate. And my diagnosis is that the fear she was grappling with was preventing her from moving forward—that she was literally her own worst enemy. And it happens to all of us sometimes.

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Affiliate marketing is a tough way to make a living these days. The competition is fierce, the commissions are slimmer than ever, and the marketing costs higher than ever. All this was brought to mind for me when someone sent me a question on affiliate marketing. This question was from someone with a lot of experience in Internet marketing who is tired of working for other people and wants a business of her own, in an area that she knows about, such as fashion or beauty. But she knows this is a tough business, so she wants to know what she should do differently.

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