I'm guessing that you are currently in the same position that I was in a few months ago. I used to wake up early in the morning, struggle to the bathroom and take a shower, downstairs for a strong black coffee just in time for the breakfast news. Then onto work in a car, stuck in traffic jams for what should have been a relatively short journey.

Eight hours at an office sitting around punching in useless data, filing paperwork, endless photocopying and answering inane calls. Then back home by 6pm, and finally settled down by 7pm. That would give me approximately four hours to spend with friends, family and partners. Then back to bed ready to wake the next morning to go through the same routine.

All this for a wage packet just large enough to cover most bills and a little left over for savings and, perhaps, a few luxuries over the month. Like me, you probably realise by now that there is far more to life than this. I was sick of working my tail off and giving up around 11 hours of my waking day to make someone else some moneysomeone who could easily fire me at any time of their choosing.

This is why I decided to look into self-employment and stumbled across the idea of internet marketing. If you spend long enough browsing internet marketing forums, you'll see some sensational thread titles such as 'My first $20,000 day'. It's obvious that there is a terrific sum of cash to be made online, so there are only two questions you need to ask yourself if you wish to make money with internet marketing:

1. How do you make money with internet marketing?

2. Are you prepared to do what it takes to succeed?

There is a famous learning curve when it comes to internet marketing. You need to realise that it is easy to make money online and, yes, you can make big money very quickly online. The real secret is knowing how to do this. And it is this secret that represents the learning curve. This brings us to point two, namely you will need to resolve to learn everything you need to in order to succeed with online marketing.

It may take you a few weeks, even a few months, to develop a general overview of the entire internet marketing scene. You'll need to know the difference between PPC and affiliate marketing, between product launches and joint ventures. Once you have an overview and have an idea of how everything works, then by all means launch yourself into things.

There are many routes to go, but the best is almost certainly by using free methods, such as affiliate marketing or making cash through blogs. If you can make four figures a month using either of those methods, then you know you're made for internet marketing and, eventually, you will be able to quit your job and go into this full-time.

Ultimately, if you wish to make money with internet marketing, you need to be prepared to learn before you earn. Be persistent and diligent. An established internet marketer with a high six-figure income once told me that he estimated 95% of would-be marketers drop out before ever earning a cent, simply because they are too impatient to master the basics. If you're toying with the idea of online marketing just because you wish to raise $2000 in 24 hours, then look elsewhere. Eventually you may well be able to raise that kind of money in that kind of time period, but first you must learn how to do it. Always bear this in mind, and you will go far.