Several years ago I purchased my first brand new computer. As I went about the task of selecting my ISP and deciding whether or not I wanted fast dial up or if I should put out a liitle more cash each month for DSL I encountered an advertisement for internet marketing.

Little did I know that I would be going down a path that would change my life forever. I quickly purchased several ebooks from so-called internet marketing guru's and just devoured them in several days. As I read and then re-read them and highlighted the passages that I found provoking I began to play around with the concept of having my own website. But I still had no idea what I would do with it. But I just knew I had to have one. So I took the suggestion of one of my guru's and paid for my domain and signed up with a hosting service.

If you're like me, once you get the fever there's just no stopping you. Once I started playing around with my web builder I thought that the most important thing at the moment was to get my site loaded with something...anything, and then submit it to the search engines. I was sure that I would be getting loads of traffic and this traffic would just fall at my feet and buy whatever I was offering. Well, I was in for a rude awakening.

I've explained all this to make this one important point. The primary reason I moved forward the way I did was because I had nothing to lose. I had only invested about $60 in ebooks and about $84 for hosting services for 12 months. I thought for sure I could recoup this in no time.

Imagine if I had been attempting to purchase a franchise. I would have to be prepared to invest a significant amount of money (maybe even take out a loan), deal with recruiting employees, find a good attorney and accountant, and spend a fair amount on advertising as well as conduct a lot of ongoing research and self development to assure my business success.

Why do so many people think that an online business does not require the same diligence? The primary difference between the two options is that you can accomplish a significant amount of success in a relatively short time with limited financial risk. In the case of the franchise you or I would go about our business very seriously knowing that there is a lot at risk. However, if we were to apply this same principle to our website and treat it in the same manner we would be pleasantly surprised at the results. Here is a sample of tasks you need to consider in order to get on the right track:

select a topic that we have some reasonable knowledge of and actually enjoydefine who we want to market our business to and gain an understanding of their buying motivation prepare in advance several names for our business (website) that aptly describes what it's all aboutread up on success stories of similar models or ventures, take note of what applies to you.construct a list of tools that you will need to run the day to day operations what will be the best avenue to effectively promote your business (website)?how much will you be prepared to spend to maintain your business?do you have the know how and the time to build your business network and gain new contacts?how will you create repeat business with your newly acquired customers? have their needs changed andare you prepared to meet that need?If you're not prepared to this and more than you're just going to have a website and nothing more...sort of like carrying around business cards in your wallet. The only one who's impressed is you. If you're going to take the time to set up a website than why not make the most of it? If every internet newbie knew what I now know they would look at their attempts differently.

The internet world is a lot bigger than you think. You have to think big in order to survive, let alone thrive. Sit down and figure out what you want to accomplish and what it is you're lacking to achieve your goal. Then gather the best tools to get the job done. After all, if it truly is worth doing, then it's worth doing right.