I was going to write about something else…and I meant to post something a couple days ago, but something else came up.

As you may or may not know, I like to hang out in a couple well-known IM forums. I like them too much actually, so I often spend a little too much time on them each day when I should be doing more productive things.

One of the forums, the Warrior Forum, charges $20 to list a Warrior Special Offer (same with a classified ad and a Warrior-for-hire listing).

The WSO is basically a place to sell IM-related products and services, although you could technically sell other stuff if you wanted to.

But this post isn’t about WSOs or the Warrior Forum, or even the War Room (which is a gold mine of information that costs $37 for lifetime access).

It’s about spending money to make money.

To make money online, you’ll need to either invest your money or invest your time, preferably both.

If you literally have no money to spare, then you must be willing to invest much of your time to learn and work. There’s no way around this if you cannot spend any money.

But say you don’t have much time to spare for whatever reason, and you do have money, then you have to be willing to spend it.

Don’t get me wrong though: spending money on ebooks and courses will not make you any money. It obviously still requires work, but say you need a few articles written and you don’t have time to write them all yourself, why not pay someone a few bucks to write you some?

I think my whole point is this: no matter what aspect of your online business you look at, you’ll need to invest something into it.

If you lack the knowledge to do something (e.g. programming, graphics), then you have to pay a professional to do it.

If you’re lacking a direction and you really need someone to hold your hand and show you the way, you’ll want the help of a coach or mentor.

If you’ve found a direction, but would like to get more advanced training, you should be willing to pay someone for that training.

There’s a really stupid myth online that everything you find in paid products, from $7 ebooks all the way up to $1997 courses and beyond, is readily available for free online.

In other words, some people think that there’s no point in buying products, especially high ticket stuff, because it’s all already floating around on the Internet.

What a load of crap.

You really think you can find all the information contained within Mass Control (for example) for free online? Unless you illegally download the whole thing, you probably can’t.

And even if you could, how many weeks and months of research would you have to do to find that kind of knowledge and to piece it all together in a coherent manner?

If you’re interested in product launches, good luck figuring out how to do one by scouring the Internet for free information.

If you’re interested in list building, good luck finding anything beyond the basic stuff that everybody already knows.

The lesson here is to be willing to spend money.

You know why I don’t have a problem with jobs (as long as they’re tolerable) or with people online having jobs? Because they can help pay for your IM education, products, and services.

So if you don’t have money, get a job. Do odd jobs. Stay at your current job. Do what it takes, within the law of course, to acquire start-up funds.

You’ll be able to do a little at first, but if you plan on creating a real business online, you better start spending some dough. But as always, be smart about it.