A Reality Check Before Starting an Internet Business

Starting an Internet business seems like such a lucrative idea... you dictate the hours, you can work from anywhere with internet access, and your income is ultimately set by you. What's not to like? You'd be crazy not to start writing your blog or developing that 'money making' website!

Not so fast. There are more Internet millionaire "wanna-bes" than you might think. And many have spent more than a few years and more than a few thousand dollars in a vain effort to start a profitable Internet business.

It may seem that "everybody" is making money online, but that's simply not the case. And not many people will admit their frustration, partly because no one hates admitting failure but also because perception is everything online. If the general perception is that you are a failure, no-one will order through you, and that will only make you fail faster.

So what are the hurdles and obstacles that an Internet entrepreneur will encounter?

The first is the learning curve - it's steeper than you might think, and there's no single "how-to" process to follow.

An online business requires you to master key abilities, which don't necessarily correlate to running a bricks and mortar business. As an example, your website or blog doesn't only have to be user friendly and relevant, but you also have to learn how to market it properly and drive traffic to it. If you make any mistakes then you can lose credibility in your prospects' mind and cause them to navigate away from your site.

Not easy!

And though there are countless experts, books, and how-to courses on how to start a business online, it's hard for a beginner to know who to believe, and there are multiple online business models to choose from as well.

The second issue, which was mentioned above but which warrants more attention, is the problem of driving traffic to your website. Novice Internet marketers know they want their site to be found in the search engines, but often vastly underestimate the amount of competition they have for the keywords and search phrases they desire.

The Internet reality is that top-ten rankings for most popular keywords is extraordinarily difficult to achieve - which means that the novice "Interpreneur" will need to master the art of advertising online, which can become quite costly.

The third and final obstacle mentioned here is that it's very easy to become distracted when building an Internet business.

If you subscribe to Internet ezines or visit Internet discussion forums, which are recommended methods to build knowledge and connect with potential customers or partners, you're bombarded almost daily with new ways to make money. New advertising strategies to try. New super secret, revolutionary, never seen before, millionaire making, targeted ways to generate more website traffic than you can ever imagine. And so on.

And while some of these strategies may be an excellent fit for a particular online business, many will not. Since inexperienced Internet marketers find it difficult to make that distinction, they waste time and money delving into new income models before mastering the income method they're using now.

Hopefully, if you're considering starting an Internet business, this article will serve as a "reality check" for you. It is possible to earn a living online, millions are doing it as you read this, but you are much more likely to succeed if you have a good understanding of the hurdles and obstacles that you will encounter along the way.