So! What does a recently disintegrated teacher have to do to earn a living around here?

It's a big perplexing question, because the turnkey quick start revenue generators aren't happening for me yet!

About two years ago, I began to go under in my teaching job and my marriage was subtly shifting on the rocks. After a period of sick leave and a disastrous return, it became obvious to me that I was only going to make myself ill again and again. In the last few days I have finally signed the document that releases me from the shackles of a job I should probably have had the courage to leave 10 years ago. But you know what it's like; family, car, house and kids to pay for!! As life began to follow the all too familiar spiral, Mrs. C decided she had had enough and pulled the plug. Lots of tears and a bit of trauma later we had separated and were working together well as a team to look after our two brilliant children and avoid the nightmare scenario of fighting, non communicating parents. And you know what, I think we'll succeed! The kids we brought into this world come first, within reason; and they know that they still have two parents who are working together for their welfare.

Now what, you may be asking, has this sorry tale got to do with online "businessing"? Well, so much had changed, I decided I might as well go the whole hog and pitch in my lot, for a new way to earn a living. I used my familiarity with computer technology and my other dream of winning back some of my life from the rigours of constant paper work and stupid hours that teaching had become. I wasn't seduced by the advertiser's intimations of instant success and endless wealth. But; I'm no salesman for a kick off. I am one of those people who is so marketing resistant most of the time, that I don't do shopping, even in the BIG BOY's toy stores.

It wasn't (isn't!) a promising starting point. But what I have got is a breathing space of about 3 months before my cash runs out, so I can now apply myself fully to the task of altering my mind set and learning the skills of the modern marketer. I've had a mild dose of hell and in the world of marketing I'm now looking for the route out of Numpty Land.

How Did my business life start out in Numpty Land?

• I was a master of indecision - then...

• I subscribed to too many programmes.
• I did not understand the idea of bringing potential subscribers to my own list building auto responder.
• I flitted.
• I did not set a budget.

I had been looking at ways of getting out of teaching for quite some time. Years ago I had a brief dabble with Herbalife, but their warm market approach was something I did not want to put on my own family and friends.

A couple of years later I happened across an advert at the back of a teacher's magazine that suggested using your computer for generating an income. I enquired and discovered a company called Virtual World Direct.

They were running a programme called eLottery. I was so convinced that the opportunity wasn't real, that I played for over a year - almost in secret, because I felt so embarassed at the thought of telling anybody about getting involved in an "Internet Scam". A year and a half and a lot of unnecessary spending down the road; I had finally ascertained that Virtual World Direct was no Cowboy operation.

Although I had some misgivings about pushing the lottery, there was no doubt the business was a real one. Some of their recruiters were getting huge incomes and people were measurably, getting a higher hit rate on the lottery prizes in both the UK and Euro Lotteries. They had come up with an ingenious system that improved your syndicate's chances of hitting the big one by a factor of 7 and resulted in multiple prizes when anything more than the basic 3 number win came up. It is definitely a smarter way to play a game that is so heavily loaded against an individual win.

And then life intruded and thoughts of running a little business on the side vanished as I had my little struggle with depression, marital break up and inability to perform at work.

As I climbed out of the depression's gloom - thank God (the force/ nutritional supplements and tablets etc.) it was a pretty mild flavour of depression - I started exploring the possibilities of making a living online. Despite convincing myself that I had an eye on the hype factor I found myself promoting the affiliate programmes individually, but getting no recruits and within a few short weeks I was paying into 6 separate income streams with no income coming back. Not the way to start a business! It was time for drastic action