These days I feel that being on the Internet to market my business is like being at a carnival. "Check out this tent over here!" "Come play and win a big stuffed animal over here!" "We have the best prizes!"It's enough to make a person discouraged. When I first started out, I made a lot of mistakes and I wasted a lot of needless money in an effort to find the best MLM product, the best lead capture system, and buy the best leads. I thought Internet marketing was going to be different than regular business but I have found that to be not true.

What if I told you that you don't need the latest and greatest system on the Internet to make money? You know, you really don't. What you do need is some good old common sense, good manners, people skills and a plan.

Remember the golden rule? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? That is a great place to start with your Internet marketing. I am tired of the daily spam fest in my email and message inbox. Keep your emails to the kind you would want to get in your inbox. Don't overwhelm people with your business opportunity.

So rule #1, treat all the people you'd like to introduce to your product the way you would like to be introduced to a new product or system. If you're like me, you don't like receiving tons of unsolicited emails, try my system....buy this product....my MLM has the best comp plan! Let's face it, they all have the best comp plans. I delete those immediately.

Rule #2, You can't hide behind the anonymity of the Internet. Sooner or later if you want to make a sale, you will have to have live contact with your customer. That is the bad news and it's also the good news. People do business with people they know, like and trust. So...if you can get yourself out there, you can begin to grow your business.

Rule #3: Don't make customers, make friends. Friends stay with you through thick and thin. Make friends with the people you do business with. Take time to get to know the people you are going to do business with. This step can save you from doing business with some unsavory people.

Rule #4: Be polite. When you go to a party, you don't just barge in and take over the place, you survey the lay of the party, see who's there and interact with people. Go into different social networking sites and meet people. Get to know them, make friends with them. Don't talk about your business. What you do will evolve naturally over time. Your goal is to just make a friend.

Rule #5: Work with your prospects end in mind. The goal is to provide something of value to your prospect not push your product. People will buy your product when they get to know you.

The truth is that you are the product.

Using the social networking systems with these 5 rules in mind, will prevent you from getting thrown out of the social network sites as a spammer and will give you the a free vehicle for growing your business.