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No this column is not aimed at people who promote diaper sites. This column is about you ... yes you ... especially you if the only way you gain information about marketing and advances in just about anything related to doing business online is by asking on message boards.

Every newbie who comes into this industry needs to be looked after as they take their baby steps towards making money here and industry message boards are good for those new people. However, if you've been around for a while and you're still looking for advice on those boards then it's time you grew up and stepped out on your own.

It's time you took the initiative and made some positive steps to gaining control of your online life. It's time you stopped taking baby steps and went out in search of the information you need to succeed. It's when you take that positive action that you step up to the next level and become responsible for your own future.

You may find that a little hard to believe especially if you were nurtured on one of the better industry boards. You might think that you will never have to leave that board because all you will ever need to know will be spoon-fed to you on that board. Well, sadly I have to tell you that if you want to mature in this industry and increase your earnings potential then you need to go in search of your own information.

You don't have to leave all your friends on that board that you love so much. You can still hang out there and even try and help some of the newbies who are always coming onto the board but you do need to start going in search of the information that will help you continue to grow.

You need to do that because the information that is being fed to you on that board may not always be right. You won't know that though unless you have taken the time to be exposed to what other people out there in Internet land are saying. Now what they are saying may not be right either but you do need to look at a topic from all angles so that you can then weigh up what people are saying and then make an informed decision.

For example a lot of boards will tell you that links are vital to the success of your sites. You will see people offering hard trades from high PR sites and people will tell you that those links will lift your site up in the rankings and bring you more traffic. But is that true?

If the only place you look for information is where it will be fed to you - on the boards then it won't matter whether it's true or not. You'll believe it and you will use that information to try and build your business.

On the other hand, if you've been spending time doing your own research and reading what real experts are saying about linking you will understand that a link from a high PR site will probably do very little for your site. High PR sites don't necessarily send traffic either and quite often it's hard to get traffic and a boost in the search engines from the same site. Sometimes very low PR sites will give you more juice in both areas than what people on your favorite board are telling you.

Another reason to go out and do your own research rather than being spoon fed on the boards is that you will often come across information that will give you the jump on everyone else back at that good old board you love to hang out on. There's a hell of a lot of information out there from true professionals who are way ahead of most ‘gurus' in this industry.

Of course, you won't hear about them or their information back on the board because no one else from the board is out there doing the research either. Instead everyone is doing things the same old way month after month and lamenting that sales are dropping.

Set aside time every week to do some reading and research outside of the adult industry. Set up an account on something like Bloglines and start subscribing to the RSS feeds on some of the better marketing and SEO blogs out there. Follow some of the links that they might give you because you never know how many nuggets you're going to find at the other end of just one link.

And start doing it right now; don't put it off for some other time next week, next month. Do it now so that you can begin to maximize your income from what you learn.

And what has suddenly caused me to jump up and down and wave my arms around about this? Just the other day a family member asked me to think about a quote for a website for his business. Without much thought I came up with a figure and ran it by Steve who quietly pointed out a whole range of issues that I hadn't thought of and will require a whole lot more work than I had realized.

Steve had been doing his research and his reading while I had been letting mine slip ... but not any more. Missing out on information is letting money slip through your fingers.