A Reality Check Before Starting an Internet Business

The siren call of starting a business on the Internet is hard to resist. Work when you want, do it from home, make lots of money (even when you're asleep) - what's not to like, right? You'd be a fool not to jump in and start building that website or writing a blog!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 you are perceived as a failure, no one will buy from you, which makes you fail even faster.So what are the disadvantages and roadblocks that potential Internet entrepreneurs encounter?The first is the learning curve - it's steeper than you might think, and there's no single "how-to" process to follow.Succeeding at an online business requires mastery of several key abilities, not all of which directly correlate to doing business offline. For example, you not only have to build a user-friendly and relevant website or blog, you have to drive traffic to it, all without making any mistakes that cause you to lose credibility in your prospect's mind and cause them to click 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 top-secret, never-before-revealed-to-the-public ways to get more targeted website visitors than you've ever imagined. 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's certainly possible to make a substantial secondary or primary income online - but it's much more likely if you have a good grasp of the obstacles you'll probably encounter along the way.Good luck!