I guess I'm having a case of the newbie blues, and it's compounded by the fact that I'm pretty much out of any sort of cash reserves I may have had starting into this.  The bottom line is I cannot afford to continue spending the hours and hours it takes to learn this stuff and not receive some sort of monetary compensation for my time, not to mention the continued monthly membership fee.  In other words, when push comes to shove, my husband and I have to spend our time on the job that might pay poorly but at least pays rather than the work that has huge down the road potential but pays absolutely  nothing right now.

But does it really have to be such a hard choice?  Could there be a way someone new to IM could make some decent money while being trained?

I define training as the ability to learn something new in manageable pieces, usually with someone doing the training.  You focus on learning one or two key components and only move onto the next when mastery has occurred.

I define on the job training as the ability to get paid while getting trained.

Can this happen with Internet Marketing?

Travis sent out a link to a report on how you could start your own business doing the boring work no one wants to do, which once you get past the typically cryptic landing page and actually read the eight page report you learn it's manually submitting other people's sites to hundreds of site directories.  It's boring, tedious work, and most successful Internet Marketers would rather be working on their next great site so they'll gladly pay upwards of $300.00 to have someone else do that skutwork.

Oh, but there's one teeny tiny problem.  Just google directory submission and you'll find that people in India are falling all over themselves for the opportunity to charge just 14 cents a listing to submit your site.  In fact, you can get manual submissions to what's considered the best list of directories--every single directory in that list--for $39.00.  Sure, I could do that but I'd be lucky to be making minimum wage.

I'm not talking about charging $5.00 per article either.  When it might take you an hour or even a half hour to write an article, $5.00 doesn't cut it at today's prices.

I'm talking about something sustainable.  Is there a way someone can have some on the job training with compensation that actually amounts to a living wage?

I do not know the answer to this yet, but I am determined to find out.  Your insights are welcome.