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So you've decided to start an online business. Before you start having those big cash flow dreams, stop and get some tips for having a successful online business!

Here are some basic tips on how to start making money online.

1. It takes time and work to build a business anywhere. If you want to build a business, you will have to be willing to research and be patient. Nothing happens instantly and you have to do some work in order to make money online.

2. Prepare a business plan for your online business and revise that plan periodically. Your business plan should be thought of as a living document. As with any business, you will initially find out what works and what does not work, and change your plan accordingly as you go.

3. Be very careful about buying web space and pre-packaged website templates for your business. You'll find that later on, it will be difficult to change the site. In some cases, it's better outsourcing the web design with a freelancer and purchasing your own domain and installing the site yourself.

4. Run your online home business like a business. A lot of people make the mistake of treating their internet business merely as a website, which can be very detrimental because running an online business requires an approach that you would have with an offline business.

5. Once you have your site built and online, your next job will be to let the world know you are there. This is the biggest job there is to make money online. It is a never ending task. No one will even know your online business site exists if you don't work on promoting it. Your marketing plan needs to include search engine optimization (SEO). This is important because you want your site to rank in the top 10 of search engine query results. You would be wise to study SEO techniques or hire the services of a SEO consultant.

With Google Adword, Overture and other similar advertising, it is possible to drive targeted traffic to your site by finding keywords that have very low bids. You will be able to measure your conversion ratio of such traffic with sales in real-time. These are the basic things that are needed to make money online. If any of these things are missing there could be inefficiency in how the online business works.

Copyright 2006 Nikki Mhlanga